Category: Antisemitism

WHAT DID ANTI-ZIONISTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SYDNEY BESIDES PRAISE FOR EL-AHMED? NOT MUCH.

Those who see ‘safety through solidarity’ as the ‘lesson’ of the terror attack have internalized what classical Zionist thinkers called an ‘exile mindset’ — a near-religious sanctification of Jewish powerlessness.

By Zev Dever

(Courtesy of Davar where article was first published)

In the aftermath of the terrorist massacre in Sydney, much of the Jewish discourse has highlighted praise for the individual bravery of the hero Ahmed el-Ahmed, the unarmed Syrian immigrant who intervened in the attack. It frankly seems as though many progressive Jews are relieved to have this Muslim man as a counterexample to the terrorists who carried out the massacre. 

While el-Ahmed is certainly a hero, and the praise is well deserved, statements and posts from anti-Zionist Jewish groups, seem to take this praise a bit far, elevating the emphasis on el-Ahmed’s heroism to near parity with the massacre itself. This emphasis is taken to draw an interesting conclusion: again and again it is echoed that the lesson of this entire event, exemplified in el-Ahmed’s actions, is that “our safety lies in solidarity with others.”

Skepticism in Solidarity. While “safety through solidarity” might offer moral reassurance to vunerable Jewish communities around the world, but does it offer operational guidance?

It is truly striking how uniform this message is. It’s strange enough to highlight the identity of the hero and not the murderers, subtly transforming a Jewish tragedy into a morality tale about Muslims not being evil. To be fair, Jewish communities may understandably feel relief in highlighting the fact that many Muslims are good people. But to insist that this is the central and operative lesson is to deliberately obscure the essence of the story — namely a mass murder of Jews in the diaspora, following two years of rising antisemitism and public tolerance for Jew hatred.

What, practically, does it mean to insist that “Jewish safety lies in solidarity with others“?

– That Jews require non-Jewish saviors?

– That Jewish safety depends on staying on the good side of surrounding communities?

– That the correct response to mass violence is not protection or deterrence, but reaffirmation of ideological commitments?

When pressed, “safety through solidarity” might offer moral reassurance, but it offers no operational guidance. 

Most plausibly, the practical lesson of this axiom may be that we should invest in encouraging moderate discourse and education against extremism. That idea I might buy into, but I find it hard to believe that the very groups pushing the message of “safety through solidarity” will.

Are we to believe that anti-Zionist Jewish groups will now focus on amplifying moderate Muslim and Palestinian voices? Will they stop parroting extremists, or even condemn those espousing extremism?

Of course not. There will be no self-reckoning.

I acknowledge that Jews do indeed need partners outside the faith, and the aim of this piece is not to denigrate solidarity as such, an important enterprise regardless of whether it benefits one’s safety. El-Ahmed’s bravery indeed made clear the value and importance of solidarity. But I am interested in the psychological phenomenon that leads some Jews to read the Bondi Beach massacre as a lesson in the importance of solidarity. Why do some Jews see the massacre as a sign that Jews ought to demonstrate more solidarity towards other groups?

Seeking Safety. The writer is intrigued in the psychological phenomenon that leads some Jews to read the Bondi Beach massacre as a lesson in the importance of solidarity.

THE SHTETL ROOTS OF “SAFTY THROUGH SOLIDARITY”

Even if such a logic is sincere, even if it is instrumental as a strategy to seek security, it is a mentality that delegates safety to external goodwill rather than Jewish agency. This psychological phenomenon is actually much older than any current popularized version of the theory of the intersectionality of oppressions. The Jewish roots of this thinking are actually something that the Zionist movement more than a century ago knew to classify and condemn. Zionist thinkers would characterize this way of thinking as a form of exile mindset, known in Hebrew as galutiyut.

In classical Zionist critique, exile mindset was not merely the fact of Jewish vulnerability or Jewish dispersion across the globe. It was a psychological and moral orientation, a deeply held and practiced belief that the Jews are not and cannot be masters of their own fate — that Jewish existence must be predicated on the goodwill of others, or failing that, on divine providence. Zionist thinkers condemned the world of the shtetl as a place where Jewish powerlessness was not only accepted but sanctified.

To compare today’s progressive, secular anti-Zionist Jews to God-fearing shtetl peasants may sound anachronistic. But the resemblance is structural, not stylistic. What has changed is the theology, not the logic. It is absolutely classic exile mindset recycled for the (post-)modern age.

In the classic theological expression, Jews are meant to accept as fact their impotence. They are meant to devote themselves to piety rather than anger the ruling powers by resisting or rising up as a nation. It was explicitly forbidden for Jews to seek self-redemption in this framework. Instead, Jews were guided to seek closeness to divinity: an all-pervasive truth that is inherently and profoundly good, and which underpins all existence and events, even those that are bad. At the same time the Jewish believer is guided by a rather vague vision of a perfect world after death or after the coming of the messiah.

The majority of radical leftists today are not classically religious, but they are in a very real messianic sense — driven, often obsessively, by a vision of a perfect and unrealized world to come which they are convinced must influence all current actions. To act against this idea is even framed as secularized sin or as it is often put being “on the wrong side of history“. Their God is, much like the old one, an all-pervasive truth which is universal and good and which underpins all things and events, even the bad ones (like the Bondi massacre). 

To their credit, this all-pervasive truth many leftists believe in is genuinely good: it is a universal humanism, a belief in the sanctity and value of human life. Their heaven, utopia, is a liberated, just, post-oppressive world to come. Sometimes it is pure anarchism or an end to money, property, and exploitation. In other words, leftist eschatology promises, yet again, a vague vision of a perfect world to come after the advent of universal truth. The coming of the next world follows the death of this world, which is in the meantime almost irredeemably marred by ignorance and sin.

Sanctifying the Shtetl. When Jewish existence was predicated on the goodwill of others, early Zionist thinkers condemned the world of the shtetl as a place where Jewish powerlessness was not only accepted but sanctified.

ROMANTICIZING POWERLESSNESS

Within this drama, the Jews are assigned a unique role, the same one as in the old shtetl construction: the righteous victim. Morally pure, historically oppressed, exemplary in their suffering. Devoted to their truth, with moral purity replacing religious piety. This is a modernization of the classic exile mindset, the same old sanctification of powerlessness as a self-justifying moral identity. 

Like many other Jews, anti-Zionists take pride in the inheritance of an oppressed people, invoking Jewish participation in past struggles for justice. Anti-Zionist Jews go further than most. They express deep discomfort, even open resentment at the fact that Jews now possess real power. Perhaps even a remorse over the fact that Jews have largely achieved assimilation in America, forcing them to play a slightly different role than the ideal victim. Now, their role seems to be that of privileged — or worse, oppressive — whites.

This resentment is often framed as anger at oppression done “in our name” by Zionism, but functionally, it is rage at the loss of moral position. Zionism is intolerable to these Jewish anti-Zionists not only because it wields power badly, but because it wields power at all. The fact that it wields that power against enemies shatters the sacred identity of the Jew as powerless, innocent, and dependent. 

Thus, exile becomes not merely a condition but a vocation. This acceptance of — and even consecration of — the status of exile provides meaning, coherence, and urgency to the universal humanist mission and the role the Jew can play in it. That is, as long as Jews renounce collective self-assertion and vocally reject Jewish power, especially military power, regardless of context. This psychological stance characterizes pathological anti-Zionism as something distinct from even the harshest critique of Israeli actions, which can itself be a deeply Zionist act.

In the end, the core of exile mindset remains the same: the exile-bound anti-Zionist Jew would rather sacrifice their collective and sometimes even their individual existence in this life for the sake of purity. This mindset may rationalize its position in theological or ideological terms, but in essence it is indeed, as anti-Zionists admit, a plea for safety. Now as then, that plea for safety is premised upon trying as much as possible not to anger the non-Jewish and even antisemitic society that surrounds.

This helps explain the reaction to Sydney. Faced with the massacre of Jews by Islamic extremists, these groups instinctively center the Muslim rescuer. They downplay the killers. They warn about the potential of backlash against Muslims. Even while many non-Jewish anti-Zionists are busy blaming Zionists for the massacre, Jewish anti-Zionists repeat “safety through solidarity” as a kind of incantation. 

This is not accidental. It is faith in the face of events that challenge it.

Like the old theology of exile, this ideology does not require empirical testing. It does not ask whether solidarity has, in fact, kept Jews safe amid rising antisemitism. It does not ask what actually prevents violence tonight, tomorrow, for the rest of the 8 nights and for years to come.

This is why these groups can look at a massacre of Jews and conclude that the lesson is less Jewish self-defense and more Jewish dependence. Less agency, more faith. Less mastery over fate, more trust in the moral arc of history to bend only towards justice.

To Israelis, living in a society whose ethos was founded on the negation of exile and exile mentality, this logic is incomprehensible. Ironically, even many heirs of traditional exile mindset in the diaspora have also abandoned it. Chabad, often on the front lines of antisemitic violence, as in this tragic case, embraces collective Jewish self-assertion and practical security. 

Only anti-Zionist Jews still sanctify weakness. Only they insist that Jewish survival must be conditional, provisional, and morally earned. Only they repeat, in modern language, the old demand that Jews place their lives in the hands of others for the sake of purity. Exile mindset is the retreat of people determined that their role is to be helpless victims, and who are actually more comfortable in that role.

That is what “safety through solidarity” means in practice.

A bloodied talit from the Sydney massacre. (Photo: social media, used in accordance with Section 27A).




*Feature picture: Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is an American Jewish anti-Zionist and far left-wing advocacy organization. It is critical of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The group was formed in 1996, and as of 2024 had grown to over 32,000 active dues-paying members. Its chapters at Columbia and George Washington universities were suspended in 2024. (Wikipedia)




About the writer:
Zev Dever is a Jewish educator originally from the US who has worked with Australian Jewish groups in Israel for several years.





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).

DIASPORA JEWS ARE NO LONGER FREE

Washington DC, Colorado, Manchester, Bondi. Where next?

By Sir Mick Davis

(Courtesy of The Spectator where this article first appeared)

Jews had gathered on Bondi Beach to celebrate the first night of Chanukah, the festival of light and freedom. Uniquely among Jewish festivals, Chanukah is celebrated in public. Generations of families came to light candles on Sydney’s famous coastline and say: we belong here too. And then two gunmen opened fire: 15 people murdered; 40 wounded. The victims include London born Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Alex Kleytman, who survived the Holocaust but, 80 years later was murdered for being a Jew.

Bondi Beach Massacre. This is what “Globalise the Intifada” looks like – 15 Jews dead, scores wounded.

On Bondi Beach, Jews celebrating that freedom were attacked and murdered.

This was not ‘senseless violence’ – the very phrase stupefies us into passivity, unable to name, identify and deal with the specific hatred behind it. This was a calculated attack on Jews celebrating a festival that commemorates our refusal to be erased from the public square, our determination to spread light in the face of darkness and maintain freedom despite tyranny.

The bitter truth, however, is that in 2025, Jews in the Diaspora are no longer free, but shackled by antisemitism. Our children learn lessons no child should: where the exits are, what to do if the glass breaks. We worship behind bulletproof doors and bombproof windows after passing through security guards not because we want to, but because we must. We are sick of explaining this, having our concerns dismissed or minimised and having to go through the same tiresome process after each and every outrage.

It cannot be only our problem. If a society’s Jews aren’t free neither is that society.

But we refuse to give in to the relentless campaign to intimidate and erase us. The message is constant: you live here on sufferance. You may be tolerated, but only if you are invisible. When Jews venture out publicly, we are targeted by hostility that too many have normalised.

We have warned that where Jew-hatred is normalised, anti-Jewish violence is inevitable. The so-called ‘pro-Palestine’ marches week after week have been recruiting grounds for those who carry out violence and those who justify it. Hate-filled demonstrations outside synagogues precede bullets through their doors. Calls for murder outside opera houses precede murders on beaches.

Why the Surprise? From calls to murder Jews outside Sydney Opera House to murdering Jews on a Sydney beach only kilometers away.

Washington DC, Colorado, Manchester, Bondi. Where next?

On the streets of London, Manchester, Sydney, New York and Paris, mobs have chanted for violence, glorified terror and demonised Jews with language that would be instantly recognised as incitement if used against any other minority. Jewish students harassed, Jewish businesses vandalised, Jewish events cancelled after being deemed ‘too difficult’ to protect.

We need more than perfunctory condemnation when the drumbeat of hate predictably leads to bloodshed. We need action.

Democracies must allow protest but the language and actions of protests matter. Protests that undermine the rights of others to exist safely are not legitimate dissent but calls for violence.

Who will stand up instead of standing by?

We don’t ask that everyone be like Ahmed al Ahmed, the heroic onlooker who with breathtaking courage disarmed one of the shooters and is now recovering in hospital. We do, however, expect those who can act to do so – from government, to police, to music venues, universities and broadcasters.

The authorities and wider public must make clear that it is the antisemites and not the Jews who will be erased from public spaces.

First, call it what it is: antisemitism. Not ‘community tension’, not ‘imported conflict’. Jew-hatred, adapted for modern tastes, laundered through modern slogans, and unleashed on Jews. Saying death to Zionists it is not just violent language but antisemitic. Recognise that saying death to the ‘Zionist entity’ means death to the Jews – the outcomes are indistinguishable.

Second, draw red lines and enforce them. Protect protest, of course, but reject incitement and intimidation. If a march, a concert or public event calls for violence, glorifies Jew-killing terrorist groups, uses antisemitic imagery or vilifies a minority community it is not a protest for democratic rights but a threat to them and should result in arrests and prosecutions far more often.

Third, stop indulging and making excuses for Jew-hate because confronting it is inconvenient. Stop the backdoor boycott of ‘safety concerns’ whether at comedy venues or European football matches. If Jews aren’t safe, neither are you.

Finally: choose solidarity that costs something. Not boilerplate statements but the solidarity that shows up – at vigils, schools, synagogues – in daylight, openly, without fear or equivocation.

We get to this point when the majority are silent in the face of evil. Jews are all too aware of those who hate us but it is the bystanders who send a shiver down our spine: universities too cowardly to condemn antisemitic incitement; media companies who platform terrorist apologists; sporting bodies whose response to murdered Jews is pathetic; police turning a blind eye to or failing to recognise virulently antisemitic chants; the friends and colleagues with something to say about everything but nothing to say about this.

‘Free’ to Hate. The ‘hate Israel’ marches week after week have proved recruiting grounds for those to carry out violence against Jews.

And here is perhaps the most pernicious idea of all: that some people possess a unique pain that allows them to disrupt society and deprive Jews of basic freedoms. Freedom of association. Freedom to walk the streets without fear. Freedom to practice their religion. Freedom to have a connection to the only Jewish country on earth without vilification. Freedom simply to be.

The lights of Chanukah are not lights of naïveté, but of resolve. The Maccabees pushed back against a powerful empire because it sought to erase their freedom and identity. On Bondi Beach, Jews celebrating that freedom were attacked and murdered.

Our societies must now decide whether we mean it when we say ‘never again’. And history will record who stood up, and who stood by.



About the writer:


Sir Mick Davis is a former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council and chair of the Commission on Holocaust Education. He is co-founder of The London Initiative.







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).

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

“Never Again” was an empty promise

By Andrew Fox

Bondi. Manchester. Washington. Colorado. The list continues. Today, Jewish blood was shed on the sands of Bondi Beach. Fifteen Jews were shot at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, with dozens more wounded. I am utterly furious. I am incandescent with rage. This horror did not happen out of nowhere. We all saw it coming. Again.

“Never again”? Yeah, right.

A March to a Massacre. This mass protest on Sydney’s Harbour Bridge was organized by the Sydney branch of the Palestine Action – the radical group  banned in the UK for glorifying terrorism. Displaying sick irony being branded the “March for Humanity”, the protest was rife with antisemitic manifestations with participants chanting “Death to the IDF” and “Long live the Intifada” — a slogan understood to promoting terrorism against Jews. 

It was not an isolated act of madness in Australia; it exists everywhere. In Manchester this past Yom Kippur, a jihadist rammed a car into worshippers and stabbed people at a synagogue, murdering two Jews before police subdued him. In Washington, DC, an American gunman opened fire outside a Jewish museum, killing two young Israeli embassy staffers. As he was arrested, he shouted “Free, free Palestine!” to reveal the twisted ideology that fuelled his slaughter. In Colorado, an Egyptian immigrant attacked a peaceful pro-Israel rally with a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring seven; an 82-year-old woman later died from her burns. From continent to continent, Jews are being hunted.

Enough.

For two years now, since Hamas launched its latest war, a wave of anti-Jewish hate has swept through the West. The warning signs have been flashing: in Australia, anti-Jewish incidents tripled in the year after the war began. Similar spikes have occurred across Europe and the USA.

Swastikas on schools. Mobs chanting for intifada. Jewish students hiding their Stars of David. It has been escalating steadily. Now the inevitable has happened again – the hate has turned murderous. We know precisely who helped create this atmosphere. I am looking at everyone who fed this beast. Every single one of them has blood on their hands.

Everyone who spent two years spreading antisemitic blood libels straight from Hamas — blood on their hands. (They parroted every lie Hamas spewed, from fake “hospital massacres” to wild casualty figures. They stoked the flames that led directly to Bondi and beyond.)

Writing was on the Railing. Two weeks before the Bondi Beach Chanukkah massacre on the 14 December, Bondi Beach in Sydney was hit by antisemitic graffiti on November 29, 2025 where families with children arriving in the morning saw slogans including “Fuck the IDF” and “Free Palestine” sprayed on the beachfront.

Everyone sucked in by Hamas propaganda, who spent two years shrieking online about “Gaza genocide” or confected war crimes while excusing or ignoring Hamas’s atrocities — blood on their hands.

Everyone who attended the weekly hate marches in Western cities, those angry street mobs that normalised Jew-hatred under the guise of “Free Palestine” — blood on their hands. They created the permissive atmosphere for this violence.

Everyone who took Qatari or Iranian media money to peddle lies about Israel — blood on their hands. (They know who they are – the talking heads on state-backed TV channels, selling out truth for petro-dollars and spreading venom.)

South Africa’s leaders and their fellow travelers, Amnesty International and other NGOs, and all those who kept slandering Israel with vexatious “genocide” accusations – blood on their hands. Their propaganda provided moral cover to Hamas and depicted Jews as rightful targets.

Every country that rewarded Hamas’s 7th October massacre by recognising a Palestinian state (a move Netanyahu rightly called a “huge reward to terrorism”) — blood on their hands. Instead of isolating the genocidal Hamas regime, they gave its supporters hope and legitimacy. Terrorists drew encouragement from their cowardice.

The hack researchers and NGOs churning out pseudo-academic garbage about Gaza: Airwars, AOAV, The Lancet, and others, treating casualty figures and social media posts as absolute truth — blood on their hands. By exaggerating and/or politicizing casualty numbers and events in Gaza without proper context, they portrayed Israel as a villain and incited mobs worldwide.

Those ideological extremists who cheer every pro-Palestinian criminal and even support terrorists on hunger strike to blackmail the justice system — blood on their hands. They may pretend it is about human rights, but their one-sided backing for pro-Palestinian terrorism (even after 7 October) has emboldened the worst Jew-haters.

Every politician and official who ignored the warning signs, who looked the other way time after time after time — blood on their hands. You had one job: to protect your citizens. To protect Jews. They failed, and now Jews lie dead on a beach, in a synagogue, and on city streets on their watch.

How long can our leaders ignore this?

How many red lines must be crossed?

I am tired of the empty platitudes and crocodile tears from politicians who let this climate fester. They downplayed antisemitism when it was graffiti, flag-waving, or relentless harassment. They shrugged when thousands marched through our capitals waving terrorist flags and shouting for intifada, week after week. They stayed silent when Jewish families begged for protection. Now those same leaders act shocked at the carnage? Spare me. Their cowardice and appeasement helped unleash this nightmare.

Mark my words: sooner or later, good and honest citizens will take matters into their own hands. If the authorities refuse to crack down on this violent Jew-hatred, people will feel they have no choice but to defend themselves. When that day comes, and if vigilante violence erupts because governments failed to act, there will be even more blood on the hands of those who enabled all this. I dread that possibility, but can anyone blame Jews and their true allies for being at the breaking point? For feeling abandoned and desperate?

Streets of Sydney. All these Sydney protestors inciting hatred against Jews by the messages on their posters and banners have “blood on their hands”.

I am furious. Searing, righteous fury, and I will not apologise for it. The murders at Bondi Beach have shattered any illusion of safety. Jews are bleeding, dying, in 2025, in free countries, simply for being Jewish. This is not just a Jewish problem. It is a problem for everyone who believes in decency and civilisation.

No more.

No more indulgence for the hatemongers. No more free passes for the enablers and apologists. Politicians: clean up this mess now, before it spirals further. Protect your Jewish citizens as you promised, or step aside for someone who will.

The blood cries out from Bondi, from Manchester, from Washington and Colorado. To all those who lit the fuse and fanned the flames: I hold you responsible. Their blood is on your hands, and it will never wash off.



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, and is currently studying for a PhD in History.






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).

LAST ONE OUT TURNS OFF THE DARKNESS

First to race into the inferno of October 7, Ran Gvili is now the last.

By Forest Rain Marcia

“Don’t worry Ma. See, my arm is fine!”

He knew his arm wasn’t fine. She knew it too.

They both knew there was no way he was staying home. Not after the videos he had seen, not after the emergency message he received, the message all policemen in the area received, the message they thought they would never hear: a call to respond to an invasion.

It didn’t matter that he had a broken shoulder and was scheduled for surgery in a few days. He was trained to defend the innocent, and nothing would stop him.

It was October 7th, and his country needed him.

Master Sergeant Ran Gvili of the Yasam Special Patrol Unit put on his uniform, took his father’s car, and drove to the police station. He met his team, donned battle gear, gathered weapons and ammunition, and drove straight into the eye of the storm: “The Al Aqsa Flood.”

The Last Israeli Hostage in Gaza: The Story of Ran Gvili | KAN 11

At the Saad junction, they found themselves in battle with the invaders. They helped party-goers escape the Nova massacre and reach safety. Ran was shot in the leg. He fashioned a tourniquet and battled on. At Alumim, he and other warriors managed to prevent the invaders from entering the kibbutz, saving those sheltering there — but at a terrible cost. The attackers had already slaughtered 22 workers from Thailand and Nepal and taken others hostage. Fourteen people fleeing the Nova party were murdered near the kibbutz, and five defenders of Israel were killed.

We think.

While learning through the news about friends and colleagues who had been killed, Ran’s brother, also a policeman, assumed Ran was home.  After all, Ran was injured and scheduled for surgery.

When Ran’s phone rang, the battle was raging. His brother was shocked to hear him explain where he was and to learn that he had also been shot in the hand: “Don’t tell our parents. I’m shot, but I’m fine.”

Ran sent this selfie(below) on October 7th – his last photo.

Last selfie photo of Ran Gvili from the 7th October 2023

Separated from his team, with a broken shoulder and two gunshot wounds, Ran sheltered from the attackers and passed critical information to the relevant security forces, doing everything he could to bring help to the battle. When the invaders discovered his location, he fought them alone.

The bodies of fourteen terrorists were found at the point where he had been sheltering. Ran was gone.

It took more than fourteen to subdue him and take him to Gaza.

Intelligence officials discovered footage of his unconscious body being taken to Gaza. They informed the Gvili family that the injuries Ran sustained are not survivable — unless given emergency intensive care, which he did not receive. None of the liberated hostages saw him during their captivity.

No one knows for certain what happened to Ran. Until his body is returned, his family clings to the faint hope that this powerful warrior — their Rani —could somehow survive.

Lion of Judah. Despite the odds, Ran Gvili was an Israeli hero who ran into danger to save lives.

He was among the first to race toward the battle and is now the last who has yet to return home. His mother says Ran always made sure everyone else was ok before thinking of himself. It is like him to be last, to make sure everyone else goes first.

Hollywood has nothing on us. Our heroes are real.

I never met Ran, but I have met his mother, Talik Gvili, and seen her in action. She is a hero, a warrior of a different kind. It is no surprise that her son is a hero.

Since October 7th, Talik’s heart has ached for her Rani, but she has devoted her mind to defending our people. She has spoken in the Knesset and around the world, advocating for the release of all hostages through strength. Only victory over Hamas will protect us from future invasions. She says:

 “I am the mother of a hostage. I do not want to be the grandmother of a hostage.”

One of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed was between Talik Gvili and Einav Zangauker, mother of Matan, who at the time was held hostage in Gaza. I was accompanying families of hostages to the Knesset, where, during committee sessions, families were given the chance to speak to parliament members and other government officials. Each family spoke in turn; all listened respectfully, no matter what was said or how long it took. Some pleaded with the government officials to save their loved ones. Others explained that they expected their loved ones to be saved in a way that didn’t endanger the future of Israel.

Einav Zangauker unleashed her fear and frustration at the committee head, haranguing him with devastating accusations:

“The blood of my son will be on your hands. They will bring him back dead, and you will manage the funeral and the shiva.”

There were some seventy people in the room. We all sat in silence. The more she spoke, the more extreme her words became, and the more everyone cringed, devastated, in their seats.

Until Talik spoke.

It was like magic. I don’t remember her exact words, but with grace and dignity, she broke the torrent of Einav’s rage, refocused her, and calmed her to the point where she got up, walked around the table, hugged Talik, and sat down next to her, holding her hand.

Allowing us all to breathe again.

Cry Freedom. With the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty in the background ,  the late Master Sergeant Ran Gwili mother appeals for his ‘liberty’ from Gaza.

Talik has rightly received awards and praise for her wise and eloquent advocacy. After one event, I approached her and told her I admired her greatly but needed to correct one huge mistake in her speech. Startled, she focused on me. I said, “You claim that you aren’t a hero, but that ignores what heroes are. They aren’t just warriors in battle; heroes are people who go above and beyond what the average person would do in the same situation.” She looked at me, unmoving. I continued, “When this happened, you could have crawled into bed, pulled the covers over your head, and refused to move. It would have been much easier.”

Her eyes softened. She sighed and nodded. “That’s true. Thank you.”

Waiting for Ran. Itzik Gvili, says of his son Ran, “He didn’t think twice, he went and fought, even with two bullets in his body.” Addressing a crowd at Hostages Square, he speaks about his son in the present tense. “It’s hard for me to accept condolences. Until I see his body, I don’t speak about him in the past tense.”

Hero. Mother of a hero. I wish I could give her a fraction of the strength she has given for all of us, for our safety, for our future. Now her Rani, one of the first to race into the inferno, is the last in Gaza.

We say that “the last one out turns off the light.” Perhaps Ran, the last one out, will be the one who turns off the darkness that has taken over Gaza.

Perhaps he won’t come home until we make sure the darkness is extinguished. There is a job that has yet to be completed. We are responsible for making sure that happens.



About the writer:

Forest Rain Marcia is an American-born Israeli who lives in northern Israel. She’s a branding expert and storyteller. Her passion is giving voice to the stories of Israel illuminating its profound events, cherished values, and exemplary role models that transcend borders, casting Israel as an eternal wellspring of inspiration and strength for a global audience.
Forest Rain made Aliyah at the age of thirteen. After her IDF service, she co-developed and co-directed a project to aid victims of terrorism and war. These activities gave her extensive first-hand experience with the emotional and psychological processes of civilians, soldiers, and their families, wounded and/or bereaved and traumatized by terrorism and war (grief, guilt, PTSD, etc). Throughout the years, she has continued to voice the stories, pain, and strength of traumatized Israelis to motivate others to provide support and counter the hate that threatens Jews in Israel, around the world, and Western civilization itself through the understanding that what begins with the Jews never ends with Jews.

Inspiration from Zion: https://inspirationfromzion.com/






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

TIME TO OUTLAW EXTREMIST ISLAM

It’s not permissive gun laws but unchecked cascading ideological hate that is killing Jews.

By Jonathan Feldstein

As a Jewish father, my job is to ensure my children can swim and be educationally equipped for a profession. While one can explore what this may mean on a deeper rabbinic level, simply put for the purpose of this article, it is to provide my children with the necessary skills to protect themselves from typical daily dangers and live and be productive members of society.

Reading reports of the father-son duo, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, who perpetrated the antisemitic murder in Sydney, Australia on the first day of Chanukah, I was shocked to think that either the father had the evil idea and invited his son, or his son was so indoctrinated that he invited his father to join his shooting orgy. Either way, the father failed, and his son was raised in the rot of this failure.

All in the Family.  While Australian fathers and sons will customarily go together to watch a cricket or rugby match, not father Sajid Akram (50) and son, Naveed Akram (24),  who prefer as devout Muslims to rather meet at Bondi Beach and shoot Jews, including young children, celebrating Chanukah.

No doubt, people will rush to cite permissive gun laws as the cause of the massacre, but the truth is it’s the permissiveness of the pervasiveness of radical Islam. This more than guns must be outlawed and eliminated.

Unfortunately, we see such father-son evil more and more as a consequence of widespread radical Islam. We see it in the Sydney rampage. We see it with Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Islamic republic all spreading their tentacles of evil with Israel and Jews in their cross hairs.  We also see it throughout Africa and around the world where Christians are persecuted as part of a multi-generational family tradition.

We see it among Muslims themselves, with fathers and sons murdering their daughters and sisters in what are perversely called “Honor Killings”.  There is no honor in these premeditated murders, and there is no honor for a father who raises his child to live by this evil creed.

What a Shame!  What is it in Middle East Arab culture that accepts male family members killing their female members to avoid ‘shame’ of their family’s honor. Seen here protesting are Palestinian women holding a banner that reads in Arabic, “General Union of Palestinian Women, we need a law to protect us and to protect the Palestinian family”, during a rally in front of the Palestinian’s Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah demanding an investigation into the murder of 21-year-old Israa Ghrayeb, a victim of a “honor killing”. (Photo: AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Whoever had the horrific idea to carry out this massacre will be revealed, but it almost doesn’t matter.  Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once noted, “We will only have peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate ours.” That must be widened to all of extremist Islam. By raising their children in this death cult, they are not loving parents but guilty of child abuse. More evidence of this was demonstrated in the article, “IDF airs interrogation clips of terrorist father and son confessing to rape on Oct. 7.”

Among the vilest reports since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and savage massacre of 1200 people, and kidnapping of more than 250, last year Israel revealed video confessions of a father-son team, Ahmad and Abdallah Radi. Breaching Israel’s border in an orgy of hate and destruction, Ahmed shamelessly brought his son Abdallah to participate in the murderous rampage. Both father and son were captured.  In separate interrogations, Ahmad and Abdallah confessed to murder and rape. In fact, they raped the same woman before Ahmad the father executed her.

Musical Message

In the wake of this and the Sydney massacre with a different Islamist father-son team, the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (CSNY) song, “Teach Your Children” came to mind. It’s a song about passing on values from one generation to the next, emphasizing the importance of teaching children well, helping them grow into their best selves, to create a better future individually, as a legacy from one generation to the next. If Sajid or Ahmad only had an ear for classic folk rock and not jihadi hate, maybe they’d have set a positive example, rather than transmitting to their son’s evil genocidal hatred.

CSNY sang:

 “You, …Must have a code that you can live by…Teach your children well…And feed them on your dreams.”

Family Values. This writer laments that that the father/son duo Bondi Beach killers missed out on the classic folk rock of Cosby, Stills Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children” about the passing on values from one generation to the next, emphasizing the importance of teaching children well.

Today’s jihadi fathers live by a “code” of evil. Rather than feeding them on the dreams of building and doing something positive, becoming productive members of society, their vision and goals are exclusively to destroy Israel and to slaughter Jews.

The lyrics continue, “The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.” Basically, CSNY is saying that a father’s legacy lives on through his children. Unfortunately, Sajid or Ahmad have transmitted a legacy of geocidal hate, fueled by extremist Islam founded in the Muslim Brotherhood which has become illegal in parts of the Arab world and, hopefully soon, in the US.

CSNY’s chorus implores parents to move beyond the struggles of the previous generation (“the father’s hell that did slowly go by”), and the importance of nurturing children’s dreams so they can live fulfilling lives.

Parents have a responsibility to imbue their children with good values, but also that children have the responsibility to choose the correct path, regardless of what they inherit from their parents.

“Teach Your Children” is a call to action for passing on life lessons, compassion, and hope to future generations.

This horrific stories of the father and son teams, Sajid and Naveed, and Ahmed and Abdullah, reminds me of another less hopeful classic American folk-rock song, Harry Chapin’s 1974 hit, “Cats in the Cradle.” After a life of neglecting his son by having “lots to do”, the father realizes his neglect has come back to him, singing woefully, “My boy is just like me.” 

Abdullah Radi confessing to raping an Israeli woman with his father (Arabic with Hebrew)

This is the model by which the Islamic terrorists live. It’s up to them, the parents, to teach their children well, to have an active presence, to show them right from wrong, and to correct them when they go astray. It’s never a father’s role to teach a child to massacre, rape, sexually mutilate and murder, or to shoot up a holiday celebration anywhere, anytime, for any reason.

Rather than worshiping an evil ideology and a god who celebrates that, maybe they’d to well with a little 1960s classic folk-rock to change their future. Barring that, and for the self-preservation of Western society, the rot of extremist Islam must be outlawed and uprooted.

Memorial to Matilda. In their joint killing spree of Jews in the name of Allah, Sajid Akram and son, Naveed Akram did not spare young children like 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach shooting. (Photo: James D Morgan / Getty Images)

Australia and the permissive western countries which have opened their doors to extremist Islam and then failed to stand firmly against all it threatens enabling an evil to grow within with deadly consequences, must change course.

They need to be brave and bold, and eliminate this threat within before they are consumed by it.



About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

APPEASEMENT IS BACK

How Australian government policies led to the disaster on Bondi Beach.

By Neville Berman

Year after year governments around the world are passing deficit budgets that include massive increases in defense spending. They are arming themselves in the hope of being able to better defend themselves against external enemies.  At the same time, in the name of multiculturalism, diversity, and equality, they have opened their borders to millions of immigrants who do not share their culture, language, religious practices or heritage. The threat to many countries is now internal rather than external. 

What is happening is that incredibly rich Muslim oil exporting countries are promoting the subjugation of the west to Islamic doctrine. One of the ways that they are using to undermine the west is to finance the building of large mosques in major Western cities across the world. The Imams in these mosques are handpicked by the people providing the finance.  They are spreading their opposition to Western culture, and are radicalizing their followers to incite and create anarchy. They are well organized and financed and face almost zero opposition from local governments. They are using the western concept of free speech in order to promote hatred.

Iman Influence. Twenty-four-year-old Bondi Beach shooting gunman Naveed Akram, was a follower of pro-Islamic State preacher Wisam Haddad (above) who has been closely watched by ASIO for most of his adult life but has never been charged with a terrorism offence. (Photo: Four Corners/Sissy Reyes).

The latest attack at Bondi Beach in Australia is the direct result of the total lack of any attempt by the Australian government to take action against hate speech. What is really amazing is to see the current TV briefing by Australian officials. Initially the New South Wales police announced that they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack.  It must have taken a person of exceptional bravery or stupidity to use the word “terrorist” in this day of political correctness. The word “terrorist” has become offensive to millions of people around the world who cheered the attack against America by al-Qaeda on 9/11, 2001.  It is also offensive to millions of people who celebrated the attack on Israel by Hamas on the morning of October 7, 2023.  These are the people that are now setting the standards that society needs to adhere to. The word terrorist conjures up visions of hundreds of actual Muslim terrorist acts across the world, that have killed and maimed thousands of innocent people. The West has simply bowed to the demands of those who want to destroy western culture and civilization and has decided that the word terrorist is now a derogatory term that needs to be removed from the lexicon of the English language. Words like ‘apartheid’, ‘genocide’ and expressions such as ‘rape their daughters’ are now completely acceptable.  Terrorists have become ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘militants’, and the Australians have now found a plethora of new words to lower the bar even further.

Videos show Naveed Akram preaching on the streets of Sydney as a 17-year-old.

The Australian Prime Minister immediately called the incident an act of antisemitism. Considering the fact that that the attack was against thousands of Australian Jews celebrating the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, one can assume that the detective acumen of neither a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot were needed to conclude that it was indeed an antisemitic act. The fact that the same Prime Minister has failed to take any serious action against hundreds of demonstrations that have taken place on Australian soil, against Jews and Israel, speaks volumes about his political bias and his concerns to appease the growing Muslim immigrant population in Australia. History has shown over and over again that appeasement leads to calamity. What happened on Bondi Beach did not happen in a vacuum. Ever since the Australian government opened its borders to large scale immigration from Muslim countries, the government has allowed hate speech to go unpunished. Hate speech and Jihad should have no place in Australia or anywhere else for that matter. 

In a TV broadcast soon after the attack, the head of New South Wales governing body described the terrorists who carried out the attack as “shooters.” The next speaker used the word “gunmen.” The spokesman for the New South Wales Police stated that “The offenders have been identified as a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son.”  This is hardly the language that one would expect the spokesman of the police department to use about  mass killers of innocent people celebrating on a beach!

Targeting Jews. This is where global antisemitism leads. As if playing an arcade video game, killer Naveed Akram takes aim and shoots to kill, defenseless Jews on Bondi Beach.

So, there you have it, the two radicalized Islamic terrorists that killed 15 innocent civilians and wounded 40 others on Bondi Beach are described as antisemites, then shooters, then gunmen, and finally offenders. Not a single one of the spokespersons used the words Muslim Terrorists or Militant Islamists to describe what happened on Bondi Beach. Not once have the victims of this terrorist attack been described as innocent civilians. The double standards are obvious. Welcome to Australia today.

The one person that stands out in the whole affair is Ahmed al-Ahmed who risked his life and single handedly disarmed one of the terrorists who was shooting at the people on Bondi Beach. The fact that he is a Muslim is a credit to the millions of Muslims who abhor terrorism. He is a shining light that shows that despite all the hatred that is now spreading across the world, there are still people of character and courage. Ahmed al-Ahmed deserves a medal.

Stepping Up Too Late. A report that has sat on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s desk for months is being raised by critics as key evidence that the federal government has done too little, too late to respond to the rising tide of antisemitism since the 7 October terror attack in Israel.

The tragedy on Bondi Beach needs to be the catalyst that unites Australia and the Western world against the falsehoods and hatred that has arisen in the world.  Hatred is not a policy. It is a one-way street to anarchy. It is time to wake up to the fact that countries are abandoning their own culture and heritage by bowing to the demands of those immigrants that wish to subjugate the lifestyle and beliefs of the countries that have welcomed them and provided them with enormous assistance and financial aid. The past cannot be changed. The future definitely needs to be changed.  The writing so to speak is on the wall. What a pity that the only action of the present Australian government is to announce that they will be tightening up on gun control. What a pathetic attempt to find an excuse for their own disastrous policies and appeasement of hatred.  




*Feature picture: People paying tribute to the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia, where 15 people were killed and 38 others hospitalized.  (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images).



About the writer:

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





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

ARAB MEDIA: DESPERATELY SEEKING SADAT!

An article that disappointed less from what it said and more from what it did not say.

By David E. Kaplan

I come across recently an article translated from Arabic penned  by Abdel Rahman Shalgha published in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat titled :

“Searching for Anwar Sadat”

In these troubled turbulent times, I reached out with enthusiasm to read this piece by an Arab journalist that was “searching” – his word – for an inspirational leader in the Middle East. His role-model was the assassinated Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, a brave warrior who risked in peace as much as he risked in war, who rose above the fears and prejudices of the masses to take risks for the ultimate goal of peace. Ask Israelis of President Sadat and the image that comes to mind is more the man who sought peace than who prosecuted war and who bravely boarded a plane that flew him into the bowels of his enemy to address its parliament – the Knesset.

Peacemakers. Prime Minister Menachem Begin welcomes Egyptian president Anwar Sadat at Ben Gurion Airport on November 19, 1997 (Photo: Moshe Milner/GPO archive)

Some will recall his deep voice resonating from the Knesset podium saying:

“Any life lost in war is a human life, irrespective of its being that of an Israeli or an Arab. A wife who becomes a widow is a human being entitled to a happy family life, whether she be an Arab or an Israeli.”

Contrasting Sentiments. While Anwar Sadat and Golda Meir got on like a house on fire in Jerusalem, most the Arab world was ablaze with fury.

The warm response of the Israeli public was captured best at the time by Israel’s former PM Golda Meir, when addressing the Knesset on the 21 November, 1977, and directed these words to her former foe:

“Mr. President, I’m sure that from the moment your plane landed at Lydda Airport, and as you drove through the streets of Jerusalem, you must have felt, in all your encounters with the many people who turned out to meet you – the little children; the mothers with babies in their arms; the old people; the people who were born in this country, the second, third, fourth and fifth generations, and those who have come recently – that all, without exception, were overjoyed to see you in our Land.”

Such was the mood of Israelis in late 1977.

From Foe to Friend. Unlike the unhappy atmosphere in Egypt and neighboring Arab countries, Jerusalem schoolchildren with balloons and flowers cheer the arrival in Israel of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat on November 21, 1977 (Photo: Ya’akov Sa’ar/GPO archive).

SOMETHING MAJORLY MISSING

So, it was about this caliber of a man in the Arab world I was hoping to read in Abdel Rahman Shalgha’s November 2025 article and his opening paragraph was promising:

“In the collective memory of nations and the chronicles of their history, there are names, years, and even entire centuries that endure, untouched by the passage of time or the tumult of events. Among them are the names of kings, presidents, and statesmen whose legacies remain etched in both the hearts of their people and the pages of history. The late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat  was one such man, born into an era of extraordinary transformation for Egypt, the Arab world, and the world at large.”

Then I kept reading. While interesting and informative, in the end, it was disappointingly deficient.  Hoping to read about the man who sought and brought peace to Egypt  with its greatest enemy, Israel – Not a word!

Price of Peace. President Sadat was the first Arab leader to recognize the state of Israel since its creation in 1948 and in September 1978, met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the US, where they negotiated a peace accord and, in 1979, a peace treaty. For this he paid with his life.

It was all about the man of war and nothing about the man of peace. It was about the man who spied and collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and who with “cunning” deceived the Israelis “that Egypt would not attack, only to shatter that illusion when Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, breached the Bar-Lev Line, and rewrote the script of Middle Eastern history.”

But that “Middle East history” included finally the famous peace between Egypt and Israel, ensuring that countless Egyptian and Israeli lives were not to be needlessly lost.

Not a word about this!

The achievement of peace that should have been written as the highlight of the Egyptian president’s life deserves no mention? The word peace appears not to be in this journalist’s vocabulary – at least not in so far as to praise the attributes of his hero – Anwar Sadat!

Read below the rest of Abdel Rahman Shalgha article:

“In his memoir, In Search of Identity, he [Sadat] recounts the defining stages of his life, from his birth in the village of Mit Abu El Kom on the banks of the Nile to his rise as president of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

At the time, Egypt languished under British domination, its sovereignty curtailed, its military occupied, and its monarch reduced to a mere figurehead. Against this backdrop, a dark-skinned boy from the Nile’s banks absorbed the essence of Egypt – its history, struggles, and aspirations – and carried them within him.

Sadat wrote his life story in a simple, unpretentious style, describing the national and international figures who shaped his worldview. Among them, [Mohamed Darweesh] Zahran, a young Egyptian executed by the British after the Denshawai incident, stood out as a moral beacon whose courage and sacrifice burned indelibly in Sadat’s heart.

From his humble beginnings in Mit Abu El Kom to the charged atmosphere of Cairo – a city alive with political ferment and social tension – Sadat matured amid the turbulence of an occupied nation. He completed his secondary education and began a long, arduous journey through a labyrinth of nepotism and colonial control before finally entering the Military Academy.

After graduation, he served in various posts across the country, carrying with him an unyielding hatred for British rule. His first confrontation with colonial authority came with his involvement in the assassination of Amin Osman, a minister known for his staunch loyalty to Britain – a plot that landed Sadat in prison.

During World War II, as German and Italian forces advanced from eastern Libya into Egyptian territory, many Egyptians, Sadat among them, saw in the British defeats a glimmer of hope for liberation, even if it came through the hands of others.

In that spirit, Sadat helped plan an attempt to smuggle the nationalist officer Aziz Ali al-Misri into the Western Desert to contact the German command. The operation failed when al-Misri’s plane crashed, yet Sadat’s determination did not waver. Later, when two German spies in Cairo sought his help to repair a malfunctioning radio transmitter used to send intelligence to Berlin, Sadat, then in military intelligence, agreed to assist.

Discovered by British and Egyptian intelligence, he was imprisoned again and expelled from the army. Escaping confinement, he wandered the countryside in disguise as “Haj Muhammad,” working as a porter and laborer until a royal insider helped him return to the army and join the Royal Guard.

Sadat later recounted his efforts to organize a secret military network aimed at toppling the monarchy and ending British rule – efforts he claimed predated Gamal Abdel Nasser’s founding of the Free Officers Movement, though his colleagues in that movement would later dispute the account in their own memoirs.

I accompanied Sadat on his long journey through the pages of his autobiography, where he traced his life with all its trials, risks, and triumphs. Throughout, one sees a man in perpetual pursuit of an Egypt free from colonial chains. Perhaps it was Zahran, the martyred peasant of Denshawai, who served as the spiritual force sustaining him through years of struggle.

That thread of conviction runs through every stage of his life, from his seat on the Revolutionary Command Council to the emergence of the shrewd and daring strategist he became.

Sadat never held major ministerial posts and was never seen as a likely successor to Nasser. Yet upon Nasser’s death, he assumed the presidency and began, with quiet calculation, to consolidate his power, dismantling rival factions in a single stroke.

He reorganized Egypt’s military in preparation for war with Israel and redefined the nation’s alliance with Moscow. In an elaborate campaign of deception, he convinced Israel that Egypt would not attack, only to shatter that illusion when Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, breached the Bar-Lev Line, and rewrote the script of Middle Eastern history.

In doing so, Sadat realized his lifelong dream: the recovery of Egyptian land, achieved with the boldness and cunning of a leader confident in his destiny.

I journeyed with Anwar Sadat through his remarkable life to say this: Amid the chaos, fragmentation, and imbalance that now define our region, perhaps it is worth revisiting the life of this man – not with nostalgia, but with a political mind attuned to lessons of endurance and foresight. For within Sadat’s journey, there may yet be a light to guide us over the dark hill of an uncertain future.”

And there you have it.

Siding against Sadat. Protests in Oslo on the 11 December 1978 against the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Sadat’s quest for peace with Israel was not welcomed in the Arab world with fellow states boycotting Egypt for breaking ranks and negotiating a  separate treaty with the Jewish state. (Photo: Manuel Litran/Paris Match via Getty Images)

A well written in somewhat poetic praise of a man this journalist “accompanied …. on his long journey through the pages of his autobiography,” admiring his life “with all its trials, risks, and triumphs.” Sadly, among Sadat’s “triumphs”, this journalist does not recognise, acknowledge or mention – even in passing – the monumental 1979 peace treaty with  Israel. Think of it, together with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Sadat received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Camp David Accords, which paved the way for the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty and no mention of it!

How do you arrive at a point when writing about someone’s lifetime achievements and you deliberately omit being the recipient of a Nobel Prize?

Targeting Peace. A scene from the assassination of Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Clearly for this journalist, Israel is unwelcome, a colonialist entity, a blot on the map, a stain  on a region exclusively reserved for Muslims or Arab-speaking folk. Sadly, it’s a perspective shared by the citizens of most, if not all, the countries bordering Israel and explains why Sadat was shot in 1981, and why the trigger-fingers of the assassins represented a multiple metaphor for millions of fingers around the Middle East.

Cause of Death. Sadat’s death was attributed to “violent nervous shock and internal bleeding in the chest cavity, where the left lung and major blood vessels below it were torn.” In truth, the actual cause of death was that he outreached to the Jewish state to make peace with Israel.

Is it any wonder today that so many kids in the Arab world today are named Nasser after the uncompromising militant president that preceded Sadat, and very few, if any are named after the assassinated Anwar Sadat!

Whatever Abdel Rahman Shalgha is really “searching” for, it is not peace with 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 GREAT PRETENDER

Behind the polished façade, the “gifts” of Gift of the Givers has a price tag.

By Allan Wolman

Back in the 1950s, The Platters made a hit song called The Great Pretender. Over the decades it was revived by any number of performers — most memorably Freddie Mercury in 1987. Since then, the world has never been short of “great pretenders”, not only on the entertainment stage but very prominently on the political one, where the list of contenders is endless.

Today I want to propose the greatest of the modern-day “Great Pretenders”: none other than Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers, a man who has pulled the wool over an entire nation’s eyes and risen to become South Africa’s most admired humanitarian — both at home and abroad.

Parallel Power. Why is this man – Imtiaz Sooliman – treated by the media as a minster?

With every natural or man-made disaster anywhere in the world, Gift of the Givers is among the first to appear on the scene, ensuring their efforts are rewarded with generous front-page coverage — complete with a full-colour photograph of the good doctor in his trademark green shirt and boldly displayed logo. Not to mention the tsunami of philanthropical donations he attracts.

Sooliman has once again made headlines, this time regarding the mysterious “unknown aircraft” that recently landed at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg. I urge you to read this excellent exposé posted on Facebook by Ivor Blumenthal:

WHY THAT LEGAL CHALLENGE IS IMPERATIVE?



*[Editor’s note: Soon after this article was written, South Africa revoked visa-free access for Palestinian passport holders. Taking its cue from Sooliman’s outrageous initial accusation, the SA government followed blindly reiterating the antisemitic rhetoric of the Gift of the Givers CEO by speculating without substantiation that the mystery flight is an Israeli plot to ethnically cleanse Gaza.]


The South African media should hang their heads in shame. But as the obedient mouthpiece of a rotten and corrupt government, that same media — devoid of morality, integrity, or even the most basic sense of journalistic honesty — would never dare venture into the territory that exposes who and what this organisation really is — and, more importantly, what the man’s true agenda appears to be.

Over decades, Imtiaz Sooliman has cultivated an image of saintly benevolence, rushing from one disaster zone to the next, dispensing aid and compassion with no political or ideological motive, (I also once believed in the tooth fairy). Very few people living a ‘humble’ lifestyle could command aircrafts and other costly facilities at a moment’s notice, but Gift of the Givers opens more doors than presidents and monarchs. Scratch even lightly beneath the surface and a very different picture emerges — one of a shrewd operator who understands perfectly how to manipulate optics, press coverage, and public sentiment.

Unapologetic Law Breaker. In his own words, this man is a law unto himself.

BLOWING THE WHISTLE
However, the true face of Sooliman and his Gift of the Givers is being revealed not by the media but by ordinary folk – non-Muslims – who not only see through but experience the ‘packaged’ deception. Watch the video clip below of a South African woman exposing the true face on this so-called Muslim human rights organization that weaponizes food aid by tying it to conversion. Her outrage disabuses the polished public image of Gift of the Givers, exposing it for leveraging hunger as a recruitment tool for Islam. It has been reported that food parcels have been distributed exclusively to Muslims, while vulnerable Christian families were told they will “get more” if they embrace Islam. Behind the polished façade, the “gifts” of Gift of the Givers has a price tag.

Gift of the Givers is a slick well-oiled reputational machine, capitalizing on every episode of suffering that Sooliman exploits to the full creating another opportunity for branding, hero-worship, and political leverage. The green shirt is no accident; it is a uniform designed for instant recognition, ensuring that Sooliman himself — not the cause, not the victims — becomes the headline.

And here’s where the media and gullible public looks the other way, ignoring the company this man keeps. He has no shame aligning himself to radical Islamic causes, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS, openly stating on national television that he adheres to only one law, NOT the law of the land. That’s a statement that goes beyond mere arrogance, but showing his middle finger to his country and the world.

The False Humanitarian. At a protest against Israel in Cape Town on the 5 October 2024, ‘humanitarian’ charity ‘Gift of the Givers’ founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman stood beneath this banner “WE ARE ALL HAMAS” and engaged in antisemitic conspiracy theories, railing against Israel and Jews who “run the world with fear … and control the world with money”. 

Aligning himself with the ANC ‘s agenda of open hostility to Israel and the Jewish people has elevated his stature within South Africa’s political elite affording him a hotline to government ministers who comply to his demands. All this while the media tip-toes around the mysterious aircraft incident at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport and allows Sooliman and his cunningly crafted ‘humanitarian’ Gift of the Givers to weaponize their aims.

Behind the veneer of humanitarianism, a toothless media lacking courage and hiding the truth from the public, feeds the man and his hidden agenda.

Asserting this point, Tim Flack writes in BizNews (8 December), that institutions in South Africa today:

 “…have grown weak and individuals with charismatic branding have filled the void. Sooliman is the clearest example of this trend. He speaks like a minister, moves like a minister, negotiates like a minister, and is treated by the media as if he has the democratic legitimacy of a minister.

But he does not.

He is unelected. He is unappointed. He is unaccountable. And the country has quietly allowed him to operate as a parallel authority in everything from refugee management to foreign policy interpretation.

This is not humanitarianism. It is governance without consent.”

Its time for the media to do their job and expose the true aims behind the façades ofDr. Imtiaz Sooliman and his Islamic charity –  Gift of the Givers.



About the writer:

Allan Wolman in 1967 joined 1200 young South Africans to volunteer to work on agricultural settlements in Israel during the Six Day War. After spending a year in Israel, he returned to South Africa where he met and married Jocelyn Lipschitz and would run  one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg – Rosebank Travel. He would also literally ‘run’ three times in the “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well as participate in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. Allan and Jocelyn immigrated to Israel in 2019.





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).

BETWEEN  AUSCHWITZ AND BE’ERI: COMMUNITIES CAUGHT BETWEEN MEMORY AND RENEWAL

How do traumatized kibbutzniks build a new life amongst the rubble  and remnants of personal horror?

By Gadi Ezra

(Courtesy of YNET news where this article first appeared)

Communities find themselves unwillingly at the center of a struggle between remembrance and renewal, underscoring the need for the state to better preserve national heritage.

Would you demolish Auschwitz? Of course not. The memory of the victims, the documentation of the crimes, the proof of the horrors — all must be preserved despite the pain, for the sake of future generations. But what if you had to keep living there? To face the destruction every morning? To rush to class or grab a coffee by passing through a murder scene frozen in time? In that case, the answer might be different. The need to move forward, rebuild and reestablish routine would all enter the equation.

This is precisely the heartbreaking dilemma the members of Kibbutz Be’eri recently confronted. Still trying to rise from the disaster, they voted by a narrow margin that life inside a memorial site is not life. The decision means clearing and demolishing the homes destroyed in the October 7 massacre. One house will remain, a testimony to what happened and to what must never happen again.

Killing Kids. A ‘Welcome to Our Home’ sign to a kindergarten on kibbutz Be’eri has not welcomed any kids since Hamas terrorists tore through it on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Baz Ratner/AP)

This is not a decision anyone can fairly criticize. No one can claim to know better than those who endured devastation and must now live again at the center of trauma. Whatever they say deserves a quiet amen. Yet what matters is understanding that Be’eri’s decision will not be the last on this issue. It opens a window into the present and future dilemmas of Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, Nirim, Nahal Oz, Re’im and other communities along Israel’s border. These are places that, against their will, have become focal points in a struggle between remembrance and renewal. That reality highlights not only the depth of the tragedy. It underscores the need for more effective state action in preserving the national heritage.

Silent Swing. Once an area of family fun, a Be’eri home’s patio and play area in the aftermath of the massacre.

The Tekuma Authority has allocated tens of millions to establish a national memorial for October 7, but its creation depends on legislation that remains unfinished. More than two years have passed since the massacre, yet the necessary administrative work is still incomplete. A state commission of inquiry is also deliberately avoided. As a result, the content that would fill any memorial institution is, by definition, partial and lacking. Such commissions are not only meant to assign responsibility. They are designed to form a narrative explaining how the country reached this point. Just as the Holocaust did not begin with the establishment of the death camps, October 7 did not begin on October 7.

Death and Destruction. One of the many houses which was burned and destroyed during the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre.

The problem with this dynamic, in which the state moves at its own pace, is that life is not a made-to-order program. It does not wait for government directives, bureaucracy or paperwork. It pushes past every document on its way to the next stage and forces survivors to confront decisions they must make. A community’s ability to tell its own story must always be preserved. But had the authorities and political leadership operated with greater transparency and efficiency, the members of Be’eri could have considered how future national commemoration would be shaped. That would have allowed them to highlight aspects the state does not emphasize or raise issues that matter to them in a different way. Their decision would have been made in context, not in a fog.

Gazan ‘Stormtroopers’. Hamas terrorists taking civilians hostages from kibbutz Be’eri.

Disclosure: At the end of October 2023, I was there as a reservist. The walls of the dental clinic that still stood practically screamed. The path leading to it ran through the same buildings now slated for demolition. ZAKA teams were still searching them for remains. Crushed cars lined the road. Other homes appeared intact but were anything but. Bloodstains on balconies revealed what had happened inside. Still others remained as they were the day they were abandoned — to Gaza, to the next world or to evacuation hotels. In truth that scene has not ended. War does not finish when the last soldier crosses back over the border. Even after Ran Gvili returns, it will end only when the residents return home. It is the state’s duty to ease that journey. Shaping memory in a way that helps them make decisions is an inseparable part of that responsibility.


Tough Decisions. Once a family home, now a horrifying ‘memorial’ to lives snuffed out. Can people return to this site to once again live?




About the writer:

Gadi Ezra is the Former director of Israel’s national public diplomacy unit.








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 ISRAELI SIDE OF THE STORY NEEDS TO BE HEARD

Fear that independent scrutiny will expose false narratives, Israel’s opponents discourage “See for Yourself” visits to the Jewish state.

By Kenneth Kgwadi

In one of the most influential TED Talks to date, acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores:

 “The Danger of a Single Story.”

She argues that to truly understand any event or conflict, one must consider multiple perspectives; relying on a single narrative inevitably leads to distortion and misunderstanding. Her message is particularly relevant to the Israel/Palestine debate, where too many overlook or dismiss Israel’s story while presenting Palestine as the sole victim.

The recent visit to Israel by King Dalindyebo of the AbaThembu nation illustrates this dynamic clearly. His trip triggered criticism from individuals who seem determined to prevent others from examining the facts for themselves. Instead of encouraging open inquiry and balanced engagement, these voices prefer that the public adopt their preferred narrative – one that portrays Israel as the villain through carefully crafted misinformation and propaganda. Their response reveals an underlying fear:

that independent observation may contradict the narrative they have worked hard to entrench.

The fiercest critics of Israel often rely on claims of apartheid, genocide, and other exaggerated allegations that do not align with the realities on the ground. Deep down, these naysayers fear that independent scrutiny will expose the inconsistencies in their narrative. Every year, numerous individuals and delegations travel to Israel on fact-finding missions to  see, experience and decide for themselves on the reports and agenda-driven narratives presented by international, local and social media. It would be profoundly irresponsible to accept  these narratives at face value without challenging the claims and allegations for accuracy, context, as well as the agendas of those who disseminate them. Hence the immense importance of visits.

Royal Visit. A cousin of the late Nelson Mandela, His Majestiy King Buyelekaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo of the AbaThembu Kingdom in South Africa meets with Israeli President, Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

Tensions between governments — such as those of South Africa, Israel, and the United States — should not influence the relationships between ordinary people in these countries. Communities should not be vilified for cooperating across borders simply because their governments disagree politically. Human connection is often driven by shared histories, mutual interests, and collective aspirations, not by diplomatic rifts.

It was in this spirit that King Dalindyebo chose to visit Israel and engage directly with Israeli officials. As a leader, he sought firsthand clarity on the long-standing conflict rather than relying solely on secondhand accounts crafted by the media. His decision reflects a commitment to informed leadership: he wanted to see the situation with his own eyes, hear directly from those involved, and explore opportunities to build constructive relationships for the benefit of the people he leads.

STANCE OF SILENCE

What is particularly troubling about South Africa’s foreign policy under President Cyril Ramaphosa is the growing inconsistency that seems to define it. On the surface, the country presents itself as a defender of human rights across the world, most notably through its strong support for the Palestinian cause. However, this principled stance is not applied consistently. In many parts of the world, innocent and defenceless people are being killed by oppressive regimes, yet South Africa remains largely silent.

A few weeks ago, hundreds of people were reportedly killed in post-election conflict in the Republic of Tanzania, a fellow member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Despite the seriousness of this crisis, South Africa took no meaningful action to hold those responsible to account. The same can be said about Sudan, where acts of genocide are unfolding before our very eyes on television, but no steps have been taken to sanction or pressure those who are responsible. Zimbabwe presents another example: for years, the ruling ZANU-PF has violated the human rights of ordinary Zimbabweans, forcing millions to flee the country in search of safety and economic security. Yet Pretoria has maintained a stance of silence and non-intervention.

Tragedy in Tanzania. Far closer to home than Gaza, hundreds of protesters and others have been killed and an unknown number injured or detained in Tanzania following recent elections according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), yet South Africa has not taken any action as it did against Israel.

This pattern of selective condemnation raises important questions about what truly drives South Africa’s foreign policy and undermines its claim to moral authority on the global stage. Blasted by so much mis and disinformation, the global ill-informed fail to understand that Israel is a functioning democracy, defined by an independent media, judiciary, executive, and parliament (Knesset), each operating without interference from the other. This is precisely why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently facing corruption charges: the institutions of state have the autonomy to hold even the highest office-bearers to account. The left-leaning newspaper Haaretz is a clear example of a vocal and critical media outlet that conducts its work without fear or favour, often challenging government actions and policies in the strongest of terms.

Sudanese Suffering. While South Africa’s foreign minister was quick to call the Hamas leader following its orchestrated massacre in Israel on October 7 2023 to “offer support”, masses of displaced civilians on its own continent such as in war-torn Sudan (above) is of less concern. (Photo: AFP/via Getty Images)

VISIT AND VERIFY

There is a danger, like in all conflicts, of spreading lies to control the narratives, and people should be aware of that. Hence it is important indeed, essential for opinion makers, journalists, researchers, and all those who work in the business of information and knowledge to visit Israel and tell the story as it truly is, rather than relying on narratives circulated by others who may have political agendas to advance.

First-hand experience remains the most reliable antidote to misinformation.

Meeting with fellow South Africans. Unlike South Africa’s ANC leaders who showed no concern for South African-born Jews killed in Israel as a result of the attack from Gaza, His Majesty, AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo met with Rabbi Doron Perez (right), father of Daniel Perez, South African born 22-year-old who was killed on October 7 during the Hamas attack, and his body was held in Gaza for nearly two years.



About the writer:

Kenneth Kgwadi is a research fellow at the Middle East Africa Research Institute (MEARI).






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).