26 January 2026 – Operation Brave Heart and more on The Israel Brief.
27 January 2026 – Everyone is home! and more on the Israel Brief.
28 January 2026 – Burial of a hero and more on the Israel Brief.
29 January 2026 – Will Hamas disarm? Will the US attack the regime? Who are your choices for “man” and moron of the week? This 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).
From a street in Minneapolis to the streets of Teheran, what does media focus reveal about global morality and hypocrisy?
By David E. Kaplan
Yes, the fatal shooting of nurse AlexPretti in Minneapolis was a tragedy. It was the second killing in less than three weeks of a US citizen in Minnesota by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and it should not have happened. However, there was something skewered and revealing about what followed.
ICE R’Age. A yellow “GO HOME NAZI” placard is in evidence at a demonstration against ICE at the site where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, on Jan. 24, 2026. No such enthusiasm in support of the brutal crackdown of protestors in Iran. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein—Reuters)
For days on end, US TV new networks, notably CNN, were covering this solitary killing as their Number 1 news item as if nothing else was newsworthy. Well not quite; there was stiff competition from a mega-snowstorm gripping much of the country but as the big freeze began to thaw, the ‘hot’ news returned exclusively to the street scene in Minneapolis. Different angles of film footages of the scuffle and the shooting were constantly and repeatedly screened as were the endless opinions from law enforcement experts and politicians. The divergent visuals were competing with divergent verbiage and still, five days later, it was still monopolizing the news.
In no way am I belittling the tragic event in Minneapolis either of the victim and his family nor the traumatic impact on the psyche of the American people and its political ramifications. However, contrast this for news relevance with the wholesale state sponsored slaughter unfolding simultaneously in the Islamic Republic of Iran:
A solitary death on a street in Minneapolis by a Federal law enforcement agent against a mass murder by the thousands on the streets of Teheran and across much of Iran.
Shoveling Snow. Competing with the news on the killing in Minnesota was the mega winter storm that ‘shoveled’ the slaughter in Iran lower down the order of national interest. (Photo: Charles Krupa)
Teheran makes Minneapolis look like a day at Disneyland but what is making the news?
By some accounts, 36,500 Iranians were slaughtered over a period of 48 hours and yet, one did not need a political Richter Scale to discern that there was little to zilch interest in the US of Iran’s mega-massacre – not in the written press, not on the TV news networks, certainly not among students at colleges who one should have expected since they did not hesitate to protest against Israel during the last two years and not on major city streets nor outside embassies. The killing in a US street of a single protestor in confusing circumstances solicited far more interest than the transparent slaughter of thousands of protesters on multitude streets across Iran!
The silence was staggering. Why? What was the missing ingredient that failed to ‘trigger’ moral outrage and newsworthiness?
Conjuring up images of the Holocaust, Stephen F. Lynch, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts 8th congressional district describes the death in Minneapolis as a “brutal execution…..by ICE agents”, more specifically, “…Gestapo-like conduct,” looking like “a firing squad – taking a human life for no reason. Every American should be ashamed to watch this happening.”
Maybe they should, once the dust settles and the facts are clear. But in Lynch’s words, should not every Americanalso “be ashamed,” to be ignoring the news out of Iran from eyewitnesses and cell phone footage that millions of protestors in the streets are being targets for state rooftop snipers and trucks mounted with heavy machine guns? On Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on state television to anyone venturing into the streets:
“If … a bullet hits you, don’t complain.”
Can you imagine an American Federal Agent saying that?
Despite the disinterest of the major TV news networks, TIME magazine thought it about time and reported that “As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone.” Apparently two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME that:
“So many people were slaughtered by Iranian security services on that Thursday and Friday, it overwhelmed the state’s capacity to dispose of the dead. Stocks of body bags were exhausted, the officials said, and eighteen-wheel semi-trailers replaced ambulances.”
The extraordinary high death rate over 48 hours led to speculation among experts groping for comparisons with other mass killings.
Les Roberts, a professor at Columbia University who specializes in the epidemiology of violent death, contrasted what was happening in Iran with Aleppo(Syria) and in Fallujah (Iraq),explaining that “when spasms of death this high have occurred over a few days, it involved mostly explosives with some shooting.” The only parallel offered by online databases occurred in the Holocaust when on the outskirts of Kyiv on Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, Nazi death squads executed 33,000 Ukrainian Jews by gunshot in a ravine known as Babyn Yar.
Black Days. Protesting in Iran leads to ending up in black body bags. Men stand amid rows of corpses in a morgue in Tehran following mass killings of protestors by security forces in this undated image obtained by Iran International.
So, while the US news obsessed over Minneapolis, it mostly bypassed the news out of Iran that was exposing bloodshed on a scale so horrifying it was beyond comprehension.
In a brief message sent via Starlink from Tehran to Iran International, one resident said the situation in the capital and other cities was so dire that “every person is reporting the death of a family member, relative, neighbor, or friend,” stressing that “this is not an exaggeration.”
“The air was filled with the smell of blood in Tajrish and Narmak,” an Iranian user outside the country quoted a contact as saying in a post on X, referring to neighborhoods in north and east Tehran.
“They were washing the blood from the streets with the municipal irrigation tankers they use to water roadside plants.”
Thousands more have reportedly been detained nationwide. Iranian authorities have labeled anyone present on the streets after January 8 a mohareb—“one who wages war against God”—a charge that carries the death penalty.
The whereabouts of most detainees remain unknown.
There have been reports suggesting that families being asked to pay the equivalent of €5,000 to recover the bodies of their loved ones and others asked to pay for the bullets used to kill their relatives.
Why aren’t US students, notably those at the Ivy League campuses screaming “genocide”?
What is the missing ingredient failing to ignite their passion to protest?
On Sunday, two short videos surfaced showing families inside a hangar belonging to Tehran’s forensic medicine organization in the Kahrizak area. Dozens of bodies wrapped in black bags were visible, some on gurneys and others laid directly on the floor. There is footage brought out of Iran by someone who had recently escaped the country of “… bringing in the bodies in pick-up trucks and telling people to search them themselves,” and later footage showing bodies being unloaded from trailers. “Outside the building, hundreds of people moved among rows of corpses laid directly on the ground, wailing and screaming.”
Bags of Bodies. Where are the global protests in response to photographs like these of family members searching for their loved ones among bodies placed in body bags outside the Kahrizak forensic center in the suburbs of Tehran, Iran, January 13, 2026.
In one clip, a woman’s voice can be heard crying out to her child: “Get up my love, get up for God’s sake,” as families wander among the bodies searching in shock.
The footage appeared to capture only a fraction of what was taking place.
Sadly – and tellingly – all this frightening footage and revolting revelations have also only captured “a fraction” of global news attention.
The geographic gap between Gaza and Iran is not too far apart but there is one difference. If you can’t blame Jews it is not news.
There lies the missing ingredient.
As the world this week on the 27 January observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day one would have hoped for a news media and those plethora of ‘people’s power’ movements more receptive to mass murder taking place and more responsive to the appeals for support.
It was not to be.
Holocaust comparisons as misappropriately expounded by Congressman Lynch found more resonance to what was happening in Minnesota than what was happening in Iran.
“Never Again” is typically “Once Again”.
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).
Nazi Germany existed for less than a generation. Islamic republic for nearly half a century. The list of crimes and people to be tried will be endless. That alone makes this urgent.
By Marziyeh Amirizadeh
The elimination of the Islamic Republic cannot come too soon. After 47 years since the Demonic Revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power, and Iranians to their knees, subjugated by the mullah’s extremist Islam, Iranians need to be free. Iranians will celebrate the fall of the terrorist regime with glee, but to be complete there also needs to be justice for the perpetrators. What’s needed is an Iranian version of the Nuremberg Trials.
While the ayatollahs seat of power physically is in Tehran, the spiritual seat of power is in their “holy city,” Qom. The Qom Trials will turn the city from which the Islamic Republic derived its theological “authority” abusing Iranians for decades into a capital of justice.
Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)
Following WWII and the Holocaust (with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz commemorated this week), the allied powers needed to come up with a framework to bring justice to the perpetrators of the genocide of the Jewish people and other crimes against humanity. Facing the challenge of how to deal with Nazi war criminals, rather than summary executions or purely national trials, they instituted an international legal process to establish individual accountability and deter future such crimes.
The charges against the Nazis included: conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. A total of 199 defendants were tried, 161 convicted, 37 of whom were sentenced to death. While this was groundbreaking and critical, it’s worth remembering that the Nazi’s crimes spanned less than 15 years. After 47 years of the Islamic regime in control, it seems that these numbers will only scratch the surface in Iran.
What’s needed now is to establish a new framework to try and bring to justice leaders and agents of the Islamic Republic. There is a body of international law and precedent for the world to hold foreign terrorists to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nazi Germany existed for less than a generation. Islamic republic for nearly half a century. The list of crimes and people to be tried will be endless. That alone makes this urgent.
While I was subject to the misogyny and cruelty of the Islamic Republic since I was a young girl, many of these experiences I recounted in my books, it’s hard to imagine anyone in Iran who doesn’t have a list of people who are responsible for unspeakable crimes. I have mine.
Ali Akbar HeydariFar who played an important role in repressing, torturing, and killing protesters in 2009, is one of the judges who sentenced the writer to death
Abolqasem Salavati is an infamous execution judge who ordered the execution of my best friend Shirin;
Ali Akbar HeydariFar is one of the judges who sentenced me to death;
Judge Heydari was my second judge;
Saeed Mortazavi was the judge who told me he will make sure I will be executed;
Yahya Pirabbasi, another of my judges;
MohammadMoghiseh is the judge who ordered the execution of many of my friends in prison;
Sadegh Larijani, the head of all judges;
Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi, the Tehran prosecutor who visited me in prison before my release, enraged by Pope Benedict’s letter advocating for me and my friend Mariyam, and threatening not to talk to anyone about what happened to us in prison and our trial.
Infamously known in Iran as the “Hanging Judge”along with Mohammad Moghiseh and Yahya Pirabbasi, Abolqasem Salavati, presided over the case of Mohsen Amiraslani, executed for heresy for describing Jonah and the Whale as an allegory and who ordered the execution of the writer’s best friend Shirin.
Many of the most terrible people have no online presence and go by fake names. In order never to forget them, and pray that they will be used to be brought to justice – something that seemed unimaginable in 2009 – my friend Maryam and I came up with sketches of two of the criminals. One of our interrogators went by “Rasti”. He was the one who lied and got me to the police station where the interrogations began. Another, “Haghighat” threatened to beat us until we vomited blood.
In order not to forget the faces of their tormentors in prison so that they could be brough one day to justice, the writer and her friend Maryam sketched “Rasti” and “Haghighat”.
Two more people who must be brought to justice are:
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’I, the Chief Justice of Iran who has blood of countless Iranians on his hands;
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While no Iranian presidents should escape justice, when I was in prison I witnessed how many people were arrested, tortured, and killed because of his direct order and fraudulent election that sparked the Green Movement which he repressed with unspeakable brutality.
It is important that the leaders of the regime are not able to flee, and that there is an immediate means to arrest them all, and hold them until charges can be brought. It’s also urgent that agents of the regime abroad are arrested and extradited to free Iran, and brought to justice. That’s necessary for Iranians who know who they are, but also for the Western and other countries where they live and in which they infiltrate with their evil extremist Islamic values at the behest of the ayatollahs. Left alone, they will be a national security threat to the countries that harbor them. Any country that takes and shelters leaders and agents of the regime to be protected in their borders should face unrelenting sanctions.
Saeed Mortazavi was the judge who told the writer he “will make sure I will be executed”, has been linked to the closure of 120 publications, the murder of Iranian Canadian journalist in July 2003 Zahra Kazemi and the murder of protesters in the Kahrizak detention center in 2009.
Part of the justice that’s needed in order for Iranians to feel as if they are truly liberated is that the trials must be held, and justice served, in Iran. Doing so will create an example to the world and to the Iranian people. International trials will not do the same.
The crimes of the Islamic regime and its leaders has not been limited to the horrific scenes we have seen coming out or Iran these past weeks, but the wholesale brutalization of millions of Iranians for nearly half a century. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Maybe millions. The Islamic Republic and its leaders are guilty or widespread crimes directly, and through its terrorist tentacle proxies, around the globe, where millions more have suffered. There needs to be justice for them, and there needs to be a trial of the ayatollahs, mullahs, judges, IRGC, basij, jailers, interrogators, police and others who are guilty of these crimes.
Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi – responsible for the arrest and torture of many journalists, young bloggers, human rights advocates, political activists and reformist leaders – visited the writer before her release and threatened her not to talk to anyone about her experiences in prison.
Following President Trump’s post to encourage Iranians in early January:
“KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY! MIGA!!!,” Iranians took to the streets and have continued to protest. Tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured.
Like those found guilty in Nuremberg, the bodies of those who are sentenced to death should be cremated, their ashes dumped into the Persian Gulf in order to prevent ever setting up a shrine to them. The tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini should be burned to the ground, and its remains and his also dumped into the Gulf.
Doing this will serve as an additional form of justice for the hundreds of thousands or more victims of the Islamic Republic, many of whom were simply disappeared and have no resting place, and no closure for their loved ones. While their crimes cannot be erased, every physical presence of their lives can be.
In a dream once, I asked God why He allowed the suffering to take place in Iran. He said that He was giving the leaders the opportunity to repent and, if not, He would bring His justice. I am praying that President Trump will follow his words with swift action, that the senseless and criminal murder of tens of thousands of Iranians will stop, and that everyone involved from the “Supreme Leader” down to the lowest policeman will be arrested and see justice.
About the writer:
Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.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).
Israel’s last major allies are several hundred million Protestant Zionists but the Islamist world – with compliant local church support – is desperate to break this alliance.
By John Enarson
On January 17, the Roman Catholic Church and its allied denominations in Jerusalem released a statement condemning Christian support for Israel as a “damaging ideology” that misleads the public and harms church unity. This might look like a unified Christian front turning against the Jewish State – but for hundreds of millions of Evangelical supporters of Israel, this statement clarifies exactly why we are not just Zionists—we are “Protestant” Zionists.
Sad Statement of Affairs. The Catholic Church and its allied denominations in Jerusalem “declared war on Christian Zionism” in a statement released January 17 (see above) , where the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land — led by the Roman Catholic hierarchy along with Eastern Catholic, Orthodox, and other traditional church leaders — condemned Christian support for Israel as a “damaging ideology” that misleads the public and harms Christian unity.
The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem claim to be bothered by some “Christian” ideology, but the real issue is that these Christians are helping the Jewish people retain national sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. Under traditional Catholic or Eastern Orthodox theology, Jews might be tolerated as stateless minorities in Christian lands. However, the idea that the Jewish nation has a biblical right to sovereignty violates centuries of supersessionist theology—the belief that the Church has replaced Israel.
As Evangelical supporters of Israel, we are “Protestant” for a reason. We “protest” against the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox traditions that preceded it. While modern apologists suggest the Protestant Reformation is over, the protest remains vital, whether against the worship of Mary, or images, or unbiblical soteriology. Chief among our objections is the betrayal of the Bible in favor of church tradition. The foremost meaning of “Evangelical” is to believe in the primacy of Scripture (the euangelion in old parlance).
The Jerusalem churches’ statement does not even attempt a Scriptural argument. They rely on the old accusation that defying their theology is the “sin of disunity.” They ignore that we have compelling biblical grounds for our stance. As offensive as it may sound to the secular West or the old ecclesiastical hierarchies, we maintain that God’s Word is firmly on the side of Jewish restoration. As Romans 3:4 reminds us, God will be found true, though every man a liar.
Exposing Intent. The writer strolling outside the Old City in Jerusalem asserts that the Vatican has been one of the strongest anti-Zionist actors in the West, ever since Jewish independence.
This leads to the second fundamental reason for our divergence: the definition of a Christian.
For Evangelicals, one is not a Christian by being born into a church as if it were an ethnicity. The Protestant Reformation revived the biblical truth that Christianity springs from personal faith, being “born again” (John 3:3–7) to follow Jesus and submit to Scripture. As Evangelical singer Keith Green famously quipped:
“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.”
This stands in stark contrast to the Middle East, where for centuries — surrounded by dominant Islam — to be “Christian” is effectively an ethnic minority status. Under Islamic dominance, these communities survived by behaving as subservient dhimmis. In this context, the faith often becomes a cultural collective rather than a personal conviction.
Evangelicals understand that there are many individual true believers in the nominal churches, irrespective of cultural tradition. Moreover, we recognize that there is real persecution of nominal Christians in the Middle East. Jihadists who burn churches and behead Christians do not care if they have been born again or not. To them, even secular, hedonistic Europe is “Christian”. The jihadists exemplify sheer hatred against the cross and the Bible, and care not for any nuance. This garners Evangelical sympathy around the world. We mourn and protest this persecution.
However, the Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies in the Holy Land attempt to weaponize this sympathy to marshal the church, including Evangelicals, against the Jewish State. They tell the world, “Israel is oppressing us.” But the reality is far more complex. The “Christians of the Holy Land” are a complex collective primarily under Jihadist — not a Jewish — threat.
Consider the anecdotal observations of Eastern Orthodox Christian Ridvan Aydemir, an online phenomenon and expressly not a Christian Zionist. He recently came to the Holy Land to investigate the conflict for social commentary and found problems on all sides, including among traditional Christians. Ridvan was then attacked for betraying the Christians of the Holy Land. He responded bluntly:
“What Christians are you talking about? You mean those who are embroiled in gang violence over there? Who are actually active in gang violence? Who are running shady businesses in the Holy Land? Or those who are submissive to the Muslims, accepting their role as dhimmis and doing whatever the Muslims tell them because their lives are too precious to them and they just want to live in peace? … Or do you mean those who actively work for the Islamic Iranian regime and with Hamas and other terrorist organizations? Which Christians are you talking about? Or do you mean those who, for the sake of keeping the peace, do whatever Hamas tells them to do, or say whatever Hamas tells them to say, while behind the scenes telling Israel, ‘Hey, we know you’re right, we’re on your side, but we can’t just publicly [say so]?’ Do you mean those cowards? Or do you mean the good ones who actually stand up for themselves over there? Which Christians are you talking about? You have to be more specific” (ApostateProphet, YouTube, Nov 6, 2025).
This is the blunt mechanism of the conflict:
Jihadists fight the “blasphemy” of Jewish independence in the Middle East. The international community pressure Israel to give these Jihadists self-governing control in places like Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Gaza. Here, the Jihadists mercilessly begin to persecute Christians and any moderate Muslims under their control. Meanwhile, Christian communities that remain under Israeli control go on to flourish. Using cities like Bethlehem as their base, the Jihadists continue their attacks on Jews (the Second Intifada). Israel responds by installing security measures, which cut down the suicide bombings dramatically. However, it means everyone (including Christians) from Bethlehem must go through long security checkpoints. Muslims then use Christian dhimmis under their oppression as pawns. These churches largely do not believe what the Bible says about the Jews and Israel anyway. Thus, the historic churches of the Holy Land tell the world:
Israel is oppressing us. How can Christian Zionists support the Israeli aggression against fellow Christians in the Holy Land? And if Israel does not surrender to the Jihadists, it will enrage Muslims against other Christian dhimmis throughout the Middle East. Stop the Zionists!
History is ironic. The Church once claimed to replace the Jews, reenforcing their stateless misery. Then, Islam arose with its own supersessionist claim, forcing Middle Eastern Christians into second-class dhimmi status, denying them any sovereignty over Muslims. Now, after 2,000 years, God has kept His biblical promise and restored Jewish sovereignty, putting the lie to both theologies.
The last major allies Israel has, are the several hundred million Protestant Zionists. The Islamist world, with the help of compliant local churches, is desperate to break this alliance. Thus, Muslim and Christian statements issue forth, labeling “Zionism” a “damaging ideology”, blaming it for everything from racism and colonialism to world wars and the common cold. But actual Zionism is simply “the belief that, like other nations, the Jewish people have the legitimate right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland.” Christian Zionism ties this belief to solid, Biblical support. Some are dispensationalist, while others are not. Thus, Christian Zionists (like many Jews), not only hold this view to be the just, legal, and historically correct position, but also a modern miracle of biblical significance.
We can only speculate, but the nervous tone of the ecclesiastical statement, which protests that the “Patriarchs and Heads of Churches” themselves are the only legitimate authority on these matters, suggests that there could be a movement of traditional Christians — even ecclesiastical leaders meeting with officials — who are tired of playing the dhimmi to Islamist oppression in the Holy Land. These voices may see an alliance with Israel, even a deeper theological reevaluation of their relationship with Israel, as the way of the future, and rightly so.
Interestingly, by expressly blaming Christian Zionism as a “damaging ideology”. the statement is also attacking Jews and Judaism which holds the same biblical conviction. Even non-Zionist Orthodox Jews recognize that the Bible clearly gives the Land to the Jewish people eternally. To call this biblical view theologically unsound is not only to mock biblical logic, but to de-facto attack pious Jews as well — a position the Catholic Church has attempted to be more careful about after its failures in the Holocaust. After Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the biblical significance of Jews and Judaism. But it stopped short of acknowledging their right to the Land. This promise — which is the most oft-repeated promise in the entire Bible — is thus far denied to the Jews in Catholic theology.
Only on the rarest occasions have Catholic leaders been willing to express any openness to the biblical position on the Land. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn came close in a 2005 address at the Hebrew University where he emphasized that Christians should recognize the Jewish connection to the Holy Land and rejoice in the return of Jews to it as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. He also referenced Pope John Paul II‘s view that the biblical commandment for Jews to live in Israel represents an everlasting covenant that remains valid today. A local Christian priest immediately protested, but to his credit, Cardinal Schönborn did not yield (Catholics for Israel, Mar 31, 2005; citing Jerusalem Post and Washington Post). However, this has never been acknowledged as any official position of the Roman Catholic Church.
A Cardinal Clash. When visiting Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (above) expressed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005 that Jews living in Israel represented an “everlasting covenant”, a local Christian priest immediately protested signifying the opposition of Catholic orthodoxy to recognising and biblical Jewish connection to the Holy Land.
By and large, while often expressing solidarity with the Jewish diaspora, the Vatican has been one of the strongest anti-Zionist actors in the West, ever since Jewish independence. This is evident in everything from papal audiences helping rebrand arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat as a statesman, to Pope Francis holding Mass in Bethlehem in front of a massive mural of Jesus and Joseph sporting keffiyehs, helping launder the lie the “Jesus was a Palestinian”. It remains a lie. Jesus is a Jew.
Laundering Lies. In December 2024, Pope Francis inaugurated a nativity scene in the Vatican showing baby Jesus on keffiyeh to promote and help popularize a relatively new and false narrative that “Jesus was a Palestinian”.
In sum, we are Protestants. We are Biblical Zionists. And we stand for justice in the Holy Land. We protest the unbiblical interpretations of the Roman Catholic Church and its allies. We hold their biblical theology of Israel and the Jews to be thoroughly lacking. We also protest the suffering of historic Christian communities under Islamist oppression. But we see through ecclesiastical statements trying to blame such hardships on the Jewish State and mislead the Evangelical world.
About the writer:
John Enarsonis an author and Christian theology student from Sweden. He has lived in the Middle East for over 25 years and currently serves as the Christian Relations Director at Cry For Zion (cryforzion.com). He is happy to receive input or questions about his articles. j.enarson @gmail.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).
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This photo is an indictment as much against the West as against Iran Appealing for the support that characterized the streets and colleges of the West since October 2023, Iranians – cut off from communicating – are met with a deafening “Sounds of Silence”.
The desert saying, “The dog barks but the caravan moves on,” reflects Western indifference while Iranian protestors are slaughtered, hospitals struggle to treat the injured, women wail at cemeteries overwhelmed by the dead, and morgues fill with bags holding unidentified bodies. (Photo: Kim Kyung/Reuters)
ARTICLES
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BATTLEGROUNDS FOR RECONCILIATION
The Pivotal Role of HBCUs in combating antisemitism in America’s Black Community. By Jonathan Feldstein
Reviving Reconciliation. While Martin Luther King Jr. – seen here with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – expressed the Jewish community “more than any other ethnic group” stood by the Black community, historical shifts, cultural influences, and educational institutions have fueled division. Can this process be reversed?
How regime change in Iran can lead to a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East. By Neville Berman
To Be or Not to Be. Its not just a rhetorical question but the future of millions of Iranians and people in the region and around the world wait in anticipation for the dawn of a new era of peace and prosperity.
From running marathons to running a top travel agency, Allan Wolman could also not get faster enough to Israel in 1967 to volunteer during the Six Day War. A tribute by David E. Kaplan
True to his Word. A frequent contributor to Lay of the Land, we pay tribute to this former South African who in his own way, fought for Israel both in word and in deed.
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).
19 January 2026 – What is up with the. “Board of Peace” and more on The Israel Brief.
20 January 2026 – A very special guest on The Israel Brief.
21 January 2026 – The Israel Brief from the ANU museum.
22 January 2026 – Board of Peace treaty signed – all the controversy 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).
The Pivotal Role of HBCUs in combating antisemitism in America’s Black Community.
By Jonathan Feldstein
In a candid, insightful, and wide-ranging conversation on “Inspiration from Zion,” Dana White, founder of the Randolph L. White Foundation, communications specialist, and a former Pentagon spokesperson, delved into the roots of antisemitism within the Black community in the United States. Drawing from her personal experiences and her 2024 article, “Why HBCUs Are Key to Fighting Antisemitism,” White highlighted how historical shifts, cultural influences, and educational institutions have fueled division. Yet, she argued, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) hold immense potential as battlegrounds for reconciliation, echoing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
White in Washington. As the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Dana W. White served as the Pentagon Chief Spokesperson for both the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
White’s insights stem from her family’s multigenerational story, which underscores the once-strong Black-Jewish alliances. Her grandfather, born in 1896, rose from a janitor at the University of Virginia Hospital to a managerial role (the first ever such role there for a Black man) thanks to a Jewish doctor, Dr. Goodwin. This act of recognition embodied the Jewish ethos of tikkun olam —repairing the world — remains central to her and her family’s identity, as it propelled her family’s trajectory. Her parents, graduates of Howard University in the 1960s, cherished fond memories of their Jewish neighbors and faculty, including those who fled Nazi Germany and found refuge at HBCUs. At a time where quotas existed for Jews in many areas across America, these institutions, White noted, saved about 50 German Jews with visas during the Holocaust, fostering a shared history of common destiny and resilience.
Soldier for Justice. Dana White’s grandfather, Sgt. Randolph L White, US Army, proudly served in the 9th Calvary, also known as the famed Buffalo Soldiers and would go on to be an influential African American newspaper publisher, hospital administrator, and civil-rights activist.
White highlighted the post-civil rights era where Blacks and Jews were close allies. The reality of the Jewish role in the civil rights movement is largely not remembered by anyone under 80 she said. Yet the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed this reality on March 26, 1968, days before he was assassinated:
“Probably more than any other ethnic group, the Jewish community has been sympathetic and has stood as an ally to the Negro in his struggle for justice.”
Yet following King’s assassination and the civil rights movement was a turning point for the unraveling of these positive relations, and seeded rising antisemitism in the Black community. Desegregation in the 1970s led to a “melting away” of familiar ties. Middle-class Blacks and Jews moved out of urban areas, leaving vulnerable populations amid economic decline, drug epidemics, and mass incarceration. This vacuum bred anger and a victim mindset, amplified by the Nation of Islam’s hateful rhetoric. White described how figures like Louis Farrakhan propagated misinformation, such as exaggerated claims of Jewish involvement in the slave trade, which gained traction organically; in barbershops, salons, and family gatherings without counter-narratives because once close personal relationships as her family experienced had eroded.
HBCUs, once havens of Black excellence, became influential conduits for this shift. White contrasted her parents’ positive experiences at Howard — where a significant Jewish presence promoted mutual respect — with her brother’s experience in the early 1990s. By then, HBCUs had transformed into “breeding grounds for revenge history,” a term White uses for distorted narratives seeking retribution against perceived oppressors. Nation of Islam newspapers circulated on campuses, blending empowerment messages with vitriol against Jews as “the other” or “super white people.” Cultural elements like hip-hop, reinforced these tropes. Intersectionality and cultural relativism, emerging in these academic spaces, further alienated Jews by framing them within oppressive structures.
Despite producing only 10% of Black bachelor’s degree holders, HBCUs wield outsized influence, graduating 80% of Black judges, 50% of Black lawyers, and 40% of Black engineers and doctors. This leadership pipeline means ideas incubated there permeate Black culture and mainstream America. White lamented the drift: many HBCU students today have never met a Jew, leading to or at least not having any counteractive balance of the demonization of Jews. She shared stories of sponsoring Black students to visit Israel, where they discovered shared family dynamics during Shabbat dinners, dispelling these myths.
Birthed out of Exclusion. Founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries during a time of widespread racial segregation, Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were created to provide educational opportunities for African Americans who were systematically excluded from mainstream colleges and universities. Fostering academic excellence, these institutions produced generations of African American professionals, leaders, and scholars.
To reverse this, White advocates leveraging HBCUs as anti-antisemitism hubs through deliberate re-engagement. Jewish communities should invest in campuses — via funding like Michael Bloomberg’s recent commitments — and foster personal connections. “It’s not one-offs,” she emphasized. Through sustained dialogues, shared meals, and educational programs can rebuild familiarity, positive changes can be made. Breaking bread humanizes the “other,” making it harder to hate. White envisions local partnerships, like those at Bowie State University in Maryland, where Jewish and Black groups convene for honest conversations followed by communal events.
Monumental Message. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on March 26, 1968 expressed that the Jewish community “Probably more than any other ethnic group…. has stood as an ally to the Negro in his struggle for justice.”
Central to White’s vision is reviving the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy she believes has been diluted. King, a staunch Zionist, collaborated closely with Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and benefited from Jewish support in the civil rights movement. His final speech evoked the “Promised Land,” drawing from Exodus — a narrative that fueled Black spirituals and faith during slavery. White speculated King would be disappointed today with:
– the frayed Black-Jewish bonds post-desegregation
– the pervasive victimhood language among those far removed from Jim Crow
– the declining Black literacy rates, and
– the indifference to antisemitism.
Special Bond. Friends and prophets, Abraham Joshua Heschel (left) brought Martin Luther King (right) and his message to a wide Jewish audience, and King made Heschel a central figure in the struggle for civil rights. Often lecturing together, they both spoke about racism, Zionism and about the struggles of Jews in the Soviet Union.
He rose with Jewish backing for organizations like the NAACP, yet modern divisions ignore this shared fight for justice. King would decry how politics overshadowed faith in Black churches, urging a return to Old Testament teachings of hope and self-reliance.
Following her recent visit to Israel where she witnessed the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and ensuing war, White’s call is particularly urgent amid surges in antisemitism. She noted that these began the very next day, on October 8, with masses around the world blaming the victim, and she even sees antisemitism as more insidious and permissive than racism. Wearing a Star of David in solidarity, she urges non-Jews to speak out, emphasizing Israel’s unparalleled efforts to protect civilians. By harnessing HBCUs’ cultural clout for education and alliance-building, the Black community can honor King’s vision, repairing divides through dialogue and mutual recognition. As White reflected, small acts — like Dr. Goodwin’s promotion of her grandfather — create ripples. In an era of ignorance, HBCUs offer a pathway to empathy, ensuring antisemitism’s roots are uprooted for generations to come.
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 Journal, 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).
From running marathons to running a top travel agency, Allan Wolman could also not get faster enough to Israel in 1967 to volunteer during the Six Day War.
A tribute by David E. Kaplan
It was with such surprise and sadness that we, at Lay of the Landheard the sad news that Allan Wolman, a contributor to our media platform over the years, had passed away on January 20, 2026. In our digital age where we engage less in person, we were unaware that he had been so ill in recent months.
My first thoughts that came to mind was how fit Allan had been having run three times in South Africa’s famed “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well riding in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s equally famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. All this we gleaned from his bio under his numerous articles.
What also came to mind to us at Lay of the Land was his article on his experiences as a volunteer to Israel in 1967, which we published in June 2022 on the 55th anniversary of the Six Day War. As in October 2023 when Israel was attacked and faced multiple enemies on multiple fronts and its future was uncertain, so too was the situation in June 1967 – uncertain. However, for overseas volunteers like Allan in Johannesburg, there was no “uncertainty” where they needed to be:
“We needed to be in Israel.”
Having signed up as a volunteer at the Zionist Federation in Johannesburg, when war did break out on the 5thJune, Allan relates he felt a sense of disappointment “as one group had already departed for Israel, and I was not part of it. With ears glued to the radio constantly, as well as almost camping at the Zionist Fed, the days ticked by until I received the call to be ready to leave that evening!
Connecting at the Knesset. Only a year after the new Knesset building in Jerusalem was dedicated on August 30, 1966 (background) and only days after Jerusalem was reunited and restored to Jewish sovereignty after 2000 years, volunteer Allan Wolman explores Israel’s reunited capital.
The excitement was overwhelming. I called my parents and next my dad arranged $300 – money that he could ill afford at the time – and rushed around to pack and get ready to leave.
Our SAA plane was a Boeing 707 that took about 250 passengers – all full of volunteers! The excitement at the departure hall was so memorable with proud Dad, tearful Mom and all my ‘envious’ friends who clubbed together and gave me $100 – a fortune in those days!”
For most of the group this was their first trip out of South Africa and it was to a country at war. Most people characteristically flee from wars but not these young Jews, mostly students, who put their lives – and for some their loves – on hold, to support the call of “our Jewish state in need.”
Allan recalls the excitement on the last leg of the flight to Israel from Athens on an El Al flight where on route they were joined by an Israeli fighter jet “to escort us in as the war was not yet over.”
MIDNIGHT AT DIZENGOFF
Allan’s first impression disembarking at then Lod Airport was of “abunch of bearded rowdy looking soldiers looking fearsome. After the necessary arrival requirements, our group was bussed to a senior citizen’s home in Herzliya – by that time it was already dark, enhanced by the enforced blackout. I remember those first few hours so vividly – the residents of the home were clapping and cheering us. After an almost 24-hour flight and the excitement of landing in Israel, some of our group walked down to experience a swim in the Mediterranean and then – even with the war and the “blackout” – we hitched that evening a ride into Tel Aviv. Sometime before midnight, we arrived at Dizengoff Street –the only place we had heard of – when the cease-fire came into effect and the lights were turned on and the euphoria was simply indescribable. After six days of anxiety, the nation breathed a sigh of relief.”
Relic of War. Allan Wolman leaning back on a burnt-out Jordanian Jeep on a tour of the West Bank shortly after fighting ceased
With what Israel has been experiencing over the past two years since October 7 – of its reservists abroad returning home to fight and its civilians volunteering – it was interesting to ‘travel’ back to 1967 and see how the Jewish youth in the Diaspora responded to the unfolding crisis. Allan writes how the morning after their arrival, they were assigned to kibbutzim across the country “to assist with agricultural work as most of the men were still in the army.” Allan was assigned to kibbutz Kvutzat Schiller (Gan Shlomo) near Rehovot in central Israel and it felt “like landing on another planet.” Following orientation, “I was billeted in a room with three other young guys from England, two of which remained lifelong friends.” Of the fellow South Africans in his group, he writes of Raymond (“Rafi”) Lowenberg who remained in Israel, married, but was tragically killed on the first day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. “I have hardly ever missed a memorial day in honour of Raymond – a brilliant guy; had his matric before he had a driver’s license and a degree at age nineteen.”
Having a Field Day. Fellow volunteers of the writer (including Raymond Lowenberg and Peter Edel) join a group of army Nachalniks in June 1967 working on kibbutz Kvutzat Schiller’s cotton plantation.
Allan records touring around Israel with his new friends most notably towards the Suez Canal not too long after the war ended “and witnessed the endless lines of destroyed Egyptian army trucks and tanks. We hiked through Gaza, and Gaza City was a dingy backward town with no building higher than two stories. Also hiked to El Arish, again a pretty backward little town. We never made it to the Canal but pretty close as it was a military security zone. Hiking back to Israel proper, Peter, Raymond, Alan and I were given a ride by an Arab Taxi who on route back, decided to turn off the road into an Arab refugee camp, which was a pretty hostile areas for Jews to venture in. Anxious and afraid of what lay ahead for us, we discussed in broken Afrikaans to knock the driver unconscious and take over his car to avoid the danger we feared lay ahead. Such bravado came to nought as the taxi stopped outside a house where his wife and children came out to collect fruit and vegetables he was delivering to his family. We felt ashamed for suspecting the worst.”
Dig This. Sitting on a destroyed Jordanian military earth-mover, are (left-right) volunteers Allan Wolman, Peter Edel and Raymond Lowenberg.
Again, what is reminiscent of the current war in so far as Israelis uniting for the return of all the hostages held in Gaza, and civilians across the country volunteering in their support for the soldiers, Allan’s recollections capture a similar mood in 1967 of national unity and support:
“What struck me was the coming together of everyone in support of each other. There was such unity. This was so visibly evident when traveling around the country and seeing at every town or settlement, refreshment tables set out by the women of the area preparing sandwiches and refreshments for the soldiers who were either leaving or joining their units as the army remained on full alert.”
Allan’s writing captures the elated atmosphere in Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War, describing that period:
“…as one of the most profound and memorable experiences of my life. Firstly, this was my very first trip overseas and, in a country, celebrating (with much relief) one of the most astounding military victories in modern warfare, the mood was one of exuberance and happiness after the anxiety leading up to the war. Most of the time was spent working various jobs on the Kibbutz from working in the chicken sheds shoveling chicken ‘shit’ to working in the various orchards and apple packing plant and weeding the cotton fields. You knew you had ‘made it’ – I am talking here serious ‘upward mobility’ – when you were trusted to drive a tractor. This was a status symbol; a far cry from the chicken coup!”
He records the “amazing” evenings as:
“a living metaphor of the sixties. We sat around our rooms drinking coffee and socializing with the girls; Raymond would be playing his guitar and we would listen mesmerised to the music and lyrics of the latest Beetles classic – “Sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band”. For sure, we were anything but ‘lonely’; we all felt part of something great happening, so much bigger than ourselves.”
Allan concludes with “all good things must come to an end” and one morning “I came to the realization that if I didn’t get off the Kibbutz, I would remain there for the rest of my life,” so he packed his bags and said his goodbyes and left to spend a few weeks with his cousin Cyril Swiel in Tel Aviv. It proved “a real learning experience seeing the other side of life in Israel. I met up with some friends from South Africa and decided to travel through Europe and see the world.”
Field of Dreams. Having “lots of fun, laughter and discussing girls” says Allan Wolman (left) followed by Peter Edel and Raymond Lowenberg while picking apples in the orchids.
That zest to “see the world” would lead Allan towards the tourist industry where following his return to South Africa he would go on to run one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg, Rosebank Travel and co-found the XL Travel Group. However, “seeing the world” could never quite match his “being in Israel” in 1967, an impact that sowed the seed for eventually, decades later in 2019, making Aliyah – settling in the Jewish state.
We will miss Allan’s writing, notably his exposure of hypocrisy. This was evident in his Lay of the Land article WHEN DOES LACK OF FOOD MORPH INTO LACK OF TRUTH, that took to task the global media that was“hellbent on shaming Israel in the midst of an existential war,” while “ignoringthe mega-million starving across the world.” He wrote, “If you didn’t know better, you’d think Gaza was the only place on earth where children go hungry. Just switch on CNN, Sky, or BBC – every night another solemn anchor, another indignant UN official, another weepy “expert” telling us what a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza. And yes, it is tragic. But if starvation is now characterised as the world’s ‘No. 1’ war crime, what about all the other famines the media doesn’t bother to cover?”
Exposing selective news coverage similar with what is happening today in the global media by ignoring the fate of the protestors in Iran, Allan wrote that when it came to Gaza, “suddenly every camera lens, every crocodile tear, and every moral sermon is locked in. The media’s appetite for images of starving children seems oddly selective – especially when it’s Israel in their crosshairs. We hear next to nothing about starvation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia in the Horn of Africa,” or in his native South Africa “a country run by a government that shouts ‘a better life for all!’ while literally letting its children starve to death.”
Lives only matter “when it suits the script” wrote Allan.
Allan pulled no punches in telling it the way it is
We will miss that as we will miss him.
We, at Lay of the Land, extend our deepest condolences to wife Jocelyn, their three sons and their families.
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).
How regime change in Iran can lead to a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
By Neville Berman
Iran is a Persian country with a history, culture and civilization that goes back nearly 3,000 years. The Muslim conquest of the 7th century spread Islam to Persia. Currently the world’s Muslim population is approximately 2 billion people, of whom approximately 85% are Sunni Muslims. In Iran the majority of the population of 89 million are Shia Muslims. They constitute the majority of the 15% of Shia Muslims in the world.
In 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, renamed Persia and called it Iran. Iran has the third largest oil reserves in the world. It is one of the five founding member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries known as OPEC. Iran is 80 times larger than Israel. It is strategically situated bordering 7 countries, and has maritime access to both the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Considering the world’s dependence on oil, Iran should be one of the most prosperous countries in the world from exporting vast quantities of oil. Instead of prosperity, Iran is now on the brink of economic collapse and its currency is almost worthless.
Favorable Future. Should Reza Pahlaviplay a future role in a post-Islamic Iran, the exiled Iranian prince vows to recognize Israel, expand the Abraham Accords into the “Cyrus Accords” linking a free Iran with Israel and Arab states and said “…a free Iran will be a force for peace, for prosperity, and for partnership.”
How did this happen?
To understand the present situation, one has to look at the history of the country over the past 75 years. In 1951, the Iranian government under Mosaddegh, nationalized the Ango-Iranian Oil Company. This became the catalyst that led to a CIA backed coup that overthrew Mosaddegh in 1953. He was replaced by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran who was pro America. Following the coup, major US oil companies broke the previous British monopoly on Iranian oil production, and gained access to the Iranian oil market. The Shah’s attempt to liberalize the country by adopting Western norms and behavior were initially welcomed, but gradually turned millions of religious conservative Iranians against his policies that clashed with Islamic values. The hugely uneven distribution of wealth resulted in unrest that sparked widespread repressive measures by the Shah. The end result was the Iranian Revolution and in January 1979 the Shah was forced to flee. During the revolution the American Embassy in Tehran was attacked and overrun. Fifty-two American diplomats were seized as hostages. They were held captive for 444 days. Iran became an enemy of America.
A month after the Shah was forced to flee, Ruhollah Khomeinireturned from exile in Paris, and became the Supreme Leader of Iran with the title of Ayatollah. He immediately turned Iran into a Shiite theocracy. All normal relations between America and Iran and between Israel and Iran ended. In March 1979, Habib Elghanian, the wealthiest Jew in Tehran was arrested and executed after a sham trial. All his properties and possessions were seized by the State. Dozens of other wealthy Jews were arrested and forced to pay enormous sums of money to be released. The Jews in Iran became powerless.The widely used slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” symbolized the regimes rejection of American and Israeli interference and influence in Iran’s internal affairs. All the assets of the American oil companies in Iran were nationalized. In April 1979, Iran was renamed the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Murdering Mullahs. Following the execution of Iran’s most affluent Jewish businessman and philanthropist Habib Elghanian on false spying charges on 9 May, 1979, thousands of Jews fled Iran.
In September 1980, Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran. The war was seen by both America and Russia as an opportunity to make huge profits. America sold billions of dollars of arms to Iraq, and Russia sold billions of dollars of arms to Iran. Neither America nor Russia saw any benefit in ending the war. Approximately 300,000 Iranians and an equal number of Iraqis were killed in the war and hundreds of thousands were injured. Eight years after the war started, it finally ended in a stalemate. In June 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini died. He was replaced by Ali Khamenei who became the Supreme Leader of the Islamist Republic of Iran and continues to rule to this day.
In a sort of a reverse Midas touch situation, Khamenei, adopted policies that metaphorically speaking turned gold into lead. The State religion of Iran is the Twelver form of Shiite Islam. They believe that 12 divinely appointed Imans are the successors to the Prophet Muhammad and that the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century, is miraculously still alive, and will reappear at the end of time. Global justice and peace under Sharia law will then be established. Khamenei has a fanatical belief that what he calls the Zionist entity needs to be destroyed before the 12th Iman will return.
Khamenei authorized spending billions of dollars on building a nuclear program that is clearly aimed at producing nuclear weapons. In 2006, the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iran for failing to suspend its uranium enrichment program, and for non-cooperation with the inspections carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
In 2015, President Obama entered into an agreement with Iran known as the JCPOA deal. The agreement immediately released billions of frozen dollars belonging to Iran, and ended the UN sanctions against Iran. In return, Iran agreed to limits on its uranium enrichment program, and allowed inspections by the IAEA. In February 2025, President Trump, fed up with continual Iranian lies about its nuclear program, and refusal to allow inspections in certain sites, announced a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. He imposed American sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Khamenei spent vast amounts of money financing, training and arming proxy terrorist organizations in countries across the Middle East. The idea was to create a crescent of a “ring of fire” of proxy armies that would at some point in time, eliminate Israel.
Dead End. ‘Dead’ set on the demise of the “Big Satin” and “Little Satin”, paramilitary troops under the IRGC’s command carry coffins symbolizing the end of the U.S. and Israel during a military rally in Tehran, Nov. 24, 2023.(Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/Zuma Press).
In addition to all the financial problems, Iran is also presently experiencing a severe water shortage. The irony of the situation is that nearly 3,000 years ago, the Persians solved their water problems. They developed a water system known as the qanat – pronounced Kah-Naht. It was based on providing water by constructing gradually sloping underground tunnels to allow water from aquifers on hills and mountains to flow down and across areas that could then be inhabited, and on which agricultural production could thrive. The underground tunnels reduced evaporation to a minimum. The qanat system relied on gravity and the flow of water could be controlled by opening and closing tunnels. The qanat system sustained a thriving Persian society for thousands of years. The network was vast and covering between 250,000 – 350,000 km. It was truly a groundbreaking success of immense proportions. Parts of the qanat system are still operational, and between 8-15% of Iran’s current water supply comes from a system that was constructed thousands of years ago. Israel can help Iran to solve its water crises. Israel has experience and expertise in building and operating desalination plants, and is a world leader in recycling sewage water for agricultural use. It has also developed drip irrigation and modern water management systems based on up to the minute computerized data.
Israel has no border dispute with Iran, and there is an ancient history of help going all the way back to Cyrus the Great, who conquered the Babylonians, and then helped Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple. Before the fall of the Shah, there were normal relations between Israel and Iran. It is time to restore these relations, and restart flights from Tel Aviv to Tehran that actually land in Tehran instead of dropping bombs on Tehran. Joining the Cyrus Accords is very much in Iran’s interest. It will change the Middle East for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people. The exiled Crown Prince Pahlavi has said he would expand the Abraham Accords to be the Cyrus Accords – hearkening back to the historical ties between the Jewish and Persian people
Obsessive Hate. Nearly six months before the October 7, 2023 massacre, Iranian demonstrators on April 14, 2023 burn in Tehran an Israeli flag in a rally marking Jerusalem Day. (Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP)
In June 2025, Israel responded to all the nefarious actions by Iran and their proxy terrorist groups, and attacked Iran directly. In a pinpoint aerial attack, Israel destroyed the Iranian air defenses, and assassinated several leading nuclear scientists and prominent military leaders. With full Israeli control of Iranian airspace, Israel began attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and launch sites of intercontinental missiles. The United States took advantage of the lack of air defenses and dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs that destroyed the underground uranium enrichment sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. In 12 days, tens of billions of dollars invested in Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed.
Instead of building desalination plants and improving the lives of the Iranian people, the Mullahs were obsessed with trying to destroy Israel. It was and is a disastrous losing strategy with devastating consequences for the Iranian people and the entire region. Instead of peace and prosperity, death, destruction and poverty resulted. The people of Iran are fed up with the policies of their government. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, perhaps millions, are openly protesting against the Iranian government. The government has resorted to shooting thousands of protestors in a desperate attempt to cling to power.
Regime change in Iran will open the possibility of ending Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions. This will result in peace and prosperity returning to Iran. In order to stabilize the economic situation, a new currency will need to be introduced in Iran. All the terrorist entities that Iran has supported and sustained under the leadership of Khamenei will not survive. It could be the beginning of a new Middle East.
Without regime change in Iran, tens of thousands of demonstrators are likely to be killed, and the Middle East will remain a ticking time bomb of terrorism and instability. The window of opportunity to bring about regime change in Iran has opened, but will not remain open for long. Let us hope that the foreign leaders who have the power to support the protestors and accelerate regime change in Iran, have the wisdom and courage to make the right decisions. The end of the rule of Khamenei, coupled with Iran joining the Cyrus Accords is the surest way to ensure a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
*Feature picture:High Stakes Face off. US President Donald Trump (l) and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (r)
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).
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Hula Nature Reserve in northern Israel, January 13, 2026.(Photo: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
Under a Dark Cloud. In a week that people in the region were bracing for war, it was a welcome sight to be greeted in the morning media by nature’s symbol of Hope, New Beginnings, Peace and Divine Promise.
ARTICLES
Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.
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TO THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN TO STAGE, SCREEN AND PETITION – FACTS MATTER
An Open Letter to the Entertainment Industry. By Rolene Marks
Face the Facts. The writer confronts with FACTS those voices from “stage, screen and the recording arts” who advocate for Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, gender equality and other Human Rights groups but are SILENT when it comes to Israelis and Jews.
A tribute to Israeli entrepreneur, innovator, philanthropist and visionary Morris Kahn (1930-2026) who sought frontiers below and beyond. By David E. Kaplan
Feisty Frontiersman. From manufacturing bicycles to telecommunication software powerhouse, to creating unique tourist underwater observatories beneath the world’s oceans, to supporting Israel’s entry into the Space Age, Morris Kahn has been a true trailblazer.
A Jew opposing Jewish statehood displays today historical illiteracy or suicidal self-destructiveness. By Grant Gochin
Defining the Difference. Far from the common “colonial” slur, Zionism at its most basic core, explains the writer “…means to stop murdering Jews, while antizionism means to continue to murder Jews.” Do Jews have to again stand in line for a ‘shower’ to understand the distinction?
IS HALTING EXECUTIONS IN IRAN GOOD ENOUGH? Pulling back from military intervention following bellicose threats, is Trump failing – like Carter, Obama and Biden preceding him – the long-suffering people of Iran? By Jonathan Feldstein
Suppressing the Street. A brutal theocratic dictatorship, Iran has devolved into a failed state unable to provide water and electricity and its currency devalued to record lows, more than one million rials per dollar. The message from the street is for no more “deals” but regime change?
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).
