Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 16 March 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- 10-12 March 2025
(Click on the blue title)



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

Israel’s entry in the 2025 Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland

Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise | Eurovision2025

Song to Survival
Representing Israel at the 2025 Eurovision is Yuval, whose story of survival is both harrowing and inspiring. What was meant to be a night of music and celebration with friends at the Nova festival turned into a desperate struggle to stay alive as she lay motionless for eight hours – pretending to be dead – concealing herself among the bodies of those murdered by Hamas. Testifying before a Knesset committee, she related: “I was surrounded by bodies everywhere. There was one specific body I hid beneath every time terrorists came. It was riddled with bullets, bleeding on me from every direction. I lifted her head, pressed her cheek against mine — that’s how I shielded myself.”



Articles

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

(1)

JEWISH SECURITY IN BELGIUM  – AT A ‘KNIFE’S’ EDGE

How secure are Jews in Belgium after recent court decision relating to “sharp knife” threat?
By David E. Kaplan

The Untouchables. Popular Belgium writer, Herman Brusselmans who expressed the urge to “ram a knife down Jews’ throats
was acquitted in a Ghent court of hate speech. A court’s messaging it’s not illegal to incite to murder Jews,  
Belgium’s judiciary upholds an all-to-familiar heinous European tradition.

JEWISH SECURITY IN BELGIUM  – AT A ‘KNIFE’S’ EDGE
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

NOT SINCE ‘HAMAN’ HAS PERSIA POSED SUCH A DANGER TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE

A Christian and Jew unite this Purim in prayer and to call to end the threatening evil menace of the Ayatollah regime in Iran.
By Marziyeh Amirizadeh and Jonathan Feldstein

Time and Again. Having overcome the Persian threat in Biblical times, Jews are again facing an existential threat from this land’s modern rulers. A Jewish writer joins forces with an escaped persecuted Christian – who once faced death in an Iranian prison – to warn that “dialogue” will not stop this menace.

NOT SINCE ‘HAMAN’ HAS PERSIA POSED SUCH A DANGER TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Navigating the artistic response of Israelis to a massacre and war and the power to heal – a visiting architect’s perspective.
By Michael Witkin

Calamity and Culture. A visiting architect from Michigan, USA, is captivated by the “extraordinary artistic creativity in Israeli society unleashed by the painful reality of war.” He sees everywhere – on street poles, walls, bus stops and train stations, up escalators and across beaches, along freeways and sidewalks, an explosion of art as a response to the explosion of October 7.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
(Click on the blue title)



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

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