Day: December 7, 2025

THE ARAB VOICE – DECEMBER 2025

Perspectives and insights from writers in the Arab media.

Stressed over Gaza and its future, Arabs across the region in the words of one of the writers below:

 “…debate its meaning, divide over ‘resistance’ and ‘normalization’, and quarrel in capitals and cafés alike.”

Both the two Arab writers below – publishing pieces on Gaza this past November in the wake of the cease-fire deal – lament the result of a “weakening” of the Palestinian cause, allowing it to turn from a unifying symbol of Palestinian liberation into a catalyst for regional Arab fragmentation, with many Arab states simply weary of the endless turmoil.

Turning inward and focusing on self-interest and their own security, coupled with the recognition of a fatigue that has settled in Western capitals from Washington to London to Paris, has a situation arrived where policymakers have become resigned to simply managing the crisis rather than solving it?

David E. Kaplan
Editor Lay of the Land
December 6, 2025


(Articles translated from the Arabic by Asaf Zilberfarb)



GAZA: A FORBIDDEN ZONE IN HISTORY
By Mohammed Al Rumaihi

Asharq Al-Awsat, London, November 2025

Today, Gaza finds itself in a liminal state — neither engulfed in full-scale war nor basking in genuine peace. The same can be said of the West Bank, caught between two unrelenting forces, suspended in a grim equilibrium. Lebanon, too, drifts in a historical gray zone, belonging neither to open war nor to stable peace.

This suspended reality has turned Gaza, home to more than two million people, into a tragic emblem of frozen conflict and fading hope. Under siege, divided, and repeatedly destroyed, it stands as a symbol of human rights violations and a draining battlefield that exhausts Palestinians, Arabs, and global powers alike. When politics offer no exit, people become hostages to geography, and regions such as Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon remain trapped, unable to progress or break free.

Rebuilding will involve a lot more than simply reconstructing and even that will not be easy.

Since 1948, the Palestinian territories have been perpetual victims of geography  hemmed in:

– by Israel, which treats them as a security buffer

– by a Palestinian Authority paralyzed by its own stagnation

– by an Arab world torn between sympathy and confusion; and – by regional actors exploiting the crisis for their own ends.

It is a vivid example of what historians describe as a “deadly political vacuum,” a moment when history itself halts, rendering solutions impossible and societies immobile, left only to wait for deliverance from beyond the realm of politics.

This is not unprecedented: The Korean Peninsula has remained frozen since the 1953 armistice, its borders tense, its people still waiting for a peace that may never arrive. Berlin once stood divided by a wall of fear and suspicion; its people imprisoned in competing ideologies until the Soviet Union’s fall opened a way out. Kashmir, too, has long been locked in a deadly stalemate between India and Pakistan, where periodic violence shatters lives and stifles progress.

Gaza today mirrors all these examples — sealed borders, a crippled economy, deep internal fractures, and a population suffering in silence. The internationalization of the conflict has stripped it of its human and national essence, leaving Palestinians torn between a self-preserving Authority and a Hamas leadership trapped in its own past. Amid this paralysis, Gazans survive between poverty, isolation, and dependence. Education and health systems have collapsed, an entire generation deprived of opportunity. They know only destruction and blockade, their days filled with unemployment and displacement. Palestinian ingenuity has turned inward —from building a nation to simply enduring its ruins. The middle class, once the stabilizing core, has eroded, and the concept of the state has crumbled into factional control.

The Palestinian national project itself risks shrinking into a fragment of land, a wounded memory, and a collection of sacrifices. Gaza’s tragedy has spilled across the Arab world, politically and emotionally. Arabs across the region debate its meaning, divide over “resistance” and “normalization”, and quarrel in capitals and cafés alike. This discord has weakened the Palestinian cause, turning it from a unifying symbol of liberation into a catalyst for fragmentation. Some Arab states, weary of endless turmoil, now prioritize their own security, while regional powers manipulate the conflict to serve their ambitions.

The result is fatigue in Western capitals — from Washington to London to Paris — where policymakers manage the crisis but no longer seek to solve it. The international momentum once pushing for peace has vanished, and even global sympathy, once rekindled by recent tragedies, has cooled. The stalemate has hardened into permanence. Yet the gravest danger lies not in Gaza’s physical ruin but in the decay of meaning itself. A Palestinian child grows up knowing only the whine of drones and the crash of bombs, learning that peace is an illusion and justice an empty word. Over time, despair turns to rage, and human lives are reduced to weapons. Gaza transforms from a cause into a curse, from a struggle of resistance into an enduring tragedy.

A Gazan woman stares at the remains of her house and ponders more philosophically what remains of her future.

What Gaza needs is not pity or another conference, but a courageous, unified vision to break this historical impasse. The lessons of Berlin, Korea, and Kashmir teach us that a state of neither war nor peace is deadlier than war itself — it kills by suffocation. Breaking free demands that Arabs reclaim their role, not as passive spectators but as builders of renewal, urging Palestinian factions: Enough division — unite! Only then can the Palestinian people recover their dignity and restart history’s halted march. In the end, neither war has been salvation nor peace a fulfilled promise. Only a unified Palestinian will can forge a new meaning for life amid the ashes.

– Mohammed Al Rumaihi



WHAT WILL BE THE FATE OF GAZA?
By Tarek Fahmy

Al-Ittihad, UAE, November 8, 2025

Amid the continuing developments in the Gaza Strip, efforts to stabilize the fragile ceasefire, and mounting pressure on Israel to halt its violations and unprecedented assaults, a critical question emerges:

Has Gaza become primarily an Arab concern, or has it evolved into an international issue now shaped by the United States and European powers alongside certain Arab states?

The reality suggests that the Strip’s affairs were internationalized the moment the ceasefire was declared and swift diplomatic action — particularly by Washington — took center stage. The establishment of a US-Israeli coordination center operating on the outskirts of Gaza, in partnership with several European nations, highlights that Gaza’s future is now an international concern. The active involvement of countries like France and Britain reinforces the notion that whatever unfolds next will not be decided by local actors alone, but within a global framework led by major powers. Developments point toward the Strip being placed under a form of international trusteeship, possibly through a multinational force authorized by a UN resolution that defines the scope of intervention.

Israel, for its part, seeks to shape this resolution to ensure it serves its long-term political and security objectives — allowing it freedom of action in response to any future movement by Palestinian factions and aligning with its plan to divide the enclave into two zones of control. After consolidating its security presence over more than half of Gaza, Israel appears determined to maintain the situation under an international umbrella involving the United States, Britain, France, and select Islamic countries. This reinforces the understanding that Gaza’s destiny now lies in the hands of external powers that will manage it within regional and global parameters.

In this context, Arab involvement may be confined to funding reconstruction projects that remain impossible as long as Hamas retains control. While it is hoped that Arab states will contribute financially, questions persist:

How, where, and under whose supervision will this reconstruction occur amid such fluid circumstances?

These uncertainties highlight the limitations of Arab influence, particularly as Egypt prepares to host a reconstruction conference later this month within an Arab, Islamic, and international framework. Yet Europe is already planning a separate reconstruction model, potentially implemented in areas under Israeli control as a first phase — an approach that could deepen international intervention in Gaza.

The overlapping agendas and conflicting objectives among all parties make any consensus elusive. While all publicly claim to seek a ceasefire, beneath the surface lies a web of competing interests and contradictions. The American position remains aligned with Israel’s core priorities; differences between them are tactical, not fundamental. Israel continues to steer US policy to fit its own interests, while Washington, aware of this dynamic, increases its pressure on Tel Aviv within limits.

They came together in Egypt but what did the combined leaders of the Arab world and the West effectively resolve?

The establishment of the US-Israeli coordination center represents not only tighter collaboration but also Washington’s acknowledgment that security dominates all other considerations. Reconstruction, collective security arrangements, and the deployment of an international force are thus postponed indefinitely — effectively freezing the Strip’s situation in place. Meanwhile, tensions between Hamas, other Palestinian factions, and the Palestinian Authority remain unresolved. The PLO’s insistence on administrative control in Gaza complicates any Egyptian-led efforts to reach a broader agreement, as cooperation between the Authority and the factions seems improbable under current conditions.

The Gaza crisis is now moving in multiple, often conflicting directions, each shaped by distinct calculations. All sides publicly stress the need for a ceasefire, fearing that renewed war could ignite a wider regional confrontation. This fear drives international actors to prioritize de-escalation, containment, and incremental stabilization while maintaining the uneasy status quo.

Hamas remains armed, reconstruction has not begun, and political commitments remain unfulfilled. The situation drifts toward stagnation, with each player recalibrating its options. For now, the prevailing approach centers on managing rather than resolving the crisis — maintaining the current state of controlled instability. Israel continues its unilateral security measures with American military backing, while Washington insists on de-escalation despite Israeli breaches of its plans. Until the broader vision becomes clear, Gaza — and its ripple effects across the Middle East — will remain an issue governed by international dynamics rather than Arab agency.

-Tarek Fahmy





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).

BLACK LIVES MATTER (BLM) – REALLY?

Israel exposes global hypocrisy by showing in deed how facts dismantle slogans.

By Grant Gochin

I write as an African diplomat who has paid the price of principle not merely in money, but in repeated arrests, interrogations, and forced escape. Arrested three times in South Africa for anti-Apartheid activism—detained, questioned under threat, and ultimately fleeing to survive—I have lived the raw consequences of demanding Black dignity, rather than performing it for cameras and clicks. For decades, I have volunteered across the African continent: teaching literacy in remote villages, building community infrastructure, and serving for the past seventeen years as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. I was appointed Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs of the African Union, representing 1.25 billion Black Africans to 350 million Americans, and invested as Chief of the Village of Babade for my lifelong philanthropic work. I act in the trenches while others posture on stages. Europe preens and lectures. The record is crystal clear, unyielding, and demands confrontation.

Out of Africa – literally. In Operation Moses, Israel, in a series of dramatic and daring airlifts (1984-1985), rescued 8,000 members of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community from refugee camps in Sudan and brought them to the Jewish state. It was the first time in world history that large numbers of native Black Africans were taken from that continent, not in chains to be enslaved, but to begin new lives in the State of Israel.

Israel stands alone in recorded history as the only nation to airlift Black Africans en masse to safety and grant them full citizenship. Through Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991, Israeli forces evacuated over 30,000 Ethiopian Jews from the jaws of famine, civil war, and Sudanese death camps. Hercules aircraft flew daring secret night missions into hostile territory, risking everything, while the world churned out empty statements and resolutions. No hashtags. No boycotts. Just airlifts, resettlement, and genuine integration. Today, Ethiopian-Israelis lead IDF combat units, hold seats in the Knesset, and serve on Israel’s Supreme Court. No other country—not the African Union, not the European Union, not the United States, not the Arab League — has ever undertaken such a feat. Israel has rescued Black lives in crisis after crisis:

– 1976 Entebbe Raid, storming Uganda to liberate hostages including Africans;

–  2007 airlifts of Darfuri refugees escaping genocide

 – Multiple medical missions,

– Drip-irrigation technology exports

– Ebola treatment clinics in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

Saving Black African Lives. With Ethiopia in the midst of civil war, Israel in 1991 airlifted in Operation Solomon over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in a covert rescue operation to Israel in 36 hours.

Israel delivers more per-capita humanitarian aid to Africa than any of those European virtue-signalers thundering from their podiums. Facts dismantle slogans every time.

President Isaac Herzog’s historic state visit to Zambia —the first ever by an Israeli leader — laid bare the grotesque hypocrisy. At President Hakainde Hichilema’s state dinner in Lusaka, Herzog declared:

“We are worried and disturbed by the terrible disasters taking place in other parts of Africa… We hope the international community will focus on the pain in Africa at least as much as it has focused with its obsession on the State of Israel.”

He spoke with diplomatic restraint. I will not.

Heartwarming. African doctors train in Israel to bring life-saving pediatric care back home. Since 1995, hundreds of medical professionals from Africa have trained through Save A Child’s Heart helping thousands of children in places where pediatric cardiac care is limited.

Europe — led by the shrill chorus of Ireland, Spain, and their enablers — reserves its megaphones exclusively for Israel. Sudan’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of millions: crickets. Congo’s child slaves mining cobalt for European electric cars: silence. Somalia’s famines and piracy: indifference. But Israel’s response to Gaza’s rocket barrages from Hamas? Deafening shrieks of outrage. This is not solidarity with the oppressed; it is opportunistic antisemitism cloaked in compassion’s rags. Palestinian propaganda shields African genocide, as I documented here: Palestinian Propaganda Shields African Atrocities. The mechanics of this playbook appear in Hamas’s information strategy, dissected here: Hamas’s Propaganda Playbook.

Enriching Relationships. On a state visit to Africa in August 2023, Israeli president, Isaac Herzog (2nd left) is seen here with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema (3rd left) flanked by a Zambian student studying in Israel and Gigawatt Global CEO Josef Abramowitz. (Photo: Lynn Schler)

INVERTED HISTORY

Why this laser-focused obsession? Holocaust inversion — the Europeans’ desperate psychological sleight-of-hand to expiate their own unhealed guilt. Unable to confront their orchestration of the murder of six million Jews, they flip the narrative:

– Jews morph into Nazis

– Palestinians into the new Jews

– Israel into the Third Reich

Guilt washed away in a torrent of inverted history. Scholar Lesley Klaff exposes this in Holocaust Inversion and Contemporary Antisemitism (2014): the “Zionism = Nazism” trope is a laundering mechanism that reverses victim and perpetrator, allowing Europe to bargain with its shame. Ireland’s leaders blasphemously equate Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto, ignoring their own nation’s complicity in welcoming Nazi war criminals post-1945. Spain, an eager Holocaust collaborator under Franco, hauls Israel before the ICJ while the echoes of its 1492 Jewish expulsion edict still reverberate through history. This is not human-rights advocacy; it is the Holocaust continued in a new form — verbal, legal, and cultural extermination by proxy.

The inventions pile higher:

“Apartheid” in Israel — an utter fabrication by creative propagandists. Arab Israelis vote, serve in parliament, sit on the Supreme Court, command military units, and own businesses freely. Apartheid? I lived under real Apartheid. Israel is the antithesis. Israel is the most successful de-colonization project in human history — a reclaimed ancestral homeland, not a colonial implant. There was no enforced starvation in Gaza; food, medicine, and fuel flowed in even as Hamas diverted supplies to build terror tunnels and rockets.

Genocide? A fictional accusation in a hate campaign built on lies. Those who repeated these slanders — politicians, academics, protesters — can never again be considered intelligent or credible. They are suckers to disinformation, not independent thinkers. They swallowed Hamas press releases whole, proving how easily manipulated minds can be weaponized.

I accuse these shrill European attention-seekers of utter stupidity, brazen fact-inversion, and cowardly virtue-signaling. I have paid the real cost: three South African arrests, interrogations, Togolese village hardships, Lithuanian killing fields where my own family was annihilated. They have paid nothing but the price of press-conference soundbites and social-media likes.

The fraud extends to the media mouthpieces. The BBC became a willing conduit for Hamas disinformation, parroting unverified casualty figures and staging narratives without scrutiny much like Al Jazeera, which operates as an arm of Qatari-funded propaganda. The UN employed, trained, and shielded Hamas operatives in UNRWA, defending them even as evidence of terror ties mounted. Those who swallowed this concerted worldwide propaganda campaign were utter fools, deceived by an obvious fraud. They willingly consumed the lies, revealing how easily manipulated they are. The self-proclaimed “warriors” for justice on U.S. campuses were no such thing — they were chumps, played like pawns in a game they never understood.

Jewish Lives Don’t Matter. Only two weeks after the October 7 massacre of Jews in Israel, these demonstrators on 22 October 2023 in Columbus, Ohio display a poster that reads “Isreal [sic] are the new Nazis”. Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany occur frequently in current political discourse on Israel amounting to the new antisemitism.

Israel, meanwhile, reopens its embassy in Lusaka as a hub of practical innovation — agriculture, health, education — fueling Africa’s true rebirth. Zion and Africa are bound by shared endurance and resilience, not Europe’s inherited, unrepented shame.

Africans, recognize your allies in action, not words. Jews, honor your historical rescuers. Europeans, sit in silence until you can speak without trafficking in the Holocaust.

Black lives have never mattered to Europe.
They matter profoundly to Israel.
That is the unassailable record.
It is historical fact.
It is not negotiable rhetoric.



About the writer:

Grant Arthur Gochin currently serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. He is the Emeritus Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, which represents the fifty-five African nations, and Emeritus Vice Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the world. Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past twenty five years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped / inventoried / documented / restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation”, published in 2013. His book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. He is presently working on a project to expose the current Holocaust revisionism within the Lithuanian government. Professionally, Gochin is a Certified Financial Planner and practices as a Wealth Advisor in California, where he lives with his family. Personal site: https://www.grantgochin.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).