Reply To: Could Chanukah happen again

Comlinx, You are conflating the war of Chanuka and the Bar Kochva revolts, 200+ years apart, and Rabi Akiva was in support of

BK and yes it was disastrous, though initially succesful, and y.o. he had the mikdash functioning to some degree during the two years. (possible source for bizarre minhag of bitul tinokos shel bais rabban to play with bows and arrows on Lag B’omcer) The Chasmonaim were the gedolim of their day or at least linked to them. Rabi Akiva was the gadol of dor hashmad, from which one could postulate, that at some point, it may not be the best choice to always leave politics to gedolim.

Ezras yisroel mitzar is the second of the two instances in Rambam Melachim, of milchemes mitzva. This is limited to sovereignty in EY or possibly anarchy in galut.