They didn’t understand what October 7 meant and why Israel had to respond the way it did.

By Andrew Fox

Oct 09, 2024

Dear all,

The title of this piece might be misleading, but I’m going with it. This letter isn’t just to the new friends I’ve made this past year, both Jews in the UK and people in Israel. It’s also to my non-Jewish readers who may wonder why I have been quite as vociferous as I have over the last year, on a topic where I don’t really have a dog in the fight.

It starts, as do all acts of remembrance this week, on 7th October last year. I’m a former Army officer; my academic areas of interest were (and are) strategy in the Middle East, and the psychology of disinformation. So, when a war began in the Middle East that raised many strategic questions, whilst soaked in the patterns of disinformation I know intimately from my studies… well, I had something to say.

Of course, I knew of the events of 7th October: I’m a Middle East researcher. On the day itself, the Telegram channels I follow were writhing like a bag of snakes with snuff movie after snuff movie. All so abhorrent; all so shocking; even for a reasonably experienced soldier.

My early strategic analysis was about right. I guessed Israel’s strategic goals and I looked at their tactics, and felt they all looked logical. They fought a contested urban battle against a dug-in defence in pretty much the same way British Army doctrine advises. Isolation; break-in; seize objectives; clearance.

Obviously, the isolation and break-in phases to Gaza City drew the world’s ire. The global public was unprepared for the live-streaming of the effects of modern weaponry in an urban setting. The closest most people have come to it is Call of Duty. They were primed on decades of Palestinian information operations about Israel, and swam in a rising sea of antisemitism. They didn’t understand what 7th October meant and why Israel had to respond the way it did. When Hamas’ ringmasters presented them with a narrative of genocide that fit their prejudices and biases, they clung to it with both hands.

Israel’s great mistake was in assuming that the horrors of 7th October would buy them some credit. They wildly overestimated their bank balances of sympathy, and as victims of disinformation fraud, they rapidly became overdrawn.

So, there was I, in my Twitter/X stovepipe, merrily analysing away in broad support of Israel’s strategy. Until April 2024.

I was invited on a trip to Israel by the Military Expert Panel. We were granted decent access by the IDF and they briefed us their plans, which I noted smugly were just about what I’d predicted. Situation: no change.

What changed everything for me was visiting the massacre sites and seeing those hurt by it: victims and hostage family members. I wasn’t prepared for it conceptually or emotionally. It turned those snuff films of months earlier into 3-D.

Before, it was just another set of horrors in a world full of horrors, of which I had seen my fair share firsthand.

After, it was a lurid kaleidoscope of pain, misery, inhuman rape and torture; sadism, dehumanisation, and bloody, mutilating murder of the utmost savagery, carried out with Satanic glee. I walked in human ashes mixed with the remnants of the fires in kibbutzim where innocents were burned alive. I have seen the evidence of rape. I have seen the sites of these obscenities against humanity.

Before, I knew. After, I understood.

I realised that Israel is not fighting a war of self defence; it is fighting a war of survival. There is no question that those who Israel are now fighting, led by Iran, wish to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish race. To me, with a grandfather and grand-uncles who fought in Europe in 1944-45, one sustaining appalling facial injuries, “never again is now” was not just words. Never again was now. And I had a voice. And I was not going to stay silent.

Israel’s war is just, and their conduct is, for the most part, just. And when the latter is not just, they take action against those soldiers who transgress. So, I’m satisfied not only with the cause for the war, but also with the conduct of the war. I’ve seen compelling evidence with my own eyes. I’m happy to let my professional reputation die on that hill, if need be.

There is a major element to my vociferousness this year that I have bypassed, however. Even before April, and my two subsequent visits, I had been consistent with one thing:

I stand with British Jews.

Whilst the events of 7th October appalled me at the time, the events of that evening in the UK, and subsequently, sickened me to my stomach. Including my visit to Israel in April this year, these events in the UK were the most politically radicalising events of my life. The UK has problems with radical Islam, and susceptibility to disinformation, and we need to wake up.

I had no prior connection to Israel, but the celebrations of 7th October in London turned my stomach. I had Jewish friends before 7th October and I saw the pain caused to them by the massacre in Israel and did my best to be supportive. I did not, however, foresee the agony that would come from those, ostensibly their countrymen too, who would nakedly celebrate the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust on the day it happened. Whilst blindly aware of the general concept of antisemitism, wrongly thinking it mostly a thing of the past, I had my eyes glued open to its modern-day incarnation.

And that modern day incarnation recycles the same old tropes that are centuries old. Jews lie. Jews murder. Jews pay with hoarded shekels. Jews run the media. Jews run the world.

Disgusting.

And so, almost every weekend since, we have seen a turd-berg of antisemitism, shat out by extremists and supported on the backs of useful idiots, floating disgustingly down London’s streets on a sewage river of disinformation.

Our country’s great shame.

I have made it my mission since last October to let Britain’s Jews know that they are loved, wanted, and appreciated in this country: by me, and by countless silent millions who share my view. You are not alone in this fight.

I spoke this week at a synagogue in north London. It was a kind and gracious gesture by the Jewish community to allow me to share their private grief. The applause was humbling. But it was all also deeply, deeply saddening. When I go to church, I don’t need security outside. That’s not right and shouldn’t be normal.

And how appalling that our vibrant British Jewish community feels the need to thank someone just for raising a voice to support their right to exist. What a horrifying age we have created for our once great nation.

I fear for the future.

But I am grateful for my present.

Britain’s Jews and my Israeli friends, just ordinary civilians, have stood by me in turn, on the occasions that the firehose of online antisemitic abuse and disinformation has swung my way. You’ve also given me platforms from which to scream that message of support to anyone that will listen. You have empowered my own voice in the way that I hope my, and many others’ words of support empower you. This letter is as much a thank you to you, as anything else. You know who you are.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Yours in brotherhood,

Andrew

About the writer:

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

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

Barrages of missiles did not stop Israel’s prestigious Reichman University proceeding with its ‘2024 Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism’.

By David E. Kaplan

How scary! How warry; how real!

Reichman University’s annual World Summit on Counter-Terrorism held this October 6-7, 2024 was atmospherically far removed from being solely scholastic.

As worrisome words from past and present Israeli politicians, scholars, researches, practitioners in the field of Counter-Terrorism as well as those from Israel and abroad in the military, law enforcement and intelligence communities resonated within the university’s auditorium in central Israel, sirens went off warning of incoming missiles somewhere nearby. Anywhere in tiny Israel is “nearby” and throughout the 2-day conference, as we listened to illuminating ideas, others with dark ideas were responsible for the distant soundtrack of the thunderous booming of rockets being neutralized by Israeli interceptions. While the audience was respectively attentive, I noticed how nearly everyone was no less attentive to their cellphones for updates on the war. When a speaker from the United Nations was interrupted because of a siren alert,  we were told to remain seated as “It’s safer,” and the speaker braved on as did the audience.

This was a conference about war in the midst of war.

The harsh reality of Israel’s war was so heart-wrenchingly evident. As we took our seats and looked down upon the stage, to the left of the dais was a small table and chairs for the panel of speakers, and then further to the left, was a solitary yellow chair. No one was expected to sit on it as it was reserved for a student at Reichman University – a hostage held in Gaza. It displayed the photo and the name of the student – Idan Shtivi, who, on October 7, had helped two people escape at the site of the Nova music festival, before being kidnapped and taken as a hostage to Gaza.

The only thing was that he would never be siting on that or any other chair as it was announced the next day before the Summit’s October 7 memorial service by the summit moderator, Jonathan Davis, that it had only been learned that morning, that Shtivi was dead. He was killed on the morning of October 7 2023, and it was his body that had been ‘kidnapped’ and still being held in Gaza. Explains, Davis who is also Head of the Raphael Recanati International School at Reichman University:

 “The family notified us at 7.00am this morning, two hours before the ceremony. Now we have 14 killed amongst Reichman University students and alumni.”

It begs repeating, this was a conference about war in the midst of war.

BOOMS OF ROCKETS TO BLOOM OF FLOWERS

In the grounds of Reichman University on the way to the Summit, one could not miss the powerful exhibit “Anemones Before the Rain” –  a waterfall and a carpet of approximately 5,000 handcrafted clay anemones. In addressing the Summit, President of Reichman University Prof. Boaz Ganor explained:

“Placing the anemone exhibit at the heart of the university, a university that has lost 13 of its best sons since the war began, sends a message to the younger generation and the conference attendees to remember and honor the fallen, but at the same time to look forward with hope for a future of growth and renewal. Among the carpet of red anemones stands one yellow anemone, symbolizing our hope for the release and swift return of our student Idan Shtivi and all the other hostages.”

The day after Ganor invited the Summit participants to view the exhibit, we heard the tragic news relayed by the family of Idan  Shtivi that that university’s loss of 13 was now 14.

FULL OF SURPRISES

While one speaker quoted the classic Latin line “Si vis pacem, para bellum”, that is, “If you want peace, prepare for war”, Israel has always adhered to this maxim but without success as it has known only war since its inception in 1948. The Summit’s participants, glancing periodically at their cellphones for messages testified to a collective anxiety and adding to this reality of war, was the panelist Lt. Col. (Res) Sarit Zehavi, founder and President of the Alma Research and Education Center who served 15 years in the Israeli Defense Forces, specializing in Military Intelligence.  Residing in the northern town of Kfar Vradim close to the Lebanese border, she revealed  in a panel debate her anguish in leaving behind that morning to attend the Conference, her young daughter. “Should I or should I not bring her?” was the question this mother faced that morning, after all she reminded the audience:

 “Here at this Summit in central Israel, if the siren goes you have one-and-a-half minutes, while where I live, you have 15 seconds.”

For civilians in the north, life is a daily play with Hezbollah of Russian Roulette! Every day the news reveals those who were and those who were not lucky!

Hearing speaker after speaker, I was reminded of the previous year’s 2023 World Summit on Counter Terrorism, which as I recalled was special because while commemorating 9/11 as it traditionally does, it also included the 50^th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war of 1973. What both had in common was how the US and Israel were both “taken by surprise” and failed “to think out of the box” – the words used.  We left that 2023 Summit feeling more assured and less than a month later, we had October 7 when we again were “surprised” and failed “to think out of the box.”

The theme of the ‘2024 Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism was:

From 9/11 to 10/7: Navigating New Threats

The comparisons between these two cataclysmic and iconic “surprises” – 9/11 and 10/7 or as we commonly refer to as October 7 –  have as well their marked differences as many speakers reminded. While the attacks by Hamas on October 7 killed more than 1,300 Israelis in a country whose population is less than 10 million, in the US that would be equivalent to killing nearly 40,000 – 13 times more than the number of Al Qaeda victims on 9/11.

As horrendous as 9/11 was, tens of millions of Americans woke up the following morning not knowing any of the victims or their families, while In Israel, a country whose width is less than my daily ride on my stationary bike, not a single family was untouched by the attack. Everyone knew someone – either directly or indirectly – that was horribly affected.

All this was not only academically evident but personally felt by most of the Summit’s participants, whether those on stage or seated in the audience.

While the war raged and our eyes could not escape the solitary yellow chair for now deceased Idan Shtivi, the words of Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing, Brig. Gen. (res) Gal Hirsch, resonated. His carefully crafted words were of admissions and apologies but also of heart-wrenching commitment:

“Although our attention is divided across many fronts, and we are being attacked from all sides, we have not forgotten you, our brothers and sisters who are hostages. This is an unprecedented event, one we entered without knowledge, and we continue to learn. A year after the disaster, I ask forgiveness from the families and the hostages themselves. To the hostages, I know you are in hell, and the road is long. But we are constantly working to bring you back.”

And while most Israelis look today with astonishment and anger on the UN and its Secretary-General António Guterres, the audience welcomed the words of UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Ambassador Tor Wennesland when he said:

“Even a year later, the brutality is impossible to comprehend…Let me be very clear – what happened in October 7, 2023, must never happen again, not here, not in Europe, nowhere…In the past year, we witnessed a roaring rise in antisemitism around the globe in expressions of hate and violence against Jewish communities. There is no place for such things, and Israel should not be alone in confronting it.”

Israel most certainly feels “alone” facing off multiple enemies with mostly only the US having our back. This is no more appreciatingly evident as Israel prepares to retaliate against Iran and the US announces it is deploying to Israel a Terminal High Altitude Defense battery (THAAD) along with  troops needed to operate it in order  to help bolster Israel’s air defenses.  

As Israel with US support counters the elevated terrorism threat with sophisticated hi-tech, we were reminded by numerous speakers that the failings in the beginning of this war were mostly the machinations of low-tech.

Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak, Senior Researcher at Reichman University’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism explained:

“None of what we’ve seen during this war should have come as a surprise, and yet, it did…Tunnels did, and continue to shape this war. Low-tech warfare has paid off in this war and it is a success that will sadly boost tunnel warfare everywhere.”

This World Summit also had its heroes not only of previous wars but the present war. One such was Maj. Gen (Res) Yair Golan, the new liberal leader of the united left-wing party ‘The Democrats”. While it was no surprise that he addressed the World Summit, it was a huge surprise that he, at the age of 61, personally fought on October 7. At his age, he had  no business being in a war zone which he would later describe as Israel’s “worst ever”,  but there he was on October 7, in the Gaza envelope, in his old uniform.  When the news broke on October 7 2023, Golan “re-enlisted”, received a weapon and arrived in his private vehicle to the Gaza envelope and threw himself in the midst of the chaos of battle, rescuing people being hunted by the marauding terrorists. He did so systematically.

Relying on his knowledge of the Gaza border region to evade detection, and using WhatsApp location-sharing to find those in need, he went round rescuing who he could.

Amongst the many people he saved that day was a top journalist’s son, Amir, the 23-year-old son of Haaretz columnist Nir Gontarz, who had been at the Nova Music Festival. On the run, Amir sent panicked messages to his father who tried calling his usual sources for help – politicians, the army, the police but to no avail. Then, scrolling through live updates from the scene of the slaughter on social media, he saw a photograph of someone he thought might be able to help – Yair Golan.

In desperation, Nir called Golan’s mobile and explained his son’s dire situation, to which the general replied:

“Send me his location.”

Half an hour later, an anxious father received another clipped message: “Don’t worry; I have your son.”

Having rescued Nir’s son, Yair Golan is now on a mission to rescue the State of Israel and it was in this mode that he took to the podium  at the World Summit of Counter-Terrorism and said the following:

“Many people ask me with a worried look: “How do we get out of this?” My answer is: by building a brave alternative, with the necessary patience, and with incredible forces – our good citizens are a tremendous source of optimism.”

I did leave the World Summit at Reichman University with Golan’s words resonating that the “good citizens” of Israel “are a tremendous source of optimism.” The resilience and unity of the people bodes well for the future.  We will need it.

On the way driving home, the siren went off in Kfar Saba and I had to leave the vehicle and find cover. In doing so, I found myself under a building in the company of the “good citizens” of Israel.

We have a long road ahead and I wonder as the Middle East reshapes:

 “What will be on the program of the 2025 World Summit on Counter-Terrorism?”

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).

Seeing the reality, one struggles to process the evil inflicted

By  Rolene Marks

(Photos: Rolene Marks)

A beautiful bougainvillea is in full bloom. Its lustrous purple leaves bring a burst of colour.  Behind the vibrant bush, a house that has been absolutely decimated, scorch marks all over what is left of it. The occupants incinerated.  Kibbutz Nir Oz should be a little piece of heaven on earth in the western Negev. Instead, the kibbutz bears testament to the hell that visited this idyllic part of Israel, along with others, on that Black Sabbath.

Walking through the Kibbutz, I caught the unmistakable stench of death. Did I imagine it? No, said our host, it never goes away. Every house tells a story of the horrors that happened inside them. I look at the reactions of the members of the foreign press who have joined two of us Israeli journalists and wonder if they internalize the magnitude of the carnage here. One turns to another with a smile and says, “a little bit of destruction for this community”. I give him a look that could freeze the Negev desert at high noon. This is holy ground.

Batsheva Yahalomi, whose husband Ohad remains captive in Gaza took us into her looted house. In the corner of the passage are scorch marks where a grenade exploded. Ohad was wounded before taken captive. Is he still alive? Her 12-year-old son, Eitan, was also taken. His story of captivity is devastating. Eitan was held on his own, beaten, branded and forced at gunpoint to watch the go-pro footage that Hamas gleefully shot on the day. He was not allowed to cry. Today, Eitan tries not to go to sleep because the nightmares return. Clumps of his hair are falling out.  

We walk through Nir Oz, guided by Rita Lipschitz, the daughter-in-law of Oded, who also remains in captivity. Oded used to ferry cancer-stricken children from Gaza for their chemotherapy as part of the “Road to Recovery” programme. Rita hopes he is held by someone who might recognize his good deeds for Palestinians.

Overhead we hear the symphony of war, the unmistakable sounds of artillery shells fired and the growling of a fighter jet. My phone buzzes with an update from the IDF a little later – we struck a major terror target in Gaza.

We get to the house of the Simantov family. Their shining, smiling faces beaming at us from posters on the wall. Only the family dog survived. We finally get to the kibbutz kindergarten, passing memorials to members of Nir Oz who fell in defence of their home.

I see Ariel Bibas’s name by the hook for his little school bag. I fall apart.  The walls of the kindergarten are black with soot and it is difficult to breath, the air is so thick and hot. Imagine what it was like that Black Sabbath. You can see where shots were fired and grenades thrown, setting fire to a place of learning, safety and joy. Yifat Zeilar, Shiri Bibas’s cousin speaks. The tears roll down her face and her voice cracks with sorrow as she says:

 “My family, my cousin and the love of her life, Yarden, and their two beautiful boys were taken from us on October 7 last year…My cousin was barefoot, holding her two boys with a blanket. I am standing here today in a kindergarten. It’s where Ariel used to go to kindergarten. On October 7th, a hand grenade was thrown into this kindergarten. We don’t know if they’re alive or not. I’m here to ask for your help. I want to hold my cousin again. I want to hold those children again. I want to tell them that I’m sorry.”

Entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza for a second time this year is very emotional.  While some families have returned, the Kibbutz with its trees heavy with unpicked fruit trees and signage for the residents that remain captive in Gaza. Bullet holes pockmark houses and the path to the “young generation” neighbourhood is ominous. Walking past the armory where the “kitat konenut”(Anti-Terror First Response’ Team) engaged in heavy battles with Hamas terrorists, guide Shahar Tzuk points out the grass embankment, where she reveals “On 7 October, the grass was full of the bodies of Hamas terrorists.” Tzuk continues, pointing at her modest house, the rainbow flag of the LGBTQ community outside, “If I had been home, they would have killed me for sure. When I came back to the house afterwards and started moving stuff around, my parents yelled at me to stop because Hamas had booby-trapped fridges, cupboards, everything. I found faeces on my couch – and did others. They really wanted to humiliate us as much as possible.” 

Flies still hover around the neighbourhood that was once the vibrant corridor of starter homes for the young people of the Kibbutz. They remain burnt, destroyed and ‘decorated’ with signage that tells the story of who was murdered in them. Sivan Elkabetz’s house on the corner has been opened by her parents as a testimony to the slaughter that ensued. The walls and ceilings are pockmarked from grenades, bullets, and the devastating inscription from ZAKA on the door reads “human remains found on the sofa”. Walking out of the kibbutz, past the armory where the grass was littered with bodies that Saturday, a cameraman starts to whistle. This time I open my mouth and tell him to stop. We are walking on holy ground.

Simcha Greiniman strikes me as a man whose eyes should twinkle. Engaging and kind, Greiniman, the spokesperson for ZAKA, the NGO whose holy work it is to recover the remains of the dead so that they can be buried with the dignity afforded with a Jewish burial. His eyes are haunted and sad. In a short address at the Nova site, he describes in vivid detail not just the horrors that he and his team of tzaddikim (righteous and saintly persons), Jewish and Muslim, witnessed as they gently recovered bodies. Simcha spoke of the ridicule he faced from organisations like the United Nations, where he testified on behalf of the women and girls who were sexually violated. “Where was his rape kit to prove that sexual violence happened,” they asked.

I have been down to the south many times, visited the towns, kibbutzim, Nova site and driven the killing road, Road 232, countless times. This visit left me with a profound sense of sorrow. It engulfed me like a black fog of despair. Maybe it was the timing, mere days from the anniversary, which I thought I was emotionally prepared for but clearly was not. Maybe it was the frustration at the lack of empathy shown by the foreign press.

On 7 October 2023, something fundamentally changed in our Israeli DNA. We are tougher, harder and much more emotionally vulnerable. The calendar told me that it has been a year since 7 October 2024 – but Israelis are still on 7 October 2023. I have feeling we will be there for a while.

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).

For Israel it is about survival not reprisal

By Jonathan Feldstein

I have always been careful to avoid Holocaust analogies. The Holocaust was the biggest and single most evil deliberate inhuman massacre of people – six million Jews and millions of others – in human history. There are no analogies. If people cannot make an intelligent case as to why some other world event, cause, or human suffering is unique and indeed as serious as they contend that they must refer to it as a Holocaust, they diminish their own case and display a level of ignorance that also diminishes the actual suffering of the Holocaust.

Mindful of that, I see what’s happening in the world now, in pressure on Israel not to conduct certain military attacks, withholding arms essential for Israel’s defense, and even delegitimizing Israel’s right and obligation to defend itself. I see this as Auschwitz diplomacy: akin to leaving Jews on their own to deal with and suffer calamities forced on us.

These are people who, like the Allies in World War II, would deliberately avoid bombing the train tracks leading to Auschwitz, either seeing that as a distraction to conducting a military strategy, who discount the deliberate genocidal massacre of Jews, or both.  Then and now, thinking that Jewish suffering, mass murder, and attempted genocide are within the acceptable norm: that Jewish lives matter less.

Most details are not yet available of the content of this week’s 45-minute conversation between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden about Israel’s pending strike on Iran. Regardless of the content, it is noteworthy that this was the first time Netanyahu and Biden have spoken since August.

Mostly innocuous details made public as of this writing. The US readout said Biden affirmed Israel’s right to protect itself from Hezbollah, a global terror group with the stated goal to annihilate Israel and Jews around the world. It also emphasized the Biden-Harris position of the imperative for a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Hezbollah that would allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes. This is shocking because not only did Hezbollah fail to honor the terms of The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006 under the nose of UN “peacekeepers,” Hezbollah grew to the terrorist superpower that it became. Biden proudly claims of having known all Israeli Prime Ministers for decades. It is too bad he doesn’t heed Golda Meir’s truism that you cannot negotiate with people sworn to murder you.

Biden also apparently stressed “the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut.”  There is seemingly no recognition that Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties while ignoring that the civilian deaths in Lebanon and Gaza, and perhaps soon in Iran. All are all a direct consequence of the terrorists immorally and illegally using civilians as human shields, while firing tens of thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones at Israeli cities, deliberately to maximize civilian casualties.

Following the Biden-Netanyahu call, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US supports Israel’s “limited ground incursions” inside Lebanon, but does not want Israel to extend deeper into Lebanon, to the core of Hezbollah’s military capabilities and its leadership.  As expressed, “We are cognizant of the long history of Israel, starting with limited ground operations in Lebanon, turning those into more full-scale ground operations, turning those into occupation, something that we are very clear we are opposed to.”

Israelis are the last ones who want the consequences of a more long-term and deeper operation against Hezbollah (especially me, as my son may be called into service there by the time you read this), it is a self-defeating military strategy not to win through decisive victory.

The same is true of defeating the Iranian Islamic regime, the head of the global Islamic terrorist octopus and its genocidal threats against Israel, and terror that it perpetuates around the world. The US has made its opposition clear to any Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. In fact, to eliminate the terrorist threat, these should be the first targets, followed by Iran’s IRGC military sites, and even the ayatollahs and Supreme Leader.

Rather than oppose an Israeli attack, the US should lead the attack. But no, the Biden-Harris administration is calling for Israel’s response to be “proportional.” To what? To the threat? Number of missiles launched? Attempted widespread massacre?

Calling an Israeli attack “retaliatory” is misinformation.  Buffered by pathological pandering to, and funding of, since Obama’s 2015’s discredited Iran Deal and the releasing of billions of dollars to the Iranian Islamic regime, Iran progresses, perhaps being weeks away, from having enough nuclear material for one or more bombs. For Israel, it is about survival, not reprisal.

That the Biden-Harris administration appears more concerned about the effects of the upcoming US election than Israel’s long-term security and survival is an abdication of responsibility.  Perhaps, they think, it is preferable to ride out the Iranian storm, put Israeli at greater risk, and do nothing – just like the Allies at Auschwitz!

Before speaking with Biden, Netanyahu underscored the threat Israel faces to a delegation of American Jewish leaders.  Said the Prime Minister:

“There is only one force in the world fighting Iran right now. There’s only one force in the world that stands in Iran’s way to conquest. And that force is Israel. If we don’t fight, we die. But it is not only our fight, it is the free world’s fight, and, I would say, the civilized world’s fight.”

Despite the tense relations between Biden and Netanyahu, and Netanyahu’s lack of trust among Israel’s opposition parties, it is clear that the Biden-Harris administration is out of touch with current Israeli strategic thinking. Recently, three Israeli opposition leaders, including former Ministers of Defense Benny Gantz and Avigdor Liberman, and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, have called for a strong Israeli military attack on Iran. Some of these, and others, have called specifically to target Iranian nuclear facilities.

This ‘out of touch’ treatment cannot be explained away as a one-off but rather as an emerging disturbing trend. The US and others have argued vociferously, even threatening Israel, over major strategies such as the IDF entering Rafah to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and free hostages which was effectively executed with minimal civilian casualties.

Parroting nonsensical mantras including “diplomacy”, “ceasefire” and “getting a deal done” have not made any viable headway to bring any of these about, much less realize anything that looks like peace and security for Israel.

It is anyone’s guess what will happen regarding an Israeli attack on Iran, how Iran will respond, and then, how the US might react. It will of course matter whether all this transpires before or after the upcoming US election in November when different considerations may then come into play.

Will the administration then withhold arms, impose sanctions, or not veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN?

Even amid the very real stress and threats, personally and nationally, I remain a naïve optimist that the US will wake up and support Israel unconditionally, coordinating to lead the charge against the Islamist threats, and not leaving Israel to its own devices. This is for Israel’s well being of course, but ultimately for the US as well.

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).

Where is the UN to genuinely foster peace and ensure stability in a volatile region?

By Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe

The recent missile barrage by Iran, launching over 180 rockets toward Israel, has marked a dangerous escalation in the long-standing Middle Eastern conflict. This significant attack is not merely a regional event – it has the potential to reshape global security dynamics, with reverberations that could affect the world’s most vulnerable economies, much like the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The conflict in Ukraine has already shown how regional tensions can cripple global food supply chains, driving up prices that disproportionately hurt Africa’s poorest. With Iran and Israel now on the brink of an all-out war, the repercussions will similarly ripple through economies, destabilizing nations that are already struggling to survive. A full-scale conflict between these two powerful adversaries is not in anyone’s interest.

CATALIST AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Tensions have simmered between Israel and its adversaries for years, but Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, 2023, was a tipping point. In an unprecedented assault, over 1,200 Israelis were killed, 251 kidnapped, and cities ravaged. Israel responded with force, vowing to dismantle Hamas once and for all.

Iran, the undisputed backer of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, has long aimed to eliminate Israel. This is no secret – Hamas’ charter and their infamous slogan, “From the river to the sea” leave little doubt about their intentions. The attack on October 7 was not an isolated act; it was part of a coordinated strategy by Iran and its proxies to weaken and ultimately destroy Israel.

While Hamas’ forces are now in disarray, their allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – have kept the pressure on. Israel’s military is stretched thin, battling on multiple fronts. Passing the milestone of the first anniversary of October 7, Gaza remains a battlefield, while northern Israel faces relentless rocket fire from Hezbollah. Israel’s retaliation, especially against Hezbollah, has escalated further, pushing the region toward a dangerous precipice.

IRAN’S ESCALATORY ROLE

Iran’s influence cannot be understated through its support of its proxy groups with military training, funding, intelligence, and weaponry for decades. The boldness and meticulous planning of  October 7 proved the result.

In a striking move, Iran directly attacked Israel in April 2024, a historic first. I was in Be’er Sheva, in southern Israel, during that attack. Fear swept through the city – no one was immune to the threat. Far more than its proxies combined, Iran is far more a danger existentially. This is why de-escalation is crucial; the consequences of full-scale war would be devastating, not just for Israel and Iran but for the entire world.

The most recent attack from Iran was even more severe than their assault in April. Although there were no casualties in Israel, the message was clear:

Iran is willing to intensify its military aggression.

Yet, ordinary citizens in both Israel and Iran are not clamoring for war – they know all too well the horrors it brings.

GLOBAL IMPACT OF TENSIONS

The conflict in the Middle East is polarizing the international community, forcing countries to choose sides in a battle that has no easy solutions. Rather than rushing to assign blame or pick allegiances, world leaders must prioritize diplomacy. A diplomatic resolution is still possible, but time is running out.

The UN and other global powers must step up their efforts to mediate peace, preventing further escalation. The Lebanese government, for example, should take decisive action against Hezbollah, a group that has dragged Lebanon into conflicts it never sought. Since Hezbollah’s rise in the early 1980s, Lebanon, once a beacon of peace and prosperity, has been reduced to a war-torn state, with the bloody 2006 war as a painful reminder.

PREFERED PATH OF PEACE

War is never the solution. The people of the Middle East deserve better than endless cycles of violence. The international community, particularly organizations like the UN, must increase efforts to foster peace and ensure stability in this volatile region.

Diplomacy is the only way forward. A war between Iran and Israel will not solve the deep-rooted issues plaguing the Middle East. Instead, it will deepen suffering and prolong the instability that has defined the region for decades. The world cannot afford another prolonged conflict – it’s time to prioritize peace over war.

About the writer:

Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe is a political writer and researcher based at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 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).

While Israelis may debate the question philosophically, I say YES to celebrating the downfall of our enemies.

By Jonathan Feldstein

Yeah, I am celebrating.

For the past two weeks, Israel (including the Mossad, IDF, and military intelligence) have shown unparalleled prowess and success in the global war on terror.  

First, thousands of Hezbollah beepers exploded on command. Then their walkie talkies. This is recognized as the most precise counter-terrorist operation ever. Before and after, Israel took credit for the targeted assassination of nearly all the top Hezbollah leaders. Israel targeted and destroyed countless Hezbollah missiles and launchers, along with other weapons and systems. Whether by design or chance, the debilitating of Hezbollah’s communications systems, destruction of its weapons and infrastructure, and elimination of many top leaders caused many of the remaining leaders to have to meet in person, providing another opportunity to eliminate them while hiding deep in bunkers beneath Beirut’s civilians.

Unlike our enemies who shout “Allahu Akbar”, revering the greatness of their deity in the midst of and following the massacre of civilians (whether a year ago on October 7, or two decades ago on 9/11), I am celebrating the downfall of Israel’s enemies.

I am celebrating Israel’s intelligence, fortitude, and ability, all of which fell short a year ago in a multi-system failure that allowed the most inhuman massacre of 1200, kidnapping of 251, beheading, gang rape, sexual mutilation, burning people alive, and more.

I am celebrating that so many terrorist leaders, their headquarters, and so much of their infrastructure have been destroyed.

Unlike our enemies whose demise I do celebrate, I am not celebrating the death of “innocent civilians.” Though to be honest, I have become less liberal in who I consider innocent.  If you have allowed your children to be indoctrinated by genocidal hate for generations; if you have participated in any way in building terrorist infrastructure in, under, or around civilian areas and institutions; if you have witnessed this and not at least reported it or resisted it; and if your neighbor’s home has become a weapons cache, you own no small part of the blame.

I am celebrating the message to the Iranian Islamic regime that they are in our crosshairs, and to the Iranian people that the end of the regime is in sight. When that happens, the funding and arms to its terrorist tentacles will wither and die.

I am celebrating the first time in decades that Lebanese citizens can see a light at the end of the evil Islamic hijacking of their country, and that they can be emboldened to vomit out all the terrorists in their midst.

I am celebrating the strong message this sends to our Arab allies, that we have the same enemy and must continue the fight together even if they won’t do so in public. Even if they cannot rely on the US whose policies too often embolden and enable the terrorists, that they can rely on Israel, and similarly should be partnering with Israel, with or without the US support.

I am celebrating how the past two weeks have been a game changer for the entire Middle East. Iran could once hide its nuclear weapons behind the threat to unleash Hezbollah’s massive arsenal. Hezbollah can still do damage but has been so degraded; not only can the Iranians not hide behind this threat, but they realize they might be next. After two successful long-range attacks on Houthi weapons and infrastructure in Yemen – the same distance from Israel as Tehran – the Ayatollahs are rightly hiding.

I am celebrating because Israelis are grappling with whether we should be celebrating at all, and if so, how it’s appropriate. It shows our humanity, our values, our Biblical grounding. Yes, as they try to exterminate is, the Jewish people are debating if and how to celebrate the downfall of our genocidal enemies.

But I am also dismayed. Given last year’s massacre from which Israelis are still traumatized, Israel has had to rebuild its deterrence. There are so many against us, including would be allies.

In 1983, Hezbollah killed 241 Americas, including 220 Marines: the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marines since Iwo Jima. That same day, Hezbollah killed 58 French paratroopers. Now is the time for the US and France to help Israel to finish the job for which they failed or neglected to do all these decades ago. Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil  – who Israel eliminated last month – had a US $7 million bounty on his head for two 1983 Beirut truck bombings that killed over 300 people at US embassy and a Marines barracks. The US should be sending thank you notes not to mention the reward!

I am dismayed and distressed that fear of escalation has become a US military strategy. While cognizant of the play of US election considerations, it displays weakness to both our Islamist enemies, and to the Arabs who are looking for strong allies.

Parroting “ceasefire” as a foreign policy is a cop out, kicking the can down the road. It only delays inevitable future fighting. After defeating the British at Trenton, George Washington did not call for a ceasefire; he went on to defeat them at Princeton.  Nor did Patton at the Battle of the Bulge.

Things still may get much worse before getting better. By the time you read this, Israel may be engaged in an all-out ground incursion in Lebanon to rout out and push back the remains of Hezbollah’s army away from the border so tens of thousands of Israelis can come back to their homes who they have evacuated.

May all Israelis who have been forced to evacuate their homes and communities be able to return home soon and safely, and may this be the beginning of a new future for Israel and the Middle East.

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).

A journalist’s reflections of October 7 and the year that followed

By Rolene Marks

I have walked the decimated ruins of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where time has stood still and the burnt, grenade-riddled pockmarked walls give testimony to what happened there. I have stood in the control room of Nahal Oz, devastated at the burnt remains where young, female soldiers were incinerated, raped or taken hostage into Gaza, where they remain. I have smelt the stench of death. It is an oppressive stink, that is hard to describe but you know it when you smell it. I have sat with the family members of hostages and looked into their sorrowful, exhausted eyes. I have walked the killing fields of the Nova Festival site, where the trees whisper, “never forget what happened here”. I almost get the feeling that the trees apologise that they could not protect those that ran and tried to hide from the murderous bullets, rapes and torture that they endured at the hands of the monsters.

I have seen the piles and piles of mangled, burnt cars.  They are the final resting places for their occupants eradicated from this earth by fire and flames. Each car represents a universe.

I have sat with the families of hostages – those we hope are still alive and those who were murdered. I have hugged Nissim Louk, father of Shani Louk, whose body on the back of a Hamas pick-up truck, clothes ripped, legs bent at a grotesque, unnatural angle with a bullet hole in the base of her skull as it taken into Gaza by cheering terrorists, became the image that shocked the world. What do you say to a grieving parent?

I have been into the miguniot (shelters), where frightened revelers tried to hide. These shelters are only designed to protect about 10 people from rocket fire. They became slaughterhouses as 30 to 40 people sought shelter only to be massacred by bullets and grenades – or taken into the terror tunnels below Gaza. There was no shelter to in these roadside death traps.

I have attended the shivot for fallen soldiers and stood in a guard of honour, devastated at the loss of life. We yearn for the day we beat our swords into plowshares. I have sat and spoken to those soldiers. Our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers who serve. I know without any doubt that they do everything in their power to preserve civilian lives while defending ours. This fact has been corroborated by the international military experts I have had the privilege of speaking with.

I have seen the footage and visuals that are imprinted on my soul, things that nobody should ever have to see. As journalists, we are the recorders of history but nothing prepares you for the depths of depravity and trauma of seeing the evidence of rape, mutilation, murder, kidnappings, beheadings, burnt and decomposing corpses, executed babies and devastated communities.

I have seen it with my own eyes. It is undeniable – despite the many who engage in an orgy of denial.

I have reviewed the evidence gathered off the bodies of terrorists. I have.

The proof of what happened is irrefutable – I have seen it, heard it and smelt it.

I have been a witness to the atrocities – and now you have too.

I have cried more tears that I though the human body could produce. We all have. I cry for the victims. I cry for us. I cry for the people of Gaza. I cry for the futility of all of it.

The simultaneous, split personality actions of many who both deny and celebrate the atrocities committed against Israel. Antisemitism has always been the oldest and most irrational form of hatred but its latest iteration in the form of rabid anti-Zionist Israelophobia is beyond anything experienced in our generation. Many deny the atrocities because maybe they have to face up to the murderous genocidal entity they support –  but at the same time celebrate what happened because you know they were just waiting for the opportunity to say “but the Jews had it coming”. Of course, they will swear blind that they love Jews – they just hate Zionists. Well over 90% of Jews are Zionists. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. It is the realization of the return to our ancient and indigenous homeland. It our right to self-determination and in the modern era, the ability to defend ourselves. Is our audacity of self-defense what really sticks in people’s gullets? I think it is. We have learnt the lessons of history.

Israelis have enormous empathy for Palestinian suffering, contrary to what the media tells you. We do not want to see innocents suffering. This war of wars that Hamas forced on both our people is hopefully the last. Israel recently marked four years of the historic Abraham Accords. It is our stubborn hope that in time, our Palestinian neighbours will join the circle of peace. Before this happens, both sides have a lot of healing to do. The “social justice” warriors outside of Israel who think that calling for the Jewish state to be boycotted or exterminated “from the river to the sea” impede any chances of peace and healing.

The calendar tells me that it has been a year – but for us it has been 365 7 Octobers. We will never be the same people who went to bed on 6 October. How could we be? We will emerge stronger, braver and tougher. We will thrive as the generations before us have done. We will grow and we will rebuild our shattered communities. This is our victory.

Feature picture: Migunit (mobile shelter) at the Nova site (Photo: Rolene Marks).

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 is to Blame for much of the suffering in Lebanon

By Jonathan Feldstein

As the United Nations General Assembly was convening in New York this week, all eyes were on Lebanon, with daggers drawn to blame Israel. In looking to ascribe blame, paraphrasing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, they should have looked no further than their own backyard.

To that end, I launched a plan to send mirrors to each of the UN Member states (and observers) to mount behind the microphone and their country’s name, so when they sat in the General Assembly and blame Israel, they can see where the real blame lies.

Let’s be clear, every death and all the destruction taking place in Lebanon now is because of Hezbollah, and its Iranian Islamic patron. The Islamic regime has been funding and arming Hezbollah for decades, having hijacked Lebanon and putting all its residents in harms way. The long-range missiles being destroyed in the private homes and garages of Lebanese civilians are not part of a “terrorist chic” interior design trend but a central pillar of the “Axis of Resistance” decades long plan to eradicate Israel.

Guilty of enabling all this is the UN and thus responsible for much  of the death and destruction that’s happened so far, and what may come.  

The best example is the flagrant violation of UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Before the ink dried, Hezbollah and Lebanon were ignoring the text, and the UN turned a blind eye.

Resolution 1701 requires:

“Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”

The Lebanese cabinet approved 1701, yet Hezbollah never had any intent to implement any of it. Already entrenched into the Lebanese parliament, with a military arguably stronger than the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah is the authority that calls the shots in Lebanon.  The Lebanese Armed Forces has nothing to do with Hezbollah’s presence south of the Litani River. 1701 says Hezbollah cannot exist as a military in Lebanon, period. The UN and UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) never tried to enforce that.

Resolution 1701 was never implemented. While Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah  failed to withdraw from the border with Israel. Not only did they not withdraw, but Hezbollah significantly increased their weapons in terms of quantity and quality, all backed by Iran.  Today, they have an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles of all varieties that can strike all of Israel, and numerous drones as well.  Not only did they not withdraw but Hezbollah has deeply entrenched, excavating terror tunnels, weapon stashes, airstrips, and military installations.

All of this has been under the noses of Lebanese civilians in whose cities, towns, and villages Hezbollah has made them human shields, and under the noses of UNIFIL. The truth is, the Lebanese civilians who allowed their country to be hijacked by the Shiite Islamists are also guilty. I realize that confronting Hezbollah is dangerous, but what did the neighbors think when a huge truck pulled up in their neighborhood, unloading a delivery that was several meters long? That it was IKEA?

One might say the UN failed, but failure requires an attempt.  The UN and its complicit affiliate UNIFIL never made an attempt. That’s why they are to blame for what’s happening in Lebanon (and Israel) and those international players that made it possible.

Complementing this all, France is leading the charge with the US and others for a 21-day ceasefire. This is disgraceful because rather than calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities by Hezbollah after nearly a year of daily firing into Israel, they make a false equivalence between the terrorist aggressor, and Israel acting in defense of its population with brilliant precision in self-defense.

While condemnation of Israel is the lifeblood of the UN (with more anti-Israel resolutions each year than the sum of all the resolutions against actual terrorist states like Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, N. Korea, and more), maybe if they are looking deeply in the mirrors in front of them, they will have a reflective moment of introspection. Maybe, in the spirit of the season of the Jewish High Holidays, the UN will break out in mass repentance.

In an interview this week, I was asked by a journalist what’s the point of Israel remaining a member in the UN.  To be honest, I didn’t have a good answer. Its dysfunctional, ineffective, financially reckless, and morally way off course.

Maybe expecting the UN to repent and develop a moral backbone is – like Dorethy’s dream –  no more than a fantasy. It’s hard to imagine any meaningful transformation with its agencies complicit in supporting terror and a UN leader like Secretary General Guterres (whose immediate response to the October 7 massacre in Israel, was to rationalize “the context”. He set the tone by his wording at the time:

“It is important to… recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”

When the Secretary General speaks on global affairs, his words are significant and potentially impactful and here we had, the UN’s top executive justifying and legitimizing the October 7th massacre! Instead of directing his wrath at the perpetrators of October 7, Guterres chose to blame the Israeli victims for their murder, their torture, their rape, their mutilation and there being taken as hostages. His declarations served only Hamas and their nefarious ends as his declarations today serve Hezbollah.

Following my plan to send mirrors to each of the UN Member states attending the UNGA, let me conclude by paraphrasing another children’s popular fable, with:

 “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most to blame of them all?”

Clearly, when it comes to Gaza and Lebanon – a top contender is the United Nations.

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).

Since ‘The Jewish War’ against the Roman Empire, some thoughts of The Jewish War of today.

By David E. Kaplan

Today my brother Sidney and I visited the grave of our father in Kfar Saba. It was his Yahrzeit (Anniversary of a death in Judaism), and standing over the stone of Solly Kaplan, and reflecting on what he would think of Israel’s present war embattled on multiple fronts, Sidney recalled our worldly-wise father remarking immediately after 9/11:

“Now, the world will understand Israel’s situation.”

While right about most things, how naively wrong our father was on this!

The world not only does not understand Israel, it chooses not to understand. The depth of global hatred towards Jews – once thought to be on the wane in the wake of the Holocaust – burst and exploded in sync and with the speed of the murderous hoards that broke through the fences from Gaza into Israel on October 7.

Solly, like most Jews never would have believed that so soon after the Holocaust, a world would again be so receptive to the mass murder of Jews – that countries world reflexively side with the killers and not the victims, and somehow cerebrally contort to justify the horror they support with “They deserve it; they had it coming”. In the immediate aftermath of October 7, very few countries condemned Hamas; resisted calling it a massacre and found reasons to justify their conduct. My native South Africa was in the forefront of this this posture as reflective in this all-revealing photo below.   

Writing in The Jerusalem Post (Sept 23), Moshe Targin asks:

 “Why do they oppose us with such intensity? Why does the hyper-liberal world react so viscerally to Israel? What stirs their agitation, driving them to fabricate wild claims and hurl accusations with unbridled fury?”

As we approach Rosh HaShana (New Year) and the anniversary of October 7, we ask these questions but in truth these are questions Jews have long asked without answers as persecution persists unabated.

Has anything changed over the last two millennia? Continuing,  Targin writes:

“In this current struggle, our enemies are willing to concoct far-fetched notions and propagate blatant falsehoods, desperately clinging to their old convictions.”

All this was evident  as I watched on TV in the hours before I went to the cemetery, as speaker after speaker of world leaders at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) lambasted Israel for protecting its people, like any other member state of the UN would do if it had been attacked by marauding mass murders and who threatened to repeat such massacres in the future. They were quick to “concoct far-fetched notions and propagate blatant falsehoods” as South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa did by so-falsely accusing Israel of Apartheid.

There was hardly a note of  criticism from most the speakers of the terrorist organisations initiating and orchestrating the killing –  Hamas and Hezbollah. A welcome exception was the Argentinian president, Javier Milei who criticized the UN for its hypocrisies in criticizing Israel. For most the rest, the message of the UN was clear: Israel as an “Apartheid”, “colonialist”, “occupier” or whatever other false convenient label –  and consequently has no right to defend itself.  The indifference to the plight of Israel and Jews was  reflected in a speech by the British Prime Minister at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, being held at the same time as the UNGA, where Keir Starmer called for “return of the sausages” instead of hostages. Yes, it was a gaffe but it was also a verbal slip that exposed deep rooted attitudes, unleashed by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah.

“I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” said Prime Minister Starmer, “the return of the sausages – the hostages – and a recommitment to the two-state solution: recognized Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.”

How do you support “a safe and secure Israel,” when you deny licenses for arms to Israel during an existential war?

Irrelevant to these delegates of world leaders at the UNGA was how a music festival turned into a nightmare scenario and young attendees faced unimaginable horrors. How the Supernova music festival, attended by about 3,500 young people, turned into a site of mass murder and sexual assault, including gang rapes and the desecration of corpses. How Road 232 connecting the Gaza border kibbutzim, which could have provided an escape route but instead became a road of death – a trap ensnaring fleeing young people who were met with death, sexual violence,  including rape and mutilation.

Two thousand years after the first-century Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote The Jewish War, there is today a feeling of déjà vu. If Jews were then in their homeland of Judea defending themselves against the might of the Roman Empire, today again in a cataclysmic clash, not only against Islamic extremism but against a world  bursting with antisemitism and favoring our killers at every international forum.

There is however one big difference:

If 9/11 had no impact in changing global antipathy towards the Jewish state, October 7 impacted on Israelis and Jews all over the world to accept this and to no longer be under and false illusions.  If people indicate they intent to kill us Jews, we have to take it that they mean in and we need to do whatever is necessary to prevent them from succeeding, including sometimes  “paging” them!

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).