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
On January 16, 1979, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was forced to flee Iran along with his family due to the US and European countries withdrawing their support. This ushered in what’s called the Islamic Revolution, the return of exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, and the hijacking of a country that had been prosperous and a source of peace and stability in the Middle East. In the 47 years since then, chaos, death, terror have reigned.
Since then, Iran has devolved into a failed state with the Islamist leaders not even able to provide water and electricity, and its currency devalued to record lows, more than one million rials per dollar.
Since then, the Islamic Republic of Iran has become the world’s biggest funder of terrorism, with terrorist proxies literally all over the world. Tens of thousands or more have been killed at the hands of the Islamic regime and its proxies. Millions have been impacted, threatened, and havesuffered.
As we mark this anniversary of the West failing to support a stable ally, ushering in the evil terrorist regime, reports indicate that President Trump may have balked and failed the Iranian people as Carter did in 1979, as Obama did in 2009, and as Biden did in 2022. But if Trump has truly backed down from his harsh rhetoric to take action, and now may be seeking a “diplomatic solution,” the outcome of his actions will be worse than Obama and Biden. His harsh rhetoric emboldened the Iranian people who took to the streets in more than 100 cities in record numbers to protest the regime. They believed that Trump had their back, and were prepared to risk their lives to take back their country after almost half a century. And they were slaughtered by the Islamic regime and its agents in record numbers, at least thousands, if not tens of thousands.
On the verge of striking Iran, the US held off following reports of halting executions. What happens next is up to Trump who is seen here being interviewed in the Oval Office on Wednesday. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Here’s the thing however. Trump’s threats were based on a false premise. He calculated whether the US would take action based on the number of Iranians being killed. As horrific as tens of thousands being killed by forces of their own government is, the massacre of people in their own country is not sufficient pretext for the United States to take military action.
Therefore, if it’s correct that Trump walked back his battle plans based solely on reports that the Iranians “halted executions” of some 800 people who were arrested amid the ongoing recent protests, this would make little sense. “Halting” is a temporary action. No doubt these 800, along with thousands more who have been arrested, still remain in Iranian prison and can be executed at any moment. If not all at once, the regime could execute a few a week and stay below Trump’s radar of “too many” people being killed.
Let’s also recognize the fact that the protests have taken place for less than three weeks. It is a remarkable injustice that anyone can be arrested and sentenced to death in such a short period.
So much for due process!
Left in the Lurch? Nationwide protests across Iran from 289 Dec 2025 to 11 Jan 2026.
But all this – as horrible, evil and unjust as it is – is not a pretext for military action. The reasons for military action are the threats that the Islamic Republic has made and continues to make, as the single greatest source of instability and terror in the world. The Iranian President recently openly declared that Iran is at war with the United States, with Israel, and with Europe. These are threats, not to be taken lightly. They include military threats, but they also include terror, and infiltration of the West to carry out its nefarious goals of spreading radical Islam globally.
From Calling to Prayer to Calling for Executions. Tehran’s Friday prayer leader, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of detained protesters and the arrest of anyone who supported the protests. He accused the protesters of acting on behalf of foreign powers, calling them “servants” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “soldiers of Trump.”
While Trump was correct to offer support for the Iranian citizens who are protesting for their own freedom, the basis for that support should never have been the number of people killed. It’s a perverse inversion of the Biblical story of Abraham negotiating with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. How many people are too many? 10? 100? 500? 1000? 10,000? And in any event, if that was the measure, reports of at least 12,000 to more than 20,000 civilians being slaughtered in the streets is, and should have been, enough for the US to take action. “Halting” 800 extra-judicial executions on top of the many thousands who were slaughtered in the streets is also not grounds for not taking action.
Flowers for the Fallen. Impressing upon the US President, flowers are placed next to a display with photos of Iranian protestors killed by Iranian Americans outside the White House in Washington, January 16, 2026. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP)
I fear that Trump has not only failed the Iranian people, but the West, and the world. His rhetoric put a wind in the sails of Iranian citizens who took to the streets, risking their lives only to see them shot down in cold blood. This has been the single greatest opportunity since 1979 to eliminate the Islamic Republic once and for all. THAT should have been the stated goal of any US action, and it should not have been qualified based on the number of Iranians that their government massacred.
Bodies Piling Up. Distressing new videos have emerged from a mortuary in Tehran showing rows of bodies, blood-soaked floors and crowds of people searching for loved ones following a deadly government crackdown on protesters in Iran.
An additional failure is that China, Russia, and numerous Arab and Islamic nations are watching and measuring what they can get away with. They saw Trump sweep in to arrest Maduro in Venezuela next door, but are seeing the US now inept at doing anything about the ayatollahs on the other side of the world. That gives American adversaries around the world license to invade other countries, support terror, engage in direct and indirect threats to the United States and the world, and even slaughter their own citizens and others with impunity.
I’m not saying that making an example of the Islamic regime is a suitable goal of military action, but threatening military action and not pulling the trigger risks losing on a global scale in ways that will not only keep the ayatollah in power for another generation, but also embolden terrorists around the world.
It’s horrific if hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands have been executed in the streets of Iran with impunity. To the extent that they protested and lost their lives because of a threat that Trump made and was never prepared to carry out, their blood is on his hands. If that’s the case, he has let down the Iranian people even more radically than his predecessors by setting them up and not following through.
Fired-Up. Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. (Photo: MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
Let’s be clear, if we ever want to see peace in the Middle East, the only way is the elimination of the Islamic Republic and the reasoning to reach this decision does not require counting how many more people have been slaughtered. On this 47th anniversary of the US withdrawing support for the Shah causing him and his family to flee, it seems that Iran and its people may have been let down once again. They and the world will continue to suffer.
If I am wrong, and I hope I am, I will publicly apologize – but if I’m right, then President Trump should apologize to the Iranian people, to Americans, and to the world. Even Obama recognized in retrospect his inaction in 2009 was a miscalculation. The negative consequences of Trump’s action – or rather inaction – will be felt for years 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).
12 January 2026 – Israel on high alert as protests intensify in Iran and the regime threatens reprisals. This and more on The Israel Brief.
13 January 2026 – Horrific scenes from Iran as the revolution continues and more on The Israel Brief.
14 January 2026 – Is the US about to strike the regime in Iran? This and more on The Israel Brief.
15 January 2026 – The latest on Iran, Witkoff announces the start of phase 2 and more on The Israel Brief.
15 January 2026 – Rolene Marks talks on WINA about Iran and Israeli resilience, listen here.
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).
A tribute to Israeli entrepreneur, innovator, philanthropist and visionary Morris Kahn (1930-2026) who sought frontiers below and beyond.
By David E. Kaplan
I met Morris quite recently, shortly before he passed away on January 1, 2026 but it was as a hologram at the Peres Center for Peace and Technology in Tel Aviv-Yafo. Fascinated, I watched and listened to an animated life-size Morris sharing stories, ideas and how he achieved his goals in various fields of business, technology and science. If less than a month ago was the last time I saw Morris, the first time was in 1994, when I interviewed him in person, at his office in AMDOCS for Telfed Magazine, then a publication for the Southern African community in Israel.
The interview began with Morris saying that he never, on principle and embodied in policy gave interviews nor did he permit members of his vast staff from “talking to the press without permission.” His skepticism and suspicion of the media now with hindsight was quite visionary considering the situation today of ‘fake news’ and its consequences.
He continued with a broad smile that he was happily “making an exception” as he had such respect for Telfed and its publication in the service it provided for his fellow Southern Africans in Israel. Such respect was reciprocated not only by Israel’s Southern African community but all Israelis for a man who came to this country in the mid-1950s with little but gave so much to Israel and beyond.
I use the word “little” only in the material sense as he arrived with abundant talent and unbridled vision. Truly a kindred spirit of Simon Peres and seemed right that my last image of Morris was of him illuminating on ‘his world’ inside the Shimon Peres Center of Peace and Innovation. In the spirit of illumination, it was most fitting that Morris was given the honor in 2019 of lighting a candle at the national ceremony in Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day.
Best describing Morris were the words of another esteemed South African Israeli, the late Smoky Simon who as a co-honoree at a joint Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony said of his friend, who at the time was ten years his junior:
“You are a phenomenon. You have succeeded in capturing the mysterious and elusive formulae of how to successfully combine pleasure and relaxation with philanthropy, establishing social projects, promoting medical and scientific projects together with your business activities in one great package. Little wonder you have been honoured by the universities of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion and the Weizmann Institute, and now, just for good measure, you are involved in the international competition to assist Israel in being the first country to get a robot onto the moon.”
Moonstruck. Despite the disappointing news that the Israeli moon lander Beresheet crashed into the moon, benefactor Morris Khan (seen here next to Beresheet) stayed positive and was ready to try again. Afterall, it still reached the Moon even if “not the way we wanted,” and made Israel the fourth country to even reach it, following the United States, Soviet Union and China.(Photo: y Getty Images)
Morris, who hailed from Benoni in South Africa where he had been a member of the socialist Zionist youth movement Habonim, first visited Israel in 1955, and related of having discovered “a strange country, a foreign language, different food – but a feeling of being at home with my people.” It was enough for him to return the following year and to stay.
From starting out manufacturing bicycles at a factory in Beit Shemesh in partnership with kibbutz Tzora, Morris’ trajectory soared establishing companies that grew into commercial behemoths such as Golden Pages Israel, Amdocs with 26,000 employees worldwide, the Aurec Group and Coral WorldInternational, which established aquariums around the world from his first in 1978 in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat and then in Maui, Hawaii, Perth, Australia; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; Coral Island Nassau, The Bahamas; Oceanworld in Manly, Australia, and elsewhere. The shared vision of Morris and world-renowned reef biologist David Fridman was based on the concept of a “revolutionary kind of aquarium,” an underwater observatory where visitors can enjoy close-up encounters with coral reefs and other aquatic forms of life in the Red Sea, “without getting wet.”
Educating the Youth. A young enthusiastic child at the Underwater Observatory in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, on July 25, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The Red Sea Underwater Observatory, also known as Coral World Eilat was the first land-based, undersea tourist attraction and enjoyed immediate success paving the way for its replication elsewhere in the world.
Sea’ing is Believing. As Morris Kahn envisioned, Eilat’s underwater observatory where visitors can enjoy unique encounters with the Red Sea’s coral reef and aquatic forms of life, “without getting wet.”
Morris’ underwater venture began with a family adventure when he began scuba diving with his family in Eilat in the late 1960s and realized “that most people don’t get a chance to see the beautiful underwater world – the coral and the fish – because they don’t dive.” So, in 1972, he began the construction in Eilat of the Underwater Observatory and Marine Park, which since its opening in 1974 welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. In 2014, the underwater observatory expanded by adding the biggest shark pool of its kind in the Middle East, which covers an area of 1000m2 offering a rare opportunity for ‘close-encounters’ with the sharks of the Red Sea. When I last visited it, I overheard the stunned remark from a USA tourist next to me “Wow, this beats the shark pool at Las Vegas!” I was uncertain whether he was referring to card sharks or those with fins, but nevertheless the observation was spot-on.
Morris on a Mission. South Africa-born Israeli billionaire entrepreneur, Morris Kahn speaks during a press conference at the Israel Aerospace facility in Yehud on July 10, 2018. (Flash90)
Transitioning his GPS, Morris recalibrated his sights from below to above – from the deep depths of the earth’s sea to outer space and became a major sponsor and a public board member of Space IL, Israel’s nonprofit initiative to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon as part of the Google Lunar X Prize. “Landing a robot on the Moon is very complex but I enjoy being involved in the challenge,” explained Morris of his motivation. “I am a great believer in education and one of our goals at Space IL is getting the young generation excited and educated about science and space. We are trying to create the effect that Apollo had on the young generation in the U.S. I think it would be important for Israel to succeed in a competition like this. It would put Israel on the map in Space.”
Aiming High. Always aiming to entice the youth to take an interest in science, Morris Kahn unveils a lego model of SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft, during the opening of the Lego space park in Tel Aviv on July 25, 2019.
Addressing the local media before the launch, Morris said, “This mission that we were talking about was really a ‘mission impossible’. The only thing is, I didn’t think it was impossible, and the three engineers that started this project didn’t think it was impossible, and the way Israel thinks, nothing is impossible.”
Morris’ words of “nothing is impossible” nailed the Israeli narrative revealing why such a tiny country, one that at it geographical narrowest could be ridden in one of Morris early bicycles in less than a half-hour, could be the ‘Startup-Nation’ it is today. Morris was a major contributor to this status.
Moon Men. After the impressive aquarium at his office in Ramat Gan, the next thing to catch a visitors eyes eye is the photo of Morris (right) standing beside his good friend, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, immediately after his fellow Apollo 11 crew member, Neil Armstrong.
Making ‘Aliyah’ (immigrating) in 1956, Morris has sure lived up to the direct translation from the Hebrew of “ascending” or “to go up” – both metaphorically and physically. From bicycles in his early years to spacecrafts in his later years, Morris’ journey has been one of outreach from under the sea to outer space and everything in-between.
Morris Kahn leaves a legacy that will endure long into the future that he so embraced and enriched with his exploits and achievements.
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).
A Jew opposing Jewish statehood displays today historical illiteracy or suicidal self-destructiveness.
By Grant Gochin
Zionism is the Jewish people’s absolute movement for self-determination, security, and sovereignty in their sole ancestral homeland. Born from millennia of exile, genocide, and centuries of lethal powerlessness, its sole objective remains the permanent cessation of exterminating Jews. Far from the “colonial” slur European elites regurgitate, Zionism is an indigenous reclamation and a survival imperative. At its most basic core, Zionism means to stop murdering Jews, while antizionism means to continue to murder Jews.
INDIGENOUS ROOTS: THE BIBLICAL MANDATE
The Jewish tie to the Land of Israel is ancient, indigenous, and enduring. “Zion” appears 152 times in the Hebrew Bible as the geographic designation for Jerusalem and the land. Psalms 137:1 records the trauma of exile: “By the rivers of Babylon… we wept when we remembered Zion.” The Passover command “Next year in Jerusalem” is a political directive of return, not poetry.
Because the Land of Israel is the central stage of the biblical narrative, antizionism is a direct repudiation of the entire Bible. You cannot separate the people from the land without tearing the scriptures apart. Consequently, since the Bible forms the moral and historical bedrock of Western civilization, antizionism is a repudiation of the West itself. To oppose Israel’s existence is to dismantle the Judeo-Christian foundation upon which Western values rest.
It is impossible to be a Jew and an antizionist. To be a Jew is to carry the memory of Zion and the imperative of survival. A Jew who opposes the Jewish state is either historically illiterate or suicidally self-destructive, severing themselves from their own peoplehood and history.
THE ”ANTIZIONIST JEW” DOES NOT EXIST
It is impossible to be a Jew and an antizionist. Judaism is not merely a religion of rituals; it is a collective destiny and a nationhood. As Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy argue, those who attempt to disentangle Judaism from Jewish nationalism are “Un-Jews” — they are undoing the very essence of Jewish peoplehood.
By repudiating Zionism, these individuals repudiate their own Jewishness. Maimonides, in the Mishneh Torah, is explicit: one who separates himself from the community, even if he commits no other transgression, “has no share in the World to Come.” When “Jews” stand with Hamas murderers and call Israelis “Nazis”, or champion the destruction of the Jewish state, they sever their connection to the Jewish people. They are not merely critics; they are deserters who have removed themselves from the congregation of Israel and are deserving of herem (excommunication). There is no such thing as an antizionist Jew; there are only former Jews who have sided with their people’s executioners.
THE HOLOCAUST IMPERITIVE AND THE LESSON OF 1915
The 20th century proved that Jewish powerlessness is a death sentence. But the warning signs were ignored decades before the Holocaust. In 1915, during WWI, the Russian government under Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevitch inaugurated a campaign of extermination against its own Jewish subjects.
Deadly Duke. Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevitch , as Supreme Commander of the Russian army during the early stages of World War I, was responsible for the forced deportations and massacres of Jewish and German populations in Russian border territories, which some sources describe as part of a campaign of extermination against perceived “enemy” nations.
● The “Kuzhi Myth”: Using the war as a pretext, the military fabricated a lie that Jews were hiding Germans in cellars to brand the entire Jewish people as spies and traitors.
● Mass Expulsion: On 24 to 48 hours’ notice, hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Lithuania, Courland, and Poland.
● Brutality: 600,000 Jews were turned into homeless paupers, packed into cattle cars or forced to walk until they dropped from starvation or insanity.
● Hostages: The military explicitly ordered the taking of Jewish hostages to be executed in case of alleged “treason”.
As I detailed in 107 Years Late for Dinner, this destruction was the precursor to the Holocaust — a clear lesson that without a state, Jewish life is cheap. Zionism in 1948 ended that vulnerability. Israel exists to prevent the next Holocaust, not commit one.
BINDING INTERNATIONAL LAW
The foundation of the Jewish state rests on binding international mandates that have never been revoked:
● Napoleon’s 1799 Acre Proclamation calling for the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews.
● The Balfour Declaration (1917) recognizing Jewish national rights.
● The San Remo Resolution (1920), an international treaty incorporating the Balfour Declaration into international law.
● The League of Nations Mandate (1922) codifying the right of Jewish settlement.
● The UN Partition Plan (1947), an explicit recognition of Jewish statehood as reparative justice.
Diplomatic Recognition. The San Remo Conference (1920) legally established the British Mandate for Palestine formally incorporating the Balfour Declaration’s promise to create a Jewish national home, giving international legitimacy to Jewish self-determination in the historic Land of Israel, a foundational step for the future State of Israel.
THE LIE OF DECOLONIZATION
Europe holds Israel to a false standard while securing its own borders with force and retaining colonial vestiges. The hypocrisy is staggering:
● France: Paris administers 13 overseas territories, spanning the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique), South America (French Guiana), and the Pacific (New Caledonia, French Polynesia). In New Caledonia, the 2021 independence referendum failed, yet France clings on, suppressing Kanak self-determination under the same UN Charter it weaponizes against Israel. Paris extracts resources while locals protest inequality.
● Spain: Madrid grips four North African enclaves: Ceuta and Melilla, plus the Plazas de soberanía—territories Morocco brands as colonial relics. Spain deploys razor wire and troops to repel migrants, mirroring the exact security measures it condemns in Israel. These footholds, seized in the 15th century, mirror the “settlements” Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez decries — yet he never suggests “nuking” Madrid for them.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD OF DESTRUCTION: Sánchez’s Self-Negation
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has branded Israel’s defense against Hamas “genocidal” and lamented that Spain lacks the nuclear weapons to stop it.
Apply Sánchez’s logic without exception, and Spain collapses:
1. Reconquista: The Arab-Berber conquest ruled Iberia for 781 years (711–1492). The Reconquista that reclaimed Spain for its prior inhabitants is, by Sánchez’s standard, “colonization.” If Israel’s return after 2,000 years is illegitimate, Spain’s entire national existence is illegitimate.
2. Migrant Claims: Over 70,000 sub-Saharan Africans reaching Spanish soil since 2024 possess superior claims under Sánchez’s rationale that interim occupation creates permanent rights.
Resolution ratifying Rebirth. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of resolution 181 that adopted the plan for partitioning Eretz Israel into a Jewish state and an Arab state. This resolution led, in effect, to the declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
ANTIZIONISM: THE IDEOLOGY OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Antizionism is not a political opinion; it is a weapon of war. For someone to be an antizionist today, they must either be a combatant for the Muslim Brotherhood (knowingly or unknowingly) or completely self-destructive.
The ideology driving the hatred of Israel — from Hamas to European campuses — is the rejection of Western values, individual liberty, and historical truth. Europe funds this subversion via “lawfare” NGOs like Al-Haq and Al-Mezan, pumping millions into groups linked to terror organizations like the PFLP to harass the Jewish state.
CONCLUSION: THE WEST’S FRONTLINE
Israel stands as the West’s frontline against a jihadist ideology that seeks to erase not just Jews, but Western civilization itself. If Israel falls, Europe is next. Israel endures as the antidote: a sovereign refuge where Jews dictate their fate, not Europe’s.
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/
Sources: 1. US House of Representatives. (1916). Hearings in front of the USA Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: Russian Atrocities Against the Jews (H.R. 558). 2. Stand Tall Israel. (2025, December 12). He’s Spent 30 YEARS Studying HAMAS — What He REVEALS Is TERRIFYING [Video]. YouTube. 3. Gochin, G. A. (2022, June 22). 107 years late for dinner. The Blogs, The Times of Israel. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/107-years-late-for-dinner/ 4. The Jerusalem Post. (2023, November 3). Editor’s Notes: No longer part of us. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-771479 5. NGO Monitor. (2025, December 18). EU Funding to Terror-Linked Palestinian NGOs Since 2011.
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).
Throughout the decades, many of you from stage, screen and the recording arts have been voices for what you believe in. You have united against Apartheid South Africa, marched for the #MeToo movement, advocated for gender parity and told the world that Black Lives Matter.
There is one area where you have been conspicuous – not just by your silence – but by your inversion of human rights. We are speaking about the human rights of Israelis and the Jewish people. While it is important to advocate for the rights of Palestinian civilians who are as trapped by Hamas as we in Israel are, there is a propensity for many of you to take the carefully crafted propaganda from Hamas, sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood as absolute fact.
Facts have become the first casualty of this war that Hamas forced upon both Israelis and Palestinians. Facts are important. Lives are at stake. Antisemitism has risen to levels not seen since before the Holocaust and while many of you have taken to stage, screen and petition, no doubt with honorable intentions, it is important that you understand the facts.
Thousands of entertainment industry professionals signed a letter stating they would boycott members of the Israeli film industry “they believe are connected to genocide.” It has been proven (see links and definition below) that there has been no genocide committed in the Gaza strip during this war rather this slur is designed to demonize the Jewish state. To exclude fellow artists from your industry because of their ethnicity is racist. The Israeli film industry represents a myriad of views and opinions and provides employment, including to Palestinians. Boycotting Israeli filmmakers not only silences Palestinians; but also robs them of employment opportunities.
Two hundred industry celebrities signed a petition to release Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti is serving five consecutive life sentences for the murders of Israelis. He is also serving time for 20 charges of attempted murder. He is not the Palestinian equivalent of Nelson Mandela. Any attempts to draw comparisons is an appalling insult to his victims, including Father (Priest) Tsibouktzakis. The second intifada, which saw the murders of over 1000 Israelis, was not a romantic uprising of “freedom fighters”. It was deliberate, targeted murder. Signing a petition calling for his release endorses the murder of Israelis.
Removal of music from Israeli sources – while many disagree with how Israel has prosecuted this war (without offering their expert military opinions about how to fight a war with an unprecedented battlefield scenario), removing access to music for Israelis, many who have experienced unbearable loss is not in the interest of peace or the Palestinians, it is discriminatory and racist. Have any of the artists who have done this removed their music from British, French, and American etc. streamers because civilians have been tragically killed in war?
Exclusion of Jews who support Israel, i.e. Zionists from artistic spaces. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and the belief in the right of Israel to exist as the only nation state of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. Zionism, despite the many attempts by Israel’s detractors to use it as a slur, is not about dispossessing anyone. There has never been a state of Palestine and Jews have maintained a continuous presence in the land that carries the story of the Jewish people, amply proven through antiquity. Excluding Jewish artists for a fundamental religious belief or saying that every nation has the right to determine its own future except for the Jewish people is racist.
The demonization of Israelis on stage and screen. Israel is the Jewish state – when you demonize Israelis, you effectively enable hate speech against Jews.
The slurs that are employed against Israel and the Jewish people are not just catchy phrases. They have specific and legal definitions. On 14 December, 15 people, nearly all Jewish, were murdered at a candle-lighting event to celebrate the first night of Chanukah. Nobody in the shattered Jewish community of Sydney where the terror attack took place was surprised. Routine demonization of the Jewish state, including by many in the entertainment industry who have parroted Hamas propaganda, including the blood libel that 14 000 Palestinian children would die in a matter of hours from starvation to your millions of followers has helped foster a climate of hate which led to the inevitable. Not only did 14 000 children not die, many did not remove it from their social media – or apologise. While some of you expressed your sorrow at the murder of Jewish men, women and children in Bondi – many also neglected to mention that they were of the Jewish faith. Words have weight and it important we understand what they mean. Lives are at stake.
Apartheid – from the Afrikaans, to “separateness”, lit. ’aparthood’) was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s.[note 1] It was characterized by an authoritarian political culture which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white population. The rights of all citizens in Israel are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. All citizens of Israel are fully enfranchised. To call Israel an Apartheid state, makes a mockery of the true victims of the racist system and is inherently factually incorrect. Palestinians fall under the remit of Hamas (presently) in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the territories they control in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
Genocide – The word “Genocide”, first coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, has a specific legal definition and refers to certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. It does not pertain to civilian deaths in times of war and Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza. This is evidenced by the lack of intent, low civilian vs combatant ratio as demonstrated in the links below, forming of humanitarian corridors, humanitarian aid entry, vaccinations against disease like polio, evacuation of medically vulnerable to other countries for treatment, early warning of impending strikes and more. Hamas and other terror organizations committed genocide and acts of mass sexual violence during their invasion into Israel on 7 October 2023.
Colonization – the establishing of a colony subjugation of a people or area especially as an extension of state power. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and has sued for peace on many occasions – and each offer refused. Zionism is the opposite of colonization; it is the returning of the Jewish people to their ancient home, a modern-day miracle.
Sadly, when your voices were needed the most, many of you were silent. Many of you wore pins on your clothes to awards ceremonies. You claimed they were in support of a ceasefire – but the reality is that they were the symbol of the lynching of two IDF soldiers. How many of you were aware of that? None of you wore yellow ribbons to call for the immediate release of the over 250 hostages that were taken on 7 October including babies, Holocaust survivors and whole families.
You marched for gender parity and for the #MeToo movement – but were silent or derisive when our women and girls were raped on 7 October and silent when our hostages, including the males were sexually violated by their terrorist captor.
You were silent when Hamas paraded our emaciated released hostages or our babies in coffins in grotesque ceremonies that were carnivals of the grotesque.
You were silent as millions of Israelis were attacked from seven fronts, including the hundreds of ballistic missiles that rained down on our cities from Iran, destroying city blocks.
You were silent when nearly 400 young festivalgoers who danced for peace were hunted down and slaughtered.
You are unusually silent about the ceasefire in place. A ceasefire that has exposed Hamas’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians as they attempt to rebuild. Is it because you know that countries who “commit genocide” do not offer peace plans? You marched for civil rights for BLM but remain silent about the astronomic rise of antisemitism. Why?
Facts matter. For many, Israel-Palestine is the cause du jour. For the people of Israel and Gaza – this is our lives. Please review the following links compiled by historians and researchers for important facts:
We ask you to consider the facts. We invite you to visit Israel to see and hear the reality for yourself. We implore you to be bridge builders and not create division. We ask you to speak of peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
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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Streets across Iran erupt in public anger against a dictatorial theocratic regime. Lay of the Land notes a world uninterested and most the international news networks either ignoring the story or minimizing coverage. Behind the façade of ‘Human Rights” stands a world exposed for its hypocrisy.
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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PROTESTS IN TEHRAN TODAY BRING HOPES FOR IRANIANS TOMORROW
If President Trump likes to speak of ”making deal”, the best deals are to be made after the Islamic regime falls. By Marziyeh Amirizadeh
State vs Street. Iranians are risking their lives on the street to take on the oppression of their state. The writer who was once a prisoner in Teheran under a death sentence, acknowledges the support of the US and Israel and pleads: “Where are all the others?”
Refusal to recognize Somaliland exposes global hypocrisy and rewards terror. By Grant Gochin
Rousing Recognition. When the Israeli flag is sighted on the streets of the Muslim world, it is often being set alight or trampled underfoot. Yet in recent days the Star of David has been plastered on buildings and brandished by jubilant crowds in the capital of Somaliland.
Rabbi Leo Dee’s experience and counsel on how to honour personal tragedy without being imprisoned by it. By Jonathan Feldstein
Regret to Response. Following the murder of his wife and two daughters, Rabbi Leo Dee, a former UK private equity professional was plagued by the “What if?” questions of “What if you had left London later?” or had “…never left at all?” His journey of traversing tragedy necessitated a rephrasing of the questions.
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).
05 January 2026 – We’re back! Find out how much the UN budgets for anti-Israel activities and whether 37 NGOs have abolished themselves? This and more in The Israel Brief.
06 January 2026 – Has Israel started a diplomatic trend by recognizing Somaliland? This and more on The Israel Brief.
07 January 2026 – Gefen Biton, hero of the Bondi massacre to return home. This and more on The Israel Brief.
08 January 2026 – Albanese announces Royal Commission of Inquiry into Bondi Massacre 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).
Rabbi Leo Dee’s experience and counsel on how to honour personal tragedy without being imprisoned by it.
By Jonathan Feldstein
In April 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee’s life shattered in an instant. While driving with his family for vacation on the second day of Passover, his wife Lucy and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered in a Hamas terrorist ambush. Leo, driving ahead in another car, survived along with three other children who were with him. What followed was not only profound personal grief, but the challenge of being a traumatized husband and father, suddenly raising his grieving children alone. Yet, in almost three years since, Leo Dee has emerged as a remarkable voice of resilience, faith, and purposeful healing, most notably through his book “The Seven Facets of Healing.”
In a recent conversation on “Inspiration from Zion,” Leo shared his journey and personal story of transformation. Originally a successful private equity professional in London, driven by a sense of calling in his London community, he left the world of finance and he and Lucy made aliyah to Israel in 2004. The tragedy of 2023 could have broken him, but instead it revealed strengths forged over a lifetime, especially throughout his 25-year marriage, that taught him empathy and perseverance.
Central to Leo’s message is the idea that tragedy marks a clear breakpoint. Thirty days after the attack, as the formal Jewish mourning period ended, he gathered his surviving children and declared: “We are entering a new world.” This was not denial but deliberate reframing. Drawing on the Jewish morning prayer that God “renews creation every day,” he taught his family—and now teaches others—that every moment offers the possibility of a new beginning. Rather than live in the shadow of loss, one must consciously step forward into a future that honors the past without being imprisoned by it.
Traversing Tragedy. Speaking at an international press conference following the murder of his wife and two daughters by terrorists in 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee said, “After the tragedy, I said to my children, we are now entering a new world. World number one was with two parents and five children and world number two is with one parent with three children. We are going to continue, to be happy and have fun and live this life as best as we can.”
This mindset echoes the innovative framework Lucy herself created early in their marriage. Frustrated with date nights derailed by complaints, she devised “The Seven Facets for Living” to ground even challenging times: Friends, Family, Fitness, Fun, Finances, Firm (work/function), and Faith. By requiring discussion of all seven, Leo and Lucy gained perspective that difficulties in one area were offset by blessings in others. After the tragedy, Leo realized these same categories became the primary pillars for heal. Friends evoked memories of social gatherings with Lucy; family highlighted absent voices; even leisure activities stirred pain. Thus, Lucy’s “Seven Facets for Living” became the foundation for Leo’s “Seven Facets of Healing.”
His book, structured around these categories, offers practical wisdom born of hard experience. Leo discovered that post-trauma instincts are often exactly wrong. Hollywood portrays bereavement as endless tears and withdrawal; in reality, those behaviors prolong suffering. He shares how, in the first year, he instinctively avoided smiling in photos with visitors, believing it would dishonor his lost loved ones. Only later did he recall positive-psychology research: smiling actually generates happiness through serotonin release. He also understood that despite his loss, Lucy would not want him to be unhappy, nor would he wish that for her should he have been in the wrong car that horrible day. It was not smiling, not being happy, was what would dishonor Lucy’s memory. Forcing smiles again, allowing himself to be happy, was counter to his instinct at the time, but helped lift his mood and create a model of resilience for his children.
Perhaps the deepest insight and foundation of healing concerns faith. Leo publicly affirmed God’s greatness daily through leading prayers and reciting Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, despite every reason to feel anger. He realized this public declaration served three purposes:
elevating the souls of the deceased
strengthening the mourner
and, most powerfully, demonstrating to the community that faith can endure unimaginable tragedy.
When well-meaning people asked “What if?” questions (“What if you had left later?” “What if you never moved to Israel?”), Leo eventually forbade such speculation as futile. While these were all questions he asked himself, Leo instead poses one permitted “What if?”: What if this was always God’s plan? Accepting that reality shifts focus from regret to response: given these cards, how will I play them?
Leo extends these lessons beyond personal grief to national trauma. Six months after the murder of Lucy, Maia and Rina, the October 7 Hamas attack and massacre brought collective Israeli suffering. He sees parallels: just as individuals must reframe life after tragedy, a nation must find new purpose. He credits Israel’s resilience to an underlying faith — even among the secular — that manifest as trust in the people, the land, and the biblical promise. On October 8, when government and army structures faltered, ordinary citizens instinctively asked, “Where do they need me?” and filled every gap—supplying soldiers, housing evacuees, feeding frontline troops.
Leo and Lucy (z’l) Dee. The family was on their way back from a hiking trip in 2023 when they were ambushed by terrorists. Daughters Maia and Rina were killed at the scene, and Lucy died three days later from her wounds.
This question — “Where do they need me?” — had been Leo’s guiding mantra. It once drove him from a lucrative career in finance into the rabbinate. Now it fuels his speaking worldwide. He urges Jews to build Israel and Christians to transform the rest of the world with biblical values. Having recently addressed evangelical churches in Canada, he expresses profound gratitude for Christian Zionists who, he believes, remain the West’s last strong defenders of Judeo-Christian morality.
For those currently in pain, Leo offers two immediate consolations. First: your loved ones in heaven want only your happiness; prolonged misery dishonors their memory and harms surviving family. Second: the present is illusory — only past and future exist. We can choose to warehouse pain in the past (visiting it on memorial days) while living fully in an open future.
Leo Dee’s story is not one of superhuman invulnerability but of deliberate, faith-guided choices. He grieves deeply yet refuses to let grief define the remainder of his life — or that of his children. Through ‘The Seven Facets of Healing’, he extends Lucy’s legacy, turning private wisdom into public light. In an age of widespread trauma — personal and collective — his voice reminds us that healing is possible, purpose is renewable, and every new day truly is a beginning God offers afresh.
*You can follow the full inspirational conversation with Leo Dee on “Inspiration from Zion” on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts.
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).
Refusal to recognize Somaliland exposes global hypocrisy and rewards terror.
By Grant Gochin
The global disparity in statehood recognition between Palestine and Somaliland exposes a truth: international decisions are not rooted in law, facts, or genuine support for viable entities. Instead, the enthusiasm of 157 UN member states for recognizing Palestine—despite its failures—serves primarily as a diplomatic cudgel against Israel and Jews. This is not pro-Palestinian advocacy; it is animus, a collective expression of bigotry that ignores objective criteria to isolate and delegitimize the Jewish state. Somaliland, by contrast, exemplifies success under every legal standard, yet is shunned precisely because its recognition would bolster Israel’s alliances. The 157 nations endorsing Palestine do not care about law or reality; they are weaponizing statehood as a tool of prejudice.
Happenings at the Horn. Israel became the first nation in the world to recognize Somaliland as a country prompting a global outcry and an emergency meeting of the United Nations.
Somaliland’s Historical Narrative: Survivor of Genocide
Somaliland is not a mere “breakaway region”; it is a survivor of internal African colonialism and genocide. Briefly independent in 1960 and recognized by 35 nations, including Israel, it entered an unratified union with southern Somalia. Under Siad Barre’s regime, this turned genocidal. From 1987–1989, government forces systematically targeted the Isaaq clan with aerial bombardments, well poisonings, and mass executions, killing 50,000 – 200,000 civilians. Somaliland’s 1991 independence reclaimed its pre-union sovereignty—a humanitarian and anti-colonial necessity.1 Nations posturing as “anti-colonial” such as Ireland, betray this by enforcing Mogadishu’s claims and ignoring Somaliland’s genocide survival.
The Montevideo Criteria: Ignored in Favor of Bigotry
International law’s cornerstone for statehood, the 1933 Montevideo Convention, demands a permanent population, defined territory, effective government, and capacity for international relations.2 These objective benchmarks are routinely discarded when anti-Israel bias takes precedence. The result is that Palestine, a dysfunctional entity, is elevated, while Somaliland’s qualifications are dismissed to punish Israel.
● Permanent Population: Both meet this threshold. The 157 states overlook Palestine’s divisions to strike at Israel.
● Defined Territory: Somaliland claims clear, undisputed borders from its 1960 independence.3 Palestine’s are contested and non-contiguous. Recognizing the latter delegitimizes Israel’s security claims.
● Effective Government: Somaliland boasts a centralized democracy.4 Palestine is fractured between the corrupt PA in the West Bank and Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Rousing Recognition. When the Israeli flag is sighted on the streets of the Muslim world, it is often being set alight or trampled underfoot. Yet in recent days the Star of David has been plastered on buildings and brandished by jubilant crowds in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.
● Capacity for Relations: Somaliland forges sovereign deals, proving autonomy.5 Palestine relies on aid, its “diplomacy” a facade for anti-Israel lobbying.
The case of Somaliland provides the ultimate legal refutation of the ‘occupation’ libel used against the Jewish state. Under the principle of uti possidetis juris, Somaliland is the rightful successor to the borders of its 1960 independence—a fact the world ignores to protect a defunct Somali union.6 Israel, by recognizing these borders, reaffirms the sanctity of original administrative boundaries as the only objective standard for statehood. This same legal logic confirms that Israel is the sole legal successor to the British Mandate, rendering the ‘occupation’ of Judea and Samaria a legal fiction. By championing Somaliland, Israel is not just supporting a fellow democracy; it is enforcing a global legal standard that exposes the Palestinian project as a violation of the very international laws its proponents claim to uphold.
The refusal of the international community to apply uti possidetis juris to Israel—while rigidly enforcing it to keep Somaliland shackled to the failed state of Somalia—is a targeted legal assault. If the administrative borders of the 1960 British protectorate define the legitimate sovereignty of Somaliland, then by that same objective standard, the administrative borders of the 1948 British Mandate define the sovereign territory of Israel. To argue otherwise is to admit that ‘international law’ is merely a political fiction used to protect anti-Western regimes in Mogadishu and Ramallah while attempting to strip the Jewish state of its foundational legal rights.
By recognizing the functional reality of Somaliland over the ‘constitutive’ political fantasy of a Palestinian state, Israel is championing the Declaratory Theory of Statehood. This position asserts that a state exists when it functions as one, not simply when a collection of biased nations engages in a diplomatic séance to conjure it into existence through mere votes. Recognizing Somaliland is therefore a strategic defense of the rule of law: it enforces the principle that functional, stable governance and original administrative boundaries are the only legitimate measures of sovereignty. Any other standard is a reward for terrorism and a threat to global security.
Palestine’s Dysfunction: A Weapon Against Israel
Palestine’s realities scream failure, yet are encouraged because it harms Israel:
● Aid Dependency: A vast consumer of $40+ billion since Oslo, Palestine’s economy is propped up by donors, fostering corruption. This is a subsidy for instability that pressures Israel.7
● Corruption and Autocracy: The PA ranks abysmally on corruption indices. Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 20th year of a four-year term, a full-blown dictatorship. Bigots overlook this to amplify accusations against Jewish “oppression”.
● Pay-for-Slay Terrorism: Allocating ~7% of its budget to reward attacks on Israelis, the PA incentivizes violence despite the U.S. Taylor Force Act.8 Sponsored by Iran, this makes Palestine a terror proxy encouraged by recognizers whose true aim is weakening Israel. Abbas’s February 2025 decree to “end” the Martyrs’ Fund has been exposed by Israeli authorities as a shell game, with payments simply channeled through the Palestinian postal system to circumvent the Act.9
Enlightening Recognition. Public buildings were lit up with Israeli flags as mass celebrations took place in Hargeisa and across cities of the Republic of Somaliland, as citizens gathered to commemorate the historic decision by Israel to formally recognize Somaliland.
Somaliland’s Excellence: Punished to Avoid Benefiting Israel
Somaliland’s indicators of success are ignored to prevent any win for Jews. While Somaliland remains a bulwark, Somalia’s failure is absolute. In 2025, an al-Shabaab offensive saw Mogadishu lose strategic towns like Sabiid and Anole, and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud narrowly survived a March 2025 assassination attempt in Mogadishu, escaping via armored convoy amid the attack on his convoy.10
Somalia’s claim to Somaliland is based on a failed union and subsequent genocidal aggression, whereas Somaliland’s claim is a defensive re-assertion of its 1960 sovereignty. This mirrors Israel’s defensive reconstitution of rights over Judea and Samaria following the 1967 war of annihilation launched against it—territory with no prior legitimate sovereign after 1948.
National Security and the Irish Model of Hypocrisy
The swiftness with which the Palestinian Authority and the OIC fabricated a blood libel—claiming this recognition is a scheme for ‘forced displacement’—exposes their desperation to preserve a status quo that rewards terror at the expense of African self-determination. While the UN holds emergency meetings to protect the ‘territorial integrity’ of a failed state in Mogadishu, Israel is providing Hargeisa with the surveillance technology necessary to secure its own airspace and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This is the birth of a Red Sea Security Arc that replaces ideological theater with functional sovereignty.
Dublin exemplifies this betrayal: in May 2024, Ireland recognized Palestine despite its failures, yet it rejects Somaliland. This selective empathy rewards terror-linked dysfunction and punishes African self-determination.
The Overriding Truth: Animus Against Jews and Israel
This is not about law or facts; 157 countries spew animus toward Jews, weaponizing Palestine’s recognition to delegitimize Israel. Somaliland’s excellence is collateral damage in this hate-fueled game.
True Colors. Changing attitudes on the streets of Somaliland.
Conclusion
Does Somaliland have to slaughter innocents like October 7 to earn recognition? Launch rockets? Commit atrocities? Is terrorism the real price of sovereignty? The hypocrisy is bigotry.
Feature photo: Residents wave Somaliland flags as they gather to celebrate Israel’s announcement recognizing Somaliland’s statehood in downtown Hargeisa. (Photo: Farhan Aleli/AFP via Getty Images)
Disclaimer: The author of this article and annex is not a licensed attorney and is not engaged in the practice of law. The analysis provided herein regarding international legal principles, including uti possidetis juris and the Montevideo Convention, is presented solely as a personal interpretation and an expression of opinion for informational and argumentative purposes. This content does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional counsel from a qualified legal practitioner.
Legal Annex: The Doctrine of Sovereign Succession and Functional Statehood
I. Precedents for Uti Possidetis Juris and Mandatory Succession The principle of uti possidetis juris (UPJ) is recognized by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a “general principle, logically connected with the phenomenon of the obtaining of independence, wherever it occurs” (Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali), 1986).
● Application to Somaliland: As established in 1960 and reaffirmed in 2025, Somaliland is the successor to the borders of the British Somaliland Protectorate.12 The 1964 OAU Cairo Resolution and Article 4(b) of the AU Constitutive Act mandate respect for borders existing at independence. The attempt to keep Somaliland tethered to Mogadishu is a violation of the very “intangibility of frontiers” the AU claims to uphold.
● Application to Israel: Legal scholars (including Professor Eugene Kontorovich and the Levy Report) argue that uti possidetis juris dictates that a state’s borders are defined by the preceding administrative boundaries. As the only sovereign successor to the 1948 British Mandate of Palestine, Israel’s legal claim extends to the entirety of that administrative area. International attempts to impose “1967 lines” (which were merely temporary armistice lines) constitute an illegal derogation of the UPJ principle.
II. The Declaratory Theory of Statehood vs. Political Recognition TheMontevideo Convention (1933) codifies the Declaratory Theory, which asserts that statehood is a question of fact, not a gift of diplomatic recognition.
● Somaliland’s Declaratory Compliance: As of late 2025, Somaliland satisfies all four Montevideo criteria. Its internal stability—contrasted with the failure in the south—proves that it is a state de jure and de facto.
● The Palestinian Fraud: The 157 nations recognizing Palestine are employing the Constitutive Theory, attempting to “create” a state through diplomatic votes. However, without a unified government or territorial control, this “state” is a legal fiction that lacks the objective requirements of international law.
III. Security Data and the Doctrine of Defensive Control (2025 Update) International law distinguishes between illegal annexation and defensive control of territory where there is no prior legitimate sovereign.
● Somalia’s Sovereign Collapse: Security reports from March and August 2025 confirm that the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has lost effective control over major southern sectors. The capture of Sabiid and Anole by al-Shabaab and the failed assassination of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Mogadishu (March 2025) demonstrate that Somalia lacks the “effective government” required to claim sovereignty over Somaliland.
● The Martyrs’ Fund Shell Game: Israeli intelligence reports from late 2025 confirm that the Palestinian Authority’s “Abolition of the Prisoners’ Fund” was a shell game. Funds are now funneled through the Palestinian Postal System to ensure “Pay-for-Slay” payments continue, rendering the PA a persistent sponsor of terrorism in violation of the Taylor Force Act and UN counter-terrorism resolutions.13
IV. Strategic Conclusion: National Security as a Legal Imperative As outlined in the Hudson Institute’s 2025 Conference, antisemitism and the delegitimization of the Jewish state are national security threats to the West. The refusal to recognize Somaliland while empowering a Palestinian terror-proxy is a strategic failure that emboldens Iranian and Houthi aggression. Recognizing Somaliland is therefore a legal necessity to preserve the security of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the integrity of the Abraham Accords framework.
Bibliography
● Reuters. “Israel recognizes Somaliland as independent state.” December 26, 2025.
● The Times of Israel. “Israel becomes first country to recognize breakaway Somaliland.” December 26, 2025.
● Al Jazeera. “Somalia demands Israel withdraw Somaliland recognition.” December 27, 2025.
● TurkishMinute. “Turkish ports sent 456 ships to Israel… despite trade ban.” October 7, 2025.
● Various sources: Isaaq genocide estimates (50,000–200,000); Palestinian aid/corruption data; Iranian funding to Hamas; PA Martyrs’ Fund.
● Hudson Institute. “Antisemitism as a National Security Threat” conference (2025).
● Reuters. “Palestinian president scraps prisoner payment system” (February 2025); Times of Israel. “PA document shows ‘pay-to-slay’ has been scrapped, new system in place” (September 2025).14
● TRT Afrika. “Somali forces kill mastermind of failed assassination attempt” (September 2025).
Somali President Mohamud Survives Al-Shabaab’s Assassination Attempt This video reports on the March 18, 2025, assassination attempt on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, highlighting the profound insecurity and lack of effective governance in Mogadishu compared to the stability of Somaliland.
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).
Unprecedented protests are taking place across Iran, both in terms of the number of people participating, and number of cities in which the protests are taking place. Countless videos have documented Iranians protesting. And it’s growing. The reason is the compounded suffering to which Iranians have been subject under the Islamic republic, and which hopefully are at the breaking point.
Irate Iranians. Protestors march over a bridge in Teheran 29 December 2025 (Photo: Fars News Agency via ATP/file)
The Iranian rial is at lowest point in history. Today, one million rials are worth less than $1. The economic impact is widespread, punishing, and impacting every single Iranian.
This is the impact of the ayatollahs stealing billions from Iranians to fund its jihadi goals including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others, around the world. Yet the policy of funding the world’s largest terror network has come home to roost.
For months, Iranians have also suffered an unprecedented water and energy crisis, leading to power outages across the country, and reservoirs so low that there has been talk of evacuating millions from Tehran due to the inability to provide water.
Even if they were not living under a brutal, evil Islamic regime for nearly five decades, Iranians collectively are suffering the most they have since then, the cumulative impact of the evil regime focusing on spreading extremist Islam, fighting the West, and mismanagement and corruption of every basic need.
Iranians are not just living under widespread mismanagement, they are living under the cumulative national disaster of millions having been arrested, beaten, tortured, murdered, and disappeared. My knowledge is firsthand growing up and spending most of my life there, but also being arrested and sentenced to death, held in the notorious Evin prison for nine months, all because of my Christian faith.
The drought has not only exposed incompetence and mass mismanagement of basic needs. As reservoirs have dried up, 74 bodies have been found just in one location, bound, at the bottom of the once life-giving bodies of water that are all but gone, and which became their victims graves. Being bound shows an extra level of evil that they were thrown in alive rather than executed elsewhere and thrown into the water to hide the Islamic regimes crimes.
There have been protests in the past over the murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022, and more recently truckers going on strike in 160 cities due to massive increased in prices. For a variety of reasons these protests did not cause the regime change for which most Iranians are praying.
Iranians are having it no more. The current protests are because all Iranians are hurting economically, and without the basic needs to live. The current crisis has exposed new depths of the evil of the Islamic regime. More than ever, and more publicly than ever, Iranians are chanting for the restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty, and in favor of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and death of the ayatollahs.
CurrencyCollapse. Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025 following the collapse of the rial with prices up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table. The nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of some 40%. (Photo: Fars News Agency via AP, File)
It’s a formula that will hopefully bring the pressure needed for the regime to fall and Iran to be free.
Pressure is also needed from the world because the threats are directed at the world. We even heard it from the “moderate” Iranian president this week, that Iran is at full scale war with the US, Israel, and Europe.
At the same time Iranians are risking their lives just to protest, it was encouraging to hear President Trump speak out in favor of renewed military action against the regime and particularly the brutal IRGC. In the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic in June, standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump stated that he supports renewed military action against Iran if they try to rebuild their ballistic missile or nuclear program.
Rather than pretending that the Islamic regime will ever negotiate for anything in good faith to make a deal, other than to keep itself alive and in control of Iran for another day, Iranians know that what’s needed from outside is unrelenting destruction of the regime, its leaders, military, and if necessary, its ability to fund itself through oil exports and more. Iranians are prepared to suffer more if it means their eventual freedom.
The United States needs to lead the charge, along with Israel and the EU, and even the Saudis, Emiratis, and other Arab states, to bring down the regime. Iranians pray for that. Iranians were frustrated, even feeling abandoned, that the 12-day war in June did not go on and end with the destruction of the regime, or at least giving Iranians cover to do what’s needed on the ground to do so themselves.
The Islamic Republic has created unprecedented suffering for all Iranians, and for millions of people all around the world. Not just by targeting Israel and the Jewish people, but by infiltrating the West, in developing nations, and across the Arab and Islamic world. In fact, it’s hard to think of a place in the world that has not suffered as a result of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Regime Rickety. Displaying a leadership’s anxiety as much as an anti-US and anti-Israel message on this billboard that reads ‘watch out for your soldiers’ in Tehran on January 4, 2026 (Photo: Atta Kenare/ AFP)
Accordingly, it’s necessary that people and nations across the world unite with a singular purpose, to end the Islamic regime and to bring Crown Prince Pahlavi to power and restore the once thriving nation that Iranians yearn for. No one singular act -certainly since the end of World War II – has the potential to eliminate suffering of millions and bring peace.
President Trump likes to speak of making deals. The truth is the best deals to be made are after the Islamic regime falls, and Iran begins necessary reconstruction. The US can play a huge role in that, bringing prosperity to Iran, and peace to the world. Israel can also play an important role by rescuing Iran with its world-leading water reclamation and desalination abilities, filling up the reservoirs and bringing Iranians hope, and life.
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.
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