Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 02 February 2025

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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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- 27 – 30 January 2025
(Click on the blue title)



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

FROM HELL TO HOME

A nation joins in a collective hug of three families uniting following 484 days of captivity in Gaza of Keith SiegelOfer Calderon
and Yarden Bibas (center), whose wife Shiri and two ginger-haired babies remain in captivity – fate and whereabouts unknown.
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Ronen Harish, GPO)




Articles

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

(1)

HAMAS’ NARRATIVE FALLING UPART

Increasing evidence reveals No deliberate starvation; No genocide; No freezing and No indiscriminate targeting.
By Andrew Fox

Falsifying Facts. While misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories on the Gaza-Israel percolate profusely on
social media, they dominate no less the global news networks.  Research and evidence expose the truth
behind the contrived and malicious lies.

HAMAS’ NARRATIVE FALLING UPART
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

SHAME ON YOU

Have you no sense of decency
By Neville Berman

The Enemy is Everywhere. A turning point against Senator Joe McCarthy – the single most despised man in American
political memory – was when he was replied to with: “Have you no sense of decency?” It’s a question the writer
challenges all those who today wage war on the Jewish state and Jews globally.

SHAME ON YOU
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

ZICHRON YA’AKOV – A CULTURAL COLONY ON THE CARMEL

Views, vineyards and wineries, this Moshava (colony) has it all – besides the multitude of visitors it deserves.
By Motti Verses

Cultural Gem. Born from “a vision by people of faith who realized the Zionist cause,” Zichron Ya’akov over the years
attracted hard-working innovative pioneers to emerge a haven for artistic expression. Today, it’s incomparable
beauty and charm attract tourists from the four corners of the world. The writer argues it deserves more.

ZICHRON YA’AKOV – A CULTURAL COLONY ON THE CARMEL
(Click on the blue title)



(4)

LETTER TO MY GRANDFATHER

A lifelong personal journey of a grandson to expose Lithuanian complicity in the mass murder of its Jewish citizens in the Holocaust.
By Grant Gochin

Deadly Discoveries. Growing up in South Africa, the writer was implored by his Zayde (grandfather) to remember “who we Jews are, and where we came from. You asked me to visit our family cemetery in the “old country” …and Zayde, I have.” What the writer horrifyingly discovered in Lithuania, set him on a journey of exposing the truth.

LETTER TO MY GRANDFATHER
(Click on the blue title)




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

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