Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 06 July 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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THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 23 June – 03 July 2025
(Click on the blue title)



This week’s Lay of the Land’s ‘Photo-Pick’ captures the normalization of Jew hatred.

20 months after Israel’s Nova Festival massacre, England’s Glastonbury festival chants message of death to Jews

Making it Mainstream. Like Glastonbury, its sister festival in Israel was meant to be a celebration of music,
peace, youth and love, only at Nova, the dancing turned into a massacre, which Glastonbury this month
celebrated with the chant of – “Death to the IDF”!



Articles

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

(1)

ALL EYES ON TRUMP AND NETANYAHU

The issues on the White House agenda of upcoming meeting between PM Netanyahu and President Trump are clear; everything else is unclear.
By Jonathan Feldstein

Reshaping the Region. Gripping hands, what exactly is their grip on a region with too many loose ‘cannons’?
While all sorts of possibilities have risen following Israel’s post-October 7 resetting of the
regional landscape, the only certainty that remains is uncertainty!

ALL EYES ON TRUMP AND NETANYAHU
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

A PLAGUE ON PARIS – WHAT’S CHANGED?

A plague outbreak – “DISEASE NO. 9” – in Paris in 1920 blamed mainly on Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, turned out to be France’s antisemitic fake news!
By Michel Levine

Turning Same Ol’ Page. The pages of history are replete in blaming Jews for a plethora of misfortunes deviously
caricaturing them as “conspiratorial”, “vermin” and “spreaders of disease”. Preceding the Nazis,
the “liberal” French excelled in 1920 Paris by blaming a plague outbreak on its Jews!

A PLAGUE ON PARIS – WHAT’S CHANGED?
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

HYPOCRISY TAKEN TO NEW HEIGHTS

How the world has reacted to Iran’s attempt to eradicate the Zionist entity.
By Neville Berman

Height of Hypocrisy. A “Hands off Iran” placard is fine for these protestors at an anti-war demonstration in L.A,
California, June 21,2025 but no such similar sentiment shown when Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas
and the Houthis of Yemen fired missiles on Israel!

HYPOCRISY TAKEN TO NEW HEIGHTS
(Click on the blue title)



(4)

RETRACING ROOTS

Israeli travel advisor takes a trip of a different kind tracing the footsteps of his late mother to Uzbekistan’s Samarkand.
By Motti Verses

Majestic Memories. Recollections as a teenager in Israel of his mother describing Samarkand in Uzbekistan as
The most beautiful city” where she spent her teenager years as a refugee from Poland during WWII,
led the writer on a journey of discovery that was both pleasurable and personal.

RETRACING ROOTS
(Click on the blue title)



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

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ALL EYES ON TRUMP AND NETANYAHU

The issues on the White House agenda of upcoming meeting between Bibi and Donald are clear; everything else is unclear.

By Jonathan Feldstein

On Monday, all eyes will be on President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu as the later comes to Washington for what will be their third meeting this year. This makes Netanyahu the world leader who has most visited Trump in the White House since the start of 2025. Conspiracy theorists and anti-Israel propagandists will tell tales of the Netanyahu (Israel) tail wagging the Trump (US) dog, and worse. Their venom will stream as they scream of schemes, bringing radicals across the political spectrum – from left to right – into an unholy alliance. Their biased agenda to bash Israel at every opportunity aside, nobody truly knows what’s going to happen in front of the camera, much less behind the scenes.

What Will Be Will Be. Never quite knowing what will arise from a Trump meeting, the region braces for the unexpected.

There are many things that are intuitive, many guessed about, and perhaps some leaked. However, as far as the agenda items, it’s anyone’s guess about what that and the outcome will be.  Here are some things to look for.

Both leaders will take and share credit publicly, praising one another for the recent achievements in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, literally if not figuratively spiking the ball in the end zone. Will there be public declarations of deterring Iran and other bad actors, announcements of additional support for Israel to heighten its preparedness? Privately, it’s reasonable to imagine they will discuss intelligence assessments of actual accomplishments, additional threats, and the need for regime change in Iran to actually bring peace, not just for Israel and the US, but also for the Iranian people, albeit while not publicly stating this. If the Iranian nuclear program has only been set back by two years, what’s Plan B?

As for the highly enriched uranium that created the urgency for the recent attack, enough to produce as much as ten nuclear weapons, the question is what happened to it. If it was in Fordow, one would think that radioactive fallout would be an issue. Could it have been smuggled out of Iran to North Korea, China, or Russia? Could it have been moved, protected, turned into dirty bombs, to be smuggled across borders and threaten Israel, the US, and the rest of the world?

There are indications that high on Trump’s agenda will at least be a push to end the war in Gaza, maybe even some declaration about how that is happening, with Netanyahu smiling at the president’s side. Will such remarks be coordinated or a surprise?  Ending the war meaningfully however requires more than Israel’s withdrawal of its troops.  It requires the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza, and the release of the remaining 50 hostages. Talk of a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for a handful of hostages will embolden Hamas and not achieve either of these goals. It will not bring peace.

Calling the ‘Shots’.  Is Gaza nearing the end of Hamas rule? Who shall be its rulers in the future?

Reports that Israel has accepted such a framework and Hamas has rejected it are not surprising or new. Netanyahu will surely remind Trump that Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure can be defeated, but its ideology (and influence elsewhere) remains alive and well, and that what’s needed is a true solution for peace in Gaza. In this context, there will likely be declarations about a Gazan future free of Hamas, but will there be any other long term realistic plan proposed?

After celebrating the recent joint success in eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat, it’s hard to imagine Trump doing a 180-degree pivot, strong-arming Netanyahu (particularly as a surprise) to agree to an end of the war in Gaza without achieving the war’s goals. But it’s also hard to imagine Netanyahu not bowing to a degree of pressure by Trump, in order to maintain the relationship. Surely Netanyahu is not coming to Washington for a public dressing down as happened with Ukrainian President Zelinsky.

Would peacemaker Trump, seeking and believing that even the most intractable issues and genocidal of jihadis can be dealt with through a deal, place himself as guarantor for Hamas not having control in a restructured Gaza? How could that be enforced? Would that mean US control, even boots on the ground, as he hinted in previous statements? Might additional brazen comments be made, even if less than practical, to cajole the Arab world into a broader deal as well? 

It could be risky for Trump because Hamas is not looking for a deal, but to survive another day, to achieve its goal of annihilating Israel. Terrorism is their means, and the hostages are their currency. That won’t change. Yet such an offer, if it could even happen, could take pressure off Netanyahu at home, claiming success for bringing (some) hostages home, and buffer challenges to his premiership from within his own coalition on one hand, and from the public on the other that he has not done enough to secure the hostages’ release and end the war on the other.

Only time will tell – and it will tell it soon!



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).

THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 23 June – 03 July 2025

30 June 2025Fordow – no more. This and more on The Israel Brief.



01 July 2025Bob Vylan gets the heave-ho and more on The Israel Brief.



02 July 2025Could we see a ceasefire deal next week? This and more on The Israel Brief.



03 July 2025Palestine Action draft vote for proscription passes and more on The Israel Brief.





A PLAGUE ON PARIS – WHAT’S CHANGED?

A plague outbreak – “DISEASE NO. 9” – in Paris in 1920 blamed mainly on Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, turned out to be France’s antisemitic fake news!

By Michel Levine

(Translation from article published by the Auschwitz Foundation in French in the magazine “Témoigner” N°140 April 2025.)

During World War I, antisemitic movements largely suspended their rhetoric in the name of national unity, redirecting hostility from Jews to Germans. Even ardent nationalist Maurice Barrès began honoring Jewish soldiers who died for France. This wartime truce was symbolized by Rabbi-Chaplain Abraham Bloch offering a crucifix to a dying Christian soldier before being mortally wounded himself.

RENEWAL OF HATRED

After the war, the November 1919 elections brought political newcomers who formed the National Bloc – a coalition manipulated by Georges Clemenceau and Action Française. For the first time, Charles Maurras‘ movement overcame its contempt for the Republic’s electoral process, promoting candidates steeped in antisemitism now enhanced with racialist theory.

The 1920 publication of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” provided pseudo-historical validation for anti-Jewish campaigns. This fabricated document detailing an alleged international Jewish conspiracy was crafted in 1901 by the Russian secret police to weaponize hatred. Distributed worldwide in millions of copies, the Protocols were exploited by leaders who recognized their fraudulent nature – as Joseph Goebbels confessed:

I believe in the intrinsic truth, but not in the factual truth of the Protocols.”

Fake News! The plague in Paris in 1920 turned out to be the plague of antisemitism.

THE JEWISH PLAGUE  

In spring 1920, plague cases emerged in Paris’s impoverished outskirts. The epidemic spread among fifty thousand social outcasts, including eight thousand recent immigrants. Authorities identified the source: rats carrying plague-infected fleas had escaped from a barge delivering British coal. To prevent panic, officials designated the outbreak “Disease No. 9” – plague’s registry number – while the public dubbed it the “rag-pickers’ plague.” This final plague outbreak in Paris caused only 34 deaths before subsiding.

Initially, public opinion remained indifferent to a disease affecting society’s “invisible” members. But soon, newspapers began amplifying alarming rumors. Le Petit Bleu de Paris explicitly identified supposed culprits:

The epidemics that have devastated . . . certain regions of Europe were due to the introduction, by Orientals, of Yersin’s bacillus.”

These mysterious Asian carriers were allegedly spreading:

 “…the doctrines of defeatist Bolshevism.”

Art of Disinformation. Beneath the colorful veneer of Paris life in 1920, lurked the ugly ‘fashion’ of naked antisemitism manifesting in false rumors about “Disease no 9”

UNDER THE TARNISHED GOLD OF THE REPUBLIC

On December 2, 1920, the French Senate convened an extraordinary session addressing the plague affecting Paris. The session unleashed a torrent of hatred and prejudice from these “wise men” of the Republic. Adrien Gaudin de Villaine, known for anti-republican positions, challenged the health minister:

Paris and its suburbs are threatened… by a contagion that doctors call disease No. 9… Everywhere people with strange appearances, in heterogeneous rags, speaking incomprehensible language… all Jews and all speaking ‘Yiddish’… I add that the infant mortality in Paris… is also a consequence… of this invasion of exotic people…”

Senator Dominique Delahaye proposed:

A first method of control would consist, since you cannot delouse them, of making them pay a certain sum upon entry; after which, they would be subjected to a continuous tribute“—unwittingly proposing a return to centuries-old discriminatory practice.

Confronted with this disturbing rhetoric, a few senators attempted to redirect the debate toward actual public health issues. The bacteriologist Émile Roux from the Pasteur Institute later countered these claims:

The rare cases of bubonic plague observed did not occur among the immigrants accused in the Senate… the disease… was brought… by plague-infected rats arriving with barges delivering English coal.”

Only the Socialists and organizations like the League of Human Rights mounted genuine responses to this venomous wave. Le Populaire denounced an “odious calumny” that used disease No. 9 as a weapon against proletarians vilified simply for being foreigners.

Dreyfus to Disease. Preceding “Disease no 9”, the Dreyfus Affair was not just a French story of a sham trial but also the story of the first viral hate campaign of images in mass media brining to the surface the most ancient of hatreds in a brand-new way. (“Dreyfus is a Traitor” November 1898 Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris)

UNCERTAINTIES

If this malignant rumor did not fundamentally alter how “native” French viewed their Jewish fellow citizens, it was because the social climate was not particularly receptive. The country was focused on healing war wounds, and the barely lethal disease No. 9 seemed insignificant compared to the devastation of war and the “Spanish” flu.

In May 1924, elections witnessed the defeat of the National Bloc and the rise of the Left-Wing Coalition. Yet this represented only a brief respite. The 1930s would witness dictatorships seizing power across Europe and unspeakable racial hatred culminating in the Holocaust.

As historian Léon Poliakov presciently observed:

The only certainty I have today regarding antisemitism and racism… is that all this will continue. We cannot predict exactly in what form, nor with what intensity. But we can be convinced that it will not cease.”

Nor will cease, one hopes, the determined struggle against the poisoning consciences.



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).

RETRACING ROOTS

Israeli travel advisor takes a trip of a different kind tracing the footsteps of his late mother to Uzbekistan’s Samarkand.

By Motti Verses

Central Asia was one of the few places that accepted Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Altogether, about 1.6 million Soviet Jews and 200,000 Polish Jewish refugees are estimated to have survived the war in Central Asia – across Siberia and parts of the Ural Mountains. In this fortuitous part of the world that became an unlikely center for Jewish refugees, the city of Samarkand played a significant role as a hub for these displaced Jews. Few in the world today are aware that this city served as a major center for the evacuation of children from the Soviet Union, with thousands being sent to Uzbek families and orphanages. Research reveals that the Samarkand region during the first years of the war, absorbed about 90,000 children. To meet this influx, sixteen orphanages were established absorbing 8,000 children, including 300 from Poland.

Safety in Samarkand. During WWII, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, became a refuge for Jewish refugees, primarily from Poland, who had been displaced by the war. Above is a group portrait of Polish Jewish refugees in Samarkand in 1943. (Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anne Miransky)

My late mother Sarah was a teenager when together with her family and a quarter of a million Polish Jews, fled with the outbreak of WWII, to the interior of the Soviet Union. Residing in a small village near the city of Chelm in eastern Poland,  my mother, together with her parents and a brother and sister, crossed the nearby border into Soviet Russia following the German Wehrmacht entering Warsaw on October 1, 1939.  In retrospect, she was among the fortunate to have escaped the genocide that befell European Jewry. I can only imagine what she experienced as she fled from one labor camp to another across Central Asia’s Muslim regions.

Years passed, and when I was her age in Israel of the 1970s, she began to revisit her past and spoke about this “most beautiful town” she remembered – Samarkand. She was reliving the best and blocking out the worst – like her experiences in a labor camp. This was understandable.

While for years hearing the name “Samarkand”, I never imagined that 85 years after the deadliest disaster to befall the Jewish people, I too – intrigued by my mother’s recollections – would journey to this intriguing city in Uzbekistan renowned in ancient times for being on the Silk Road linking China to the Mediterranean. 

Samarkand Uzbekistan on the Silk Road and the Hilton hotel / MOTTI VERSES 5/2025

This past Spring, I set out on my long-awaited journey tracing my mother’s footsteps to the city and its people that saved her life. A five-hour comfortable night flight in an empty aircraft from Ben Gurion airport and we landed in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The view from my taxi was of a modern impressive metropolis, but while our eyes feasted on  the city’s wide boulevards, its iconic Independence Square with vibrant fountains, an impressive park and spacious walkways, our minds were elsewhere, some 300 kilometers away – Samarkand.

ON TRACK TO SAMARKAND

Uzbekistan offers modern transportation, including flights and trains – fast track as well as regular. Unfortunately acquiring tickets to the faster options is not that easy with online tickets sold-out long in advance. Frustrated, we booked the 4-hour slow train, however, fortune favored us as the Tashkent hotel concierge came to our rescue and business class tickets on the fast train were found at the last minute at affordable prices. This 210 km/h high-speed train, the Afrosiyob, proved quick and comfortable as well as providing an unexpected and interesting encounter. I met a fellow passenger, Orif Shermatov, an Uzbek astronomer who was on his way to a paragliding festival in Samarkand and we engaged in a long conversation thanks to Google translation. He told me about his Jewish friends that had immigrated to Israel and when the conversation shifted to why Jews eat Matzah on Passover, my mind shifted back in time to the war and the  Jewish refugees – including my late mother and her family – marking Pesach (Passover) during those trying times in work camps.

The 2-hour ride passed quickly and soon felt as if we had passed through a time tunnel arriving in Samarkand one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. It felt as if we had also arrived back in the 14th century. Situated at the  crossroads of trade, Samarkand flourished under the rule of empires with its strategic location on the Silk Road marking it a melting pot of diverse cultures, fostering advancements in science, art and particularly in astonishing architecture that soon became visually all to apparent.  It is home of the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty, a Turco-Mongol empire that ruled much of Persia and Central Asia in the late 14th and 15th centuries founded by Amir Timur, widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders of Central Asia and today an Uzbek national hero.

Exquisite and Enchanting. The structural geometry and colorful facades of Samarkand’s renowned Islamic architecture did not fail to enchant the writer. (Photo: Motti Verses)

For history lovers and architecture enthusiasts alike, visiting the exquisite Gūr-i Amīr or Guri Amir Mausoleum Complex is undoubtedly a must as we soon found out. It took our breath away staring at the incredibly huge azure dome over the tombs of Amir Timur himself and his sons and  grandsons. It was a highlight not to be missed. Gur-e Amir means “Tomb of the King” in Persian. 

A Feast for the Eyes. Interior of the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum which was erected on the initiative of Timur in 1404 and occupies an important place in the history of world Islamic architecture.(Photo: Motti Verses)

Located in the heart of Samarkand, the ancient Registan Square ensemble of Madrasas is a real gem and undeniably the centerpiece of the city. Its grand architectural ensemble has earned it global fame as a monument of oriental architecture offering a breathtaking journey through centuries of history, architecture, and cultural heritage. But it did not always look like this as we soon discovered.

‘Roaring’ Success. The name of the impressively restored Sher-Dor Madrasah on Registan Square built between 1619 and 1636, translates to “Madrassah with Lions”. (Photo: Motti Verses)

Over the centuries and a lack of resources left it neglected. We learnt how Samarkand had gone through severe economic decline, particularly when  its status of being a capital city passed to Bukhara and merchants of the Great Silk Road bypassed the city. 

However major restoration works were undertaken between 1967-1987 and the outcome is jaw dropping. We were left speechless facing this grand architectural collection and I couldn’t help thinking about my late mother, who had been 14 and 15 years old at the time, admiring the unmaintained sites in the 1940s before the restoration. The structures were then in a ruined condition with the domes and portals partially or in some cases, totally destroyed. The  minarets were dangerously inclined and the façades in some places had lost 70-80% of their ceramic tile coverings. We saw in the museum section of the madrasas, photographs capturing the history from those days. However, and this is what struck me so emotionally, was reflecting back to the city’s depressed period, its iconic architectural gems neglected and my mother  as with all the Jewish refugees also in a state of tragic upheaval and ‘disrepair’, nevertheless marveling at what she saw and experienced here in Samarkand. To my mother, it was the most beautiful city she had ever seen in her life.

Iconic Leader.  A great patron of art and architecture, Uzbek national hero, Amir Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire. (Photo: Motti Verses)

The old town is gigantic in size. Much bigger to what I imagined. We explored endless additional breathtaking structures, monuments, mausoleums and the famous Bibi-Khanum Mosque, named after the emperor’s wife. At the time it was one of the largest and most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world. Bibi-Khanym Mosque is considered a masterpiece of the Timurid Renaissance and left us once again breathless.

Majestic Mosque. A masterpiece of the Timurid Renaissance, Samarkand’s Bibi-Khanym Mosque is one of the country’s most important monuments and in the fifteenth century was one of the largest and most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world.  (Photo: Motti Verses)

Everywhere we explored, I thought of my Mom as a teenager here, where she had been and what she saw and experienced. Leaving the Bibi-Khanym Mosque, we visited the nearby colorful Siab Bazaar known for its vibrant atmosphere and a wide variety of goods, including fresh produce, spices, textiles, and local handicrafts. 

Walking by numerous restaurants offering delicious Uzbek cuisine, we eventually stopped and tried the Plov, the national dish of Uzbekistan with carrots, rice and lamb. Tasty and definitely the ultimate social food here that brings people together.  As I chewed this delicious food, I could not escape the thought:

 “What did my mother eat as a refugee in this city? Did she also enjoy as I was the Plov?”

Food for Thought. Always wondering what his mother may have eaten here during the war years, the writer enjoys a plate of Plov, the quintessential dish of Uzbekistan.  (Photo: Motti Verses)

Thirty minutes away into the countryside and we were in the ‘Silk Road Samarkand Tourist Center’, a unique tourist complex built along an artificial rowing canal dating from the soviet times.

Dazzling Delights. Constantly wondering what his mother had seen all those years before of the ‘Eternal City’, the writer explores and is bedazzled by the restored beauty of Samarkand. (Photo: Motti Verses)

The architecture and landscaping – a recreation of ancient Samarkand, complete with domes and mosques, restaurants and bazaar-style shops – was stunning.

Surprise Encounters. The writer found surprise and beauty at every turn in this dream “Eternal City”. (Photo: Motti Verses)

Like Alice entering Wonderland, we felt we had stepped into an oriental fairy tale with the turquoise domes, majestic mosaics on palaces and high minarets piercing the blue sky.

While we strolled fascinated by the architecture, it was our minds too that wandered, imagining the versatile heritage of bygone centuries. The trade routes of the Great Silk Road paved the way to Samarkand paper manufacturing. The silk paper process-making is one of the most impressive presentations here. Thousands of years of astonishing technology by Samarkand craftsmen.

Paper Processing. From ancient times to the present, Samarkand paper has not lost its significance as seen hear in this silk paper process-making. (Photo by Motti Verses)

Moved by Samarkand’s magical landmarks and its rich cultural heritage, this city will certainly remain in our hearts forever. We felt  – as my mother must have felt – completely safe here, surrounded by the friendly Uzbek people. In my heart, I thanked them for being so brave and warm to the refugees fleeing the bloodiest conflict in human history. 

Time Travels. During the time the writer’s mother was in Samarkand during WWII, a group of fellow Jewish refugees are seen here in front of Tamarlane’s tomb. (Photo Credit:United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marc Ratner)

Visiting Samarkand was not only a breathtaking journey to a beautiful city with wonderful people but it was also a journey into the past, linking my mother’s stories of my childhood with her childhood in this wonderous place where she found refuge before starting a new life in a new land – Israel.


  • In memory of Sarah Migdal-Verses (1926-2009)



*Feature picture: The writer thinking of his late mother Sarah (right) in Samarkand’s Registan Square (Photo: Motti Verses).



About the writer:

The writer, Motti Verses, is a Travel Flash Tips publisher. His travel stories are published on THE TIMES OF ISRAEL  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/motti-verses/. And his hospitality analysis reviews on THE JERUSALEM POST, are available on his Linkedin page LinkedIn Israelhttps://il.linkedin.com › motti-verse…Motti Verses – Publisher and Chief Editor – TRAVEL FLASH TIPSAnd his hospitality analysis reviews on THE JERUSALEM POST, are available on his Linkedin page LinkedIn Israelhttps://il.linkedin.com › motti-verse…Motti Verses – Publisher and Chief Editor – TRAVEL FLASH TIPS.





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).