WORDS AND DEEDS MATTER: THE ALARMING RISE IN STOCHASTIC ANTISEMITISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Is a Jewish presence in South Africa inextricably tied to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which has led to localized harassment?

By Yoram Blumstein

Recently, while I was having a drink at a restaurant in a South African city, an American woman approached me and complimented my Magen David (Star of David) necklace. I responded that I wear it proudly as it signifies my Jewish and Zionist identity. Since she wore a splendid Magen David gold bracelet, I returned the compliment. However, as the conversation gravitated towards our common Jewish identity, she mentioned that wearing her bracelet has elicited negative comments from some South Africans. This was unnerving and dawned upon me that antisemitism in South Africa has increased exponentially since October 7^th. It would be wholly inaccurate to label South Africa as inherently antisemitic. Still, the South African government, some opposition parties, and pro-Palestine organizations have provided an enabling ecosystem for the oldest form of hatred to flourish in the country. Against this background and based on recent evidence, this article examines the rise of stochastic antisemitism, the key drivers and agendas behind it, and the strategies that the South African Jewish community should employ to counter this diabolical trajectory.

WHAT IS STOCHASTIC ANTISEMETISM?

The concept has roots in its parent concept: “stochastic terrorism”. In short, stochastic antisemitism refers to the use of mass media, febrile political rhetoric, and public platforms to “demonize” and spread disinformation and malicious conspiracy theories about Jewish people and Israel. How does it work in practice? Firstly, while the actor is careful not to issue a direct command to commit a crime (antisemitic act), the hostile ecosystem or cosmos they generate makes an “act of violence or harassment statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.” Secondly, the actor fans rhetorical flames, and when an extremist or radicalized individual acts on it, the actor claims plausible deniability. South Africa fits this framework through a toxic mix of state and non-state tiers.

**Disturbing Question**. In the face of rising anti-Israel sentiment in South Africa, is it still safe for Jews in South Africa to visually identify themselves in public?(Photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

FACING THE FACTS

Since October 7^th, global antisemitism has become violent, normalized, and familiar tropes about the Jewish people and Israel have been amplified on university campuses, multilateral institutions (like the United Nations and its associated agencies), workplaces, and tourist destinations frequented by Jews and Israelis, while Israeli artists and academics have been constant targets for boycotts and exclusions. Jews in Australia, the United States (US), Canada, and the United Kingdom (UK) have been subjected to deadly attacks, while state-sponsors of antisemitism – Spain, Ireland, Turkey, and South Africa – claim plausible deniability for their false assertions of genocide against the only Jewish state. The only genocide that occurred was on October 7^th when Hamas terrorists breached the Israel-Gaza border fence and murdered more than 1,200 Jews and Israelis. In Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered documents detailing explicit instructions from the late Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, to kidnap and kill as many Jews as possible during the terrorist organization’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” offensive.

**It’s an Israeli Plot**. Amidst South Africa’s 2026 embarrassing xenophobic wave of unrest, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola joined Justice Minister Kubayi, suggesting that foreign actors — implying Israel — may be responsible to undermine South Africa’s global human rights standing. (Photo: DIRCO)

In South Africa, considered by many Jews to be a safe space to practice their religion and traditions, antisemitism, albeit not violent relative to other countries with large Jewish Diaspora communities, has reached stratospheric levels since October 7^th. The then African National Congress (ANC)-led government’s decision to charge the Jewish state with a spurious genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provided fodder for extremist elements in government and civil society to use the narrative and physical battle space to spread modern blood libels against Jews in South Africa, garnished with familiar racists tropes such as “Zionists”, “settler colonialists”, “occupiers”, “baby killers”, “an apartheid state”, “death to Israel and the IDF”, and other stereotypes. In addition, senior government ministers such as Ronald Lamola (Department of International Relations and Cooperation – DIRCO) and Mmamoloko Kubayi (Justice and Constitutional Development) made oblique, yet absurd, remarks that Israel may have stoked the recent xenophobic attacks against African migrants, as its purported foreign involvement is linked to the ICJ case. Relatedly, extremist foreign pundits and celebrities breached the threshold for idiocy and conspiracy theories by blaming the Jewish state for the recent influx of 60,000 African migrants from Morocco to Spain. This is nothing more than an aggregation of modern blood libels against Jews and the State of Israel.

**Jews behind Turmoil**. In the midst of the ugly 2026 anti-illegal immigration protests in South Africa, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi’ (above) suggested that Israel was behind the turmoil to try undermine South Africa in retaliation for its “genocide” case against Israel at The Hague. Joining the antisemitic bandwagon, former EFF MP, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi insinuated that Israel had been waiting for an opportunity to damage the country’s reputation. (Photo Frennie Shivambu )

Although the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) painted a rather sanguine picture of the safety of Jews in the latest edition of The Jewish Report, the methodology and statistics used by the Board’s antisemitic monitoring unit compare violent incidents relative to larger Jewish Diaspora communities in the West, which belies the increased weaponization of antisemitic propaganda on media platforms in South Africa. Batsheva Shulman penned an article in The Jerusalem Report (July 28, 2026) wherein she posits that South African Jews feel relatively safe to wear religious symbols (such as kippot) but often conceal their Zionism due to a torrent of campus and institutional pressures, as well as the anti-Israel mien of the South African government and the pro-Palestine lobby. Shulman’s article neglected to mention that most South African Jews, including this writer, cherish the State of Israel as their eternal homeland, whose establishment was the culmination of Theodore Herzl’s (z”l) vision of a permanent homeland for the Jewish people. References to Israel as a Zionist state are rather an affront to the Jewish people, as the Zionist debate ended when David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Admittedly, the principles of Zionism (as evidenced in naming conventions of Jewish organizations) exist as an eternal flame of our Jewish identity, and it would be remiss to treat that ideology through a negative prism. This is exactly what anti-Zionist cheerleaders, such as Megan Choritz, are espousing. Choritz is currently contesting a R500,000 ($31,000) defamation case brought by Professor Adam Mendelsohn of the University of Cape Town (UCT), who alleges that she maligned his reputation on social media platforms. When it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the narrative or cognitive battlespace is controlled by the anti-Zionists. The narrative domain, as Ajit Maan (a leading expert on narrative and cognitive warfare) has noted, has emerged as the new center of gravity in modern conflict, and this applies to extremist actors as well. Maan’s theory upends the great Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz’s canonical traditional centers of gravity, which often treat information or psychological operations as support mechanisms for kinetic warfare. By contrast, Maan cogently argues, by way of “narrative identity theory,” that messages or narratives not only target the “audience,” but effectively become the “audience.” For example, malicious actors (especially the pro-Palestine lobby in South Africa) can manipulate an “audience” by linking the Israel-Palestine conflict to that audience’s historical trauma (misguided analogies between apartheid South Africa and Israel’s relations with the Palestinians). By cementing this narrative, the target “audience” rejects countervailing perspectives and foolishly believes it is in control of the “objective reality.” This dynamic has galvanized extremists, both on the right and left, to resort to information warfare against South African Jews and Israel. Their actions have spurred egregious statements by organizations and individuals with strong ideological ties to Iran, Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad during public rallies.

**Sign of the ‘Times’**. Out in the public domain, the county’s popular Sunday Times headlines that Justice Minister Mamoloko Kubayi implies Israel was behind anti-immigrant protests.

AN UPTICK IN ANTISEMETIC STATEMENTS AND INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE

According to community security organizations (CSOs), there has been a discernible spike in antisemitic incidents since mid-2026, especially in Gauteng. These incidents include verbal abuse, online harassment and doxxing, while physical assaults remained rare. The pro-Palestine “useful idiots” continue to protest outside Cape Union Mart – a large Jewish-owned retail outlet. Philip Krawitz, Executive Chairman of the Cape Union Mart Group of Companies – a mensch and humanitarian – received repeated online and verbal threats to his life, so much so that he spent a period abroad and beefed up his security. To protect his reputation and businesses, Krawitz took the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to the Western Cape High Court on the legal basis that labeling him a “genocide funder” and “baby killer” are defamatory and breached the threshold of peaceful protest and freedom of speech. Subsequently, the said court heard arguments over three days from Krawitz’s legal team and the PSC’s in mid-June 2026. The court reserved judgment, and at the time of writing, no date has been announced for a final ruling. The PSC’s political slogans, “From the river to the sea…”, “Zionism is colonialism”, and “Globalize the Intifada” are political shibboleths as these canards are being used to create a Manichean view of Israel and the Jewish people. Therefore, these shibboleths are used in a nuanced way by “useful idiots” to unilaterally determine who is an enemy (Zionist) and ally (anti-Zionist).

**Attacking Jewish Business**. Anti-Israel activists’ picket outside the Western Cape High Court where Cape Union Mart and its Jewish owner Philip Krawitz are petitioning the court to prohibit the Palestine Solidarity Campaign over weekly protests held outside the company’s stores since 2023 and from making “defamatory statements” and intimidating customers. (Photos: Matthew Hirsch)

To add fuel to antisemitic fire, on August 2nd, 2026, Haroon Orrie, the national coordinator of the Cape Town-based extremist and vigilante movement, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), addressed a pro-Palestine rally in Cape Town, where he warned Zionists (by implication, Jews) and their supporters to “find a rock to hide under” and threatened to “unleash the party of Allah.” At the same gathering, the supporters (who were predominantly Muslim) waved flags of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the head of the terrorist octopus, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Cape Council of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) has exhorted the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to investigate Orrie’s vituperative statements for potential violations of the Riotous Assemblies Act, the Intimidation Act, and anti-terrorism laws. PAGAD, which was previously outlawed in 2002 due to erstwhile urban bombing campaigns and high-profile assassinations in its anti-crime ideology on the Cape Flats, has managed to reconstitute itself as a movement bent on social activism. Yet, glimpses of its status quo ante are resurfacing in extremist mode. Hitherto, no action has been taken against Orrie and those of similar ilk, who continue to spew Jew-hatred in the digital and physical domains. This is indicative of a tolerant cosmos, spearheaded by the Hamas- and Iran-enamored South African government, which continues to threaten South African Jews, who serve in the IDF, with arrest. This is utter balderdash and hypocrisy since leading pro-Palestine activists continue their antisemitic encouragement with reckless abandon.

**Looking for Scapegoats**. It is images like this of an anti-migrant protest march through Johannesburg’s Alexandra township on 16 July 2026, that government ministers are suggestion Israel may have a hand in. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu via Reuters)

WHO ARE THE KEY DRIVERS OF THE STOCHASTIC NARRATIVE?

As pointed out earlier, stochastic antisemitism in the South African context refers to hostile anti-Zionist political discourse that can indirectly incite and normalize antisemitic incidents by providing a permissive environment. However, calls for direct violence or hatred against Jews are not intended. Notwithstanding this, in the South African context, the stochastic narrative gains traction at the intersection of the ANC-led government’s geopolitical posturing, as well as historical anti-Jewish/Israel racial stereotyping and tropes. These narratives have been operationalized and weaponized to equate Jews, pro-Israel institutions and businesses with the actions and military policies of the Israeli government. Thus, the vast majority of South African Jews, in the eyes of the extremist pro-Palestine, bear collective responsibility for the actions of the Israeli government in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), as well as Gaza. While not every criticism of Israel is necessarily antisemitic, the conduct of the South African government and its supporters in the pro-Palestine lobby makes the distinction inscrutable. Government officials, ANC bigwigs, and pro-Palestine advocacy groups are the key drivers of stochastic antisemitism in South Africa.

**Rot begins with the ‘Funnies’**. Creating the disturbing ecosystem of today, this 2021 South African cartoon in the local online newspaper *Daily Maverick*, exposes the ugly face of antisemitism. The cartoon depicts the Miss Universe organisation, Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Naftali Bennett, and a man representing the “Zionist lobby” at a beauty pageant.

South African government (ANC-led) policies and statements: The South African government’s aggressive pro-Palestine position and the decision to charge Israel with genocide at the ICJ were the immediate trigger for a rise in antisemitism since October 7^th. On October 8^th, public celebrations, praising the Hamas attacks, took place in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and some Arab capitals (although Arab leaders did not endorse these). In South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils, former minister of intelligence and a current member of the obscure and extremist South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) movement, grotesquely praised the Hamas attacks as “brilliant and spectacular,” while Naledi Pandor, former minister of international relations and cooperation, was in direct contact with Hamas leaders after the attack, drove the false genocide narrative claim, and even inverted the Holy Quran by asserting that while “Muslims are peace-loving people…they are permitted to engage in jihad when necessary.” Pandor delivered these remarks on August 23^rd, 2025, at the Langa Masjid in Cape Town, while wearing a keffiyeh, a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinians. Under Pandor’s watch, the South African embassy in Tel Aviv was closed, while bilateral relations with the US administration reached an all-time low. Similarly, during a post-Cabinet media briefing in October 2023, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who has a proclivity for idiocy and baseless utterances, accused the Israeli government of perpetrating a “Palestinian Holocaust.” These historical inversions have been amplified by Zane Dangor, director-general of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), who made dilettantish and infantile remarks about the origins of Zionism.

A clear pattern is emerging from the South African government policies: the creation of a permissive, rabid environment for antisemitism to flourish. Aside from its stochastic encouragement, it is a clear case of state-sponsored antisemitism.

**In the path of the Nazis**. A much older political cartoon widely disseminated by BDS South Africa utilized the classic Nazi trope of portraying Israeli and Jewish figures – some wearing yarmulkes – with long rat tails and exaggerated facial features gnawing on a block of Swiss cheese full of holes with then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the centre The drawings are reminiscent of how Jews were depicted as vermin by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

PRO-PALESTINE OPPOSITION PARTIES:

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is the fourth largest party in Parliament and the most anti-Israel. The party’s leader, Julius Malema (who, by the way, is appealing a jail sentence for illegal possession of a firearm), has consistently called for the closure of the Israeli embassy in Pretoria, severance of business ties between Israel and South Africa, a boycott of Israeli goods, and cutting academic links with Israeli institutions. The EFF has repeatedly called for closure and defunding of Herzliya High School in Cape Town, under the spurious claim that the school acts as an “agent of a foreign genocidal state” because former students purportedly serve in the IDF. In the aftermath of October 7^th, Malema led several pro-Palestinian rallies where he uttered slogans and statements directed at Zionist and Jewish institutions. For example, the EFF’s leadership chanted, “we know where the murderers live…”, directed at Jewish community members. Led by former President Jacob Zuma, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) is the official opposition after the Democratic Alliance (DA), despite the party theoretically having the most seats after the ANC, decided to join the Government of National Unity (GNU). The MK Party is decidedly anti-Israel and has routinely accused Israel of “settler-colonialism”, “apartheid”, and “genocide.”

Al-Jama-ah, a party with few seats in parliament and with strong Islamist leanings – has an outsized influence in foreign policy debates and municipal governance in Johannesburg. The party proudly supports Hamas’s armed resistance against Israel, framing it as a legitimate struggle. The party previously clashed with Jewish and pro-Israel councilors in municipal councils to the extent that Jewish councilors wearing religious symbols were openly mocked.

PRO-PALESTINE ADVOCACY GROUPS:

The pro-Palestine lobby, most notably movements such as Africa4Palestine (BDS South Africa), Gift of the Givers, SAJFP and various groupings, are advocating for boycott, sanctions, and the diplomatic isolation of Israel. These grievances are ubiquitous on South African university campuses. Professor Adam Mendelsohn (Head of the Department of Historical Studies and Director of the Kaplan Center for Jewish Studies at UCT) delivered his inaugural lecture on April 29^th, 2026, to highlight the future of South African Jewry amid the normalization of antisemitism in academic and social circles. Mendelsohn is currently in a legal tug-of-war with UCT over resolutions adopted by its Council in 2024. In June 2024, the UCT Council adopted resolutions, inter alia, that UCT academics may not liaise with or cooperate with groups, research projects, or networks affiliated with the IDF or operating in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” The same university also rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Mendelsohn rightfully argued that UCT’s anti-Israel resolutions are a direct assault on objectivity and academic freedom, privilege anti-Israel academics and visiting scholars, and single out Israeli academics compared to other countries involved in human rights abuses. The Western Cape High Court is currently reviewing the administrative rationality of the UCT Council’s resolutions and will determine whether the adoption of such policies complied with standard governance obligations. Paradoxically, on March 30, 2026, UCT awarded an honorary doctorate to Imtiaz Sooliman, head of the Gift of the Givers charity. Sooliman is known for his virulent antisemitic rhetoric. During a public lecture at UCT in October 2025, Sooliman averred that he was “five thousand percent antisemitic…” and continued his diatribe against Israel and South African Jews: “We know antisemitism is used to shut you up. So, if you stand up against Zionists and they say you’re antisemitic, it’s because they want to cover their faults.” It is palpable that UCT, Africa’s most prestigious university and once a beacon and citadel of academic freedom, has now welcomed extremist elements into its fold. This is hypocrisy personified.

Stochastic narratives, as espoused by the South African government’s decision to take Israel to the ICJ on genocide charges, are the epitome of antisemitism and modern blood libel against the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Accusing a country of genocide is a serious allegation that should be supported by hard proof, not anecdotal evidence. The fact that South Africa has requested the ICJ for an extension until 2027 to present evidence means that there is no evidence at all and the court should dismiss it as a frivolous and cheap attempt to traduce the image of the State of Israel, which launched “Operation Swords of Iron” in self-defense against Hamas terrorists. In addition, the IDF took reasonable measures, in line with international law, to minimize civilian casualties.

The stochastic stratagems of the drivers have now shifted from demonstrations and boycotts to Jewish communal spaces. These are manifested in protests over Jewish participation in sports, youth events, and commercial and cultural events. The stochastic impact of this implies that Jewish existence or presence in South Africa is inextricably tied to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which led to localized harassment.

HOW DO SA JEWS COUNTER THE STOCHASTIC THREAT?

The boundary between legitimate criticism of Israel and hostility towards Jewish people by a powerful minority of pro-Palestine institutions and individuals, inspired by a permissive antisemitic ecosystem created by the ANC-led government, is inseparable. While the Cape Branch of the SAJBD has ongoing Equality Court cases against recidivist antisemites such as Nabeweya Lukie, an employee of the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa, more needs to be done. If found guilty, these inveterate antisemites are often given a monetary fine (payable to the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Center), a public apology and retraction of antisemitic statements on social media, and a visit to a Holocaust Museum. While it is important to “name and shame” the antisemites, it is merely a defensive mechanism as it does not address the underlying hatred some harbor against Jews. Diaspora Jews, who became October 8^th Jews, woke up to a new reality after October 7^th. While Jews in Israel could rely on the Israeli government, IDF, and intelligence services to protect them, Diaspora Jews were at the receiving end of violent antisemitism as some governments did not do enough to protect Jewish minorities and instead mollycoddled Hamas sympathizers. Zvika Klein, Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post, pointed out that Jewish communities across the globe have spent billions of dollars on physical security, which is essentially a “defensive architecture.” While the physical protection of synagogues, schools, and community centers is important and the threats existential, it creates a “fortress mentality” that only treats the symptoms of antisemitism and not the root causes. Klein offers some useful advice by enjoining Jewish communities to realign their “defensive posture” to proactiveness. A lot can be achieved through political mobilization, legal advocacy, fostering ties with moderate faith groups, and deepening connections with Israel.

In the South African context:

The SAJBD must employ legal advocacy to criminalize antisemitic rhetoric propagated by PAGAD, individuals, and the pro-Palestine lobby. Hauling antisemites before the Equality Court is not enough, as the court cannot order criminal prosecution. Although freedom of expression is protected under Section 16 (1) of the Constitution, Section 16 (2) excludes “propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence, and advocacy of hatred based on race, ethnicity, or religion that constitutes incitement to cause harm.” This threshold has been reached many times, most recently by PAGAD’s Haroon Orrie with his toxic incitement against South African Jews.

**Zionists must Hide.** “To every Zionist, to every business that supports Zionism …. you better find yourself a rock to hide under,” vowed Haroon Orrie, the national coordinator of PAGAD to a crowd waving Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags on the Sea Point Promenade on Sunday, 2 August, 2026.

As a deterrent, the SAJBD should pursue criminal prosecution under the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act. The Act establishes hate speech as:

“a specific criminal offense when a person intentionally publishes or communicates content that advocates hatred or incites violence/harm against a protected group…”

Criminal charges can be filed with SAPS. The NPA will be obligated to pursue criminal prosecution, which carries statutory penalties, fines or imprisonment.

To prevent high-profile public individuals from making stochastic statements and hostile rhetoric, the SAJBD should request a High Court injunction to restrain public figures and organizations from perpetuating a pattern of hostile rhetoric that infringes on the constitutional rights to Human Dignity (Section 10) and Freedom and Security of the Person (Section 12). The SAJBD must prove beyond reasonable doubt that rhetoric has crossed from political critique into targeting of specific individuals (Krawitz is a case in point) and Jewish community organizations. While robust, responsible free speech should be encouraged, the SAJBD should urge the South African government to heed several European countries’ decisive actions against pro-Palestine propaganda and slogans. Germany classified the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free…” as a criminalized symbol under Section 86a of the German Criminal Code. The German courts can order immediate criminal prosecution or fines if such slogans are displayed or chanted. In the UK, the authorities have designated Palestine Action under its counter-terrorism laws. Thus, membership of the group or public support thereof constitutes a criminal offense. France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and the US have taken similar action against pro-Palestine groups. The same fate should befall Africa4Palestine, SAJFP, PAGAD, and Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood/Iran-funded institutions in South Africa and the South African Jewish community should reclaim the narrative space by dispelling myths and lies about Israel and the Jewish people. This could be done with other faith groups, especially South Africa’s majority Christian community, which has strong spiritual ties to Israel. Melanie Philips has written an illuminating book, Fighting the Hate: A Handbook for Jews Under Siege (2026), which is a practical guide for Diaspora Jews to future-proof their communities amid increased Jew-hatred. A key takeaway from Philips’ book, relevant to the South African Jewish context, is the need to refute misinformation and disinformation about Israel. Most importantly, South African Jews ought to adopt a resilient, proactive posture built on Jewish identity, self-confidence and love for Israel.

Editor’s Note: Yoram Blumstein is a nom de plume (pen name) used by the author to protect identity due to ongoing security risks and prior threats related to previous reporting.

*Feature Picture: Hamas-supporting mob on Sea Point beach front, Cape Town, South Africa three years ago, where Jonathan Cohen was attacked – “strangled, kicked, hit, scratched, dragged, maligned, and almost pushed into the ocean” – by violent extremists targeting a prayer gathering for Israel.

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 RAMAPHOSA / PEREZ MEETING – PATHOS OR POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM ?

What truly lies behind the much-publicized meeting between South Africa’s President and the Rabbi parent of a SA-born Israeli soldier killed in the war in Gaza?

By Peter Bailey

The pathos in the unlikely meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Rabbi Doron Perez and his wife Shelley, should be apparent in the personal exchange between them, despite their obvious political differences. The subsequent messaging from South Africa tells a different story.

President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with Rabbi Doron and Shelly Perez, parents of slain son, Daniel, killed in action on the 7 October, 2023.

The meeting on Monday 10 August between World Zionist Organisation (WZO) President Rabbi Doron Perez and his wife Shelley, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, made the headlines in numerous media publications, mostly for the wrong reasons. Perez is also the CEO of World Mizrachi, a global religious Zionist organisation, established as the religious arm of the World Zionist movement. Ramaphosa, on the other hand heads the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s governing party, and staunch supporters of the Palestinian terrorist movements. The differences between the Perez couple and Cyril Ramaphosa could not be starker. Conversely the commonalities between the two could not be greater.

The political opportunism is evident, as the mainstream South African press has lambasted Ramaphosa for compromising on the ANC principles and approach to dealing with matters pertaining to Israel. Most journalists took the view that the South African charges of Genocide against Israel would lose their gravity in the face of the meeting with the Perez couple, particularly in the face of their strong Zionist credentials. The South African Jewish Report, on the other hand, took the pragmatic approach, lauding Ramaphosa and his government for the humanitarian action in intervening in order to assist in bringing closure to the tragedy that befell the Perez family. Newspapers in Israel were generally appreciative of the role played by Ramaphosa, despite the differences between South Africa and Israel.

Rhamposa is the South African leader whose International Relations Minister, Naledi Pandor, congratulated Hamas in a telephone call to the terrorist group leadership in Qatar on 14 October 2023 for, in her words, their fully justifiable invasion of Israel. This was just 10 days after the much-publicised vicious invasion by Hamas terrorists, accompanied by murder, rape, torture and other acts of vicious cruelty that had been recorded on the terrorists’ own body cameras, and later publicised by Hamas. The South African Government then had the audacity to lead the charge against Israel – the victim of the Hamas attack – by laying unfounded complaints of genocide and other human rights violations against the Jewish State at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

**Pandor Pandering to Hamas**. Following SA’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor holding a phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in mid-October 2023, Hamas released a statement asserting that the foreign minister expressed solidarity with their operation, leading to immediate public backlash and political controversy.

The Perez couple, on the other hand, are the parents of the late Captain Daniel Perez, who fell on 7 October 2023, while commanding his tank crew during their heroic defence of the Nahal Oz military base for two hours. This in the face of the vicious attack by overwhelming numbers of Hamas terrorists who had invaded Israel. The family has been through the horrific trauma of initially believing that Daniel had been wounded and kidnapped, enduring 163 days of torment, before all hope was lost after the IDF advised them that there was sufficient evidence to show that Daniel had been killed on 7 October, after which his body had been kidnapped into Gaza, where it was being held.

**Killed in Action**. Born and bred South African, 22-year-old Daniel Perez (z’l) was killed on 7 October 2023 whereafter his body was taken into Gaza.

The obvious similarity between the two, is that both Ramaphosa and Perez are South African-born political leaders. Going a little further, both head political movements, the former being leader of the ANC, while the latter is President of the WZO. Both are fathers, as the headline in the South African Jewish Report made obvious, using the words Father to Father, Ramaphosa helps World Zionist President. There is however a further much larger commonality between Ramaphosa and Perez and what they stand for, that is generally minimised, if considered at all.

While the ANC and the WZO can almost be described as sworn enemies, closer analysis reveals that the raison de etre of the two movements is almost identical. The African National Congress was founded as the South African Native National Congress in 1912, with the objective of uniting Black South Africans in the fight against British colonialism to reclaim South Africa for ts indigenous people. The World Zionist Organisation was founded in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the Zionist Organisation, with the objective of uniting the Jewish Diaspora to fight for the return of the Jewish People to their ancestral homeland for 3,000 years, then under Imperial Ottoman Turkish rule.

The background is that the European Jewish Diaspora was largely the result of the Roman capture of Jerusalem, followed by the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE. This in turn was followed by the carrying off into Roman slavery of around 300,000 Israeli souls from Judea, as recorded by the Roman senator and historian, Cassius Dio. By 1900 the European Jewish Diaspora numbered some 9 million people, the vast majority of them restricted to a life of penury within the Pale of Settlement, demarcated for Jews by the Russian Empire. United States Jewry in 1900 numbered some 1.5 million, while Jews living in the Arab lands totalled between 5 and 600 thousand.

The irony and additional similarity between the ANC and the WZO is that following the Allied victory over Ottoman Turkey in 1918, Britain became the effective ruler of the former Ottoman Palestine. This was in terms of the League of Nations Mandate over Palestine granted to Britain, while South Africa had the status of a White self-governed British Dominion. Eastern Palestine soon became Transjordan, later the Kingdom of Jordan, while Western Palestine was slated to become the Jewish Homeland, an obligation which the British Government did not honour.

Britain egregiously reneged on the promise of the Balfour Declaration for the establishment of a Jewish Homeland, which was embodied in the Mandate, instead limiting Jewish immigration, while encouraging the growth of the Arab community. Just as the ANC felt forced to eventually begin an armed struggle against the White South African government in December 1961, so too the Jewish resistance movements were forced to start an armed struggle targeting the British military in 1937. The British failure to carry out its responsibilities under its Mandate over Palestine, is the direct cause of the conflict between Israel and the Arab community, who have chosen to refer to themselves as Palestinians, in an attempt to create a fictitious historical connection to Israel, as a counter to the well documented and established Jewish history in the region.

Arab aspirations since the early 1900s have resulted in continuous acts of terrorism against the Jewish residents of Palestine, a situation which has continued unabated and to ever increasing degrees ever since. These endeavours have morphed into the numerous Palestinian organisations waging an unremitted terror war against Israel in particular, and global Jewry in general. These are the same terror movements with whom the ANC controlled South Africa has found common cause, culminating in the Hamas invasion of 7 October 2023.

With that background, let us return to Cyril Ramaphosa and the Perez couple. Nobody can fault Rabbi Doron Perez and his wife for leaving no stone unturned in the quest for the return of their son Daniel’s body for a proper Jewish burial and a degree of closure following the terrorist inspired tragedy that befell their family. Ramaphosa must be lauded for his actions to achieve the release of Daniel’s body from its Hamas kidnappers, however, whether his actions were truly altruistic or not, leave more questions than answers. Careful reading of the press release by Ramaphosa leaves no doubt that he has every intention of making political capital out of his intervention on behalf of the Perez couple, without in any way blaming Hamas for the tragedy

SA GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE

President Ramaphosa meets Daniel Perez family following government intervention

Monday, 10 August 2026

President Cyril Ramaphosa has met with the family of the late Captain Daniel Perez following the intervention of the South African government in facilitating the release of his remains by Hamas. Perez, born and raised in South Africa, was taken hostage and killed on 7 October 2023. President Ramaphosa expresses his condolences to the Perez family and affirms South Africa’s support for an all inclusive peace process that will deliver a lasting peace for the people of Israel and Palestine.
The South African government remains engaged in assisting all South Africans, irrespective of race or religion, that are ensnared in conflict zones as well as assisting other foreign nationals where such support is requested.
This includes facilitating the release of South Africans trapped in a war in Syria, citizens that were sold to Russian mercenaries and the safe return of Ukrainian children.
Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President – media@presidency.gov.za
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

Noteworthy about this press release is that there is no mention of Hamas having been responsible for the kidnapping and killing of hostages during the terrorist invasion of Israel. Instead, they are lumped together with “all South Africans, irrespective of race or religion, that are ensnared in conflict zones as well as assisting other foreign nationals where such support is requested.” How much better would it be to offer support and assistance spontaneously, even when it isn’t requested, particularly in the case of South African citizens.

The abductees whose bodies were recovered from Khan Yunis, from top right clockwise: Alex Danzig, Nadav Poppelwell, Yagev Buchstab, Yoram Metzger, Haim Perry and Avraham Munder (Photos: Abductees and Missing Persons Headquarters)

Despite the claims to the contrary in the press release, neither Ramaphosa personally, nor the South African Government collectively, are on record as having done anything to facilitate the release of the other South African citizens who were kidnapped into Hamas captivity on 7 October 2023 and then held in Gaza as hostages. I refer here in particular to 62-year-old Aviva Siegel (kidnapped together with her husband Keith, an American citizen), and 79-year-old Channah Peri, whose eldest son Roey was murdered during the horrendously cruel terror attack by Hamas. Both elderly ladies were released from captivity on 23 November 2023, while South Africa was industriously busy preparing the documents for the malicious unfounded libellous charges laid against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Fully three months after the Hamas invasion of Israel, the South African government eventually delivered a diplomatic note to Israel on 21 December 2023, in which it condemned the 7 October attack targeting civilians, and the subsequent hostage taking. This was cynically done as it prepared the moral ground for laying the unfounded charges of Genocide against Israel a week later, on 29 December 2023.

Other than a few mealy-mouthed statements calling for the release of the hostages, neither the South African Government nor its President appear to have done or said anything to facilitate the release of any hostages or criticise Hamas and its terrorist partners. Hamas terrorists proudly recorded their numerous acts of violence and killing, followed by the mutilation and rape of their victims, many of whom were youngsters innocently attending a music festival. Ramaphosa and his government have much to answer for, and little to be proud of, despite the self congratulatory press release.

About the writer:

Peter Bailey made Aliyah from South Africa with his wife Jeanne in 2013 in order to join their three sons and families who were already in Israel. He spent 35 years in the glass industry in South Africa while also being active in military veterans affairs, being National Chairman of The South African Jewish Ex Service League prior to making Aliyah. He completed his compulsory military training in South Africa in 1964 and was commissioned as an officer in 1965, retiring with the rank of major, after 19 years service in the SADF Citizen Force. While on active service on the Namibian Angolan border in 1976 he commanded 101 Task Force’s Counter Insurgency Operations Training Centre. He has enjoyed a lifelong interest in military history and has conducted intensive research into the Jewish contribution to South Africa’s military history, writing many papers on the subject and giving relevant lectures across South Africa. He is the author of two published books, Street Names in Israel and Men of Valor, Israel’s Latter Day Heroes.

THE GHOULS FEEDING ON HIND RAJAB’S DEATH

An IDF investigation has produced no verdict and no new evidence of guilt. The online mob is exploiting the tragedy for clicks anyway.

By Andrew Fox

The IDF has opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of Hind Rajab and eight others. That is the entire development. No verdict is implied. The announcement identifies no suspect, nor does it specify an offence. Online carrion crows have turned Hind’s death into clickbait by stripping the news of its qualifications and selling an investigation as a verdict.

describes the alleged shelling of that ambulance and records that the girls and two paramedics were later found dead. It does not establish what happened during the intervening hours.

Mark Zlochin’s close reading exposes the misrepresentation. The formal finding concerns the initial fire at the car. The later events remain reports and allegations. His earlier analysis raised unresolved questions about the route and timeline and tested whether the telephone material and available lines of sight supported The IDF examination states that troops fired at the approaching family car on 29 January 2024. Five passengers were killed; Hind and her cousin Layan survived the encounter. Hours later, a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, whose movement had been coordinated, went to recover them. The announcement more than one source of fire. Those questions do not resolve the deaths, and today’s announcement provides no new evidence of criminal guilt.

There is one awkward point for Israel’s defenders. The IDF’s first account said no troops were in the area. Its subsequent examination now acknowledges that troops fired at the car. That correction cannot be wished away, and anyone who repeated the first version should amend their view. The acknowledgement revises the official account of the initial encounter. Hind and Layan, it now says, survived the initial fire, while the ambulance strike and their later deaths remain under investigation. Criminal responsibility remains unresolved.

The carrion feeders have ignored that distinction. They demanded an investigation. The moment one was announced, they called it an admission. Their trick relies on readers confusing suspicion with conviction. They use a dead child for emotional force and borrow legal vocabulary to manufacture authority. Nobody has been charged. No court has tested individual liability in the Hind case or in the separate Tel al-Sultan referral. There is no legal conclusion in either case. For these people, the case is not about truth or justice for Hind Rajab: it is about validating their preconceptions about Israel no matter what.

**Jaundiced** **Justice**. For anti-Israel advocates, the tragic death of Hind Rajab (above) and family members is less about truth or justice but rather about validating their negative preconceptions about Israel. (Family handout via AFP)

The IDF’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism compiles operational material for the Military Advocate General. Reasonable suspicion triggers a military police investigation; prosecutors then assess whether the evidence offers a reasonable prospect of conviction. A referral records suspicion but supplies no answer. The suspected offence may involve negligence in following procedure. The announcement does not say.

I have always maintained that where credible evidence supports a war crime charge, it should be prosecuted. That remains my position. The World Central Kitchen case illustrates the distinction. Australia’s review by Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin found that the strike was not knowingly or deliberately directed against the charity. It recorded mistaken identification and failures to follow procedures. Binskin made no criminal finding. A catastrophic outcome can warrant criminal scrutiny without establishing deliberate murder.

I know of a British soldier in Afghanistan who shot dead a farmer carrying a broom. Having known the soldier well and having previously expressed doubts about his suitability for deployment, I am fairly certain that a murder was committed. His defence was that he genuinely believed the broom was a weapon and that his life was threatened. No charges followed. The incident is relevant here only as an example of how difficult it is to reconstruct a shooter’s state of mind after the event.

War crime allegations in Gaza, and more generally, are difficult to investigate because evidence is disturbed and witnesses can be inaccessible. There are no sterile crime scenes, few witness statements, and evidential chains of custody are extremely hard to maintain or prove. The criminal standard of proof does not bend to outrage.

The delay remains a fair ground for criticism. Peter Lerner accurately describes the timing problem:

Israel’s legal machinery moves at an investigative pace, while the information war moves in minutes or seconds. His call for earlier acknowledgement and carefully bounded updates might have reduced speculation. Seth Frantzman’s demand for accountability is fair, too. However, a bleaker counterpoint remains as an answer to both: Israel will be hammered whatever it does. The same people who treated silence as concealment now present the inquiry as a confession.

Researchers should update their positions and opinions when new facts emerge. That applies to Israel’s initial claim that no troops were present. The acknowledgement of IDF fire at the car must be noted. It provides no new evidence about who killed Hind or what happened around the ambulance, or what Hamas was doing at the time. This was a war zone, remember. The public record still contains no evidence establishing a provable crime.

Nine dead human beings have become raw material for clicks and political self-gratification. They have taken an investigation that establishes no guilt and sold it as a confession, using Hind Rajab’s death as a weapon before investigators have established how she died and at whose hand. Decent analysts change their position when the facts change. The ghouls simply distort the facts until they fit the verdict they wanted from the start. If credible evidence of a crime emerges, I will follow it and demand that it be prosecuted. Until then, the spectacle of people parading a dead child through the information war deserves nothing but utter contempt.

About the writer:

A veteran of three grueling tours of Afghanistan, Major Andrew Fox holds a Batchelor’s degree in Law & Politics, a Master’s in Military History & War Studies, Msc in Psychology and is currently studying for a PhD in History.

NEVER STOP LOOKING

The State of Israel goes to great lengths to retrieve its soldiers, whether alive or dead.

By Lennie Lurie

In light of the crucial importance Jews attach to the religious necessity to bury the bodies of their fellow Jews, one can now comprehend the vital role played by those dedicated and steadfast members of that unique Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) unit given the name Eitan Unit, whose members represent the very best in furthering the sacred obligations of the Jewish religion and fulfilling the mitzvah of Chessed shel Emet (English: “True Kindness”), in finding the bodies of missing Israeli soldiers for burial.

This is the phrase that has echoed in my mind ever since that tragic date of 7th October, 2023, when the Hamas terrorists from Gaza, attacked Israeli towns and settlements located along the Israeli-Gaza border, murdering 1,195 people, comprising 831 Israeli civilians, security force members and foreign nationals as well as 364 Israeli civilians killed at the Nova musical festival.

251 people of both sexes and all ages (including foreign nationals, mainly workers from Thailand) were abducted by Hamas and hidden in underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

A total of 1,968 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were returned to Gaza in exchange for the final group of living Israeli hostages on October 13, 2025. This exchange included 250 prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

Israel and Hamas became locked in lengthy and tense negotiations over the return of the remaining 13 bodies of Israeli hostages who died in Hamas captivity. To many people outside the Jewish community, the idea of fighting for the return of bodies can seem hard to grasp. Why would Israel go to such lengths to recover the remains of the dead?

However, there exists in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a very special unit whose name and primary function is unknown to most Israelis.

Within the IDF Manpower Directorate there is a specialized unit known as the Eitan Unit, which is primarily responsible for locating bodies of missing and dead IDF soldiers. The Eitan Unit is dedicated to the ongoing effort of finding missing IDF soldiers, whether they disappeared recently or in past conflicts (some cases date back to the 1948 War of Independence).

The Hebrew word Eitan is אית”ן , whichis an acronym of the Hebrew words “איתור נעדרים” meaning:

“Locating missing Persons”

The Eitan Unit is active on an everyday basis, as well as during emergencies, to try find missing soldiers. The Eitan Unit plays a critical role in saving the lives of missing soldiers as well as giving closure to families whose loved ones have been killed in action and the body goes missing.

The Eitan Unit utilizes advanced technologies along with intelligence and investigative processes in order to quickly detect a missing soldier during active combat or even after a long period of time.

Major Yoav, an unmanned aerial vehicle – UAV (also called drones) operator and a specialist in tracing missing and kidnapped IDF soldiers states:

“We are supposed to respond as fast as possible once a soldier is determined to be missing. Be it in an abduction or on the battlefield, we must find and bring the soldier back. Locating the soldier right away prevents a family, national, and international crisis down the road.”

Eitan UAV operators have been taught how to serve as the IDF’s eyes in the skies over enemy territory in order to trace and locate missing persons and also to thwart the next attempt of abduction. By using existing technology, 12-digit location coordinates are given that point to the place where a missing person is, dead or alive. This enables the Eitan operators to explore enemy territory and narrow the missing person’s search. It allows them to traverse through places which would not be possible without the UAV.

Major Yoav describes a particular finding:

“When you bury someone, a mound is created. Later, that mound turns into a very particular shape, which can be spotted. In addition, we learned that when someone digs a grave, the soil is turned over and seeds are mixed in. The mound holds a greater amount of moisture. The moisture and the mixed seeds result in a unique effect that features vegetation different from the surrounding natural habitat. These findings helped us locate Dana Bennett [an Israeli teen murdered in 2003].”

Another crucial benefit of the UAV is its sophisticated cameras. Major Yoav explains:

“The UAV has a thermal camera on board that provide superior resolution and quality. Thermal techniques allow for further analysis of the terrain. We can even mark suspicious areas for further investigation. Our focus here is on getting to the soldier before the terrorists do”.

Since the IDF’s establishment in 1948, there are 179 missing soldiers, the majority from the War of Independence. The investigators of the Unit visit IDF archives, State archives, and additional archives where they talk to people and try to understand what happened. They spend hours in the archives trying to piece together the circumstances of a disappearance in order to locate and identify the bodies of missing soldiers.

It has always been the goal of terrorist organizations to take Israeli soldiers, dead or alive. History has shown that the State of Israel has gone to great lengths to retrieve its soldiers, even solely for burial purposes.

The Eitan Unit supervises all recovery attempts of missing soldiers in Israel, taking full advantage of the most innovative technological advancements, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) and ground analysis, to identify potential burial sites or search areas. These physical search operations, conducted by a department within the Eitan Unit, has combat soldiers specially trained to operate in these delicate situations.

The commander of the Eitan Unit, Lieutenant-Colonel Nir states:

“There are faces behind every case. Behind every case there’s also a story. In recent years we’ve had a fair share of successful cases and we’ve managed to find missing soldiers. Every time we receive a new case, I’m part of the investigation and I’m amazed at the team’s dedication”.

There are some cases that are close to being solved and others that are further away, but the Unit continues searching for clues and evidence.

Says Lt. Col. Nir:

“For example, there are cases where the soldier died at sea and the chances of finding them are close to none!”

Within the Eitan Unit is a department that is in charge of mapping and analyzing the ground in order to know where to look for missing soldiers. “I can take a map from 1948,” explains Lt. Col. Nir,“and compare it to a current map, and then direct the investigators in that geographical area”.

Another Eitan Unit has combat soldiers who undertake regular drills and exercises in physically searching for missing IDF soldiers. During emergencies, the teams take notes on the missing soldier cases, keeping the information up to date, and then presents the information to the Military Rabbinate and the Head of the Manpower Directorate. Says Lt. Col. Nir:

“We then decide whether the soldier is missing or a fallen soldier whose burial place is unknown. It will be then up to them to decide; our job is to provide them with as much information as possible.”

Once the family is notified, the Unit accompanies them to activities and meetings, providing them with any additional support they need. Although fraught with challengers, Lt. Col. Nir is never discouraged adding:

“After 70 years, the window of opportunities is closing and if we don’t act fast, we won’t have the testimonies because they’re a dying generation.”

However, the Unit continues to discover more information about missing soldiers, even from 70 years ago.

Lt. Col. Nir concludes:

“It’s important for soldiers to know that the IDF and Israel do everything in their power to bring back missing soldiers. A strong saying I heard while investigating a case of a missing Givati Brigade soldier from 1948 was, ‘After what I witnessed today, I hope and pray that if I am ever taken hostage or am missing, people will look for me the same way we looked after missing soldiers from 1948’. We will do everything to bring a hostage or missing soldier back to his home and family in Israel.”

Sadly, there are 179 missing in action (MIA) IDF soldiers whose bodies were never found. Nevertheless, the State of Israel has honored them with the establishment of the commemorative Garden of the Missing in Action [Hebrew: גן הנעדרים – Gan HaNe’edarim – (literal) Garden of the Missing] located on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

The ‘Garden of the Missing in Action’ is a commemorative garden on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem dedicated to Israeli MIAs.

The garden memorializes fighters and officers of the Israel Defense Forces and Land of Israel MIAs starting from 1914, whose resting place is unknown. The garden also contains memorials to those lost aboard the submarine INS Dakar and the 23 Palmach commandoes lost in Operation Boatswain. The establishment of the Garden of the Missing was initiated by Moshe Oren, head of the Ministry of Defense Commemoration Division in 2003. It was dedicated in February 2004 in a ceremony attended by army chiefs, Israeli Defense Minister at the time, Shaul Mofaz, and members of the Jerusalem Municipality.

An annual memorial service for the missing soldiers of Israel takes place in the garden’s main plaza on the Seventh of Adar, the day in the Hebrew calendar which marks the traditional date of the death of Moses, whose grave, according to the Bible, is known only to God.

Photograph of the crew of INS Dakar, the Israeli submarine that was lost at sea in January, 1968. The crew is pictured here at Portsmouth Naval Base, England, ahead of its first voyage to Israel which she would never complete.

According to the rabbis, ransoming of captives is closely tied to the commandment of saving a life, and is thereby supremely important in Jewish law. Jewish law obligates searching for those who are missing in action even if there is only a remote chance of finding the person. The policy of the Israel Defense Forces is never to leave a soldier behind.

The INS Dakar Memorial in the Garden of the Missing in Action is dedicated to the 69 soldiers of the Israeli Navy of the submarine INS *Dakar* who perishedin the Mediterranean Sea in 1968. The exposed concrete is in the shape of a submarine with an inscription from the Bible: Psalm 77:19: “*Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though Your footprints were not seen*.”

COMING HOME

Master Sergeant Ran Gvili (aged 24 years) was an Israel Police combat officer in the elite Negev YASAM unit.

He was killed fighting Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, after taking medical leave to join the defense. His body was abducted to Gaza, making him the final captive held there until his remains were recovered in “Operation Brave Heart” and returned to Israel on January 26, 2026.

24-year-old Master Sergeant Ran Gvili, an Israeli police combat officer in the Negev Yasam counter-terror unit, displayed extraordinary bravery on October 7, 2023. Despite recovering from a broken shoulder, he rushed south to defend communities, helped rescue Nova Festival survivors and fought valiantly at Kibbutz Alumim, continuing to engage terrorists even after being shot in the leg, until he was outnumbered and killed before his body was taken to Gaza.

The long and agonizing wait came to an end for the family of Master Sergeant Ran Gvili when, on Wednesday morning, 28th January, 2026, he was buried in the military cemetery of his home town Meitar, located 19 km (12 miles) northeast of Beersheba. The formal funeral procession began at 10:30 A.M. at the IDF Camp Shura in central Israel, just south of the town of Ramle. Dozens of police officers stood in silent salute along the road, with Israeli flags spontaneously displayed by Israelis from all walks of life in honor of the Israeli cop who left his home and charged into battle against the invading Gaza terrorists on 7 October.

Left: Gvili’s casket arrives at the cemetery. Right: Police Officers bid farewell to hero Ran Gvili.

Eulogizing at the funeral of his brother Ran, Omri Gvili, the brother of Ran, expressed the sentiment in the heart of all Israelis and which lies imbedded in the DNA of the IDF:

“I’ve closed the circle – my hero brother has come home.”

About the writer:

A B.Sc. graduate in Economics and Geology from the University of Cape Town (UCT), Lennie Lurie may be the only volunteer from abroad who was granted permission to leave his group on kibbutz during the 1967 Six Day War to rejoin his paratroop brigade that he had served with years before following his matriculation in Cape Town. In Israel, Lennie has worked as an Export Manager for some of the country’s major food manufacturers and chemical companies as well as an independent consultant in Export Marketing guiding many small Israeli businesses to sell their products and services in the world-wide market. As a result of a work accident in 1995, Lennie made a career change and became an independent English teacher working mainly with hi-tech companies and associated with universities and colleges in the north of Israel.

AMERICA, BEWARE OF THE ISLAMISTS IN YOUR BACKYARD

What I see is what I fear: How can American’s be so blind?

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Becoming an American citizen ten years ago was one of the most exciting and proud days in my life. It was not simply because I had fled Iran – the country of my birth – where, after becoming a Christian in 1999 I was arrested and sentenced to death for the “crime” of apostacy. Indeed, the ability to live as a Christian without daily fears of arrest or persecution, much less torture and death was life changing. I was also able to vote in a free and democratic election for the first time in my life. It’s impossible for most Americans to imagine not having the freedoms so cherished for us all– and for which Iranians are struggling and dying in order to gain their freedom from the oppression of the Islamic Republic – and being so foreign and unimaginable for me just years earlier as I sat on death row in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Often, as an American who was able to flee tyranny, I feel that I cherish America’s freedom’s more than those who were born here and take them for granted. I understand more than most what lack of freedom looks like in an entire country, and for the citizens living under the oppression of Islamic Sharia law.

I don’t dismiss the things that are talking points of American elections, not at all. But for so many Americans living with the freedoms that we have, far too many do not appreciate what they mean. When it comes to women’s rights, of course I stand for that in the American way of thinking. But sometimes I shake my head because I know what it’s really like to live in a society in which misogyny and subjugation of women is in its DNA. I know what it’s like to see women manipulated to become sex workers under the guise of a perverse and institutionally sanctioned Islamic formula of “temporary marriage.”

I know what it’s like to fear being beaten or abused because of not wearing the mandatory hijab “properly,” or to wear makeup, pluck one’s eyebrows, or have nail polish. I know what it’s like to see women brutally tortured, their faces deliberately disfigured and teeth knocked out because in Islam a woman’s life is only worth half of that of a man.

I know what women face daily by way of sexual harassment, assault, and rape both in prison and on the streets. I know that the Islamists are so evil that even before executing women on a variety of trumped-up charges like my best friend Shirin Alamhooli – as I would have been had God not spared me – they rape virgin women and girls to prevent them from going to heaven. No matter how many times you read that sentence, it will never be normal, humane, or tolerable in any way.

**Iranian Injustice**. This photo of Shirin Alamhooli was taken by the writer while in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Shiran was executed on May 9, 2010. (Photo: Marziyeh Amirizadeh)

I even know what it’s like for a brother to tell me after I became a Christian, an Islamic cleric told him to kill me for shaming the family and insulting Islam, and that he would be protected from any legal repercussions. All these and many other ways women suffer in Iran, and under Islam generally, are due to the evils of Sharia law that imposes itself on women, and any non-Muslim, in countless ways.

As a grateful and proud American, I weep as I see a trend happening in the United States that echoes the naïve ignorance that paved the way for the rise of the Islamists in the country of my birth. More than the ignorance of those who protested to bring down the Shah, often what’s known as the Red-Green alliance of Marxists and communists collaborating with the Islamists, Americans are actually electing the Islamists through democratic voting that has been hijacked.

When I see Abdul El Sayid as the Democratic candidate for Senator in Michigan, I see the interrogators and judges I faced and argued with. They repeatedly tried to entrap me and convince me to reject and renounce my faith in Jesus, claiming that I would be forgiven and set free. But I knew the truth that there was no compromise with these evil people and no matter what I did they would still execute me.

**The** **New Left**. Abdul El-Sayed, the anti-Israel Democratic candidate who won the Michigan Senate primary, has called the idea of Jewish state “illiberal”, and said money is only reason Dems who ‘believe in human rights’ support Israel. (Photo: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

When I see Ilhan Omar who manipulates American freedom to impose radical Islam in Congress, and become rich in schemes that she and her husband/brother are alleged to have concocted, I see the hijab covered women of the Iranian Revolution era, who with their stupidity and self-righteous adherence to Islam, ushered in a society that made them worth only half of their brothers and husbands.

**Menacing Mindset.** Already back in 2012,Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s views were clear when she tweeted “Israel has hypnotized the world”, invoking an old anti-Semitic trope of Jews controlling world events through some sort of mystical power.

When I see Iranian-American Yassamin Ansari serving in Congress representing Arizona’s 3^rd District, I see the fake reformists within Iranian society and those who have been exported by the Islamic regime in order to infiltrate Western society. She makes her handlers at NIAC happy, but turns the stomach of average Iranians who want to see freedom from everything she represents.

**Climate Change**. Climate policy advocate U.S. Representative Yassamin Ansari of Arizona has shifted from her initial position as a self-described “pro-Israel progressive” to sharply criticizing Israel’s military campaigns, describing actions in Gaza and Lebanon as “genocide” and “mass atrocities”, and stating she will block offensive military aid.

When I see Adam Hamaway in New Jersey, I see the professionals of Iran who colluded with the Islamic regime to protect themselves and their livelihoods, empowering and enabling the ayatollahs out of fear, or their own conversion to radical Islam. How an Islamist who was an aid to the “blind Sheikh” associated with the World Trade Center bombing could stand for congress in a district just 50 miles from where Islamists brought down the World Trade Center 25 years ago is unthinkable. How can Americans be so blind?

**Dr. No**. Prior to his win in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s12^th congressional district, Dr. Adam Hamawy appeared on the Hasan Piker’s show (noted for its antisemitic rhetoric) saying NO to supporting Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system because it is “insulating Israel” from “having to deal with the consequences of war.”

When I see Ghazala Hashmi as Lt. Governor of Virginia, I see the slavery that has been imposed by Islam over much of the non-Arab world – including the country of her birth – by the steady and deliberate Islamic conquest. Islamists will conquer city by city and state by state, through violent jihad where necessary, or under the stealth manipulation of freedom in the country that they are trying to conquer.

**Troubling Triumvirate**. Gunning for Israel are (l-r) Zohran Mamdani, Rashida Harbi Tlaib Right and Ghazala Hashmi (Photo: X)

When I see Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetic Islamist extremist as mayor of America’s largest city and financial capital, I see the radical Mahmoud Ahmadiinijad who served as mayor of Tehran before becoming President of Iran, under whom I experienced and witnessed the regime’s savage brutality while in prison. God help us if this is not the beginning and final stop of Mamdani’s political career.

**Suspect Priorities**. What is the true agenda of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani whose first day in office, revoked the City’s recognition of IHRA – the gold standard definition of antisemitism – sending a strong message in word and deed that he is hostile to Israel and a danger to the local Jewish community? (Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP)

When I see hundreds of Democratic leaders pandering to the Islamists, I see leftist Iranian civilians who protested against the Shah and ushered in the Ayatollah’s regime in 1979 before being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, executed, or exiled by their former poster child Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamist backers. It didn’t take long before the Islamists’ true colors were clear, and how the leftists who had been manipulated as the useful idiots they had become became evident and unstoppable.

I love the country of my birth and pray that all Iranians will be free from the heel of Islamic brutality soon. I also love my adopted country, the United States, and the freedoms that we all cherish. But I fear that Americans do not see the threat that’s already in our back yard, and will continue to elevate, enable, and elect Islamists like these and others, and end up seeing our cherished America becoming like the country of my birth.

One Islamic Republic is one too many. We do not ever want that here. America, please do not be fooled, and please do not vote for any of these Islamists or their enablers. Heaven help us all.

About the writer:

Marziyeh (Marzi) Amirizadeh, the founder and president of www.newpersia.org, an author, public speaker, and activist. She has written two books “Captive in Iran,” and “A Love Journey with God” which are available on www.marzisjourney.com. She is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death by hanging in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation in Evin prison- one of the most brutal prisons in the world.

MAKING PEACE TO MAKE WAR

Israelis love to fantasize about eating humus in Damascus. However, fantasies turn into fiascoes when they collide with fiendish reality.

By Jonathan Feldstein

In the good old days, Arabs would just rant with wild unabashed rhetoric about destroying Israel outright and driving Israelis into the sea. They would threaten Israel openly, blockade shipping, eject UN “peacekeeping troops,” launch a variety of terrorist attacks, initiate global boycotts of Israel and the companies that do business with Israel, etc. Today, while the chants of freeing “Palestine” “from the river to the sea” still mean driving Israel into the same sea and eliminating the Jewish state, their tactics have changed from outright hostility and threats to something even more nefarious but not new.

Israelis want peace. We are lured by the idea of peace. Each generation prays that it will be the last generation to serve in combat to defend ourselves from ongoing threats. Even after the Hamas attack and massacre of October 7, 2023, even though the reality vis-à-vis our Arab neighbors is clear, some still fantasize about peace and believe it is somehow achievable.

Israel has peace with Egypt and Jordan, and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco thanks to the Abraham Accords. While three years ago, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said peace with Israel has never been closer, the Saudis remain unwilling to pull the trigger so to speak.

Qatar who still threatens Israel, is an epicenter of radical Islam, and brainwashing the world as such through media and buying influence.

Turkey, while not Arab, has emerged as one of the major regional threats with its Islamist leader threatening to reconquer Jerusalem (and his fantasies about restoring the Ottoman Caliphate which was resoundingly defeated in WWI). Its influence in Syria has increased, bringing the threat of a land attack – though they also seek American F35s – closer than ever before. Turkey also openly supports and harbors Hamas terrorists, making no secret of its ill intent, despite being a member of NATO.

While no less alarming, Turkey’s tactics are old-school: overtly threatening, delegitimizing, and seeking alliances and weapons upon which it can realize its threats vis-à-vis Israel. Recently, reports were revealed marking a shift in the tactic but no less threatening to Israel’s existence.

While the countries involved have not yet been named, what has been revealed is that one or more Arab countries are being encouraged to make peace with Israel in order to normalize relations as if being part of the Abraham Accords, but to use this to “lull” Israelis to think that peace is real, and at the same time to build up their military preparedness to attack Israel. This is a new tactic in the past 100 years of the broader “Arab-Israel Conflict,” but it is indeed a tactic that is as old as Islam.

This week’s headlines could have come from headlines of the year 628 with Mohammed’s “Treaty of Hudaybiyha.” What happened 1398 years ago was that Mohammed signed a truce with the stronger Quraysh tribe at Hudaibaiyah. Many of Mohammed’s followers found this humiliating. However, Mohammed had a bigger scheme planned. As the Quraysh tribe lived through the intoxication of their “peace in our time” fantasy, the pause in fighting allowed Mohammed time to rearm and grow stronger. Two years later, he broke the treaty, attacked Mecca with a much larger force, and conquered it from the Quraysh tribe. Mecca was never the same, and Islam continued this path until today of using the model of the Treaty of Hudaibiyha to conquer other tribes, cultures, and countries.

**Strategic Patience:** The Prophet accepted seemingly unfavorable terms in the short term to secure long-term stability and growth. Here lies the caution for today’s negotiators

What’s evident in this week’s headline is that as much as Israelis strive for peace agreements with our Arab and Muslim neighbors, what’s been proven time and again throughout history, is that we cannot trust them, we cannot let our guard down, and we must maintain our military and intelligence capabilities because every treaty has the potential of being Hudaibaiyah .

Countless ceasefires with Hamas and Hezbollah were not made from positions of strength or genuine desire for peace, or the well-being of their own communities. They are made from weakness in order to regroup, rearm, and return to war when the time is right. That’s what this week’s headline is about.

While Israel has peace with Egypt and Jordan in the form of signed treaties, it has been a cold peace. We have continued to see threats and military buildup, and the frequent undermining and delegitimizing of Israel, as well as publicly bashing Israel in many forums. Since the Hamas massacre of October 7, rather than standing with Israel against the Islamists who also threaten them, these two nations at ‘peace’ with Israel, have only increased their rhetoric and threats against Israel.

In Lebanon, we see hopeful signs of some sort of agreement with our northern neighbor which has largely been plagued by war since 1975. However, Hezbollah’s tight grip on Lebanon’s fractured society, continues to plague the nation and jeopardizes its future.

**Elusive Peace**. Welcomed by Israels and much of Lebanon weary of conflict but will the stranglehold of Hezbollah allow peace to prevail?

The Lebanese should want peace, and signing a piece of paper would be advantageous. However, as long as Hezbollah remains dominant and a threat to Israel as well as to Lebanon, Israel will never be able to truly trust a peace agreement with them either.

So, which Arab countries are involved in this attempt at a modern Treaty of Hudaibaiyah?

I don’t know yet but have my guesses. In the bigger picture it almost doesn’t matter because it’s the simple reality of the threat of peace with any Arab or Islamic neighbor is the same. In 1979 we were intoxicated by the idea of peace with Egypt and indeed there have been many advantages of that. The same with making peace with Jordan in 1994, theoretically freeing up the risk of threats along our longest border. Some never trusted these from the outset, and recent rhetoric and threats may prove them right.

**Peace or Pause?** Despite the 1979 peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel (above), widespread hostility for Israel is found in Egypt’s state media while a significant portion of its coverage crosses into outright antisemitism,

The Abraham Accords brought normalization with Arab countries that were never in open conflict with Israel, and with which Israel does not share a border. These have been fruitful in just a few years. But just because we’re paranoid about the long-term threats as a result of making peace does not mean we’re wrong about the potential for these threats. Time will tell.

Israelis fantasize about eating humus in Damascus. From the early years of the state. After the Arabs’ resounding loss in the 1967 Six-Day War, we believed that they would eventually come to understand that Israel is not going anywhere, and if it were a conflict about land, using the failed “land for peace” model which the rejected anyway, if we “gave back” land to the vanquished Arab states, they would become rational and make peace with us.

As we maintain the need for readiness for anything, and as has been revealed this week we cannot let our guard down, we also must continue to look in the rear-view mirror. As much as we want peace, Mohammed’s model then is our tragic and treacherous reality today.

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.

HANGAR OF HORROR TO GATES TO HEAVEN

I did not want to talk about it; so now I’m writing about it – my visit to Camp Shura in central Israel.

By David E. Kaplan

This article contains information of a sensitive nature.

I was descending an escalator at Kfar Saba shopping mall in central Israel. Above were giant industrial fans with huge propeller blades. With the blazing hot summer weather, it should have brought relief. It didn’t! It reminded me of horror when only days before I went on a tour of Machaneh Shura (Camp Shura) near Ramle and the first visual image that greeted our Shurat HaDin tour at a hangar was the same type of huge propeller blades. Three years earlier, in October 2023, these very blades rotated furiously above the ‘living few’ processing the ‘many dead’, as endless bodies – or remains – were being brought in refrigerated trucks for identification and preparation for burial following the massacres of October 7 across southern Israel.

I had visited earlier some of the sites where these people were brutally butchered – Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza, Be’eri the Nova Music Festival memorial site and the totally destroyed Sderot police station. Now I was bearing witness of what gruesomely played out at this military and rabbinical wayward station where remains had arrived on their final journey and then left with their loved ones to burial sites across the State of Israel.

One could understand the condition of the bodies seeing the level of destruction caused by Hamas terrorists such as this bedroom (above) at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

I soon understood the caution we received before alighting the bus at this IDF central military base that handles casualty identification, death determinations, and prepares fallen soldiers and massacre victims for burial with military and religious honors.

A young soldier who had boarded our bus at the camp’s entry gate warned:

“What you are about to see and hear may distress you immensely. You may not be prepared for what you will experience. If you have any problems or feel nausea along the way, please advise us.”

One of the ‘living few’ who attended to the ‘many dead’ three years earlier was our ‘tour’ guide, Rabbi and Stf.-Sgt. Bentzi Mann, born to US parents who as a reservist had reported here for duty on October 8.

Rabbi Bentzi Mann carried out the ‘holy work’ of identifying the bodies of murdered Israeli citizens and soldiers as part of the IDF rabbinate. (Photo: KRifkind Photography)

“This is the IDF Rabbinate morgue. I was in Rehovot when I received the call-up and arrived here totally unprepared for what came next. I had never in my life seen a dead body before and within minutes I was holding a blood-covered body,” he says.

We look around the hangar, imagining what unfolded here three years earlier.

“So just try envision what occurred here – this is one of the hardest parts of my job,” he began as he relives in the telling of the horror. “Israel had never before faced this many dead at any one time. There was no ability to separate the civilian dead from those of the IDF, police, and other security forces. There were so many bodies, including those of terrorists and Gazans who were intermixed with Israelis. Many, burnt beyond recognition were meshed together.”

A number of bodies had been beheaded and in one case Rabbi Mann worked on, “the head was discovered two weeks after the body had been buried.” For this reason, in cases where body parts remained missing, “a grave was not fully sealed so that if possible, the missing parts could be added later.”

While a grisly undertaking, Rabbi Mann refers to his work with the dead as “dealing with angels.” This is the only way he could deal with the mass of death that came to Shura which President Herzog had called “the gate to hell,” but which Bentzi prefers to characterize – as reframed by Rabbi Ephrahaim Mirvis – as “Gate of Heaven” because “those who died, did so sanctifying God’s name.”

Rabbi Bentzi Mann emotionally unpacks to our Shurat HaDin tour group the horror of what unfolded in this hangar where bodies were “unloaded” from endless refrigerated trucks. (Photo: D.E. Kaplan)

Believing this, he says, “is what kept me going.”

I thought to myself listening to this young and traumatized rabbi, “How many times has he given this tour?” and three years later, he still cannot hold back the tears.

Such WAS – and IS – the horror of October 7.

This experience will never leave Stf.-Sgt. Bentzi Mann. I sensed he feels he owes it to the fallen who passed through Shura to never forget and explains his need – as part of his miluim (military reserve duty) – to serve as a guide. A “guide” has a totally elevated meaning in the context of the service Stf.-Sgt. Bentzi Mann performs. As he explains:

“It’s not Chessed what I’m doing, its gratitude for people who gave their lives so others, like myself and my family, and many of you and your families, may live. They are angels.”

We are standing at the entrance of the hangar and Rabbi Mann relates that when huge sums of money had been donated to build this important facility, “It was asked ‘Why do we need such a big hangar? There will never a need to process so many dead bodies all at once.’ ‘It’s overreach’.”

Overreach?

No one predicted October 7!

Rabbi Mann tells how the trucks lined up and bodies brought in “one after another, after another.” We stood in silence absorbing his words, processing the images. I looked down at my feet and wondered what had occurred here where my shoes now stood. “There were not even enough refrigerated trucks. They had to commission civilian commercial vehicles. An ice-cream truck arrived piled up – not with ice-scream – but bodies. To this day, every time I and my colleagues on duty that day see these trucks on the road, we think …of dead Jews.”

He describes the refrigerated trucks parking, and bodies being lined up on the ground in the hangar, which proved too small; “there was not sufficient space so bodies were laid outside,” exactly where I was standing.

“One had walk carefully to avoid stepping on bodies. You then take them to the refrigerators.” I shook my head in disbelief reflecting on this hangar that the planners originally thought was too big for the purpose it was built ending up on October 7 to be inadequate!

Rabbi Mann addresses the difficulties:

“One way to identify a corpse is to have two witnesses come before a beit din (rabbinical court) but the process of identification after Oct. 7 was made harder because of the state on the deceased, such as those who were burned. Also, it was harder to find witnesses because there were so many dead.”

And then the sensitivities of welcoming and preparing the bereaved families when they come for the remains of their loved ones.

“You want to prepare the bereaving families for the moment when they will reunite with their loved one in the Cheder Preda (the “Goodbye Room” set aside for the families),” says Rabbi Mann.

“Families deserve to know what they will be seeing. It is their decision to make. Very difficult.” Bentzi tells of a Hayal Boded (A lone soldier – a member of the IDF who serves without immediate family support in Israel) who took a direct hit by an RPG to the head and there was no face to show “….and so we said to the mother “Why don’t you hold his hand.” She cried and said “Thank you. It’s all I needed; I felt it was him, I know it’s him.” That was all she needed.”

Rabbi Mann relates that for the first few days “I was working 18 hours straight. The IDC chief rabbi of the IDF, who had to sign off on every identification, was basically awake 24/7. In the beginning we had 80 funerals in one day.” Many of the bodies, “arriving by the truckload were in terrible condition,” and together with his colleagues “we began to learn a body was broken up or not, by the weight of the body bags we were unloading.”

Rabbi Mann takes us over to the finger print scanner that helps identify but explained that many bodies were brought in without hands so that they would have to move to the next stages of identification through teeth and then DNA matching.

He explained that “every soldier is given a wrist band with a bar code and a number,” and recalled when showing a group that included visitors from the USA, “this older guy burst into tears. I asked what happened and he tells us of his late father that had been a Holocaust survivor with a number tattooed on his arm and that imagining all these burned bodies of dead Israelis with numbers on their arms, reminded him of his father and the Shoah. That it was happening all over again – to the Jews now of Israel.” Bentzi takes a deep breath, his voice choking with emotion, and continued:

“I told him, ‘No, it is not the same. With the Nazis they turned beautiful names into numbers. Here, we are turning numbers back into beautiful names. We are restoring identity and they will be arriving in heaven with their names known.”

Someone asks:

“Are soldiers always buried in coffins in Israel?”

It was a question Bentzi may have been reluctant to answer as he only addressed the issue because asked.

It was quickly evident why.

“Yes, unlike civilians who are wrapped in traditional shrouds, IDF soldiers are always buried in coffins,” and cites as an explanation the case of a soldier brought in “but there was no body but over 100 body parts – all associated with the same person. We took every piece of small flesh up to our laboratory where specialists analyzed every single part, from muscle to tissue to cells. We go to extreme lengths to isolate and examine every human body part as it is all holy. But in the end, there is no body and no one else knowns outside the family what is in the coffin.”

While people are stoically processing the story and explanation, Rabbi Mann continues, “Every time we finish the identification process and the body comes out and we place the name on top of the flag and tallit, I know we have succeeded both on a personal level and on a national level. Over and over again they try and destroy us but we survive.”

While watching and listening, my mind drifted of my visits down south and the destroyed homes I had visited where families had been brutally murdered, many burnt alive. I thought of vehicles ambushed and burned with people inside when terrorists fired heavy weaponry, RPGs, and set fire to hundreds of civilian cars along southern Israeli highways and access roads — notably around the Nova music festival near Re’im and surrounding kibbutzim. Many victims attempting to flee in vehicles were shot, trapped, or burned alive inside their cars as the vehicles were deliberately torched by attackers.

Israeli soldiers carry the body of a victim of the massacre at Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. (Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

All this I thought of as I imagined all those beautiful lives cut short and ‘passing through’ where I was standing, here at Camp Shura.

This emotional rollercoaster culminated at the Cheder Preda (the “Goodbye Room”), a quiet space where grieving families can view and say a final farewell to their loved ones in a controlled, dignified setting following the identification and ritual preparation process. We sat, emotionally drained, looking at the bench in the center of the room coffin after coffin had been placed, over 1000 in the early days following October 7, 2023.

“It was particularly hard,” said Rabbi Mann, “when bodies were brought in of soldiers I personally knew,” and cited Captain Yaron Chitiz from Ra’anana, who he knew, and his family, well.

So, did I and the South Africans in our group.

Our thoughts went out to his parents Clive and Debbie who would have stood where we were sitting now.

Rabbi Mann addressing our group in the “Goodbye Room’.

Yaron was killed one week before his 24th birthday in Gaza where he bravely fended off terrorists on a stairway in a building about to spring a surprise ambush on his unit. He was killed together with two other soldiers in the ensuing battle.

His mother Debbie would mention Shura when she later expressed how grateful she was that his body was retrieved whole following the battle:

“We were able to see him, touch him and say goodbye to him. At Shura, which is where the bodies are prepared for burial, we sang or should I say tried to sing המלאך הגואל אותי. This is the song that is sung at night to children before they go to sleep. The ironic coincidence is that this song appeared in the parshat hashavua – Parashat Vayechi – the week that Yaroni was killed.

We are also extremely grateful that his phone survived the four-hour battle.”

Yaron had left a letter for the family which he had written on his phone.

Included in his last words to his family:

“I feel proud to fight Hamas under the banner of the Chitiz family and the people of Israel.

Thank you for everything!

You are a family for the glory of the State of Israel!

שרים ומספידים לזכרו

Everyone that knows me knows that you are amongst the most important things in my life.

You are the air that I breathe, the laughter, this genuine friendship.”

And to his girlfriend:

“Dara, I love you, you are my life.

You give me the strength to continue….”

It was these messages on the phone that helped his surviving loved ones also “continue”….

And so too we all have to “continue” and we ended the tour of Shura with few words, many thoughts and a silent prayer that what happened here:

“Will never happen again.”

Yaron Chitiz (z’l) who died heroically fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza left a phone beside him that contained heart-wrenching messages to his family and girlfriend.

WORN DOWN BY WAR

A Jewish perspective of ‘anticipatory grief’, loss and mental health during war.

By Bev Moss-Reilly

(*To assist readers, a glossary appears at the end of the article)

War wounds people long before the final phone call, the funeral, the shattered building, or the unbearable silence. One of its deepest cruelties is anticipatory grief, that aching state of living in fear of loss before the loss is even confirmed. It is the dread that sits in the chest when a loved one is at the front, when a child is missing, when a siren sounds, when a family waits for news, when a mother keeps checking her phone, or when an elderly father looks at the door and wonders who will walk through it next.

It is grief in advance, and it is exhausting.

Anticipatory grief affects mental health profoundly. It keeps the nervous system on constant alert. People struggle to sleep, eat, think clearly, or regulate their emotions. The body remains tense, braced for impact. Anxiety and helplessness grow. So does guilt. People feel guilty for being safe when others are not, guilty for carrying on, guilty for moments of laughter, guilty for not having done more. In war, the mind rarely gets to rest. Even when tragedy has not yet struck, the soul is already trembling.

Then, when loss does come, it often arrives in layers. War does not only take one thing. It can strip a person of home, family, routine, livelihood, identity, faith in the world, bodily safety, and the simple expectation that tomorrow will look like today. This is why grief in wartime is not only about death, although death is devastating enough. It is also about every other form of loss that leaves a person disoriented, raw, and altered.

PHYSICAL LOSS

A person may lose a limb, mobility, eyesight, hearing, strength, or independence. A child may lose the sense of safety that once came from being held by a parent in a familiar room. A family may lose a house filled with photographs, books, toys, mezuzot, candlesticks, wedding gifts, kiddush cups, and all the ordinary holy clutter of Jewish life. Possessions are not merely objects. They hold memory, tradition, continuity, and meaning. When they are gone, part of a person’s story can feel erased.

EMOTIONAL LOSS

People lose trust. They lose innocence. They lose the emotional energy required to keep showing up in the same way. They lose the version of themselves that existed before trauma. Some lose the ability to cry. Others cannot stop crying. Some become numb. Some become irritable, angry, frightened, withdrawn, or hypervigilant. Mental health in these moments is not a neat or tidy thing. It is often about survival. It is getting through the next hour, the next night, the next funeral, the next alert, the next memory.

SPIRITUAL LOSS

This can be especially painful because it is often invisible. War can shake a person’s relationship with Hashem, with prayer, with community, and even with meaning itself. Someone may ask, “Where was God?” Another may feel unable to daven. Someone else may go through the motions while feeling empty inside. Others may feel their emunah deepen, not because they understand suffering, but because faith becomes the only place left to stand. Spiritual grief is real grief. It is the mourning of certainty, of order, of the feeling that the world makes sense.

In Jewish life, however, grief is never meant to be carried alone. This is one of the great strengths of our tradition. Judaism does not deny pain, rush mourning, or ask people to be strong in a performative way. It creates structure around sorrow. It gives the mourner something solid when everything else feels unsteady.

When someone dies, Jewish mourning practices provide an emotional and spiritual container. Sitting shiva is one of the most compassionate responses to grief imaginable. The mourner does not have to host, perform, or explain. The community comes. People bring food. They sit low. They share silence. They tell stories. They cry. They pray. They remember. There is no pressure to be polished. Grief is allowed to be visible. It is witnessed. There is no timeline and it’s not linear, neither is it expected to be. That matters enormously for mental health.

Shiva says to the mourner, “You are not abandoned in this pain.” It acknowledges that loss is not something to “move on” from quickly. It slows life down and lets the heart catch up with reality. Shloshim continues that process, recognising that mourning does not end after one week. The rhythms of aveilut honour the fact that the soul needs time. In a world that often demands productivity and emotional suppression, Judaism insists on presence, tenderness, and community.

This is not incidental. It is the essence of emotional support. In many ways, it is the essence of mental health. To be held by others, to be seen, to have meals arrive without asking, to hear Tehillim being said, to be surrounded by people who understand the sacredness of memory, this is not small comfort. It can be life preserving.

SHAPING SURVIVAL

Jewish tradition also understands that grief belongs not only to the individual, but to the collective. We are a people shaped by memory, by exile, by destruction, by rebuilding, by mourning, and by survival. We know what it means to carry names, stories, and absences across generations. That collective memory can be heavy, but it can also be deeply connecting. Jews inherently know how to show up because we have inherited the language of showing up. Nichum aveilim, comforting mourners, is not an abstract value. It is lived chesed. It is practical love.

During war, that support becomes even more vital. Not everyone is mourning a death. Some are mourning a son who returned from battle alive but changed. Some are grieving a daughter who lost her home. Some are living with the anguish of a hostage situation, not knowing whether to hope or prepare their hearts to break. Some are mourning the loss of livelihood, community, safety, or country. Some are grieving while still in danger, which means there is no neat beginning, middle, or end to the process.

That is why compassion matters so much. People living through wartime grief may not look “grief stricken” in the expected way. They may be functioning, making meals, going to work, caring for children, even laughing at times. But beneath that, they may be carrying terror, heartbreak, and spiritual fatigue. We need to be gentle with one another. We need to understand that trauma and grief can coexist with faith, resilience, and even moments of gratitude.

The Jewish way does not promise that grief will disappear. It offers something truer. It teaches that sorrow can be honoured, shared, ritualised, and held with dignity. It teaches that broken hearts still belong in community. It teaches that when a person cannot stand alone, Am Yisrael stands with them.

In wartime, anticipatory grief, loss, and bereavement can shake mental health to its core. Jewish tradition reminds us that comfort is not found only in answers. Often it is found in presence, prayer, remembrance, community, and love. In the candle lit for a soul. In the hand on a shoulder. In the meal left at the door. In the whispered words, “HaMakom yenachem etchem.” In the quiet, enduring truth that even in unbearable loss, no Jew should ever have to mourn alone.

For when one Jew feels pain, every Jew feels pain, and in that shared sorrow lies the quiet, enduring strength of our people.

Glossary of Hebrew Words and Expressions:

Hashem
Literally “The Name.” A reverent way of referring to G-d.

Shiva
The first seven days of mourning after the burial of a close family member. During this time, mourners remain at home and are supported by family, friends, and community.
Note: “sitting sheva” is commonly intended to mean “sitting shiva.”

Shloshim
The thirty-day mourning period following burial. It includes the first seven days of shiva and continues as a gentler, extended phase of mourning.

Aveilut
Jewish mourning practices and the broader laws and customs of bereavement.

Daven
To pray.

Emunah
Faith, trust, or deep spiritual belief, especially in G-d.

Tehillim
Psalms. These are often recited in times of sorrow, danger, illness, or communal need.

Nichum Aveilim
Comforting mourners. This is considered a deeply important mitzvah, or sacred obligation, in Jewish life.

Chesed
Loving kindness, compassion, and acts of generosity or care toward others.

Am Yisrael
The people of Israel, or the Jewish people as a collective.

HaMakom Yenachem Etchem
A traditional phrase said to mourners, meaning:
“May the Omnipresent comfort you.”
It is part of the fuller condolence expression used during mourning.

Mezuzot
Plural of mezuzah. Small parchment scrolls containing sacred verses, placed in a case and attached to the doorposts of Jewish homes.

Kiddush Cup
A ceremonial cup used when reciting Kiddush, the blessing over wine, usually for Shabbat and festivals.

About the writer:

Bev Moss -Reilly is a Jewish freelance content writer living in South Africa with a deep and heartfelt focus on mental health, emotional wellbeing, trauma, grief, and the unseen struggles people carry every day. Through her writing and her Mental Health Packs, she aims to bring comfort, awareness, compassion, and practical support to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Her work is rooted in empathy, dignity, and the belief that nobody should feel alone in their pain, especially in times of crisis.

THE MORAL DECAY OF THE WEST

Are we seeing the decline of Western values?

By Rolene Marks

Sometimes I think that I have stepped into some kind of time machine that has whisked me back to a time in our history, where rhetoric demonizing the Jewish people was the precursor to the darkest chapter in our history. I feel like I have been transported back to Germany in the 1930’s, when Jews were routinely demonized and excluded from society before the Nuremberg laws and eventually the Holocaust would result in the wholesale slaughter of over six million European Jews. Our numbers have never recovered to pre-World War II statistics.

I know that for many people, I may sound alarmist and others may feel I am overreacting but it does feel like there is an ominous cloud that sits like a sword of Damocles over the Jewish people. The number one target for vitriol is the symbol of our nationhood – Israel. Jews in diaspora communities are seen as fair game because they are seen as de facto representative of the Jewish state.

You can tell a society is in moral decay by the way it treats its Jews. Jews are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine – and what starts with us, never ends with us. Since time immemorial, this has been the cycle. Rinse and repeat.

Since the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7^th, before the bodies were cold, crowds gathered in cities around the world to celebrate the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. From the streets of the London to Times Square in New York and the Sydney Opera House and places in between, the gleeful cheering of the mass slaughter, rape and kidnapping was celebrated. Defiant chants of “gas the Jews” were heard on the steps of Australia’s great cultural landmark and similar rhetoric travelled around the world – including chants of “from the river to the sea” which calls for the eradication of the Jewish state.

**Cheering Slaughter in Sydney**. Hatred towards Jews among the protesters (seen here burning the Israeli flag) in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, was terrifying. Footage shows protestors chanting: “F… the Jews,” “F… the Zionists”, “Where’s the Jews?”, “Allahu Akbar” and “Gas the Jews”. (Photo: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper)

The IDF were still clearing the communities of the south of terrorist infiltrators, and ZAKA had only started to collect the remains of our dead. The most bizarre phenomenon surfaced that Black Sabbath – the ability of many to both deny the atrocities – and celebrate them at the same time.

The years since the gruesome attacks of 7 October 2023 have seen an exponential rise in Jew hatred in its most current iteration – antizionism.

**Distressing Data**. Recent data shows a roughly 20% to 21% rise in total recorded antisemitic incidents across the UK for the first six months of 2026, with antisemitism in schools spiking significantly by 59%.

Zionism in its most simple definition is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to their nation state in their historical, ancestral homeland, Israel. It is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, a belief in our inalienable civil rights and the right of the modern State of Israel to exist. Determining that out of all the nations in the world, ONLY the Jewish people have no right to this basic civil right, is both racists and a denial of history, both biblical and antiquity.

Everything old is new again – albeit wearing more updated clothing and messaging. There really is nothing new under the sun. The genie out the bottle.

Sometimes it feels that wherever we turn, this ancient and irrational hatred is ubiquitous. Nobody is saying that Israel cannot be criticized. Criticism of government policies is the national sport of the Jewish state – and Israelis have a variety of robust views; but holding every citizen as well as diaspora Jews responsible for political decisions that you don’t like, is a sign of something a lot more nefarious.

Expecting Jews to take an ideological litmus or purity test by denouncing the Jewish state in order to be considered socially acceptable, has crossed the line between legitimate criticism and demonization. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the accusations of genocide, apartheid, mass starvation and colonization persist. As someone once said, antisemites or Jew haters know the Jew is not guilty – but they enjoy the process of watching him turn his pockets inside out to prove his innocence. History rhymes. We are not your collective Alfred Dreyfus, your cause celebre to be falsely accused and humiliated in the process.

**Eruption in Europe**. Across Europe, Jews are AGAIN living in constant danger being threatened and attacked for simply being Jews.

We don’t need world leaders posing with Holocaust survivors or making their annual pilgrimage to Auschwitz or remembrance ceremonies looking suitably solemn for the obligatory photo op, while piously declaring Never Again. Never Again is now. We don’t need you making vows to dead Jews. We need you taking action against the threats posed to living Jews. The Jews who are rapidly ostracized from society. The Jews terrified to seek medical help because of growing antisemitism in healthcare. The stories that have already been told are terrifying. The Jewish businesses, more often than not restaurants and bakeries facing threats and intimidation until they are forced to close. The Jews, many of them Israeli, routinely humiliated and threatened at vacation spots. The rabid pandering to sectarian politics which necessitates the routine demonization of the Jewish state for political expediency. The unwillingness of the media to report events that are related to Israel with balance – and the blatant refusal to correct misinformation and malinformation. The hate marches on the streets of capitals calling for the extermination of the Jewish state. The fear of Jewish students to go to university or school because of the growing climate of hate. Jewish employees reporting hate in the work place. The stars of stage, screen and new media like podcasters with their vile conspiracy theories, Holocaust revisions and demonization of Jews and the Jewish state. The political backbenchers and leaders currying votes because pandering to ideological whims pays more than maintaining a strong, moral centre. The abandonment of organisations whose Jews marched proudly with in their fights for civil rights, who have turned their backs on us in our hour of need.

**Hell at Harvard**. Jewish and Israeli students at Harvard University reported experiencing severe distress, intimidation, and fear for their safety following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and subsequent anti-Israel protests. (Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

We don’t need your platitudes. We don’t need your words of condemnation. We don’t need your photo opportunities. We need action!

Suicidal empathy is costing us our lives. Trust in institutions has eroded. Jews have lost trust and faith in many institutions including law enforcement, judicial systems, local and state government and many civic organisations for their failure to enforce the law or to prosecute the truth and for their growing inability to not bow to the mob baying for our blood.

Are the halcyon days for Jews in many western countries over? This is not the first time in our history that we have endured this type of gross discrimination. It is not the first time in our history where we are steadily eroded from publishing, the arts, sports and other industries. It is the first time in our history we have a nation state of our own. Israel. It is also very important to remember that we are NOT powerless. Jews have been part of the fabric of society that have built their countries. We need to remember we still have the law on our side and use it as an instrument to fight back against hate. We must expose the haters, let them know that there are consequences for their actions. Educate the next generation and set an example for them about what it looks like to be proud, knowledgeable and strong. This is a fight where we are all called up to be foot soldiers, we cannot abdicate responsibility. Think about how you can use your own unique skills to organize, educate and fight back against the hatred When future generations ask how did you fight back, how did you show up in the post 7 October Jewish world, what will your answer be? There are so many ways to express our pride in our identity while sending a resounding

We can defend ourselves in a myriad of ways, the big question is whether or not the West is prepared to fight for its values amid constant assaults by those who would see them destroyed. We are the mirror of the western value system. When our values and identities are attacked, you have to ask yourself, who is next?

The question is, are you up for the fight to defend them?

ROTH’S WRATH AT JUSTICE DENIED

Arnold Roth’s 25-Year fight for justice for his daughter’s murder and accountability for a Hamas terrorist.

By Jonathan Feldstein

This week is the 25^th anniversary of one of the most horrific terror attacks in Israel during what is referred to as the Second Intifada. During the period from late 2000 through the first half of 2005, more than 1000 Israelis were killed and several thousand wounded as a result of countless Palestinian Arab suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, and more. While hardly a week went by without some such terror attack, the August 9, 2001 bombing of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem remains one of the most vivid and vulgar, still today.

The image of Malki found in an undeveloped camera years after her murder. © Arnold Roth

Among the dozens killed and injured, 15-year-old Malki Roth was one of the victims for whom justice has yet to be served. Since then, her father, Arnold Roth, has worked tirelessly to bring the mastermind of his daughter’s murder to justice. Roth discussed this in a powerful and emotionally charged conversation on “Inspiration from Zion,” marking the anniversary of his daughter’s murder, and his continued efforts to bring the terrorist mastermind to justice. The conversation reveals not only the enduring pain of a grieving father but also a scathing critique of:

– international inaction

– Jordanian defiance, and

– American reluctance to enforce its own laws.

On August 9, 2001, Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, then a 21-year-old Jordanian journalism student, deliberately targeted the Sbarro pizzeria because it was filled with Jewish children. Tamimi was not the bomber, but the one who selected the site and guided the Hamas suicide bomber there carrying a guitar case filled with explosives and shrapnel to maximize the carnage. Fifteen people were killed immediately, including Malki, an American-Israeli citizen. 130 were wounded. Roth described the period leading up to the attack as tense but not yet at the peak of the Second Intifada violence. “Had we known that Malki and her best friend… were going … into the center of town to take a quick lunch,” he said, his wife Frimet “would have said, don’t go.”

**Killer on the Loose**. The FBI ‘MOST WANTED TERRORIST’ poster for a terrorist responsible for the death of a US citizen currently residing freely in Jordan.

Tamimi was arrested, and tried in an Israeli military court, where she proudly confessed to the crime. Roth noted chillingly:

“She admitted joyously, with a smile on her face that chilled the three judges.”

Yet in 2011, as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, Israel released 1,027 terrorists including Tamimi. The Roths were only informed of her impending release by a phone call from an Israeli official the morning after the deal was announced.

Since her release, Tamimi has lived openly in Jordan as a celebrity, hosting a television program that glorified terrorism and incited violence against Jews. Roth described her transformation:

“She became a phenomenal performer for the promotion of the redemptive value of killing Jews… This is a compelling story.”

Other than the unthinkable loss of his daughter, the core of Roth’s frustration lies in the failure of the United States to secure Tamimi’s extradition and bring her to justice. Malki was an American citizen, and the U.S. has both an extradition treaty with Jordan and domestic law allowing prosecution of terrorists who murder Americans abroad. Charges were filed against Tamimi in 2013 and unsealed in 2017. Despite this, Jordan has refused to comply, citing a technicality in the treaty that Roth and legal experts dismiss as a self-invented loophole. The U.S. has failed to insist of Jordan’s compliance.

Roth expressed deep disillusionment with the U.S. response. In a recent letter from a senior U.S. official, he was told the administration was doing more than any other to bring Tamimi to justice. His reaction was blunt: “I’m flabbergasted… They’re telling me things that I know that I tell them.” He added, “No Attorney General, no senior figure… has ever responded to us… The United States has betrayed its own values.”

**The Merry Monster**. Only disappointed she did not succeed in killing more Jews!

Roth emphasized that the issue transcends personal grief. “If we fail to act in the face of grotesquely open and provocative actions by individuals and countries who twist terrorism… then we’re all lost.” He rejected pity as a motivator, instead calling for a defense of core principles: “Hug your children… remember what we can do… We’re different, and if we’re different, we’ve got to guard that difference.”

The conversation also addressed media complicity. Roth criticized BBC Arabic for platforming Tamimi and promoting narratives that glorify her actions. He has worked with media watchdog CAMERA to expose these issues and highlight the broadcaster’s willful failures if not compliance.

At the 25th anniversary of Malki’s murder, the Roths have launched a petition urging the U.S. Secretary of State to enforce the extradition treaty and bring Tamimi to justice in America. Roth stressed: “This is really an effort by my wife and me… We need as many [signatures] as we can get.”

Roth’s message is both personal and universal. The failure to extradite Tamimi represents more than bureaucratic inertia. It signals a troubling willingness to subordinate justice to political convenience. For Roth, this is not merely about one terrorist or one family. It is about whether the United States and the international community will uphold the values of accountability, truth, and the protection of innocent life.

The 25^th anniversary of the Sbarro bombing and Malki Roth’s murder come a month before the 25^th anniversary of the September 11 terror attack on U.S. soil killing 3000. The attacks took place thousands of miles apart, but the same Islamic terrorist ideology is the perpetrator. For justice and in memory of the victims, we cannot sit by and allow those who carried out these acts to walk free, especially where there is law in place to bring them to justice.

**Mind of a Monster**. She selected a fast-food restaurant in downtown central Jerusalem popular with children.

As Israel and the Jewish world prepare to commemorate the anniversary of the Sbarro attack on August 9, there have been hopeful developments, but Roth knows better than to get his hopes up too much after all these years of justice denied. But it’s not just about Israel and the Jewish world. Bringing terrorists who murder Americans to justice is a global issue.

Roth’s words serve as a sobering reminder:

true justice remains elusive, but the fight for it must continue. He refuses to let his daughter’s memory be erased or her murderer celebrated. Their call is clear: sign the petition, demand action, and reject the normalization of terror. (Follow the full conversation with Arnold Roth on Inspiration from Zion by video or by audio.)

About the writer:

Category: Antisemitism

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