Category: Israel-Arab Relations

REBEL, RABBLE OR WORSE?

Understanding the menacing mentality of the Houthis, look not to the deserts sands of Yemen but to the urban landscapes of Europe and America.

By David E. Kaplan

Trying to fathom why a strange-looking folk we Israelis had once never heard of keep lobbing missiles in our direction since they fired their first (literally “out of the blue”) in  November 2023, I stare at this photograph of the Houthis taken in Sana’a, Yemen on March 28, 2025.

Howling Houthis. With fists raised, brandishing weapons from axes, spades and daggers, Houthi protesters and their supporters on annual al-Quds Day in Sana’a, Yemen, March 28, 2025 direct their vitriol towards Israel. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdulla) 

Fueled with hatred against Israel, I can make our a few of the protestors holding up copies of the Koran but for the most part they are brandishing ‘weapons’ of bygone ages such as axes, spades, swords and daggers. They project the collective crazed look that one could imagine on the faces  of the Visigoth or Hun hordes about to sack ancient Rome or the Sudanese Mahdi on its frenzied assault on Khartoum in 1885. What few ‘modern day’ firearms I can make out look like wooden riffles – something out of the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902). I could be looking at a history book off my bookshelf instead of a front page of a newspaper.

It is so easy to dismiss these desert tribesmen as an aberration, a surprise desert menace. However, these Houthis with their crazed appearance in tribal attire arising to strike fear from the desert sands of Yemen have much in common with those who pound the urban pavements of Europe and the Americas. Poles apart culturally, these Houthis share the same ‘targeted’ hate of Jews and Israel as the ‘hordes’ of professors and students at campuses across the Western world, their political leaders, the media and the ‘ordinary’ folk that attend football matches and pop concerts. They may look very different but they are no different when it comes to attitudes towards Jews – either against the individual Jew anywhere or the collective Jew – Israel. In this context, the behavior of the strange looking Houthis is not an aberration but the norm. Their menace lies not in their appearance but in their intent which is evident in Saana as it is in Sydney. Replace the backdrop of arid Yemen desert with the Sydney Opera House and protestors shouting “gas the Jews” and the same malicious hatred is all too evident. It is no less evident in Philadelphia, USA  when this past Passover, a 38-year-old ‘ordinary’ auto mechanic, Cody Balmer, set fire with a homemade Molotov cocktail to the home of Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. This ‘ordinary’ man faces charges of  attempted homicide, aggravated arson, terrorism and other crimes. And now in the US capital, Washington, two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC, Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American a young couple about to be engaged were gunned down in cold blood as they were exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. They were targeted for death for no other reason than that they were “suspected” by the killer of being Jewish. He did not know personally who he was killing as long as they were Jews.

Arsonist’s Message – No Jew is Safe. Fortunately, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were in a different part of their residence on the eve of Passover when it was set ablaze by Harrisburg man, 38-year-old auto mechanic, Cody Balmer. (Photo: Commonwealth Media Services)

What’s more, the killer wasn’t of Middle East descent or a Muslim but one Elias Rodrigues of Chicago, a graduate from the University of Illinois Chicago with a degree in English, currently working at the American Osteopathic Information Association. Before that position, his LinkedIn profile says, he was “an oral history researcher and production coordinator at a Black history site.”

His friends and neighbors are apparently “surprised”.

Israelis were also “surprised” on October 7, 2023! No more…

Jewish killers today come not only in the shape of those on motorcycles, hang gliders and Toyota Hilux trucks as they did on that fateful October 7 or Houthis shooting missiles from afar but they could just as easy be neighbors at any American or European city who are college grads or motor mechanics. They could be positioned anywhere on the political spectrum from left to right – it makes no difference whether they read a bible or prefer the comics, are familiar with mechanics, economics, anatomy or the philosophies of the ancient Greeks. Education is no prophylactic to the malady of antisemitism. 

From Sanaa to Switzerland. How far removed in mindset and demeanor are these anti-Israel demonstrators outside the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest’s grand final in Basel on May 17, 2025 with the Houthis in Yemen? (Photo: Sebastien Bozon/AFP)

Writing in The Spectator, Jonathan Sacerdoti asserts in his piece ‘THE WASHINGTON SHOOTING IS A CHILLING WARNING TO JEWS EVERYWHERE’ that:

“Historians and genocide scholars have long noted that the most chilling acts are often carried out …. by neighbors, shopkeepers, schoolteachers – people who, under different circumstances, might have lived blameless lives. What changes is not their nature, but their perception: a slow erosion of empathy, a steady drip of propaganda, a creeping sense that certain lives are worth less.

In Rwanda, it was farmers with machetes. In Nazi-occupied Europe, it was train conductors, clerks, and landlords. When hatred becomes ambient – socially accepted, reinforced by silence – those who once passed you in the street become capable of terrible things. That is the true terror of genocide: not just the horror of its crimes, but the ordinariness of its perpetrators.”

Targeting Jews. Two members of the Israeli embassy staff – a couple about to get engaged – were gunned down outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.  Their ‘selection’ for execution was the same criteria during the Holocaust – they were Jews! (Photo: X / Embassy of Israel to the USA / @IsraelinUS)

Subject to the steady drip of media into “ordinary” society – whether  on TV or online – the narrative against Jews takes hold and lubricates the path to murder. The complicity of the media in the “War against the Jews” was all too evident  with last week’s vicious claim – a lie akin to a medieval Blood Libel –  that 14,0000 babies in Gaza were “at imminent risk of death by starvation within 48 hours”. Despite the obvious implausibility of the claim where media in the ordinary course of another geographic scenario would have checked and rechecked their ‘facts’ before publishing, they not only failed to do so but outlets repeated it. As Sacerdoti noted:

“Activists shouted it and shared it as gospel, as if numbers so apocalyptic required no scrutiny at all.”

The reason is all too obvious for as Sacerdoti continues:

“What was dismissed as fringe now speaks from podiums and marches through capitals. This was more than a double murder; it was a marker.

The two people killed in Washington could have been me, my friends, my neighbours. Their lives ended on a street in the capital of the free world, while the man who killed them, red keffiyeh in hand, proudly shouted the slogan now barked constantly with increasing fervour on our very own streets, as crowds pass synagogues, Jewish families, and Holocaust memorials swathed in blue tarpaulin for protection: “free free Palestine”. We all know what it really means.”

It means that it is hunting season, and Jews are the prey – anywhere!


2 Israeli Embassy Staff Members Shot and Killed in Washington DC




Feature picture:
From Yemen with Hate. Animated Houthis protesting against Israel on annual al-Quds Day in Sana’a, Yemen, March 28, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdulla) 





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).

‘MARCH OF THE LIVING’ EXPOSES HARSH TRUTHS

It’s not “crying wolf” to name antisemitism when it appears, it’s crying warning.

By Allan Joffe

(*First appeared in the SAJR)

I recently participated in the March of the Living, a journey of remembrance and reflection that takes thousands of Jews and others on the walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau. Marching alongside survivors, rabbis, teenagers, and dignitaries, I expected grief and outrage. I found those emotions, but I also encountered deeper, more unsettling realisations – about Jewish identity, the nature of evil, and the troubling patterns of silence that persist today.

Down on the Track. Marchers prayed and wept as they proceeded through the camp complex as these who sat down on the train track that had brought millions of Jews from across Europe to their death. (Photo: Getty)

One of the first things that struck me was the sea of Israeli flags. Everywhere I turned, it was Israeli flags, not American, not Canadian, not British, or South African, only Israeli. It wasn’t just a matter of national pride. It reflected something deeper: the vast majority of Jews today, whether religious or secular, weave their Jewish identity with Israel.

Among the most powerful things I witnessed on the march was the overwhelming sense of Jewish pride, solidarity, and resilience. Thousands of Jews, from dozens of countries, marched carrying Israeli flags and family memories, not in bitterness or anger, but in remembrance and hope. Their Jewish identity was something rooted in history, faith, and the unbreakable link between past and future.

It also struck me that in stark contrast to the marchers, a small but vocal minority defines their Jewish identity almost entirely through opposition to Israel. Jenny Manson, the co-founder of Jewish Voice for Labour, admitted with breathtaking candour that she “began to identify as a Jew in order to argue against the state of Israel and its behaviour.” In other words, Jewish identity – for her and many like her – isn’t a source of pride, culture, or continuity. Unlike the marchers, their Jewishness isn’t an inheritance but a hollow construct, worn only when it serves their campaign against their own people. The irony and cognitive dissonance are staggering. If their opposition were ever successful, if Israel were dismantled, their connection to Judaism would collapse with it.

As we marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the sheer scale of horror became almost impossible to process. Auschwitz-Birkenau wasn’t just a site of death, it was an industrial complex designed for the systematic extermination of human beings. The Nazis refined murder into an assembly line. Every detail, from the layout of the barracks to the chemical engineering of Zyklon B, spoke of cold, calculated efficiency. The Holocaust is often compared to other atrocities, but in its bureaucratic dehumanisation, it remains a category of its own. It was genocide engineered with industrial precision, and that horror echoes uniquely across history.

Remembrance on the Railway. Leaving messages and photos of Holocaust victims on the camp’s infamous train track. (Photo: Getty)

Another realisation gnawed at me during the march: the Holocaust wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t tucked away in forests or isolated deserts. It was right there, often within earshot and eyesight of Polish towns. Ordinary people lived nearby. They saw the smoke, they heard the trains, they knew. And it wasn’t only in Poland. Trains packed with Jews crisscrossed Europe, rumbling through hundreds of towns and villages. Entire communities watched cattle cars filled with human beings pass by, and the knowledge of what was happening seeped across borders and societies. The idea that people “didn’t know” is a comforting myth. In truth, many knew, and chose to look away.

This is the bystander effect in its most extreme form – the phenomenon in which individuals don’t offer help to a victim when other people are present. Seeing it on such a massive, lethal scale forces uncomfortable questions about human nature. But it also forces questions about today.

Defying Death. With arm raised in defiance, walking out from the cunningly contrived ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gate, where Jews entered 80 years earlier, never to leave. (Photo: Getty)

Over past months, we have seen this silence, and, at times, outright hostility, play out painfully across many parts of society. For example, universities, which once prided themselves on defending free thought and moral clarity, had students and faculty respond to the atrocities of 7 October not with empathy, but with strident hostility toward Israel and often toward Jewish students themselves. In some cases, it wasn’t merely individuals but the institutions themselves that adopted stances indistinguishable from antisemitism. Meanwhile, faculties and students in science, technology, engineering, and medicine largely remained passive bystanders. Even today, many within these fields haven’t meaningfully confronted the moral failure of their silence. Their grievance is narrowly framed:

“We weren’t involved; we don’t discriminate; yet we’re losing our funding.”

This isn’t merely an institutional failure; it’s a collapse of moral courage at the very hour it was most needed.

Hostage Survivor. Kidnapped on October 7, IDF surveillance soldier and released hostage Agam Berger and her mother participate at the March of the Living on April 24, 2025 (Yossi Zeleger/March of the Living)

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, has described antisemitism as a virus that mutates. In the Middle Ages, we were demonised as Christ-killers, accused of blood libels and poisoning wells. In the 19th century, we were vilified as capitalist exploiters and simultaneously as revolutionary subversives. In the 20th century, we were depicted as a racial threat to Aryan purity. Today, we’re denounced as colonial oppressors for having a sovereign state. The language and justifications change; the hatred remains constant. It’s precisely because of this relentless mutation that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted a working definition of antisemitism, a definition that recognises that denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, such as by claiming that the existence of Israel is a racist endeavour, is itself a form of antisemitism.

We don’t need an impossibly high bar to recognise antisemitism. History teaches the opposite: we need a low bar. We need to be alert to the early signs, the coded language, the double standards. Waiting until antisemitism becomes undeniable has always meant waiting too long. It’s not “crying wolf” to name antisemitism when it appears, it’s crying warning.

After 7 October, the painful reality became impossible to ignore. The silence across much of the world was profound. The hesitation, the equivocation, the indifference, all made clear that even in the face of unspeakable brutality against Jews, outrage would be rationed, sympathy would be conditional, and solidarity would be rare. As Sam Harris, a neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author known for his work on ethics, religion, and the human mind, bluntly observed:

 “Who can be counted on to defend the Jews but the Jews.”

Many Jews who had lived comfortably in secular or universalist identities, people like Harris himself, found themselves transformed into “post-7 October Jews”. Not necessarily more religious, but far more aware: of vulnerability, of abandonment, and of the need for Jewish self-reliance.

Singing Survivors. Released hostage Agam Berger and Kibbutz Be’eri survivor Daniel Weiss (r) whose parents were murdered on October 7 perform at March of the Living on April 24, 2025. (Yossi Zeleger/March of the Living)

Of course, there are courageous non-Jewish voices of solidarity today, just as there were righteous gentiles during the Holocaust. Voices like John Spencer, Douglas Murray, and Richard Kemp have stood with Jews when many others wouldn’t. But they are too few and far between. Their courage only highlights the broader loneliness.

Marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau, I felt pride in our resilience. We’re still here. We carry the memory of the dead, and we stand defiant against those who would wish to erase us.



About the writer:


Allan Joffe is a businessman based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is married with three children and recently participated in the March of the Living, an international Holocaust education program.







*Feature picure: Participants with Israeli flag walk along the infamous rail track leading to the gate of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Poland, during the annual March of The Living to honor the victims of the Holocaust on April 24, 2025. (Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AP).





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).

NOT NORMAL BUT THE NORM

Where are your kids and grandkids when the siren sounds?

By Jonathan Feldstein

This is a picture of children lying on the sidewalk in my town, covering their heads with their hands to protect themselves from shrapnel from the ballistic missile that was fired (again) today at Israel. Of course, no hands covering heads will prevent shrapnel from doing tremendous harm, or death. It’s a protocol about as effective as children taking cover under their desks in the 1950s and 1960s in the US in the event of a nuclear attack.  Maybe it makes one feel protected, but let’s be honest….

Dropping with Dread. With no adults around, Israeli children waiting for their school bus, drop to the ground and hold their hands to their heads as sirens sound the warning of an incoming missile from Yemen. (Photo: Facebook/public forum)

The air raid siren sounded at 7:44am today, sending millions of Israelis to bomb shelters unless, like hundreds of thousands of children like these, they were out, on their way to school, or parents taking their kids to school, or going to work. 

Strangely, inappropriately but sadly true, the image was captioned that this is just another “normal” day in Israel. It’s normal from the perspective that we have been living like this not just for weeks, months or even years, but for decades. But it’s anything but normal, and cannot be tolerated.  Israel’s immediate response was to warn Yemini civilians (I wonder how many are following Israeli warnings even in Arabic) to clear out of strategic port areas.  By the time you read this, those strategic port areas may have been bombed “used by Houthis for weapons transfers and terrorism.”  How nice that we warn their civilians. How silly to think they would ever afford us the same courtesy. Afterall, their goal – as with all Islamic jihadists – is to murder and maim as many of us as possible. 

As we sat in the bomb shelter that’s part of our home, the family WhatsApp group got lively with everyone checking on one another, especially my daughter and son-in-law. Last night bedtime was interrupted as they put their four boys to sleep when Houthi terrorists fired a missile at Israel, almost exactly 12 hours earlier. This morning, where were they? Taking kids to school? Were the kids in school already, and if so, how did the teachers quickly scramble to get them all in a bomb shelter?  

Jitters in Jerusalem. People ‘take cover’ in the open as the sound of sirens indicate a missile attack from Yemen, in central Jerusalem, March 27, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/ Oren Ben Hakoon)
 

It turns out that my oldest grandson was on a bus to school the moment the siren was sounded. He is six. What stress it must have caused him, rushing off on a school bus with 40-50 other kids, to take cover in the dirt or on the sidewalk like the children pictured here above. 

What stress for the bus driver who had to manage that quickly and safely, and also deal with any panic among the children.  What stress for my daughter and son-in-law, and us, not knowing where he was or if he was OK and how he managed to get through this, and without a phone to tell everyone he was OK, or scared, or just to be comforted from afar. 

No, this is not normal. Not at all.  But it is our norm. 

This week, 77 years ago, the State of Israel declared independence from previous British, Ottoman, and other foreign rulers who controlled the Land of Israel for centuries, millennia actually, since the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, and the start of the exile of the Jewish people. When the UN voted to establish a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland six months earlier, the Arabs said “NO” – loudly and repeatedly. They rejected two states if one of the states was a Jewish state. Many, joined by hundreds of millions of other Muslims, still reject today the very right of Israel to exist. 

Kids in Danger. Missile debris falls on kindergarten in northern Israel in February following a ballistic missile from Yemen. Shai Regev, head of education at Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, said the kindergarten serves 32 children between the ages of 4 and 6 and was “… a huge miracle,” that the kindergarten had not yet opened. “… it was a terrifying scene that shows just how close the danger is.”

For 77 years, Israel has not had a single day of peace.  We have had to innovate to be able to survive, spending trillions to defend ourselves, and to do so in ways that also involve added risk and massive expense to ourselves, trying to prevent civilian casualties on the other side, whether in Yemen today, or Gaza yesterday, or Lebanon six months ago.

This is not normal, but it is our norm. 

This week, rather than reflecting on their own values, culture, and society being corrupt and broken, hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims, including Palestinian Arabs and many other Arabs and Muslims around the world along with their supporters in the West, will mark what they call “Nakba Day”.  Nakba means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic.  Yet far from being enlightened to realize that their leaders have failed them all these decades and are the ones responsible for their dire situation, they will chant, protest, threaten, and burn things as they declare that their “catastrophe” is Israel’s very existence.  This is the reality from Gaza to Tehran, from Saana to Syria, from Damascus to Doha.

This is their norm, and no, it’s also not normal.

But as long as their norm is to blame and burn, rather than take responsibility, make peace, and build for the future, this will also be our norm.

In a dozen years, my oldest grandson will go off to the IDF, probably as a combat soldier like his father. I pray that he does not encounter jihadi peers who look at him, at all of us, as the enemy, as illegitimate foreign occupiers. I pray that Palestinian Arabs will rise up not just to reject Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and their extremist Islamic backers in Iran and Qatar, but have a radical change of heart, and realize that by living in their “catastrophe”, it is in fact self-inflicted and self-fulfilling.

Houthis launch missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion airport

With President Trump being in the region last week meeting with terrorists in suits from Syria, Turkey, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, and more, I hope that he delivered a message that will pave the way to a better future for all the children of the Middle East and where Israeli kids never, while waiting to catch their school bus have to suddenly bury their faces in the ground, “protecting” their heads from incoming missiles with their little hands.



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).

IRAN, IRAQ AND OPEC

How successive American Presidents – Democratic and Republican – have misread the Middle East.

By Neville Berman

This article aims to briefly touch on how three events in 1979 profoundly weakened the West. The first was the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the second was Saddam Hussein seizing control of Iraq, and the third was the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) unilaterally raising the price of a barrel of oil ten-fold over the price before 1973. These three changes, all left unchallenged by the impotent West, enriched and emboldened the Islamists and changed the world.  

Carter was the American President in 1979. He aimed to promote the western concept of democracy and human rights across the world. With the exception of Israel, democracy and human rights are completely foreign to the Middle East. Carter saw the Shah of Iran as an abuser of human rights and promoted his overthrow. Instead of democracy and human rights, Khomeini turned Iran into an Islamic autocracy with no rights for women, and brutal punishment for those that opposed his rule. Carter got it completely wrong.

World Over a Barrel.  This 1979 TIME magazine cover captures the “Oil Shock” of that year when by mid-1979, oil prices began to rise rapidly more than doubling between April 1979 and April 1980.

President Bush, decided after 9/11, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and had supported Al Qaeda. He decided to overthrow Saddam and get rid of the Baath Party. The war cost America both blood and treasure. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. America had no idea what to do with Iraq after the war ended. With Iraq neutralized by America, Iran was given a green light to pursue its policy of hegemony over the middle east and to try to eliminate Israel. America wanted to promote a stable Middle East, instead it got Islamism, terrorism, death and destruction. President Bush got it completely wrong.

Message Loud and Clear. In the presence of senior Iranian officials, including then President Ebrahim Raisi, tens of thousands of Iranians, some chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel,” marched in the capital of Tehran April 14, 2023 to mark “Jerusalem Day”.  Banners raised by demonstrators read “the destruction of Israel is near” and “Palestine is the axis of unity of the Muslim world”.  (Photo: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

There are six words that Iran has used for decades. The words are not in Farci but in English. For some reason, no American President seems able to understand them. The words are Death to America and Death to Israel. Very few believed Hitler when he declared that he wanted a Jew-free Europe. Words need to be taken seriously.  President Obama decided that the six words were an invitation to negotiate. The initial idea was to end Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, and then to remove sanctions and release all the frozen Iranian money in western banks. Despite holding all the cards, America caved in to Iranian demands. All the frozen money was released, sanctions were lifted, and Iran continued to enrich uranium and develop its missile program. Flush with cash, Iran immediately increased funding of terrorist proxies throughout the middle east. Inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency became farcical when Iran refused to allow inspectors into certain facilities and turned off cameras that were meant to monitor the situation. President Obama got it completely wrong.  

Fired up .A drop in oil production in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution (see above) led to an energy crisis and although the global oil supply only decreased by approximately four percent, the oil markets’ reaction raised the price of crude oil drastically over the next 12 months, more than doubling it to $39.50 per barrel.

One of the bedrock axioms of economics is that demand and supply determines the price. OPEC formed a cartel to limit the supply of oil in order to increase the price. The world never formed an opposing cartel to limit the price of oil. What followed was the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. The money flowed straight into the treasuries of the few oil exporting countries. There has never been a shortage of oil. The world has over a hundred years of known oil deposits to satisfy the current demand for oil. The money from oil sales at massively increased prices, effectively transformed some of the poorest countries on earth into fabulously wealthy countries. Almost all the oil importing countries are now facing deficits and inflation.  From the above it is clear that both Democrat and Republican Presidents have made decisions that have emboldened and enriched anti-western leaders in the Middle East for decades. They all totally caved in to OPEC.

‘Fuel’ing Fear. Cars line up outside a filling station on the first day of gas rationing in May 9, 1979 imposed on nine California counties following the revolution in Iran that caused a shortage of crude oil.  (Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Image)

Most western countries are democracies. Democratic elections are usually won by one party receiving a few percentage points of votes more than the opposition. If one political party loses 5% and the opposition party gains 5% there is a 10% change in the election result. Qatar is led by one family known as the House of Thani. Qatar has used its massive wealth to finance the building of Middle Eastern Study Centers on all the campuses of the top universities in the US. All the lecturers hired are anti-Israel and against Western values. Qatar aims to cause at least a 5% change in the election process and bring about the subjugation of America. They have joined forces with the radical left in an attempt to bring chaos to America. Qatar has approximately 320,000 citizens. Despite its small size it has decided to use its wealth and the American constitutional right of free speech to attack America and cause chaos across the country. The aim is to remove American support for Israel and then to subjugate America to Islamic rule. Successive American Presidents have allowed this to happen.

Campus Chaos.  More than just a display of a Palestinian flag at Harvard University by these graduating students is the display of Qatar’s grip on US education that caused an explosion of campus antisemitism. (Photo credit:  Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Saudi Arabia has been paying for the construction of large mosques all over the world. The Imans in these mosques come from Saudi Arabia. They promote Islamic views of domination and subjugation, and have radicalized many of their followers around the world. They pose a direct threat to the liberal western rules- based world. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia aim to bring about the fall of the West. What is really amazing is that America sees Qatar and Saudi Arabia as allies. America seems to be totally ignorant as to what is actually taking place. Money and greed have replaced morality and ethics. President Trump has clearly demonstrated that he wants to make deals. Democracy and common values are no longer part of the conversation. 

Sign of the Times.  Due to memories of the oil shortage in 1973, motorists soon began panic buying as they had six years earlier until gas stations ran out!

Politicians in democracies need to face elections. It is clear that a change in the composition of the citizens will inevitably affect the number of votes for a candidate. The massive surge of immigrants into the West is dramatically changing election priorities throughout the West. There is no doubt that Islam is on the rise in the West and that an enormous amount of funding has been provided by Middle Eastern countries to promote Islamic ideals across the world. Indifference as to what is going on is not a policy. It is a strategic error that will lead to massive confrontation and chaos.

It is also clear that Israel also operated under the misguided policy of thinking that economic prosperity would bring about a peaceful resolution to the situation in Gaza. Without a doubt, successive Israel governments got it all wrong. After the shock of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, Israel quickly changed its policies. More than one and a half years later, the war is still ongoing.  From the above, it is clear that leaders in the West also need to come to terms with what is happening. The elephant in the room is Islamic fundamentalism. It can no longer be ignored.



About the writer:

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





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

“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE NUMBERS”

We didn’t create the horrors of October 7 – Gazans did – and we have to ensure they don’t succeed in trying again.

By Forest Rain Marcia

With Jews around the world being attacked for the large loss of Gazan lives in a war started by Gazans invading Israel, torturing, raping, slaughtering, burning entire families alive, I was reminded of the answer Yasser Arafat gave to Israeli reporter Zvi Yechezkeli when asked why he rejected in July 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s Camp David peace proposal described “extraordinary concessions” (Michael Kelly, Washington Post, 3/13/02), “far-reaching concessions” (Boston Globe, 12/30/01), “unprecedented concessions” (E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 12/4/01) and igniting the Second Intifada. It resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreign nationals.

“It’s not about the numbers. It’s about justice,” said Yasser Arafat.

So now, I will use his words:

 “It’s not about numbers. It’s about justice.”

Kfar Aza Massacre. Israeli soldiers around the death and destruction caused by Hamas killers in Kibbutz Kfar Azaon October 10, 2023.(Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“Genocide!” scream the haters of Israel, ignoring the facts. They don’t care that the civilian casualties, while always tragic, are an unfortunate reality of war or that the combatant-to-civilian ratio in Gaza is the lowest in modern warfare (approximately 1:1). Instead, they shout:

 “How many dead will satisfy you? When will the numbers be too high for you and make you demand Israel stop?”

Jews, bombarded by these hateful accusations, often find themselves stunned – at a loss for words.

We didn’t want this war.

Highway of Hell. Never to happen again must be these scenes of people caught in ‘death trap’ vehicles in southern Israel trying to flee from the murderous marauders from Gaza on October 7.

We hoped Gazans would use their beachfront piece of land to build a thriving new Singapore, vibrant and successful.
We don’t like killing. We don’t like destruction.
We are the people who help others improve their lives. We are builders.

As far as we are concerned, the optimal number of dead Gazans or destroyed buildings is ZERO.

But that doesn’t mean we should demand Israel stop the war.
On the contrary.

Israel has a moral obligation to her citizens and to Jews everywhere.
Israelis must be able to sleep in their beds or attend a party without fearing invaders who might swoop in to torture, slaughter, or take hostages.
Jews worldwide must know they won’t be targeted by hostage-takers hoping to blackmail the only Jewish state.

Israel must fulfill the promise: NEVER AGAIN.

We didn’t create the horrors of October 7th – Gazans did.
They took our families and friends hostage and will not give them back.
They attacked us – and repeatedly vow to do it again, and again, until we no longer exist.

We do not love war. We love our families and must protect them.

Our soldiers went to war because they saw their sisters defiled and tossed to the ground like trash.


They saw their parents forced to evacuate their homes to keep the little ones safe from missiles or the next wave of invaders.

They went to war to prevent future children from experiencing what my friend’s granddaughter Liel experienced. A 12-year-old, begging the security forces to rescue her from the house where terrorists were holding her hostage, saying: “I have school tomorrow!” A terrified little girl, murdered with her twin brother, aunt, and other neighbors.

They went to war to prevent future women from being slaughtered like Michal. She went to a party to celebrate with friends and her mother, our friend, had to spend a week searching for her before she was found – and identified by her dental records.

Our soldiers went to war to make it clear – to the attackers and to every person around the world who cheered them on – that we meant it when we said: “NEVER AGAIN”

So, when the haters scream, “How many Gazans must die before you tell Israel to stop?” this is what Jews and all who value freedom must reply:

“It’s not about the numbers. It’s about justice.”

Take, for example, Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt. Once a bustling city, Rafah however boasted an extensive infrastructure of terror and smuggling tunnels. Weapons, ammunition and more were smuggled into Gaza through their tunnels.

Hamas Justice. Murdered in Rafah were hostages from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. They were murdered by their Hamas captors in Gaza in August 2024. (Photo: The Hostages Families Forum via AP)

Rafah today is devastated.  This is the Rafah where the leader of Hamas and the architect of the October 7 massacre and attack, Yahya Sinwar was later found and killed by Israeli forces as well where six hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Carmel Gat were brutally murdered by their Hamas captors in August 2024 – near the building where Sinwar was later killed.

From Release to Rafah. Found and killed in Rafah, Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the architect of the October 7 massacre, is seen here in 2011 after being released from an Israeli prison in a prisoner exchange. (Photo: Adel Hana/AP)

So, while the devastation in Rafah doesn’t bring me joy, it does help me breathe a little easier.

This is what consequences look like. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about justice. It’s about proving that we meant it when we said “NEVER AGAIN”



About the writer:

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

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





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

ISRAEL’S SOUNDS OF SIRENS

They resonate, they reverberate, they blare telling a story of where we were in the past but also where we are in the present.

By David E. Kaplan

A stranger who is totally unfamiliar with Israel’s customs and history visiting Israel during these trying times could be excused for asking:

 “Why is there a siren blaring now?”

Holocaust Day. Traffic come to a halt on Yom HaShoah in Israel as sirens sound calling people to observe a moment of silence for those murdered during the Holocaust. Days later, they sound again, this time for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism.

Try explaining we have sirens sounding for the past and for the present. For the past an air raid siren sounded at 10.00 a.m. on April 23 throughout the country on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) observing two minutes of solemn reflection for the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust during WWII.  Days later, on April 29, the first siren is heard heralding in Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s day of remembrance for its fallen soldiers and victims of terror and again the next morning, a second siren sounds at 11.00am, when most Israelis, wherever they are or whatever they are doing, stop and stand in silence.

‘Stand’ with Israel. With the mournful sound of the siren, Israel comes to a standstill as traffic stops and people stand for two minutes reflecting on the lives lost in uniform and those killed in acts of terrorism.

Then there are the more frequent sirens that have been blaring for some 20 months at all times of the day or night that contrary to the abovementioned sirens where you stand in silence, these sirens you run as fast as you can for cover.

If the former sirens commemorate past deaths, these erratic sirens warn to prevent future deaths as we wait for incoming missiles from Gaza, from Lebanon, from Iran or from Yemen – yes, that could be from the north, from the east, from the south west and from the south. Israel is surrounded by enemies determined to extinguish Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. The first thing people in apartment blocks ask when they collectively huddle in the bomb shelters is:

“Where is this missile coming from?”

Either in clothes or pajamas – depending on what time of day –  the anxious are quickly on their cellphones to come up with the answer!

Sirens not to Stand but to Run. A typical message that appears on your cellphone app indicating in what areas sirens have sounded indicating incoming missiles.

While to the unacquainted visitor from abroad it may be confusing, to the average Israeli it is all part of a routine. Even my under 6-year-old grandchildren understand when it is time to stand and when it is time to run. All associated with violent death, the sirens are either to remind of those killed in the past or they are to prevent being killed in the present.

As I type, I suddenly withdraw my fingers from the keyboard, swivel off my computer chair to hurriedly call my brother living on a moshav in the north of Israel because a siren had gone off in his area warning of an incoming ballistic missile from the Houthis in Yemen – an enemy over 2,211km (1,373 miles) away who nearly two years ago, most Israelis had never even heard of! The breaking news later confirmed the missile attack with this headline:

 “Missile debris falls on kindergarten in northern Israel after interception of Houthi launch.”

Houthis Hounding Kids. Debris from an intercepted missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels landed on a kindergarten in northern Israel on May 1, 2025, piercing the building’s roof and ceiling. Fortunately, no children were present at the time. (Photo: Megiddo Regional Council).

The debris pierced the kindergarten building’s roof and ceiling but thankfully no children were present at the time and no injuries were reported. Yes, survival in Israel can depend on luck but most certainly on sirens.

As there are enemies unhappy with Jews in Israel there are today enemies unhappy with Jews anywhere – in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, South Africa and Australia. There may not be sirens sounding in these countries, but the warnings are clear – Jews are under threat everywhere. It is the hunting season and Jews are the prey. My daughter’s dancing students who have this year won competitions in Israel qualifying them to compete in competitions in Europe – London and Paris – cannot realistically consider going – too unsafe, particularly for young girls! However, it is not only Israelis, who are today precautionary as when they travel abroad that might switch languages or tone down the volume when they speak Hebrew. Jews generally, are lowering or disguising their religious, ethnic or cultural profile by removing:

–kipot (skullcaps)

–Magen David (Star of David) necklaces

– Menorahs from the front doors of their homes

– when holding community events, only notifying of the venue at the last moment so as to minimize the danger of attacks

– increasing security at synagogues.

Australia, once considered a “Jewish paradise” is no more. Earlier this year, two men with covered faces, dressed in black, came to a house in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and sprayed the garage with red paint, set the cars parked in the street on fire, and added antisemitic graffiti. Their target was the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the representative body of the country’s Jewish community and a contributor to Lay of the Land. They erroneously thought Ryvchin still lived there.

In an interview with Globes, Ryvchin related:

“My wife and I woke up early that morning, because we received the security camera recordings from our old neighbor who lives opposite. On the cameras, we saw a car pull up and two men pouring gasoline on the road leading up to the house and setting two cars alight. On one of the cars, they wrote ‘Fuck Israel’ on one side and ‘Jews’ on the other side.”

Their choice of parlance reveals to them as it does to across the world that Israel and Jews are synonymous.

Only a month earlier in Australia, a children’s daycare center next to a Sydney synagogue was set on fire, and in December, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at a synagogue in Melbourne.

Data reveals that the number of antisemitic incidents in the “Jewish paradise” jumped to 2,062 in the twelve months following the October 7 massacre from just 495 in the previous year. There is no shortage of reports from harassment to physical attacks. Two highly publicized incidents that majorly rattled the Jewish community was when a Jewish-owned business in Melbourne was sprayed with the words “Gas the Jews” and then followed when two nurses from a Sydney hospital Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, refugees from Afghanistan, related in a conversation on TikTok that when it comes to Israeli patients, Ahmed said “I won’t treat them, I will kill them,” and “I want you to remember my face, so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death,” with Nadir chiming in with, “You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital and I send them to Jahannam (hell).”

What would Wagner have thought of this Opera outside an Opera House? Only 2 days after the October 7 2023 massacre, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gather on October 9 at the Sydney Opera House, which had been planned to be illuminated in the colors of the Israeli flag following the atrocities of October 7 and chanted “gas the Jews” and “f…the Jews”. (Photo: AP/Rick Rycroft)

The “siren” for Australian Jews should have been when a few days after the October massacre in 2023, a demonstration took place outside the Sydney Opera House, with participants recorded shouting “Where are the Jews” and “Gas the Jews”. While the world was horrified, the Australian government besides condemning the incident, did little to curb the outbreak of Jew hatred that has only grown in momentum and contributed to the global pandemic.

At least in Israel, Jews do not ask as they might do when traveling abroad:

“I wear a kippah. If I were to come, would that be dangerous for me?”

If they have to ask that question, the siren is already sounding.

Rocket Warning Sirens Sound in Tel Aviv | VOANews

EPILOGUE

One writes in Israel as it is happening. As I conclude this article I am compelled to UNEXPECTABLY add an epilogue.

It is 9.40am Sunday 4 May and suddenly I was drawn away again from my computer only to return 15 minutes later from the shelter here in my apartment block in Kfar Saba.

Yes, another SIREN!

My wife WhatsApp’s me that she stopped the car and has run into a supermarket for cover! This is followed by my Lay of the Land co-partner, Rolene Marks living in Modiin, WhatsApping me:

 “WOW! That bang was loud…in the shelter at gym – whole building shook.”

I could understand why as the news breaks on Ynet:

“Houthis target Israel in ballistic missile strike, hit Ben Gurion international airport”

The airport is close to Modiin and it was the fifth missile fired by the Houthis in two days.

Houthi Havoc. Following sirens across all of central Israel, a Houthi missile crashes around access road to Terminal 3 at Ben Gurion Airport, May 4, 2025. Three people were mildly wounded as a result of the blast and the access road to Terminal 3 suffered damage. (Photo: MDA)

Israelis will wait another year for the sirens to sound once more for Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron but in the meantime, we can expect many more sirens ‘screaming’ at us to run for cover.





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

SOUTH AFRICA’S CONDUCT IN COURT – SECRECY AND SHENANIGANS

ICJ finds serious procedural violations in South Africa’s submission against Israel that should be acting with integrity and transparency not procedural violations, hearsay ‘evidence’ and secrecy.

By Craig Snoyman

(*First appeared under different title in the SAJR)

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a curious decision – one that the South African legacy media has largely ignored. Instead of holding Israel to filing its answer to South Africa’s case by the original deadline of 28 July 2025, the court granted a massive extension, to 28 January 2026.

On the face of it, this does not appear to be significant. But looking beneath the surface, there are serious implications for South Africa.

Funding the initial application: Why don’t we know where the money came from?

After South Africa instituted its application against Israel, alleging that it was committing genocide, speculation swirled about who was funding the case. After a lengthy silence, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, stated in Parliament in December 2024 that South Africa was allocating a further R95 million to pursue the costs of the memorial (the founding case) at the ICJ. What remains unstated, and which the legacy media no longer questions, is who financed the initial application for preventative measures, which is distinguishable from the memorial. Credible sources such as the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy suggested that this funding came from Iran, and possibly Qatar as well. While the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said that the government had paid for it, Godongwana was more circumspect, dealing only with the memorial. The problem with this is that two years down the line there are still no financial records showing that any South African ministry either paid for, or budgeted for, the initial application.

Colourful Charade. South African lawyer Adila Hassim (left), South Africa’s justice minister Ronald Lamola (centre) and ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the International Court of Justice on Thursday. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Remko de Waal)

Professor John Dugard, the de facto leader of the South African legal team, refused to give a straight answer, merely stating that:

 “…allegations of covert funding are politically charged but legally irrelevant. The ICJ assesses cases on merits, not on financial origins.”

The suspicion that the government is either concealing information from its voting public or misrepresenting the position remains.

While doubts persist about the government and the initial funding, there was never a question about the capability of the South African legal team. This was the “A Team” – South Africa’s best silks and highly qualified and experienced international jurists. But with last week’s ICJ order this, too, needs to be looked at more closely.

The memorial submission: A legal battle shrouded in secrecy

The first substantive step in the case to prove that Israel has violated the Genocide Convention was the submission of a memorial detailing the genocide allegations. This memorial came at the hefty price of tens of millions of rand, and a substantial amount of it was used for investigation and legal fees. South Africa’s memorial amounted to a monumental 750 pages, accompanied by more than 4 000 pages of exhibits and annexes, setting out its evidence against Israel, including accusations of forced displacement, starvation, and mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

However, in keeping with ICJ protocol, memorials are not made public, and so South Africa’s memorial content remains locked away from public scrutiny. Israel was obligated to submit its counter-memorial (its defence) by 28 July 2025, approximately six months after the filing of the memorial. That deadline has now taken a dramatic turn.

A stunning ICJ ruling: SA exposed for serious procedural violations

The ICJ, after considering both South Africa’s and Israel’s submissions, ordered that Israel need only file its counter-memorial next year. This postponement to allow Israel to file its response (adding 9 months to the time given to respond), suggests that the ICJ found serious procedural violations in South Africa’s submission.

Vague at The Hague. Distracting attention away from its own abysmal record, (South Africa’s murder rate of 45 per 100,000 (2023/24) is the second highest for countries that publish crime data), it pursues Israel on unsubstantiated charges at The Hague. Seen here is a rather bored South African ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela checking his phone during a hearing at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2024. (Patrick Post/AP)

Reliable leaks from “Western diplomats” have elaborated on the court’s order concerning the averment that “the counter-memorial had been significantly impeded because of a range of evidentiary issues that had arisen in connection with the memorial of the Republic of South Africa and in light of which the scope of the case remained unclear”. These leaks have now also been independently verified. In layman’s terms, South Africa is playing evidential hide-and-seek with Israel’s legal team. The diplomatic sources, and as verified by Israeli Professor Eugene Kontorovich and former Israeli Ambassador and an expert in international law, Alan Baker, state that South Africa submitted crucial evidence but concealed it from Israel, and it has submitted numerous unsubstantiated hearsay testimonies stemming from Hamas sources. South Africa’s response implicitly acknowledged that there was fire below the smoke responding that:

 “…the evidentiary issues raised concerned a limited number of documents and could in no way prejudice the respondent in the preparation of its case”.

For the “A Team” to pursue justice dishonestly would betray the very principle of justice itself and South Africa’s image as this benevolent pursuer of human rights. South Africa should be acting with integrity, transparency, and rigorous evidence – not through procedural violations, unreliable hearsay evidence, and secrecy. It should not be left to Israel to make sense of South Africa’s mess.

As any first-year law student would know, in these circumstances, this would be a violation of fundamental legal principles, coupled with an inability to prove that Israel has committed “genocide” as accepted by the Genocide Convention. My law professor once said my essays were neither quantitative nor qualitative. It seems the ICJ has viewed South Africa’s procedural irregularities in a similar vein. Its response has been to give South Africa a virtual harsh slap across the face.

Killing Kids. The massacre in Israel that began the hostilities is irrelevant to South Africa. This photo of children’s toys and personal items lying on the bloodstained floor of a child’s bedroom, following the murderous attack by Hamas gunmen in Kibbutz Beeri on October 7 would probably solicit a yawn from South Africa’s ‘illustrious’ legal team. (Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

A fiasco at the ‘expense’ of South Africa

With a government refusing to clarify who financed the initial application, and the “A Team” seemingly committing basic legal errors, South Africa’s financial and legal missteps are costing the nation dearly. At a time when South Africa is feeling international political heat, legal egg on the face is not what is needed now. If the case for genocide lacks the legal foundation and it doesn’t have the evidence, then South Africa must stop throwing millions into a losing battle. Justice demands more than passion. It demands precision. And right now, South Africa may not be offering either.



About the writer:

Craig Snoyman is a practising advocate in South Africa.





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 UN’S LATEST BLOOD LIBEL

Obsessively anti-Israel, UNHRC absurdly accuses Israel of fresh “genocide” by obstructing Palestinian births.

By Rolene Marks

I sometimes think that the United Nation exists just to demonize Israel. The UN never pass up an opportunity to indulge their inner Goebbels and engage in their favourite pastime – targeting and demonizing Israel. We have seen this in just about every major division from the General Assembly to the Human Rights Council.  The UN is rotten from the head of the fish – Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the people managing social media who can barely mention any crime committed against Israelis. The US Deputy Ambassador, Robert Wood, who recently retired after nearly 40 years in the Foreign Service, including most recently as deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Biden administration, knows firsthand that Washington’s next envoy to the global body will have to swim upstream to curb Jew-hatred.

“One of the first things that the next permanent representative will need to focus on is ridding that building of antisemitism, because the entire building is hemorrhaging with it,” Wood told the Jewish News Syndicate in an interview.

No agency is more evident of that than the UN Human Rights Council. In June 2007, the UNHRC established Agenda Item VII, enshrining its discrimination against Israel by requiring the Jewish state be singled out at every meeting – the only country-specific permanent item on the Council’s agenda.

 In the wake of the atrocities of 7 October, the UNHRC have yet to condemn the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. On 27 October 2023, the council passed a resolution:

“Calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the General Assembly today demanded the unhindered provision of essential aid to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip, as the body continued its emergency session on the situation in the Middle East.  The Assembly also failed to unequivocally reject and condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting on 7 October.” (Source: press.un.org)

According to a press release from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 5 April 2024:

“The resolution adopted today, the UN condemns Israel for the war in Gaza but makes no mention of Hamas or its crimes on October 7th. The resolution equates the hostages/ with detainees suspected of terrorist activity. It also opposes Israel’s right to defend itself. Furthermore, the resolution provides legitimacy for Palestinian ‘resistance’ to the ‘occupation,’ calls for an arms embargo on Israel, and blatantly disregards the supply of weapons to Hamas by Iran and its allies.

Following the adoption of the resolution, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, left the hall in protest.”

A reminder that the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Rights which clearly states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Universal – except for the Jewish state. The UNHRC has also systematically ignored the crimes against humanity of sexual violence committed against Israeli women, girls and men on 7 October and thereafter in captivity. Despite taking several months to acknowledge these crimes, Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, led an official visit to Israel from 29 January to 14 February to gather, analyse and verify reports of sexual violence related to the 7 October attack.

Seeing for Herself. “Things happened here that I have never seen before. The world outside cannot understand the magnitude of the event,” expressed UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, Pramila Patten (third left) visiting Kibbutz Be’eri and the location where the Nova party was held. She watched a 47-minute film documenting Hamas atrocities and engaged with witnesses and ZAKA members, expressing horror at what she saw and heard. (Photo: Yiffit Iliaguiav, MFA)
 

“What I witnessed in Israel were scenes of unspeakable violence perpetrated with shocking brutality,” Ms. Patten recalled. Detailing her methodology, she said that her team met with families of hostages and members of communities displaced from several kibbutzim.  It conducted confidential interviews with 34 individuals, including survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, first responders and health and service providers.  It visited four attack sites – as well as the morgue to which the bodies of victims were transferred – and reviewed over 5,000 photographic images and some 50 hours of footage of the attacks. “It was a catalogue of the most extreme and inhumane forms of killing, torture and other horrors,” including sexual violence, she stated.  The team also found convincing information that sexual violence had been committed against hostages.

Patten reported her conclusion to the UN Security Council that there were reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence  –  including rape and gang-rape  –  occurred across multiple locations in Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023.

These crimes, committed in the most depraved and sadistic manner have been roundly ignored and even justified by feminist organisations.  I highly recommend everyone reading this very difficult but meticulously researched report on the atrocities of 7 October led by respected historian, Lord Roberts: https://www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk/

The UNHRC’s persistent targeting of the world’s only Jewish state for opprobrium has resulted in both the US and Israel withdrawing from it.

Last month (March 2025),  in what can only be described as a modern-day blood libel, the UNHRC released their commission report accusing Israel of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, and used sexual violence as a war strategy.

See no Evil. The Geneva-based UNHRC is yet to condemn the October 7 massacre – the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust.

Some of the ludicrous allegations include:

“Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention,” said the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry.

Those actions, in addition to a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, the commission said.

The report also accused Israel’s security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as part of their standard operating procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023. Stripping prisoners is not an uncommon practice – especially when these terror organisations employ suicide bombing as a tactic.

Israel rejected the accusations. “The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct”, the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva responded in a statement, adding that its review processes are in line with international standards.

Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem told the AFP news agency that the report “shows that Israel has committed genocide in the Palestinian Authority territories since the October 7 attack.” He said, “it confirms what happened on the ground: the violation of humanitarian and legal principles.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the report calling it a modern-day “blood libel.” In its statement, the ministry said, “This is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen (and the world has seen many). It blames the victims for the crimes committed against them. Hamas is the organization that committed horrific sexual crimes against Israelis. This is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organization like the UN could have produced.”

Revolting Revelations. “It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women’s bodies from ISIS in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,” said Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy a legal expert at the Davis Institute of International Relations at Hebrew University. “It brings me chills just to know the details that they knew about what to do to women: cut their organs, mutilate their genitals, rape. It’s horrifying to know this.”

In a press release on Wednesday, 2 April 2025, Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, issued the following statement:

“Today’s UNHRC report and resolution represent the highest form of victim-blaming and the lowest form of moral clarity. In the harrowing words of Amit Soussana, a released hostage who endured sexual abuse at the hands of barbaric Hamas terrorists, and who just this week was honoured and decorated by the US Administration for her bravery: “In captivity I had no control over my body, no control over my life. I resisted as best as I could.”

While inquiries by prominent institutions such as the UK Houses of Parliament, and even the UN itself, prove unequivocally the systematic and premeditated nature of the sexual violence and crimes committed by Hamas, the UN so called Human Rights Council seeks to accuse Israel of gender-based attacks. Instead of condemning brutal terrorism, it vilifies those defending innocent lives.

The UNHRC has long abandoned moral integrity, but even by its standards, this is a new low – whitewashing Hamas atrocities while ignoring Israeli pain and agony is not ‘justice,’ it’s an insult to truth and decency. It’s an insult to humanity.”

Sexually Abused. “We see women of all ages… We see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused,” Captain Maayan told the BBC

The UNHRC’s bilious and relentless focus on Israel at the expense of other conflicts in the world is proof that the UN body is not only redundant and untrustworthy, but by ignoring sexual crimes against Israelis while perpetuating a blood libel has failed current and future victims of sexual assault. The UNHRC has engaged in grotesque victim blaming and is effectively acting as the diplomatic arm of Hams. This is not a human rights council – it is a sham. Perhaps the time has come for many more countries to follow the US and Israel and exit.





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).

MAXIMUM PRESSURE NOT ONLY PROTECTS AMERICA – IT EMPOWERS IRANIANS

A plea by a survivor of the Iranian regime to the US to apply maximum pressure.

By Iranian American Marziyeh Amirizadeh

As an Iranian-born Christian who survived the brutality of Iran’s Evin Prison, I’ve witnessed and suffered the Islamic regime’s cruelty firsthand: their lies, their oppression, their unrelenting hatred for, and repression of any freedom. When I hear about the United States negotiating with Iran’s Islamic leaders, my heart aches for both my homeland and my adopted country, America. Negotiation with this regime is not just futile – it is dangerous. Those who champion an “America First” approach, yet shy away from maximum pressure on Iran are mistaken, either avoiding or ignorant of the truth that the regime’s very survival threatens us all. The only solution for Iran, for America, and for the world is a regime change – a new Iran, free from misogynist Islamic extremism, that will align with the values of liberty and peace for which America stands and should be supporting.

Insights from the Inside. Footage from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison leaked out in 2021. The writer was imprisoned here in the women’s section where she was tortured and her cell mate and best friend was executed.

Negotiating with Iran’s Islamic regime is like bargaining with a scorpion. Death is inevitable. For over four decades, the Islamic Republic has proven it cannot be trusted. They brainwash children to chant “Death to America” while smiling at and deceiving diplomats. They are the largest global funder of terrorism through its tentacles such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and more, all while pretending to want peace. They violate every international agreement, from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal to basic human rights treaties, with impunity.

Inciting Hate. The US can expect no genuine compromise from an Iran that holds conferences entitled “Long Live Death to America” as it did here on 3 November 2015, at Teheran University. 

I have seen their deception up close. In 2009, I was arrested because of my Christian faith. They tortured me and my cellmates, and executed my best friend. The U.S. cannot afford to repeat the mistake of tried negotiations that only strengthens the regime’s hand, giving them time to advance their nuclear ambitions, oppress their people, and destabilize the Middle East. Let the world not be deceived: for the ayatollahs, negotiation is a tactic to reach their goal of a nuclear weapon. And to be clear, if they achieve a nuclear weapon, they will use it.

Some argue that diplomacy saves American lives and resources, avoiding costly conflicts. But this ignores reality. Appeasement emboldens Iran. When the U.S. eased sanctions, Iran didn’t moderate – it funneled billions into Syria’s war, Yemen’s chaos, and terrorist proxies targeting America and its allies. The regime’s ballistic missile program grew, threatening Israel, global shipping, and beyond. Negotiation doesn’t de-escalate; it escalates, tying America’s hands while Iran grows stronger. A stronger Iran means a greater threat to U.S. security – whether through terrorism, cyberattacks, or, God forbid, a nuclear weapon. Protecting American interests means recognizing that a regime built on anti-Americanism can never be a partner.

I understand the “America First” instinct to avoid foreign entanglements. Many who wave this banner argue that maximum pressure – crippling sanctions, military deterrence, and diplomatic isolation – drains U.S. resources or risks war. But they’re wrong. Maximum pressure isn’t reckless; it’s strategic. It’s essential. It’s the only language the regime understands. When President Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed harsh sanctions, Iran’s economy buckled. Protests erupted across the country – not just for bread, but for freedom. The regime’s grip weakened, exposing its fragility.

Iran’s Proxy. The slogan on the flag of the Houthis in Yemen reads, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. A curse upon the Jews. Victory to Islam“.

Today, with the Islamic regime’s air defenses crippled, it’s critical to finish the job, for America’s interests and for the world. Maximum pressure doesn’t just protect America; it empowers Iranians to demand change. To abandon it now, as some ‘America First’ voices suggest, snatches hope from the Iranian people, and security from the U.S. and the world.  

Regime change is not a fantasy, it’s a necessity. The Islamic Republic is not Iran. It’s a cancer on a nation of 85 million people who yearn for dignity and democracy. I’ve met countless Iranians, from taxi drivers to students, who despise the mullahs. The 2022 uprising, sparked by Mahsa Amini’s murder, showed the world their courage. Women burned hijabs; men faced bullets. They weren’t begging for reform -they were demanding change. Supporting their fight isn’t meddling; it’s justice.

Terrorizing the region to terrorizing its own People. Demonstrators march during a protest for Mahsa Amini who died in custody of Iran’s morality police, in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, Los Angeles, California, Oct. 1, 2022 (Photo: Apu Gomes/AFP)
 

For Iran, regime change means a chance to rebuild, to restore a proud civilization hijacked by Islamic extremism. Some fear a regime change will lead to chaos, pointing to Iraq or Libya. But Iran is different. It has a rich history, a strong national identity, and a population educated, ready, and begging for self-governance. The U.S. doesn’t need to invade – it needs to amplify Iranian voices. Sanctions can starve the regime’s coffers. Cyber tools can disrupt their propaganda. Diplomatic support can legitimize the opposition. And yes, the U.S. must empower and partner with its allies to do so, foremost Israel which is in the ayatollah’s crosshairs. America must lead by isolating the regime, not legitimizing it with negotiation.

Iranians dream of a free Iran where one can worship as they wish, where women walk unveiled without threats of arrest and torture, where children aren’t indoctrinated to hate. But Iranians are fearful that the negotiations will betray them, again, as was done by Presidents Obama and Biden. If it’s true that negotiations will only limit Iranian uranium enrichment rather than eliminating every element of the Iranian nuclear program, and leave the regime in place not just to continue to lie and take advantage of western naiveté, but to rebuild and continue to oppress them, it will be a disastrous failure. The pursuit of a democratic Iran would be an essential partner against extremism, a market for trade and a beacon of stability but requires courage, not compromise. Negotiation prolongs the regime’s life, and threatens Iranians and the world.

Menacing Message. The Jewish Star of David, the Swastika and the US flag are integrated in public imagery at this protest in Teheran. (Photo: Majid Saeedi / Getty Images).
 

The economy is crumbling, and the Supreme Leader is old and ill. The time is now to end the evil ayatollah’s regime, restore Iran to its people, and keep America and the world safe.

I’ve seen the cost of tyranny in Evin Prison. America needs to stand with Iran’s people, not their oppressors. End the illusion of diplomacy. Embrace the power of pressure. Together, we can topple a regime and build a future where Iran and America thrive as friends, not enemies.



About the writer:

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

http://www.MarzisJourney.com.






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

THE REICHSTAG, WWII AND GAZA

A lesson that the world has forgotten

By Neville Berman

The present war in Gaza has to be the final war between Hamas and Israel. The people in Gaza need to understand what the Germans understood in 1945. Hamas has to be treated in the same way that Nazi Germany was treated after the end of the Second World War. Unfortunately, there are governments and institutions that are determined to ensure that this will not happen. What they want is a ceasefire that will allow Hamas to remain in control of Gaza, and to be able to rearm in order to attack Israel again in the future. No one is demanding unconditional surrender. This war is the first war in history where the country that was attacked, is accused of:

– using disproportionate force in defending itself

– of committing crimes against humanity, and even

– the crime of genocide.

All the horrendous crimes committed by Hamas are being ignored.   

Gaza’s “stormtroopers”. Hamas gunmen stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. Is this what the world would accept to continue governing Gaza? (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Let us look at what happened with Nazi Germany and see if some lessons can be learnt that allowed Europe to return to peaceful coexistence and prosperity.  

In 1933, the Nazi Party blamed a fire in the Reichstag building on the communists. They used this as an excuse to institute emergency powers that were used to crush all opposition and to take total control of Germany. In September 1939 the most devastating war in history started. Over 60 million people would be killed before it was over.   

By 1945 Germany was a completely different country to what it was in 1939. Approximately 10% of the German population had been killed during the war. Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were prisoners in Russia. Allied bombing and the advancing Russian army had reduced parts of every major town and city in Germany into piles of rubble. Over a hundred thousand German women were raped by Russian soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of German people were homeless. People were looking in garbage cans for scraps of food. Nazi Germany was facing its final days. Faced with the rapidly advancing Russian army, Hitler committed suicide. Everyone in Germany understood that Germany had been totally defeated. The only option was to agree to “unconditional surrender” – an objective of the war advanced by US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.

Devastation and Destruction. Some 80 per cent of historic buildings in Germany were flattened by Allied bombing during World War II.

The Nazi Party dream of a thousand-year Reich had ended. In order to escape justice, hundreds of Nazis were trying to flee to South America.  

Having signed unconditional surrender, the Allies were now in a position to decide the future of Germany. All Allied prisoners of war were immediately released. In consideration of the position of Russian forces in Germany, Germany was divided into East and West Germany. After the revelations of the mass murder of 6 million Jews, it was decided that the Nazi leadership responsible for the unprecedented crimes of the Holocaust would face trials at Nuremberg. They would be tried for the newly created crime of committing “crimes against humanity”. None of them claimed that the Holocaust did not happen, resorting instead to the defence that they “were following orders.” Of crucial importance was the American decision to finance the rebuilding of West Germany in what was called the Marshall Plan. The Nazi Party and the denial of the holocaust were outlawed under German law promoted by the new German government.   

No Compromising with Evil. Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the unconditional surrender document of the German Wehrmacht, 8 May 1945 ending WWII in Europe.

In 1949 the capital of West Germany was moved provisionally to Bonn. Forty years later the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of the division of Germany. There was a strong feeling that it was time to move the capital of a united Germany back to Berlin.

An architectural competition was held to determine which firm would be chosen to rebuild the old Reichstag building that was designated to become the seat of the German parliament. In a hugely symbolic and brave decision, the British architectural firm of Norman Foster was chosen to redesign the Reichstag building. The project would take 4 years and was completed in 1999. The end result is a masterpiece of design, symbolism and attention to detail.

The Reichstag building is impressive in every aspect. Natural lighting is used to the maximum with a circular glass domed ceiling in the main parliamentary chamber, and large glass windows throughout the building. On entering the Reichstag, the first thing that one notices is a wall that contains names of Russian soldiers who stormed the Reichstag in May 1945. Dozens of Russian names, and the date that they were there, has been preserved for posterity. It is a permanent warning that there are severe consequences for initiating war. It is hard to conceive of any other parliament building, anywhere in the world, that contains such a powerful message.

Let there be Light. Built at the end of the war-ravaged 20th century, which Germany had a lot to answer for, the new Reichstag building symbolizes the refurbishing of a tarnished image – not of the original parliament building itself, but of German national identity. Completed in 1999 in a united Germany, the huge circular glass dome invites light on a legislature once characterized by a dark and troubled history. (© German Bundestag/Neuhauser)

The German eagle has a long history as the symbol of Germany. Norman Foster wanted something different. He designed a huge new silver eagle with a puffed-up chest and open wingspan that he decided to display directly above and behind the speaker’s podium in the main parliamentary chamber. The new eagle symbolizes a new prosperous future for a united Germany. 

Behind the speaker’s podium is a large room that features a racing boat attached to the ceiling. The boat is similar to those used in the annual Oxford Cambridge boat race. At first glance the boat looks totally out of place. What on earth was Norman Foster thinking of when he placed a racing boat in the ceiling? The answer was provided by the guide. The speed and direction of the boat is determined by all the rowers pulling together in the same direction. It is a masterful demonstration of what parliamentarians should be doing.

Members of the public can look down on the main parliamentary chamber by walking along a circular walkway in the domed roof of the building. The symbolism is that the people are above the elected officials seated below. It is a powerful symbol of what democracy is all about. The job of the politicians is to serve the people

It is apparent that the world has forgotten the lessons of what brought about a totally different Germany after 1945. Instead of demanding unconditional surrender and the immediate release of all the hostages, followed by international trials for Hamas leaders for promoting hatred and crimes against humanity, the world wants to reward Hamas by rebuilding Gaza and to create a Palestinian State whose main aim is the destruction of Israel.

Flats Flattened. Overall, it is estimated that up to 70% of buildings in Germany had been made uninhabitable due to Allied bombings, and in some areas, it was worse. In 1939, Germany had some 16 million flats, but by the end of the war, 2.5 million had been destroyed, and another 4 million were uninhabitable, according to Der Spiegel.

It is also completely apparent that Israeli politicians have absolutely no idea of the concept of rowing together. What a shame that the lessons of the past have been totally forgotten by those that should know better.  



About the writer:

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





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