Category: BDS

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S LEGACY

How Obama misread the aims of Iran

By Neville Berman

In January 2009, the Democratic Party nominee, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. It was a watershed moment in American history. America finally had a black President that seemed to fulfill the dreams of the Democratic Party and liberals.  The Norwegian Nobel Committee immediately bestowed on him the Nobel Peace Prize.

For his first foreign policy statement, Obama chose to speak at a university in Cairo. The choice of venue was a message in itself. Obama was greeted by rapturous applause by an overflowing audience of students. His speech revealed his positive view of Islam.

Great Expectations. An Egyptian youth displays a t-shirt designed by his father Gamal Shosha in their souvenir shop on June 3, 2009 in Cairo, which reads “OBAMA NEW TUTANKHAMON OF THE WORLD” , lauding the US President who was due to deliver his key Middle East policy speech at Cairo University. (Photo: David Silverman/Getty Images)

He started off by saying that he had come to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, and that they share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. He blamed the attacks of 9/11 on violent extremists who represented a small but potent minority of Muslims. He stated that “his father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims, but that he was a Christian, who as a boy had spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of Islam at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk.”

Below are some additional quotes from his speech that clearly demonstrated his thinking towards Islam:

  • “Civilization’s debt to Islam that paved the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.”
  • “Since America’s founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States.”
  • “Let there be no doubt Islam is a part of America.” 
  • “America is not and never will be at war with Islam.”
  • “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”
  •  “I will fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
  • “Throughout history Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”  
  • “America and Iran must work together in mutual respect.”
  • “I will seek a world in which no nation has nuclear weapons.” 
  • “America would support human rights everywhere.”
  • “Islam is a nation of tolerance.”
  • “There is one rule that is common to all religions and that is we do unto others what we want to do to ourselves.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
  • “The Holy Koran tells us to be conscious of God and speak always the truth.”

Obama’s views of Islam as a tolerant and peaceful religion must have come as news to hundreds of millions of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Hindus around the world. The claim made by Obama that Islam is a peaceful religion is contradicted by centuries of Islamic subjugation and oppression. Obama was obsessed with promoting peace and refused to see the reality of the fact that millions of Muslims around the world cheered on September 11, 2001 when 2,977 people were killed by al-Qaeda on American soil. The attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, makes a total mockery of

“Do unto others what we want to do to ourselves.”

Symbolic Shift. In a respectful effort to move beyond the hostility of the post-9/11 era, Obamas addresses the Muslim world at the beginning of his presidency, seeking a “new beginning” between the United States and Muslims in delivering a pivotal speech at Cairo University.

The truth is that subjugation and domination are part of the pillars of Islam. Obama never mentioned the Islamist division of the world into Dar al-Islam and Dar al-harb. The former is the land where Muslims have sovereignty and where Shariah law is the law of the land. The latter refers to land that still needs to be conquered and subjugated to Shariah law. He also never mentioned the Islamic religious call for jihad against infidels.

Let us now turn our attention to Iran. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Any attempt to enrich uranium to weapons grade levels is a violation of this treaty. By 2013, the UN Security Council had passed 6 resolutions that imposed various levels of sanctions against Iran for refusing to comply with demands to end its nuclear enrichment program. The resolutions included the freezing of Iranian exports of oil and gas. This drastically reduced Iran’s foreign income. Iran was also banned from using the Swift system that dominates international banking and money transfers. Billions of dollars of Iranian money were frozen in Western banks. The sanctions were crippling Iran’s economy. By 2013, the value of the Iranian Rial was in freefall and the Iranian people were out in the streets demanding changes. Despite all the calls of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, Obama decided that it was time to negotiate a deal with Iran.  

In October 2013, representatives of the P5+1 (USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China) held talks with Iran in Geneva. The main aim of the American negotiating team was to ensure that Iran would never be able to acquire nuclear weapons, and in return, sanctions on Iran would then be lifted. To lead the American team of negotiators, Obama appointed Under Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, who had previously negotiated the deal with North Korea that was supposed to end its nuclear program.

It was a total failure.

Out to Impress. Cutting a fine image as he tours the sites of Egypt, where today lies his boast “I will seek a world in which no nation has nuclear weapons?” 

An interim agreement with Iran was reached in November 2013. It partially removed some of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations and encouraged Iran to continue with the negotiations. Negotiations continued for  twenty months. In 2015, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, took the lead in the negotiations. For 18 days in Vienna, he worked with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javid Zarif, to finalize the deal. The final deal between Iran and the P5+1 delegates, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was officially reached on July 14, 2015. It was subsequently adopted on October 18, 2015.

Pathway to Armageddon. In March, 2026, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran possesses enriched uranium in quantities that could theoretically produce more than ten nuclear warheads.

The JCPOA deal achieved the exact opposite of what was originally intended. The sunset clause in the deal simply kicked the can down the road for when Iran could legally acquire nuclear weapons once the deal ends in October 2030. No restrictions or inspections were placed on Iran’s missile program. Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% without any limit as to the amount it could produce at this level. It was also agreed that if Iran enriched uranium above the agreed level, it needed to either destroy the uranium enriched beyond 3.67% level, or send it to another country for safekeeping. In effect the deal allows Iran to acquire the knowledge of how to enrich uranium to weapons grade level, and to then send it to another country for safekeeping. Russia would be the most likely country to receive the enriched uranium. The absurdity of Russia protecting the West by safekeeping weapons grade uranium produced by Iran was what was effectively agreed to. In addition, the deal allows Iran to produce unlimited intercontinental missiles that could threaten the world. After October 2030, these missiles could be legally armed with nuclear warheads.

Lethal Cocktail. A newly-upgraded Sayyad-3 air defense missiles on display in 2017 following Iran’s parliament voting to increase funding for its ballistic missile program. (Photo: Ho/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

Iran agreed that inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could take place at certain sites.  Surprise inspections required 48 hours’ notice. The agreement included a clause that if Iran did not abide by the agreement, Iran could be referred back to the Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran. This so-called “snapback sanctions” clause could be exercised at any time during the first 10 years of the agreement. China and Russia would not be permitted to vote if Iran was referred back to the Security Council to reimpose sanctions for non-compliance.  

Under the deal, sanctions on Iran were immediately lifted. Iran was given permission to export oil and gas and companies were given permission to invest in the Iranian oil and gas industry. Iran was allowed to rejoin the Swift Banking system. If this was not catastrophic enough, the deal immediately released frozen Iranian money plus interest on the money. Reports vary as to the actual amount released, but all agree that the sum was in the tens of billions of dollars. One report estimated that the final amount released was approximately $100 billion.  Obama ordered part of the money to be transferred in cash. The obvious intention of providing cash was to prevent American banking oversight of what the money would be used for. Iran immediately received all the benefits, while America received commitments by Iran to comply with the agreement in the future. It turned out that Iran had no intention to keep to its commitments.

In plain language, Iran lied.

Obama realized that the deal would never be approved by the Senate if it was presented as a treaty. What actually happened was that the negotiators signed the cover page of the agreement in Vienna, and then the parties to the deal, announced that they had agreed to it. There was no ceremony where the deal was signed. Obama was determined to bypass all the rules of approval needed in a treaty. What this meant was that any future American President could withdraw from the agreement. The Iranians were laughing all the way to the bank.    

With the windfall of money that Iran received, it immediately increased funding to its proxy terrorist organizations around the world, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis in Yemen. Iran continued to claim that its nuclear program was only for peaceful purposes.  This was clearly a blatant lie. There is no peaceful use for uranium that is enriched to weapons grade levels. Its only use is to manufacture nuclear weapons. Iran also denied access to certain sites by the IAEA inspectors.  Questions raised by the inspectors were either ignored or non-plausible answers were provided. The inspections would eventually become an absolute farce. In the final analysis, Obama did nothing to rid the world of nuclear weapons. What he did was to sanctify that the world’s leading terrorist state would legally be allowed to have a nuclear arsenal of unlimited magnitude once the sunset date was reached.

Unable to Inspect. Obstructed by Iran from inspecting the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center (above), the IAEA disclosed that it was unable to perform its “watchdog” role and therefore could not verify the suspension of enrichment-related activities or the size of Iran’s uranium stockpile. (Photo: via Reuters)

On May 8, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from the JCPOA agreement. He called the agreement “a horrible one -sided deal that should have never, ever been made. ” He added that the deal would never bring peace.   

The present war in Iran can be traced back to President’s Obama’s naïve assumption that once Iran was treated with respect, it would become part of liberal based international order, and would live in peace with the world. Without any doubt, the JCPOA deal helped Iran out of a crisis, and empowered the Shiite mullahs of Iran to spread terrorism around the world. The deal provided Iran with frozen money as well as billions of dollars of future profits derived from the sale of Iranian oil on the world market. The money made it possible for Iran to finance its missile program, its nuclear program and to greatly increase funding to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The money transformed Iran into a threat to world peace.

Obama either misunderstood the Islamic goal of subjugating the world, or he had some ulterior motive to conclude a deal with Iran.  Whatever the case, Obama set in motion the events that led to the present war with Iran. Obama undoubtedly made the world into a much more dangerous place. The long arm of President Obama’s legacy is the present war with Iran.



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).

THE 17,000 DAY WAR

Iran’s war with the US and Israel started not in 2026 but in 1979 – and has never stopped.

By Jonathan Feldstein

If you were to think that the current war against the Islamic Republic of Iran has been going on for just the past three weeks, you would be mistaken.  The war started in November 1979 when “students” attacked and hijacked the United States embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages for 444 days. This act of war has been reiterated daily for nearly 17,000 days, with Islamic Republic’s war cries against the United States, what they call “the Great Satan” every day since with their chanting of “Death to America”.

All Fired Up. The hate and hunger for war against the US has never let up since 1979 as seen here in June 1980 of a group of Iranians setting fire to an American flag on the roof of the occupied United States embassy in Tehran. (Photo: Getty)

One might think they don’t really mean it, that maybe it just rhymes in Farsi like cheerleaders at a high school football game, encouraging their team. One would be wrong.

Their launch last week of a missile that can reach 4000 kilometers is an indication of bigger aims than “just” to eradicate Israel (“the Little Satan”),or infiltrate radical Islam across the world. One would also be mistaken to think of the Iranian threat through the prism or how they want to see the world, rather than how the world – and the Islamic threat – really is.

From Iran with Hate. Israel under endless bombardment as seen here in the southern city of Arad where fire breaks out in one of the destroyed buildings following a ballistic missile attack that injured well over 100 people and caused extensive damage. (Photo: MDA)

As I have been stranded in the United States for three weeks, unable to get home to Israel, I have used my time conducting dozens of media interviews and briefings to share a personal perspective and the truth of what’s actually happening and why this war is not only just, but necessary.

One briefing and broad-based conversation was in response to a wide array of countless questions from people all over the world, looking for accurate information.

For the past three weeks Israel and many Gulf Arab states have been under intense, nonstop bombardment from the Islamic Republic and its proxies. Missiles, rockets, drones, cluster bombs — dozens at a time — send millions of Israelis to bomb shelters night after night.  Yes, there is fear, and stress. There have been casualties, many injuries, and widespread destruction. Yet even in the midst of this, Israelis remain remarkably resilient. Even hopeful.  Marking this, the same week as my conversation, Israel was ranked among the top ten happiest countries in the world—eighth in 2025 — despite years of conflict and war. Happiness is a consequence of the shared purpose among Israelis, unity albeit among times of friction, and an unshakable belief that we are fighting a just and necessary war. Yes, there’s suffering but an awareness that God has our back.

Feisty and Philosophical. Despite war, Israel ranks 8th in global happiness survey, the same as last year. A local photographer captures daily life in Tel Aviv during the Israel-US war with Iran on 18 March, 2026. (Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

I wish all Americans had the same sense of unity and purpose. A sense of community amid widespread differences.

This war is not merely Israel’s fight; it is a war of good versus evil, and it is very much in America’s interest. For nearly half a century, every day that the Islamic Republic has indoctrinated people to chant “Death to America” as they plot toward a nuclear weapon (with enough enriched uranium as of three weeks ago to make 11 nuclear bombs) is a day Americans are threatened. Iran’s proxies — Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and others — threaten global shipping, target civilians, and seek to destroy the Judeo-Christian values that undermine Western civilization. The current escalation is the bitter fruit of decades of appeasement, including billions funneled to Tehran under previous administrations. Today, fuel prices spike worldwide not only because of the conflict but because the free world allowed, enabled, and even funded this terrorist “superpower” to grow unchecked.

Combatting Evil.  Apart from the global threat, Iran under the ayatollah rule is “pure evil” as exposed by the popularity of public executions as seen here in this public hanging in 2017.

What we are witnessing, however, is extraordinary. Israel and America, with remarkable intelligence cooperation, military might, and coordination, has systematically dismantled much of Iran’s missile infrastructure and taken out high-ranking IRGC and Basij leaders. Precision strikes have crippled the machinery of oppression that has brutalized 90 million Iranians for decades. I see God’s hand in this — poking the eye of a regime built on vengeance and false gods. I am no prophet, but the destruction of terror infrastructure feels providential, a modern echo of the plagues that humbled Egypt, the superpower of its day, and liberated the Jewish people 3500 years ago. In the prophecy of Jeremiah 49:34–39,  it speaks of God breaking the bow of Elam (ancient Iran) and scattering its people yet ultimately establishing His throne there. We may be living the early chapters of that prophecy!

Loud and Clear. Sending a strong message of intent, the IRGC displays in February 8, 2023 at an exhibition in the central city of Isfahan an Iranian missile with the words ‘Death to Israel’ written in Hebrew. ( Photo: Twitter/X)

As we begin Nisan — the first month in the biblical calendar and the season of Passover — we remember redemption from slavery under an evil superpower that worshiped idols. Egypt’s gods were powerless; Pharaoh’s army drowned. Today, the Islamic Republic’s proxies rain death on civilians, yet Israel endures. Our children sleep in bomb shelters, schools remain closed, reservists are repeatedly called up, and families live under constant stress. Parents juggle work-from-home, childcare, and fear with trying to keep things “normal.” We normalize the abnormal because we have no alternative.

This is a war that must be won decisively — no more kicking the can down the road. Regime change in Iran is essential, for Israel’s security, for the United States as we celebrate 250 years of independence, and for Western civilization, as well as for the liberation of millions of Iranians who deserve freedom. I pray for Reza Pahlavi’s return, for a restoration a free, democratic, productive Iran, and for the birth of “Cyrus Accords” that echo the spirit of the ancient Persian king who enabled the Jewish return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

Winds of Change. Following an estimated 40,000 Iranian protesters murdered during the Iranian protests for a better life in their country, the movement for “change of regime” gains momentum as seen at this protest march to the American Embassy, London UK. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Many ask what they can do. First, pray — unceasingly. Prayer is God’s currency; it costs nothing and multiplies. Second, advocate for truth in a world drowning in lies. Challenge misinformation on social media, in churches, in conversations. Third, support those on the front lines — soldiers, families, at-risk youth. Finally, come to Israel when you can. Meet the people, walk the land, taste its fruit.

As Passover approaches, we recall that redemption rarely arrives overnight. It took forty years in the desert, countless miracles, and unwavering faith. Some lost faith and rebelled.  We are human with all the frailties that embodies. Today Israelis stand together — Jews, Christians, Druze, Bedouin Arabs, all targeted alike —united in purpose. America and Israel share these values as well as the threats, and common purpose. We must remain united. And victorious.



About the writer:

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








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

SOUTH AFRICA’S ‘SOUNDS OF SILENCE’

While quick to accuse Israel, South Africa’s is silent when close associate, Iran, commits ‘Crimes Against Humanity’.

By Peter Bailey

The current war against Iran is being waged to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons and increasingly powerful ballistic missiles capable of threatening Europe and America, while also manufacturing drones capable of wreaking havoc on geographically closer targets.  The U.S. and Israel are thus attacking nuclear facilities, missile storage centres and missile launchers, as well the  numerous factories manufacturing these weapons and accessories. Prior to hostilities breaking out, Iran had threatened to retaliate with attacks on U.S. military bases in the  Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. 

 IDF Spox. BG Effie Defrin at a civilian home impacted by an Iranian cluster bomb.

The outbreak of the war saw the U.S. and Israel  target leading figures within the political and military leadership of Iran, eliminating many of them, while also attacking numerous strategic military targets. Intensive missile and drone attacks against Israel and the U.S. military bases in the Gulf States were expected and prepared for, and indeed have been taking place ever since the outbreak of hostilities. Iran has treated the Geneva Conventions for the conduct of war with scant disregard by indiscriminately attacking civilian populations in Israel and the Gulf States. Civilian casualties in Iran have in the meanwhile been minimal in view of the intensity of the attacks on the country. 

Two elderly innocent civilians were killed in Ramat Gan in an Iranian cluster missile attack.

Israel and the Gulf States have faced  a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting civilian population areas with cluster or fragmentation missiles. These missiles release a large number of small bombs which rain down on a wide area, exploding as they land, with the intent of causing maximum property damage and death. Israel’s military installations  certainly qualify as legitimate Iranian targets, but civilian population areas most definitely do not fall into that category. Similarly, U.S. military bases in the Gulf States could be considered legitimate Iranian targets, but civilians and infrastructure in those states should definitely not be deliberately targeted as has been the case. While I don’t have proof, it would appear that many, if not all, the cluster bombs are not merely of the explosive variety designed to cause damage, but are in fact incendiary bombs, as spontaneous fires have been breaking out immediately after impact. 

A cluster missile as it releases its load of cluster bombs. (Photo credit: Israel Live News)

All this brings me to South Africa,  the bombastic self-appointed global defender of human rights, that saw fit, under questionable circumstances, to bring spurious charges of Genocide and other human rights abuse crimes against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. This world’s self-appointed human rights defender has inexplicably consistently remained silent with regard to breaches of the Geneva Conventions by Iran and its proxies.

Following the 7 October 2023 murderous invasion of Israel by Hamas, South Africa had lost no time in expressing its admiration and support for Hamas’ action in a telephone call to the Hamas leadership  by Naledi Pandor, International Affairs Minister at the time. On 22 October 2023, Pandor was in Iran on “official business”, with the subsequent press handout following her meeting with Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, advising that Pandor had emphasised South Africa’s stance of non interference, while expressing support for Palestinian aspirations. She had further emphasised the importance of the  adherence to International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws. 

Iran Intrigue. Two weeks after Hamas’ massacre of Jews on October 7, 2023, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, visits Hamas sponsor, Iran for one day visit on October 22, 2023. (Photo: Naser Jafari)

Speculation at the time was that she had received instructions and a large donation to the governing African National Congress (ANC) in return for opening a case against Israel at the ICJ. Two months later, on 29 December 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel at the ICJ. Israel Defence Force ground forces invaded Gaza on 28 October 2023, with the timeline of South Africa’s submission suggesting that the papers were being prepared before Israel’s invasion of Gaza. This leaves unanswered questions with regard to its motives and also when South Africa decided to advance the charges, in all probability immediately after Pandor’s visit to Iran, before Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. 

The launching of missiles by Iran, most of which are directed at civilian areas causing  loss of life, injuries and property damage constitutes a Crime Against Humanity. Adding insult to injury, while committing  Crimes Against Humanity,  Iran has been firing missiles carrying a payload of cluster munitions, which means that up 30 or more smaller projectiles, each carrying an explosive charge are released in the upper atmosphere, or alternatively released if the missile is intercepted by anti-missile fire. An AI overview advises that  cluster munitions are canisters that open in mid-air, dispersing numerous smaller explosive submunitions or “bomblets” over a wide area. This design is intended to destroy dispersed targets such as armored vehicles or airfield runways. The use of these munitions against civilian targets by Iran is considered a Crime Against Humanity, a blatant and flagrant breach of the Geneva Conventions. 

Cluster causing Chaos. One warhead contains hundreds of bomblets.  Intended to harm people, whether soldiers or civilians, cluster munitions often contain metal pellets in addition to explosive material.(Photo: U.S. Army, Public domain)

The opening paragraph of the Convention on Cluster Munitions reads as follows:

The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) prohibits under any circumstances the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions, as well as the assistance or encouragement of anyone to engage in prohibited activities. The text of the Convention is available for download in the six official UN languages.

Despite the fact that Iran is a signatory to the relevant Geneva Conventions in respect of Crimes Against Humanity, this item in Israel’s  YNet Breaking News dated 18/03/2026  02:45, highlights Iran’s open admission of launching cluster munitions directed at civilian populations,  in defiance of the Conventions. 

Iran: ‘We fired at Tel Aviv in revenge for Larijani’s assassination’

Iran claimed that the heavy fire at the center (of Israel) was carried out in revenge for the assassination of Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. This was reported on Iranian state television, which noted that ‘cluster bombs were fired at Tel Aviv.’

One result of this particular incident was the death of a disabled couple, both in their seventies, who never made it to a safe area in time, and were killed by a direct strike on a residential building by a cluster bomb. The news item below refers to the attack. 

Terror in Tel Aviv. Interception of a cluster missile over Tel Aviv in central Israel. (Photo: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel Live News

“Ramat Gan cluster hit:

Footage from the apartment of the couple killed overnight in Ramat Gan shows the damage from a direct hit by a cluster bomb.

A cluster bomb breaks apart in the air and scatters smaller explosives over a wide area, making it one of the most dangerous weapons for civilians”.

On Track. Targeting Israeli civilians such as this Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv’s Savidor Central railway station which caused extensive damage and fortunately no loss of life. (Photo: Lihi Gordon)

South Africa’s  inaction in not opening an ICJ case against Iran for this deadly breach speaks volumes, leaving little doubt as to the hypocrisy and double standards of the South African government and which guide its actions. Adding to the gravity and breach of international law, the cluster munitions are possibly also incendiary, causing fires to break out where they strike. The AI Overview on incendiary weapons reads as follows: 

The use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law (IHL). These weapons, designed to cause burn injuries or set fire to objects through chemical reactions (such as napalm, white phosphorus, and thermite), are considered excessively injurious and often indiscriminate, particularly when used in populated areas.

The magnitude of the breaches of numerous laws governing human rights, as well as the breaches of the Geneva Conventions on prohibited munitions, should gravely concern any country that claims to be the leading global defender of human rights. On the contrary, rather than filing legal papers charging Iran with gross violations of the Geneva Conventions and equally grave breaches of United Nations Human Rights Laws, South Africa expresses support for Iran, as shown by the following excerpt from a statement by South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO):

“South Africa has previously condemned the unlawful attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States, which violate Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibiting the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. These principles are fundamental to the international rules‑based order and must be upheld by all Member States.” Click on the link below to read the full statement: 

https://dirco.gov.za/shttps://dirco.gov.za/south-africa-expresses-deep-concern-over-the-escalating-crisis-in-the-gulf/outh-africa-expresses-deep-concern-over-the-escalating-crisis-in-the-gulf/   

Noteworthy about this statement is the absence of any reference to the Hamas invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023, which set off the chain of events that have followed since that date.

Readers are reminded that Iran is the country that has for many years provided extensive funding and arming of the terrorists of its so-called axis of resistance, notably:

– Hamas in Gaza

– Hezbollah in Lebanon

-the Houthis in Yemen

– as well as numerous terror groups in Syria and Iraq.

Iran itself has been making threats of annihilation against Israel and the U.S. for the 47 years of the existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Readers are also reminded that the current war against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas began with the Hamas invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023. An invasion that was carried out with indescribable cruelty and lack of regard for human life and dignity, that killed over 1,200 innocent Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike, while others were maimed,  raped and tortured, with over 230 taken to Gaza as hostages, all  in the space of a few hours. Bearing in mind Iran’s background role in funding and arming these terrorists, it is absolutely disgraceful and impertinent of South Africa to accuse the U.S. and Israel of breaching U.N. laws by commencing military action against Iran. Iran sits at the apex of its self-created axis of resistance, better described as an axis of evil terrorism, while South Africa insults the memories of the untold numbers of  victims drawn from all walks of life, all nationalities and all religions, murdered, maimed or tortured by Iran and its proxies.

Friends who South Africa Flock Together. Only weeks after Israel suffered on 7 October the gravest act of mass murder since the Holocaust at the hands of Hamas, a Hamas delegation is welcomed in South Africa to participate in the Fifth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine. The Hamas delegation included the Hamas representative in Iran Dr Khaled Qaddoumi; Hamas representative in East, Central and Southern Africa, Emad Saber and Hamas member Dr Basem Naim who publicly and consistently denied that Hamas kidnapped innocent women and children, killed civilians, and raped women, putting it all down to “fabricated Israeli propaganda.”




About the writer:

The writer, Peter Bailey, a military history buff, was a Major in the South African Army Reserve before making aliyah in 2013. He has conducted intensive research into the Jewish contribution to South Africa’s military history, writing many papers and lecturing on the subject. He is the author of two published books, Street Names in Israel and Men of Valor, Israel’s Latter Day Heroes.  





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).

MISUSE TO MALIGN – AID AGENCIES EXPOSED

When humanitarian agencies misuse the word “genocide” to malign Israel, they erode its meaning, cheapen the suffering of genuine victims and erode trust.

By Marika Sboros

Who would ever have imagined the forked tongues with which some of the most recognisable names in global humanitarianism speak about genocide?

There was a time when the word, genocide, travelled slowly across the globe carrying weight and gravitas. It moved truthfully with the solemn pace of courts, bewigged judges, historians and survivors of genuine genocide.

Genocide is weighted with meaning from the ashes of the crematoria of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was meant to be a rare word, precise in depicting the “Crime of Crimes” that forced its invention in the first place.

Genuine Genocide. There is a clear distinction between genocide and war and when aid agencies deliberately blur that distinction, it is not only a misuse but an abuse of the word “genocide” that is “weighted with meaning from the ashes of the crematoria of the Holocaust.”  

Today, the word shoots across continents like falling stars on steroids. Its casual misuse by groups carrying the halo of humanitarian speaks volumes about the moral moment of our time.

Leading this linguistic debasement are Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) that started in France, Oxfam GB in the UK and South Africa’s home-grown Gift of the Givers.

All do vital, often heroic work to deliver food, medicine, shelter and logistics where governments fail and disasters fall. All share aggressive political advocacy and gratuitous use of the word, genocide, against Israel and Jews who support it.

In Gaza, these groups have made genocide a linguistic weapon in Israel’s war against Hamas since the terror group’s horrific attack against civilians in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

They do so in a wider, global struggle over law, language and the moral credibility of the global humanitarian mission since that day.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MFS)

MSF’s fall from the grace of medical neutrality has been particularly precipitous.

The group’s humble origins began in 1971 with just 13 idealistic physicians and journalists from the medical journal, Tonus. All declared commitment to témoignage, the French word for “bearing witness” to human rights abuses and atrocities.

Their guide for their early, self-funded interventions was a revolutionary manifesto prioritising victim care over national sovereignty.

From this scrappy foundation evolved the giant global network that MSF is today, and that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for its famed impartiality in conflict zones.

Shield of Shame. Morally shielded by its Nobel-winning brand, Doctors without Borders is exposed for shielding terrorists whose intent is to annihilate Israel and all Jews who inhabit it.

MSF claims still to “bear witness”. Critics see significant, potentially terminal degradation in its communications that prioritise highly charged legal and political accusations over objective, humanitarian reporting.

NGO Monitor has come out with a blistering, comprehensive report that charts MSF’s transformation, post October 7, into a global source of disinformation and demonisation targeting Israel. It reveals how the charity joined other influential NGOs in an intensive advocacy campaign framing the Israeli response as “genocide” based on “manipulated and distorted evidence to support a predetermined conclusion”.
It shows how MSF effectively erased Hamas’s “weaponisation” of hospitals and clinics and the
“exploitation of schools, mosques and other civilian facilities for terror”.

MSF’s refusal in January to comply with Israel’s request to provide staff lists for vetting speaks volumes. The request is not unusual in active conflict zones. By refusing it and shielding potential terrorists from scrutiny, MSF is prioritising the security of compromised members over the universal laws of war and civilians.

It has effectively created convenient vacuums for terrorists involved in rocket production, sniper activity and more to hide behind a medical badge.

In February, MSF suspended all non-critical operations at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest in the region, after admitting to a total breakdown of medical neutrality. Its internal reports confirmed a pattern of “unacceptable acts,” including masked and armed gunmen roaming hospital corridors and intimidating and arbitrarily arresting patients.

Crucially, MSF acknowledged “suspicion of movement of weapons” within the facility. Hamas predictably claimed that the masked gunmen were civilian police.

Machiavellian Medicine. Apart from the weapons discovered by the IDF at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City (above), documents found revealed how Hamas regulated international NGOs, including MédecinsSans Frontières (MSF)  with each being assigned a Hamas-approved “guarantor”. MSF’s guarantor was the deputy head of its Gaza leadership. (Photo: IDF)

However, the admission substantiated long-standing intelligence that Hamas was exploiting the hospital as a military headquarter, thereby stripping the medical site of protected status under international law.

A recent article by two medical doctors in the Times of Israel is even more damning. The authors, one a formerMSF Secretary General, give alarming examples of terrorist infiltration within MSF’s Gaza staff and operations.

They highlight instances of multiple MSF-affiliated healthcare workers who were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Evidence includes MSF staff photographed in Hamas uniforms alongside senior terrorist commanders.

The authors refer to the case of Fadi Al-Wadiya, an MSF staffer who was a PIJ rocket manufacturing expert for over 15 years. Al-Wadiya was no exception.

They describe a chilling, “centralised regime” in Gaza in which Hamas regulates NGOs (non-governmental organisations), such as MSF, through designated “guarantors”. These are senior officials who liaise with the terror group’s security services to influence operational decisions.

The authors, say that MSF’s deputy head of Gaza leadership served as a Hamas-approved “guarantor”.

Such advocacy boosts critics who say that MSF has become a partisan actor using its Nobel-winning brand to shield extremist elements in Gaza intent on annihilating Israel and all Jews who inhabit it.

Oxfam GB

In the UK, Oxfam GB provides a different, no less revealing case study as the most “storied institution”.

Founded in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (hence the acronym), its mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief to starving Greek villagers under Nazi occupation.

More than 80 years later, Oxfam is a global confederation of 21 affiliates, led by Oxfam GB. Just as MSF has done, Oxfam GB has drifted into slightly different humanitarian work after October 7: combustible political activism against Israel.

Then came Dr Halima Begum, British-Bangladeshi academic, development expert and Oxfam GB’s first woman-of-colour CEO in December 2024.

Oxfam’s Obsession. Sacked as Oxfam GB’s CEO, Halima Begum accused the global charity of antisemitism that rushed to accuse Israel of genocide without the support of “evidence and good legal advice.” (Photo: video clip)

Begum’s academic pedigree is impeccable. She has a BSc in Government and History and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Her PhD from Queen Mary University of London is in Political and Human Geography. In 2024, she received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the university.

She was reportedly brought in to “decolonise” Oxfam GB. Her tenure ended abruptly in late 2025 after a leadership review, which she has called an orchestrated “witch-hunt”.

Begum did not go quietly. She set off a whistleblowing flare on her way out. The fallout sent shockwaves through Oxfam’s global confederation and the NGO world. 

She quickly launched a legal offensive against her former employer. In her Employment Tribunal filing and high-profile Channel 4 interview in February 2026, Begum claims an incriminating “institutional whiteness” and “toxic antisemitic culture” infecting Oxfam GB’s heart.

Her core allegation is the “Gaza exception”. She says that Oxfam GB prematurely and ideologically began promoting the “genocide” slur against Israel in Gaza to appease its activist wing.

She ascribes this to “toxic” internal pressure specifically targeting Israel while ignoring other areas, among them El-Fasher in Sudan. That’s despite UN investigators finding clear “hallmarks of genocide” in the Sudanese sand.

Begum also claims that the environment that Oxfam GB created for Jewish staff was hostile and left them feeling “unsafe”.

Oxfam rejects all Begum’s allegations and says its use of the term, genocide, followed formal, legal “review”.

The dispute set off an inquiry by the UK Charity Commission that is examining whether Oxfam GB’s advocacy crossed the legal boundary separating charitable work from political campaigning.

Under British law, charities’ activities are required to align with stated humanitarian purposes, not partisan or ideological agendas. Whether Oxfam GB crossed that line is for regulators to determine.

The controversy raises broader questions about the humanitarian sector’s relationship with political advocacy and truth-telling.

Gift of the Givers

South Africa’s Gift of the Givers presents a different but no less compelling case.

Founded in 1992 by medical doctor Imtiaz Sooliman, the charity has an impressive reputation as the African continent’s most effective disaster-relief organisation.

Gift of the Givers is acknowledged globally for rapid deployment, low administrative overheads and ability to operate in difficult conflict zones. It has delivered billions of South African Rands in aid in more than 47 countries, including Bosnia, Somalia, Syria, Haiti and Yemen.

Its longstanding presence in Gaza since 2009 has drawn claims (routinely and hotly denied by Sooliman) that its donations meant for humanitarian aid sometimes found their way into Hamas’s coffers by default or design.

Critics argue that Sooliman’s public statements often blur lines between humanitarianism and political advocacy. They cite his public rhetoric at anti-Israel rallies, including antisemitic tropes of “Zionists” (the anti-Israel lobby’s code word for Jews) who “rule the world with money and fear,” and regular genocide references.

What ‘Gives’? Belying his humanitarian image, ‘Gift of the Givers’ founder and chair Imtiaz Sooliman when addressing a rally in Cape Town on 5 October 2024 sounded more jihadi than humanitarian by indulging in antisemitic tropes about Israel and “Zionists” who “run the world with fear … and control the world with money”.

To casual readers, Sooliman’s implication is unmistakable: Israel is committing the “Crime of Crimes” in Gaza.

He may feel emboldened under cover of his contacts at the highest levels of South Africa’s ruling ANC (African National Congress) government, particularly in DIRCO (Department of International Relations and Cooperation).

Sooliman appears oblivious to the heaviest of ironies in DIRCO leading the country’s lawsuit it launched at the International Criminal Court (ICJ) against Israel on a genocide charge just weeks after the horror of Hamas’s genuinely genocidal attack on October 7.

Gift of the Givers has thrown its weight behind the lawsuit.

Dr Ivor Chipkin has exposed the political and moral hypocrisy behind the lawsuit in a prescient article in the South African Journal of International Affairs in November 2025.

Chipkin is an academic political scientist specialising in public administration, public policy and governance in post-apartheid South Africa. He lectures in public policy at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science and is co-founder and director of the New South Institute, a Johannesburg-based think tank focused on government and public-sector reform.

His focus in the article is the “peculiarity” of South Africa’s decision to charge Israel with the “Crime of Crimes” at the ICJ “while treating Hamas (at least in front of the ICJ) as largely blameless.”

Chipkin ascribes this double standard to an “organic crisis” facing the ANC, related to the ANC’s fading “revolutionary” character and the lawsuit’s likely effects on South Africa’s foreign policy. None of it bodes well for the country or the ruling party. 

By Chipkin’s reckoning, the crisis lies in South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s inability to give “revolutionary meaning to ANC politics domestically.” Instead, Chipkin says that Ramaphosa has vainly attempted to “build its revolutionary credentials on the international stage as a vanguard of anti-imperialism and the struggle against colonialism.”

The ICJ lawsuit and Ramaphosa’s appointment of Naledi Pandor, a Muslim convert with extremist views, as foreign minister, “signal” that strategy, Chipkin writes.

He examines in graphic detail the legal basis for the lawsuit’s genocide claim. He finds it wanting on so many levels that “not only must the observer ask why South Africa did not seek any court order against Hamas, but why it did not even try.”

Sooliman should not be surprised that critics see similar gaps in his genocide claims against Israel.

Along with MSF and Oxfam GB, Sooliman uses the genocide accusation as advocacy to mobilise outrage, donations and political pressure.

Yet the genocide claim is a highest-order legal accusation which none of these organisations has the legal, moral authority to make. Doing so before an unequivocal legal ruling (expected in 2027) is not rhetorical flourish.

It is moral inversion and historical revision.

Genocide is not a slogan and the legal threshold for a finding is deliberately high.

Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it requires proof of specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Determining such intent is not the purview of activists, charities or social-media campaigns. It belongs to the ICJ and the International Criminal Court (ICC) that were created to examine evidence, test witnesses and weigh competing legal arguments.

They are not meant to operate on rhetoric, miasma and press releases. And despite the best efforts of the anti-Israel lobby, the scaffolding against genocide claims aimed at Israel remains strong and intact:

Jews were the primary victims of the crime that inspired the word, genocide; the Nazis murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust; the modern State of Israel emerged partly from world recognition that Jews needed a place where such annihilation could never happen again; the October 7 attack by Hamas had all the hallmarks of true genocidal intent; Hamas, PIJ and other terror groups have “the same genocidal message in the DNA of their charters – the extermination of the Jews.”

All that history should impose a degree of humility on those accusing Israel of genocide while ignoring Hamas’s blatant genocidal intent on October 7, and its public promises to repeat it “over and over until Israel is annihilated.”

That humility is absent, most likely because of the existential burden Jews face as targets of the “world’s oldest hatred” (Jew hatred).

British author, humourist and Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson identified it 12 years ago when he asked rhetorically:

“When will Jews ever be forgiven for The Holocaust?”

His answer: “Never.”

In a flurry of columns for The Observer in the UK after October 7, Jacobson vents his fury at “progressives” who downplayed the barbaric mass murder and rape Hamas perpetrated on the day and exaggerated Israel’s response.

He points out that “genocides don’t leaflet the populations they want to destroy with warnings to stay out of harm’s way.”

That leaves Israel looking very good at war and very bad at genocide.

Jacobson’s latest book, Howl (Jonathan Cape, 2026) is a novel based on October 7, with a delicate balance of humour and horror that only he could get just right. It allows readers who would weep even more, the respite of occasionally being able to laugh after October 7. 

Humanitarian organisations present themselves as guardians of moral clarity and defenders of international law. But law and morality depend primarily on truth and truth telling requires restraint.

When humanitarians use forked tongues to stretch the truth about genocide, they erode its meaning, cheapen the suffering of genuine victims and erode trust.

If everything is genocide, then nothing is genocide.

Truth-telling is not a pastime. It is the foundation of humanitarianism. Without it, even the most well-intentioned humanitarian charity turns into a storyteller – and not always a truthful one.



About the writer:

Marika Sboros is a South African freelance investigative journalist with decades of experience writing fulltime for the country’s top media titles on a wide range of topics. She started her career as a hard-news reporter in the newsroom of the now defunct Rand Daily Mail, a campaigning anti-government newspaper during the worst excesses of the apartheid era. She commutes between South Africa and the UK.






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).

THANK YOU

Thank you to all those who inadvertently helped Israel.

By Neville Berman

Jews have been debating and arguing with each other for over 3,000 years. Discussions and arguments over conflicting commentaries on every letter and word in the Talmud, is part of Jewish tradition. The only thing that unites Jews, is when they are under attack. At this point they set aside all their differences, and rally round the flag.

The question that arises is which non-Jews should be thanked for either deliberately or inadvertently helping Jews to build a thriving country in a land with no natural resources. The answer is full of surprises. 

Best News in 2000 years! On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly approved the ‘Partition Plan’ establishment of two states in British Palestine – Jewish and Arab.

Let’s start with thanking the 13 countries from South America, the 8 European countries, the 5 Eastern European countries, the 3 Asian Pacific Countries, and the 2 African and 2 North American countries that voted in favor of the UN Partition plan of Palestine contained in UN Resolution 181 in 1947. Without your 33 votes the re-establishment of Israel would not have occurred in 1948.

The Arabs should be thanked for rejecting the UN Partition Plan. If they had accepted the plan, Israel would have become a small slither of land without defensible borders. Jerusalem would have become a separate entity to be governed by an international trusteeship, and the Palestinians would have had a state. Thank you for rejecting the Partition Plan.

Street Spontaneity. While Jews in Palestine take to the streets in jubilation, Arabs in neighboring countries take to their arms in anger following the announcement of UN ‘Partition Plan’ establishment of two states for two peoples. Seen here are crowds in Tel Aviv breaking out spontaneously on November 29,1947, to dance the ‘Hora’.

Thank you to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled to neighboring Arab countries in 1948. Israel could never have become a democratic and Jewish State if the majority of its population were not Jewish. Thank you for leaving. What a pity that having lost the war, the same Arab countries that advised you to leave, refused to give you citizenship and turned you into refugees.

Thank you to those Christian and Muslims Arabs who remained in Israel in 1948. Your continued existence and growth to more than 20% of the Israeli electorate is proof that Israel has been faithful to one of its founding principles of freedom of religion, contained in its Declaration of Independence. Your very existence is irrefutable proof that Israel has never, and will never, engage in ethnic cleansing or genocide. Thank you for not leaving.

Thank you to the Arab countries that expelled 800,000 Jews after Israel gained independence in 1948. For thousands of years, Jews lived as second-class citizens in these countries. They never relinquished their Judaism. “Next year in Jerusalem” was their dream repeated for centuries in their prayers. Not all of those who were expelled came to Israel, but over 600,000 did. They were stripped of all their assets and arrived in Israel as penniless refugees. They were immediately welcomed and granted citizenship. They overcame severe hardships and discrimination, and today they and their descendants are thriving in a free and Jewish democratic country that they helped to build. Thank you to the Arab world for expelling some of your brightest and most Intelligent citizens.

Recognising Jewish Refugees. With the creation of the State of Israel and in the decades afterwards, hundreds of thousands of Jews who had lived in the Arab nations for centuries were expelled from their home countries. Having failed in 1948 to destroy the new State of Israel, Arab rulers took revenge on the Jews who lived in the nations they controlled. These Jews, faced with official persecution, mob violence, pogroms, and the confiscation of their property, fled these countries, most of them to Israel. To this day, they remain mostly unrecognized.

In 1967, President Nasser boasted in public rallies that he aimed to destroy the State of Israel and assume the leadership of the pan Arab world. In May 1967, he demanded the withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping forces from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. The UN immediately complied with this demand. Nasser then closed the international waterway in the Red Sea known as the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Closing an international waterway is considered an act of war, and this gave Israel the legal right to launch a preemptive strike against Egypt.

On the morning of June 5 1967, the Israeli air force launched a surprise attack, and successfully destroyed the bulk of the Egyptian air force on the ground. Nasser then lied to both President Assad of Syria and King Hussein of Jordan, by claiming that Egypt was bombing Tel Aviv. Syria and Jordan then joined the war. It was a strategic mistake for both. Without aircover, the tanks and soldiers in the desert were no match for Israel. In 6 days, Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and gained control of the whole of the Sinai, Judea and Samaria, (West Bank) the Golan heights, and all of Jerusalem. It was one of the swiftest military victories in history. From 1948 to 1967, America refused to supply Israel with any military equipment. The Six Day War changed America’s perception of Israel. America finally realized the importance of Israel, and became Israel’s greatest ally. Thank you, President Nasser, for causing this to happen.  

Thank you, President Sadat for defying the Arab League and coming to Jerusalem.  Thank you, for signing the first Arab Peace Treaty with Israel in 1979. This heroic act did not end Arab rejection of the State of Israel. What it did do was to set in motion the acceptance of Israel by other states in the middle east. It was undoubtedly a pivotal moment in the modern history of the middle east. Sadat paid for it with his life, but his legacy and place in history will be remembered long after all those who rejected the State of Israel have been relegated to the dustbin of history. Thank you, President Sadat.

Momentous Milestone. President Sadat’s heroic visit to Jerusalem in November 19, 1977, did not end Arab rejection of the State of Israel but set in motion the acceptance of Israel by other states in the middle east for which he  paid for it with his life, but his place in history will be remembered long after all those who reject Israel have been forgotten.

Thank you to King Hussein for announcing in 1988, that Jordan was severing all its claims to the territory in the West Bank that it had occupied since 1948, and for signing a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994. This changed the whole legal situation in the territory known as the West Bank. Clearly Israel was not seizing land from another country by force. Thank you, King Hussein.

In the 1970’s, Russia’s Leonid Brezhnev initiated the first small wave of Jewish emigration to Israel. In 1974, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment was passed by the American Congress. It linked Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union with trade benefits. In an attempt to improve the soviet economic situation, Mikhail Gorbachev allowed mass emigration of Jews to Israel in the 198O’s. Today there are more than 1 million Jews from the former Soviet Union living in Israel. They have brought enormous benefits to Israel.  Thank you to everyone who brought this about.

In 1990, President Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. This was seen as an attack on the oil supply of the West. In reply, President Bush assembled an international coalition of countries in order to attack Iraq. In order not to undermine the coalition, Israel, under the leadership of PM Yitzhak Shamir, was forced not to join the coalition and not to retaliate against the attacks by Saddam Hussein. This was contrary to all Israeli military doctrine. Thirty-nine scud missiles were fired from Iraq into Israel. Israel decided that something needed to change. It decided to harness and concentrate its considerable brain power and innovation capacity to develop a defensive system against missiles. The results, largely funded by the United States, includes the Iron Dome for short range missiles, David’s Sling for medium to long range missiles, and the Arrow 2 and 3 systems for ballistic missiles. In addition, Israel has just developed a laser beam system that can destroy drones at a cost of less than a dollar a time. Today Israel is the 7th largest exporter of military systems and equipment in the world. Thank you to all those who made it possible.

Iron Resolve to Iron Dome. With a success rate of over 90%, Israeli ingenuity in the form of the Iron Dome has, inter alia with other hi-tech defense weapons, protected Israel’s civilian population.  

Thank you to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for signing the Abraham Accords in September 2020.  The Peace Treaties with Egypt and Jordan created a “no war” situation but never created normalization between the parties. The Abraham Accords are unique in that they created normalization between the Arab countries and Israel. Israel has solved many of the problems facing countries in the Middle East and can dramatically improve the lives of millions of Arabs. The Abraham Accords are a win-win situation for all. They have the potential to expand and really bring to fruition a peaceful and prosperous Middle East. Thank you, President Trump for bringing this about. Thank you also for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and for recognizing the Golan Heights is part of Israel.

In a strange way, Hamas also needs to be thanked. The Iranian plan was to launch a simultaneous attack by all its proxy forces surrounding Israel. At the same time, Iran would launch a massive missile attack on Israel. The combination of all the parties acting simultaneously was planned to overwhelm Israeli air defenses and quickly eliminate Israel. In order to keep the attack secret, Hamas never informed Iran or any of the other proxy forces that were about to attack Israel. The attack on the morning of October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israel was initially successful, but it effectively sabotaged years of planning and preparations by Iran.

At this point in time, the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have been largely eliminated and their capacity to attack Israel have been greatly reduced.  Thank you, Hamas for acting in the abhorrent way that you did. It had unintended consequences of uniting Israel.

It is also time to thank all those millions of Christian Zionists, and especially the Evangelical movement in the United States for your support.  Israel could not be what it is today without your enormous outpouring of support. It is greatly appreciated.

At the time of writing, America and Israel are jointly attacking Iran. Thank you, President Trump, for recognizing that the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism, is a threat to world peace and cannot ever be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Thank you for your leadership in this war against Islamic fanaticism and barbarism.   

To all those mentioned above. Thank you for your contribution in making Israel the powerhouse of innovation and spiritual regeneration that it is today. It may come as a surprise to some, but the obvious conclusion is that what is taking place at present, is the fulfillment of the divine promise of the land of Israel to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thank you to all of those who deliberately and inadvertently helped to bring this about.



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).

WHY THE WAR AGAINST IRAN IS NOT ONLY RIGHT BUT ESSENTIAL

Since its inception, the Islamic Republic has been deceiving and lying to the West as its centrifuges churned away enriching uranium to a level only required for a weapons program.

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Just a few months after I was born in Iran, the Islamic (Demonic) Revolution took place, hijacking the country of my birth and, today 90 million Iranians, giving birth to the Islamic Republic. Make no mistake, the Islamic Republic was conceived by evil, born in sin, and against the United States to the core of its DNA. Anyone who thinks that a war against the Islamic Republic and the ayatollahs is wrong, does not know the history and does not understand the dangerous threats that it poses to all Americans.

At its inception, the Islamic Republic never provoked people to chant “All for Allah” or “Sharia Now”.  The chants that three generations of Iranians have been brainwashed by are “Death to America”. It’s not just a catchy slogan but the game plan of the Islamists. They mean it. They have demonstrated it in many ways for nearly five decades.

Americans must never forget the hijacking US embassy on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, 52 of whom were held for more than 400 days until January 20, 1981.

The Islamic Republic is the head of the octopus of a global axis of terror that has been responsible for indoctrinating, funding, and arming countless Islamic terrorists who have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands. 

Extremist Islam is not compatible with American and western Judeo-Christian values and Democracy. They seek not just to live by Sharia law, which is non-Western and anti-democratic, they seek to impose it on others. Islam subjugates women and minorities through intolerant and even evil misogyny that affords women rights with half those of men. As a woman and a Christian, I experienced this in countless ways before and during my arrest and imprisonment because of my faith. Anyone who cherishes democratic values and gives Islamic regimes like Iran a pass, is undermining the very spirit of democratic values.

From the beginning, the Islamic regime has strived for nuclear weapons, deceiving and lying to the West as its centrifuges churned away to enrich uranium at a level that can only be used in a weapons program. A nuclear Iran under the ayatollahs is an existential threat to the US and the world because they will use it.

Neutralizing Nuclear. The war waged against Iran today is preventing the far more dangerous war with a nuclear Iran of tomorrow.

A nuclear Iran will also trigger a nuclear arms race in the Arab/Islamic world, none of which can be trusted to have this most dangerous weapon, and each of which would feel the need to have them to defend themselves from Iran. The global nuclear threat to human life, and the world’s environment, would be radical and irreversible.

Indeed, America’s first, second, and third priority should be protecting American lives and interests. Americans need to understand a decisive war on the ayatollahs and IRGC is not optional but essential.  Yes, Iranians would be free which is also a good enough reason.  But Americans would also be free of this threat that, if they achieve, they will use.

The Islamic regime has not only openly declared its hostility toward the United States and spent years attempting to expand its influence, funding networks and seeking to infiltrate systems that safeguard our democracy. Its reach has extended beyond its borders, even exploiting criminal channels through agents in the US and around the world who have infiltrated themselves into positions of influence in politics, civic roles, media, and more.  Eliminating the Islamic regime influence will force its agents out of business.  That cannot happen soon enough.

Buying Time. Ready to once again lie and deceive, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi smiles while on his way to the first round of talks with the USA in Geneva. Within days, the US called his bluff as war broke out. (Photo:Bild: -/Iranian Foreign Ministry/dpa/sda)

This is not just a geopolitical challenge — it is an ideological one. The danger lies not only in weapons, but in ideas designed to erode values from within. History shows that destructive ideologies, when ignored, spread quietly until they become far more dangerous than any conventional threat, more than missiles or bombs.

If we care about the world our children will inherit, we must take this threat seriously. America is facing an adversary that openly calls for its destruction, and works to influence minds against the very principles that define our nation. To have ignored such a threat would not have made it disappear; it would have allowed it – like a cancer – to grow stronger.

Americans and the West must understand that removing the Islamic regime is not only about saving the Iranian people, but also about protecting the world and the future of their children from a serious threat that is spreading rapidly globally.

The Islamic Republic constantly worked to undermine US National Security interests. They have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands. They have penetrated the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. They have never stopped trying to achieve nuclear weapons, destabilizing the Middle East and the West. They sell cheap oil to China and drones and weapons to Russia, strengthening American adversaries.

Death on Display. May the nightmare soon come to an end like public executions in a bid to intimidate the Iranian people.

This is a historic opportunity to destroy them, and history and our children will not forgive us if we close our eyes to the threats that if not eliminated, future generations will inherit, or become victim to.

We cannot make a deal with an Islamic enemy that seek our destruction.  They will lie, employing the Islamic principle of taqiyya, and hide their intentions at every turn, and wait to pounce until a leader of less fortitude is on the other side of the table. Defeating the Islamic Republic today is essential to defend humanity, preserve democracy and freedom for the future.


Brutal Crackdown. Iranian authorities responded to anti-government protests with an unprecedented deadly crackdown resulting in mass killings and serious injuries.




About the writer:

Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity.   She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.





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

THE ROEDEAN-KING DAVID ‘AFFAIR’ – A MARATHON MATCH

How a cancelled school tennis match escalated into a wider political battle over Israel, antisemitism, and boycotts.

By Marika Sboros

(First published in BizNews)

If you think the dust has settled over the “Roedean affair” – as the cancelled tennis match between two top Johannesburg private schools (one of them Jewish), is being grandly called – then think again.

The “affair” became public knowledge within days of Roedean Girls High School refusing to play the scheduled match against King David Linksfield girls on February 3, 2026.

From that moment on, the anti-Israel lobby has been hard at working trying to turn a tennis match into an international propaganda tool.

It has not let go. The lobby appears determined to keep the “affair” moving in its desired direction, supported by extremist, Islamist, jihadist lobbies.

That’s despite both schools moving in the opposite direction. Both have gone past claims of antisemitism and back to their core business of educating children.

Roedean has resisted the lobby’s undisguised fury at its public (though prompted) written apology to King David on February 12. The apology does not admit antisemitism but acknowledges the “deep hurt” to the Jewish community.

Roedean showed good faith by promising to reschedule the match, which further infuriated the anti-Israel lobby. If Roedean honours its promise, the lobby will likely use it to maximise political capital for its own agendas.

The drivers of those agendas are not difficult to spot.

These include barely disguised calls for ongoing sports boycotts of King David schoolchildren; revival of claims of “genocide” and “baby killers” against Israel and Jews who support it, with “apartheid” slurs thrown in for good measure; and support for South Africa’s ill-fated, ongoing ICJ (International Criminal Court) lawsuit against Israel on a charge of genocide in Gaza.

Ironically, South Africa lodged the case against Israel just weeks after a genuine genocide attempt by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Underpinning these drivers is the anti-Israel lobby’s pathological anti-Zionism.

Legal and historical scholars say that anti-Zionism is a modern mutation of the ancient virus of Jew hatred known euphemistically in modern English as antisemitism.

It is also the lifeblood of the supposedly “pro-Palestinian” movement.

I say, “supposedly” because of the Orwellian manipulation of language lobbyists indulge in to justify support for groups that clearly don’t give a fig for Palestinians.

Hamas is a prime example. Video evidence shows it diverting humanitarian aid in Gaza into its own coffers, thereby worsening poverty and starvation, and shooting civilians who try to access the aid. 

It also routinely uses public executions to stifle dissent and oppress marginalised groups, including LGBTQ+ people.

Hamas does not typically employ the theatrical “rooftop execution” method associated with extremist groups, such as ISIS. Instead, it maintains a systemic environment of criminalisation, torture and extrajudicial killing of LGBTQ+ individuals in Gaza. 

It boasts of using its own people as “human shields” in conflict zones. On October 26, 2023, Hamas’s Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh declared in a Lebanese TV broadcast: 

“The blood of the women, children and elderly … we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit …(and) resolve.”

Call me picky but I can think of adjectives other than “revolutionary” and “resolve” to describe spirits requiring such infusion to keep going.

Diabolical springs to mind.

I can also think of choice descriptions for Jews who voluntarily support groups that openly desire their destruction.

Unsurprisingly, among the first local anti-Zionist voices supporting Roedean and vilifying King David, was Jo Bluen, the public face of the bizarrely named South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP).

Bluen Morally Bankrupt. A Hamas admirer, Jo Bluen celebrates the death of Israelis soldiers killed in Gaza by inserting inverted red triangle in her social media posts. (Source Instagram. jo bluen (@jozi_blue) • Instagram photos and videos)

I say, “bizarrely named”, because there’s something unhinged about Jews voluntarily supporting groups whose goal is the same as Nazis intended for them in Germany.

The Nazis wanted to make their country “Judenrein” or “Judenfrei” – “cleansed” or “free” of Jews, according to the National Socialist term applied in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”.  Hamas and cohorts work towards the same goal extended to the entire world.

The best Bluen says about Zionism is that it is “a fascist project” and “settler colonialisation”. The worst? She accuses King David of being “prepared to sacrifice its own children at the altar of a wild and violent zionism (sic) that is deeply racist and misogynistic.”

No matter: to anti-Israel lobbyists, facts are less important than rhetoric and theatrics.

In a September 2025 article in an online magazine ironically titled Critical Thinking, Bluen accuses “Israel and its accomplices” of having “murdered nearly 700,000 Palestinians in the course of the genocide in under two years since 2023, half a million of whom are children.” 

Even Hamas’s own thumb-sucked figures on the civilian and child casualty rates since October 7 never reached such stratospheric heights.

At most, the terror group claimed around 70,000 civilian deaths in Gaza. Its Ministry of Social Development proved that false with its plans in early February 2026 to pay stipends to “50,000 widowed families.” In other words, to the widows of 50,000 combatants!

Bluen, like Hamas, continues a practice that the Nazis introduced of distinguishing Jews and other groups in concentration camps with inverted red triangles. Hamas uses the symbol to identify Jewish and Israeli targets. Bluen adopted it on a social media post celebrating the deaths of IDF soldiers in Gaza.

Anti-Israel lobbyists often resort to pulling the race card when all rational argument fails them. Bluen is no exception.

She calls Zionism a “patriarchal white supremacy” and claims that King David deliberately “targeted” Roedean’s (first black) principal Phuti Mogale. That was probably news to Roedean’s leadership and Mogale, who reportedly resigned rather than waited to be pushed.

Bluen and others also criticise King David schools as bastions of Jewish exclusivity, yet not all its pupils are Jewish. King David Linksfield’s high school’s head girl in 2024 was a Chinese girl and not from a Jewish background. King David schools routinely accepted black children who were not allowed to attend state schools during the apartheid era.

On the global stage, “pro-Palestinian” Islamist activists continue to amplify voices supporting Roedean’s tennis boycott of King David.

New York-based journalist Azad Essa writes for Middle East Eye, an independent UK-based digital channel focusing on the Middle East, North Africa and the broader Muslim world.

Mad Hatter. Throwing his proverbial hat onto the court, former Al Jazeera, now New York-based journalist Azad Essa writing for Middle East Eye, praised the Roedean girls for refusing to play their King David counterparts accusing the Jewish Day School of “supporting apartheid and cheerleading a genocide.”

In an article on February 21, he frames the cancelled tennis match as a heroic, moral stand by the Roedean girls. He claims that they rightly refused to play King David schoolgirls because the school was “supporting apartheid and cheerleading a genocide.”

That’s a textbook study in the collective-guilt argument the anti-Israel lobby uses to demonise and delegitimise Israel.

Essa describes the King David school network as a tool of “settler-colonial ideology.” He quotes a parent comparing playing tennis at King David to “playing against a school still flying the apartheid flag.”

By this logic, Jewish schoolchildren are inherently complicit in the actions of a foreign state thousands of kilometres away simply by attending a particular school.

That’s not political activism. It’s the targeted exclusion of a specific community on the basis of their religion and cultural affiliation. It clearly violates South Africa’s Constitution.

In the South African Daily Maverick on February 25, Kalim Rajab, a Johannesburg-based, Oxford-educated corporate executive, plays the “Framing Game”. Rajab calls King David Linksfield’s “victory” over Roedean “pyrrhic”, with a “chilling” effect rather one that achieves due accountability.

He omits from his potted biography that he is Chair of the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF). The HSF honours one of South Africa’s most prominent and beloved Jewish anti-apartheid activists, who was also a committed supporter of Israel throughout her life.

Rajab writes, as one critic puts it, with the “measured cadence” of someone who has learned the most effective way to delegitimise a community’s experience of discrimination – by calling it a “strategy.”

He describes King David supporters as “successful in their strategy of framing the narrative as one where the school and its pupils were victimised because of their religion as opposed to any overt political ideology espoused.”

He uses the word “strategy” strategically – to transform victim into perpetrator and a factual description of the “affair” into an allegation of manipulation. Facts that emerged from leaked phone recordings between Roedean’s Mogale and King David head Lorraine Srage tell a different story.

Rajab then does something disturbing: he offers a tactical manual for future boycotts of King David schools and not just on sports fields. These could involve “silent peaceful protests by visiting schoolchildren, including wearing armbands, pins or bodywear to show Palestinian solidarity,” he helpfully writes.

Pupils could “conscientiously object to taking part in interactions with King David.”

Really? A columnist in a prominent South African publication advising on more effective boycotts of a Jewish school? What if columnists in mainstream South African publications published blueprints for boycotting Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Chinese or other schools?

Other fringe, local and usual-suspects ranged against King David include the Media Review Network’s Iqbal Jassat and the ironically titled Jewish Democratic Initiative (JDI).

All show predictable, monomaniacal obsession with one issue, one state and one tribe.

What escapes them all is that Zionists are not cheerleaders for war or participants in any “evil”, as British writer, theologian and “English gentile” Mark Pickles puts it.

Pickles similarly tears through the “genocide” narrative with consummate ease. It is, after all, a modern iteration of the medieval “blood libel” – that Jews murder non-Jewish children (traditionally Christians) to use their blood for baking matzah during Passover.

Pickles argues that the genocide claim is “as irrational as it is evil…highly damaging and dangerous.” It aims to justify “the murder of Jews, and all attempts – economic, diplomatic, and kinetic – to destroy the sole Jewish nation.”

Groups and organisations with a notoriously long history of antisemitism continue to push the claim with impunity. Yet the “true perpetrators of genocidal intent,” he says, are Islamist factions whose founding documents explicitly call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.

The premise on which the anti-Israel, “pro-Palestinian” lobby hope to sustain the Roedean “affair” is that Zionist Jews are “complicit in genocide“.

That’s a shaky, dangerous premise.

As Canadian anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein warns, it is a way to mark Jews as “fundamentally stained and evil.” Anti-Zionists aim to “escalate all accusations toward the genocide libel… until it hardens into a global consensus,” Louis-Klein writes.

In this “new doctrine”, the Holocaust is no longer remembered but is “overwritten” to serve contemporary agendas.

This linguistic capture is likely what anti-Israel lobbyists hope will sustain the Roedean “affair” in their direction. The “quiet, student-led”, principled stance they claim to want will be the implementation of a hateful dogma against Jews.

It means that the time has come, as New York Times Jewish columnist Bret Stephens argues, for Jewish communities to end their “perpetual apology machine” in pro-Israel advocacy.

Change Gears.   New York Times Jewish columnist Bret Stephens urges Jewish communities to shift from “perpetual” apology mode to “unapologetic Jewish confidence”.

He calls for a shift toward “unapologetic Jewish confidence” and “moral clarity” over Israel’s existence and right to defend itself.

The shift is now more necessary than ever because, as British-Jewish columnist and Man Booker Prize-winning author, Howard Jacobson said:

 “Jews will never be forgiven for the Holocaust.”



Feature picture:
Empty Court. In early February, when a group of girls from Jewish King David High School in Johannesburg travelled to nearby Roedean Girls High School girls’ school for a tennis match, they found no one at the courts.



About the writer:

Marika Sboros is a South African freelance investigative journalist with decades of experience writing fulltime for the country’s top media titles on a wide range of topics. She started her career as a hard-news reporter in the newsroom of the now defunct Rand Daily Mail, a campaigning anti-government newspaper during the worst excesses of the apartheid era. She commutes between South Africa and the UK.






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 RIGHT OF JEWS TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL

Indigenous and Sovereignty are in most cases mutually exclusive.

By Neville Berman

On February 18, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar addressed the UN Security Council on Israel’s right to the biblical land of Israel. He stated that the Jewish people are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. He then asked a question of how is it possible that Jewish presence on its ancestral land is seen as a violation of international law? The delegates were left in stunned silence as the logic of Jewish claims to the land of Israel were clearly articulated. This article is about whether Jews are in fact indigenous to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and whether they have the right to sovereignty over the land. It is based on the narrative as described in the Torah.   

The Torah is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus. Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is the basis of monotheism and western civilization.

According to the Torah, Abram who later became Abraham was born in Mesopotamia in 1,813 BCE. He is described as an Ivri. He married Sarah, who remained childless during a woman’s normal child bearing years. With his wife’s approval Abraham fathered a child with his wife’s maidservant, named Hagar. She was not Jewish and the child was named Ishmael. When Abraham was 70 years old, he received the Covenant from G-d. Five years after this epic event, Abraham moved to Canaan, where in accordance with an important part of the Covenant, he circumcised himself as well as his firstborn son Ishmael, who was then 13 years old. At the age of 90, Sarah miraculously gave birth to her only son called Isaac. G-d promised Abraham that both his sons, Ishmael and Isaac, would be the progenitors of great nations.

Contact Concluded. A 18 century graphic by William Hogarth depicting Abraham buying a field from Ephron the Hittite which included the cave of Machpelah in Hebron to be used  as a family tomb.

Using the dates above, we can conclude that monotheism began when Abraham received the Covenant 3,769 years ago. This is the number of years between when Abraham received the Covenant and the current year of 2026.  After his marriage to Sarah, they became the first monotheistic Hebrew couple. Sarah had a son with Abraham named Isaac. Isaac married Rebecca, and they had a son named Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are considered the three Patriarchs of what would become Judaism. Sarah is considered the first of the four Jewish Matriarchs. After Sarah’s death, Abraham purchased a tomb in Hebron known as the cave of Machpelah, for her burial. The cave was purchased from Ephron the Hittite at an exorbitant price.  In the book of Genesis, Abraham confessed that he is:

 a stranger and a resident among you.

Heavenly Hebron. The Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people, after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The cave and the adjoining field were purchased by Abraham some 3700 years ago and it is where he, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are all buried in the same Cave of Machpelah. These are considered the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people.

The purchase of the site is highly significant. The cave became the burial site of all three Patriarchs and three of the four Matriarchs of the people that became known as Hebrews, then Israelites and finally Jews. The fact that Abraham had to purchase the burial site, indicates that people previously lived there, and were the owners of the property. They were Hittites, who were pagans. Indigenous people do not need to buy land from someone who lived there before they arrived.  

Stamp of Sovereignty. “I hold up a jug handle from the Kingdom of Judea, 2700 years ago. It has a stamp of the Jewish king on it,” says Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in an explosive address on the 19th February 2026 before the UN Security Council session on the Middle East.  He strongly argued that “No other nation, in any other place in the world, has a stronger right than our historical and documented right to the land of the Bible”.

Part of the narrative of Judaism is their exodus from Egypt. For hundreds of years Jews lived in bondage in Egypt. After suffering 10 plagues including the last plague of the deaths of all first-born Egyptian males, Pharaoh finally relented, and allowed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. After the Red Sea miraculously parted to allow the Israelites to escape the advancing Egyptian army, the Israelites journeyed to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments from G-d. Moses then led the Israelites towards the land that G-d had promised to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Before entering the land Moses sent out 12 spies, one from each tribe of Israel, to spy out the land. After 40 days they returned.

All twelve spies reported that the area was harsh and occupied. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, reported that with the help of G-d, they would be able to conquer the land. After all the miracles that Moses and the Israelites had personally witnessed, it seems surprising that they were hesitant to enter the land that G-d had promised to the seeds of the Patriarchs. Probably, due to this hesitancy, Moses and the Israelites were then required to wander in the desert for 40 years. Only when the next generation was considered worthy of entering Canaan, were the Israelites allowed to enter Canaan. Moses never entered Canaan and he died in 1,273 BCE.

Tumbling to Trumpets. Well-fortified Jericho is the first city that Joshua’s Israelite forces encounter and according to the Bible, falls in a miraculous manner following the march around the walls with the Ark of the Covenant once a day for six days, and on the seventh day and seventh lap they blow ram’s horn trumpets and shout really loud causing the walls to crumble.

Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River into Canaan, and was instructed by G-d to wipe out the Canaanites. The first city Joshua attacked was Jericho. Remnants of pottery found in Jericho have been carbon dated to be over 5,000 years old. From this, it can be concluded that people were living in Jericho for over a thousand years before Joshua conquered the land. The vast majority of the Canaanites were wiped out by Joshua. The Israelites would eventually become known as Jews and Canaan was renamed Judea. It is important to note that indigenous people do not need to conquer land that others inhabit.

To cut a long story short, the Romans conquered Judea, and renamed the area Palaestina. Over the course of time, it became known as Palestine, and finally in 1948, the Jews renamed it the Land of Israel. This name is based on the fact that Jacob was also referred to by the name Israel.

If Indigenous people are defined as the original inhabitants of a region, then from the events mentioned above, it appears that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel. The question now arises whether Jews have the right to sovereignty over the land.  

The Right of Jews to sovereignty over the land of Israel, is primarily based on G-d’s promise of the land to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This promise is repeated several times in the Torah. This right was never promised to the seed of Ishmael, or anyone else. The claim of sovereignty is supported by over 3,000 years of Jews living in the land, as well as the building of the First Temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans. Both Temples were built by Jews on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem that is the present site of the Mosque in Jerusalem. The United Nations approval of Resolution 181 in 1947, known as the Partition Plan of Palestine, merely confirmed the right of Jews to sovereignty over a sliver of the biblical land of Israel.  The victories in the War of Independence in 1948, and the Six Day War in June 1967, further extended the right of Jewish sovereignty over the land. This is the same right claimed by America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries that gained sovereignty by subjugating the land by conquest.  

History Unearthed. Excavation of King David’s palace in Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, the name “City of David” was applied to Jerusalem after its conquest by King David in 1000 BCE.

Sovereignty involves granting citizenship to the people living in the area. Israel cannot remain a Jewish and democratic state with a majority of Palestinian citizens. To avoid this scenario, Israel should not extend sovereignty to areas with large Palestinian populations in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza. What it can do, is to place the large Jewish settlement blocks in the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty. These large settlements are all situated in the biblical land of Israel.      

The saga of the return of diaspora Jews to their ancestral homeland is a testament to the fulfilment of G-d’s promise of the land to the seeds of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jews have survived exile after exile, and thousands of years of blood libels, persecution and demonization.  They have never abandoned their belief in one G-d and their devotion to Jerusalem. They have miraculously returned to their ancestral land, and have resuscitated Hebrew as a spoken language. They have made the desert bloom. They have established what has been metaphorically described as the villa in the jungle. It is not utopia, and has many serious problems and faults that still need to be resolved in the fullness of time.

Archeological digs in Jerusalem, and many other sites, have confirmed that Jews have lived in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea for thousands of years. From the above, it appears that there is a compelling case for Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel based on three claims. The first is the promise by G-d of the land to the seed of the Jewish Patriarchs, the second is over 3.000 years of Jews living in the land, and the third is conquest, both ancient and modern. No other sovereign country can claim all three of the above. I will end with the following message from G-d from the book of Genesis:

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.


Unearthing Jewish Life in Ancient Times. The Excavation of King David’s Palace






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).

ANC AMNESIA

As South African leadership indulges in state-sponsored antisemitism, it should remember the Jewish state’s unique contribution in the transition to post-Apartheid.

By David E. Kaplan

Attending from Israel the South African Limmud Conference in Johannesburg in 2016, I recall a presentation by the then Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Authur Lenk. He fended off questions from a deeply troubled audience about a rumor of El Al reducing its weekly flights between Israel and South Africa. There were animated exchanges reflecting how concerned people were. It would not only complicate travel arrangements for a community that has many family members living in Israel but it would also send a “depressing and distressing message” to a strong Zionist community of increasing isolation. The fear was as much psychological as geographic.

The anxiety in 2016 over flight reduction would end up in March 2024 of El Al suspending all flights to South Africa.   

This termination of Israel’s national carrier flights that began in October 29, 1950, proved a metaphor for the flight path of diplomatic relations between South Africa and Israel, culminating with South Africa recent expulsion of Israel’s top diplomat in the country under the pretext of “violating diplomatic norms“. South Africa, who welcomes terrorists and their sponsors – Hamas and Iran  –  with red carpet fawning, declared Israel’s chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman, persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave the country.

“Zionism” has become anathema to this South African government and its President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who probably is unaware that the South African Zionist Federation was established in 1898, the second country after the UK to do so, and one year after the first Zionist Conference in Basel in 1897.  It predates the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and the establishment of South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, in 1912.

AGE OF TRANSITION

All this I was pondering from my home in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv and thought while South Africa offends, insults, demonizes, accuses and kicks out Israel’s diplomats, I thought back in time and to a place only a few kilometers north of where I live, to a complex called Beit Berl and the enriching contribution it made to the emerging new South Africa of the 1980 and 1990s.

Back then, if you by chance were to stroll along the stone paths of the wooded Beit Berl Campus outside of Kfar Saba in central Israel, you would have been surprised to overhear conversations in Xhosa, Tswana, Zulu or Afrikaans. Participants of every shade of colour from South Africa’s “Rainbow Nation” were attending a unique ‘Community Development & Leadership Training’ programme. Why unique?

Well, there was no other country in the world – besides Israel – providing this essential training for South Africa’s future!

Learning to Lead. Aspiring leaders in the new South Africa with local South African resident, Janine Gelly at Beit Berl in the 1990s. (Photo: D.E. Kaplan)

SECRET STUFF 

That it has been doing so without any fuss or fanfare may explain why so few Israelis or South Africans knew about it then or would even know about it today. Then it was a  closely kept secret – a programme running since the dark days of Apartheid.

On the day in 1997 that a delegation of the Kfar Saba branch of the South African Zionist Federation in Israel (Telfed) visited the campus, the atmosphere was vibrant. Met with traditional South African dance and music, the 28th group of participants from South Africa was celebrating the near completion of their leadership course with a farewell cocktail party. Among the graduates of the Beit Berl programme at that time were over two dozen mayors of South African towns and cities including the present mayors of the country’s two largest cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as those from smaller towns like Randburg, George, and Grahamstown. Adding to that list was Port Alfred’s mayor, Eric Khuluwe who addressed us:

“Port Alfred is growing at an enormous pace as people are streaming in from the rural areas, seeking employment. The job situation is bleak and we are finding it an uphill battle to provide basic civic services. We have sixty-one local councils in my district and we need to involve as many people on the local level as possible in decision-making. This is the policy of the ANC government and is indicative of the nature of our democracy that empowers people to determine their own destiny. The Beit Berl three-week intensive course was excellent; it widened my horizons and provided practical guidance on team-management. I feel far better equipped to return to my city now and impact on its future.”

Campus Contribution. Beit Berl’s graduates that comprise almost one-fifth of all Israeli secular public-school teachers – Jewish and Arab – and hold prominent positions in Israeli national and local government, also include amongst its alumni 24 mayors of South African towns and citiesincluding the past mayors of the country’s two largest cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as those from smaller towns like Randburg, George, and Grahamstown.

From 1986 until that evening in 1997, over twenty South African Members of Parliament, as well as hundreds of local government officials and ministers of provincial councils had passed through Beit Berl. Patrick Adams, in charge of Emergency & Disaster Management for the Cape Metropolitan Council in Cape Town, had this to say:

“The course was very professional. I am in charge of Reconstruction & Development programmes in the Western Cape region, and my team is currently immersed in running numerous housing and community projects. Not only have I learned a new dimension of problem solving, but I have also been exposed to the problems in Israel and enjoy a greater understanding of the issues here.”

UNDERCOVER OPERATION 

What would seem inconceivable today in 2026 seemed routine back then 1997. Fascinated, I began to research on the genesis of this wonderful programme of South Africa/Israel cooperation and enriching partnership and learned that it all began in the undercover world of the early 1980s when clandestine contacts took place between progressive Israelis and the anti-Apartheid forces in South Africa. The Israeli powerhouse behind the project was Prof. Shimshon Zelniker, who masterfully manoeuvered between South Africans, Americans and Israelis, a fascinating amalgam of colourful characters that included Hollywood stars, Jewish politicos, civil rights activists, freedom fighters and donors. A professor of political science at Beit Berl and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), Zelnicker, was a member of Shimon Peres’ advisory team in 1982.

“I was given responsibility for third-world policies, and my first mission was making positive contact with leaders of the struggle in South Africa,” said Zeiniker.

COLOURFUL CHARACTERS 

The players in this unfolding theatre of clandestine operations spread across three continents. In South Africa, Clive Menell of Anglovaal paved the way by bringing on board Archbishop Benjamin Tutu. Soon other internationally renowned personalities like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden joined the circle, as did Ethel Kennedy, who twisted the arm of a reluctant Tutu into meeting with the Israelis. This was the turning point, for what followed was a secret meeting in South Africa between a delegation of Israelis representing anti-Apartheid sentiment and prominent Blacks, such as Albertina Sisulu and Ntatho and Sally Motlana.

Charismatic Characters. In the inner circle that inspired the Beit Berl project were Jane Fonda and husband Tom Hayden (above), Ethal Kennedy, the American human rights advocate and widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy as well as in South Africa, Clive Menell of Anglovaal and Archbishop Benjamin Tutu.

“We came out of the meeting with a clear mandate for action. Armed with an understanding that there would be no political manifestos and no pictures of politicians kissing each other, but a programme geared solely to assisting in the struggle, we approached Jews in the United States for support. In Israel, Yossi Beilin, Alon Liel, Ruth Baron and myself, among others, spearheaded the programme to be called the Israeli and South African Centres for International Cooperation” (ICIC) and would be based at Beit Berl.”

CLANDESTINE RECRUITMENT 

“The early days saw us,” explained Zelniker, “pounding the pavements in South Africa for some twenty months recruiting support and participants. The success of the operation was predicated on our ability to keep it under wraps.”

Asked how that was possible, Zelniker replied:

“You know how porcupines make love? Very carefully.”

The first group of twenty arrived in 1986 representing three constituencies:

– Soweto,

– the Cape Coloured community and

– Women’s groups.

“We brought in the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour) to help in the initial training,” said Zelniker. “After the success of that first group, it was easier to obtain more funding. We approached very prominent, radically anti-Israel, Black leaders in the U.S. and received their blessing. Individual Jews donated large sums of money in the full knowledge that they would receive no recognition, and the American Government very quietly also assisted us in funding.”

Zelniker’s shuttling to-and-fro between Israel and South Africa was not without risk.

“My associate Ruth Baron was also detained. There were many ways the South African Authorities could have derailed the programme and they made it crystal clear that physical intimidation could be escalated. We were worried about the graduates being whisked away on their return from Israel for interrogation and intimidation, which on occasion did happen.”

Despite all the harassment, including infiltration by the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS), the programme flourished. At one point in the late 1980s, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times bumped into a group of Black trainees in Tel Aviv. He thought he had uncovered the scoop of the century:

 ‘ANC and AZAPO forge secret ties with Apartheid’s ally!’

“He telephoned me and said, ‘this is sensational. What’s it all about?” When I explained to him the need for secrecy, I thankfully managed to persuade him that the programme and South Africa’s future were far more important than his ego. He dropped the story.”

THE NEW AGE 

It was only a year or so after Mandela’s release in 1990 that the programme’s profile entered the public domain.

“In 1993, we introduced a rural community development programme in the former homelands, and it was then that we came out into the open,” revealed Zelniker.

The participants had such interesting stories revealing  the enormity of the challenges they faced in South Africa. Thabisile Msezane from Boksburg, who ran a daycare centre related that:

 “…in the Boksburg area there were no schools and children loitered aimlessly in the streets wasting away their lives. Each day I noticed a little boy roaming around the shopping centre where I bought milk. He would ask me for money to buy food. I thought:

“What kind of future does this child have? As I was starting a day care centre, I wanted to enroll this kid and so went in search of his parents. I was directed to a shabby compound behind a farmhouse, where I found them. While speaking to the boy’s father, the child spread the word amongst his friends telling them he was going to school. By the end of my conversation, I had enrolled another twelve children. Today I have 150 pupils, some of whom walk a distance of twelve kilometres to get to the school.”

Trevor Ngwame, a councilor from Johannesburg, was all praise for Israel’s ‘Beit Berl Programme’.

“We are dealing with the legacy of apartheid – no jobs, lack of housing and poor education. My approach is to offer people hope, and motivate them to organize themselves. We have seen how successful Israelis have been in overcoming insurmountable odds. Like South Africa, Israel has never been short of problems and yet it manages to advance amazingly. This is what we want to do. Of course, Israel’s problems are very different, and in the South African context we must ensure that people see a light at the end of the tunnel. I am not naïve to believe that matters are going to fall into place overnight. While the government must deliver the goods, the people also must rise up to the challenge and they need the tools to it. This programme has been a tremendous help in this regard.”

Reflecting on his role, Zelniker’s expressed to me:

“As a Jew, I have learnt that liberation is not simply about taking the people out of the ghetto. It means taking the ghetto out of the people. To say that I am proud of this programme would be an understatement.”

In the years that followed, this writer, together with fellow South Africans living in Israel became actively involved in the project offering home hospitality and engaging with the participants. One of the South Africans living in Israel taking a keen interest  in the project was architect and artist Prof. Arthur Goldreich, who years earlier had been recruited by Nelson Mandela to join uMkhonto weSizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress. Arrested during a raid at Lilliesleaf Farm, he would later escape from the Old Fort  prison in Johannesburg,  flee to Israel where he became a prominent figure at the famed Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.  Such were the personalities that were involved in the Beit Berl project that had as its primary goal – to help the new South Africa emerge from the darkness of Apartheid.

Pulsating Partnership. Seen here with a gathering of South African participants on the Leadership and Community Development programme are Arthur Goldreich former member of uMkhonto weSizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (bottom left)  and  local South Africans Hilary Kaplan (holding flag) and Vivianne Abelsohn (right bottom). (Photo: D.E. Kaplan)

Today, in 2026, I reflect back to those encouraging days of partnership as I observe what is tragically playing out presently in South Africa. Rather than focus on uplifting its people after three decades after Apartheid, the South African government is focused on:

– falsely accusing Israel of genocide

– expelling Israel’s diplomats

– sabotaging Israel’s offers of its expertise in agriculture and water management.

Toasting Enriching Tomorrows. South African Ambassador to Israel, Frank Land and wife Maatchen (top left)  at a cocktail party with Prof. Arthur Goldreich, initiator and head of the unique Israel leadership programme for South Africans Prof. Shimshon Zelniker, and local South African Janine Gelley with participants from across South Africa at Beit Berl in the 1990s.

Worst of all it is fueling antisemitism like what transpired earlier this month when Johannesburg’s prestigious private girls’ school, Roedean, cancelled a scheduled tennis match against players from King David – a Jewish day school. It was revealed that some parents at Roedean argued “that the school should align with the government’s anti-Israel stance.” Little wonder what is unfolding has been characterized as “State-sponsored antisemitism.”

We have seen how and where unchecked vitriol leads to – the murderous attack at a synagogue in Manchester in October 2025 and the massacre on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on the 14 December. Can anybody say they would be surprised if a terrorist against Jews was to occur in South Africa?

All this I reflected on and wondered where are all those graduates of Kfar Saba’s Beit Berl Programme today? What contribution did they make and what impact did they have on the lives of fellow South Africans?

And what would they think of how their country has so turned against the Jewish state that had voluntarily helped them to help South Africa and remains ready to help?

Full Steam Ahead. Young and ambitious to lead their people, where are these South African Beit Berl graduates of the 1990s today and what impact did their experience in Israel have on their future?




Feature picture: Participants from South Africa on the Community Development & Leadership Training programme at Beit Berl, Israel with members of the South African community and South African embassy staff in 1997. (Photo: D.E. Kaplan)





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).

WE ARE ALL JEWS HERE

The heroism of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds

By Andrew Fox

This month, the United States is set to posthumously award America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor to US Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a man who displayed one of the most difficult kinds of heroism: not with a rifle but with moral clarity. According to his family and reports confirmed by a White House official, President Trump told Edmonds’ son that the Medal of Honor has been approved and will be presented on a date still to be announced.

If you only remember one line from Master Sergeant Edmonds’ story, remember this: “We are all Jews here.”

Medal of Honor recipient, Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds

In late 1944, Edmonds was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and taken to Stalag IX-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp. There, he became the senior American non-commissioned officer responsible for approximately 1,200–1,300 American POWs.

On 27 January 1945, the camp commandant ordered Edmonds to identify the Jewish-American prisoners for separate assembly. Edmonds understood what “separate” meant in Nazi Europe. Instead of handing Jews over one by one, he ordered all the American POWs to stand on parade together, Jews and non-Jews, then told the German officer: “We are all Jews here.”

The German officer raised a pistol and threatened to kill Edmonds on the spot. Edmonds refused to comply, invoking their rights as POWs under the Geneva Conventions and warning the officer about war crimes accountability. The officer backed down. The camp did not attempt segregation again. Edmonds’ refusal is credited with saving around 200–300 Jewish-American soldiers.

That is what “above and beyond” looks like when courage is guided by conscience. Like many others of his generation, Edmonds returned home and did not turn his story into a personal brand. He scarcely spoke of it at all. Only decades later did his son, Christopher, piece together what had happened, helped by testimonies from men who survived because Edmonds stood firm.

In 2015, Yad Vashem recognised Edmonds as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, a rare honour awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, making him the first US soldier (and one of only a few Americans) to receive it.

At a 2016 ceremony in Washington, President Obama warned that antisemitism was rising and urged people not to ignore it. Now, more than 80 years after the act itself, America will finally award its highest military honour to his name.

Edmonds’ story goes beyond inspiration to expose how evil manifests in the real world. It is more relevant today than at any time since his courageous act. The Auschwitz gas chambers were simply the culmination of the antisemitic journey. The Holocaust started with segregation and the demand that Jews be singled out, and that everyone else stand aside and let it happen. That is why Edmonds’ act remains so powerful: he refused to take the first step.

Today, that first step is making a comeback. Across the United States, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, the highest total in the ADL’s tracking history, marking a fourth consecutive year of increases. In 2025, more than half of Jewish Americans (55%) report experiencing some form of antisemitism in the past year. Nearly one in five reported assault, threat, or verbal abuse based on their identity.

In the UK, the Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate crimes across the country in 2025. This is the second-highest annual total ever reported to CST. It represents a 4% increase from the 3,556 antisemitic incidents in 2024 and is second only to the 4,298 incidents logged in 2023.

In France, government data counted 1,320 antisemitic acts in 2025, accounting for 53% of all anti-religious incidents, remaining at historically high levels for a third straight year.

Jewish people are being threatened, targeted, excluded, blamed, harassed, assaulted, and made to feel that their public existence is a provocation. We should be precise and unwavering about where eliminationist antisemitism is being promoted and put into practice today.

Hamas’s original 1988 charter explicitly contains antisemitic incitement and conspiracy theories about Jewish control; language that reflects the same worldview that fuelled Europe’s exterminationist movements. Hamas later released a 2017 document attempting to alter some of its framing (stating its struggle is against the “Zionist project” rather than Jews), yet it continued to reject Israel’s legitimacy and endorsed “liberation” claims “from the river to the sea”. Hamas’s words are now repeated on our streets, legislatures and university campuses, daily and weekly.

Meanwhile, Iran’s regime has aided Hamas for decades, including materially and financially. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has documented a long history of Holocaust denial and distortion from the Iranian government and official media sources, one of the classic ways through which antisemitism is disguised as “politics” and “respectable debate”.

We are witnessing a revival of Nazi-style antisemitism in modern guise: sometimes religious, sometimes revolutionary, sometimes “anti-Zionist” in label, all while still peddling the oldest anti-Jewish myths.

We need action today. Master Sergeant Edmonds did one thing: he made it impossible to single Jews out. That is the heart of this call to action. When someone Jewish is targeted for their identity, it does not matter whether it occurs online, on campus, in a workplace, on a street, or in a synagogue. Our response must not be silence, ambiguity, or “both sides” of the issue.

It must be: we stand together.

  1. Speak out loud. If you hear “Hitler was right,” “the Jews control…,” “Zionists are Nazis,” or any other recycled poison, do not let it go unanswered. The social cost of antisemitism decreases when decent people remain silent.
  1. Report what you see, document what you can. Use credible reporting channels (community security groups, campus reporting tools, the police when appropriate). Patterns become undeniable when they are recorded.
  2. Show up for Jewish spaces. Attend a public Holocaust remembrance event. Visit a Jewish museum. Accept an invitation to Shabbat dinner. If a synagogue or Jewish event is threatened, ask how to support them, not as saviours, but as neighbours.
  3. Push institutions to enforce their own rules. Schools and workplaces often have policies against harassment and hate. Demand they apply those rules consistently when the target is Jewish: no euphemisms, no excuses, and no special carve-outs for the “right kind” of hate.
  4. Respect moral courage and demand it from leaders. In the US, there was a bipartisan legislative effort to recognise Edmonds’ heroism, including a bill introduced in 2025 to award him a Congressional Gold Medal. Wherever you live, let your elected officials know you expect this kind of moral clarity, not just symbolic statements when convenient.

The Nazis demanded a list. Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds refused. Our era and our societies today face a similar choice, only with different uniforms and slogans. Make your decision. It matters. Will we continue to allow Jews to be singled out? Or will we stand united and declare, in practice and not just in sentiment:

We are all Jews here.



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.








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).