19 January 2026 – What is up with the. “Board of Peace” and more on The Israel Brief.
20 January 2026 – A very special guest on The Israel Brief.
21 January 2026 – The Israel Brief from the ANU museum.
22 January 2026 – Board of Peace treaty signed – all the controversy and more on The Israel Brief.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
The Pivotal Role of HBCUs in combating antisemitism in America’s Black Community.
By Jonathan Feldstein
In a candid, insightful, and wide-ranging conversation on “Inspiration from Zion,” Dana White, founder of the Randolph L. White Foundation, communications specialist, and a former Pentagon spokesperson, delved into the roots of antisemitism within the Black community in the United States. Drawing from her personal experiences and her 2024 article, “Why HBCUs Are Key to Fighting Antisemitism,” White highlighted how historical shifts, cultural influences, and educational institutions have fueled division. Yet, she argued, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) hold immense potential as battlegrounds for reconciliation, echoing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
White in Washington. As the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Dana W. White served as the Pentagon Chief Spokesperson for both the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
White’s insights stem from her family’s multigenerational story, which underscores the once-strong Black-Jewish alliances. Her grandfather, born in 1896, rose from a janitor at the University of Virginia Hospital to a managerial role (the first ever such role there for a Black man) thanks to a Jewish doctor, Dr. Goodwin. This act of recognition embodied the Jewish ethos of tikkun olam —repairing the world — remains central to her and her family’s identity, as it propelled her family’s trajectory. Her parents, graduates of Howard University in the 1960s, cherished fond memories of their Jewish neighbors and faculty, including those who fled Nazi Germany and found refuge at HBCUs. At a time where quotas existed for Jews in many areas across America, these institutions, White noted, saved about 50 German Jews with visas during the Holocaust, fostering a shared history of common destiny and resilience.
Soldier for Justice. Dana White’s grandfather, Sgt. Randolph L White, US Army, proudly served in the 9th Calvary, also known as the famed Buffalo Soldiers and would go on to be an influential African American newspaper publisher, hospital administrator, and civil-rights activist.
White highlighted the post-civil rights era where Blacks and Jews were close allies. The reality of the Jewish role in the civil rights movement is largely not remembered by anyone under 80 she said. Yet the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed this reality on March 26, 1968, days before he was assassinated:
“Probably more than any other ethnic group, the Jewish community has been sympathetic and has stood as an ally to the Negro in his struggle for justice.”
Yet following King’s assassination and the civil rights movement was a turning point for the unraveling of these positive relations, and seeded rising antisemitism in the Black community. Desegregation in the 1970s led to a “melting away” of familiar ties. Middle-class Blacks and Jews moved out of urban areas, leaving vulnerable populations amid economic decline, drug epidemics, and mass incarceration. This vacuum bred anger and a victim mindset, amplified by the Nation of Islam’s hateful rhetoric. White described how figures like Louis Farrakhan propagated misinformation, such as exaggerated claims of Jewish involvement in the slave trade, which gained traction organically; in barbershops, salons, and family gatherings without counter-narratives because once close personal relationships as her family experienced had eroded.
HBCUs, once havens of Black excellence, became influential conduits for this shift. White contrasted her parents’ positive experiences at Howard — where a significant Jewish presence promoted mutual respect — with her brother’s experience in the early 1990s. By then, HBCUs had transformed into “breeding grounds for revenge history,” a term White uses for distorted narratives seeking retribution against perceived oppressors. Nation of Islam newspapers circulated on campuses, blending empowerment messages with vitriol against Jews as “the other” or “super white people.” Cultural elements like hip-hop, reinforced these tropes. Intersectionality and cultural relativism, emerging in these academic spaces, further alienated Jews by framing them within oppressive structures.
Despite producing only 10% of Black bachelor’s degree holders, HBCUs wield outsized influence, graduating 80% of Black judges, 50% of Black lawyers, and 40% of Black engineers and doctors. This leadership pipeline means ideas incubated there permeate Black culture and mainstream America. White lamented the drift: many HBCU students today have never met a Jew, leading to or at least not having any counteractive balance of the demonization of Jews. She shared stories of sponsoring Black students to visit Israel, where they discovered shared family dynamics during Shabbat dinners, dispelling these myths.
Birthed out of Exclusion. Founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries during a time of widespread racial segregation, Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were created to provide educational opportunities for African Americans who were systematically excluded from mainstream colleges and universities. Fostering academic excellence, these institutions produced generations of African American professionals, leaders, and scholars.
To reverse this, White advocates leveraging HBCUs as anti-antisemitism hubs through deliberate re-engagement. Jewish communities should invest in campuses — via funding like Michael Bloomberg’s recent commitments — and foster personal connections. “It’s not one-offs,” she emphasized. Through sustained dialogues, shared meals, and educational programs can rebuild familiarity, positive changes can be made. Breaking bread humanizes the “other,” making it harder to hate. White envisions local partnerships, like those at Bowie State University in Maryland, where Jewish and Black groups convene for honest conversations followed by communal events.
Monumental Message. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on March 26, 1968 expressed that the Jewish community “Probably more than any other ethnic group…. has stood as an ally to the Negro in his struggle for justice.”
Central to White’s vision is reviving the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy she believes has been diluted. King, a staunch Zionist, collaborated closely with Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and benefited from Jewish support in the civil rights movement. His final speech evoked the “Promised Land,” drawing from Exodus — a narrative that fueled Black spirituals and faith during slavery. White speculated King would be disappointed today with:
– the frayed Black-Jewish bonds post-desegregation
– the pervasive victimhood language among those far removed from Jim Crow
– the declining Black literacy rates, and
– the indifference to antisemitism.
Special Bond. Friends and prophets, Abraham Joshua Heschel (left) brought Martin Luther King (right) and his message to a wide Jewish audience, and King made Heschel a central figure in the struggle for civil rights. Often lecturing together, they both spoke about racism, Zionism and about the struggles of Jews in the Soviet Union.
He rose with Jewish backing for organizations like the NAACP, yet modern divisions ignore this shared fight for justice. King would decry how politics overshadowed faith in Black churches, urging a return to Old Testament teachings of hope and self-reliance.
Following her recent visit to Israel where she witnessed the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and ensuing war, White’s call is particularly urgent amid surges in antisemitism. She noted that these began the very next day, on October 8, with masses around the world blaming the victim, and she even sees antisemitism as more insidious and permissive than racism. Wearing a Star of David in solidarity, she urges non-Jews to speak out, emphasizing Israel’s unparalleled efforts to protect civilians. By harnessing HBCUs’ cultural clout for education and alliance-building, the Black community can honor King’s vision, repairing divides through dialogue and mutual recognition. As White reflected, small acts — like Dr. Goodwin’s promotion of her grandfather — create ripples. In an era of ignorance, HBCUs offer a pathway to empathy, ensuring antisemitism’s roots are uprooted for generations to come.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Journal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
From running marathons to running a top travel agency, Allan Wolman could also not get faster enough to Israel in 1967 to volunteer during the Six Day War.
A tribute by David E. Kaplan
It was with such surprise and sadness that we, at Lay of the Landheard the sad news that Allan Wolman, a contributor to our media platform over the years, had passed away on January 20, 2026. In our digital age where we engage less in person, we were unaware that he had been so ill in recent months.
My first thoughts that came to mind was how fit Allan had been having run three times in South Africa’s famed “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well riding in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s equally famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. All this we gleaned from his bio under his numerous articles.
What also came to mind to us at Lay of the Land was his article on his experiences as a volunteer to Israel in 1967, which we published in June 2022 on the 55th anniversary of the Six Day War. As in October 2023 when Israel was attacked and faced multiple enemies on multiple fronts and its future was uncertain, so too was the situation in June 1967 – uncertain. However, for overseas volunteers like Allan in Johannesburg, there was no “uncertainty” where they needed to be:
“We needed to be in Israel.”
Having signed up as a volunteer at the Zionist Federation in Johannesburg, when war did break out on the 5thJune, Allan relates he felt a sense of disappointment “as one group had already departed for Israel, and I was not part of it. With ears glued to the radio constantly, as well as almost camping at the Zionist Fed, the days ticked by until I received the call to be ready to leave that evening!
Connecting at the Knesset. Only a year after the new Knesset building in Jerusalem was dedicated on August 30, 1966 (background) and only days after Jerusalem was reunited and restored to Jewish sovereignty after 2000 years, volunteer Allan Wolman explores Israel’s reunited capital.
The excitement was overwhelming. I called my parents and next my dad arranged $300 – money that he could ill afford at the time – and rushed around to pack and get ready to leave.
Our SAA plane was a Boeing 707 that took about 250 passengers – all full of volunteers! The excitement at the departure hall was so memorable with proud Dad, tearful Mom and all my ‘envious’ friends who clubbed together and gave me $100 – a fortune in those days!”
For most of the group this was their first trip out of South Africa and it was to a country at war. Most people characteristically flee from wars but not these young Jews, mostly students, who put their lives – and for some their loves – on hold, to support the call of “our Jewish state in need.”
Allan recalls the excitement on the last leg of the flight to Israel from Athens on an El Al flight where on route they were joined by an Israeli fighter jet “to escort us in as the war was not yet over.”
MIDNIGHT AT DIZENGOFF
Allan’s first impression disembarking at then Lod Airport was of “abunch of bearded rowdy looking soldiers looking fearsome. After the necessary arrival requirements, our group was bussed to a senior citizen’s home in Herzliya – by that time it was already dark, enhanced by the enforced blackout. I remember those first few hours so vividly – the residents of the home were clapping and cheering us. After an almost 24-hour flight and the excitement of landing in Israel, some of our group walked down to experience a swim in the Mediterranean and then – even with the war and the “blackout” – we hitched that evening a ride into Tel Aviv. Sometime before midnight, we arrived at Dizengoff Street –the only place we had heard of – when the cease-fire came into effect and the lights were turned on and the euphoria was simply indescribable. After six days of anxiety, the nation breathed a sigh of relief.”
Relic of War. Allan Wolman leaning back on a burnt-out Jordanian Jeep on a tour of the West Bank shortly after fighting ceased
With what Israel has been experiencing over the past two years since October 7 – of its reservists abroad returning home to fight and its civilians volunteering – it was interesting to ‘travel’ back to 1967 and see how the Jewish youth in the Diaspora responded to the unfolding crisis. Allan writes how the morning after their arrival, they were assigned to kibbutzim across the country “to assist with agricultural work as most of the men were still in the army.” Allan was assigned to kibbutz Kvutzat Schiller (Gan Shlomo) near Rehovot in central Israel and it felt “like landing on another planet.” Following orientation, “I was billeted in a room with three other young guys from England, two of which remained lifelong friends.” Of the fellow South Africans in his group, he writes of Raymond (“Rafi”) Lowenberg who remained in Israel, married, but was tragically killed on the first day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. “I have hardly ever missed a memorial day in honour of Raymond – a brilliant guy; had his matric before he had a driver’s license and a degree at age nineteen.”
Having a Field Day. Fellow volunteers of the writer (including Raymond Lowenberg and Peter Edel) join a group of army Nachalniks in June 1967 working on kibbutz Kvutzat Schiller’s cotton plantation.
Allan records touring around Israel with his new friends most notably towards the Suez Canal not too long after the war ended “and witnessed the endless lines of destroyed Egyptian army trucks and tanks. We hiked through Gaza, and Gaza City was a dingy backward town with no building higher than two stories. Also hiked to El Arish, again a pretty backward little town. We never made it to the Canal but pretty close as it was a military security zone. Hiking back to Israel proper, Peter, Raymond, Alan and I were given a ride by an Arab Taxi who on route back, decided to turn off the road into an Arab refugee camp, which was a pretty hostile areas for Jews to venture in. Anxious and afraid of what lay ahead for us, we discussed in broken Afrikaans to knock the driver unconscious and take over his car to avoid the danger we feared lay ahead. Such bravado came to nought as the taxi stopped outside a house where his wife and children came out to collect fruit and vegetables he was delivering to his family. We felt ashamed for suspecting the worst.”
Dig This. Sitting on a destroyed Jordanian military earth-mover, are (left-right) volunteers Allan Wolman, Peter Edel and Raymond Lowenberg.
Again, what is reminiscent of the current war in so far as Israelis uniting for the return of all the hostages held in Gaza, and civilians across the country volunteering in their support for the soldiers, Allan’s recollections capture a similar mood in 1967 of national unity and support:
“What struck me was the coming together of everyone in support of each other. There was such unity. This was so visibly evident when traveling around the country and seeing at every town or settlement, refreshment tables set out by the women of the area preparing sandwiches and refreshments for the soldiers who were either leaving or joining their units as the army remained on full alert.”
Allan’s writing captures the elated atmosphere in Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War, describing that period:
“…as one of the most profound and memorable experiences of my life. Firstly, this was my very first trip overseas and, in a country, celebrating (with much relief) one of the most astounding military victories in modern warfare, the mood was one of exuberance and happiness after the anxiety leading up to the war. Most of the time was spent working various jobs on the Kibbutz from working in the chicken sheds shoveling chicken ‘shit’ to working in the various orchards and apple packing plant and weeding the cotton fields. You knew you had ‘made it’ – I am talking here serious ‘upward mobility’ – when you were trusted to drive a tractor. This was a status symbol; a far cry from the chicken coup!”
He records the “amazing” evenings as:
“a living metaphor of the sixties. We sat around our rooms drinking coffee and socializing with the girls; Raymond would be playing his guitar and we would listen mesmerised to the music and lyrics of the latest Beetles classic – “Sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band”. For sure, we were anything but ‘lonely’; we all felt part of something great happening, so much bigger than ourselves.”
Allan concludes with “all good things must come to an end” and one morning “I came to the realization that if I didn’t get off the Kibbutz, I would remain there for the rest of my life,” so he packed his bags and said his goodbyes and left to spend a few weeks with his cousin Cyril Swiel in Tel Aviv. It proved “a real learning experience seeing the other side of life in Israel. I met up with some friends from South Africa and decided to travel through Europe and see the world.”
Field of Dreams. Having “lots of fun, laughter and discussing girls” says Allan Wolman (left) followed by Peter Edel and Raymond Lowenberg while picking apples in the orchids.
That zest to “see the world” would lead Allan towards the tourist industry where following his return to South Africa he would go on to run one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg, Rosebank Travel and co-found the XL Travel Group. However, “seeing the world” could never quite match his “being in Israel” in 1967, an impact that sowed the seed for eventually, decades later in 2019, making Aliyah – settling in the Jewish state.
We will miss Allan’s writing, notably his exposure of hypocrisy. This was evident in his Lay of the Land article WHEN DOES LACK OF FOOD MORPH INTO LACK OF TRUTH, that took to task the global media that was“hellbent on shaming Israel in the midst of an existential war,” while “ignoringthe mega-million starving across the world.” He wrote, “If you didn’t know better, you’d think Gaza was the only place on earth where children go hungry. Just switch on CNN, Sky, or BBC – every night another solemn anchor, another indignant UN official, another weepy “expert” telling us what a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza. And yes, it is tragic. But if starvation is now characterised as the world’s ‘No. 1’ war crime, what about all the other famines the media doesn’t bother to cover?”
Exposing selective news coverage similar with what is happening today in the global media by ignoring the fate of the protestors in Iran, Allan wrote that when it came to Gaza, “suddenly every camera lens, every crocodile tear, and every moral sermon is locked in. The media’s appetite for images of starving children seems oddly selective – especially when it’s Israel in their crosshairs. We hear next to nothing about starvation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia in the Horn of Africa,” or in his native South Africa “a country run by a government that shouts ‘a better life for all!’ while literally letting its children starve to death.”
Lives only matter “when it suits the script” wrote Allan.
Allan pulled no punches in telling it the way it is
We will miss that as we will miss him.
We, at Lay of the Land, extend our deepest condolences to wife Jocelyn, their three sons and their families.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
How regime change in Iran can lead to a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
By Neville Berman
Iran is a Persian country with a history, culture and civilization that goes back nearly 3,000 years. The Muslim conquest of the 7th century spread Islam to Persia. Currently the world’s Muslim population is approximately 2 billion people, of whom approximately 85% are Sunni Muslims. The majority of the population of 89 million are Shia Muslims. They constitute the majority of the 15% of Shia Muslims in the world.
In 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, renamed Persia and called it Iran. Iran has the third largest oil reserves in the world. It is one of the five founding member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries known as OPEC. Iran is 80 times larger than Israel. It is strategically situated bordering 7 countries, and has maritime access to both the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Considering the world’s dependence on oil, Iran should be one of the most prosperous countries in the world from exporting vast quantities of oil. Instead of prosperity, Iran is now on the brink of economic collapse and its currency is almost worthless.
Favorable Future. Should Reza Pahlaviplay a future role in a post-Islamic Iran, the exiled Iranian prince vows to recognize Israel, expand the Abraham Accords into the “Cyrus Accords” linking a free Iran with Israel and Arab states and said “…a free Iran will be a force for peace, for prosperity, and for partnership.”
How did this happen?
To understand the present situation, one has to look at the history of the country over the past 75 years. In 1951, the Iranian government under Mosaddegh, nationalized the Ango-Iranian Oil Company. This became the catalyst that led to a CIA backed coup that overthrew Mosaddegh in 1953. He was replaced by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran who was pro America. Following the coup, major US oil companies broke the previous British monopoly on Iranian oil production, and gained access to the Iranian oil market. The Shah’s attempt to liberalize the country by adopting Western norms and behavior were initially welcomed, but gradually turned millions of religious conservative Iranians against his policies that clashed with Islamic values. The hugely uneven distribution of wealth resulted in unrest that sparked widespread repressive measures by the Shah. The end result was the Iranian Revolution and in January 1979 the Shah was forced to flee. During the revolution the American Embassy in Tehran was attacked and overrun. Fifty-two American diplomats were seized as hostages. They were held captive for 444 days. Iran became an enemy of America.
A month after the Shah was forced to flee, Ruhollah Khomeinireturned from exile in Paris, and became the Supreme Leader of Iran with the title of Ayatollah. He immediately turned Iran into a Shiite theocracy. All normal relations between America and Iran and between Israel and Iran ended. In March 1979, Habib Elghanian, the wealthiest Jew in Tehran was arrested and executed after a sham trial. All his properties and possessions were seized by the State. Dozens of other wealthy Jews were arrested and forced to pay enormous sums of money to be released. The Jews in Iran became powerless.The widely used slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” symbolized the regimes rejection of American and Israeli interference and influence in Iran’s internal affairs. All the assets of the American oil companies in Iran were nationalized. In April 1979, Iran was renamed the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Murdering Mullahs. Following the execution of Iran’s most affluent Jewish businessman and philanthropist Habib Elghanian on false spying charges on 9 May, 1979, thousands of Jews fled Iran.
In September 1980, Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran. The war was seen by both America and Russia as an opportunity to make huge profits. America sold billions of dollars of arms to Iraq, and Russia sold billions of dollars of arms to Iran. Neither America nor Russia saw any benefit in ending the war. Approximately 300,000 Iranians and an equal number of Iraqis were killed in the war and hundreds of thousands were injured. Eight years after the war started, it finally ended in a stalemate. In June 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini died. He was replaced by Ali Khamenei who became the Supreme Leader of the Islamist Republic of Iran and continues to rule to this day.
In a sort of a reverse Midas touch situation, Khamenei, adopted policies that metaphorically speaking turned gold into lead. The State religion of Iran is the Twelver form of Shiite Islam. They believe that 12 divinely appointed Imans are the successors to the Prophet Muhammad and that the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century, is miraculously still alive, and will reappear at the end of time. Global justice and peace under Sharia law will then be established. Khamenei has a fanatical belief that what he calls the Zionist entity needs to be destroyed before the 12th Iman will return.
Khamenei authorized spending billions of dollars on building a nuclear program that is clearly aimed at producing nuclear weapons. In 2006, the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iran for failing to suspend its uranium enrichment program, and for non-cooperation with the inspections carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
In 2015, President Obama entered into an agreement with Iran known as the JCPOA deal. The agreement immediately released billions of frozen dollars belonging to Iran, and ended the UN sanctions against Iran. In return, Iran agreed to limits on its uranium enrichment program, and allowed inspections by the IAEA. In February 2025, President Trump, fed up with continual Iranian lies about its nuclear program, and refusal to allow inspections in certain sites, announced a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. He imposed American sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Khamenei spent vast amounts of money financing, training and arming proxy terrorist organizations in countries across the Middle East. The idea was to create a crescent of a “ring of fire” of proxy armies that would at some point in time, eliminate Israel.
Dead End. ‘Dead’ set on the demise of the “Big Satin” and “Little Satin”, paramilitary troops under the IRGC’s command carry coffins symbolizing the end of the U.S. and Israel during a military rally in Tehran, Nov. 24, 2023.(Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/Zuma Press).
In addition to all the financial problems, Iran is also presently experiencing a severe water shortage. The irony of the situation is that nearly 3,000 years ago, the Persians solved their water problems. They developed a water system known as the qanat – pronounced Kah-Naht. It was based on providing water by constructing gradually sloping underground tunnels to allow water from aquifers on hills and mountains to flow down and across areas that could then be inhabited, and on which agricultural production could thrive. The underground tunnels reduced evaporation to a minimum. The qanat system relied on gravity and the flow of water could be controlled by opening and closing tunnels. The qanat system sustained a thriving Persian society for thousands of years. The network was vast and covering between 250,000 – 350,000 km. It was truly a groundbreaking success of immense proportions. Parts of the qanat system are still operational, and between 8-15% of Iran’s current water supply comes from a system that was constructed thousands of years ago. Israel can help Iran to solve its water crises. Israel has experience and expertise in building and operating desalination plants, and is a world leader in recycling sewage water for agricultural use. It has also developed drip irrigation and modern water management systems based on up to the minute computerized data.
Israel has no border dispute with Iran, and there is an ancient history of help going all the way back to Cyrus the Great, who conquered the Babylonians, and then helped Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple. Before the fall of the Shah, there were normal relations between Israel and Iran. It is time to restore these relations, and restart flights from Tel Aviv to Tehran that actually land in Tehran instead of dropping bombs on Tehran. Joining the Abraham Accords is very much in Iran’s interest. It will change the Middle East for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people. The exiled Crown Prince Pahlavi has said he would expand the Abraham Accords to be the Cyrus Accords – hearkening back to the historical ties between the Jewish and Persian people
Obsessive Hate. Nearly six months before the October 7, 2023 massacre, Iranian demonstrators on April 14, 2023 burn in Tehran an Israeli flag in a rally marking Jerusalem Day. (Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP)
In June 2025, Israel responded to all the nefarious actions by Iran and their proxy terrorist groups, and attacked Iran directly. In a pinpoint aerial attack, Israel destroyed the Iranian air defenses, and assassinated several leading nuclear scientists and prominent military leaders. With full Israeli control of Iranian airspace, Israel began attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and launch sites of intercontinental missiles. The United States took advantage of the lack of air defenses and dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs that destroyed the underground uranium enrichment sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. In 12 days, tens of billions of dollars invested in Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed.
Instead of building desalination plants and improving the lives of the Iranian people, the Mullahs were obsessed with trying to destroy Israel. It was and is a disastrous losing strategy with devastating consequences for the Iranian people and the entire region. Instead of peace and prosperity, death, destruction and poverty resulted. The people of Iran are fed up with the policies of their government. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, perhaps millions, are openly protesting against the Iranian government. The government has resorted to shooting thousands of protestors in a desperate attempt to cling to power.
Regime change in Iran will open the possibility of ending Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions. This will result in peace and prosperity returning to Iran. In order to stabilize the economic situation, a new currency will need to be introduced in Iran. All the terrorist entities that Iran has supported and sustained under the leadership of Khamenei will not survive. It could be the beginning of a new Middle East.
Without regime change in Iran, tens of thousands of demonstrators are likely to be killed, and the Middle East will remain a ticking time bomb of terrorism and instability. The window of opportunity to bring about regime change in Iran has opened, but will not remain open for long. Let us hope that the foreign leaders who have the power to support the protestors and accelerate regime change in Iran, have the wisdom and courage to make the right decisions. The end of the rule of Khamenei, coupled with Iran joining the Abraham Accords is the surest way to ensure a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
*Feature picture:High Stakes Faceoff. US President Donald Trump (l) and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (r)
About the writer:
Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
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Hula Nature Reserve in northern Israel, January 13, 2026.(Photo: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
Under a Dark Cloud. In a week that people in the region were bracing for war, it was a welcome sight to be greeted in the morning media by nature’s symbol of Hope, New Beginnings, Peace and Divine Promise.
ARTICLES
Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.
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TO THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN TO STAGE, SCREEN AND PETITION – FACTS MATTER
An Open Letter to the Entertainment Industry. By Rolene Marks
Face the Facts. The writer confronts with FACTS those voices from “stage, screen and the recording arts” who advocate for Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, gender equality and other Human Rights groups but are SILENT when it comes to Israelis and Jews.
A tribute to Israeli entrepreneur, innovator, philanthropist and visionary Morris Kahn (1930-2026) who sought frontiers below and beyond. By David E. Kaplan
Feisty Frontiersman. From manufacturing bicycles to telecommunication software powerhouse, to creating unique tourist underwater observatories beneath the world’s oceans, to supporting Israel’s entry into the Space Age, Morris Kahn has been a true trailblazer.
A Jew opposing Jewish statehood displays today historical illiteracy or suicidal self-destructiveness. By Grant Gochin
Defining the Difference. Far from the common “colonial” slur, Zionism at its most basic core, explains the writer “…means to stop murdering Jews, while antizionism means to continue to murder Jews.” Do Jews have to again stand in line for a ‘shower’ to understand the distinction?
IS HALTING EXECUTIONS IN IRAN GOOD ENOUGH? Pulling back from military intervention following bellicose threats, is Trump failing – like Carter, Obama and Biden preceding him – the long-suffering people of Iran? By Jonathan Feldstein
Suppressing the Street. A brutal theocratic dictatorship, Iran has devolved into a failed state unable to provide water and electricity and its currency devalued to record lows, more than one million rials per dollar. The message from the street is for no more “deals” but regime change?
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Pulling back from military intervention following bellicose threats, is Trump failing – like Carter, Obama and Biden preceding him – the long-suffering people of Iran?
By Jonathan Feldstein
On January 16, 1979, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was forced to flee Iran along with his family due to the US and European countries withdrawing their support. This ushered in what’s called the Islamic Revolution, the return of exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, and the hijacking of a country that had been prosperous and a source of peace and stability in the Middle East. In the 47 years since then, chaos, death, terror have reigned.
Since then, Iran has devolved into a failed state with the Islamist leaders not even able to provide water and electricity, and its currency devalued to record lows, more than one million rials per dollar.
Since then, the Islamic Republic of Iran has become the world’s biggest funder of terrorism, with terrorist proxies literally all over the world. Tens of thousands or more have been killed at the hands of the Islamic regime and its proxies. Millions have been impacted, threatened, and havesuffered.
As we mark this anniversary of the West failing to support a stable ally, ushering in the evil terrorist regime, reports indicate that President Trump may have balked and failed the Iranian people as Carter did in 1979, as Obama did in 2009, and as Biden did in 2022. But if Trump has truly backed down from his harsh rhetoric to take action, and now may be seeking a “diplomatic solution,” the outcome of his actions will be worse than Obama and Biden. His harsh rhetoric emboldened the Iranian people who took to the streets in more than 100 cities in record numbers to protest the regime. They believed that Trump had their back, and were prepared to risk their lives to take back their country after almost half a century. And they were slaughtered by the Islamic regime and its agents in record numbers, at least thousands, if not tens of thousands.
On the verge of striking Iran, the US held off following reports of halting executions. What happens next is up to Trump who is seen here being interviewed in the Oval Office on Wednesday. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Here’s the thing however. Trump’s threats were based on a false premise. He calculated whether the US would take action based on the number of Iranians being killed. As horrific as tens of thousands being killed by forces of their own government is, the massacre of people in their own country is not sufficient pretext for the United States to take military action.
Therefore, if it’s correct that Trump walked back his battle plans based solely on reports that the Iranians “halted executions” of some 800 people who were arrested amid the ongoing recent protests, this would make little sense. “Halting” is a temporary action. No doubt these 800, along with thousands more who have been arrested, still remain in Iranian prison and can be executed at any moment. If not all at once, the regime could execute a few a week and stay below Trump’s radar of “too many” people being killed.
Let’s also recognize the fact that the protests have taken place for less than three weeks. It is a remarkable injustice that anyone can be arrested and sentenced to death in such a short period.
So much for due process!
Left in the Lurch? Nationwide protests across Iran from 289 Dec 2025 to 11 Jan 2026.
But all this – as horrible, evil and unjust as it is – is not a pretext for military action. The reasons for military action are the threats that the Islamic Republic has made and continues to make, as the single greatest source of instability and terror in the world. The Iranian President recently openly declared that Iran is at war with the United States, with Israel, and with Europe. These are threats, not to be taken lightly. They include military threats, but they also include terror, and infiltration of the West to carry out its nefarious goals of spreading radical Islam globally.
From Calling to Prayer to Calling for Executions. Tehran’s Friday prayer leader, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of detained protesters and the arrest of anyone who supported the protests. He accused the protesters of acting on behalf of foreign powers, calling them “servants” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “soldiers of Trump.”
While Trump was correct to offer support for the Iranian citizens who are protesting for their own freedom, the basis for that support should never have been the number of people killed. It’s a perverse inversion of the Biblical story of Abraham negotiating with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. How many people are too many? 10? 100? 500? 1000? 10,000? And in any event, if that was the measure, reports of at least 12,000 to more than 20,000 civilians being slaughtered in the streets is, and should have been, enough for the US to take action. “Halting” 800 extra-judicial executions on top of the many thousands who were slaughtered in the streets is also not grounds for not taking action.
Flowers for the Fallen. Impressing upon the US President, flowers are placed next to a display with photos of Iranian protestors killed by Iranian Americans outside the White House in Washington, January 16, 2026. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP)
I fear that Trump has not only failed the Iranian people, but the West, and the world. His rhetoric put a wind in the sails of Iranian citizens who took to the streets, risking their lives only to see them shot down in cold blood. This has been the single greatest opportunity since 1979 to eliminate the Islamic Republic once and for all. THAT should have been the stated goal of any US action, and it should not have been qualified based on the number of Iranians that their government massacred.
Bodies Piling Up. Distressing new videos have emerged from a mortuary in Tehran showing rows of bodies, blood-soaked floors and crowds of people searching for loved ones following a deadly government crackdown on protesters in Iran.
An additional failure is that China, Russia, and numerous Arab and Islamic nations are watching and measuring what they can get away with. They saw Trump sweep in to arrest Maduro in Venezuela next door, but are seeing the US now inept at doing anything about the ayatollahs on the other side of the world. That gives American adversaries around the world license to invade other countries, support terror, engage in direct and indirect threats to the United States and the world, and even slaughter their own citizens and others with impunity.
I’m not saying that making an example of the Islamic regime is a suitable goal of military action, but threatening military action and not pulling the trigger risks losing on a global scale in ways that will not only keep the ayatollah in power for another generation, but also embolden terrorists around the world.
It’s horrific if hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands have been executed in the streets of Iran with impunity. To the extent that they protested and lost their lives because of a threat that Trump made and was never prepared to carry out, their blood is on his hands. If that’s the case, he has let down the Iranian people even more radically than his predecessors by setting them up and not following through.
Fired-Up. Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. (Photo: MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
Let’s be clear, if we ever want to see peace in the Middle East, the only way is the elimination of the Islamic Republic and the reasoning to reach this decision does not require counting how many more people have been slaughtered. On this 47th anniversary of the US withdrawing support for the Shah causing him and his family to flee, it seems that Iran and its people may have been let down once again. They and the world will continue to suffer.
If I am wrong, and I hope I am, I will publicly apologize – but if I’m right, then President Trump should apologize to the Iranian people, to Americans, and to the world. Even Obama recognized in retrospect his inaction in 2009 was a miscalculation. The negative consequences of Trump’s action – or rather inaction – will be felt for years to come.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Journal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
12 January 2026 – Israel on high alert as protests intensify in Iran and the regime threatens reprisals. This and more on The Israel Brief.
13 January 2026 – Horrific scenes from Iran as the revolution continues and more on The Israel Brief.
14 January 2026 – Is the US about to strike the regime in Iran? This and more on The Israel Brief.
15 January 2026 – The latest on Iran, Witkoff announces the start of phase 2 and more on The Israel Brief.
15 January 2026 – Rolene Marks talks on WINA about Iran and Israeli resilience, listen here.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
A tribute to Israeli entrepreneur, innovator, philanthropist and visionary Morris Kahn (1930-2026) who sought frontiers below and beyond.
By David E. Kaplan
I met Morris quite recently, shortly before he passed away on January 1, 2026 but it was as a hologram at the Peres Center for Peace and Technology in Tel Aviv-Yafo. Fascinated, I watched and listened to an animated life-size Morris sharing stories, ideas and how he achieved his goals in various fields of business, technology and science. If less than a month ago was the last time I saw Morris, the first time was in 1994, when I interviewed him in person, at his office in AMDOCS for Telfed Magazine, then a publication for the Southern African community in Israel.
The interview began with Morris saying that he never, on principle and embodied in policy gave interviews nor did he permit members of his vast staff from “talking to the press without permission.” His skepticism and suspicion of the media now with hindsight was quite visionary considering the situation today of ‘fake news’ and its consequences.
He continued with a broad smile that he was happily “making an exception” as he had such respect for Telfed and its publication in the service it provided for his fellow Southern Africans in Israel. Such respect was reciprocated not only by Israel’s Southern African community but all Israelis for a man who came to this country in the mid-1950s with little but gave so much to Israel and beyond.
I use the word “little” only in the material sense as he arrived with abundant talent and unbridled vision. Truly a kindred spirit of Simon Peres and seemed right that my last image of Morris was of him illuminating on ‘his world’ inside the Shimon Peres Center of Peace and Innovation. In the spirit of illumination, it was most fitting that Morris was given the honor in 2019 of lighting a candle at the national ceremony in Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day.
Best describing Morris were the words of another esteemed South African Israeli, the late Smoky Simon who as a co-honoree at a joint Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony said of his friend, who at the time was ten years his junior:
“You are a phenomenon. You have succeeded in capturing the mysterious and elusive formulae of how to successfully combine pleasure and relaxation with philanthropy, establishing social projects, promoting medical and scientific projects together with your business activities in one great package. Little wonder you have been honoured by the universities of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion and the Weizmann Institute, and now, just for good measure, you are involved in the international competition to assist Israel in being the first country to get a robot onto the moon.”
Moonstruck. Despite the disappointing news that the Israeli moon lander Beresheet crashed into the moon, benefactor Morris Khan (seen here next to Beresheet) stayed positive and was ready to try again. Afterall, it still reached the Moon even if “not the way we wanted,” and made Israel the fourth country to even reach it, following the United States, Soviet Union and China.(Photo: y Getty Images)
Morris, who hailed from Benoni in South Africa where he had been a member of the socialist Zionist youth movement Habonim, first visited Israel in 1955, and related of having discovered “a strange country, a foreign language, different food – but a feeling of being at home with my people.” It was enough for him to return the following year and to stay.
From starting out manufacturing bicycles at a factory in Beit Shemesh in partnership with kibbutz Tzora, Morris’ trajectory soared establishing companies that grew into commercial behemoths such as Golden Pages Israel, Amdocs with 26,000 employees worldwide, the Aurec Group and Coral WorldInternational, which established aquariums around the world from his first in 1978 in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat and then in Maui, Hawaii, Perth, Australia; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; Coral Island Nassau, The Bahamas; Oceanworld in Manly, Australia, and elsewhere. The shared vision of Morris and world-renowned reef biologist David Fridman was based on the concept of a “revolutionary kind of aquarium,” an underwater observatory where visitors can enjoy close-up encounters with coral reefs and other aquatic forms of life in the Red Sea, “without getting wet.”
Educating the Youth. A young enthusiastic child at the Underwater Observatory in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, on July 25, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The Red Sea Underwater Observatory, also known as Coral World Eilat was the first land-based, undersea tourist attraction and enjoyed immediate success paving the way for its replication elsewhere in the world.
Sea’ing is Believing. As Morris Kahn envisioned, Eilat’s underwater observatory where visitors can enjoy unique encounters with the Red Sea’s coral reef and aquatic forms of life, “without getting wet.”
Morris’ underwater venture began with a family adventure when he began scuba diving with his family in Eilat in the late 1960s and realized “that most people don’t get a chance to see the beautiful underwater world – the coral and the fish – because they don’t dive.” So, in 1972, he began the construction in Eilat of the Underwater Observatory and Marine Park, which since its opening in 1974 welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. In 2014, the underwater observatory expanded by adding the biggest shark pool of its kind in the Middle East, which covers an area of 1000m2 offering a rare opportunity for ‘close-encounters’ with the sharks of the Red Sea. When I last visited it, I overheard the stunned remark from a USA tourist next to me “Wow, this beats the shark pool at Las Vegas!” I was uncertain whether he was referring to card sharks or those with fins, but nevertheless the observation was spot-on.
Morris on a Mission. South Africa-born Israeli billionaire entrepreneur, Morris Kahn speaks during a press conference at the Israel Aerospace facility in Yehud on July 10, 2018. (Flash90)
Transitioning his GPS, Morris recalibrated his sights from below to above – from the deep depths of the earth’s sea to outer space and became a major sponsor and a public board member of Space IL, Israel’s nonprofit initiative to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon as part of the Google Lunar X Prize. “Landing a robot on the Moon is very complex but I enjoy being involved in the challenge,” explained Morris of his motivation. “I am a great believer in education and one of our goals at Space IL is getting the young generation excited and educated about science and space. We are trying to create the effect that Apollo had on the young generation in the U.S. I think it would be important for Israel to succeed in a competition like this. It would put Israel on the map in Space.”
Aiming High. Always aiming to entice the youth to take an interest in science, Morris Kahn unveils a lego model of SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft, during the opening of the Lego space park in Tel Aviv on July 25, 2019.
Addressing the local media before the launch, Morris said, “This mission that we were talking about was really a ‘mission impossible’. The only thing is, I didn’t think it was impossible, and the three engineers that started this project didn’t think it was impossible, and the way Israel thinks, nothing is impossible.”
Morris’ words of “nothing is impossible” nailed the Israeli narrative revealing why such a tiny country, one that at it geographical narrowest could be ridden in one of Morris early bicycles in less than a half-hour, could be the ‘Startup-Nation’ it is today. Morris was a major contributor to this status.
Moon Men. After the impressive aquarium at his office in Ramat Gan, the next thing to catch a visitors eyes eye is the photo of Morris (right) standing beside his good friend, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, immediately after his fellow Apollo 11 crew member, Neil Armstrong.
Making ‘Aliyah’ (immigrating) in 1956, Morris has sure lived up to the direct translation from the Hebrew of “ascending” or “to go up” – both metaphorically and physically. From bicycles in his early years to spacecrafts in his later years, Morris’ journey has been one of outreach from under the sea to outer space and everything in-between.
Morris Kahn leaves a legacy that will endure long into the future that he so embraced and enriched with his exploits and achievements.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
A Jew opposing Jewish statehood displays today historical illiteracy or suicidal self-destructiveness.
By Grant Gochin
Zionism is the Jewish people’s absolute movement for self-determination, security, and sovereignty in their sole ancestral homeland. Born from millennia of exile, genocide, and centuries of lethal powerlessness, its sole objective remains the permanent cessation of exterminating Jews. Far from the “colonial” slur European elites regurgitate, Zionism is an indigenous reclamation and a survival imperative. At its most basic core, Zionism means to stop murdering Jews, while antizionism means to continue to murder Jews.
INDIGENOUS ROOTS: THE BIBLICAL MANDATE
The Jewish tie to the Land of Israel is ancient, indigenous, and enduring. “Zion” appears 152 times in the Hebrew Bible as the geographic designation for Jerusalem and the land. Psalms 137:1 records the trauma of exile: “By the rivers of Babylon… we wept when we remembered Zion.” The Passover command “Next year in Jerusalem” is a political directive of return, not poetry.
Because the Land of Israel is the central stage of the biblical narrative, antizionism is a direct repudiation of the entire Bible. You cannot separate the people from the land without tearing the scriptures apart. Consequently, since the Bible forms the moral and historical bedrock of Western civilization, antizionism is a repudiation of the West itself. To oppose Israel’s existence is to dismantle the Judeo-Christian foundation upon which Western values rest.
It is impossible to be a Jew and an antizionist. To be a Jew is to carry the memory of Zion and the imperative of survival. A Jew who opposes the Jewish state is either historically illiterate or suicidally self-destructive, severing themselves from their own peoplehood and history.
THE ”ANTIZIONIST JEW” DOES NOT EXIST
It is impossible to be a Jew and an antizionist. Judaism is not merely a religion of rituals; it is a collective destiny and a nationhood. As Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy argue, those who attempt to disentangle Judaism from Jewish nationalism are “Un-Jews” — they are undoing the very essence of Jewish peoplehood.
By repudiating Zionism, these individuals repudiate their own Jewishness. Maimonides, in the Mishneh Torah, is explicit: one who separates himself from the community, even if he commits no other transgression, “has no share in the World to Come.” When “Jews” stand with Hamas murderers and call Israelis “Nazis”, or champion the destruction of the Jewish state, they sever their connection to the Jewish people. They are not merely critics; they are deserters who have removed themselves from the congregation of Israel and are deserving of herem (excommunication). There is no such thing as an antizionist Jew; there are only former Jews who have sided with their people’s executioners.
THE HOLOCAUST IMPERITIVE AND THE LESSON OF 1915
The 20th century proved that Jewish powerlessness is a death sentence. But the warning signs were ignored decades before the Holocaust. In 1915, during WWI, the Russian government under Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevitch inaugurated a campaign of extermination against its own Jewish subjects.
Deadly Duke. Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevitch , as Supreme Commander of the Russian army during the early stages of World War I, was responsible for the forced deportations and massacres of Jewish and German populations in Russian border territories, which some sources describe as part of a campaign of extermination against perceived “enemy” nations.
● The “Kuzhi Myth”: Using the war as a pretext, the military fabricated a lie that Jews were hiding Germans in cellars to brand the entire Jewish people as spies and traitors.
● Mass Expulsion: On 24 to 48 hours’ notice, hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Lithuania, Courland, and Poland.
● Brutality: 600,000 Jews were turned into homeless paupers, packed into cattle cars or forced to walk until they dropped from starvation or insanity.
● Hostages: The military explicitly ordered the taking of Jewish hostages to be executed in case of alleged “treason”.
As I detailed in 107 Years Late for Dinner, this destruction was the precursor to the Holocaust — a clear lesson that without a state, Jewish life is cheap. Zionism in 1948 ended that vulnerability. Israel exists to prevent the next Holocaust, not commit one.
BINDING INTERNATIONAL LAW
The foundation of the Jewish state rests on binding international mandates that have never been revoked:
● Napoleon’s 1799 Acre Proclamation calling for the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews.
● The Balfour Declaration (1917) recognizing Jewish national rights.
● The San Remo Resolution (1920), an international treaty incorporating the Balfour Declaration into international law.
● The League of Nations Mandate (1922) codifying the right of Jewish settlement.
● The UN Partition Plan (1947), an explicit recognition of Jewish statehood as reparative justice.
Diplomatic Recognition. The San Remo Conference (1920) legally established the British Mandate for Palestine formally incorporating the Balfour Declaration’s promise to create a Jewish national home, giving international legitimacy to Jewish self-determination in the historic Land of Israel, a foundational step for the future State of Israel.
THE LIE OF DECOLONIZATION
Europe holds Israel to a false standard while securing its own borders with force and retaining colonial vestiges. The hypocrisy is staggering:
● France: Paris administers 13 overseas territories, spanning the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique), South America (French Guiana), and the Pacific (New Caledonia, French Polynesia). In New Caledonia, the 2021 independence referendum failed, yet France clings on, suppressing Kanak self-determination under the same UN Charter it weaponizes against Israel. Paris extracts resources while locals protest inequality.
● Spain: Madrid grips four North African enclaves: Ceuta and Melilla, plus the Plazas de soberanía—territories Morocco brands as colonial relics. Spain deploys razor wire and troops to repel migrants, mirroring the exact security measures it condemns in Israel. These footholds, seized in the 15th century, mirror the “settlements” Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez decries — yet he never suggests “nuking” Madrid for them.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD OF DESTRUCTION: Sánchez’s Self-Negation
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has branded Israel’s defense against Hamas “genocidal” and lamented that Spain lacks the nuclear weapons to stop it.
Apply Sánchez’s logic without exception, and Spain collapses:
1. Reconquista: The Arab-Berber conquest ruled Iberia for 781 years (711–1492). The Reconquista that reclaimed Spain for its prior inhabitants is, by Sánchez’s standard, “colonization.” If Israel’s return after 2,000 years is illegitimate, Spain’s entire national existence is illegitimate.
2. Migrant Claims: Over 70,000 sub-Saharan Africans reaching Spanish soil since 2024 possess superior claims under Sánchez’s rationale that interim occupation creates permanent rights.
Resolution ratifying Rebirth. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of resolution 181 that adopted the plan for partitioning Eretz Israel into a Jewish state and an Arab state. This resolution led, in effect, to the declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
ANTIZIONISM: THE IDEOLOGY OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Antizionism is not a political opinion; it is a weapon of war. For someone to be an antizionist today, they must either be a combatant for the Muslim Brotherhood (knowingly or unknowingly) or completely self-destructive.
The ideology driving the hatred of Israel — from Hamas to European campuses — is the rejection of Western values, individual liberty, and historical truth. Europe funds this subversion via “lawfare” NGOs like Al-Haq and Al-Mezan, pumping millions into groups linked to terror organizations like the PFLP to harass the Jewish state.
CONCLUSION: THE WEST’S FRONTLINE
Israel stands as the West’s frontline against a jihadist ideology that seeks to erase not just Jews, but Western civilization itself. If Israel falls, Europe is next. Israel endures as the antidote: a sovereign refuge where Jews dictate their fate, not Europe’s.
About the writer:
Grant Arthur Gochin currently serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. He is the Emeritus Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, which represents the fifty-five African nations, and Emeritus Vice Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the world. Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past twenty five years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped / inventoried / documented / restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation”, published in 2013. His book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. He is presently working on a project to expose the current Holocaust revisionism within the Lithuanian government. Professionally, Gochin is a Certified Financial Planner and practices as a Wealth Advisor in California, where he lives with his family. Personal site: https://www.grantgochin.com/
Sources: 1. US House of Representatives. (1916). Hearings in front of the USA Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: Russian Atrocities Against the Jews (H.R. 558). 2. Stand Tall Israel. (2025, December 12). He’s Spent 30 YEARS Studying HAMAS — What He REVEALS Is TERRIFYING [Video]. YouTube. 3. Gochin, G. A. (2022, June 22). 107 years late for dinner. The Blogs, The Times of Israel. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/107-years-late-for-dinner/ 4. The Jerusalem Post. (2023, November 3). Editor’s Notes: No longer part of us. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-771479 5. NGO Monitor. (2025, December 18). EU Funding to Terror-Linked Palestinian NGOs Since 2011.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Throughout the decades, many of you from stage, screen and the recording arts have been voices for what you believe in. You have united against Apartheid South Africa, marched for the #MeToo movement, advocated for gender parity and told the world that Black Lives Matter.
There is one area where you have been conspicuous – not just by your silence – but by your inversion of human rights. We are speaking about the human rights of Israelis and the Jewish people. While it is important to advocate for the rights of Palestinian civilians who are as trapped by Hamas as we in Israel are, there is a propensity for many of you to take the carefully crafted propaganda from Hamas, sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood as absolute fact.
Facts have become the first casualty of this war that Hamas forced upon both Israelis and Palestinians. Facts are important. Lives are at stake. Antisemitism has risen to levels not seen since before the Holocaust and while many of you have taken to stage, screen and petition, no doubt with honorable intentions, it is important that you understand the facts.
Thousands of entertainment industry professionals signed a letter stating they would boycott members of the Israeli film industry “they believe are connected to genocide.” It has been proven (see links and definition below) that there has been no genocide committed in the Gaza strip during this war rather this slur is designed to demonize the Jewish state. To exclude fellow artists from your industry because of their ethnicity is racist. The Israeli film industry represents a myriad of views and opinions and provides employment, including to Palestinians. Boycotting Israeli filmmakers not only silences Palestinians; but also robs them of employment opportunities.
Two hundred industry celebrities signed a petition to release Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti is serving five consecutive life sentences for the murders of Israelis. He is also serving time for 20 charges of attempted murder. He is not the Palestinian equivalent of Nelson Mandela. Any attempts to draw comparisons is an appalling insult to his victims, including Father (Priest) Tsibouktzakis. The second intifada, which saw the murders of over 1000 Israelis, was not a romantic uprising of “freedom fighters”. It was deliberate, targeted murder. Signing a petition calling for his release endorses the murder of Israelis.
Removal of music from Israeli sources – while many disagree with how Israel has prosecuted this war (without offering their expert military opinions about how to fight a war with an unprecedented battlefield scenario), removing access to music for Israelis, many who have experienced unbearable loss is not in the interest of peace or the Palestinians, it is discriminatory and racist. Have any of the artists who have done this removed their music from British, French, and American etc. streamers because civilians have been tragically killed in war?
Exclusion of Jews who support Israel, i.e. Zionists from artistic spaces. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and the belief in the right of Israel to exist as the only nation state of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. Zionism, despite the many attempts by Israel’s detractors to use it as a slur, is not about dispossessing anyone. There has never been a state of Palestine and Jews have maintained a continuous presence in the land that carries the story of the Jewish people, amply proven through antiquity. Excluding Jewish artists for a fundamental religious belief or saying that every nation has the right to determine its own future except for the Jewish people is racist.
The demonization of Israelis on stage and screen. Israel is the Jewish state – when you demonize Israelis, you effectively enable hate speech against Jews.
The slurs that are employed against Israel and the Jewish people are not just catchy phrases. They have specific and legal definitions. On 14 December, 15 people, nearly all Jewish, were murdered at a candle-lighting event to celebrate the first night of Chanukah. Nobody in the shattered Jewish community of Sydney where the terror attack took place was surprised. Routine demonization of the Jewish state, including by many in the entertainment industry who have parroted Hamas propaganda, including the blood libel that 14 000 Palestinian children would die in a matter of hours from starvation to your millions of followers has helped foster a climate of hate which led to the inevitable. Not only did 14 000 children not die, many did not remove it from their social media – or apologise. While some of you expressed your sorrow at the murder of Jewish men, women and children in Bondi – many also neglected to mention that they were of the Jewish faith. Words have weight and it important we understand what they mean. Lives are at stake.
Apartheid – from the Afrikaans, to “separateness”, lit. ’aparthood’) was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s.[note 1] It was characterized by an authoritarian political culture which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white population. The rights of all citizens in Israel are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. All citizens of Israel are fully enfranchised. To call Israel an Apartheid state, makes a mockery of the true victims of the racist system and is inherently factually incorrect. Palestinians fall under the remit of Hamas (presently) in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the territories they control in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
Genocide – The word “Genocide”, first coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, has a specific legal definition and refers to certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. It does not pertain to civilian deaths in times of war and Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza. This is evidenced by the lack of intent, low civilian vs combatant ratio as demonstrated in the links below, forming of humanitarian corridors, humanitarian aid entry, vaccinations against disease like polio, evacuation of medically vulnerable to other countries for treatment, early warning of impending strikes and more. Hamas and other terror organizations committed genocide and acts of mass sexual violence during their invasion into Israel on 7 October 2023.
Colonization – the establishing of a colony subjugation of a people or area especially as an extension of state power. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and has sued for peace on many occasions – and each offer refused. Zionism is the opposite of colonization; it is the returning of the Jewish people to their ancient home, a modern-day miracle.
Sadly, when your voices were needed the most, many of you were silent. Many of you wore pins on your clothes to awards ceremonies. You claimed they were in support of a ceasefire – but the reality is that they were the symbol of the lynching of two IDF soldiers. How many of you were aware of that? None of you wore yellow ribbons to call for the immediate release of the over 250 hostages that were taken on 7 October including babies, Holocaust survivors and whole families.
You marched for gender parity and for the #MeToo movement – but were silent or derisive when our women and girls were raped on 7 October and silent when our hostages, including the males were sexually violated by their terrorist captor.
You were silent when Hamas paraded our emaciated released hostages or our babies in coffins in grotesque ceremonies that were carnivals of the grotesque.
You were silent as millions of Israelis were attacked from seven fronts, including the hundreds of ballistic missiles that rained down on our cities from Iran, destroying city blocks.
You were silent when nearly 400 young festivalgoers who danced for peace were hunted down and slaughtered.
You are unusually silent about the ceasefire in place. A ceasefire that has exposed Hamas’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians as they attempt to rebuild. Is it because you know that countries who “commit genocide” do not offer peace plans? You marched for civil rights for BLM but remain silent about the astronomic rise of antisemitism. Why?
Facts matter. For many, Israel-Palestine is the cause du jour. For the people of Israel and Gaza – this is our lives. Please review the following links compiled by historians and researchers for important facts:
We ask you to consider the facts. We invite you to visit Israel to see and hear the reality for yourself. We implore you to be bridge builders and not create division. We ask you to speak of peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
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