Month: December 2025

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).

THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 01-04 December 2025

01 December 2025 – Will PM Netanyahu receive a pardon? This and more on The Israel Brief.



02 December 2025 – Have Israeli scientists discovered the secret to anti-aging? This and more on The Israel Brief.



03 December 2025 – Will Israel be allowed to participate in next year’s Eurovision song contest? Find out the latest on The Israel Brief.



04 December 2025 – One hostage remains in captivity, your mensches, morons and more on The Israel Brief.





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).

POPE LEO STRIKING OUT IN LEBANON

An opportunity wasted as the Pontif threw his faithful under the wheels of his own proverbial Popemobile.

By Jonathan Feldstein

Growing up in Chicago as a White Sox fan, it’s safe to assume that Robert Francis Prevost was very much part of the baseball culture.  It’s also safe to assume that he knows the term “swing and miss.” As Pope Leo, it’s astounding to see him swing and miss, not once but three times in the context of his brief visit to Lebanon.

Baseball Fan. Before emerging Pope Leo, Robert Francis Prevost was a die-hard Sox fans and is seen here (left corner) with close friends at a 2005 White Sox World Series game at U.S. Cellular Field.

Arriving in the war-torn and Hezbollah dominated country, Pope Leo delivered public remarks ranging on a variety of topics – peace, religious coexistence, the country’s economic crisis, political divisions, and lingering effects of the Israel-Hezbollah war. He even delved into international diplomatic issues that would otherwise be far afield from his theological role as head of the Catholic church, seen by many as a foul ball.

His first strike was not saying anything to ensure the protection and well-being of Christians in Lebanon, long threatened and attacked by Islamists. His best attempt, but definitely a swing and miss, was to make a passive statement urging native Christians to remain in Lebanon and be part of the country’s pluralistic past.

Leo did not, however, explicitly address the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s requirement to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025, or the sectarian threats and violence of Islamists that created the Christian exodus from the country where Christians once represented more than half the population. Rather than doing so, he tepidly waited until his airport departure press conference boldly stating:

 “The Church has put forward a proposal urging Hezbollah to lay down arms and prioritize dialogue,” adding:

 “Armed struggle brings no benefit: renounce violence and engage in constructive talks.”

Pope’s Peace Prospects? Stepping onto the ground in war-torn Lebanon with such promise, what impact did Pope Leo have and what opportunities were lost?

Leo placed himself in the center of a months-old ceasefire that is weeks away from failure. It was a pageant play of the absurd. Urging Christians to remain without addressing the threats to them and the obligation to protect the Christian population is analogous to telling an abused wife to remain in her abusive home without ensuring her protection! Essentially, he threw his faithful under the wheels of his own Popemobile.

If the Pope of all people is not going to speak out to truly protect Christians in Lebanon, who will be more righteous than the Pope?  The irony is that in the past, Israel has shown more interest in Lebanon’s Christians than many millions of Christians. One vivid example is that my son’s commanding officer in the IDF is a Lebanese-born Christian whose family was among thousands rescued from certain persecution if not slaughter by Hezbollah’s Islamists in 2000.

I am reminded of my friend, Sami, who once cried to me how Hezbollah ruined his life, and begged Israel to eliminate the Islamists.

Pope Leo’s second strike were his comments en route to Lebanon, calling for a “two-state solution” regarding Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. He was mute on protecting Lebanese Christians but put Israel in the crosshairs, suggesting that creating another Islamist Arab state narrowing Israel’s borders and threatening the Jewish state is the “only path” to peace and justice for Israel and Palestinian Arabs.

Speaking to reporters, Leo opined:

 “We all know that at present Israel still does not accept this solution, but we see it is the only solution that could offer, let us say, an answer to the conflict they continue to live. We are also friends of Israel, and we are trying to act as a mediating voice for both sides, helping to bring about a solution that is fair for everyone.”

Adding to the swing and miss, Leo shared these comments in the wake of his meeting with Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip  Erdogan. Pandering to the Islamist who harbors Hamas terrorists and slaughters Kurds, Leo shared that Turkey has an important role in the Middle East, rather than accurately calling out Erdogan’s dangerous threats, in the interest of “coexistence”. One has to wonder why Leo made Turkey the site of his first international trip since being elected, and remained mute on the Islamist’s open threats, converting a former landmark cathedral -the Hagia Sophia – to a mosque, and striving to revive the Ottoman caliphate.

Mosque with a Message. As the religious and spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the landmark cathedral, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, was again converted into a mosque, this time by Erdogan’s Turkish government in 2020.

Strike three was the swing and miss of pandering to Islam rather than standing up boldly in the face of threats Islamists have wreaked, and suggesting a political or diplomatic solution to a problem that rewards and emboldens Islamic terror and a theology that considers Jews and Christians including the Pope as dhimmi – tolerated second class citizens. Rather than pandering to Islamists in Turkey and Lebanon, and truly offering thoughts and a solution in the theme of his visit, “blessed are the peacemakers,” Leo should have done a deep dive into his own faith offering an actual Christian solution for peace, rather than balking and threatening Christians and Israelis in the same stroke.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Pope Leo was at least right when he said that “There is no peace without conversion of hearts,” so how much better to have used his platform to build on his own words to his Muslim audience. In the face of Islamic threats, talk about reconciliation sounds nice, but it does not make persecuted Christians or anyone else safer.

Pontiff’s Platforms. Young Robert Prevost (today Pope Leo) is seen here (left) with Pope John Paul II (right) in the 1980s. While John Paul II boldly used his pontiff’s platform to fight against dictatorships and is credited with helping to end communist rule in his native Poland and the rest of Europe, it appears Pope Leo prefers not to ruffle feathers in his pursuance of peace.

He could have offered a Christian solution that involves a “conversion of hearts,” rather than simply mumbling pleasant rhetoric that instead of bringing peace in the Middle East will push everyone further from it.

Beating around the bush in the shadow of Hezbollah’s ‘empire’ made the Islamists laugh their way back to their bunkers as they plot future chaos and misery.



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).

WHY THE DOUBLE STANDARDS?

As the US was justified in killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Israel is justified in liquidating Hamas leaders wherever they reside.

By Neville Berman

September 11, 2001 was a day that shocked the world. On that day 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked 4 commercial airlines and used them to attack America.  2,977 people were killed and thousands more were injured.

That evening, President George W Bush was informed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that they had identified an Islamic organization known as al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, operating out of Afghanistan, as being responsible for the attacks. After the Taliban, who governed Afghanistan, rejected American demands to expel al-Qaeda and extradite its leaders,  America ordered an attack on Afghanistan.

Justice for All. If it was acceptable that “Justice has been done,” as President Barack Obama said in announcing the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. military operation in Pakistan, May 1, 2011, why not for the Hamas leaders who perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?

Osama bin Laden went into hiding and evaded capture. America offered a $25 million reward to anyone supplying information that would lead to the capture of bin Laden. False information poured in.

For years bin Laden managed to send tapes with recordings of his speeches from his hiding place, to the Al Jazeera TV station in Qatar. The tapes were then broadcast to the 430 million households that watch Al Jazeera broadcasts around the world.  Most of the speeches promoted the Islamic concept of Jihad against the West. Bin Laden was determined to bring down the West. The Palestinians were of no interest to him and he never mentioned them.  

For years the relentless search to locate bin Laden continued. Tens of thousands of cell phone calls were recorded and analysed. Electronic messages and aerial photography from satellite imagery were studied.  After over 9 years of searching, the CIA finally believed that they had traced the courier that was delivering the tapes to Al Jazeera from a house in Pakistan. The evidence was not 100% conclusive that Osama bin Laden was actually living in the house, but was persuasive enough for President Obama to authorize an attack on the site.  On May 11, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear was put into action. A team of navy seals were flown by Black Hawk helicopters into Pakistan. They managed to enter the compound, locate and kill Osama bin Laden and several of his aides and family. They also retrieved a trove of electronic discs and files that shed light on al Qaeda. Bin Laden’s body was brought back for positive identification and burial at sea. The killing of bin Laden was seen as a turning point in the fight against terror.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally demolished all Israeli settlements in Gaza, and withdrew entirely from the area. They then handed control of the territory to the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by Yasser Arafat. Two years later, Hamas violently took control of Gaza by killing the leadership of the PA in Gaza. Hamas is a militant Islamic organization that is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that aims at a world living under Sharia law. Hamas does not hide their intentions. The Hamas Charter calls for the killing of all Jews and the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

From the moment Hamas took control of Gaza they promoted hatred as a way to radicalize the population. Under the guise of a liberation movement, Hamas infiltrated every aspect of the lives of two million people living in Gaza. They infiltrated the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. They radicalized the curriculum of all UNRWA schools in Gaza and promoted suicide bombing, jihad and martyrdom. They robbed banks in Gaza. They stole thousands of tons of humanitarian food aid and sold it to the people in Gaza at inflated prices. They collected taxes on all goods imported into Gaza. They set up monopolies that controlled cell phone services, petrol and gas supplies, and all other essential services. They built an army of radicalized terrorists, whose intention was nothing less than retaining absolute control of Gaza through force, and aimed at eliminating the State of Israel. They built hundreds of kilometres of tunnels under hospitals, mosques, schools and houses in order to hide missiles and military equipment and to be used to attack Israel. They built their headquarters in tunnels directly below hospitals. They used civilians as human shields to protect themselves from Israeli retaliation. They killed or maimed anyone who opposed them. They fired over 27,000 rockets into Israel. All of them were aimed at civilian targets. They broke every accepted norm of civilized behaviour, and ruled themselves out as ever being a peace partner. They brought death and destruction to the people of Gaza.

To the outside world they presented themselves as victims of Israeli occupation. Fake news about an Israel siege on Gaza, and Israel committing crimes against humanity, became their passport to an outpouring of humanitarian aid, especially from the gullible liberal west. Official figures published by the UN show the countries that financed UNRWA in 2023. The European Union and Britain were the largest contributors with 53%, followed by America and Canada with 38%. Japan and Australia contributed 5% and Muslim countries contributed 4%. Saudi Arabia donated $17 million out of the $1.2 billion UNRWA budget. It is clear that the West has an agenda to ensure that the Palestinians remain a threat to Israel, while the wealthy oil exporting Arab countries pay lip service to supporting Hamas. They see Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as a direct threat to their way of life and rule.  

Eight of the top leaders of Hamas, left the squalor that they had created in Gaza, and went to live with their families in Doha, Qatar. They arrived with billions of dollars that they had embezzled and stolen from the people of Gaza. They do not care at all about the poverty and destitute lives of the people in Gaza. On the contrary, the catastrophic pictures of poverty in Gaza are their passport for more humanitarian assistance to flow in. The more aid that flows in, the richer they become.  

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. They attacked a music festival and nearby kibbutzim. They proudly filmed themselves committing barbaric crimes and openly boasting about killing, raping women of all ages, mutilating bodies, burning babies, and destroying whatever they could. They killed over 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages to Gaza. In deference to the families of those killed and taken hostage, the films taken by the terrorists have not been widely distributed by Israel. They are simply too shocking to be shown.

Israel’s ‘Ground Zero’. Like the site in New York where once stood the Twin Towers, the site in Israel where a massacre took the lives of your revelers at a music festival and shattered the Jewish nation.

Immediately after the attack on October 7, Israel set itself the goal of returning every hostage and eliminating Hamas. Now you cannot eliminate an ideology, but you can reduce the capacity of your enemies to be able to carry out their destructive aims. One of the ways of doing this is to eliminate their leaders. In July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh the overall political leader of Hamas who had been living in Qatar was assassinated while visiting Iran. The level of Israeli intelligence required to succeed in assassinating Haniyah in a pin point manner while in an apartment in Tehran, shocked Iran. On October 16, 2024, more than a year after Hamas attacked Israel, Yahya Sinwar the leader of Hamas in Gaza was killed. He was succeeded by his brother Mohammed Sinwar who was in turn eliminated on May 13, 2025. Both were killed in Gaza.

Killing Killers. Like the vow of US presidents from Bush to Obama to eliminate bin Laden, so Israel vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

On September 9, 2025 Israel decided to attack the 7 remaining leaders of Hamas who were living in Qatar. These leaders are terrorists in every sense of the word. They helped plan the attacks on Israel and they radicalized the people in Gaza. The attack did not go according to plan. Instead of killing the leaders of Hamas, 5 lower-level members of Hamas and one member of the Qatari security force were killed by mistake. None of the billionaire leaders of Hamas living in Doha were killed.

Now comes the double standards of the world towards Israel. When America killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one accused America of attacking Pakistan. When Israel attacked the leadership of Hamas in Qatar, the whole world accused Israel of attacking Qatar. Israel did not attack Qatar. It attacked Hamas leaders living in Qatar. There is a huge difference. The double standard is obvious.

To add insult to injury, on September 25, 2025, the Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu, while attending a meeting with President Trump in the oval office, was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar in an arranged phone call. He was also ordered to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. It was a deliberate humiliation of Israel’s elected prime minister. In trying to mollify Qatar, Trump sent the wrong message to the world. America should not be approving sanctuary for terrorist leaders in any country, especially not Qatar. Qatar is using its bountiful financial resources to advance a very serious double game of promoting chaos across America, while pretending to be an ally of America.

Coerced Call.  Following Israel’s attack on the leaders of Hamas in Doha, President Trump orchestrates a call in the White House on September 25, 2025 where Israeli PM Netanyahu was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar and to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. The US had no qualms about taking out the leader of Al–Qaeda in Pakistan.

No matter how great a friend President Trump has been to Israel, it seems reasonable to assume that in the same way that America attacked the leaders of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Israel has the right to attack the leaders of Hamas in Qatar. What happened in the oval office does not augur well for the future of the American Israeli relationship. 



About the writer:

Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award.  In 1978 he immigrated to the USA  to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel.  He is married with two children and one granddaughter.





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).