Rabbi Leo Dee’s experience and counsel on how to honour personal tragedy without being imprisoned by it.
By Jonathan Feldstein
In April 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee’s life shattered in an instant. While driving with his family for vacation on the second day of Passover, his wife Lucy and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered in a Hamas terrorist ambush. Leo, driving ahead in another car, survived along with three other children who were with him. What followed was not only profound personal grief, but the challenge of being a traumatized husband and father, suddenly raising his grieving children alone. Yet, in almost three years since, Leo Dee has emerged as a remarkable voice of resilience, faith, and purposeful healing, most notably through his book “The Seven Facets of Healing.”
In a recent conversation on “Inspiration from Zion,” Leo shared his journey and personal story of transformation. Originally a successful private equity professional in London, driven by a sense of calling in his London community, he left the world of finance and he and Lucy made aliyah to Israel in 2004. The tragedy of 2023 could have broken him, but instead it revealed strengths forged over a lifetime, especially throughout his 25-year marriage, that taught him empathy and perseverance.
Central to Leo’s message is the idea that tragedy marks a clear breakpoint. Thirty days after the attack, as the formal Jewish mourning period ended, he gathered his surviving children and declared: “We are entering a new world.” This was not denial but deliberate reframing. Drawing on the Jewish morning prayer that God “renews creation every day,” he taught his family—and now teaches others—that every moment offers the possibility of a new beginning. Rather than live in the shadow of loss, one must consciously step forward into a future that honors the past without being imprisoned by it.
Traversing Tragedy. Speaking at an international press conference following the murder of his wife and two daughters by terrorists in 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee said, “After the tragedy, I said to my children, we are now entering a new world. World number one was with two parents and five children and world number two is with one parent with three children. We are going to continue, to be happy and have fun and live this life as best as we can.”
This mindset echoes the innovative framework Lucy herself created early in their marriage. Frustrated with date nights derailed by complaints, she devised “The Seven Facets for Living” to ground even challenging times: Friends, Family, Fitness, Fun, Finances, Firm (work/function), and Faith. By requiring discussion of all seven, Leo and Lucy gained perspective that difficulties in one area were offset by blessings in others. After the tragedy, Leo realized these same categories became the primary pillars for heal. Friends evoked memories of social gatherings with Lucy; family highlighted absent voices; even leisure activities stirred pain. Thus, Lucy’s “Seven Facets for Living” became the foundation for Leo’s “Seven Facets of Healing.”
His book, structured around these categories, offers practical wisdom born of hard experience. Leo discovered that post-trauma instincts are often exactly wrong. Hollywood portrays bereavement as endless tears and withdrawal; in reality, those behaviors prolong suffering. He shares how, in the first year, he instinctively avoided smiling in photos with visitors, believing it would dishonor his lost loved ones. Only later did he recall positive-psychology research: smiling actually generates happiness through serotonin release. He also understood that despite his loss, Lucy would not want him to be unhappy, nor would he wish that for her should he have been in the wrong car that horrible day. It was not smiling, not being happy, was what would dishonor Lucy’s memory. Forcing smiles again, allowing himself to be happy, was counter to his instinct at the time, but helped lift his mood and create a model of resilience for his children.
Perhaps the deepest insight and foundation of healing concerns faith. Leo publicly affirmed God’s greatness daily through leading prayers and reciting Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, despite every reason to feel anger. He realized this public declaration served three purposes:
elevating the souls of the deceased
strengthening the mourner
and, most powerfully, demonstrating to the community that faith can endure unimaginable tragedy.
When well-meaning people asked “What if?” questions (“What if you had left later?” “What if you never moved to Israel?”), Leo eventually forbade such speculation as futile. While these were all questions he asked himself, Leo instead poses one permitted “What if?”: What if this was always God’s plan? Accepting that reality shifts focus from regret to response: given these cards, how will I play them?
Leo extends these lessons beyond personal grief to national trauma. Six months after the murder of Lucy, Maia and Rina, the October 7 Hamas attack and massacre brought collective Israeli suffering. He sees parallels: just as individuals must reframe life after tragedy, a nation must find new purpose. He credits Israel’s resilience to an underlying faith — even among the secular — that manifest as trust in the people, the land, and the biblical promise. On October 8, when government and army structures faltered, ordinary citizens instinctively asked, “Where do they need me?” and filled every gap—supplying soldiers, housing evacuees, feeding frontline troops.
Leo and Lucy (z’l) Dee. The family was on their way back from a hiking trip in 2023 when they were ambushed by terrorists. Daughters Maia and Rina were killed at the scene, and Lucy died three days later from her wounds.
This question — “Where do they need me?” — had been Leo’s guiding mantra. It once drove him from a lucrative career in finance into the rabbinate. Now it fuels his speaking worldwide. He urges Jews to build Israel and Christians to transform the rest of the world with biblical values. Having recently addressed evangelical churches in Canada, he expresses profound gratitude for Christian Zionists who, he believes, remain the West’s last strong defenders of Judeo-Christian morality.
For those currently in pain, Leo offers two immediate consolations. First: your loved ones in heaven want only your happiness; prolonged misery dishonors their memory and harms surviving family. Second: the present is illusory — only past and future exist. We can choose to warehouse pain in the past (visiting it on memorial days) while living fully in an open future.
Leo Dee’s story is not one of superhuman invulnerability but of deliberate, faith-guided choices. He grieves deeply yet refuses to let grief define the remainder of his life — or that of his children. Through ‘The Seven Facets of Healing’, he extends Lucy’s legacy, turning private wisdom into public light. In an age of widespread trauma — personal and collective — his voice reminds us that healing is possible, purpose is renewable, and every new day truly is a beginning God offers afresh.
*You can follow the full inspirational conversation with Leo Dee on “Inspiration from Zion” on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Refusal to recognize Somaliland exposes global hypocrisy and rewards terror.
By Grant Gochin
The global disparity in statehood recognition between Palestine and Somaliland exposes a truth: international decisions are not rooted in law, facts, or genuine support for viable entities. Instead, the enthusiasm of 157 UN member states for recognizing Palestine—despite its failures—serves primarily as a diplomatic cudgel against Israel and Jews. This is not pro-Palestinian advocacy; it is animus, a collective expression of bigotry that ignores objective criteria to isolate and delegitimize the Jewish state. Somaliland, by contrast, exemplifies success under every legal standard, yet is shunned precisely because its recognition would bolster Israel’s alliances. The 157 nations endorsing Palestine do not care about law or reality; they are weaponizing statehood as a tool of prejudice.
Happenings at the Horn. Israel became the first nation in the world to recognize Somaliland as a country prompting a global outcry and an emergency meeting of the United Nations.
Somaliland’s Historical Narrative: Survivor of Genocide
Somaliland is not a mere “breakaway region”; it is a survivor of internal African colonialism and genocide. Briefly independent in 1960 and recognized by 35 nations, including Israel, it entered an unratified union with southern Somalia. Under Siad Barre’s regime, this turned genocidal. From 1987–1989, government forces systematically targeted the Isaaq clan with aerial bombardments, well poisonings, and mass executions, killing 50,000 – 200,000 civilians. Somaliland’s 1991 independence reclaimed its pre-union sovereignty—a humanitarian and anti-colonial necessity.1 Nations posturing as “anti-colonial” such as Ireland, betray this by enforcing Mogadishu’s claims and ignoring Somaliland’s genocide survival.
The Montevideo Criteria: Ignored in Favor of Bigotry
International law’s cornerstone for statehood, the 1933 Montevideo Convention, demands a permanent population, defined territory, effective government, and capacity for international relations.2 These objective benchmarks are routinely discarded when anti-Israel bias takes precedence. The result is that Palestine, a dysfunctional entity, is elevated, while Somaliland’s qualifications are dismissed to punish Israel.
● Permanent Population: Both meet this threshold. The 157 states overlook Palestine’s divisions to strike at Israel.
● Defined Territory: Somaliland claims clear, undisputed borders from its 1960 independence.3 Palestine’s are contested and non-contiguous. Recognizing the latter delegitimizes Israel’s security claims.
● Effective Government: Somaliland boasts a centralized democracy.4 Palestine is fractured between the corrupt PA in the West Bank and Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Rousing Recognition. When the Israeli flag is sighted on the streets of the Muslim world, it is often being set alight or trampled underfoot. Yet in recent days the Star of David has been plastered on buildings and brandished by jubilant crowds in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.
● Capacity for Relations: Somaliland forges sovereign deals, proving autonomy.5 Palestine relies on aid, its “diplomacy” a facade for anti-Israel lobbying.
The case of Somaliland provides the ultimate legal refutation of the ‘occupation’ libel used against the Jewish state. Under the principle of uti possidetis juris, Somaliland is the rightful successor to the borders of its 1960 independence—a fact the world ignores to protect a defunct Somali union.6 Israel, by recognizing these borders, reaffirms the sanctity of original administrative boundaries as the only objective standard for statehood. This same legal logic confirms that Israel is the sole legal successor to the British Mandate, rendering the ‘occupation’ of Judea and Samaria a legal fiction. By championing Somaliland, Israel is not just supporting a fellow democracy; it is enforcing a global legal standard that exposes the Palestinian project as a violation of the very international laws its proponents claim to uphold.
The refusal of the international community to apply uti possidetis juris to Israel—while rigidly enforcing it to keep Somaliland shackled to the failed state of Somalia—is a targeted legal assault. If the administrative borders of the 1960 British protectorate define the legitimate sovereignty of Somaliland, then by that same objective standard, the administrative borders of the 1948 British Mandate define the sovereign territory of Israel. To argue otherwise is to admit that ‘international law’ is merely a political fiction used to protect anti-Western regimes in Mogadishu and Ramallah while attempting to strip the Jewish state of its foundational legal rights.
By recognizing the functional reality of Somaliland over the ‘constitutive’ political fantasy of a Palestinian state, Israel is championing the Declaratory Theory of Statehood. This position asserts that a state exists when it functions as one, not simply when a collection of biased nations engages in a diplomatic séance to conjure it into existence through mere votes. Recognizing Somaliland is therefore a strategic defense of the rule of law: it enforces the principle that functional, stable governance and original administrative boundaries are the only legitimate measures of sovereignty. Any other standard is a reward for terrorism and a threat to global security.
Palestine’s Dysfunction: A Weapon Against Israel
Palestine’s realities scream failure, yet are encouraged because it harms Israel:
● Aid Dependency: A vast consumer of $40+ billion since Oslo, Palestine’s economy is propped up by donors, fostering corruption. This is a subsidy for instability that pressures Israel.7
● Corruption and Autocracy: The PA ranks abysmally on corruption indices. Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 20th year of a four-year term, a full-blown dictatorship. Bigots overlook this to amplify accusations against Jewish “oppression”.
● Pay-for-Slay Terrorism: Allocating ~7% of its budget to reward attacks on Israelis, the PA incentivizes violence despite the U.S. Taylor Force Act.8 Sponsored by Iran, this makes Palestine a terror proxy encouraged by recognizers whose true aim is weakening Israel. Abbas’s February 2025 decree to “end” the Martyrs’ Fund has been exposed by Israeli authorities as a shell game, with payments simply channeled through the Palestinian postal system to circumvent the Act.9
Enlightening Recognition. Public buildings were lit up with Israeli flags as mass celebrations took place in Hargeisa and across cities of the Republic of Somaliland, as citizens gathered to commemorate the historic decision by Israel to formally recognize Somaliland.
Somaliland’s Excellence: Punished to Avoid Benefiting Israel
Somaliland’s indicators of success are ignored to prevent any win for Jews. While Somaliland remains a bulwark, Somalia’s failure is absolute. In 2025, an al-Shabaab offensive saw Mogadishu lose strategic towns like Sabiid and Anole, and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud narrowly survived a March 2025 assassination attempt in Mogadishu, escaping via armored convoy amid the attack on his convoy.10
Somalia’s claim to Somaliland is based on a failed union and subsequent genocidal aggression, whereas Somaliland’s claim is a defensive re-assertion of its 1960 sovereignty. This mirrors Israel’s defensive reconstitution of rights over Judea and Samaria following the 1967 war of annihilation launched against it—territory with no prior legitimate sovereign after 1948.
National Security and the Irish Model of Hypocrisy
The swiftness with which the Palestinian Authority and the OIC fabricated a blood libel—claiming this recognition is a scheme for ‘forced displacement’—exposes their desperation to preserve a status quo that rewards terror at the expense of African self-determination. While the UN holds emergency meetings to protect the ‘territorial integrity’ of a failed state in Mogadishu, Israel is providing Hargeisa with the surveillance technology necessary to secure its own airspace and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This is the birth of a Red Sea Security Arc that replaces ideological theater with functional sovereignty.
Dublin exemplifies this betrayal: in May 2024, Ireland recognized Palestine despite its failures, yet it rejects Somaliland. This selective empathy rewards terror-linked dysfunction and punishes African self-determination.
The Overriding Truth: Animus Against Jews and Israel
This is not about law or facts; 157 countries spew animus toward Jews, weaponizing Palestine’s recognition to delegitimize Israel. Somaliland’s excellence is collateral damage in this hate-fueled game.
True Colors. Changing attitudes on the streets of Somaliland.
Conclusion
Does Somaliland have to slaughter innocents like October 7 to earn recognition? Launch rockets? Commit atrocities? Is terrorism the real price of sovereignty? The hypocrisy is bigotry.
Feature photo: Residents wave Somaliland flags as they gather to celebrate Israel’s announcement recognizing Somaliland’s statehood in downtown Hargeisa. (Photo: Farhan Aleli/AFP via Getty Images)
Disclaimer: The author of this article and annex is not a licensed attorney and is not engaged in the practice of law. The analysis provided herein regarding international legal principles, including uti possidetis juris and the Montevideo Convention, is presented solely as a personal interpretation and an expression of opinion for informational and argumentative purposes. This content does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional counsel from a qualified legal practitioner.
Legal Annex: The Doctrine of Sovereign Succession and Functional Statehood
I. Precedents for Uti Possidetis Juris and Mandatory Succession The principle of uti possidetis juris (UPJ) is recognized by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a “general principle, logically connected with the phenomenon of the obtaining of independence, wherever it occurs” (Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali), 1986).
● Application to Somaliland: As established in 1960 and reaffirmed in 2025, Somaliland is the successor to the borders of the British Somaliland Protectorate.12 The 1964 OAU Cairo Resolution and Article 4(b) of the AU Constitutive Act mandate respect for borders existing at independence. The attempt to keep Somaliland tethered to Mogadishu is a violation of the very “intangibility of frontiers” the AU claims to uphold.
● Application to Israel: Legal scholars (including Professor Eugene Kontorovich and the Levy Report) argue that uti possidetis juris dictates that a state’s borders are defined by the preceding administrative boundaries. As the only sovereign successor to the 1948 British Mandate of Palestine, Israel’s legal claim extends to the entirety of that administrative area. International attempts to impose “1967 lines” (which were merely temporary armistice lines) constitute an illegal derogation of the UPJ principle.
II. The Declaratory Theory of Statehood vs. Political Recognition TheMontevideo Convention (1933) codifies the Declaratory Theory, which asserts that statehood is a question of fact, not a gift of diplomatic recognition.
● Somaliland’s Declaratory Compliance: As of late 2025, Somaliland satisfies all four Montevideo criteria. Its internal stability—contrasted with the failure in the south—proves that it is a state de jure and de facto.
● The Palestinian Fraud: The 157 nations recognizing Palestine are employing the Constitutive Theory, attempting to “create” a state through diplomatic votes. However, without a unified government or territorial control, this “state” is a legal fiction that lacks the objective requirements of international law.
III. Security Data and the Doctrine of Defensive Control (2025 Update) International law distinguishes between illegal annexation and defensive control of territory where there is no prior legitimate sovereign.
● Somalia’s Sovereign Collapse: Security reports from March and August 2025 confirm that the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has lost effective control over major southern sectors. The capture of Sabiid and Anole by al-Shabaab and the failed assassination of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Mogadishu (March 2025) demonstrate that Somalia lacks the “effective government” required to claim sovereignty over Somaliland.
● The Martyrs’ Fund Shell Game: Israeli intelligence reports from late 2025 confirm that the Palestinian Authority’s “Abolition of the Prisoners’ Fund” was a shell game. Funds are now funneled through the Palestinian Postal System to ensure “Pay-for-Slay” payments continue, rendering the PA a persistent sponsor of terrorism in violation of the Taylor Force Act and UN counter-terrorism resolutions.13
IV. Strategic Conclusion: National Security as a Legal Imperative As outlined in the Hudson Institute’s 2025 Conference, antisemitism and the delegitimization of the Jewish state are national security threats to the West. The refusal to recognize Somaliland while empowering a Palestinian terror-proxy is a strategic failure that emboldens Iranian and Houthi aggression. Recognizing Somaliland is therefore a legal necessity to preserve the security of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the integrity of the Abraham Accords framework.
Bibliography
● Reuters. “Israel recognizes Somaliland as independent state.” December 26, 2025.
● The Times of Israel. “Israel becomes first country to recognize breakaway Somaliland.” December 26, 2025.
● Al Jazeera. “Somalia demands Israel withdraw Somaliland recognition.” December 27, 2025.
● TurkishMinute. “Turkish ports sent 456 ships to Israel… despite trade ban.” October 7, 2025.
● Various sources: Isaaq genocide estimates (50,000–200,000); Palestinian aid/corruption data; Iranian funding to Hamas; PA Martyrs’ Fund.
● Hudson Institute. “Antisemitism as a National Security Threat” conference (2025).
● Reuters. “Palestinian president scraps prisoner payment system” (February 2025); Times of Israel. “PA document shows ‘pay-to-slay’ has been scrapped, new system in place” (September 2025).14
● TRT Afrika. “Somali forces kill mastermind of failed assassination attempt” (September 2025).
Somali President Mohamud Survives Al-Shabaab’s Assassination Attempt This video reports on the March 18, 2025, assassination attempt on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, highlighting the profound insecurity and lack of effective governance in Mogadishu compared to the stability of Somaliland.
About the writer:
Grant Arthur Gochin currently serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. He is the Emeritus Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, which represents the fifty-five African nations, and Emeritus Vice Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the world. Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past twenty five years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped / inventoried / documented / restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation”, published in 2013. His book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. He is presently working on a project to expose the current Holocaust revisionism within the Lithuanian government. Professionally, Gochin is a Certified Financial Planner and practices as a Wealth Advisor in California, where he lives with his family. Personal site: https://www.grantgochin.com/
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
They both knew there was no way he was staying home. Not after the videos he had seen, not after the emergency message he received, the message all policemen in the area received, the message they thought they would never hear: a call to respond to an invasion.
It didn’t matter that he had a broken shoulder and was scheduled for surgery in a few days. He was trained to defend the innocent, and nothing would stop him.
It was October 7th, and his country needed him.
Master Sergeant Ran Gvili of the Yasam Special Patrol Unit put on his uniform, took his father’s car, and drove to the police station. He met his team, donned battle gear, gathered weapons and ammunition, and drove straight into the eye of the storm: “The Al Aqsa Flood.”
The Last Israeli Hostage in Gaza: The Story of Ran Gvili | KAN 11
At the Saad junction, they found themselves in battle with the invaders. They helped party-goers escape the Nova massacre and reach safety. Ran was shot in the leg. He fashioned a tourniquet and battled on. At Alumim, he and other warriors managed to prevent the invaders from entering the kibbutz, saving those sheltering there — but at a terrible cost. The attackers had already slaughtered 22 workers from Thailand and Nepal and taken others hostage. Fourteen people fleeing the Nova party were murdered near the kibbutz, and five defenders of Israel were killed.
We think.
While learning through the news about friends and colleagues who had been killed, Ran’s brother, also a policeman, assumed Ran was home. After all, Ran was injured and scheduled for surgery.
When Ran’s phone rang, the battle was raging. His brother was shocked to hear him explain where he was and to learn that he had also been shot in the hand: “Don’t tell our parents. I’m shot, but I’m fine.”
Ran sent this selfie(below) on October 7th – his last photo.
Last selfie photo of Ran Gvili from the 7th October 2023
Separated from his team, with a broken shoulder and two gunshot wounds, Ran sheltered from the attackers and passed critical information to the relevant security forces, doing everything he could to bring help to the battle. When the invaders discovered his location, he fought them alone.
The bodies of fourteen terrorists were found at the point where he had been sheltering. Ran was gone.
It took more than fourteen to subdue him and take him to Gaza.
Intelligence officials discovered footage of his unconscious body being taken to Gaza. They informed the Gvili family that the injuries Ran sustained are not survivable — unless given emergency intensive care, which he did not receive. None of the liberated hostages saw him during their captivity.
No one knows for certain what happened to Ran. Until his body is returned, his family clings to the faint hope that this powerful warrior — their Rani —could somehow survive.
Lion of Judah. Despite the odds, Ran Gvili was an Israeli hero who ran into danger to save lives.
He was among the first to race toward the battle and is now the last who has yet to return home. His mother says Ran always made sure everyone else was ok before thinking of himself. It is like him to be last, to make sure everyone else goes first.
Hollywood has nothing on us. Our heroes are real.
I never met Ran, but I have met his mother, Talik Gvili, and seen her in action. She is a hero, a warrior of a different kind. It is no surprise that her son is a hero.
Since October 7th, Talik’s heart has ached for her Rani, but she has devoted her mind to defending our people. She has spoken in the Knesset and around the world, advocating for the release of all hostages through strength. Only victory over Hamas will protect us from future invasions. She says:
“I am the mother of a hostage. I do not want to be the grandmother of a hostage.”
One of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed was between Talik Gvili and Einav Zangauker, mother of Matan, who at the time was held hostage in Gaza. I was accompanying families of hostages to the Knesset, where, during committee sessions, families were given the chance to speak to parliament members and other government officials. Each family spoke in turn; all listened respectfully, no matter what was said or how long it took. Some pleaded with the government officials to save their loved ones. Others explained that they expected their loved ones to be saved in a way that didn’t endanger the future of Israel.
Einav Zangauker unleashed her fear and frustration at the committee head, haranguing him with devastating accusations:
“The blood of my son will be on your hands. They will bring him back dead, and you will manage the funeral and the shiva.”
There were some seventy people in the room. We all sat in silence. The more she spoke, the more extreme her words became, and the more everyone cringed, devastated, in their seats.
Until Talik spoke.
It was like magic. I don’t remember her exact words, but with grace and dignity, she broke the torrent of Einav’s rage, refocused her, and calmed her to the point where she got up, walked around the table, hugged Talik, and sat down next to her, holding her hand.
Allowing us all to breathe again.
Cry Freedom. With the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty in the background , the late Master Sergeant Ran Gwili mother appeals for his ‘liberty’ from Gaza.
Talik has rightly received awards and praise for her wise and eloquent advocacy. After one event, I approached her and told her I admired her greatly but needed to correct one huge mistake in her speech. Startled, she focused on me. I said, “You claim that you aren’t a hero, but that ignores what heroes are. They aren’t just warriors in battle; heroes are people who go above and beyond what the average person would do in the same situation.” She looked at me, unmoving. I continued, “When this happened, you could have crawled into bed, pulled the covers over your head, and refused to move. It would have been much easier.”
Her eyes softened. She sighed and nodded. “That’s true. Thank you.”
Waiting for Ran. Itzik Gvili, says of his son Ran, “He didn’t think twice, he went and fought, even with two bullets in his body.” Addressing a crowd at Hostages Square, he speaks about his son in the present tense. “It’s hard for me to accept condolences. Until I see his body, I don’t speak about him in the past tense.”
Hero. Mother of a hero. I wish I could give her a fraction of the strength she has given for all of us, for our safety, for our future. Now her Rani, one of the first to race into the inferno, is the last in Gaza.
We say that “the last one out turns off the light.” Perhaps Ran, the last one out, will be the one who turns off the darkness that has taken over Gaza.
Perhaps he won’t come home until we make sure the darkness is extinguished. There is a job that has yet to be completed. We are responsible for making sure that happens.
About the writer:
Forest Rain Marcia is an American-born Israeli who lives in northern Israel. She’s a branding expert and storyteller. Her passion is giving voice to the stories of Israel illuminating its profound events, cherished values, and exemplary role models that transcend borders, casting Israel as an eternal wellspring of inspiration and strength for a global audience. Forest Rain made Aliyah at the age of thirteen. After her IDF service, she co-developed and co-directed a project to aid victims of terrorism and war. These activities gave her extensive first-hand experience with the emotional and psychological processes of civilians, soldiers, and their families, wounded and/or bereaved and traumatized by terrorism and war (grief, guilt, PTSD, etc). Throughout the years, she has continued to voice the stories, pain, and strength of traumatized Israelis to motivate others to provide support and counter the hate that threatens Jews in Israel, around the world, and Western civilization itself through the understanding that what begins with the Jews never ends with Jews.
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).
An article that disappointed less from what it said and more from what it did not say.
By David E. Kaplan
I come across recently an article translated from Arabic penned by Abdel Rahman Shalgha published in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat titled :
“Searching for Anwar Sadat”
In these troubled turbulent times, I reached out with enthusiasm to read this piece by an Arab journalist that was “searching” – his word – for an inspirational leader in the Middle East. His role-model was the assassinated Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, a brave warrior who risked in peace as much as he risked in war, who rose above the fears and prejudices of the masses to take risks for the ultimate goal of peace. Ask Israelis of President Sadat and the image that comes to mind is more the man who sought peace than who prosecuted war and who bravely boarded a plane that flew him into the bowels of his enemy to address its parliament – the Knesset.
Peacemakers. Prime Minister Menachem Begin welcomes Egyptian president Anwar Sadat at Ben Gurion Airport on November 19, 1997 (Photo: Moshe Milner/GPO archive)
Some will recall his deep voice resonating from the Knesset podium saying:
“Any life lost in war is a human life, irrespective of its being that of an Israeli or an Arab. A wife who becomes a widow is a human being entitled to a happy family life, whether she be an Arab or an Israeli.”
Contrasting Sentiments. While Anwar Sadat and Golda Meir got on like a house on fire in Jerusalem, most the Arab world was ablaze with fury.
The warm response of the Israeli public was captured best at the time by Israel’s former PM Golda Meir, when addressing the Knesset on the 21 November, 1977, and directed these words to her former foe:
“Mr. President, I’m sure that from the moment your plane landed at Lydda Airport, and as you drove through the streets of Jerusalem, you must have felt, in all your encounters with the many people who turned out to meet you – the little children; the mothers with babies in their arms; the old people; the people who were born in this country, the second, third, fourth and fifth generations, and those who have come recently – that all, without exception, were overjoyed to see you in our Land.”
Such was the mood of Israelis in late 1977.
From Foe to Friend. Unlike the unhappy atmosphere in Egypt and neighboring Arab countries, Jerusalem schoolchildren with balloons and flowers cheer the arrival in Israel of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat on November 21, 1977 (Photo: Ya’akov Sa’ar/GPO archive).
SOMETHING MAJORLY MISSING
So, it was about this caliber of a man in the Arab world I was hoping to read in Abdel Rahman Shalgha’s November 2025 article and his opening paragraph was promising:
“In the collective memory of nations and the chronicles of their history, there are names, years, and even entire centuries that endure, untouched by the passage of time or the tumult of events. Among them are the names of kings, presidents, and statesmen whose legacies remain etched in both the hearts of their people and the pages of history. The late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was one such man, born into an era of extraordinary transformation for Egypt, the Arab world, and the world at large.”
Then I kept reading. While interesting and informative, in the end, it was disappointingly deficient. Hoping to read about the man who sought and brought peace to Egypt with its greatest enemy, Israel – Not a word!
Price of Peace. President Sadat was the first Arab leader to recognize the state of Israel since its creation in 1948 and in September 1978, met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the US, where they negotiated a peace accord and, in 1979, a peace treaty. For this he paid with his life.
It was all about the man of war and nothing about the man of peace. It was about the man who spied and collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and who with “cunning” deceived the Israelis “that Egypt would not attack, only to shatter that illusion when Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, breached the Bar-Lev Line, and rewrote the script of Middle Eastern history.”
But that “Middle East history” included finally the famous peace between Egypt and Israel, ensuring that countless Egyptian and Israeli lives were not to be needlessly lost.
Not a word about this!
The achievement of peace that should have been written as the highlight of the Egyptian president’s life deserves no mention? The word peace appears not to be in this journalist’s vocabulary – at least not in so far as to praise the attributes of his hero – Anwar Sadat!
Read below the rest of Abdel Rahman Shalgha article:
“In his memoir, In Search of Identity, he [Sadat] recounts the defining stages of his life, from his birth in the village of Mit Abu El Kom on the banks of the Nile to his rise as president of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
At the time, Egypt languished under British domination, its sovereignty curtailed, its military occupied, and its monarch reduced to a mere figurehead. Against this backdrop, a dark-skinned boy from the Nile’s banks absorbed the essence of Egypt – its history, struggles, and aspirations – and carried them within him.
Sadat wrote his life story in a simple, unpretentious style, describing the national and international figures who shaped his worldview. Among them, [Mohamed Darweesh] Zahran, a young Egyptian executed by the British after the Denshawai incident, stood out as a moral beacon whose courage and sacrifice burned indelibly in Sadat’s heart.
From his humble beginnings in Mit Abu El Kom to the charged atmosphere of Cairo – a city alive with political ferment and social tension – Sadat matured amid the turbulence of an occupied nation. He completed his secondary education and began a long, arduous journey through a labyrinth of nepotism and colonial control before finally entering the Military Academy.
After graduation, he served in various posts across the country, carrying with him an unyielding hatred for British rule. His first confrontation with colonial authority came with his involvement in the assassination of Amin Osman, a minister known for his staunch loyalty to Britain – a plot that landed Sadat in prison.
During World War II, as German and Italian forces advanced from eastern Libya into Egyptian territory, many Egyptians, Sadat among them, saw in the British defeats a glimmer of hope for liberation, even if it came through the hands of others.
In that spirit, Sadat helped plan an attempt to smuggle the nationalist officer Aziz Ali al-Misri into the Western Desert to contact the German command. The operation failed when al-Misri’s plane crashed, yet Sadat’s determination did not waver. Later, when two German spies in Cairo sought his help to repair a malfunctioning radio transmitter used to send intelligence to Berlin, Sadat, then in military intelligence, agreed to assist.
Discovered by British and Egyptian intelligence, he was imprisoned again and expelled from the army. Escaping confinement, he wandered the countryside in disguise as “Haj Muhammad,” working as a porter and laborer until a royal insider helped him return to the army and join the Royal Guard.
Sadat later recounted his efforts to organize a secret military network aimed at toppling the monarchy and ending British rule – efforts he claimed predated Gamal Abdel Nasser’s founding of the Free Officers Movement, though his colleagues in that movement would later dispute the account in their own memoirs.
I accompanied Sadat on his long journey through the pages of his autobiography, where he traced his life with all its trials, risks, and triumphs. Throughout, one sees a man in perpetual pursuit of an Egypt free from colonial chains. Perhaps it was Zahran, the martyred peasant of Denshawai, who served as the spiritual force sustaining him through years of struggle.
That thread of conviction runs through every stage of his life, from his seat on the Revolutionary Command Council to the emergence of the shrewd and daring strategist he became.
Sadat never held major ministerial posts and was never seen as a likely successor to Nasser. Yet upon Nasser’s death, he assumed the presidency and began, with quiet calculation, to consolidate his power, dismantling rival factions in a single stroke.
He reorganized Egypt’s military in preparation for war with Israel and redefined the nation’s alliance with Moscow. In an elaborate campaign of deception, he convinced Israel that Egypt would not attack, only to shatter that illusion when Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, breached the Bar-Lev Line, and rewrote the script of Middle Eastern history.
In doing so, Sadat realized his lifelong dream: the recovery of Egyptian land, achieved with the boldness and cunning of a leader confident in his destiny.
I journeyed with Anwar Sadat through his remarkable life to say this: Amid the chaos, fragmentation, and imbalance that now define our region, perhaps it is worth revisiting the life of this man – not with nostalgia, but with a political mind attuned to lessons of endurance and foresight. For within Sadat’s journey, there may yet be a light to guide us over the dark hill of an uncertain future.”
And there you have it.
Siding against Sadat. Protests in Oslo on the 11 December 1978 against the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Sadat’s quest for peace with Israel was not welcomed in the Arab world with fellow states boycotting Egypt for breaking ranks and negotiating a separate treaty with the Jewish state. (Photo: Manuel Litran/Paris Match via Getty Images)
A well written in somewhat poetic praise of a manthis journalist “accompanied …. on his long journey through the pages of his autobiography,” admiring his life “with all its trials, risks, and triumphs.” Sadly, among Sadat’s “triumphs”, this journalist does not recognise, acknowledge or mention – even in passing – the monumental 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Think of it, together with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Sadat received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Camp David Accords, which paved the way for the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty and no mention of it!
How do you arrive at a point when writing about someone’s lifetime achievements and you deliberately omit being the recipient of a Nobel Prize?
Targeting Peace. A scene from the assassination of Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Clearly for this journalist, Israel is unwelcome, a colonialist entity, a blot on the map, a stain on a region exclusively reserved for Muslims or Arab-speaking folk. Sadly, it’s a perspective shared by the citizens of most, if not all, the countries bordering Israel and explains why Sadat was shot in 1981, and why the trigger-fingers of the assassins represented a multiple metaphor for millions of fingers around the Middle East.
Cause of Death. Sadat’s death was attributed to “violent nervous shock and internal bleeding in the chest cavity, where the left lung and major blood vessels below it were torn.” In truth, the actual cause of death was that he outreached to the Jewish state to make peace with Israel.
Is it any wonder today that so many kids in the Arab world today are named Nasser after the uncompromising militant president that preceded Sadat, and very few, if any are named after the assassinated Anwar Sadat!
Whatever Abdel Rahman Shalgha is really “searching” for, it is not peace with Israel.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Behind the polished façade, the “gifts” of Gift of the Givers has a price tag.
By Allan Wolman
Back in the 1950s, The Platters made a hit song called The Great Pretender. Over the decades it was revived by any number of performers — most memorably Freddie Mercury in 1987. Since then, the world has never been short of “great pretenders”, not only on the entertainment stage but very prominently on the political one, where the list of contenders is endless.
Today I want to propose the greatest of the modern-day “Great Pretenders”: none other than Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers, a man who has pulled the wool over an entire nation’s eyes and risen to become South Africa’s most admired humanitarian — both at home and abroad.
Parallel Power. Why is this man – Imtiaz Sooliman – treated by the media as a minster?
With every natural or man-made disaster anywhere in the world, Gift of the Givers is among the first to appear on the scene, ensuring their efforts are rewarded with generous front-page coverage — complete with a full-colour photograph of the good doctor in his trademark green shirt and boldly displayed logo. Not to mention the tsunami of philanthropical donations he attracts.
Sooliman has once again made headlines, this time regarding the mysterious “unknown aircraft” that recently landed at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg. I urge you to read this excellent exposé posted on Facebook by Ivor Blumenthal:
*[Editor’s note: Soon after this article was written, South Africa revoked visa-free access for Palestinian passport holders. Taking its cue from Sooliman’s outrageous initial accusation, the SA government followed blindly reiterating the antisemitic rhetoric of the Gift of the Givers CEO by speculating without substantiation that the mystery flight is an Israeli plot to ethnically cleanse Gaza.]
The South African media should hang their heads in shame. But as the obedient mouthpiece of a rotten and corrupt government, that same media — devoid of morality, integrity, or even the most basic sense of journalistic honesty — would never dare venture into the territory that exposes who and what this organisation really is — and, more importantly, what the man’s true agenda appears to be.
Over decades, Imtiaz Sooliman has cultivated an image of saintly benevolence, rushing from one disaster zone to the next, dispensing aid and compassion with no political or ideological motive, (I also once believed in the tooth fairy). Very few people living a ‘humble’ lifestyle could command aircrafts and other costly facilities at a moment’s notice, but Gift of the Givers opens more doors than presidents and monarchs. Scratch even lightly beneath the surface and a very different picture emerges — one of a shrewd operator who understands perfectly how to manipulate optics, press coverage, and public sentiment.
Unapologetic Law Breaker. In his own words, this man is a law unto himself.
BLOWING THE WHISTLE However, the true face of Sooliman and his Gift of the Givers is being revealed not by the media but by ordinary folk – non-Muslims – who not only see through but experience the ‘packaged’ deception. Watch the video clip below of a South African woman exposing the true face on this so-called Muslim human rights organization that weaponizes food aid by tying it to conversion. Her outrage disabuses the polished public image of Gift of the Givers, exposing it for leveraging hunger as a recruitment tool for Islam. It has been reported that food parcels have been distributed exclusively to Muslims, while vulnerable Christian families were told they will “get more” if they embrace Islam. Behind the polished façade, the “gifts” of Gift of the Givers has a price tag.
Gift of the Givers is a slick well-oiled reputational machine, capitalizing on every episode of suffering that Sooliman exploits to the full creating another opportunity for branding, hero-worship, and political leverage. The green shirt is no accident; it is a uniform designed for instant recognition, ensuring that Sooliman himself — not the cause, not the victims — becomes the headline.
And here’s where the media and gullible public looks the other way, ignoring the company this man keeps. He has no shame aligning himself to radical Islamic causes, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS, openly stating on national television that he adheres to only one law, NOT the law of the land. That’s a statement that goes beyond mere arrogance, but showing his middle finger to his country and the world.
The False Humanitarian. At a protest against Israel in Cape Town on the 5 October 2024, ‘humanitarian’ charity ‘Gift of the Givers’ founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman stood beneath this banner “WE ARE ALL HAMAS” and engaged in antisemitic conspiracy theories, railing against Israel and Jews who “run the world with fear … and control the world with money”.
Aligning himself with the ANC ‘s agenda of open hostility to Israel and the Jewish people has elevated his stature within South Africa’s political elite affording him a hotline to government ministers who comply to his demands. All this while the media tip-toes around the mysterious aircraft incident at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport and allows Sooliman and his cunningly crafted ‘humanitarian’ Gift of the Givers to weaponize their aims.
Behind the veneer of humanitarianism, a toothless media lacking courage and hiding the truth from the public, feeds the man and his hidden agenda.
Asserting this point, Tim Flack writes in BizNews (8 December), that institutions in South Africa today:
“…have grown weak and individuals with charismatic branding have filled the void. Sooliman is the clearest example of this trend. He speaks like a minister, moves like a minister, negotiates like a minister, and is treated by the media as if he has the democratic legitimacy of a minister.
But he does not.
He is unelected. He is unappointed. He is unaccountable. And the country has quietly allowed him to operate as a parallel authority in everything from refugee management to foreign policy interpretation.
This is not humanitarianism. It is governance without consent.”
Its time for the media to do their job and expose the true aims behind the façades ofDr. Imtiaz Sooliman and his Islamic charity – Gift of the Givers.
About the writer:
Allan Wolman in 1967 joined 1200 young South Africans to volunteer to work on agricultural settlements in Israel during the Six Day War. After spending a year in Israel, he returned to South Africa where he met and married Jocelyn Lipschitz and would run one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg – Rosebank Travel. He would also literally ‘run’ three times in the “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well as participate in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. Allan and Jocelyn immigrated to Israel in 2019.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
How do traumatized kibbutzniks build a new life amongst the rubble and remnants of personal horror?
By Gadi Ezra
(Courtesy of YNET news where this article first appeared)
Communities find themselves unwillingly at the center of a struggle between remembrance and renewal, underscoring the need for the state to better preserve national heritage.
Would you demolish Auschwitz? Of course not. The memory of the victims, the documentation of the crimes, the proof of the horrors — all must be preserved despite the pain, for the sake of future generations. But what if you had to keep living there? To face the destruction every morning? To rush to class or grab a coffee by passing through a murder scene frozen in time? In that case, the answer might be different. The need to move forward, rebuild and reestablish routine would all enter the equation.
This is precisely the heartbreaking dilemma the members of Kibbutz Be’eri recently confronted. Still trying to rise from the disaster, they voted by a narrow margin that life inside a memorial site is not life. The decision means clearing and demolishing the homes destroyed in the October 7 massacre. One house will remain, a testimony to what happened and to what must never happen again.
Killing Kids. A ‘Welcome to Our Home’ sign to a kindergarten on kibbutz Be’eri has not welcomed any kids since Hamas terrorists tore through it on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Baz Ratner/AP)
This is not a decision anyone can fairly criticize. No one can claim to know better than those who endured devastation and must now live again at the center of trauma. Whatever they say deserves a quiet amen. Yet what matters is understanding that Be’eri’s decision will not be the last on this issue. It opens a window into the present and future dilemmas of Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, Nirim, Nahal Oz, Re’im and other communities along Israel’s border. These are places that, against their will, have become focal points in a struggle between remembrance and renewal. That reality highlights not only the depth of the tragedy. It underscores the need for more effective state action in preserving the national heritage.
Silent Swing. Once an area of family fun, a Be’eri home’s patio and play area in the aftermath of the massacre.
The Tekuma Authority has allocated tens of millions to establish a national memorial for October 7, but its creation depends on legislation that remains unfinished. More than two years have passed since the massacre, yet the necessary administrative work is still incomplete. A state commission of inquiry is also deliberately avoided. As a result, the content that would fill any memorial institution is, by definition, partial and lacking. Such commissions are not only meant to assign responsibility. They are designed to form a narrative explaining how the country reached this point. Just as the Holocaust did not begin with the establishment of the death camps, October 7 did not begin on October 7.
Death and Destruction. One of the many houses which was burned and destroyed during the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre.
The problem with this dynamic, in which the state moves at its own pace, is that life is not a made-to-order program. It does not wait for government directives, bureaucracy or paperwork. It pushes past every document on its way to the next stage and forces survivors to confront decisions they must make. A community’s ability to tell its own story must always be preserved. But had the authorities and political leadership operated with greater transparency and efficiency, the members of Be’eri could have considered how future national commemoration would be shaped. That would have allowed them to highlight aspects the state does not emphasize or raise issues that matter to them in a different way. Their decision would have been made in context, not in a fog.
Gazan ‘Stormtroopers’. Hamas terrorists taking civilians hostages from kibbutz Be’eri.
Disclosure: At the end of October 2023, I was there as a reservist. The walls of the dental clinic that still stood practically screamed. The path leading to it ran through the same buildings now slated for demolition. ZAKA teams were still searching them for remains. Crushed cars lined the road. Other homes appeared intact but were anything but. Bloodstains on balconies revealed what had happened inside. Still others remained as they were the day they were abandoned — to Gaza, to the next world or to evacuation hotels. In truth that scene has not ended. War does not finish when the last soldier crosses back over the border. Even after Ran Gvili returns, it will end only when the residents return home. It is the state’s duty to ease that journey. Shaping memory in a way that helps them make decisions is an inseparable part of that responsibility.
Tough Decisions. Once a family home, now a horrifying ‘memorial’ to lives snuffed out. Can people return to this site to once again live?
About the writer:
Gadi Ezra is the Former director of Israel’s national public diplomacy unit.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Fear that independent scrutiny will expose false narratives, Israel’s opponents discourage “See for Yourself” visits to the Jewish state.
By Kenneth Kgwadi
In one of the most influential TED Talks to date, acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores:
“The Danger of a Single Story.”
She argues that to truly understand any event or conflict, one must consider multiple perspectives; relying on a single narrative inevitably leads to distortion and misunderstanding. Her message is particularly relevant to the Israel/Palestine debate, where too many overlook or dismiss Israel’s story while presenting Palestine as the sole victim.
The recent visit to Israel by King Dalindyebo of the AbaThembu nation illustrates this dynamic clearly. His trip triggered criticism from individuals who seem determined to prevent others from examining the facts for themselves. Instead of encouraging open inquiry and balanced engagement, these voices prefer that the public adopt their preferred narrative – one that portrays Israel as the villain through carefully crafted misinformation and propaganda. Their response reveals an underlying fear:
that independent observation may contradict the narrative they have worked hard to entrench.
The fiercest critics of Israel often rely on claims of apartheid, genocide, and other exaggerated allegations that do not align with the realities on the ground. Deep down, these naysayers fear that independent scrutiny will expose the inconsistencies in their narrative. Every year, numerous individuals and delegations travel to Israel on fact-finding missions to see, experience and decide for themselves on the reports and agenda-driven narratives presented by international, local and social media. It would be profoundly irresponsible to accept these narratives at face value without challenging the claims and allegations for accuracy, context, as well as the agendas of those who disseminate them. Hence the immense importance of visits.
Royal Visit. A cousin of the late Nelson Mandela, His Majestiy King Buyelekaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo of the AbaThembu Kingdom in South Africa meets with Israeli President, Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.
Tensions between governments — such as those of South Africa, Israel, and the United States — should not influence the relationships between ordinary people in these countries. Communities should not be vilified for cooperating across borders simply because their governments disagree politically. Human connection is often driven by shared histories, mutual interests, and collective aspirations, not by diplomatic rifts.
It was in this spirit that King Dalindyebo chose to visit Israel and engage directly with Israeli officials. As a leader, he sought firsthand clarity on the long-standing conflict rather than relying solely on secondhand accounts crafted by the media. His decision reflects a commitment to informed leadership: he wanted to see the situation with his own eyes, hear directly from those involved, and explore opportunities to build constructive relationships for the benefit of the people he leads.
STANCE OF SILENCE
What is particularly troubling about South Africa’s foreign policy under President Cyril Ramaphosa is the growing inconsistency that seems to define it. On the surface, the country presents itself as a defender of human rights across the world, most notably through its strong support for the Palestinian cause. However, this principled stance is not applied consistently. In many parts of the world, innocent and defenceless people are being killed by oppressive regimes, yet South Africa remains largely silent.
A few weeks ago, hundreds of people were reportedly killed in post-election conflict in the Republic of Tanzania, a fellow member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Despite the seriousness of this crisis, South Africa took no meaningful action to hold those responsible to account. The same can be said about Sudan, where acts of genocide are unfolding before our very eyes on television, but no steps have been taken to sanction or pressure those who are responsible. Zimbabwe presents another example: for years, the ruling ZANU-PF has violated the human rights of ordinary Zimbabweans, forcing millions to flee the country in search of safety and economic security. Yet Pretoria has maintained a stance of silence and non-intervention.
Tragedy in Tanzania. Far closer to home than Gaza, hundreds of protesters and others have been killed and an unknown number injured or detained in Tanzania following recent elections according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), yet South Africa has not taken any action as it did against Israel.
This pattern of selective condemnation raises important questions about what truly drives South Africa’s foreign policy and undermines its claim to moral authority on the global stage. Blasted by so much mis and disinformation, the global ill-informed fail to understand that Israel is a functioning democracy, defined by an independent media, judiciary, executive, and parliament (Knesset), each operating without interference from the other. This is precisely why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently facing corruption charges: the institutions of state have the autonomy to hold even the highest office-bearers to account. The left-leaning newspaper Haaretz is a clear example of a vocal and critical media outlet that conducts its work without fear or favour, often challenging government actions and policies in the strongest of terms.
Sudanese Suffering. While South Africa’s foreign minister was quick to call the Hamas leader following its orchestrated massacre in Israel on October 7 2023 to “offer support”, masses of displaced civilians on its own continent such as in war-torn Sudan (above) is of less concern. (Photo: AFP/via Getty Images)
VISIT AND VERIFY
There is a danger, like in all conflicts, of spreading lies to control the narratives, and people should be aware of that. Hence it is important indeed, essential for opinion makers, journalists, researchers, and all those who work in the business of information and knowledge to visit Israel and tell the story as it truly is, rather than relying on narratives circulated by others who may have political agendas to advance.
First-hand experience remains the most reliable antidote to misinformation.
Meeting with fellow South Africans. Unlike South Africa’s ANC leaders who showed no concern for South African-born Jews killed in Israel as a result of the attack from Gaza, His Majesty, AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo met with Rabbi Doron Perez (right), father of Daniel Perez, South African born 22-year-old who was killed on October 7 during the Hamas attack, and his body was held in Gaza for nearly two years.
About the writer:
Kenneth Kgwadi is a research fellow at the Middle East Africa Research Institute (MEARI).
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
The University of Cape Town (UCT) was once a glittering jewel in South Africa’s – and the African continent’s – academic crown.
No longer.
That’s thanks to UCT’s unedifying recent history of being held to ransom by students and staff pushing political and ideological agendas.
It has become as one writer put it, “a public university applauding the removal of Jews from a space they helped build, under the polite cover of modern political language.”
UCT’s Council is its “supreme governing body responsible for policy, strategic direction and ensuring sound governance and financial sustainability,” As such, it should be a bulwark against institutional capture.
Cry the Beloved Campus. The 2024 Israel Apartheid Week at UCT saw present senior representatives from the ANC, Al Jama-ah, the EFF, and Palestinian Solidarity Campaign where taunts and insults were directed at Jews such as: “Child killers”; “We are Hamas”; “October 7 will happen again”; “You f**king b*tch”; and “I will place your photo all over this campus you P*es”.
However, one of its Council members, Dianna Yach, has become embroiled in yet more public controversy that is chipping away at that bulwark. Yach faces scrutiny after UCT’s abrupt announcement on October 30, 2025, that it was switching off life support after 56 years for its “most cherished cultural landmark,” the Irma Stern Museum. The spotlight is on Yach’s role as Chair of UCT’s Irma Stern Museum Committee at the time of UCT’s decision to sever its ties with the museum.
As a Council member, Yach is already mired in damaging allegations, including lying under oath and serious breach of fiduciary duties, in a landmark lawsuit launched by Prof Adam Mendelsohn, head of UCT’s Department of Historical Studies.
Mendelsohn launched the lawsuit after UCT adopted the so-called “Gaza conflict resolutions” in June 2024. A ruling is expected early next year.
POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL EXPEDIENCY
UCT’s decision to sever support for the Irma Stern Museum came as a shock to supporters. Stern is widely acknowledged as one of South Africa’s most prolific and powerful artists, one who played a leading role in introducing avant-garde art to the country.
Some saw UCT’s decision as political and ideological expediency. UCT compounded that by shrouding the decision in secrecy, ratifying it on October 18 and only announcing it after being called out publicly.
Preservation concerns have centred over structural deterioration and maintenance challenges of housing Stern’s collection in The Firs, her Cape Town home since 1927. Reports of the collection now in “secure storage” pending uncertain refurbishment plans have fuelled fears of irreparable damage to the irreplaceable integrity of South Africa’s only artist’s house museum.
Heritage researcher Phillippa Duncan has described UCT’s decision as yet more “cultural bloodletting” and “a systematic lack of respect for history, older buildings and objects that require care.”
Stern’s whiteness and Jewishness made things “a little more difficult” by “not fitting in with UCT’s political conversations,” Duncan says. She does not believe that race and religion were “primary triggers” for UCT’s decision.
Jews Unwelcome. What kind of ‘safe’ environment is it for Jewish students at UCT when (as captured on video) a demonstrator, smacked the kippah (a traditional Jewish head covering) off a student’s head, while he was praying, and when confronted refused to apologise?
HIVE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
I think that’s charitable. The primary triggers may lie, more likely, in the hive of conflicts of interest buzzing under the many different hats Yach wears.
Among others, Yach chairs UCT’s Human Resources (HR) Committee; is a member of the UCT Remuneration and Governance Committees; serves “by invitation” on UCT Law Faculty’s Law Clinic Advisory Board; and is one of Council’s two Senate-elected donor representatives.
She is also the Chairperson and the executive director of the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF) Board, one of South Africa’s oldest Jewish, philanthropic organisations and a donor to UCT and the Irma Stern Museum for decades.
That places Yach squarely in the crosshairs of overlapping donor and governance roles, with duties and loyalties to UCT and the MFF potentially pulling in different directions.
Her maternal grandfather, Morris Mauerberger, an industrialist and a committed Zionist, founded the MFF in the late 1930s. His philanthropy included regular support for Zionist organisations and projects that strengthened Israel’s infrastructure and education.
Felling a Family Legacy. A proud Zionist was the late Morris Mauerberger, one of South Africa’s leading industrialists and Jewish philanthropists whose Mauerberger Foundation supported a multitude of causes in Israel but is today managed by his granddaughter Diana Yach who some critics believe is not following the path he forged for MFF support for the Jewish state.
Mauerberger’s will expressly allocated half of the MFF funds in perpetuity to Israel, the other half split equally between South African Jewish and non-Jewish communities.
The MFF’s decades-long support for Israeli projects includes:
– the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
– theTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa (where there is a Mauerberger building) and
– direct involvement in establishing Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 1969.
Lasting Legacy. The Mauerberger name is proudly embedded in the hills of Haifa in shaping education and research in the Mauerberger Building at Israel’s prestigious Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel oldest university and with four Nobel laureates having been associated with the university.
RED FLAGS WAVING
Yach took over as MFF executive director in 2013. Since then, she has appeared intent on taking the MFF down a different path from the straight and narrow one her grandfather forged – if wildly waving red flags are any indication.
One red flag is her support, well-documented in court papers on public record in Mendelsohn’s lawsuit, for the Gaza resolutions.
The boycott includes, by implication, all tertiary institutions in Israel that the MFF supports, as these can be interpreted, particularly by the BDS movement, to form part of the greater Israeli military establishment.
Suffice to say, blanket academic boycotts on shaky foundations are fundamentally incompatible with the core values of any university worth its academic-freedom salts.
Yach appears oblivious to conflict emanating from her support for resolutions that diametrically oppose her grandfather’s legacy – and, perhaps more importantly from the perspective of potential conflicts of interest, the MFF’s stated mission of support for Israel.
ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
Another red flag is few public reports since the horrific terror attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, of MFF donations to the Jewish state – apart from vague references to support for “mental health programmes”.
Yet another flag is reference in an affidavit Yach submitted in Mendelsohn’s lawsuit to MFF donations to “Israel and Palestine”. That will resonate well with anti-Israel groups active on UCT campus, among them South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) and UCT Alumni for Palestine, with which Yach is closely allied.
This raises questions about Yach’s involvement with these entities and under which of her multiple hats it lies?
Yach is also actively involved in alumni affairs and wears a further hat as a member of UCT’s Alumni and Development Advisory Board.
Before UCT Convocation’s AGM and Elections on December 4, 2025, Yach nominated UCT law lecturer Caitlin le Roith, the public face of SAJFP and publicly backed by UCT Alumni for Palestine, to run for the Executive Council (Exco) election. Her nomination was seconded by an SAJFP member and was successful.
Convocation ended up top-heavy with a president and four of five Exco members firmly in anti-Israel camps. The elections became a battleground with the hallmarks of a hijacking, purge, even a “pogrom” against Jews.
The aims, as supporters of newly elected officials swiftly and gleefully declared on social media, were twofold:
– to defeat the Zionist bloc (a mythical creation of their own making)” and
– ensure that UCT is “never a home for Zionists”.
If any rhetoric proves that Zionist really is the anti-Israel lobby’s code word for Jews, that was it.
INVERTED RED TRIANGLES
SAJFP leaders have distinguished themselves, if that’s quite the right word, as enthusiastic spreaders of that code word and by using inverted red triangles on social-media posts to celebrate deaths of Jewish soldiers in Gaza.
The Nazis used inverted red triangles to distinguish political groups in concentration camps. After October 7, Hamas began using the symbol as a propaganda prop to identify Israeli military targets. The symbol has spread to anti-Israel protests, especially on university campuses and social media.
The Anti-Defamation League cautions that the symbol’s ties with Hamas help to normalise terrorism and extremism under cover of “resistance”.
Yach raised eyebrows – and hackles – in September 2025 when she donated R1-million of MFF funds to Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder-CEO of Gift of the Givers, for medicines for children in Gaza.
Many consider Sooliman to be an incorrigibly vocal, virulent opponent of Israel and all Jews who support it. He speaks publicly under banners claiming, “We are all Hamas”. He routinely punctuates his rhetoric with antisemitic tropes about “Zionists” who rule the world with money.
Sooliman still faces claims (hotly denied) that Gift of the Givers has funnelled funds to Hamas and other terror groups active in the Middle East for decades.
Yach is impervious to criticism of the MFF donating to a man implacably opposed to her grandfather’s stated mission and vision for the family foundation.
Sooliman has been nominated for a UCT honorary doctorate. UCT’s Council was expected to vote to accept his nomination at its regular meeting on December 6.
Suspicious Support. Unable to voice disapproval, the bust of Morris Mauerberger looks on at his granddaughter Dianna Yach presenting a cheque of one million rand to Give of the Givers’ controversial founder and CEO, Imtiaz Sooliman, who proudly appears at South African anti-Israel demonstrations under banners claiming, “We are all Hamas”.
REVIEW OF PUBLIC POWER
In the meantime, as Mendelsohn’s legal team notes in heads of argument, the lawsuit has generated “noise” around “geopolitics, antisemitism, genocide and accusations of bad faith” that drowns out what it is really all about.
The application’s merits turn simply on a “review of public power,” his lawyers say.
That review covers allegations against Yach of lying under oath and serious breach of fiduciary duties involving her allegedly deliberately withholding crucial information on predicted loss of donor funding if UCT adopted the resolutions.
It also covers UCT’s adoption of the resolutions despite robust communication beforehand from a major funder, the Donald Gordon Foundation, clearly identifying a significant breach of a clause in their donor-funding agreement.
Breach has legal consequences. It culminated in termination of DGF’s funding relationship with UCT.
In her affidavit, Yach appears to believe that the DGF had no evidentiary “dogs” barking loudly enough to alert Council members to the serious possibility of funding withdrawal.
DGF trustees have confirmed that its dogs were present throughout, barking loudly and clearly.
FUNDING HAEMORRHAGE
And when the predicted donor withdrawal materialised, the bite was devastating.
UCT instantly haemorrhaged R220-million DGF funding for its Neuroscience Institute and lost the opportunity of a more than R500-million DGF donation for a new private hospital.
The Dell Foundation withdrew R7-million in student support, agreeing only to continue support for current students but not to admit any new ones to its programme.
Another question the review raises is why Yach and other Council members decided that “expressing indignation at Israel’s conduct (in Gaza) outweighs the futures of hundreds of prospective students at UCT who have lost funding”?
Yet another question is:
Why they decided that rejecting the IHRA definition of antisemitism was more important than R750-million for both the Neuroscience Institute and a brand-new, state-of-the-art hospital, “without even knowing that such donations were at stake”?
They appear not to have thought through all the implications of the resolutions for UCT of donations from any donors with strong Israeli ties in future.
Yach strenuously denies any wrongdoing. I wouldn’t have expected her to do otherwise.
As Mendelsohn’s lawyers contend, she and certain other fellow Council members may be exposed to damages claims from UCT for non-disclosure of pertinent financial information.
UCT as “an organ of state controlling public funds earmarked for educational purposes” is, therefore, under “obligation to investigate whether it has such a claim, and if advised that it does, to pursue it.”
Yach and fellow Council members can take comfort knowing they have UCT’s full backing – for now. Despite the serious allegations against her, Yach remains in her multiple positions of power and influence.
That raises the question of whether her position as UCT’s HR Committee Chair has insulated her from the consequences of alleged non-disclosure of pertinent information, or at the very least, an inquiry into her behaviour?
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
Another question is why UCT chose to act only against Mendelsohn.
UCT suspended him for lodging the lawsuit, citing colleagues’ complaints that he was unfit to head UCT’s Department of Historical Studies. An independent investigation exonerated him and found that the complaints stemmed from colleagues’ dislike of his views on the resolutions.
Despite the exoneration, UCT has yet to reinstate Mendelsohn. One could reasonably expect Yach, as HR Committee Chair, to have nudged UCT to remedy that. One would be routinely disappointed.
UCT’s Council has fresh faces and voices after last year’s elections that offer hope of new vision, perspective and direction.
The same cannot be said for UCT’s Convocation. It may be ready, willing and well-placed to accede to growing demands effectively to “cleanse” UCT of troublesome, pesky Jews.
A UCT academic notes in response that “Jews have lived this pattern (of blatant Jew hatred) many times before in many countries…, the world recognises it only in hindsight” but “South Africa is watching it unfold in real time” on UCT campus.
It is telling that the academic has authored the response anonymously to protect her own safety. That speaks volumes about UCT as a campus that has become an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, despite official statements to the contrary.
The academic describes the Convocation elections as UCT’s “Kristallnacht 2025”.
Here is an excerpt: “No windows were smashed. No buildings burned. No mobs gathered. Instead, the purge arrives through motions and voting tallies. Through polite language and procedural respectability. Through the illusion of moral clarity.
“The result is the same. Jewish identity is framed as racism. Jewish belonging becomes conditional. Jewish safety is treated as optional.
“Yet here we are. A public university applauding the removal of Jews from a space they helped build, under the polite cover of modern political language.
“If this is what human rights discourse has become, then the words have lost their meaning.”
Unfolding alongside that collapse of moral meaning is a dystopian irony of ironies: Jews are among those contributing to UCT’s attempts to rid its campus of Jews who happen to be Zionists.
That leaves UCT urgently in need of Council members who prioritise education, ethics and human rights over politics and ideology. It requires leaders prepared to put their political ideologies aside and work together to stem the rising tsunami of antisemitism (under the guise of anti-Zionism) currently engulfing the campus.
If not, UCT will never reclaim its once glittering, global reputation as a bastion of higher learning and academic freedom.
*News Flash:
Dianna Yach is facing a call from a prominent South African-born Harvard Medical School neurology professor to stand down or be fired as Chairperson and executive director of the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF) Board. Prof Jeremy Schmahmann, a University of Cape Town (UCT) medical school graduate, makes the call in a letter emailed to the MFF Board before its special meeting on Friday, December 12, 2025. He describes Yach’s support for the “Gaza conflict resolutions” as “unfathomable”. Her statements and actions effectively “violate the MFF commitment to academic freedom and MFF’s long history of deep support for Israel,” Schahmann writes. “They aim to torpedo academic engagement between Israeli and UCT academics. They erode donor support for UCT.” He pays tribute to Yach’s grandfather, MFF founder Morris Mauerberger, as a man who “understood the need for philanthropy” to support the foundation’s commitment to “academic freedom and long history of deep support for Israel.” Yach should resign or be fired to “allow the MFF to return to its proud past focus”, Schahmann writes.
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).
An opportunity wasted as the Pontif threw his faithful under the wheels of his own proverbial Popemobile.
By Jonathan Feldstein
Growing up in Chicago as a White Sox fan, it’s safe to assume that Robert Francis Prevost was very much part of the baseball culture. It’s also safe to assume that he knows the term “swing and miss.” As Pope Leo, it’s astounding to see him swing and miss, not once but three times in the context of his brief visit to Lebanon.
Baseball Fan. Before emerging Pope Leo, Robert Francis Prevost was a die-hard Sox fans and is seen here (left corner) with close friends at a 2005 White Sox World Series game at U.S. Cellular Field.
Arriving in the war-torn and Hezbollah dominated country, Pope Leo delivered public remarks ranging on a variety of topics – peace, religious coexistence, the country’s economic crisis, political divisions, and lingering effects of the Israel-Hezbollah war. He even delved into international diplomatic issues that would otherwise be far afield from his theological role as head of the Catholic church, seen by many as a foul ball.
His first strike was not saying anything to ensure the protection and well-being of Christians in Lebanon, long threatened and attacked by Islamists. His best attempt, but definitely a swing and miss, was to make a passive statement urging native Christians to remain in Lebanon and be part of the country’s pluralistic past.
Leo did not, however, explicitly address the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s requirement to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025, or the sectarian threats and violence of Islamists that created the Christian exodus from the country where Christians once represented more than half the population. Rather than doing so, he tepidly waited until his airport departure press conference boldly stating:
“The Church has put forward a proposal urging Hezbollah to lay down arms and prioritize dialogue,” adding:
“Armed struggle brings no benefit: renounce violence and engage in constructive talks.”
Pope’s Peace Prospects? Stepping onto the ground in war-torn Lebanon with such promise, what impact did Pope Leo have and what opportunities were lost?
Leo placed himself in the center of a months-old ceasefire that is weeks away from failure. It was a pageant play of the absurd. Urging Christians to remain without addressing the threats to them and the obligation to protect the Christian population is analogous to telling an abused wife to remain in her abusive home without ensuring her protection! Essentially, he threw his faithful under the wheels of his own Popemobile.
If the Pope of all people is not going to speak out to truly protect Christians in Lebanon, who will be more righteous than the Pope? The irony is that in the past, Israel has shown more interest in Lebanon’s Christians than many millions of Christians. One vivid example is that my son’s commanding officer in the IDF is a Lebanese-born Christian whose family was among thousands rescued from certain persecution if not slaughter by Hezbollah’s Islamists in 2000.
I am reminded of my friend, Sami, who once cried to me how Hezbollah ruined his life, and begged Israel to eliminate the Islamists.
Pope Leo’s second strike were his comments en route to Lebanon, calling for a “two-state solution” regarding Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. He was mute on protecting Lebanese Christians but put Israel in the crosshairs, suggesting that creating another Islamist Arab state narrowing Israel’s borders and threatening the Jewish state is the “only path” to peace and justice for Israel and Palestinian Arabs.
Speaking to reporters, Leo opined:
“We all know that at present Israel still does not accept this solution, but we see it is the only solution that could offer, let us say, an answer to the conflict they continue to live. We are also friends of Israel, and we are trying to act as a mediating voice for both sides, helping to bring about a solution that is fair for everyone.”
Adding to the swing and miss, Leo shared these comments in the wake of his meeting with Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pandering to the Islamist who harbors Hamas terrorists and slaughters Kurds, Leo shared that Turkey has an important role in the Middle East, rather than accurately calling out Erdogan’s dangerous threats, in the interest of “coexistence”. One has to wonder why Leo made Turkey the site of his first international trip since being elected, and remained mute on the Islamist’s open threats, converting a former landmark cathedral -the Hagia Sophia – to a mosque, and striving to revive the Ottoman caliphate.
Mosque with a Message. As the religious and spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the landmark cathedral, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, was again converted into a mosque, this time by Erdogan’s Turkish government in 2020.
Strike three was the swing and miss of pandering to Islam rather than standing up boldly in the face of threats Islamists have wreaked, and suggesting a political or diplomatic solution to a problem that rewards and emboldens Islamic terror and a theology that considers Jews and Christians including the Pope as dhimmi – tolerated second class citizens. Rather than pandering to Islamists in Turkey and Lebanon, and truly offering thoughts and a solution in the theme of his visit, “blessed are the peacemakers,” Leo should have done a deep dive into his own faith offering an actual Christian solution for peace, rather than balking and threatening Christians and Israelis in the same stroke.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Pope Leo was at least right when he said that “There is no peace without conversion of hearts,” so how much better to have used his platform to build on his own words to his Muslim audience. In the face of Islamic threats, talk about reconciliation sounds nice, but it does not make persecuted Christians or anyone else safer.
Pontiff’s Platforms. Young Robert Prevost (today Pope Leo) is seen here (left) with Pope John Paul II (right) in the 1980s. While John Paul II boldly used his pontiff’s platform to fight against dictatorships and is credited with helping to end communist rule in his native Poland and the rest of Europe, it appears Pope Leo prefers not to ruffle feathers in his pursuance of peace.
He could have offered a Christian solution that involves a “conversion of hearts,” rather than simply mumbling pleasant rhetoric that instead of bringing peace in the Middle East will push everyone further from it.
Beating around the bush in the shadow of Hezbollah’s ‘empire’ made the Islamists laugh their way back to their bunkers as they plot future chaos and misery.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
As the US was justified in killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Israel is justified in liquidating Hamas leaders wherever they reside.
By Neville Berman
September 11, 2001 was a day that shocked the world. On that day 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked 4 commercial airlines and used them to attack America. 2,977 people were killed and thousands more were injured.
That evening, President George W Bush was informed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that they had identified an Islamic organization known as al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, operating out of Afghanistan, as being responsible for the attacks. After the Taliban, who governed Afghanistan, rejected American demands to expel al-Qaeda and extradite its leaders, America ordered an attack on Afghanistan.
Justice for All. If it was acceptable that “Justice has been done,” as President Barack Obama said in announcing the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. military operation in Pakistan, May 1, 2011, why not for the Hamas leaders who perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?
Osama bin Laden went into hiding and evaded capture. America offered a $25 million reward to anyone supplying information that would lead to the capture of bin Laden. False information poured in.
For years bin Laden managed to send tapes with recordings of his speeches from his hiding place, to the Al Jazeera TV station in Qatar. The tapes were then broadcast to the 430 million households that watch Al Jazeera broadcasts around the world. Most of the speeches promoted the Islamic concept of Jihad against the West. Bin Laden was determined to bring down the West. The Palestinians were of no interest to him and he never mentioned them.
For years the relentless search to locate bin Laden continued. Tens of thousands of cell phone calls were recorded and analysed. Electronic messages and aerial photography from satellite imagery were studied. After over 9 years of searching, the CIA finally believed that they had traced the courier that was delivering the tapes to Al Jazeera from a house in Pakistan. The evidence was not 100% conclusive that Osama bin Laden was actually living in the house, but was persuasive enough for President Obama to authorize an attack on the site. On May 11, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear was put into action. A team of navy seals were flown by Black Hawk helicopters into Pakistan. They managed to enter the compound, locate and kill Osama bin Laden and several of his aides and family. They also retrieved a trove of electronic discs and files that shed light on al Qaeda. Bin Laden’s body was brought back for positive identification and burial at sea. The killing of bin Laden was seen as a turning point in the fight against terror.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally demolished all Israeli settlements in Gaza, and withdrew entirely from the area. They then handed control of the territory to the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by Yasser Arafat. Two years later, Hamas violently took control of Gaza by killing the leadership of the PA in Gaza. Hamas is a militant Islamic organization that is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that aims at a world living under Sharia law. Hamas does not hide their intentions. The Hamas Charter calls for the killing of all Jews and the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
From the moment Hamas took control of Gaza they promoted hatred as a way to radicalize the population. Under the guise of a liberation movement, Hamas infiltrated every aspect of the lives of two million people living in Gaza. They infiltrated the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. They radicalized the curriculum of all UNRWA schools in Gaza and promoted suicide bombing, jihad and martyrdom. They robbed banks in Gaza. They stole thousands of tons of humanitarian food aid and sold it to the people in Gaza at inflated prices. They collected taxes on all goods imported into Gaza. They set up monopolies that controlled cell phone services, petrol and gas supplies, and all other essential services. They built an army of radicalized terrorists, whose intention was nothing less than retaining absolute control of Gaza through force, and aimed at eliminating the State of Israel. They built hundreds of kilometres of tunnels under hospitals, mosques, schools and houses in order to hide missiles and military equipment and to be used to attack Israel. They built their headquarters in tunnels directly below hospitals. They used civilians as human shields to protect themselves from Israeli retaliation. They killed or maimed anyone who opposed them. They fired over 27,000 rockets into Israel. All of them were aimed at civilian targets. They broke every accepted norm of civilized behaviour, and ruled themselves out as ever being a peace partner. They brought death and destruction to the people of Gaza.
To the outside world they presented themselves as victims of Israeli occupation. Fake news about an Israel siege on Gaza, and Israel committing crimes against humanity, became their passport to an outpouring of humanitarian aid, especially from the gullible liberal west. Official figures published by the UN show the countries that financed UNRWA in 2023. The European Union and Britain were the largest contributors with 53%, followed by America and Canada with 38%. Japan and Australia contributed 5% and Muslim countries contributed 4%. Saudi Arabia donated $17 million out of the $1.2 billion UNRWA budget. It is clear that the West has an agenda to ensure that the Palestinians remain a threat to Israel, while the wealthy oil exporting Arab countries pay lip service to supporting Hamas. They see Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as a direct threat to their way of life and rule.
Eight of the top leaders of Hamas, left the squalor that they had created in Gaza, and went to live with their families in Doha, Qatar. They arrived with billions of dollars that they had embezzled and stolen from the people of Gaza. They do not care at all about the poverty and destitute lives of the people in Gaza. On the contrary, the catastrophic pictures of poverty in Gaza are their passport for more humanitarian assistance to flow in. The more aid that flows in, the richer they become.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. They attacked a music festival and nearby kibbutzim. They proudly filmed themselves committing barbaric crimes and openly boasting about killing, raping women of all ages, mutilating bodies, burning babies, and destroying whatever they could. They killed over 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages to Gaza. In deference to the families of those killed and taken hostage, the films taken by the terrorists have not been widely distributed by Israel. They are simply too shocking to be shown.
Israel’s ‘Ground Zero’. Like the site in New York where once stood the Twin Towers, the site in Israel where a massacre took the lives of your revelers at a music festival and shattered the Jewish nation.
Immediately after the attack on October 7, Israel set itself the goal of returning every hostage and eliminating Hamas. Now you cannot eliminate an ideology, but you can reduce the capacity of your enemies to be able to carry out their destructive aims. One of the ways of doing this is to eliminate their leaders. In July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh the overall political leader of Hamas who had been living in Qatar was assassinated while visiting Iran. The level of Israeli intelligence required to succeed in assassinating Haniyah in a pin point manner while in an apartment in Tehran, shocked Iran. On October 16, 2024, more than a year after Hamas attacked Israel, Yahya Sinwar the leader of Hamas in Gaza was killed. He was succeeded by his brother Mohammed Sinwar who was in turn eliminated on May 13, 2025. Both were killed in Gaza.
Killing Killers. Like the vow of US presidents from Bush to Obama to eliminate bin Laden, so Israel vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
On September 9, 2025 Israel decided to attack the 7 remaining leaders of Hamas who were living in Qatar. These leaders are terrorists in every sense of the word. They helped plan the attacks on Israel and they radicalized the people in Gaza. The attack did not go according to plan. Instead of killing the leaders of Hamas, 5 lower-level members of Hamas and one member of the Qatari security force were killed by mistake. None of the billionaire leaders of Hamas living in Doha were killed.
Now comes the double standards of the world towards Israel. When America killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one accused America of attacking Pakistan. When Israel attacked the leadership of Hamas in Qatar, the whole world accused Israel of attacking Qatar. Israel did not attack Qatar. It attacked Hamas leaders living in Qatar. There is a huge difference. The double standard is obvious.
To add insult to injury, on September 25, 2025, the Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu, while attending a meeting with President Trump in the oval office, was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar in an arranged phone call. He was also ordered to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. It was a deliberate humiliation of Israel’s elected prime minister. In trying to mollify Qatar, Trump sent the wrong message to the world. America should not be approving sanctuary for terrorist leaders in any country, especially not Qatar. Qatar is using its bountiful financial resources to advance a very serious double game of promoting chaos across America, while pretending to be an ally of America.
Coerced Call. Following Israel’s attack on the leaders of Hamas in Doha, President Trump orchestrates a call in the White House on September 25, 2025 where Israeli PM Netanyahu was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar and to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. The US had no qualms about taking out the leader of Al–Qaeda in Pakistan.
No matter how great a friend President Trump has been to Israel, it seems reasonable to assume that in the same way that America attacked the leaders of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Israel has the right to attack the leaders of Hamas in Qatar. What happened in the oval office does not augur well for the future of the American Israeli relationship.
About the writer:
AccountantNeville 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).
