The price that comes with recognition is its terrorist activities constitute war crimes warranting being brought before the International Court of Justice!

By Jonathan Feldstein

If you’re keeping score, to date 138 states have recognized the ‘State of Palestine’, most recently Ireland, Norway, and Spain. This begs the question, what are they recognizing?

They have recognized a state that never existed, with a name never used before 1964, but whose national identity is that Israel “occupied” them in 1948. The first time the term Palestine was used was in the 2nd century, over 100 years after Jesus was crucified, to subjugate and embarrass its indigenous people, the Jewish people, after a Jewish revolt to expel Rome from Judea. It is documented in the term Judea capta which the Romans branded on their coins and architecture to document their conquering of the Land and its people.

Today’s Palestinian Arabs are a self-identifying mix of indigenous Arabs, and descendants of Arab immigrants from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and Syria.

Today’s ‘Palestine’ is governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a terrorist group which, along with Hamas, are dedicated to eradicating Israel, not coexistence. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is their genocidal anthem, calling for the destruction of Israel.

One must ask, if “Palestine” was ever independent and therefore occupied by Israel: who was its first king, president, emir, or prime minister? What is its currency? When is its Independence Day?

How is it possible that the PLO governs a territory that is not under its control, not because of Israel but because of Hamas expelling the PLO in 2007?

What are the “Palestinians” national past times? Celebrating terror, inciting hatred and violence, funding terrorists and their families with an obscene financial incentive known as “pay to slay.”

Why when its terrorists attack Israelis and Jews around the world, the “State of Palestine” is not brought to the International Court of Justice?

Why the double standard?

If we are going to recognize “Palestine,” we must recognize it for what it is: a divisive tool to pressure Israel, a “state” whose only response to multiple offers for actual independence has been violence and terror and death.

Before the PLO was established May 28, 1964, one would be hard pressed to find any mention of the “Palestinians”, referring to Arabs in the Land. Before 1948, “Palestinian” currency issued by the British, had Arabic, English, and Hebrew. Would a Palestinian Arab state, or any Arab or Islamic state, ever have Hebrew on its official currency?

Before 1948, the Palestine Philharmonic was a Jewish orchestra. As were “Palestinian” athletic teams that competed internationally. All Jewish. The daily “Palestine Post” was a Jewish publication. And when the British referred to Palestinians, they were referring to the Jewish population as there was no Palestinian Arab ethnicity recognized by anyone until then. My father was an actual Palestinian.

After creating the PLO and a people for it to represent, Palestinian Arab nationalism existed with the sole purpose of eliminating Israel and the Jewish people. The also PLO tried to unseat the artificial Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1970, the entity that sits on 70% of British Mandate “Palestine” – the made-up state to reward their Hashemite allies who hailed from Arabia. Even the PLO knew that this was a fake state. After being squashed and butchered by the Hashemite army, with more casualties in a month than Hamas claims today in Gaza after eight months, they retreated, were expelled, and set their sights only on Israel.

In the Oslo Accords, PLO leader Yasser Arafat publicly recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced “terrorism and other acts of violence” against Israel. Yet practically, the PLO continued to engage in terrorism, and initiated the infamous “Pay for Slay” program, providing hefty pensions for Palestinian Arab terrorists and their families. This represents millions of dollars in the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget, and is subsidized by foreign contributions to the PA. In October 2018, the PLO suspended its recognition of Israel, and doubled down on the funding of terrorism.

This is the “Palestine” the world should recognize. Yes, there are several million people who identify as “Palestinians” today, a reality that will not change.  There needs to be a resolution where they will hopefully, one day, choose to live in peace with Israel, truly renounce and stop inciting terror even among their children as young as pre-school, and live prosperously. But the solution is not to recognize a “State of Palestine” blind to this reality, as a slap to Israel, or thinking in any way that doing so without the Palestinian Arabs having to negotiate and aspire to peace rather than an endless genocidal war, will bring peace closer. It won’t. It only emboldens the terrorists.

Alternatively, if the world actually recognizes the “State of Palestine” against which it claims Israel is committing acts of war and genocide, and which 138 states that have recognized “Palestine” as an actual legitimate entity, it’s high time that “Palestine” be held to the same accountability as Israel, or any other state. As such, acts of terror that are inspired by, celebrated in, and funded from the “State of Palestine”, constitute actual war crimes and genocide.  “Palestine’s” leaders should have arrest warrants against them. They should be brought to trial, individually and nationally.

It’s doubtful that anyone in Ireland, Norway, or Spain were intelligent enough to note the irony of their recognition of “Palestine” the week of the anniversary of the creation of the PLO. Since a terrorist revolutionary movement can’t have a cause without a people, the Palestinians were invented along with it.

If only the Marx brothers had the sense to create a people, the Fredonians, along with their fictitious country called Fredonia, they could have been recognized as the indigenous people, from the river to the sea, of their imaginary state, receiving billions from gullible governments and terrorist sympathizers around the world. If only Dorothy and the Wizard had a sense to create a revolutionary movement to liberate the Munchkins, the Munchkinland Liberation Organization, the Wicked Witch of the West and Good Witch of the South would have been jailed on charges of genocide of the little people and rotted away in prison.

The world’s double standards are profound. In calling for a “two state solution” nobody is demanding that “Palestine” be democratic. “Palestine” is an anti-democratic kleptocracy that has not seen even a fake election in nearly two decades, and the last time they had an election, Hamas became the parliamentary majority.  The vast majority of “Palestinians” support the genocidal Islamist Hamas, according to their own polls, the same Hamas that slaughtered PLO leaders in Gaza, and then held all Gazans hostage.

This is the “Palestine” to recognize.

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 failure to recognize that Israel’s war must be to defeat not appease Hamas and other Iranian proxies.

By Jonathan Feldstein

It’s almost unimaginable to see recent Biden Administration moves going from bad to worse, so much so that these defer any prospect for any real peace, an end to the war against Hamas (and Iran and its proxies) or the return of our hostages.

Words have meaning but when they are mindlessly repeated followed by inaction, they end up hollow and simply embolden the terrorist. Defiantly repeating “DON’T” to Iran before launching an unprecedented massive arial attack on Israel without consequences, and then telling Israel to “take the win” and not respond forcefully has fundamentally undermined both the US and Israel’s deterrence value. Constantly reassuring his support for Israel as “ironclad” but then showing the world in general, its allies, and specifically the terrorists that it is anything but “ironclad”, only stiffens the resolve of the terrorists and makes them less likely to release hostages or to negotiate in any good faith.

Last week, President Biden went public with his threat to cut off weapons delivery to Israel, suggesting that Israel was using them illegally or irresponsibly, despite his own administration verifying that wasn’t the case.

The first problem with this is that he went public. Not even his mentor Obama did that when he cut off delivery of the precision Hellfire missile.  Cutting off weapons is bad enough. Announcing to the terrorists that he’s doing so across international media simply empowers them.

Specifically, by doing so, Biden gave Hamas abundant reason to refuse any deal to release the hostages, including Americans, that it is holding in Gaza for over seven months. After this happened and with Hamas being jubilant, I created a meme:

Now, with no hostage deal even possible because of Biden emboldening Hamas after his own Secretery of State said that the deal before Hamas “was very generous,” Israel must complete its invasion of Rafah to find and release the hostages and crush the remains of Hamas’ 4 to 5 battalions.

By cutting off precision munitions, Biden is ensuring that more civilians will die, which was the premise that he used to cut off the weapons. Yes, read that again. Dead Gazans blood will be on Biden’s hands.

Biden’s action also emboldens Hezbollah in Lebanon, making an all-out war there more likely, not less so.

Jordan, Egypt and other “moderate” Arab allies are watching Biden’s blunder unfold with multiple negative consequences.  Primarily, it signals that the US is an undependable ally that if it could turn its back on Israel with whom it perennially proclaims enjoys “shared values and strong friendship”, it can do so on them. This is likely to accelerate more extremism. Biden’s blundering also pushes off any possible Saudi normalization with Israel for the same reason. The Saudis don’t need to extend themselves if they don’t believe the US is going to be a reliable partner!

All this sends multiple dangerous messages to Iran and its terrorist proxies, basically that they can get away with their murderous terrorist objectives without consequence. They will feel they have a free pass to operate against Israel and soft Jewish targets globally without restraint.

And with the Administration pressurizing Israel not to pursue the ground operation in Rafah will only result in even more Israeli casualties as it will leave Hamas homicidally intact. If will require more conflicts and a wounded nation questioning why so many of its soldiers have died in vain.

Furthermore, look for Russia and China to swoop in to extend their negative influence in the region, and anywhere else they see US policies exposed as weak.  

A few weeks ago, the US passed a bill providing an additional $17 billion for Israel to have the weapons needed to pursue prosecuting a war it neither began nor wanted. Now the US is trying to tie Israel’s hands from doing so. I was asked about this in an interview, and said that I was thankful as an Israeli as well as proud as an American, for the US making the right decision.  But then on reflection, I commented that had Biden not controversially released $6 billion to Iran in the summer, and then another $10 billion to Iran in the winter ($16 billion), and had President Obama not earlier paid off the Iranians with billions more, perhaps there would have been no or far fewer deaths; no emboldening the Iranians, no funding for their proxies, and there would have been no need for an extra $17 billion in defense aid to Israel, and some $9 billion providing humanitarian relief to the people in Gaza.

Just think, what if the US had engaged in a full-scale embargo on Iran, cutting the Islamic regime off from any possible funds, bringing the already weak Iranian economy to its knees, and empowering Iranians to take back their country from the Ayatollahs. There could have been regime change in Iran without a US weapon being fired, a safer world, and no war now on multiple fronts.

Instead, the US through a blundering foreign policy has been complicit in funding Iranian-backed terrorism in the Middle East.

BLOOD ON U.S. HANDS

It gets worse.  After Biden declaring that he is withholding weapons – ostensibly to avoid civilian deaths in Rafah – there have been reports of the Biden Administration offering Israel a deal:

Providing intelligence on the location of Hamas terror leaders in exchange for Israel not conducting an all-out assault.

It is unthinkable that if the US had such intelligence, it would not provide it not as a carrot on the end of a stick, but to help Israel defeat Hamas which the US has acknowledged is an important goal. Had the US ‘as an important friend and ally’ provided this vital intel days or weeks ago, Israel could have cut off the head of the Hamas snake already, saving lives on both sides. If these reports are true, there’s all the more blood in Gaza on the hands of the US administration.

And as the US tries to link Saudi recognition of Israel with a US-Saudi defense treaty, the Saudis surely are looking at all this and questioning the value of any such agreement with the Biden Administration beyond the paper it’s written on, and wondering where it more prudent to wait until after the US election on November 5.

The war against Hamas and other Iranian proxies must be to defeat and not to appease them and certainly not to leave them standing where they can threaten Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and elsewhere.  Biden would be well served to understand this, recognizing that the only way to defeat the Hamas wing of his Democratic Party to which he is shamefully pandering to is to truly defeat Hamas. 

For Biden and the Democratic Party, ‘the issue’ is no less existential.  While despite his damaging blundering, Biden still genuinely refers to himself as a Zionist and supporter of Israel but if he allows the Ilhan Omars, Rashida Tlaibs and other Hamas supporters in his own party to win, he may be the last Democratic president who publicly claims support for Israel.

Biden may have already lost Michigan and other battleground states.  Short of declaring war on Israel, it could be a done deal.  Many pundits believe that his appeasement of the Hamas wing of his own party will not only not work come November 5, but is immoral.

What Biden is doing now is extending the war, preventing the completion of the necessary objectives, and creating more casualties. Is there a conspiracy behind it or just plain stupidity?

What happens in Gaza doesn’t stay in Gaza. If only Biden understood that the negative consequences of his policies are horrifyingly far-reaching.

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).

Why the silence surrounding Muslim massacres of Christians across Africa and the Middle East?

By Rolene Marks

The world is disproportionately focused on Israel’s war with Hamas while ignoring ongoing atrocities committed against Christian communities around the world.

As the world focuses on the war between Israel and Hamas, a horrific genocide has escaped global attention. The ongoing genocide of Christians on the African continent – and other parts of the globe. Whenever there is a war that involves the Jewish state, the level of scrutiny is disproportionate and comes at the expense of other conflicts around the world.

The numbers on the African continent are staggering. According to Genocide Watch, as of 29 February 2000, 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed – and the numbers continue to steadily increase. Islamic Fulani militia, Boko Haram and other terror groups maraud through villages, committing wholesale slaughter. These are the ideological siblings of Hamas who committed the most horrific atrocities against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, including burning families alive, raping women and girls and kidnapping over 253.

These groups are also the ideological siblings of ISIS who have committed atrocities against Christians in the Middle East with a barbarism not seen since the medieval era or Middle Ages. Nigeria is one of the deadliest places to be a Christian, according to non-governmental Christian relief organization Open Doors. Since 1 January 2024, 600 Christians have been “hacked to death”. Christians are often forced to change their religion to Islam. Islam continues to spread throughout the continent.

Nigeria is not the only country where Christians are routinely massacred. The world is silent in the face of the genocide of Christians on the African continent.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a Christian majority country, but this has not prevented Islamic extremists from attacking communities and villages. According to MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute):

“On April 2, 2024, Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) conducted an attack on the Christian village of Mangodomu in the Beni Territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Two days later, on April 4, ISCAP released a photoset documenting the atrocity.

In the photos, ISCAP fighters are pictured attacking the village, where they razed Christian homes to the ground, pulled crosses down, and captured and killed Christian civilian villagers.

Christians in the DRC have faced a surge of violent attacks from ISCAP fighters during 2024, fueled in part by the encouragement of Islamic State spokesman, Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari, who has incited the group’s affiliates to target and kill Christians across Africa, the West, and elsewhere.”

Islamic militant groups have declared war on Christians, most prominently in the eastern part of the country. Along with ISCAP, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of many extremist Islamic groups who are targeting Christians while seeking to establish Islamic law throughout the region, has perpetrated other atrocities. The International Christian Concern (ICC) reported:

 “For decades, the ADF has killed, maimed, abducted, and displaced millions of people in North Kivu despite the presence of peacekeepers and local and regional troops in the troubled region.”

Christians in Sudan account for approximately 5% of the population. Sudanese Christians have suffered decades of attacks, starvation and displacement, suffering under various military regimes. Sudan’s civil wars temporarily ended in 1972, but resumed in 1983. The Sudanese people suffered as famine hit the region. Four million people were displaced and two million people died in the two-decade long conflict before a temporary six-year ceasefire was signed in January 2005.

In 1985, a surge of Christian persecution resulted in the murder of pastors and church leaders, destruction of Christian villages, churches, hospitals, schools and mission bases, and the bombing of Sunday church services.

Few can forget the genocide of Darfur between 2003 – 2005 where an estimated 200,000 people were killed. A recent resurgence of war in Sudan in 2023 has resulted in over 8 million needing immediate humanitarian aid as widespread starvation is rampant and millions have been displaced.

In 2022, Sudan was ranked as the 10th most dangerous country to be a Christian. Starvation and refugees, due to massive displacement and systematic slaughter, has made lives for Christians extremely dangerous.

Islamic fundamentalist groups threaten to kill many who refuse to convert to Islam. 

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, welcomed Sudanese rebel leader, General Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo on the 4th of January 2024, in the days leading up to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.  South Africa has faced widespread international criticism for ignoring the arrest warrant for former Sudanese President, Omar Al Bashir, for his role in allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.

South Africa told the International Criminal Court that it believed it was under no obligation to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir during a visit several years earlier even though he was subject to an ICC arrest warrant.

The persecution of Christians has spread to Southern Africa as well. The spread of Islamic extremism endangers Christian communities in countries like Mozambique. Christians in Mozambique face threats that significantly endanger their freedom and safety. The rise of Islamic extremism in the north of the country, especially in regions like Cabo Delgado, has had a devastating impact on the lives of Christians. Mozambique was recently ranked the 32nd most dangerous country to be Christian. Neighbouring South Africa is also vulnerable as incitement and extremism grow. To date this is mostly targeted at the Jewish community who are proudly Zionist but it will not stop there. It never does.

South Africa is vulnerable to Islamists. Growing poverty, coupled with the ANC’s government’s anti-Western, pro-Hamas and Iran stance on the Middle East, places not just the Jewish community at increasing risk – but Christians as well, especially in vulnerable rural areas. In recent weeks, British officials warned of the high possibility of a terror attack by ISIS.

According to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), the Islamic State:

 “Seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey.”

Many Islamic State actions of extreme criminality, terror, recruitment and other activities have been documented in the Middle East – including the systematic raping of Yazidi women and slaughter of Christians.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor revealed in an online parliamentary meeting in May 2023 that South Africa and Mozambique were in discussion about possibly helping Maputo fight the insurgency. A South African private military company Dyck Advisory Group was reportedly involved on the Mozambique government’s side, mostly mounting aerial attacks with light aircraft.

Islamic State published an editorial on its al-Naba online bulletin warning that if South Africa intervened militarily in Cabo Delgado this:

 “may result in prompting the soldiers of the Islamic State to open a fighting front inside its borders! – by the permission of God Almighty.”

ISIS is not the only threat to South Africa. Increasing radicalization and incitement is spreading across Southern Africa – as it has in the northern part of the continent. Some of the rhetoric from members of South Africa’s Parliament is alarming and while it is aimed at Jews or Zionists, history has proven that it does not stop there. South Africa’s ruling ANC align with Iran whose stated goal is not only to annihilate Israel – but also to establish an Islamic caliphate. This would greenlight radicals to engage in unspeakable atrocities. The ANC and other parties openly support Hamas – an Iranian sponsored proxy whose repeated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas thugs also routinely persecute Christians in Gaza. Christian communities in South Africa should be aware that Islamists prey on and exploit the most vulnerable, notably the poor and unemployed Christian youth in the country. South Africa certainly has an abundance of such individuals. Christian communities must be aware of the risks and the threats – and prepare accordingly.

Christians are not just persecuted in Africa – but across the Middle East as well. In 2023, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern and Muslim-majority countries all featured on the list of 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. Israel was not on the list – the Christian community has grown in number in the Jewish State.

On 7 April 2024, global leaders gathered in Kigali, Rwanda to commemorate 30 years since the genocide of the Hutus who slaughtered the Tutsi people. Over 850,000 were murdered and many more mutilated and tortured. South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, summoning as much rank hypocrisy as he could, addressed the gathering of world leaders and said, “We cannot turn a blind eye to genocide.”

Ramaphosa may want to start with his own neighbourhood instead of focusing on Israel’s war with Hamas. The genocide of Christians is never spoken about.

It is time to end the silence.

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).

From a small village in South Africa to Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev, a foreign student’s perspective of taking cover from Iranian missiles.

By Kenneth Mokgatlhe

On Saturday night, the autocratic and warmonger Iranian government under Ayatollah Khamenei launched more than 300 missiles against Israel. As a South African studying in Israel – at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev – I experienced the attack first-hand and can say it was the most horrifying night of my life. Following security guidelines provided by the Israeli authorities who had been expecting this insane attack by Iran, my fellow students and I, all had to take cover by running to the relatively safety of bomb shelters. We remained there until the early morning of Sunday. In this first-ever direct attack by Iran on Israeli soil, a young girl from the Bedouin community which is not far from us in Israel’s south is reported to have been injured.

I grew up in a Christian environment in a village in South Africa, and during Christmas last year, I visited the Old City of Jerusalem and Nazareth. The streets were mostly deserted as could be expected due to the Israel-Hamas war. I was struck to see Israel’s victims of the conflict, the mass of people who fled their homes near the Lebanon-Israel border where Hezbollah is continuing to wreak havoc by firing rockets daily into the north of Israel. 

I know that many people who have been influenced to hate Israel do not even know that the Jewish state is as small as our South Africa’s ‘Kruger National Park’ and is smaller than any of the provinces that make up South Africa. By further country comparison, Israel has a small population of only 9 million and hardly any significant mineral resources. Despite this, proud and resilient Israelis have transformed a desert into a place of wonder, sprouting innovative ideas no less than abundant crops.  I should know – I’m living in Beer Sheva, Israel capital of the desert.

Israel is the only Jewish-majority state in the world. It is a democracy in the sense that you can do whatever you want to do as long as it does not go against the fundamental liberties of others. You can choose to be religious or secular, whether to wear a dress or pants. It’s your choice, unlike what is the case among many of Israel’s neighbors.

For those who only ‘experience’ the conflict on television or in newspapers, war is something that is happening elsewhere. For most the people caught up in it, it is not of their choosing. They are tragically dragged into it. The reality of war is that people die, are injured, are displaced, lose livelihoods and multitudes face famine.

Death comes to easy to too many. There is never a winner in war, hence the need for diplomacy and dialogue to establish peace, security, and stability.

Where is the serious conversation? The world is not talking about how Iranian proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the South have been threatening the existence of Israel for so many years. Having been continually dragged into war in the past by its neighbors, Israelis have had to developed super-advanced military technology to defend their country against these threats. To this end has been the development of its air defense systems such as the Iron Dome, David Sling and Arrow 3.

As a people I have discovered who lovingly embrace life, Israelis have to invest a lot of its time and treasure in protecting life.

Coming from a country once respected for its choice for peace over war, I was greatly disappointed to see some of my fellow South Africans on social media, not only supporting but also calling for more attacks by Iran against Israel. My disappointment was amplified because I know that the citizens from both Iran and Israel are essentially peace-loving people who have no desire nor necessity to go to war. Sharing no borders, there is no quarrel between the people of Iran nor the people of Israel. It was also sad on a more personal level because I know a fellow South African from the same village as me in the North West Province who is studying in Iran – me in Israel; she in Iran. Here we are set on pursuing our education in foreign lands and we find ourselves in two countries unexpectedly in war against each other! I had to take cover; will she soon have to do the same?

Last week, the Argentine court ruled that Iran was the mastermind of the gruesome attacks on the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center back in 1990 and 1994 respectively in Buenos Aires. People tend to have a selective memory where they only choose to remember the Israeli attack on a building adjoining the Iranian consulate in Syria while refusing to acknowledge the longstanding pain and suffering that Iran is and has been inflicting on the Jewish people both in the Diaspora and in its national homeland.

People should resist formulating their views and perspectives by confining their source material to voices spewing hate. We should take charge of what we feed our minds by fostering a reading culture and discovering fresh insights that will help us avoid being the subjects of cheap propaganda by those driven by narrow personal agendas.

Peace and stability in the Middle East are prerequisites to global security and development. This cannot be achieved by alienating or hating Israel. Genuine peace will require us to be objective, impartial, and factual. We need to be solution-driven rather than calling for expansion of violence which places more people in danger; civilians who are generally peace-lovers. It is incumbent upon us all to call for peace in the Middle East, a peace necessitating a political rather than a military outcome, and that requires sober-minded leaders to come together and confront this long-decade impasse. 

Today the Middle East demands mature leadership not the rabble rousers and sable rattlers.

About the writer:

Kenneth Mokgatlhe is a political writer and columnist studying Master’s at Ben Gurion University in 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).

Public hangings, stoning and beheadings are carried out by South Africa’s closest friends without a moral murmur.

By Allan Wolman

WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURES

South Africa maintains a very warm and close relationship with Iran. Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor recently concluded discussions on “mutual bilateral interests” with President Ebrahim Raisi during her visit to Tehran in late October of last year. Pandor also co-chairs the SA-Iran Joint Commission of Cooperation with her counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

It is widely acknowledged that Iran supports and sponsors terrorism around the world including organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.

The South African Constitution of 1996 upholds the nation’s commitment to human rights and dignity, guaranteeing the right to life and protection from cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment. Furthermore, by abolishing the death penalty, South Africa joined a global movement towards more humane and progressive justice systems, serving as a moral example for others to terminate such draconian practices. Both President Ramaphosa and Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor’s commitment to human rights and the abolition of capital punishment suggests that both would ardently support the country’s stance against the death penalty.

While Iran dominated world headlines these past days, here are some facts that South African media does not report on, nor does the ANC seem to be concerned about human rights when it applies to close friends.

Capital punishment is included in the Iranian legal code, where various methods of execution are practiced, including hanging, firing squad, and stoning to death. Most common is by hanging, but also includes, firing squad and, stoning to death.

The conservative politician, Mohammad-Javad Ardeshir Larijani, a top adviser to the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei interviewed last year, said that stoning for adultery, is a good Islamic law protecting “family values,” adding that “Stoning is a very important restraining law to protect the marriage contract of families.”

The execution procedure by “Stoning”, involves burying the condemned person up to their chest and then hurling stones at them until they are dead. The stones used are not so large as to kill immediately, but large enough to cause significant pain and injury over a prolonged period.

This monstrous method of execution and systemic oppression faced by women in certain cultural contexts, was brought to life in the internationally acclaimed 2008 Iranian film “The Stoning of Soraya M”  which tells the true story in graphic detail of the stoning to death of Soraya Manutchehri in a small village in southwestern Iran in August 1986. Falsely accused of adultery by her husband who sought to marry a younger woman, the accusation stemmed from Soraya’s refusal to grant him a divorce. Despite Soraya’s innocence, she was subjected to a sham trial in a misogynistic society that favoured her husband’s word. This led to her stoning to death.

Like Iran, Saudi Arabia also has capital punishment within its legal system. President Ramaphosa concluded his State Visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 16 October 2022, cementing continued bilateral cooperation and consolidated their strategic partnership.

Saudi Arabia’s primary method of execution is public beheading by sword, which is typically carried out in a public square after Friday prayers. However, other methods of execution include firing squad and occasionally, death by stoning. The mass execution of 81 people on 12 March 2022 hardly made world headlines. Human Rights Watch wrote:

“Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men this weekend was a brutal show of its autocratic rule, and a justice system that puts the fairness of their trials and sentencing into serious doubt.”

It remains unclear whether any of those executed were underage at the time of their alleged offenses.

South Africa has ties with Afghanistan via its embassy in Pakistan. The Taliban has only this month announced that they will resume the public stoning to death of women.

Several other Middle Eastern countries that South Africa maintains strong diplomatic ties, still have capital punishment as a legal penalty for certain crimes. Amongst those are countries whose method of execution is public beheading and public stoning.

It is indeed noteworthy that both the Palestinian Authority (in the West Bank) and Hamas (in Gaza), whose cause South Africa and in particular Pandor champions, have laws allowing for the death penalty to be imposed for crimes, such as murder, and collaboration with Israel.

How does Minister Pandor balance South Africa’s constitutional commitments to the right to life and protection from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment when engaging with Teheran? This is the same minister known for her strong views on human rights, particularly in ‘select’ countries of the Middle East.

Who can forget this this same minister together with her president, grandstanding at the Peace Palace in The Hague hardly bothered with stoning and beheading during “discussions of mutual interest.”

Proud of constitutionally abolishing the death penalty, South Africa’s biggest buddies are the biggest killers of its own people.

And it says nothing!

About the writer:

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

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

We must be grateful for the support – but that does not negate our concerns over US policy when our survival is on the line.

By Jonathan Feldstein

I made it a point not to go to sleep knowing what was coming from Iran.  After Shabbat, we received the instructions from Israel’s Homefront Command that for the next two days, all schools would be closed and Israel’s airport and airspace closed.

To be honest, I went into Shabbat (sabbath) nervous that something would happen, particularly that we were near the airport which for sure would be a prime target. Prior to Iran launching hundreds of drones and missiles, the mood of the country was already tense. Then, when we realized what was happening, and that a multitude of missiles were heading our way, people became even more anxious. I didn’t fear as much for myself, but the waiting felt like waiting for an execution to take place – our own!!!!!

I felt like there was a schizophrenia in the White House that was only emboldening the Islamic regime to act as aggressively as it did. There is no doubt in my mind that President Biden does not want an all-out regional war, and genuinely cares about Israel’s safety. While I am grateful to the US for sharing intelligence and leading the way for other nations to join in supporting Israel’s defense by taking down some of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones before they arrived in Israeli air space, I cannot escape the sense that it has also facilitated the plight where Israel finds itself today vis-à-vis Iran. In November, the Administration released $10 billion to Iran, providing much needed funds for it to pay for its domestic and global terrorist infrastructure, weapons, incitement, and race toward a nuclear bomb. Just imagine what would have happened last Sunday if Iran was armed with a nuclear arsenal?

While the Administration has “threatened” Iran with tough words like “don’t”, and that its support for Israel is “ironclad”, its further actions tell a different story. These actions inter alia have been notably:

– enabling a damaging UN resolution against Israel

– threatening to withhold essential weapons to Israel

– public displays of friction

In addition to Iran and its proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen who are looking closely to see how much they can get away with, so is the rest of the Arab world which considers Iran no less of a threat.  They are watching closely to see how reliable the US – as a friend – really is.

Evaluating Biden’s post-Iran attack, there is reason for concern. While the US President did condemn Iran “in the strongest possible terms,” his wording in the official White House statement referred to “an unprecedented air attack against military facilities in Israel.” I guess the president must have been snoozing when I was jolted out of bed and sent to a bomb shelter with an attack on my community and hundreds of other communities from large cities to small towns, most definitely not “military facilities”.

Amid the missiles exploding, I could imagine chuckles in Tehran for was Biden deliberately or foolishly misrepresenting the facts?

Biden also reportedly told the Israeli Prime Minister that the United States would neither participate in nor support offensive actions against Iran. The message regrettably went public which consequently undermined its “ironclad” support to an ally that had just been brazenly attacked. It also sent the wrong message of weakness to Iran and its terrorist proxies. The net result is that it puts Israel, the Arab world, and the rest of the world at even greater risk.

So, while Iran’s attack was a failure militarily and we are grateful to the US and the others who played an important role, we are disturbed by these same countries and their leaders warning Israel not to respond for fear it might escalate the situation. The Iranian Islamic regime and its Islamic terrorist proxies now smell opportunity. They calculated that they could launch hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel and get away with it. They may well be right.

In calculating its own response, balanced with the pressure from the US and others, Israel needs to consider whether other nations, if attacked like Israel was, would respond harshly or would they roll over. Israel needs to calculate that even with the successful air defense array it built and now demonstrated, are these defensive weapons sufficient to keep Israel safe?

Standing strong and defiantly against the Iranian regime and its proxies is the only effective way to achieve peace, to bring moderate Arab states together in an alliance with Israel, and to protect the world.  Also, Iranians need the external support so they can take to the streets and end the 45-year tyrannous Islamic regime.

Failure to stand up to the Islamic terrorists emboldens and empowers them.

The afternoon following the attack, I dropped off something for my son and daughter-in-law and my three-year-old grandson was on the couch “reading” a book. When I sat next to him, he said:

 “Saba (grandpa), last night we had a siren and I cried.”

“Why did you cry,” I asked. 

“Because I was scared.”

So, I told him that:

“Abba (dad), Saba and Savta (grandma) had a siren too,” and then he went back to his book, as if everything is normal. He’s young enough that he may forget this, but if it escalates, perhaps not. Then again, I feel better about dealing with the threat now even with the trauma, rather than kicking the can down the road for his generation.

If we can even wait that long!

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).

Taking the Pulse of a Tense Israel

By Jonathan Feldstein

Last week, I went to Beirut, at least according to Google Maps and Waze. I was driving in northern Israel and no matter what app I used, or how I entered data differently, my starting point brought me to the Beirut airport. A short seven-hour drive from where I was going.

I was not alone – residents across Israel reported disruptions with their GPS-based navigation apps like Waze, Moovit and Google Maps, telling users they were in Beirut, most likely due to IDF jamming actions. After all – there is a war going on!

Things are tense in Israel at the moment. Last week was the last Friday of Ramadan (when there’s usually heightened tension, threats, and violence from our Arab neighbors celebrating the Islamic holy month), and especially this week as Iran threatens to retaliate for the targeting of its IRGC terror leader in Damascus. 

Yesterday I was out with my brother and sister-in-law visiting from the US and received dozens of messages from people asking what they can do, how they can pray, and what the situation is. I wasn’t aware of the reports they were seeing that triggered their concern until later. Frankly, I knew most of all that was going on and have accepted it. Their messages of genuine concern made me a little bit more concerned.  For me, living here amid a war, with the threat of a further escalation from day one (we are now six months into the war) has become the norm. It is really far from normal. 

Here’s what’s going on:

The army has canceled the leave for combat soldiers; more reservists are being called up again; public bomb shelters are open (we have one in our home as do many Israelis); the air force is on high alert, and GPS is being jammed as far south as Tel Aviv because Hezbollah has tens or hundreds of thousands of precision GPS guided missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel.  By jamming the GPS, the expectation is that those pointed at particular targets will miss their mark.  But if only ten percent of the volume of rockets and missiles that Hezbollah has, get through – estimated at between 150,000-350,000 total – there will be a great deal of death and destruction on our side alone.

Everyone I know with whom I have spoken about it believes that not only is a war with Hezbollah imminent (though different people debate when and under what circumstances), there’s nobody among these people who doesn’t believe that it is necessary, even knowing that thousands or more Israelis may be killed. It will be carnage here, and much worse in Lebanon. We cannot continue living like this and allow Hezbollah to continue threatening us with hundreds of thousands of rockets and precision missiles. At present, some 100,000 Israelis from northern border areas evacuated from their homes and communities. They are refugees in their own country!

The sense of an imminent war existed before events this week. Israeli intelligence, especially in Lebanon, Syria and Iran, as demonstrated with the targeting of this Iranian IRGC terror leader, is excellent. I hope when the war with Hezbollah begins, it will begin and end on our terms. It is scary either way. 

It’s easy to project what many of the terrorists’ targets are. I imagine some of their missiles getting through, hitting sensitive military sites, government buildings, airports, power plants, as well as tall apartment buildings. I wonder if any of them might accidentally go astray and hit either the Al Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock, Islamic sites on the Temple Mount.  It would be ironic if they took out their own holy sites and shrines, and knowing that of course the world would somehow blame Israel.

In addition to impacting families who will be displaced, suffer loss, and whose loved ones will be called up to fight again, many Israelis like us are stocking up on non-perishable food and bottled water, and making accommodations for the possibility that a terrorist attack could leave us without power for days. As inconvenient as it will be, the thought of walking up seven flights in our building that will not have a working elevator is the least of my concerns right now.

It’s a good thing I have a good sense of direction, otherwise when my GPS said I was in Beirut, I might still be lost in northern Israel. Yesterday, amid rocket fire from Gaza (still) and Lebanon (dozens a day), one of the big news items here was the GPS jamming creating huge traffic problems.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned.  Prayers are needed and appreciated. 

The war in Israel is likely to get much worse before it gets better.  While Israel is currently in combat on multiple fronts – Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and the West Bank – it could dramatically escalate if Iran takes a more muscular posture directly – beyond its proxies. Compounding and confounding Israel’s position is that it has extended enemies from far afield fighting it politically and diplomatically, issuing direct threats and demands, blaming Israel rather than Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran for the war and the threat of escalation. 

Whatever will be, Israel will need its friends standing by its side.  Wherever you are, please show support and pray for Israel to remain strong, unified, and victorious.

About the writer:

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

From ancient Persia to modern Jordan the narrative shifts from ‘savior queen’ to ‘drama queen’.

By Jonathan Feldstein

Last week, Jews around the world celebrated Purim, the miraculous biblical story of the Jewish people overcoming a genocidal threat by Haman in the Book of Esther in Persia 2500 years ago. Many Christians also celebrated, knowing that if all the Jews had been exterminated then, Jesus would not have been born. They did so in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people, especially at such a time as this.

Despite the festive celebrations, the Jewish people are facing a modern genocidal threat again today, headquartered in Persia: Iran. As much as we celebrate Queen Esther and her selfless bravery, there’s another Middle Eastern queen who is fanning the flames of genocide against, and threatening the Jewish people today.

Unlike Esther, an orphan who was born in Jerusalem and exiled in Babylon, Queen Rania of Jordan could not be more polar opposite.  She was born in Kuwait, the daughter of Palestinian Arabs.  Unlike Esther, Rania came from a well-off family, got the best education, and became a desirable match for her King, Abdullah II.

Unlike Esther who remained in exile, Rania came home. What’s now called the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is overwhelmingly ethnically Palestinian because Jordan today was made up, and carved out of 80% of what used to be “Palestine”.  Deliberate or not, her marriage to Abdullah II gave him a kind of legitimacy, consolidating ethnic Palestinian Arabs into the monarchy as no previous Hashemite ruler ever had because they are originally from Arabia.

Esther became famous for her selfless and potentially life-threatening sacrifice to save her people.  Upon learning of the threat from Haman against all the Jewish people, Esther instructed all the Jewish people to pray and fast for three days, as she did.  Simply, they turned within, and to the Creator.

Far from being selfless, the at-home Queen Rania has made a habit of blaming others for the problems or her people. Most recently, she has twisted reality and misrepresented facts about Israel’s war against Hamas. Rania is fanning flames of hatred, blaming others, and putting the lives of others at risk, rather than taking responsibility. It would be interesting to know if she ever had a heart to heart with her father-in-law, the late King Hussein. It was during the 1967 Six Day War that her father-in-law attacked Israel, and in the process, lost Jerusalem and Biblical Judea and Samaria on the west bank of the Jordan River.

Rania has a history of public hostile anti-Israel comments, broadcasting these in the global media. Her most recent was with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the queen’s go-to Israel-bashing journalist.

In her polished verbal assault, Queen Rania accused Israel of “dehumanization” of Palestinians, and doing so in a way that is “systematic”. And of course, she nonsensically accuses Israel of “apartheid”. Her blood-libel is not only false, but is based on a false premise that Israelis believe (regarding Palestinian Arabs), “if we don’t kill them, they’re going to kill us.”  Rania blames “hardline leaders for keeping their people in this perpetual state of fear of an existential threat that doesn’t exist and making them feel like just killing Palestinians and killing Hamas is going to be the solution to the problem.”

Hello, Queen Rania. Did you not see Hamas’ own live broadcast of the atrocities they committed on October 7? Do you not think that just maybe their terror and using Gazan civilians as human shields has anything to do with it?

Queen Rania boasted about Jordanian aid to Gazans, conducting the interview in a warehouse amid cartons emblazoned with Jordanian flags. Nevertheless, she said that while Jordan is providing as much aid as possible, her pattern of blaming Israel reached a crescendo with Amanpour. Tone deaf to facts and history of Hamas hijacking Gaza and putting all its residents in harm’s way, she chastised that providing “aid under bombardment does not stop the destruction, the death, and the heartbreak. We cannot save people from hunger only then to bomb them to death.”

Implying that Israel does not have a legitimate cause to defeat Hamas (and parenthetically free Gazans from under the boot of Hamas’ evil terrorist infrastructure and culture), Rania said, “There are no victories to be had as long as this war continues.”

Rania tripled-down on blaming Israel for actual problems that Gazans are suffering, including claims of cutting off food, fuel, and water, rather than place any responsibility on Hamas, or Egypt which also shares a border with Gaza, and under which no shortage of weapons and other terrorist infrastructure have been smuggled. A thoughtful observer wonders if Hamas can smuggle weapons from Egypt, why not food for Gaza as well, even if Egypt blocks such aid.

Blaming only Israel, Rania suggested that it was in fact a calculated, “deprivation by design.” Not very Esther-like to always blame others rather than being introspective.

Amanpour actually asked Rania about the atrocities that Hamas committed on October 7. Rania responded:

“As devastating and as traumatic as October 7 was, it doesn’t give Israel license to commit atrocity after atrocity. Israel experienced one October 7, since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7’s.”

Presumably, Rania’s interview took place 156 days after October 7, a fact she was prepared with for her scripted talking points. Despite her fine education, Rania must have missed a few math classes because had Gazans experienced 156 October 7 massacres, more than 187,000 Gazans would have been killed, a number so ridiculously high not even Hamas would think to make up such figures.  But facts don’t matter to Rania when good rhetoric and lies can be used to blame Israel and the so-called “occupation”.

Rania must have also missed a few history classes as she pontificated, “I think a lot of people need to know more about this conflict to really understand the intricacies of it, to understand that this is one of the greatest historical injustices, to understand what the root cause of this issue is, to understand that this conflict did not begin on October 7, that that it was a result of years of occupation, of settlement expansion, of human rights abuses, of disregard for international law, and this is what led us to this point.”

Interestingly, she neglected to mention the occupation of Gaza (by Egypt) and “the West Bank” (by Jordan) under her husband’s father, and great-grandfather for whom he is named. To her, the original sin is Israel’s “occupation”, neglecting the fact that when Palestinian Arab ethnicity was invented, so was the “armed resistance” that they still practice – Terror. She forgets that Palestinian terrorists also threatened her father-in-law’s reign, a bloody revolt he put down in September 1970, during which as many as 25,000 Palestinian Arabs were killed.

There’s no doubt that Rania’s remarks were well prepared if not scripted.  There’s also no doubt that Rania would never have given such an interview without the advanced knowledge – if not outright approval – of King Abdullah. While he has plausible deniability regarding her remarks, it would be nonsense to think that he and his court were not consulted, and did not consent. Maybe even helped write the script.

The truth is that while Abdullah did not make these remarks directly, the King has also been doubling down on the anti-Israel rhetoric. In a statement just weeks before Rania’s interview, King Abdullah let slip that he also blamed Israel’s “occupation”.  However rather than using the kinder and gentler approach to the term as coined when his father lost Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordan River in 1967, Abdullah touted the “70 year” occupation, meaning that Israel’s very existence is by definition illegitimate.

As an Arabian Hashemite King ruling over a territory and people in which he and his tribe are not indigenous, in a country that was made up in 1946, aside from employing unprecedently hostile anti-Israel rhetoric, this gives new meaning to the term “the pot calling the kettle black”.

Back to the Queen and the “occupation”. She opined that “Palestinians do not hate Israelis because of who they are, they hate them because of what they’re doing to them.”

Just because she’s a Queen does not mean she is or ought to be immune from being called out on her anti-Israel diatribe, her deliberate twisting of facts and omitting others, her minimizing Hamas’ actual genocidal threat to Israel and the Jewish people, much less the severity of Hamas’s premeditated use of sexual crimes to rape and mutilate women. Perhaps she does this because she considers herself a proud Palestinian, as Esther was a proud Jew.  Or perhaps because she knows that in some way, if she were actually to speak the truth, she’d risk threatening her husband’s monarchy, also a target of Islamists.

Queen Rania ended her comments magnanimously saying:

 “We in this part of the world need to find a way to share these holy lands in peace.”

The problem is that when she delegitimizes Israel and blames only Israel for the actual suffering that’s happening now, and only blames Israel rather than taking or assigning any Arab culpability for their own situation, she continues generations of lies that does anything but enable us to live in peace.

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).