A HOUSE DIVIDED CANNOT STAND

America needs to confront its unsustainable debt problem that is threatening to collapse the economy of the world.

By  Neville Berman

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech in which he stated “a house divided cannot stand.” At the time the issue was slavery. Fast forward 168 years, and the prophecy of Lincoln is very pertinent today.

Today there are approximately 8.4 billion people in the world, of which approximately 342 million live in the United States of America. Statistically less than 4.2% of the world’s population live in the United States. Clearly American influence across the world is out of all proportion to its population size. America is a technological, financial and military powerhouse unmatched by any other country. The annual American gross domestic product is by far the largest in the world.  America is clearly the greatest creative, inventive, progressive, and influential society in history. It has more intellectual property and patents than any other country. American innovation and daring put a man on the moon. The American way of life has lifted millions of people out of poverty to personal prosperity.  

The Second World War ended in 1945 with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The revelations of the horrors of the Holocaust, shocked the world. With Europe in ruins, the world was facing a pivotal moment that would determine the future of Western civilization.  US president, Harry Truman introduced a policy the likes of which the world had never seen before. It was called the Marshall Plan. Under the plan, the victorious Americans offered to pay for the cost of rebuilding West Germany, the very country that had just waged war against America, and to pay for the resuscitation of countries in Europe that were devastated by the war. It did the same for Japan. No reparations for damages were demanded from any of the defeated parties. When the Soviet Union attempted to starve West Berlin into submission, America flew 189, 000 flights that carried 2.3 million tons of aid into West Berlin. The airlift started in June 1948 and lasted for 15 months. It saved the people of West Berlin. America became the indispensable superpower whose generosity and foresight ushered in decades of prosperity to the world. No burden was too great for America. 

Tractors on Track. The U.S.-sponsored Marshall Plan (April 1948–December 1951) was designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries in order to create stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive. (Photo: US National Archives)

After the end of the Second World War, America and their previous ally, the Soviet Union, began what was called the “Cold War.” In order to oppose the spread of communism, America got involved in wars of choice in Korea and in Vietnam. Following the attack on America on 9/11, America decided to retaliate by waging a war against terrorism by attacking both Iraq and Afghanistan. America is now involved in a costly war against Iran. All the above wars were initially seen as justified and in America’s interest. However, all of the above inflicted an enormous cost on America in terms of blood and treasure. Americans have now grown tired of paying the price of forever wars in far off countries.  

America is the greatest consumer society in history. Slick advertising and promotions, coupled with easy credit, resulted in a demand for products and services that in many cases are neither needed nor affordable. Garages across America are filled with items that were hardly used. Millions of people are now maxed out on credit, and live from day to day. Materialism has created a society living in debt. A loss of income for even a short period can be catastrophic for millions of ordinary working-class Americans. Bank foreclosures on home mortgages are increasing. Tens of thousands of people are homeless. Millions have insufficient savings for their retirement. Capitalism made America great, but poverty still persists. Americans used to envisage a better future for their children. For millions of Americans, this no longer seems to be the case.  

The demand for illicit drugs in America is staggering. The Office of National Drug Control estimates that over $150 billion worth of illegal drugs are sold annually in the US. Instead of trying to do something meaningful with their lives, more and more Americans are seeking short term happiness by resorting to drugs. As long as this demand persists, the illicit trade in drugs will continue. Drug addiction is now a major problem all across America. There are over 2 million people in prison in America. Many are imprisoned because they turned to crime to finance the cost of their drug addiction, and others are imprisoned for selling drugs illegally. America now has proportionately three times the prison population of Britain. Black prisoners account for 38% of the prison population, but make up only 13% of the population.

Out of Hand. The opioid epidemic in the United States impacts public health, economic productivity, and community safety nationwide.

Materialism and greed have replaced morality and ethics. Americans are buying guns, overdosing on drugs, getting divorced, and getting into debt as never before. Racism continues to plague the country. Millions of Americans feel that they are not sharing in the wealth of the country. They are angry and full of hate. Anarchy is now common in many of its cities  and the political divide is unbreachable. The radical left has embarked on a socialist ideology that is against everything that made America great. Some American cities have become sanctuary cities for those who entered the country without going through the correct procedures. Some cities have experienced blackouts, followed by looting in certain areas. The looters believe that they are entitled to take whatever they can. They resent all forms of authority. The social cohesion of society is in danger. There is a very thin line between anarchy and law and order. The radical left is demanding the defunding of the police. This is the surest way to promote lawlessness and ensure a breakdown of society.  

In 2025, over $5 billion was spent on hiring lobbyists to influence lawmakers in Washington. The lobbyists promote the interests of the health industry, the oil industry, the military industrial complex, the national rifle association, big business, the farmers or whatever they are paid to promote.  Even if it is against the interests of the American society at large, lobbyists promote whatever they are very well paid to do. Undoubtedly, powerful lobbyists have ensured that the tax system favors the wealthy.

Peddling Power. Stepping up for a day of lobbying at the Capital building, Washington, DC. (Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman / Staff)

In January 1981, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th American president. He promised to lower taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget. When asked how he was going to do this, he laughed and went to play golf. He lowered taxes and increased defense spending and ten months later, for the first time in American history, the federal deficit exceeded $1 trillion. It had taken nearly 200 years to reach a deficit of this magnitude. Fifty-five years later the federal deficit now stands at a staggering $40 trillion. The last American president to balance the budget was Bill Clinton between 1998 to 2001. Under President Trump, the federal deficit has increased by over $2 trillion in one year. This is unprecedented.  What this means is that on average, the American government is now spending over $151 billion more than the revenue it collects every month. Clearly this is unsustainable.

The US defense budget for 2026 is over $960 billion. Interest on the federal debt is now even greater than the defense budget and will exceed $1 trillion for 2026. The implications are staggering. If we divide the present Federal debt by the population of the country, we get a debt of over $117,000 per person. This is just the federal debt. If we add state debt, mortgage debt, credit card debt, corporate and individual debt, we are looking at a debt of well over $200,000 per person. Clearly Americans are living on borrowed money.   

Compounding the debt problem is the fact that life expectancy has increased.  The result is that social security, Medicaid and government pension funds are all actuarially bankrupt, and will require huge additional funding to sustain them in the future. America is locked into a system of entitlements that are unaffordable and unsustainable. The rising cost of living and especially health insurance costs, are causing even working families to be unable to save enough for retirement. This does not augur well for the future. Clearly Americans are living in debt, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening at an alarming rate. Corporate and individual greed has become a way of life. Today, the top 1% of the richest people in America own 30% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% own 2.5% of the nation’s wealth.   

For years, scientists have sounded the alarm about the rise of greenhouse gases and climate change. In the past year, record high temperatures have led to wildfires that have devastated tens of thousands of acres of forests, and caused billions of dollars in damage across the world. In Greenland, the ice is melting, and in Europe, glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate. The temperature of the oceans is increasing. The American population is less than 4.2% of the world’s population, yet it produces between 11 to 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Per capita, Americans are the world’s worst climate offenders. President Trump is in denial that human behavior has contributed to climate change. He has withdrawn America from the Paris Climate Agreement and has promoted policies that adversely affect the environment. Global warming is a global problem that requires a global solution. America needs to be part of the solution to climate change.

Global Warming to Global Warning. Requiring a global solution, the US needs to be part of the solution to climate change.

Unfortunately, there is very little common ground between Republicans and Democrats at the moment. The fact that America needs to raise the federal debt ceiling over and over again, contradicts President Trump’s claim that the American economy is in great shape. The American economy is facing a mountain of entitlements and debt that every serious economist should be warning about. The big question is how much longer will the world continue to place its trust in the value of the dollar?  If this trust falls, investors are unlikely to buy US government bonds. This could lead to a situation in which America defaults on a debt payment. The repercussions of such a move will be catastrophic. The world’s financial system will collapse on a scale that will make the financial crash of 1929 seem like child’s play. There is an old adage that states “when America sneezes the world catches a cold.”

Debt Clock Ticking. A view of a bus shelter at Independence Avenue and 9th St’s SW where an electronic billboard and a poster display the current U.S. National debt per person and as a nation at 40 trillion dollars on August 30, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

America needs to confront the unsustainable debt burden that threatens to devastate the country, and plunge the world into a depression. At a minimum, the American government needs to raise taxes, reduce expenses, and balance the budget. America cannot continue on its present path without bringing upon itself and the world a catastrophic situation. The writing is now on the wall. America needs responsible leadership that will retain the world’s trust in the dollar. One thing that appears inevitable is that “a house divided cannot stand.”  



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).

REMEMBERING RAB

Jewish survivors of the Rab concentration camp form battalion to fight the Nazi German forces occupying Yugoslavia.

By Michel Levine

At the beginning of the WWII, without firing a single shot, the Jewish inmates of a detention camp located in Yugoslavia revolted and took control of the site. They then formed themselves into a battalion and took part in the partisan struggle for the liberation of the country. This curious and probably unique episode deserves to be better known.

In April 1941, the Axis forces seized the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In their occupation zone, German troops carried out mass killings and deportations to extermination camps. In the zone controlled by their Bulgarian allies, Jews were handed over to the Germans and likewise sent to Auschwitz. In the Hungarian occupation zone, after the Novi Sad pogrom, which claimed 4,000 victims, the surviving Jews experienced a certain respite until the German occupation of Hungary in the spring of 1944, which in turn led to their deportation to the gas chambers. At the same time, the Germans created in Croatia a puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), led by the fascist Ante Pavelić, whose program was expressed in three fundamental points: kill one third of the Serbs living on its territory, expel another third, and assimilate the surviving third. To achieve this, concentration camps were opened in which thousands of Serbians, Jewish, Roma, and Croatian prisoners — opponents of the regime or merely suspects — perished. Its troops, the Ustaše, fought both the Communist partisans and the Serbian royalist Chetniks while carrying out numerous pogroms along the way. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1945, out of a Jewish population of 80,000 persons, more than 67,000 were murdered, one of the highest destruction rates in Europe.

Things unfolded differently in the occupation zones held by the Italian army (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, southern Slovenia, and the Dalmatian coast), as well as in the territories directly annexed by Rome (Slovenia and Croatia).

Although living conditions for the populations subjected to this armed occupation were made extremely difficult by hunger and mistreatment, Italian occupation officers, supported in this by senior officials of their foreign ministry, refused to commit the mass crimes carried out by their German, Bulgarian, or Ustaše allies. The Italian army even went so far as to establish “protective camps” for Jews in order to shield them from Nazi fury, at Crikvenica, Kraljevica, Selce, Novi Vinodol, and on the islands of Lopud, Brač, Hvar, and Korčula, among others.

Seen here in July 1942, are prisoners under the control of an Italian official at the Rab concentration camp, one of several Italian concentration camps established during WWII on the Italian-annexed island of Rab.

Thus, in July 1942, 2,500 Jews captured during operations conducted by the Italian army against the Yugoslav partisans were transferred to the island of Rab (Arbe in Italian), located along the Dalmatian coast. There they discovered a vast complex of barracks and tents situated near the village of Kampor. The Arbe civilian internment camp (Campo di concentramento per internati civili di Guerra – Arbe) already held between 10,000 and 15,000 detainees, mainly Slovenes, Croats, and Jews. Although conditions there were dreadful for all inmates, with cold, famine, dysentery, scurvy, beriberi, and scabies rampant in these makeshift lodgings, Jewish prisoners enjoyed certain concessions, such as exemption from forced labor and a certain freedom of movement. A former Slovenian detainee, Anton Vratuša — who after the war would become Yugoslavia’s ambassador to the United Nations — summarized the situation as follows:

“We were all prisoners, but they were protected.”

He added: “We used their help.” What did he mean by this?

Among the Jewish prisoners, there was far from complete trust with respect to the Italian military authorities. Certainly, they had disobeyed orders by shielding them from the Nazis, but this trial of strength could at any moment turn disastrous: several examples were already known of camps where Italian soldiers had been forced by their German allies to hand over their Jewish prisoners.

It therefore became urgent to leave the island as quickly as possible.

A small group among them, including Viktor Hajon, a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party (and a famous polo player before the war), who had just failed in an escape attempt, established contact with a clandestine committee formed before their arrival. This committee included members of the People’s Liberation Movement founded by Josip Broz — soon to become known under his nickname Tito. Its armed branch, the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (Narodnooslobodilačka vojska, or N.O.V.), fought the occupiers. Unlike General Mihailović’s royalist Chetniks, Tito, a seasoned Communist apparatchik accustomed to clandestine work since 1934, had built a structured, hierarchical army highly suited to guerrilla warfare, whose headquarters constantly moved through the mountains of Bosnia and Montenegro. Its strength also lay in uniting within its ranks, on equal terms, Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Roman Catholics, in a country where wars of religion were compounded by ethnic conflicts. At its height, his army numbered 800,000 fighters.

Failing in his attempted escapes, famed Jewish Yugoslav water polo player before WWII, Viktor Hajon made contact outside the camp with the People’s Liberation Movement founded by Tito.

Representatives of the Jewish group proposed supplying intelligence to the clandestine committee, taking advantage of their relative freedom of movement within the camp. Their information concerned guard schedules, contacts with the Italian headquarters on the mainland coast, and so forth. The clandestine committee decided to make use of this cooperation. The ultimate goal was to organize an uprising in the camp, but a serious problem confronted everyone: the lack of weapons. While waiting to acquire some, the two groups organized special courses given by doctors and nurses on emergency medical care for the wounded. These would prove extremely valuable in the events that followed.

History itself would come to the aid of the internees.

On 8 September 1943, news of Italy’s capitulation spread through the camp, giving the signal for action. The prisoners disarmed their guards without encountering any real resistance — it must be said that the guards themselves had only one desire: to return home as quickly as possible. This remains the only example of the liberation of a concentration camp during WWII that caused not a single casualty. But the Italian soldiers, aware that they themselves now risked capture and execution by their former German allies if taken prisoner, often chose instead to join the insurgents.

The Italian flag hangs over the Rab concentration camp on the island of Rab in the Adriatic Sea which was occupied by Italy and is now a part of Croatia. (Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Two days later, a large gathering took place in the camp’s “Square of Hunger”, during which the “Rab Partisan Brigade” was created. Numbering around 1,700 future fighters, it was incorporated into the 24th Division of Tito’s People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. For the Jewish internees, integration into this force posed no problem: they knew that within this partisan army — then the strongest and best organized in Europe — a number of leaders were themselves Jewish, such as Moša Pijade. They would therefore be recognized as Jewish fighters “in their own right.”

The Jewish Rab Battalion (also known as the 5th Rab Battalion), formed on the Adriatic island of Rab after the September 1943 armistice with Italy liberated the Rab concentration camp, is seen here marching in September 1943.

The Rab Island Brigade was structured into five battalions. The first four were mainly Slovenian, while the fifth consisted of 250 Jews, generally adolescents, together with a medical unit of around 35 Jewish nurses, some of whom would later be assigned to other battalions. The unit was commanded by David Deča Kabiljo, a reserve officer, assisted by Edvard Ehrlich, the political commissar, who would later be killed in combat.

Yet the joy of liberation was mixed with deep apprehension: German soldiers could land on the island at any moment to retake control. It was necessary to leave as quickly as possible. It was decided to leave behind 204 Jewish detainees who were in too poor a physical condition to be transported. Tragically, they would later be deported to Auschwitz when German troops regained possession of the island.

On 17 September 1943, after a short crossing, the brigade landed at Novi Vinodol, a port on the mainland coast, where it joined the partisans of the People’s Liberation Army. A long march then began northward toward territories controlled by the N.O.V.’s 7th Banija Division. For sixteen days, the fighters advanced through the mountains and dense forests of inland Croatia, passing through areas sometimes held by the Chetniks, with whom relations could be tense. The battalion’s men were then incorporated into the 7th Partisan Division, which had just suffered heavy losses against the Germans. They received accelerated military training and were deployed in the regions of Banija, Kordun, and Lika — three inland Croatian areas that were theaters of particularly intense operations, where the partisans had to fight both Wehrmacht troops and Ustaše forces, who did not hesitate to execute prisoners. More than one hundred members of the Jewish battalion fell in combat between the autumn of 1943 and the end of the war in May 1945.

Ustaše militants pose with victims during the war. The fascist Croatian nationalist group murdered tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates the Ustaše killed between 77,000 and 99,000 people, including up to 20,000 Jews, at Jasenovac, a death camp the group ran itself. (Courtesy: Memorijalni Muzej Jasenovac)

After peace returned, Tito’s Communist regime, from the moment it seized power, granted a place of honor in its official pantheon to the struggle of the partisans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Among the Jewish fighters, seven received the supreme distinction of National Hero — posthumously, with only two exceptions: Moša Pijade and General Voja Todorović, later appointed commander of the state’s land forces. In 1948, the year the State of Israel was created, the Communist authorities officially declared themselves hostile to Zionism, but Tito remained one of the few Eastern Bloc leaders to allow Jews to leave his country freely and emigrate to their new homeland.

Today, a memorial erected on the island of Rab commemorates the Jewish brigade, and each year gatherings known as Beyachad (“together” in Hebrew) bring together its descendants in remembrance. The memorial also serves as a reminder of the existence of the Italian concentration camps, for those inclined to forget. At the Shoah Memorial Museum in Paris, one may admire a striking photograph of the Jewish battalion of Rab Island cheerfully marching toward its future battles.

The battalion’s epic was also celebrated in song. In 1944, a young fighter, Shalom “Shani” Altarac, descended from a family of cantors from Sarajevo, composed in the Croatian forests of Kordun and Banija a Judeo-Spanish parody of the ritual songs of the Haggadah (the liturgical text recounting the liberation of the Jews under Pharaoh), which he called the Partisan Haggadah. The text reinterpreted the Exodus story to match communist ideology, viewing the insurrection of slaves against Pharaoh as a parallel to the proletariat uprising against capitalist and Axis oppressors. It famously begins with the line, “This is the bread of affliction that the Jewish partisans ate in the Croatian forests…”

Rather than being a one-time wartime artifact, Sarajevo’s Jewish community continued to recite this humorous parody at the very end of their community seders for decades after the war.



About the writer:

Michel Levine is a historian of Human Rights and the author of a work dedicated to the major cases of the League of Human Rights (Unclassified Cases. Unpublished Archives of the League of Human Rights, Paris, Fayard, 1973).
Further publications include a historical investigation on the repression of Algerian demonstrations in Paris in October 1961 (The October Ratonnades. A Collective Murder in Paris in 1961, Paris, Ramsay, 1985; reissue Jean- Claude Gawsewitch Publisher, 2001.)







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).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter – 11 October 2026

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THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 05-07 October 2026
(Click on the blue title)



Lay of the Land’s ‘Photo Pick’ of the Week

ISRAEL MARKS 3 YEARS SINCE OCTOBER 7 ATTACKS

Across the land, Israelis gathered on Wednesday to mourn victims of the deadliest attacks on Jews since the Holocaust

Message in the Sand. A drone view shows an installation depicting bodies, on the third anniversary of the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack from Gaza, at a beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 7, 2026. The text reads:
“The price of failure. 1163 murdered. 251 hostages”. (Photo: Aviv Atlas/via Reuters)



ARTICLES

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

WORD HAS IT

Orwell at the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) – Decoding the anti-Israel Diplomatic Bias.
By Yoram Blumstein

Rousing Rhetoric. Orwell recognized how public perception could be manipulated through the deliberate corruption of words, a stratagem perfected by Israel’s enemies. A dissection of the verbal abuse against the Jewish state at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, September, 2026.

WORD HAS IT
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

THE ISRAELI POLITICAL STALEMATE

Two alternatives to forming an Israeli government
By Neville Berman

Bowing Out. Come the elections on the 27 October, all the polls indicate that neither of the two leading parties will be able to form a unifying centrist governing coalition, resulting in another predictable stalemate. “For the good of the country,” the divisive needs to depart – Bibi, resign now!

THE ISRAELI POLITICAL STALEMATE
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

SAUDI ARABIA’S SECRET JEWISH MISTRESS

The secret tryst that no one wants to admit is happening.
By Jonathan Feldstein

Twisted Tryst. Unsatiated with its four wives – Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt and the US – the Saudis run to one
they will not introduce at family gatherings or even publicly acknowledge. Let’s call it what it is –
Saudi Arabia is treating Israel as “a secret mistress.”

SAUDI ARABIA’S SECRET JEWISH MISTRESS
(Click on the blue title)




LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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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 ISRAEL BRIEF – 05-07 October 2026

05 October 2026 – UK Green Party votes in a motion effectively calling for and end to Israel, more details about intended target of Flight 1073, Israel commemorates Hebrew anniversary of 7/10 and more on The Israel Brief.



06 October 2026 – Fallout from the Green Party motion grows, Israel prepares to mark 7/10 and more on The Israel Brief.



07 October 2026 – Israel marks 3 years since October 7. Personal reflections 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).

WORD HAS IT

Orwell at the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) – Decoding the anti-Israel Diplomatic Bias.

By Yoram Blumstein

In the aftermath of October 7th, an alarming new reality has gripped global Jewry: a wave of antisemitism and anti-Israel animus. This has been fueled by the overlapping efforts of states, non-state actors, and multilateral organisations (the UN, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and other agencies). The 81st Session of UNGA bore testimony to the lies, manipulation of political language and distortion of truth for pure emotional intimidation, as leader after leader took to the UN rostrum to accuse Israel of “genocide”, “war crimes”, “mass starvation”, and creating conditions resembling a “concentration camp.” George Orwell, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, would have characterised the speeches of world leaders or their representatives (especially those of Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, France, Malaysia, the Palestinian Authority,and South Africa) as corrupt language designed to obscure their real intentions using metaphors and imagery about Israel’s purported “genocidal” conduct in Gaza. Orwell’s written masterpieces (like Nineteen Eighty-Four) were prescient. In his 1946 essay, ‘Politics and the English Language’, Orwell aptly stated:
 “Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

War of Words. George Orwell recognized that political power is sustained not just through physical force, but through the deliberate corruption of words, a stratagem in the armory of Israel’s multifarious enemies.

This article applies an Orwellian diagnostic approach to dissect the diplomatic rhetoric which was nonchalantly employed by anti-Israel delegates at UNGA 81, where calumnies about the only Jewish state were employed as political weapons to manipulate public perception, while distorting the facts and the objective reality in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), as well as Gaza. Such mendacities, especially if spewed from the rostrum of the world’s premier international organisation, against the Jewish state carry enormous weight in the court of public opinion and have real-world impact on the Israeli government and Jews.  In using Orwellian tools, this article seeks to decode the speech of the main state sponsor of Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood terrorism and genocidaire-in-chief, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. While other world leaders used similar anti-Israel canards, the singular honour must go to Erdoğan (who stands as one of Israel’s most vocal critics) since his speech was laden with political lies, devoid of legality, and nothing more than pretentious diction.  By deconstructing Erdoğan’s speech as pre-packaged lies, the article will extract specific speech acts used by the Turkish president in his invective against the State of Israel and juxtapose them with real-world facts grounded in legality and empirical observation.

Master of Malevolence.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has a long history of severe verbal attacks against Israel, frequently labeling the country a “terrorist state” and comparing its leadership to the Nazi regime. (Photo: Adem ALTAN / AFP via Getty Images)

DECYPHERING TURKEY’S LIES ABOUT ISRAEL

Instead of using the general debate to promote international peace and security initiatives (especially in the Middle East), Erdoğan devoted a large portion of his speech to spreading lies about Israel and promoting a clear domestic and international agenda.  In Orwellian terminology, Erdoğan’s speech was littered with metaphors, imagery, political theatrics, selective moral outrage, and terminology, while obscuring the truth to fill political bandwidth. Yet, the Turkish leader is guilty of the very baseless charges he levels against Israel and thus deflects self-scrutiny.

“Gaza is the most inhuman concentration camp of our time…” and “the world’s largest graveyard for children…”

This was a high-octane and emotionally charged statement by Erdoğan. As such, it was designed for maximum impact. It is palpable that references to “concentration camp” and “graveyard” are insensitive and invoke historical analogies with the Holocaust, when the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (commonly known as the Nazi Party) killed more than six million Jews through gassing, summary execution and starvation. This is historical inversion and an affront to the Jewish people, the remaining Holocaust survivors and their families. Turkey is clearly creating a simplified good-versus-evil dichotomy, while purposefully ignoring geopolitical complexities and concealing Erdoğan’s hideous policies against the Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq.

How would Orwell relate to the above? Erdoğan is known for his double standards. He portrays himself as the leader of the Muslim world. Yet, he has:

– committed genocide against the Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq, as he will not countenance the creation of a Kurdish corridor or crescent (straddling northern Syria, Turkey, northern Iraq, and western Iran)

– armed and sponsored the former leader of the now-disbanded terrorist outfit Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and now president of Syria, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Julani), as a proxy against the Syrian Kurds

– supports Islamist movements in Libya and Sudan, and

– hosts Hamas leaders.

Hence, Erdoğan lacks the moral authority to lecture Israel on morality, and he should be treated as a diabolical, homicidal creature. The Turkish president’s specific utterance was not based on facts, but on weaponising language for political gain. The truth speaks for itself. Gaza is not a “concentration camp” or “graveyard” for children. It is an active combat zone; Hamas terrorists are doing the fighting, and Israel has taken extraordinary steps to minimise civilian casualties. In fact, the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Coordinator for the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has assisted Israeli, regional and international aid agencies with the erection of temporary tents. At the same time, what government, bent on confining people to a “concentration camp”, would coordinate with international agencies to launch a polio vaccination campaign, if the intention is to kill them? By using and inverting the Holocaust analogy of “concentration camps”, Israel did not put policies and resources in place to confine Gazans to a specific location to eventually kill Palestinians. Conversely, this is exactly what Adolf Hitler and his henchmen did against Jews in major concentration camps in Germany, Poland, Austria, France, Estonia, Latvia, and the Czech Republic. They intended to exterminate all Jews as part of Hitler’s “Final Solution”, which was carried out by Adolf Eichmann, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.  It is inaccurate to portray Israel as having created a “graveyard for children”, as the IDF has taken reasonable measures, in line with international humanitarian law, to protect children in Gaza. The faux sultan, Erdoğan, willfully neglected to inform the General Assembly that Hamas used hospitals, schools and public facilities in Gaza as shields and weapons storage facilities in its terrorist campaign against the IDF and Gazans. Tragically, children died in the war, yet Turkey, which, along with Qatar, has enabled Hamas to build its own open-air prison, from which it launched its murderous campaign against Jews and Israelis on October 7th. Erdogan also omitted the fact that COGAT continues to coordinate with Israeli humanitarian agencies to distribute vital baby formula to Gazans, as Hamas has intercepted aid supplies. The double standard is clear: There is no condemnation that Hamas started the war against Israel and should bear responsibility for all fatalities in Gaza. Israel was under attack and responded in self-defense. Check your facts, Erdoğan!  

“Insatiable genocidal mindset…” and “state terrorism”

Erdoğan’s arsenal of egregious statements against Israel includes references to the Israeli government as inherently “genocidal” and engaging in “state terrorism.” He further asserted that:

 “There is no war in Gaza; there are no two sides. This is an invasion, a massacre, a genocide, a policy of mass destruction.”

Israel never committed genocide and only acted in self-defense. The IDF launched “Operation Swords of Iron” to rescue the hostages and target those responsible for the October 7th massacre. This was a legitimate response, in line with the law of armed conflict. Regrettably, Erdoğan seems to be inspired by South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. The threshold to prove genocide is exceedingly high, as it is often referred to as the “crime of crimes.” The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as “the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such.” The accuser or the plaintiff must prove specific intent (dolus specialis) and the mental element (mens rea). Therefore, it is not enough to demonstrate massive civilian casualties, widespread destruction, or severe human suffering. In fact, Hamas is responsible for the implosion of Gaza, as it launched an unjustified attack on Israel. Erdoğan and his ally, the avaricious African National Congress (ANC), rely excessively on individual statements by a few senior Israeli politicians to prove “genocidal intent.” Israel’s legal team cogently argued that individual Israeli politicians’ statements were taken out of context and expressed in anger at the surprise October 7th attacks (the deadliest in Israel’s history since the Holocaust). The ICJ requires proof that political statements translated into official government policy that directed IDF commanders and soldiers to carry out “genocidal actions” in Gaza. This is a no-brainer since Israel did not display intent to kill and displace Palestinians. It is a figment of Erdoğan and South Africa’s imagination. The IDF’s actions were aimed at targeting Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and leadership, and it put measures in place to ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza.  

In Orwellian terms, Erdoğan has failed to separate rhetoric from facts. As a matter of fact, Erdoğan should be hauled before the ICC and ICJ for war crimes and genocide committed against the Kurds, as his campaign was intentional and specific. He unleashed the full might of the Turkish army, intelligence and its proxies in northern Syria and Iraq to exterminate the Kurds, who rightfully deserve a state of their own. The Turkish government does not distinguish between Kurdish fighters (who have been instrumental in the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – ISIS) and civilians. Additionally, Erdoğan has exported his brand of Islamist fundamentalism to radical Islamists in Libya, Sudan and part of the Horn of Africa with political and material support, which continues to undermine regional stability and the peacemaking efforts of the African Union, Gulf countries and the international community.

BUILDING A RESILIENT, OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE ECOSYSTEM IN DEFENSE OF ISRAEL

As lies and propaganda against Israel and the Jewish people will continue unabated, it is important to reclaim the narrative battlespace. By its own admission, the Israeli government has done a terrible job in promoting Israel’s international image since October 7th. In his address to UNGA 81, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu correctly pointed out that Israel is fighting a battle on the eighth front: the battle for the truth.  Erdoğan and those of his ilk are the chief purveyors of false claims of genocide. The Turkish leader’s anti-Israel missive is nothing more than bullshit. In an entertaining little book, ‘On Bullshit’ (2005), Harry G. Frankfurt remarked that, “A person who undertakes bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared, so far as required, to fake the context as well.”

Rousing Rhetoric. Erdoğan speaks of the “ murderous ideology called Zionism” and said that “the genocide network has turned Gaza into the world’s largest cemetery for children.”

As Israel is central to Jewish identity, it behoves Jews to act as citizen-diplomats for the State of Israel and disabuse the liars of maligning the only Jewish state. The South African Jewish community, although Lilliputian in size (52 300, according to a recent study by the Kaplan Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town) compared to other diaspora communities, is the most Zionist in orientation, as evidenced by the indefatigable spirit of the leadership and volunteers of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and Zionist Federation (SAZF), which continue to engage with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the South African Presidency whenever unwarranted policies and statements are made against Israel. This is active citizen diplomacy, as South African Jews accept constructive criticism of Israel, but not when it pivots towards antisemitism, extremism and lies. The South African Jewish community, of which I am a proud member, has built an effective ecosystem in defense of Israel. Other diaspora communities should take a page from the South African Jewish community’s commendable pro-Israel efforts.



About the writer:

Editor’s Note: Yoram Blumstein is a nom de plume the author uses to protect their identity because of previous security threats.





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 ISRAELI POLITICAL STALEMATE

Two alternatives to forming an Israeli government

By Neville Berman

Every Israeli citizen over the age of 18, irrespective of race, religion or sex, is entitled to vote in the next Israeli election on October 27. As there is no postal voting in Israel, you need to be present in Israel to exercise your right to vote.  As no political party in the State of Israel has ever won an outright majority of  61 seats, every government in Israel has been a coalition government.

All the polls concerning the Israeli elections on October 27 indicate that neither of the two leading parties will be able to form a coalition government of 61 seats. The most likely result is another stalemate, and another election or series of elections to follow. Elections themselves cost billions of shekels. Israel simply cannot afford to have another series of elections. Judging by the polls, the Likud under Bibi Netanyahu, together with all the religious parties will not achieve 61 seats. The other leading party, the Yashir party led by Gadi Eisenkot, will also not be able to form a government of 61 seats. If the Arab party called Ra’am led by Mansour Abbas, wants to join Eisenkot in forming a coalition, then Avigdor Liberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party will withdraw from supporting Eisenkot. This is a catch 22 situation. Fortunately, there does appear to be two alternatives to what transpired in the past.

Firstly, a minority government can legally be formed. This can be done by one or more of the political parties agreeing not to vote in the Knesset to bring down the government. Let us assume that the coalition of Gadi Eisenkot has 56 seats and the Arab parties have 14 seats. If the Arab parties agree not to vote against the government in a no confidence vote, then the President can decide to call upon a coalition of less than a majority of 61 seats to form a minority government. The Likud and their partners do not have sufficient votes to stop the government from being formed. In the current situation, this is a distinct possibility. The coalition of 56 seats can survive as long as the Arab parties refuse to join a vote of no-confidence in the government.

The elephant in the room is this election is none other than the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister, namely Bibi Netanyahu. He has become an extremely divisive figure in Israeli politics and around the world. His judgement in certain areas is questionable. After the last election, he appointed Aryeh Deri, the head of the Shas party, to be deputy prime minister and rotating finance minister after Bezalel Smotrich would serve the first 2 years as finance minister.  Aryeh Deri was previously convicted for financial impropriety and fraud and served time in jail.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was totally unreasonable to appoint such a person to be deputy prime minister or finance minister.

Defying Deadlock. The “Catch-22” in modern Israeli coalition politics lies in a structural deadlock where neither major bloc can reach a governing majority, yet the resulting political paralysis inadvertently keeps the current leadership in power. (Photo: Christophe Gateau/ via Getty Images)

What was Bibi thinking when he appointed Deri?  Netanyahu has refused to appoint an independent commission of enquiry into the failure of the government to protect the citizens of Israel on October 7, 2023 while he was Prime Minister.  In addition, he has not supported the demand that tens of thousands of draft age yeshiva students be drafted into the army. Netanyahu seems to be seeking dictatorial powers by supporting legislation that will allow decisions of the Supreme Court to be overruled by a simple majority in the Knesset. Israel is now faced with the situation that a number of political parties have stated that they will not sit in a government led by Netanyahu. Most of these parties have not stated that they will not sit with the Likud party. Over the years, some members of the Likud left the party and went on to form political parties that now refuse to sit with Netanyahu.

Coming ‘Home’ – to Vote.  Recognizing that this election could alter the course of the country in profound ways with consequences for the global Jewish diaspora no less than local Israelis, expats living abroad are expected return “home” in record number to exercise their democratic right.  (AI-generated illustration)

The answer to preventing a left of center government from being formed, is for the Likud itself to force Netanyahu to resign. The Likud without Netanyahu as its leader, will change the entire political landscape in Israel. A center right wing government can then be formed without any of the religious, Arab or left-wing parties in the current election. Obviously, some of the Likud members are very much beholden to Netanyahu and they will not support this. The choice that they will face is either a left of center Israeli government or a right of center government without Netanyahu. The irony is that the best chance of a center right wing government being formed in Israel, is for Netanyahu to resign. As long as Netanyahu is head of the Likud it seems like another stalemate in Israeli politics is about to occur.

For the good of the country, Bibi needs to resign.



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).

SAUDI ARABIA’S SECRET JEWISH MISTRESS

The secret tryst that no one wants to admit is happening.

By Jonathan Feldstein

From my balcony in the Judean mountains, I can see the lights of Jordan on a clear night and the skyline of Amman at sunrise. On other nights I simply look south and east and know that the same Iranian missiles and drones from the Houthis in Yemen threatening my children and grandchildren are also threatening the mosques, holy cities, the oil fields and very capitol that keep the House of Saud in power. That is the uncomfortable intimacy of this region. We are not friends. We are not yet even fully acknowledged as legitimate neighbors. Yet Riyadh is knocking on Jerusalem’s door like a man who has four wives and seeks out his mistress for marital counseling.

Let’s call it what it is. Saudi Arabia is treating Israel as that secret mistress.

The official household is crowded and they don’t always get along. Wife number one is Pakistan: nuclear-armed, Sunni, and now bound to Riyadh by a mutual-defense pact signed in Mecca itself. Wife number two is Turkey: NATO’s second-largest army, Islamist, and freshly joined to the same Mecca Joint Defense Agreement (Mecca Pact) that treats an attack on one as an attack on all. Wife number three is Egypt: the first Arab state to make (a cold) peace with Israel, a partner in Sinai security, and a regular interlocutor sharing a threatened body of water with the Saudis, and which is an essential lifeline to Cairo’s shipping and own stability. Wife number four is the United States, still the biggest and best arms supplier and now offering a glittering dowry of forty-eight F-35s worth more than twenty-four billion dollars.

Security Shield or Doubtful Deterrence? On August 7, 2026, Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Pact with Turkey and Pakistan, establishing a mutual-defense framework in which an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. (Photo Credit: SPA)

All four are public. All four come with contracts, smiling photo-ops, and statements about Islamic solidarity or strategic partnership. The first three of the four are more concerned about their own marital chamber – and the tribes that they come from – rather than the well-being of the house itself, and would have no problem burning it all down to protect their own interests. None of them, so far, has stopped the Houthis from shooting at Saudi oil facilities, threatening the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, or sending drones toward Mecca. The fourth, the United States, has been asked to help protect the whole house, but has declined to do so.

It may look good – showing a united house – on paper, but it seems someone forgot to put batteries in the Mecca mutual defense pact. So, the kingdom has quietly asked help from the one country that has spent years intercepting Iranian missiles, hunting Houthi launchers, eliminating terrorist leaders and command centers, and sharing intelligence through CENTCOM: Israel.

That is the secret tryst that no one wants to admit is happening. The man with four wives has come running to the woman he will not introduce at family gatherings, or even acknowledge her existence outside her penthouse that he doesn’t even pay for, and only “visits” under the dark of night.

I do not acknowledge this with bitterness. I acknowledge it with the weary clarity of someone who has watched this pattern for decades. Arab leaders have always preferred to keep Israel in the shadows while they collected American weapons, Pakistani nuclear umbrellas, Turkish drones, and Egyptian political cover. And play these off other suiters including China, and the abusive ex, Iran, who nobody wants anything to do with, but none can avoid. When the missiles start flying, the shadows become less useful. Israel’s air defenses, its intelligence, and operational experience against the exact Iranian axis now squeezing the Red Sea – these are not theoretical. They are proven. The Saudis know it. That is why the secret relationship exists.

The irony is almost biblical. Esau and Jacob reconciling and then going their own ways but never fully embracing one another as brothers. The “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” is asking the Jewish state – the younger blessed sibling – to help protect the approaches to those same mosques from a Shiite militia that chants “Death to America, Death to Israel” and now, increasingly, “Death to the House of Saud”. The same kingdom that still reflexively conditions any public recognition of Israel to a Palestinian Arab state is privately seeking Israeli help so that its tankers can leave port, its pipelines can supply the tankers, and its pilgrims can reach Mecca without looking up at the sky in fear. And so, the Houthi missiles don’t become an insurrection that threatens the House of Saud falling like a house of cards.

This is not new in kind. Egypt made peace in 1979 because it had been beaten and needed the Sinai back, if not for the land, at least to save face and for its own stability. Jordan followed because it understood the alternative was chaos. Peace with Egypt and Jordan is cold, functional, just between governments, all while state run institutions continue to foment anti-Israel rhetoric that makes Israel hated on the streets of Cairo and Amman.

The Abraham Accords materialized because the Arabs saw Iran as the greater threat and Israel as the only regional power that had already paid the price of confronting it. Saudi Arabia is simply later to the same realization, and still too proud or too constrained by its own street and its own clerics – and the Palestinian cause tying them down – to say it out loud. Israel remains the hidden mistress to which the discontented husband turns for real comfort.

The Mecca Pact with Turkey and Pakistan seems impressive on paper. Mutual defense. Joint exercises. A secretariat. It has not produced a single Saudi battery that can do what Israeli systems have done night after night. The American F-35s, if they ever arrive, will take years to field and come with the usual restrictions and the usual questions about qualitative military edge. Egypt can talk and coordinate; it cannot replace the targeting picture Israel already has of Houthi positions and Iranian supply lines.

So, the mistress remains useful. She is not invited to family gatherings. She is not mentioned in the communiqués. She is simply the one who knows how to keep the house from burning down.

I am not naïve about what this means for Israel. We have interests too in the Houthis and their Iranian puppeteer being roundly defeated. We should give the intelligence. We should coordinate through CENTCOM. We should not pretend that quiet cooperation is the same as peace, or that Riyadh’s current desperation will automatically produce an embassy in Jerusalem. Normalization will come, if it comes, only when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decides the cost of public hypocrisy – and specifically tying his vision for a Saudi future is more inhibited by championing the Palestinian cause that brings it down – is higher than the cost of public honesty. Yet even with four wives in the same family, the Saudis do not share everything that goes on with each of the wives with all the others. MBS may come around when he’s ready to admit that all the smoke and mirrors of the Mecca mutual defense pact is not worth the paper on which it is written. Until then, Israel remains the woman who is visited only when the wives cannot satisfy their husband’s needs.

Holding Hands to Dowry. Following Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holding hands on the Nov. 18, 2025 in the Oval Office at the White House, the U.S. State Department has officially approved a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets to Saudi Arabia (Photo: Reuters)

That is not a dignified position. It is, however, a familiar one. Jews have been useful to empires and caliphates for centuries – until we were not. The difference now is that we have a state, an army, and the ability to say no. We can help because it is in our interest that Iran and its proxies not control the Red Sea.

From these hills I watch the same sky the Saudis watch. I pray for the safety of my family and my neighbors, and I pray that the men who rule in Riyadh will one day have the courage to treat Israel as a public partner rather than a secret mistress. Until that day, the comfort provided by the mistress will continue behind closed doors.


State of Affairs. Despite close security cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia, it was too much for Saudi Arabia to agree to Israel’s request to send planes – even civilian planes – to fetch its traumatized citizens following the hijack and terror attack on Flydubai.



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).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter – 04 October 2026

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What’s happening in Israel today? See from every Monday – Thursday LOTL’s The Israel Brief broadcasts and on our Facebook page and YouTube by seasoned TV & radio broadcaster, Rolene Marks familiar to Chai FM listeners in South Africa and millions of American listeners to the News/Talk/Sports radio station WINA, broadcasting out of Virginia, USA.

THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 28 September – 01 October 2026
(Click on the blue title)



Lay of the Land’s ‘Photo Pick’ of the Week

ISRAELIS – ‘BLOODY’ INCREDIBLE

Israelis come off a flight covered in blood and smiling

The story of heroic survival that quickly unfolds, reveals this country’s unique national character of how ordinary citizens can suddenly behave quite extraordinary.

Plumber on Plummeting Plane. One of the heroes on Flydubai 1073 , Yaniv Hayoun, was wearing a blood-stained shirt when he disembarked at Ben Gurion Airport having stormed into the cockpit, subdued the Jihadi terrorist co-pilot and pinned him to the ground while other passengers used headphone cords to tie him up!




ARTICLES

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

A FAILURE OF A FILM

The truth is collateral damage in NAZA
By Rolene Marks

Rebutting NAZA. Freed hostage Omer Shem Tov (right) pushed back against the directors (left) of the controversial documentary “NAZA” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining that Hamas – not the Israeli military – used captives as “collateral damage.” 

A FAILURE OF A FILM a
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

THESSALONIKI: WALKING THROUGH THE LOST ‘JERUSALEM OF THE BALKANS’

Once an epicenter of Jewish culture and one of the only cities in Europe where Jews were the majority, reveals illuminating fragments of that tragically lost world.
By Motti Verses

Tragic Thessaloniki. To understand the tragedy that befell this city’s Jewish community in the Holocaust, you first have to understand what existed before it. Jewish life in Thessaloniki stretches back more than two millennia. Follow the writer as he takes us on a tour.

THESSALONIKI: WALKING THROUGH THE LOST ‘JERUSALEM OF THE BALKANS’
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

PRETORIA’S HOUSE OF CARDS AT THE HAGUE

While creating a fine photo-op, 21 national  flags do not a verdict make.
By Shaun Schutte

Off the Record. South Africa’s ANC government has blurred the impression that every country joining in the proceedings it initiated, supports its accusation that Israel committed genocide. That is not what the court record shows.

PRETORIA’S HOUSE OF CARDS AT THE HAGUE
(Click on the blue title)



LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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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 ISRAEL BRIEF – 28 September – 01 October 2026

28 September 2026 – Bibi’s UN speech, brouhaha with Holland and more on The Israel Brief.



29 September 2026 – Widespread condemnation for violent riots and a former hostage in major career news. This and more on The Israel Brief.



30 September 2026 – SPECIAL REPORT: Incident aboard FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv on The Israel Brief.



01 October 2026 – More updates on FlyDubai, the IDF responds to NAZA and more on The Israel Brief.




01 October 2026 – Rolene Marks speaks to Rob Schilling about Flight1023 and how brave heroes averted disaster.





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).

PRETORIA’S HOUSE OF CARDS AT THE HAGUE

While creating a fine photo-op, 21 national  flags do not a verdict make.

By Shaun Schutte

On 22 September 2026, the International Court of Justice confirmed that Colombia had withdrawn its intervention from South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. President Abelardo De La Espriella’s government has also restored diplomatic relations with Israel and reversed other decisions taken by the previous administration, while  Nicaragua had already withdrawn its separate application to intervene in April 2025.

Colombia’s decision matters because it exposes something the ANC government has been allowed to blur since it filed the case on 29 December 2023. Pretoria repeatedly creates the impression that every country appearing in the proceedings has joined South Africa, supports its accusation and accepts that Israel committed genocide.

That is not what the court record shows.

South Africa is the applicant making the accusation. Israel is the respondent denying it. The other countries are interveners, and intervention does not automatically mean joining South Africa’s side or accepting that its allegation has been proven.

Under Article 63 of the ICJ Statute, any state party to the Genocide Convention may intervene when the interpretation of that Convention is in dispute. A country may explain how it believes genocide, genocidal intent and the duties of states should be interpreted without presenting new factual evidence, endorsing South Africa’s allegations or declaring Israel guilty.

Palestine and Belize also invoked Article 62, claiming a specific legal interest that may be affected by the eventual judgment. That gives them a different basis for requesting participation, but it still does not transform every government appearing in the courtroom into an independent witness for Pretoria.

“We continue to work closely with Türkiye……Türkiye has made its support for the case very clear,” said Ronald Lamola, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation to reporters on the ICJ genocide case against Israel at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Foreign Ministers Meeting in Kruger National Park, South Africa, May 24, 2026.  (Photo: AA)   
 

THE COURTROOM ANALOGY

Imagine a prosecutor bringing twenty-one people into a courtroom and then walking outside to tell the public that all twenty-one are witnesses supporting the prosecution.

When their statements are examined, the picture changes. Some openly support the accusation. Others are merely explaining how they believe the law should be interpreted. One specifically avoids deciding the disputed facts, while four warn that the prosecution may be attempting to lower the standard required to prove the crime.

The prosecutor nevertheless points towards everyone inside the courtroom and presents them as one united group standing behind the accusation.

That is the impression Pretoria has created, and it is misleading.

THE COUNTRIES LEANING TOWARDS PRETORIA

Libya intervened on 10 May 2024 and left very little room for doubt about its position. It alleges that Israel’s acts and omissions are genocidal and were committed with the required specific intention to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.

Libya is not simply discussing the meaning of the Convention. It has aligned itself directly with South Africa’s accusation.

Mexico followed on 24 May 2024, concentrating on the obstruction of humanitarian assistance, destruction of civilian and cultural infrastructure and the cumulative consequences of Israel’s military campaign.

Its submission advances a broader method of inferring genocidal intent and materially assists Pretoria, but it does not provide an independent judicial finding that Israel entered Gaza intending to destroy the Palestinian people.

Palestine intervened on 31 May 2024 under both Articles 62 and 63, claiming a direct legal interest in the eventual outcome. Its position openly supports the allegation that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to genocide.

Palestine is directly affected by the war and has an obvious reason to place its case before the Court, but it cannot simultaneously be presented as an independent and neutral confirmation of South Africa’s accusation.

Spain entered on 28 June 2024 and argued that killing, serious bodily or mental harm, forced displacement and deprivation must be assessed collectively when determining whether genocidal acts and intent exist.

That interpretation could make Pretoria’s allegation easier to establish, but Spain is still presenting a legal argument about how evidence should be assessed. It is not arriving with proof that the final legal threshold has already been crossed.

Türkiye intervened on 7 August 2024 and strongly supports South Africa’s position, arguing that Israel’s conduct must be considered as a complete pattern rather than as isolated events.

That stance is consistent with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s openly hostile political posture towards Israel, and it is reasonable to ask how much of Türkiye’s involvement arises from independently assessed evidence and how much reflects an established geopolitical position.

Consistently hostile towards Israel and frequently seen at political rallies adorning a Palestinian keffiyeh over his shoulders, one questions whether Türkiye president Erdoğan’s position in supporting South Africa’s case against Israel is motivated by law or politics? (Photo: Reuters)

Chile filed its declaration on 12 September 2024, arguing that genocidal intent may be inferred from a consistent pattern of conduct and the surrounding circumstances.

This assists Pretoria’s legal argument, but it still does not establish the central fact that must eventually be proven:

that Israel’s purpose was to destroy Palestinians as a people rather than to destroy Hamas as a military organisation.

The Maldives intervened on 1 October 2024 and focused on civilian deaths, displacement, deprivation of essential supplies and living conditions allegedly calculated to cause physical destruction.

These are grave matters that must be examined, but the consequences of war and the specific intention to destroy a protected group remain separate legal questions.

Bolivia followed on 8 October 2024 and has openly supported South Africa’s case. Its government has also been politically aligned with the anti-Israel bloc for years.

Political alignment does not automatically invalidate its submission, but neither can that alignment be displayed as independent proof that genocide occurred.

Ireland entered the proceedings on 6 January 2025, concentrating on humanitarian assistance, collective punishment, civilian protection and the interpretation of the prohibited acts listed in the Convention.

Its arguments may assist South Africa, but Ireland did not arrive carrying a judgment that genocide had already been proven. It supplied legal interpretation, not a verdict.

Cuba intervened four days later, on 10 January 2025, and openly supports both the Palestinian position and Pretoria’s use of the Genocide Convention against Israel.

Cuba’s longstanding alignment against Israel and the United States is part of the political context and cannot simply be ignored. That alignment may explain its position, but it is not evidence of genocidal intent.

Belize filed on 30 January 2025 under both Articles 62 and 63, claiming a legal interest in the proceedings while supporting a broader interpretation of the Convention.

Its participation adds another flag to the coalition Pretoria displays, but an application to intervene remains neither evidence nor a finding of guilt.

Brazil intervened on 17 September 2025 and argues that the cumulative effects of Israel’s military operations must be examined when determining whether the Convention has been violated.

That is a legitimate legal argument for the Court to consider, but the Court must still distinguish between political condemnation, possible violations of humanitarian law and the very specific crime of genocide.

Comoros followed on 29 October 2025, supporting South Africa’s position and a broader interpretation of destructive conditions, deprivation and genocidal intent.

Comoros is also a member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. That does not disqualify its submission, but it forms part of the political background when its flag is presented as supposedly independent confirmation of Pretoria’s claim.

Belgium entered on 23 December 2025 and supports judicial scrutiny of Israel’s conduct while advancing interpretations that could broaden the circumstances from which prohibited acts and genocidal intent may be inferred.

Once again, the submission may assist Pretoria, but it does not establish the one element South Africa must ultimately prove:

Israel’s specific intention to destroy Palestinians as a protected group.

Iceland intervened on 11 March 2026 and leans towards a broader interpretation involving displacement, deprivation, civilian harm and the circumstances from which intent may be inferred.

It is an argument about how the Court should examine the evidence. It is not independent factual confirmation that the evidence already proves genocide.

Namibia entered on 12 March 2026 and clearly supports South Africa, arguing that genocidal intent must be assessed through the complete context and combined pattern of conduct.

Namibia’s own history of genocide gives its voice moral significance, but historical experience cannot replace the evidentiary requirement to prove Israel’s intention in this particular war.

THE COUNTRY THAT HAS NOT PRETENDED TO DECIDE THE FACTS

The Netherlands intervened on 11 March 2026 and made an important distinction. Its government explicitly stated that its declaration does not determine the disputed facts or conditions on the ground. It confines itself to explaining how parts of the Genocide Convention should be interpreted.

The Netherlands argues that the available evidence should be considered comprehensively and that forced displacement or deprivation of humanitarian assistance may, in certain circumstances, contribute to proving prohibited acts or genocidal intent.

Parts of that interpretation may assist South Africa, but the Netherlands has not declared Israel guilty and cannot honestly be displayed as a country that confirmed Pretoria’s accusation.

THE COUNTRIES RESISTING PRETORIA’S APPROACH

Paraguay intervened on 3 March 2026 to defend the original, narrow meaning of genocide. It insists that the crime requires proof of a specific intention to destroy a protected group and warns against weakening that requirement.

Paraguay is formally involved in the same proceedings, but no honest account could count it as part of South Africa’s coalition.

The United States entered on 12 March 2026 and explicitly rejected the genocide accusation as false. Its submission argues that widespread civilian casualties, even on a horrific scale, do not automatically establish genocidal intent, particularly during urban warfare against an armed organisation operating from within civilian areas.

Its intervention warns that lowering the threshold would transform genocide from a precisely defined crime into a political label applied to any destructive war.

Hungary intervened on the same day and also insists upon a high evidentiary threshold. Its position warns against taking possible violations of international humanitarian law and simply re-labelling them as genocide without proving the additional and very specific intention required by the Convention.

Hungary is inside the same courtroom, but it is there to challenge Pretoria’s legal approach — not to support it.

Fiji’s intervention also demands strong proof of both the prohibited acts and the intention to destroy the protected group. It raises concerns about relying uncritically upon politically contested reports from international organisations and advocacy groups.

Fiji is involved in the case, but it is not there to endorse South Africa.

WHAT THE NUMBERS ACTUALLY SHOW

There are now 21 states formally involved as interveners. Sixteen broadly support, lean towards or legally assist parts of Pretoria’s approach. The Netherlands restricts itself to legal interpretation without deciding the facts. Paraguay, the United States, Hungary and Fiji defend a stricter interpretation that challenges South Africa’s case.

That is not an international verdict. It is not 21 independent bodies of evidence, 21 witnesses confirming genocidal intent or 21 governments arriving at the same legal conclusion.

South Africa is entitled to bring its case, and every state party is entitled to offer its interpretation of the Genocide Convention. What Pretoria is not entitled to do is convert legal participation into political endorsement and then present the number of flags surrounding the proceedings as proof that the accusation has already been established.

The International Court of Justice has not found Israel guilty of genocide. Its provisional orders were issued to preserve possible rights and prevent irreparable harm while the case continues. They were not a final judgment that genocide had occurred, yet that distinction has repeatedly disappeared from the political narrative.

THE WAR DID NOT BEGIN INSIDE A COURTROOM

On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led forces crossed into Israel and deliberately attacked civilian communities. Approximately 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were abducted and taken into Gaza.

Those civilians were not accidentally caught between two armies. Civilians were among the intended targets.

Hamas then returned to one of the most densely populated territories on earth with the hostages. It continued operating through an extensive military system built within and beneath civilian areas, with fighters, weapons, command facilities and tunnel entrances positioned in or near locations protected by their civilian function.

This did not remove Israel’s duty to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Civilian casualties are never irrelevant, and every credible allegation of unlawful conduct must be investigated.

It did, however, create a battlefield in which reaching Hamas would inevitably place civilians at risk, while every civilian casualty could be turned into political and strategic pressure against Israel. Hamas had constructed a war in which it could benefit from either outcome:

survive beneath the civilian population, or gain international support from the destruction caused when Israel came underground to find it.

The suffering in Gaza is real and devastating. Acknowledging that suffering does not require us to erase the organisation that started the war, murdered civilians, retained hostages and embedded its military machinery within the civilian environment upon which the war would be fought.

War crimes, disproportionate force and genocide are not interchangeable terms. Genocide requires proof of a specific intention to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group because it is that group.

Civilian deaths alone do not prove that intention. Destruction alone does not prove it. Political speeches, operational failures and even serious violations of the laws of war cannot simply be stacked together until they automatically become genocide.

The required intention must still be proven.

THE FLAGS CAN NO LONGER HIDE THE DIFFERENCES

Colombia has changed course and withdrawn. Nicaragua stepped back before it. Their decisions do not determine the case, but they prove that intervention is neither permanent nor beyond reconsideration.

The remaining governments must now clarify what their flags represent. If they possess independently verified evidence that Israel intended to destroy the Palestinian people, they must produce that evidence and stand openly behind the accusation.

If they intervened only to explain how the Genocide Convention should be interpreted, they must publicly reject any attempt by Pretoria to use their participation as proof that they endorsed South Africa’s factual claims.

If their involvement was driven primarily by ideological alignment, diplomatic pressure or bloc politics rather than independently assessed evidence, they should follow Colombia and withdraw.

The ANC government may possess the executive authority to conduct South Africa’s foreign policy, but it does not own the conscience of every South African whose name it carried into that courtroom. Neither does it own the flags of other governments merely because they entered the proceedings to speak about the law.

Pretoria cannot have it both ways.

It cannot count every intervention as support when addressing its political audience and then retreat behind legal technicalities when asked what those countries actually proved.

The choice facing every government involved is now clear:

● Stand behind the genocide accusation and produce the evidence.

● Clarify publicly that your intervention concerns legal interpretation and does not endorse Pretoria’s factual claims.

● If your flag is there only because political alignment placed it there, withdraw it.

Twenty-one flags may create an impressive photograph. They do not create evidence, they do not establish intent, and they do not amount to a verdict.



About the writer:

Shaun Schutte is a South African security professional, independent writer and founder of Black Knight Bodyguards. He served for eight years in the South African Defence Force before spending seventeen years in international close protection and security operations across conflict environments including Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola and Somalia. His writing draws on this operational background to examine asymmetric warfare, terrorism, protective security and the political narratives surrounding modern conflict. He writes from the perspective of a practitioner rather than an academic, combining publicly available evidence with lessons gained through direct experience in unstable and hostile environments.





SOURCES

International Court of Justice—declarations of intervention:
https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192/intervention

ICJ confirmation of Colombia’s withdrawal and current list of intervening states:
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/icj-press-release-22sep26

International Court of Justice—complete case record:
https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192







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).