The Israel Brief – 16 October 2023– Operation Swords of Iron update.
The Israel Brief – 17 October 2023– Update on Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israel Brief – 18 October 2023– Israel’s war against Hama, Hospital update, Biden visit.
The Israel Brief – 19 October 2023– Operation Swords of Iron, PM Sunak in Israel.
19/10/2023 – Rolene Marks speaks to Rob Schilling of WINA on Schilling Unleashed
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).
Poet Fonda Dubb from Eilat who as a former dance teacher defied apartheid in her native South Africa, prophetically penned her thoughts and “hopes” in January 2023, 10 months before war erupted on our holy landscape
HOPE
By Fonda Dubb
1/03/23
We have to believe in Hope It’s a word that carries us as we go on our way It lifts us up to reach the heavens To ask for mercy on our souls And ask for forgiveness To give us strength To make this world a better world A dance of Hope is what we need Like a circle of light Which frames our faces To reach out to others with a smile A kind touch or gesture A welcome to us all That unites us in togetherness Which brings the Hope which almighty God blessed and created for us all That we can hold hands And dance together In a Dance of Hope It’s a gift from Heaven To keep our spirits alive And Hope like water from a cool fresh spring will bring a light to carry and to hold With kindness and with Hope We live in a wonderland of gifts that God has bestowed on us all. And one of them is Hope We Hope with our hearts and prayers that we await A better world to come. To say Amen for precious life That we can sing like ringing bells, with voices loud and clear that can be heard across the Holy Land That tomorrow will be a better day and both Hope and Peace will suddenly appear like a Butterfly that comes gently down to perch upon your pillow As we sing holding hands together Like climbing up a ladder Blowing trumpets in the sky That reach out to the Heavens so we can ALL sing and dance together the melody of Hope
former South African who daringly in her own unique way challenged the apartheid regime by teaching dance and cooking in “Black areas” in the Eastern Cape and Northern Transvaal, Fonda Dubb today resides in Eilat, Israel. (See article: The Right Moves). Her lifelong concern for others has led to her receiving numerous awards, most notably in 2012 the ‘Woman of the Year Miller Prize’ for volunteerism from the Mayor of Eilat.
In recent times, Fonda has taken to writing poetry drawing from her experiences both in South Africa and Israel, her values, as well as the natural beauty of Eilat. Her guiding star she says, is “a yellowing piece of paper” that hung in the consulting rooms of her late pathologist cousin, Dr. Johnathan Gluckman, who exposed the truth with his post-mortem of the famed Black anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko, who met his untimely death in police custody. The words on that piece of paper read: “Good men have only to remain silent for evil to prevail”. These words says Fonda, “always stuck with me and influenced my way of thinking.”
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).
Death squads from Gaza murder, mutilate and rape before carrying off their Jewish hostages. They carried off as well any chance of peace for generations
By David E. Kaplan
My inclination is to retch not write but write as a journalist I must.
On Friday 6 October, I was speaking to a friend and our last words were to again speak on Sunday morning to make arrangements to meet. We never did – neither meet nor speak.
By Sunday we, like all Israelis, were SPEECHLESS!
Few if any words could accurately express what was happening.
“Ein Milim” (“No words”) is a Hebrew expression used by Israelis when confronted by such unspeakable enormity that defies verbal description.
Such was the situation in Israel on October 7 – “Ein Milim”. It remains so today on October 19; still stunned, still lamenting “Ein Milim”. The visuals and the smell of bodies, of families executed, children first before their parents, babies decapitated, young girls raped and paraded like trophies, blood of the victims on bedroom walls relate an epic horror story without words.
How Hamas’ attack on festival in Israel unfolded
Yes, it’s a fact that Israel was taken by surprise – again. However, this time Israel was surprised not only by the attack itself – and there will be a state commission of enquiry into how – but by the horrific nature of the attack. And for the answer to this – there is no need for any commission of enquiry.
We sadly know the answer. It’s a 2000 year old explanation to an all too familiar scenario. Its hunting season again and Jews are the prey – again!
Music Festival Massacre. A group of friends at an Israel music festival before Hamas terrorists attacked killing 260 revelers. (Photo Shye Weinstein)
In current political discourse, there is much convenient linking of Hamas to ISIS but for Jews everywhere it is less ISIS and more Nazi Germany – more specifically the Einsatzgruppen – the paramilitary Nazi death squads that were responsible for the mass executions of Jews, primarily by shooting, during WWII in German-occupied Eastern Europe. Like the Einsatzgruppen, the Hamas death squads that penetrated Israel, systematically mowed down every Jew on sight – man, woman and child and did so with glee fulfilling a national agenda. They kept alive only those they took back to Gaza as hostages. One shivers thinking about what they are going through and the anxieties of their loved ones. Unlike the Einsatzgruppen who buried immediately their victims to try cover up their crimes, the killers from Gaza want to publicize their killing. They are not ashamed, they are proud. And while many in the civilized world, particularly world leaders reacted with horror, Palestinians in Ramallah celebrated. With Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’ vile antisemitic comments only last month about the Holocaust, a ‘Two State Solution’ could not be further away today than in any time in history. Hamas has made sure of that.
Mass Murder. Its occupant presumed murdered, a home in Kibbutz Be’eri destroyed in Hamas onslaught (Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
The linkage between Nazism and Palestinian nationalism fermenting since the 1930s, culminated in October 7, 2023 with Hamas’ “Einsatzgruppen”attack on southern Israel.
On November 28, 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem met with Adolf Hitler who he thanked and said, “….The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely….the Jews.…” From rhetoric to extermination squads, what has changed in Palestinian thinking towards Jews? Nazi Germany has long gone but its core ideology lives on in Gaza.
There is a strong element in some parts of Arab society in the Middle East – notably in Hamas today, maybe another nomenclature mutation tomorrow – that will never accept a Jewish sovereign presence under any circumstances in its ancestral homeland. They are determined to rid the land of Jews to expunge its historic connection from this land and are committed to this bloodthirsty crusade at whatever the cost not only to Jews but also to their own people. How can Israel under any political leadership – left, centre or right – accept alongside a sovereign militarized Palestinian state that will forever pose a threat to Israel?
It can’t.
Israeli Special Forces. When Gazan killers next face Israelis, this is who they will meet. (Photo: Gadi Kabalo)
While there are many across the world suggesting that Israel “summoned this evil upon itself” and thus has only itself to blame – the geopolitical equivalent of blaming rape victims for not being careful enough – the leader of the free world, Joe Biden was quick to offer moral clarity in his White House address:
“You know, there are moments in this life – and I mean this literally – when the pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. The people of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend. The bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas – a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews. This was an act of sheer evil.”
Hamas is the author of today’s horror story. But it has many co-authors. Any country, including my native South Africa that not only supports Hamas but has hosted its leaders in its parliament, are coauthors and must share culpability for the horrors unfolding. By cozying up to killers, they offer respectability and so help facilitate in Biden’s words, these acts of “sheer evil.”
85-year-old Hostage. Palestinian terrorists transport captured 85-year-old grandmother, Yaffa Adar (center), from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.( Hatem Ali/AP)
Surely Qatar, which hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup and also hosts Hamas, notably in Doha senior political leader and Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh could pressure Hamas to release hostages – at least women, children and the injured – or else face eviction?
It’s not going to happen.
This latest catastrophe of the Jewish people is a reminder that Jews whether in the diaspora or in the state of Israel can “Never let their guard down – never – not for a day, not for a minute, not for a second!”
Fate Unknown. A young man and a woman at the Israel music festival. After the attack on Oct. 7, the woman remains missing. (Photo Shye Weinstein)
Imprinted on the Jewish minds following the Shoah is “Never Again” and yet we failed to prevent its recurrence when it reared its ugly head on Israel’s soil.
That “head” now needs to be decapitated.
Israel did not declare war on Hamas; Hamas declared war on the Jewish people.
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 ethical, essential and imperative yet mythical blockade of Gaza
By Jonathan Feldstein
Days after more than 1300 people in Israel were slaughtered in the most vulgar way, men, women, elderly, entire families, children and babies; raped, burned alive, brutally tortured, beheaded, and impaled, the world has started to complain about Israel’s “siege” and “blockade” on Gaza, the territory ruled by the evil Iranian backed Islamist terror organization, Hamas, that perpetrated these attacks.
Let’s get some things straight. Israel has not just the right, but the need and obligation to defend itself and its citizens. Israel has unleashed its air force to begin the destruction of Hamas. By the time you read this, a ground invasion may have begun as well. Considering that Israel was attacked by land, sea, and air on October 7, militarily it is necessary to prevent anything getting into Gaza that will enable them to continue to threaten Israel. It’s critical that nothing will get out that might do so either, as Hamas continues to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli communities.
Heeding Call, Heading Out. Heeding Israel’s call to leave areas that are to come under imminent Israeli attack to expunge the Hamas cancer from Gaza, civilians are on the move. (Photo Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)
During war, Israel’s first, second, and third priority must be the well-being of its citizens, especially in the wake of the massacre that took place on 10/7. Proportionally in the US, this is equivalent to more than 25,000 people killed on 9/11, whose official death toll is recorded at 2,977 people.
Militarily, this is not just a solid and legitimate tactic, but it is also ethical and essential. This week I hosted a webinar “Fighting an Ethical War Against an Unethical Enemy.” Both our expert on military tactics and on military ethics concurred.
Fighting an Ethical War Against an Unethical Enemy
Above the essential and imperative military response, there are many other facts that need to be understood to debunk the myth of an illegal Israeli blockade, as if Israel has a moral, ethical, or legal responsibility to Gazan Palestinian Arabs.
While Israel has closed its border crossings, Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Transport of medical needs, fuel, food, and civilians can take place via Egypt, as well as through the terror tunnels Hamas controls under that same border.
Israel has no obligation to provide water, electricity, fuel, or anything else to a neighboring state, much less an enemy entity that has its sworn goal the destruction of Israel. It’s a policy that should have been reevaluated long ago, but for now, Israel has shut it down.
Had Hamas truly cared about its own people, they would have used their pristine coastal real estate to create a Middle Eastern Singapore. Had Hamas truly cared about its own people, they would have invested in sewage treatment plants, and recycled and desalinated water. They would have set up solar energy fields to power it all. Rather, they’ve stockpiled weapons, mastered smuggling, and built a vast terror infrastructure. They have absconded with billions of international funds intended to help the people upon whose lives they trample upon.
Hamas built the equivalent of a city under the homes of millions of Gazan Palestinian Arabs, a network of terror tunnels and bunkers to smuggle weapons, terrorists, and even human trafficking for the well-being of the terrorists, to command this, and as a launching pad for terrorist attacks like what they did on 10/7.
Out of Harm’s Way. Hopefully when these Gazans return, it will not be under Hamas occupation. (Photo Hatem Ali/AP)
Hamas could have stockpiled thousands of tons of food, medical equipment, and water, just as they were planning this attack for months. But they didn’t. If there are any such stockpiles, they are only for the Hamas terrorist leaders, not the average Gazan Palestinian.
One can feel sympathy for Gazan Palestinian Arabs. Indeed, they were hijacked in a bloody coup against the PLO, a competing terror organization, and have lived under the heal of this evil Islamic group since 2007. Indeed, we all pray that they will be freed from the occupation of millions in Gaza – the occupation by Hamas.
If the Islamist terrorists of Hamas really cared about building a country rather than destroying ours, they would not use their own people as human shields. That’s why Israel warned hundreds of thousands of Gazan Palestinian Arabs to evacuate. Israel needs to take care of business and destroy Hamas’ infrastructure and leaders. Israel does so morally, not targeting civilians or wanting them injured by accident. While contrary to any possibility of a surprise attack, and giving terrorists the opportunity to flee along with civilians, Israel has dropped flyers and broadcast in Arabic telling Gazans to evacuate, and what the safe evacuation routes are. Yet today, Hamas is physically blocking Gazan Palestinian Arabs from fleeing from areas that Israel has warned them to leave, doubling down on the war crime that they have been committing for years. Why is nobody protesting this blockade?
But as bad as one may feel for the average Gazan Palestinian Arab, they are also complacent if not complicit as well. At any time since 2007, Gazan Palestinian Arabs could have ousted Hamas and taken control of their society. They could have risen up and expelled Hanas and Islamic Jihad, and created a society and culture to be proud of, not one of extremist Islamic hate, evil personified. It would have been bloody, but they haven’t, and they are culpable. Their blood is on their own hands.
Defying Hamas. Despite Hamas trying to block their own population following Israel’s warning to seek safer ground, people are leaving. (Photo Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)
However, it’s not clear that most Gazan Palestinian Arabs want change, or think that Hamas is bad, for them much less for Israel. It must be emphasized that recent polls by respected Arab pollsters show 57% of Gazan Palestinians supporting Hamas. As much as that is a strong majority, it should be noted that those which receive even higher levels of popular support are even more extremists.
Blaming Israel for all the woes of Gazan Palestinian Arabs might feel good to Israel haters, looking for any opportunity to criticize and blame Israel for any problem, real or fabricated. Yet it is false and dishonest. It does not place sole responsibility for the well being of Gazan Palestinians where it belongs – on Hamas.
It brings to mind an adaptation of a phrase that ‘people who live in terrorist houses should not throw grenades,’ or fire rockets, or slaughter, rape, burn alive, behead, or kidnap and hold hostage innocent civilians from babies to elderly women.
As the world will begin to condemn Israel for an ‘unjust blockade’, even if it’s fictitious, who, in their right mind would expect a country under attack to give up anything for a terrorist entity that is doing the attacking, or to divert any effort that takes away from Israel’s responsibility to protect its citizens, destroy Hamas, and restore deterrence so nobody will ever think of doing anything like this again. With most international airlines not flying to Israel, and shipping companies skittish about unloading their ships in Israeli ports, meaning cargo and supplies from overseas are limited, and with hundreds of thousands engaged solely in the war effort and not at work in critical infrastructure positions, how and why is it even reasonable to expect Israel to do anything different?
The brazen and disgusting notion that Israel should allow any shipments of anything to enable a terrorist entity when Israel is fighting a war against an enemy that is so inhuman is an absurdity of Biblical proportions.
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 Jornal, 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).
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In the shadow of the Shoah, dark days for Israel and Jews worldwide
Following the worst atrocities perpetrated against Jews since the Holocaust, Israelis are stunned. Feeling locked into the worst ever horror movie unable to escape from, the proverbial pen provides a release to express one’s thoughts, anxieties, anger and concerns for the future. Lay of the Land publishes below the responses of writers to the nightmare that is Israel’s new reality.
Capturing the pain, pride and unity of Israeli society, citizens of Tel Aviv gathered together in this 1300 Candle Vigil in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on October 12, 2023. (Photo Eli Katzoff)
Lay of the Land extends its deepest thoughts and prayers with the people of Israel murdered, brutally injured and kidnapped by the senseless and barbarous actions of Hamas terrorists. We pray for the complete recovery of our injured, safe return of those who have been taken hostage and for peace in the region and an end to the violence.
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 – 08 October 2023– The Israel Brief 8/10 Operation Swords of Iron special report.
The Israel Brief – 09 October 2023– The Israel Brief 9/10 Operation Swords of Iron
The Israel Brief – 10 October 2023– Operation Swords of Iron. please note the was a barrage of rockets and for some reason the light went off in the shelter during this recording.
The Israel Brief – 11 October 2023– The Israel Brief 11/10 Operation Swords of Iron
The Israel Brief – 12 October 2023– The Israel Brief 12/10 Operation Swords of Iron Update
The situation in Israel amid surprise Hamas attack– CNA – Rolene Marks(10/10/23)
Rolene Marks – Gaza residents warned to take cover
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).
Time to shift from Reason to Rough when confronting mass murderers – a letter from Israel
By Harris Zvi Green
October 10, 2023
My dearest friends,
Yet again I find myself sitting in the same armchair, watching the same television screen, listening to the same panelists and wondering if the periodic rounds of violence with our Gazan neighbours will ever end. The Bold and the Beautiful has passed the 9,000 chapter mark. We’re on our way.
But this isn’t simply another round of violence. This round is much more serious. Last Saturday, hundreds of young people enjoying an open-air party were brutally murdered by a frenzied brigade of the Hamas terrorists. Kibbutzim were invaded and occupied by another group of fanatic Hamas militants. Entire families including women, octogenarians and children were either murdered, seriously wounded or taken hostage. Others were abducted and are currently imprisoned in underground tunnels in the Gaza area.
To crown it all, missiles are now raining down on towns and cities in south and central Israel. Hezbollah forces are engaged in provocations along the Lebanese border while Iran continues to pursue its dream of developing a nuclear weapon. Israel’s armed forces are now fully mobilized.
Yes folks. Israel has now joined the elite group of countries who have suffered a 9/11 experience.
Like all the previous rounds of violence, this round of violence needs to end but it needs to end very differently than the way in which the previous rounds ended. Israel will prevail. We have no choice. We have no other country. We are proud of what we’ve achieved. We’re back in our ancestral homeland and we’re here to stay.
We aren’t interested in more ceasefire agreements with meaningless “guarantees”. We are tired of trying to defend ourselves with our hands tied behind our backs. We’ve been there. We’ve done it. It simply doesn’t work. What also doesn’t work for us is what the International Community refers to as International and Humanitarian Law.
Legal systems can only work when their regulations are respected by both sides to a conflict. The provisions of International Law may be relevant to conflicts between Switzerland and her neighbours or to conflicts between the United States and Canada. They have absolutely no relevance in the Middle East. Applying the noble principles enshrined in International and Humanitarian Law to the Middle East conflict will only increase the number of civilian casualties.
Under International Law, the principle of proportionality requires that even if there is a clear military target it is not possible to attack it if the expected harm to civilians, or civilian property, is excessive in relation to the expected military advantage.
In the context of the Arab-Israel conflict, this is completely outrageous.
Hamas continues to exploit International and Humanitarian Law to its advantage by deliberately building arsenals of lethal weapons and bunkers for its military operatives under hospitals, schools and mosques. Missile launchers are positioned in the heart of civilian neighbourhoods. Their “innocent” civilians serve as human shields.
So how exactly does the International Community, the out-of-touch jurists at the International Court of Justice, the pompous academics in their ivory towers and the misguided self-styled “Human Rights” activists suggest Israel deals with its animalistic neighbours?
Is it reasonable to expect that Israel deploys its foot soldiers to wander through the booby-trapped streets of Gaza to collect the stockpiles of arms and ammunition, dismantle the rocket launchers and free those taken prisoner?
Why should Israel be expected to put the lives of their soldiers at unnecessary risk? Surely these innocent lives are more important than those of the “innocent” Gazan civilians who celebrate the murder of Israelis and provide economic support and shelter for their terrorist brothers.
The time has come to destroy the entire military and civilian infrastructure in Gaza – all the symbols of sovereignty – from military to police to banks to public transport to electricity to water and sewerage. Rebuilding the infrastructure must be conditional on the release of all the prisoners including the bodies of the soldiers held hostage by the Hamas regime for the past 9 years. We’ve exhausted the options of blockades and switching the electricity on and off. They never worked.
I’m not seeking revenge. What I’m saying is anything but politically correct. But being politically correct won’t bring peace or even co-existence. I know this sounds drastic. Some of you may even consider it barbaric. Others may want to redefine their relationships with me, but can any of you suggest a more effective way to deal with a genocide of this proportion?
The penny needs to drop. The International Community must recognize that the noble principles enshrined in International and Humanitarian Law are not relevant to the Middle East conflict.
Sincerely yours,
Harris Zvi Green.
About the witer:
Harris Zvi Green, born in Cape Town / South-Africa. Graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B. Com. degree and immigrated to Israel 51 years ago. He served as the Chief Financial Officer at a number of Israeli hi-tech companies. He is now retired. Married with three married children and is the proud grandfather of 13 grandchildren.
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).
I am not the same person I was when I went to sleep last Friday night. Our country is not the same as it was. We will never be the same again. Friday night a nation went to sleep filled with joy. How could we not be joyful? It was the end of Sukkot and we would celebrate Simchat Torah, receiving the Book of Books.
At 6h.30 everything changed. Red alerts on our phones went haywire and what followed was mayhem. Non-stop rockets as far as Netanya, Jerusalem, Modiin and everywhere in between. We are used to rockets. We know what to do. What do we do when Hamas terrorists, who go from house to house, murdering innocent people, setting fire to homes, executing people in the street, slaughtering 260 young revelers at a peace music festival and kidnapping nearly 200, infiltrate our peaceful southern towns and kibbutzim? These are the scenes from horror movies. Except they are not. This is our reality – and we are all struggling to absorb it. We cannot.
Monsters on the Move. Is this who many in the international media call “militants” who kidnap Jewish mothers, grandmother, children and murder babies?
By now, we are starting to know the names of the dead. Among them are people we know. As many of you know, I volunteer with WIZO. I have taken many delegations to our projects in the south, in towns like Sderot and to Kibbutz Netiv Ha’asara. I have always been so proud – not just to show off our projects like rocket proof daycare centres but also the residents of these amazing towns. These are the nicest people you could meet. They have a strong Zionist identity and care deeply for each other, having endured decades of rocket attacks. We have daycare centres that could keep the rockets out – but we could not keep the monsters out. They came into homes and slaughtered whole families. They took pregnant mothers, Holocaust survivors, disabled, elderly and frightened children into Gaza. The barbarity and cruelty is too much to fathom. They came into our kibbutzim and murdered. The Mayor of Sderot said that Israelis could not comprehend the depths of the devastation.
The Sderot Police Station where I have taken delegations is no more. Hamas terrorists held police hostage for hours. In order to take out the terrorists, the station had to be demolished. My only hope is the hostages were no longer and did not suffer.
Targeting Civilians. An Israeli civilian shot in his car in Sderot on Saturday October 7.
In 2014, WIZO evacuated the residents of Netiv Ha’Asara to safety during Operation Protective Edge. They hosted a magnificent lunch to thank us. My tile of peace is fixed to the Wall of Peace, which is their project. How many are still alive? Young people celebrating a festival of peace, slaughtered as they ran for their lives. Eyewitness accounts claim some of the women were raped.
Streets of Sderot. The covered bodies of pedestrians shot randomly in the streets of Sderot on Saturday October 7
Hamas and their supporters who nothing but apologists for depravity are reveling in their evil. The desecrated bodies of their victims, paraded in the streets, shared across social media. The world is watching in horror as the extent of their hatred is exposed. We have warned for decades – do you believe us now?
The barbarians who murdered our people did not care of we were religious or secular, left or right, a Bibi supporter or a Lapid supporter. They just wanted to kill us. The ANC and their cohorts who say we deserve this because of “Apartheid” and occupation – well, here is a fact they need to know. On Saturday, rockets killed Bedouin and Arabs. Foreign workers were killed and are taken hostage. Israelis from all walks of life are defending our country. As I write this, 73 have fallen in battle. May their memories be blessed.
No Hiding the Truth. What the world needs to see – The bodies of members of a family in a home on kibbutz Kfar Azza murdered by the butchers from Gaza.
We have faced the unimaginable together, we are mourning together and G-d willing, we will be victorious together.
The barbarians came through the gates. The opened the gates of hell. We will never be the same again.
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).
Saturday morning, October 7, dawned quietly, with cooling breezes and the dawn chorus of birdsong greeting the new day. Then, within minutes, the phones started ringing, text messages started coming in and our world was turned completely upside-down. Saturday morning, Shabbat, Simchat Torah, became a hell-hole for communities in proximity to the Gaza Strip, and a violent, shocking, sickening wake-up for the rest of the country: 50 years and a day since the last time we were caught completely off-guard, completely complacent and despite our highly advanced security and surveillance equipment, weapons and defensive systems, literally in the dark.
Nothing was the same, nor ever would be again: nothing made sense anymore – not the social tension within Israel, which disappeared in a nanosecond and became national unity; not the political upheaval of the past 10 months, not the right or left or in-between, not peace efforts, not ridiculous mouthings by out-of-touch rabbis and far right-wing activists, or the hundreds of thousands of concerned Israelis demonstrating for nine months, for democracy. Nothing makes sense.
Be’eri bloodbath. More than 100 bodies recovered from kibbutz Be’eri as Hamas makes Israel hostages death threat. One tenth of the kibbutz’s population was exterminated by the killers from Gaza.
The numbers keep rolling in, first 100 dead, then 250, then 500 then 700 (update 11/10/23 – more than 1200) and still climbing. Then came the horrific discovery by ZAKA of more than 260 bodies of people fleeing from the desert festival…
Over the years, we were lulled into a sense of false security: “Hamas is managing to keep a lid on terrorism; at least Hamas has taken responsibility for the Gazans; Hamas doesn’t want a war right now….” More platitudes and inaccurate analyses flowing from sources that should have known better. But now is not the time for pointing fingers and demanding answers. That time will come…that time will come…
It is believed that more than 1,500 terrorists – a vile pus erupting from the Gaza carbuncle – oozing into Israel, created the most horrific scenario of death, destruction, torture and abductions unseen since the Holocaust. Wrap your head around that for a minute – THE MOST HORRIFIC BRUTAL AND BESTIAL ACTS OF MURDER, CARNAGE AND DESTRUCTION perpetrated AGAINST JEWS in their homes and towns, in their gardens, in their beds.
If this was a movie, critics would have slammed it for being “over-the-top”. Yet it was real: families slaughtered in their homes in a way that would make Nazis proud; young adults, men, women, children, at a peaceful “rave” festival in the desert, gunned down as they dashed for safety.
More than 150 Israeli civilians, foreign nationals, soldiers, children, elderly, dragged into Gaza as hostages against the time when Hamas decides to sue for peace offering these captives in return for the release of thousands of security prisoners in Israel’s jails.
We are collectively, as a nation, going through the early stages of Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I very much doubt whether we will get beyond number two any time soon.
As I write this, I get a lump in my throat. My thoughts go immediately to the families of those killed, to those who are missing. It seems that large numbers of dead and wounded are almost impossible to process – but the story of a single family, a recounting of horror by one person, is totally resonant and shocking. The yearning of families and friends for any information, waiting for a phone call, waiting for someone to identify a body, begging for knowledge of their loved ones – resonates with our family from our experience of the Dizengoff Center suicide bombing of Purim 1996. We lost two beloved members of the family in that attack; Marlyn’s mother and sister, Sylvia and Gail, among the 13 killed. The waiting, the hope, the expectation of the front door opening and them dragging themselves in, tired, frightened, but alive…It never happened like that; it resolved into a bizarre scene at the Abu Kabir mortuary.
We can’t be unrealistic. As impersonal and harsh as it sounds, it is destined to end this way for hundreds of families, for parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children, friends…We will be reeling from this for years to come.
The response is expected to be of Biblical proportions. In Gaza, hundreds, if not thousands, will die and be injured. This will be tragic for the people of Gaza, but we cannot concern ourselves now with enemy citizens, because that is what they are. For all our humanitarian instincts, for all our caring, for all our altruism, for all our yearning for peace, let us not forget that Hamas has brought this on its own citizens, on people whom it, as a so-called “responsible” governing authority, has thrust into the pit of fire and destruction. Hamas, which set up its command centers in the basements of hospitals, mosques, schools, residential buildings, cynically hoping for maximum destruction and death of its citizens, which it can use to squeeze sympathy and money from soft-hearted Western and European states.
Does that sound callous? Probably, but I’m in no mood to be conciliatory right now. I’m mad; I am feeling sick to my stomach, I want response; fast, hard, furious and downright painful.
Celebrating Murder.(right) Elderly Israeli woman dragged off as a hostage by Gazan killers. (left) Delirious with joy at the news of the killing of Jews, Palestinians, including young children brandishing firearms in the West Bank city of Ramallah, celebrating the massacre of Jews in the south.
The reverberations throughout the region will be enormous. We cannot predict the outcome, except we can certainly expect world condemnation of Israel for responding “disproportionately”; for having fewer dead than the Gazans, macabre scoreboard; for being the “sophisticated power” against literally the “sticks and stones” of an oppressed people. When that comes, we’ll deal with it. We have enough evidence, provided by Hamas themselves through their hubris of filming and documenting their “victory” – as did the Nazis in WWII – to hold them totally accountable for the destruction they caused.
Capture of Civilians, Soldiers After Hamas Attack on Israel | WSJ News
What do we learn from this? That there HAS to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. They MUST come to the table; WE must come to the table: with ideas, initiatives, plans, opportunities, benefits. There MUST be a halt to antisemitic propaganda in Palestinian schools; there MUST be a halt to the rhetoric and hatred spewed by our right-wing religious fanatics. We must find an equilibrium, a level playing field on which neither side will be totally satisfied, but with which we both can live.
I’d like to end by paraphrasing the opening lines of “War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells published in 1898:
“No one would have believed in the early autumn of 2023 that this country was being watched keenly and closely by an evil entity; that as Israel busied itself about its various concerns, we were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency we went to and fro about our little affairs, serene in the assurance of our country’s security…”
Larry Butchins – I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and started my journalistic career as a cub reporter on Durban’s morning newspaper, The Natal Mercury, covering fires, accidents, shipping and beach news. I then moved to the Sunday Tribune’s Johannesburg branch office, covering everything from visiting celebrities to political scandals and student anti-apartheid riots. At a protest at Wits University, I was arrested along with student protesters and spent the weekend in a cell in Johannesburg’s notorious John Vorster Square. Eventually lured into Public Relations, I opened my own PR firm in Durban. On moving to Israel with my family in 1987, I branched from classical PR into Marketing Communication, running a small English-language agency promoting Israeli products abroad, working with Israeli hi-tech enterprises. Five years ago, I self-published my novel Train in the Distance based on my actual experiences as a journalist working under (and often against) apartheid’s rules and regulations. In addition to professional writing, I write articles and stories, travel blogs – The Offbeat Traveller – and children’s books, two of which have been published in the US and South Africa. I am now entering my third career as a screenwriter and producer for an international TV series based on my novel. My wife, Marlyn, and I live in Tzur Yitzhak , north of Kfar Saba; have three grown children and four grandchildren who all live in Mitzpe Ramon.
Email: larrybtrain@gmail.com
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 Personal Perspective written on Day 2 of a war we know not when it will end
By Jonathan Feldstein
It has been hard to write this, not just because of what’s going on in Israel but because I have had a hard time pulling myself away from the live and virtually uninterrupted TV reports here of what’s going on.
Yesterday we woke up to war. I feel like I am living in a nightmare. I haven’t felt this paralyzed and nervous since 9/11. That says a lot because we have had more than our share of military operations here. Something is different this time.
Like 9/11, yesterday’ attack was a surprise. But it shouldn’t have been. It was perpetrated by the same evil Islamist ideology as that sunny day 22 years ago that saw nearly 3000 perish. 3000 in a country of more than 300 million.
Yesterday, more than 600 Israelis were murdered. In many cases in cold blood. Civilians. Innocent men, women, and children. Many executed in the streets.
Armed Islamic terrorists from Gaza bulldozed the border, infiltrated Israel, broke into people’s homes and murdered entire families. Dozens or more have been taken hostage, including foreign workers, young children, and the elderly, into Gaza.
Should there be any doubt, just look at the terrorists’ own social media. Not only did they commit all these crimes, they filmed it and then celebrated it, documenting it for all the world to see how they sanctify their god, Allah, through their evil hatred. Even the Nazis had some shame and hid their crimes.
Running for her Life. A young woman flees Hamas terrorists at the Nova musical festival in southern Israel. Officials say that at least 260 people were killed during the attack on Saturday.| SBS News
Beginning at 6:20 am, they shot thousands of rockets into Israel to terrify the population, and no doubt provide early cover for their infiltration by land, sea, and air. Doing so, they not only violated Israel’s territorial integrity, and any sense of humanity, they violated the sanctity of Shabbat, the sabbath, the day of rest, and one of our joyous holidays. Just like the Egyptian and Syrian surprise attack 50 years and one day earlier, on our most holy day, these evil Islamic terrorists calculated and planned to catch us unprepared.
I overslept and was jolted out of bed at 9:00 when the first of several air raid sirens in our community sent us scurrying for cover in our bomb shelter. Yes, all Israeli homes are built with bomb shelters. As it was Shabbat, we were offline. No phones, no internet, no radio. So, we had no idea what had been going on for three hours as we sat in the dark room, window covered by a steel shutter. All we knew was it was bad, because even though Hamas has used rockets before that can reach Jerusalem and the Judean mountain community south of Jerusalem where we live, about 40 miles away, it’s rare.
The military call up has been massive. I don’t know how many and if I did, I wouldn’t write it, but it was evident. We speculated that my son-in-law had already been called up into reserves. We saw from our apartment a level of traffic many times that which we would ever have on Shabbat when we also don’t use our cars. We saw young men in uniform driving, hitching rides with others. Then at 4:00pm our son came home, the newlywed. He had been called up and came to get his uniform and equipment. I couldn’t help but think that there’s a Biblical injunction in Deuteronomy 24:5 that says a newlywed should not be called into war.
“Don’t worry,” he said as he left to catch a ride to his base.
Israel has been suffering political divisiveness the likes of which many cannot remember. There’s nothing like a surprise attack leaving hundreds dead, the likes of which most cannot remember, to break down divisiveness and bring unity, even if it’s short lived. Albeit that it is a nightmare, it is a nightmare that’s in black and white. Clearly our leaders and most of the country understand that there’s an imperative to defend ourselves.
Thankfully much of the world recognizes that Israel is the right and Hamas is in the wrong – at least for the moment. But as surely as I am breathing, as soon as there are significant casualties in Gaza, and if anyone else dares to open another front as Hezbollah in Lebanon has been testing, I fear the right and wrong, the black and white, will become clouded with moral equivalence. Calls for restraint “on both sides.”
From Gaza with Hate. Nowhere to hide in the flat arid desert setting for music festival, Israelis are gunned down as they ran in all directions surrounded by killers from Gaza.
For the time being, President Biden has said all the right things. He could have been stronger. He could have called out the inhumanity, the war crime, of deliberately targeting and kidnapping civilians. He could have said more. But what he said was good. The problem is that the terrorists don’t care what he and others say, just what they do. They saw the recent Iran ransom deal, pumping $6 billion into the coffers of the Iranian Islamist regime, as license to do the same.
Hamas is learning well from their Iranian masters, now with dozens or more Israeli hostages on top of two other Israelis, and the remains of two soldiers they’ve held for ransom for years.
Most Israelis like me do not seek wanton destruction in Gaza, or anywhere else. But yesterday, and what’s coming, was a bitter pill to swallow. As Hamas leaders hide in underground bunkers like the rats they are, they should be bombed there. The problem is that they place their bunkers under hospitals and in civilian areas, knowing that the IDF is in fact a moral army and won’t wantonly bomb them, even if they deserve it.
In parallel to a punishing military operation, Isael has already cut off electricity and fuel to Gaza (that’s right, as good neighbors we provide the power for Hamas to build its weapons and bunkers). That’s a start. We must cease the delivery through any Israeli port or border crossing of anything. Not even a roll of toilet paper. We must cut off any boats going out, much less coming back in. This is war, and while Judaism has clear rules about going to war, there is no room for empowering or emboldening the terrorists one bit.
Admittedly, there’s anger in my words. As much as I want the terrorists to pay a heavy price, and as much as I don’t want my son or any other Israeli soldier having to go into Gaza to root out the terrorists (and free our hostages) by putting their own lives at risk, we need to do whatever needs to be done to restore deterrence. It needs to be done in such a way that nobody will ever think, for a very long time, about raising a hand against Israel.
Death and Destruction in Israel. The remains of the police station in Sderot, southern Israel which was the site of a battle with Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip on October 8. The Hamas attacks, particularly its murderous targeting of civilians of all ages in Israel, has drawn condemnation globally. (Reuters /Ronen Zvulun)
Maybe, just maybe, if Gazans suffer enough, they will realize that it’s not Israel that is the problem, but being held hostage by Hamas/Iran. Maybe they will do something to take back their prime coastal real estate and build a society with a future, not one that exists to destroy ours. Alas, I dream again.
Pray for Israel’s swift military victory. Pray for the soldiers. Pray for the return of every Israeli hostage. Pray for the families of the hostages and those murdered. Pray that as deep a scar this is and will be on Israel for a very long time, that Israel will restore deterrence, be victorious, that the world will not flip in the sight of Arab blood and demand Israel stop, and that we will heal and continue to thrive.
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 Jornal, 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).
