The folly and failures of the endless attempts to exterminate Jews and the Jewish state.
By Neville Berman
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. Volumes have been written about what happened that morning. What this article is about, is finding out why Israel is now accused of genocide, and why hundreds of thousands of people across the world are demonstrating against Israel. The answer to the first question in one word is “money” and the answer to the second question is “antisemitism”. Read on for a more detailed explanation.
Once Israel was attacked, it exercised its right to self defence. It acted beyond all internationally accepted rules of warfare. In order to save civilian lives in Gaza, Israel introduced multiple warnings and even phone calls to hundreds of thousands of civilians to move to safe areas where they would not be attacked. By doing this, Israel achieved a ratio of combatants and civilians killed that is unmatched by any other army in the world that has engaged in urban warfare. In many cases Israeli soldiers were killed because the army wanted to avoid civilian casualties. Clearly the intention was never to commit genocide.
One of the six founding organs of the United Nations that was established in 1945 is the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The mandate of the ICJ is to adjudicate disputes between countries. The ICJ has no mandate to prosecute organizations that are not countries. This is the perfect “get out of jail free card” for terrorist entities to engage in the most grotesque crimes against humanity without being prosecuted by the ICJ. To remedy this absurd situation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in July 2002. The ICC deals with individuals responsible for committing crimes against humanity. It has a staff of 900 employees, and its budget for 2025 is 195 million Euros. Despite all the atrocities in the world, the ICC has only convicted 15 people of crimes against humanity during the 23 years of its existence. This includes the latest conviction of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al Rahman of 27 crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan.
In order to bring an action to the ICJ, a country has to be a party to the dispute. There is one exception to this rule. Genocide is considered such a serious crime, that even if a country is not a party to the dispute, it can bring a charge of genocide against another country. This is how South Africa managed to bring a charge of genocide against Israel at the ICJ. After hearing the evidence presented, the ICJ ruled that it was plausible that South Africa had the right to bring such a case, but did not find that Israel had committed genocide. The whole purpose of South Africa was clearly to demonize Israel. They succeeded beyond all expectations.
After the trial ended, the BBC ran a program that totally turned the findings of the court on its head. The BBC claimed that the ICJ found that it was plausible that Israel had committed genocide. The presiding head Judge of the ICJ immediately condemned the BBC for wrongly reporting its findings. Nevertheless, the damage was already done.
Every antisemite in the world suddenly felt justified in their beliefs. Their hidden hatred of Jews could now be openly displayed. The latest blood libel against the Jews soon turned into a tsunami of protests across the world. They all carried the same message. Israel was committing genocide. The irony of the situation is that the term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, in response to the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust. Accusing Israel of committing genocide, is the ultimate injustice and insult to holocaust survivors and all Jews.
Malevolent Manipulations. Raphael Lemkin, “the man who coined the word genocide” and who was an active member of the interwar Polish Zionist movement from which he drew the ideas that inspired his idea of the crime of genocide would be horrified today to see how it has been abused in its misuse against the Jewish state in its defensive war on multiple fronts.
The African National Congress (ANC) has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. By 2023, the ANC had accumulated debts of over 500 million Rand, and was unable to finance its election campaign for the next elections due in May 2024. This situation would obviously result in the real possibility that the ANC would lose the election. Something needed to be done to remedy its dire situation.
Naledi Pandor was the South African Minister of International Relations from 2019 to 2024. During her university years, she converted to Islam. Towards the end of 2023, she visited Iran. In January 2024, Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, announced that the ANC had paid off all its debts without offering any explanation as to where the money came from. An American think tank discovered that a few days after the South African government brought a case of genocide against Israel, the money to pay off its debt suddenly appeared in the ANC’s coffers. News 24, South Africa’s largest online publication ran a story headlined:
“IRAN BEHIND SA’S ICJ CASE”
What can be said for certain is that the South African government has never explained where the huge cash injection actually came from, and that South Africa has become one of the most anti Israel governments in the world.
The claim that Iran financed the government of South Africa and in return South Africa brought a case of genocide against Israel is extremely credible, but difficult to prove. Both Iran and South Africa have become experts at lying and obstructing the truth from public scrutiny. No response has been forthcoming from either the South African government or Iran as to how the ANC’s debts were paid off.
ANC – Iran’s Hit Man. Much has been written alleging that Iran, an enemy of Israel, essentially paid South Africa’s ruling ANC that was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, to litigate against Israel in the ICJ.
There are many things that Israel is good at, and there are some things that Israel is not good at. The two major things that Israel is definitely not good at is public relations and committing genocide. Most people agree that Israel has a right to defend itself. What makes people really angry is the fact that Israel keeps winning. They claim Israel is too powerful. Jews are too rich. Jews are communists, Jews are capitalists. Jews are crooks. Jews are the cause of all the problems in the world. The Jews kill babies to make matza for Passover. The Jews caused the plague. Jews control the world. The Jews killed Christ. The Pope is Jewish. You name it, the Jews have been blamed for it.
The Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Spaniards, Portuguese, the British, the French, the Ottomans, the Polish, the Ukrainians, the Baltic States, the Russians, and the Nazis, all tried to kill the Jews. Most countries occupied by the Nazis in Europe were complicit in rounding up their Jews for mass extermination. Even neutral Switzerland turned away hundreds of Jews seeking to escape the Holocaust. Empires have come and gone. The Jews are still around.
From Romans to Gazans. Since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, there has been no shortage of enemies trying to expunge the Jews from their ancestral homeland. Iran and its proxies are learning the lesson of failure.
In a moment of contrition, the world tried to cleanse its guilty conscience, and approved the UN Partition Plan of Palestine in 1947. Once the State of Israel was declared in May 1948, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Lebanese, the Jordanians, the Iraqis, all had a go at eliminating Israel. The United States of America refused to supply Israel with a single bullet for 19 years. Despite all the odds, Israel survived. In 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan tried again. This time they were defeated decisively and Israel took control over all of Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, all of Judea and Samaria and the Sinai. Then came the surprise attack by Egypt in 1973 followed by intifadas and suicide bombings. Nothing defeated Israel. The latest attempt by Iran to build proxy armies to annihilate Israel has also failed. With every attack, Israeli resilience has strengthened. The latest rush to support the creation of a Palestinian State is a fool’s errand. The truth is simple. Israel is the eternal homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem is its capital and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Israel will continue to innovate and prosper. I am not sure one can say the same about Europe.
About the writer:
AccountantNeville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Divisions within South Africa’s Jewish community on Israel reflect global drivers.
By Marika Sboros
“At this moment, the heart of Israel beats as one with the hostages and their families.”
With these words, Israeli President Isaac Herzog took to social media on October 9, 2025 to welcome news of the ceasefire-hostage deal to end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The heart of a vocal minority in South Africa’s Jewish community is not beating to quite the same unified rhythm.
Divisions among South African Jews have become yawning chasms since the terror attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023 that started the war. You’d have thought the gratuitous savagery on the day was enough to unify all Jews everywhere. It was not.
The brutality was preceded by a barrage of 3873 rockets from Gaza. What followed was an unprecedented orgy of violence that left more than 1200 dead, over 5000 injured and 250 kidnapped as hostages to Gaza – most of them civilians and not all of them Jews. The terrorists mass raped women and young girls; they tortured, beheaded, burnt alive and summarily executed whole families – men, women, children, babies, the elderly, and pet dogs.
Some called it a pogrom. UK historian Simon Sebag Montefiore compared it to:
“a medieval Mongol raid for mass slaughter and trophies.”
A UK-Israel parliamentary report called it “the largest single massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust, the deadliest per capita terrorist attack, with just over 1 in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.”
October 7 brought the depth of divisions in South Africa’s Jewish community to the fore. The most recent red flag began waving publicly just days before Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur 2025.
It was the news report of a R1-million (about ILS188 910,60.00) donation by a South African Jewish family charity, the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF), to Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, a medical doctor and founder-CEO of the globally renowned South African humanitarian charity, Gift of the Givers.
Out to Undermine Jewish State. Mauberberger Foundation presents donation to a man who supports South Africa’s case in The Hague against Israel saying “What’s going on in Palestine is a massacre. It’s not an alleged genocide; it’s a genocide; it’s straight and clear…”
R1-million is pocket change for the Mauerberger family. Its effects on the Jewish community were seismic, with aftershocks that continue.
The main driver of aftershocks? Most Jews can’t fathom why members of a prominent, philanthropic, Jewish family would even think of donating to a charity run by one of South Africa’s most outspoken, implacable opponents of Israel. Sooliman has distinguished himself, if that’s quite the right word, with so many examples of conduct unbecoming of a humanitarian that they are too numerous to mention them all here.
Suffice to say he is known for inflammatory rhetoric, loathing of Zionists (the anti-Israel lobby’s code word for Jews), and spreading of antisemitic tropes. He believes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – and apartheid, ethnic cleansing, deliberate starvation and anything else he can think of to demonise the Jewish state. He aligns with extremist Islamist jihadist forces that want to wipe Israel off the map. He speaks at anti-Israel protests beneath banners declaring “We are all Hamas”.
This recipient of the MFF knows that accusing Zionists or any other Jews of genocide is the most provocative, inflammatory charge possible, as it weaponises the trauma of the Holocaust against its victims. Such rhetoric is not legitimate critique.
It erases the distinction between civilian casualties and intentional extermination. It distorts legal definitions and shifts blame in this war from Hamas, whose charter is explicitly genocidal against Jews. It is just another modern blood libel that effectively delegitimises Jewish suffering and fuels Jew-hatred conspiracy theories.
Genocide claims have targeted not just Israeli government policy. They have made the world a more dangerous place for Jews by normalising and undermining Jews’ right to speak out safely against existential threats.
But, back to the contentious MFF donation.
The MMF is headed by Dianna Yach, granddaughter of South African industrialist Morris Mauerberger, and a member of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Council. Mauerberger founded the MFF in 1936 as part of his philanthropic programme to support educational and community projects in South Africa and Israel that continue to this day. An early initiative was a clinic for Cape Flats workers who struggled to access state hospitals due to poverty and transport barriers.
Radical Redirection. What would the late Morris Mauerberger, one of South Africa’s leading industrialists and well-known Jewish philanthropist who through his Mauerberger Foundation that he established in 1936 and supported a multitude of causes in Israel mostly in education, have thought of his granddaughter donating to an organisation headed by a man who addresses anti-Israel protests beneath banners declaring “We are all Hamas”?
Since the 1960s, the MFF has supported a wide range of projects in Israel most notably at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1969, the Mauerberger family was directly involved in establishing Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Yach has a reputation as a “proud UCT alumnus, passionately committed to equality, diversity, and human rights”. After graduating from UCT with a BA and LLB, she was admitted as an advocate to the High Court in South Africa, obtained an LLM from the University of London and subsequently lectured in law at Queen Mary College, University of London.
She serves on the boards of South African NGOs including ORT Cape SA and Cape Jewish Welfare Trust.
If Mauerberger were alive today, one wonders what he would make of his granddaughter’s MFF donation to Sooliman.
There’s no doubting what Sooliman makes of it.
He instantly spotted its myriad PR advantages, posting photos on social media of himself grinning broadly while accepting the donation from Yach. Another image captures him sitting with Yach in the intimacy of the lounge in her elegant Cape Town home.
He posted a statement by Khalid Sayed, African National Congress (ANC) Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape Legislature, “saluting South African Jews like the MFF for their solidarity with Palestine”.
Sooliman is taking full advantage of the “halo” of moral righteousness that the donation from and association with Jews such as Yach hangs over his head. It may mitigate reputational damage from ongoing claims that Gift of the Givers is a conduit for funnelling funds to terror groups, not just Iran-backed Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad in Gaza, but Hezbollah in the West Bank as well.
The evidence for terror funding is circumstantial, but copious. As legal experts make clear, circumstantial evidence, presented properly and in sufficient quantity, easily secures conviction. Sooliman’s own words support it by implication, at times.
In an interview on YouTube, Sooliman declares that he does not follow local or international law, only Islamic law, and that no one can tell him what to do. He says of himself and Gift of the Givers that “we know how to move cash.”
Dubious Donation. Dianna Yach chairperson of the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF), established in 1936, presents of R1-million to Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, who although being founder and CEO of the humanitarian charity, Gift of the Givers, also aligns with extremist Islamist jihadist forces and regularly predicts Israel’s imminent demise.
Sooliman vigorously denies claims of terror funding, while resolutely refusing to do the minimum required to put the claims to rest forever.
He won’t say who his funders are – except in this case, when the donors are Jews. He won’t say how much money Gift of the Givers receives in donations annually or where it all goes. Sooliman also won’t publish audited annual financial statements, as other international charities in South Africa routinely do.
Some South African Jews see the MFF donation as positive, even symbolic. They believe that Yach, however misguided, means it to bridge divisions between Muslims and Jews in South Africa.
Never was that more needed. Open hostility to Jews in South Africa is a top-down dynamic. UCT and the Western Cape province are hothouses of that hostility. It carries the African National Congress (ANC) government’s seal of approval for the “Palestinian cause”.
Most Jews I canvassed in South Africa and in the diaspora find the MFF donation deeply disturbing. They call it “disgusting”, “disgraceful”, a “betrayal”. Most insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals.
I emailed Yach for comment on the donation and another matter. She responded with a brief MFF statement and said she would not comment further and had handed my email to her lawyers.
According to a MFF statement, its directors “stand with Gift of the Givers in solidarity, givingtheir love for humanity and selfless work to address the urgent and pressing food and healthcare needs of the people of Gaza.” The donation is “…for children in Gaza, delivered within six months of fund receipt.”
The “ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza” has resulted in shortage of paediatric medicines, “with many health facilities destroyed and children facing preventable illness and mortality due to lack of access to vital treatment.”
The MFF saw Gift of the Givers as “uniquely positioned to address this urgent healthcare challenge, with an established track record of delivering lifesaving support to vulnerable communities across Africa and the Middle East since 1992.”
Yach’s brother, Dr Derek Yach, a US-based physician and epidemiologist, and fellow MFF director, was more engaging.
He said that the donation “aligns fully with MFF’s 70-year engagement with Israeli, Jewish and other commitments”. Its intent is “to provide humanitarian support to people in need, as (MFF) is doing with separate grants to Israeli mental health programmes.”
Pressed on why the family foundation chose Gift of the Givers, Dr. Yach explained that MFF directors considered its status as an approved non-profit organisation registered in the US; that it works with several faith-based charities (mainly Catholic); and has a “proven track record of getting medicines to those in need.”
Yet the donation is laden with ironies. Chief among them, the MFF is donating funds for medicines for Gazan children to the group that created the shortage of medicines in the first place. There’s also no guarantee that the medicines, by default or design, won’t end up in Hamas’s hands. Hamas, Gaza’s elected government, has a well-documented habit of embedding in hospitals, hijacking aid trucks and shooting to death hungry Gazans trying to access aid.
One critic who did speak openly via email was UCT emeritus professor of historical studies Milton Shain. Shain is author of Fascists, Fantasists and Fabricators: Antisemitism in South Africa from 1948 to the Present (Jacana Media, 2023), the final volume in his trilogy on South African antisemitism.
“One hesitates to criticise anyone giving support for the needy,” he said. The suffering in Gaza made it “obvious that support is needed.” Shain acknowledged Gift of the Givers as a successful global disaster-relief operation but noted that Yach “must surely know of Sooliman’s controversial statements about Israel,” and “…one needs to question (her) judgement.”
Another critic prepared to comment openly was Beulah Lange, a retired resident of McGregor, a villagetucked away in the mountains of the Western Cape. Lange worked for more than 30 years in Jewish social welfare in Durban, 20 of those years as social worker and director of the then-titled Durban Jewish Welfare Association. She dealt regularly with trust-fund donations from Jewish philanthropists, including the MFF, which was “particularly generous to us.”
Lange was upset by the MFF donation to Sooliman, who she considers “virulently antisemitic.” She dismissed it as a “woke” attempt by those prepared to “bend over backwards to work with people who desire our demise.”
It does nothing, she said, to change her view of Sooliman and Gift of the Givers.
Menacing Message. The recipient of the Mauerberger donation, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman on 5 October 2024, shared a platform under a banner proclaiming, “We are all Hamas” with known Islamist extremists and said, “…the Zionists were too clever…They run the world with fear. They control the world with money. And every time you say something, they terrify you and they say it’s antisemitic. But I’ve got a message for them. Find a new narrative, this one is dull, boring, and stupid.”
An earlier red flag of deep divisions in South Africa’s Jewish community was the so-called “Gaza resolutions” that the UCT Council passed in June 2024. These call for an academic boycott of Israel and reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
The fallout from their adoption was swift. Immediate and massive cuts in donor funding followed, spiralling potentially higher than R700-million, and not just from Jewish sources.
The Donald Gordon Foundation (DGF) withdrew a R200-million donation to a private hospital for UCT. A potential R400-500-million DGF donation to UCT was lost.
The HCI Foundation also withdrew its R15-million funding. The foundation is the corporate social investment wing of Hosken Consolidated Investments, the holding company of a black empowerment investment company that has its origins in the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
Despite the deep funding cuts, there was surprising support for the UCT resolutions from Jewish academic and student ranks, including Yach and members of South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP).
SAJFP is closely allied to the global BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel. SAJFP leader Jo Bluen uses inverted red triangles on her social media posts to celebrate the deaths of IDF soldiers in Gaza.
Yach’s lack of support (to put it mildly) for the lawsuit that Prof Adam Mendelsohn brought against UCT for passing the resolutions has also highlighted divisions.
Mendelsohn heads UCT’s Department of Historical Studies and is director of its Kaplan Centre of Jewish Studies. He has alleged in court papers that Yach (a member of UCT Council’s exco at the time) tried to pressure him to drop the case against UCT, using wording suggesting that his career and family were at risk.
Yach has vigorously denied the accusation in an answering affidavit.
Mendelsohn declined to comment on the MFF donation or his case against UCT, as it is still pending. However, I have it on reliable authority that evidence of exactly what Yach said, supports Mendelsohn’s claim.
David Benatar, a UCT emeritus professor of philosophy, has written extensively on the university’s fall from grace in recent years. He said that academics fear risking “the ire of UCT’s activist ideologues who believe that, of all the armies in the world, the only one to single out for boycott is Israel’s.”
Divisions in South Africa’s Jewish community could be simply a function of global drivers. These include “groupthink” and “adoption of submissive behaviours by Westerners who have already capitulated to Hamas and are mirroring the behaviour of Gazans,” as British US-based journalist Eve Barlow has suggested. It leads to “normalising the erasure of Jews from public life” by those who understand the “power, money and social mobility that comes from promoting the Hamas cause,” Barlow tweeted. This leads Jews on a path to “denouncing their own identity, nation and people,” essentially “willing their own deaths by sporting antizionism.”
Some Jews in South Africa are far down this path, as SAJFP and BDS members demonstrate.
Divisions among Jews in the wake of the MFF donation and UCT Gaza resolutions may contribute to the emergence of what Hannah Arendt once called the “conscious pariah”, and not just in South Africa.
Canadian anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein notes on social media that Arendt used the term to describe “the Jew who does not flee from non-Jewish society’s construction of them as heretical, outside, or even despicable, but embraces that position and uses it as a place from which to intervene in society.”
Thus, the conscious pariah Jew stands in contrast to the “parvenu, or exceptional Jew”, the antizionist Jew, who treats his or her Jewishness as “a gimmick or credential for the gentiles, while removing himself from the pulse of his people,” Louis-Klein says.
South Africa has some notable parvenu Jews, Jo Bluen and Ronnie Kasrils, former ANC MP and Intelligence Chief among them.
Kasrils celebrated October 7 in its immediate aftermath by calling it “a brilliant, spectacular guerilla warfare attack.” He continued: “They swept on them and they killed them and damn good. I was so pleased and people who support resistance applauded.”
It wasn’t only South African conscious pariah Jews who found his sentiments grotesque. The MFF, whether by default or design, risks locating itself firmly in the parvenu Jew camp.
After October 7, I wrote a piece titled: Worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust not enough for some. I quoted US Jewish atheist neuroscientist philosopher Sam Harris saying that October 7 proves that we “are all living in Israel. Some of us just haven’t realised it yet.”
This still holds. After all, Hamas demonstrably does not discriminate when it comes to its genocidal intent.
Tel Aviv author and businessman Saul Sadka writes eloquently in the Jewish Chronicle that the Gaza deal is:
“…no ceasefire – it is Hamas’s near-total surrender.
Even if the jihadis won’t disarm, they have no meaningful ability to project power at Israel, only at its own long-suffering people.”
And yet, Sadka asserts:
“…there is a genuine prospect for regional peace.”
I hope he’s right. And if regional peace comes, I hope it helps to heal at least some schisms in beleaguered Jewish communities globally.
About the writer:
Marika Sboros is a South African freelance investigative journalist with decades of experience writing fulltime for the country’s top media titles on a wide range of topics. She started her career as a hard-news reporter in the newsroom of the now defunct Rand Daily Mail, a campaigning anti-government newspaper during the worst excesses of the apartheid era. She commutes between South Africa and the UK.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
A reflection during the agonizing interlude between deal signing and return of our hostages.
By Jonathan Feldstein
It feels premature to write about the deal that has reportedly been agreed to between Israel and Hamas with the US, Egypt, Qatar and possibly others as intermediaries. While any number of terms, clauses, and understandings could be breached and blow the whole thing up, Israelis are praying, and waiting with baited breath after two long years of finding it hard to breathe.
Beginning of the End. “We’ve been suffocating for the past two years,” says Inbar Goldstein who was among the crowds celebrating in Hostages’ Square. Inbar, whose brother and niece were killed in the 7 October attacks and her sister-in-law, niece and two nephews taken hostage and released in November 2023, said that with the signing of the deal, it feels like “the beginning of the end.”
It’s important to note that this is NOT a peace deal. Anyone suggesting that it is, is wrong. It is a deal that, at its best, will see the 48 remaining hostages held in captivity for 734 days being released, Hamas disemboweled, disarmed, and removed from control in Gaza, and a foundation for rebuilding Gaza. But it will not bring peace. It will not:
– change the hearts of two million Gazans who have been indoctrinated by extremist Islam for a century
– It will not put the baseless accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing and war crimes by Israel back in the bottle.
Those who seek to “Free Palestine” and eradicate Israel “from the river to the sea” will still seek to do so. To achieve actual peace, a radical change of heart is necessary. Short of that, there is zero indication of any reform of Palestinian Arab society that accepts to finally live in peace with Israel.
Amid the rightful celebration, there is also widespread awareness of Hamas’ psychological terror that’s begun, is taking its toll, and which could lead to dashed hopes.
Israelis gather in Hostages Square to celebrate news of Gaza peace deal.
As optimistic and hopeful as many Israelis are, there is awareness that we cannot trust Hamas. There is a concern that even though the deal may say otherwise, not only will Hamas not disarm and ride off into the sunset quietly, there is a risk that the deal still leaves them in control, at least to be a spoiler, terrorizing Gazans and Israel for the foreseeable future. If that is true, who will then actually be willing and able to take up arms against Hamas? Egypt? Jordan? The Saudis? Turkey? The Palestinian Authority (PA), EU, NATO, or USA?
With a deal signed, and defensive lines agreed to, will the world tolerate it if Israel is left alone, again, to have to take on Hamas in Gaza?
One of the reasons that this is not a peace deal is that even if removed from influence in Gaza, Hamas retains strong pockets of control and support in many “West Bank” Judea and Samaria villages and cities. Their control there is not being hindered, and for a certainty will not be something that they relinquish. Rather, they will likely double down both to fight Israelis, and also against the PA control which they already successfully defeated in Gaza in 2007.
Hope for returning Home. “We’ll hope for the best,” said Alon Shirizly, sporting a red shirt that said, “Without them, home is gone.” A frequent attendee at rallies to free the hostages, Shirizly continued, “We’re only at the beginning of a very long road. For the moment, there’s euphoria.” (Photo: Ben Sales/Times of Israel)
The “negotiators” AKA Hamas enablers Qatar, Iran, Turkey cannot be trusted. The deal is not about them being reformed either. At best, they have been pressured to pressure Hamas for this immediate deal. They may derive some benefits from the Trump administration for serving this role, but they are the same extremist Islamic rejectionists that they were yesterday, and two years ago.
Israelis have suffered two unspeakable years of trauma from the initial attack and massacre and hostage taking – all war crimes by Hamas. Even though we may not always be able to articulate it, Israelis hope to be able to get to PTSD. Until now, we have been living in Present Trauma Stress Disorder. An end to the current combat and release of the hostages can begin to get us to Post Trauma, and eventual healing. Until now we have not even been able to think about that.
Israelis celebrate the announcement of a deal to free all hostages, end the war in Gaza at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on October 9, 2025 (Photo: Sales/Times of Israel)
As events unfold on what will transpire in Gaza vis a vis the release of the hostages, a ceasefire, and Israeli withdrawal, it is also essential to look at internal issues, on both sides.
Hamas will try to spin this as a win. The terror-sponsoring countries that have harbored, protected and funded them – Iran, Qatar, and Turkey – are unlikely to reform their ways, much less save millions by throwing good money after bad that they invested to create the Hamas-terror machine to begin with. Perhaps, only severe US pressure, specifically considering that Qatar and Turkey are supposedly US allies might make a difference – but it is unclear if Trump will turn the screws on them to really put Hamas out of business, or reform themselves.
What is clear that without the massive military assault on Hamas leaders and terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, with the threat for much more, we would not even be having this conversation now. This includes Israel’s strikes against Hamas leaders in Tehran and Doha. While not the “complete victory” that Netanyahu promised, Hamas has been defeated. Unlike Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, they will try to retain and reconstitute their control.
It is also clear that their Islamic ideology has not been eradicated and will not go away.
In Israel, it’s likely that the current coalition government will fall.
This is partly because Netanyahu is correctly accused of not taking responsibility for the failures that allowed the October 7 attack and massacre to begin with. Many Israelis recognize that even though he may also spin this as a win and even agree, the buck stops with him.
A Mother’s Joy. Einav Zangauker, mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, reacts to the announcement a hostage and ceasefire deal declared by Donald Trump.
Economically Israelis have only begun to feel the pinch in terms of the cost of this war, but we are far from realizing its full implication. While the shekel is at a three-year high against the dollar suggesting economic confidence, the cost of the war will rest on the shoulders of Israelis for some time. As that becomes more burdensome, there will be political consequences as well.
However, since elections were already going to take place in 2026, now it seems inevitable that at least some of the parties making up the current coalition will leave the government over disagreement with many of the deal’s terms, but also to distinguish themselves from other right and center-right parties and stake out their political turf among their voters, beginning to capitalize on the dissatisfaction, along with the 2026 campaign.
Hopefully, whatever comes, as we hold our breath, maybe we will eventually be able to breathe again.
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 football match exposes the Gazan charade of false accusations against Israel.
By David E. Kaplan
Wait a minute. Nearly every news bulletin on Al Jazeera, Iran’s English TV news network called PressTV, Turkey’s English TV news network TRT WORLD and those keeping up the rear with calculated venom, FRANCE24, RT (Russia Today) and Ireland’s RTÉ, have every day and all day for months on end covered Gazan news alleging a “genocide” perpetrated by the “Zionists” – read Jews. Newsreaders, commentators and an assortment of selected experts have daily presented this “genocide” as if they were reading the daily weather report. While few ever question announcements of daily climatic temperatures, even less question that Israel was actually committing a “genocide”. If the experts say so and confirmed by the UN, it must be so.
And then BREAKING NEWS:
“We watched soccer instead”
This was a leading headline pertaining to Gazan citizens that despite the so-called “genocide” they were enduring according to the media – opted instead of watching the White House press conference relating to the end of the war, and thus end the alleged “genocide”, to watch soccer instead. This was not just another ho-hum “deal” but one that Israel had already signed off on , which meant removing its forces from Gaza and most significant that every Arab country in the region, including Qatar, had endorsed. This gave it the added gravitas that no earlier deals had.
You would expect that those enduring a “genocide”, particularly the ‘pots and plates brigade’ projecting starvation for the cameras would show some interest. Clearly, watching a football match was far more appealing!
Switching Channels. It was an Egyptian soccer match that more interested Gazans than following on TV the major White House peace plan announcement.
MORE INTERESTED IN A SCORE THAN WHAT LAY IN STORE
This would be some strange and unique type of “genocide” where those supposedly effected are more interested in watching a soccer match than discovering how their “genocide” might be brought to an end!
The Ynet report revealed that while many of the so-called “genocide” sufferers across Gaza “ignored the announcement entirely” others were preoccupied with more important matters – like watching football!
Clearly, the US president did not consider the timing of his announcement of the plan to end the war that has been going on “ thousands of years”, Trump’s language, that it coincided with “a big Egyptian soccer match,” as related by Suleiman, a resident of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah. According to Suleiman, “anyone with a TV,” in Gaza, “chose instead to watch the football match.” You would think IF there was a genuine genocide in progress, the people suffering would be more interested to learn of their future fate than watching a football match on TV!
Ending The War. President Trump Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House press conference announcing the 21-peace plan that has been accepted by Israel and endorsed by world leaders as well as all the major Arab countries.
Clearly not and because of one clear fact. While the situation in Gaza is terrible as it is during all wars – that is the nature of war – it is NOT a “genocide”. The word “genocide” is a part of the enemy’s arsenal in the nature of this war when victory is determining not only by winning on a battlefield, territory but winning the story. It is a question always of whose narrative will prevail on the TV news networks and social media? There is no Gaza “genocide” and this is why there are factions withing the Palestinian camp as well as TV networks like Iran’s PressTV advising Hamas to reject the deal, in other words to allow the alleged “genocide” to continue.
While much of the world has charged Israel with restricting aid and Israel has counter-charged the U.N. with incompetence and bias and Hamas with stealing aid to finance terrorism, the Trump proposal approved by the Arab countries is very clear in addressing the immediate concerns pertaining to the people of Gaza’s welfare:
“…upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip … including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, [and] entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.”
With Israel accepting Trump’s peace plan, if Hamas, who are the elected leadership of Gaza rejects it or vacillates, it will expose what was always a hoax: that Israel was committing a genocide.
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).
Former Acting Judge of the High Court, South Africa.
Navi Pillay, the South African head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory presented findings of its latest report at a press briefing on 16 September 2025 (the Pillay Report). She said:
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency.”
DIRCO (the foreign ministry of the South African government) has trumpeted these findings, despite the complete lack of legal and factual basis for genocide in the Pillay Report. It is replete with poorly substantiated legal inferences of genocidal intent (dolus specialis) and distorted selective anti-Israel factual framing of the conflict with no attempt at objectivity.
The Pillay Report states confidently:
“Based on the above, the Commission finds that the Israeli security forces were aware that their military operations since 7 October 2023 would cause the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. Furthermore, considering the duration of the military operations and reports of high numbers of deaths, it is reasonable to find that the Israeli authorities knew of the high numbers of casualties in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Nevertheless, Israeli authorities did not intervene to change the means and methods of warfare employed; on the contrary, the military operations persisted over time and caused even more Palestinian deaths. The Commission therefore finds that the Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and knew that the means and methods of warfare employed would cause mass deaths of Palestinians, including children.”
A colossal piece of sophistry, untruths and tendentious conclusions.
Israel responded by strongly rejecting the report as a libellous rant and viewing it as politically motivated, declined to cooperate with the Commission. Pillay responded with “I wish they would tell us where we went wrong on these facts or just cooperate with us.”
Same old same old. We have seen it all before and a previous report didn’t end well. In 2009, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, (the Goldstone Report) was released. It was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as an independent international fact-finding mission to:
“… investigate all violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by Israel against the Palestinian people, particularly Gaza.”
This followed the three-week armed conflict in Gaza named Operation Cast Lead by Israel. It began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009. Prior to the war, Hamas had fired extensive rocket attacks on Israel. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a ground attack as well as aerial bombardment on Gaza. No hostages were captured by Hamas. There are similarities in the conduct of the 2023 Gaza war, but also huge strategic differences. The present war has become regional with rocket and missile attacks on civilian centres in Israel not only from Hamas and other Gaza-based Islamist militant groups, but from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and most notably – Iran.
Headed by South African Justice, Richard Goldstone it accused both Palestinian militants and the IDF of war crimes and possible international crimes against humanity. It was recommended that those responsible should be brought to justice. In 2011, Goldstone made a public retraction. He said he no longer believed that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza as a matter of policy. He further expressed regret that:
“Our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.”
The other authors of the report, however stood by the it. Despite an attempt by the Palestinian Authority, Israel was not brought before the International Criminal Court and Hamas enjoyed complete impunity from sanctions or legal prosecution.
It bears noting that the conduct of both sides during Operation Cast Lead was similar to the 2023 war. Although less extensive than present, Hamas had already built a system of tunnels in preparation for combat and weapon storage as well as plans to kidnap IDF soldiers. Civilian buildings including homes and mosques were booby trapped and used for weapons storage. During the 2009 Gaza war, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni informed the media that Israel would strike all targets associated with what she called the “illegitimate, terrorist government of Hamas.” The IDF denied that it was targeting civilians and several soldiers including senior officers were indeed disciplined for misconduct.
This policy has continued in the 2023 war and there never was a genocidal plan aimed against civilians then or now. The Pillay Report completely ignores the principle that civilian structures such as homes, schools, hospitals and mosques lose their protected status according to the law of war when used for military attacks, as Hamas has indeed done.
Show Trial South African. Following the pattern of 20th century show trials, South Africa’s Navi Pillay was appointed to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to ensure a guilty verdict against Israel.
During the 2009 Gaza war, the measures taken by the IDF to reduce civilian casualties became known: Extensive distribution of leaflets and phone messages to warn residents to evacuate from battle zones. The practice called “roof knocking” was used which consisted of warning calls before air strikes on residential buildings and sometimes a small non-lethal sound bomb was set off before imminent attack. These measures continued to be used in the 2023 war.
Rejecting Richard. The Pillay Report deliberately avoids references to British military expert Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan.
British military expert Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, in his address to the UNHRC asserted that during the conflict, the Israel Defence Forces “did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare” and that Palestinian civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting, which involved using human shields as a matter of policy, and deliberate attempts to sacrifice their own civilians. He added that Israel took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas and aborted potentially effective missions in order to prevent civilian casualties. One searches in vain for references to any of the above most ‘ungenocidal’ conduct in the Pillay Report. She has, it seems, learned little if anything from the compromised and deeply flawed Goldstone Report.
In the Dustbin of History. South African judge Richard Goldstone retracted significant allegations in the UN Goldstone Report that he headed and that had accused Israel of crimes against humanity.
The anti-Israel bias of Pillay is nothing new and is well documented. The NGO United Nations Watch on 14 February 2022, filed a recusal petition before the UNHRC against Navi Pillay from the same Commission of Enquiry. It fell on deaf ears. The petition presented a plethora of prior public partisan statements by her and consequently her failure to meet the minimal requirements of impartiality.
As Secretary-General of the UN Durban Review Conference in 2009, Pillay exonerated the infamous antisemitic Durban conference of 2001, and she demonized Jewish groups that sounded the alarm, calling them “lobby groups”. On 31 May 2010, while serving as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay declared that “the Israeli Government treats international law with perpetual disdain.” Never throughout her UN tenure did Pillay employ such language regarding any other country – not even against serial violators such as China, Russia, Iran, Syria or North Korea. In November 2017, Pillay said “Apartheid is now being declared a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute, and it means the enforced segregation of people on racial lines, and that is what is happening in Israel.” In June 2020, Pillay signed a petition to boycott the Jewish state, entitled “Sanction Apartheid Israel!”. On 14 June 2021, mere weeks after the brief 2021 Hamas-Israel conflict, Pillay publicly declared Israel guilty of crimes against the Palestinians. She signed a joint letter to U.S. President Biden, decrying Israel’s “domination and oppression of the Palestinian people,” calling on the U.S. to “address the root causes of the violence” by ending Israel’s “ever-expanding discrimination and systemic oppression.” This was in regard to the clashes at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem where the letter alleged “aggressive actions by Israeli forces” against “peaceful protesters and worshippers,” which amounted to “forced dispossession of Palestinians,” the“latest evidence of a separate and unequal governing system.”
Pillay has consistently singled out Israel for condemnation over alleged war crimes, human rights abuse and racism and was a consistent supporter of the Palestinian campaign to use the language and mechanisms of international law to delegitimize Israel as a criminal state. United Nations Watch is a voice of conscience monitoring the UN and, in its petition, reminded that impartiality is a requirement under international law. Indeed, legal scholars know that impartiality as the first principle of fact-finding. It is set out as a requirement in Articles 3 and 25 of the UN Declaration on Fact-Finding. Since the era of Roman Law, the legal maxim nemo iudex in sua causa – no one should be a judge in his/her own cause has been a cornerstone of justice. Pillay has made her career of condemnation of Israel a personal cause. Why then would Israel cooperate in her transparent campaign to demonise and unjustly denounce Israel.
In response to her disingenuous plea for assistance, here is where the Pillay Report went wrong on the facts. Firstly, the lack of assistance of Israel is no excuse for the lack of corroboration from multiple non-governmental Israel and Western sources and researchers. The Pillay Report suffers from the fallacy of certainty – confidently reporting on unverified and unreliably substantiated figures relating to fatalities and starvation. Papers have been published carefully exposing major methodology flaws and overstatements and the unreliability of Hamas data or overreliance on Hamas approved reporting. Pillay neglected to consult Western military experts on asymmetrical urban warfare such as Major John Spencer of the USA who has been to Gaza and researched extensively on the war. Nowhere is there any sign of reference to the Begin Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies: Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Re-examination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025. Although the English translation only appeared in September 2025, the Hebrew version was published in July 2025. Consisting of 310 pages, it is a far more in depth factual and scholarly work eclipsing the Pillay report in accuracy, objectivity and detail. While even a brief survey of this work is beyond the scope of this article, some of the chapters indicate its breadth and accuracy in analysing the 2023 Gaza war. It does not avoid criticism of Israeli policy makers nor does it sidestep misconduct and possible war crimes by the IDF.
Suppressing Spencer. The extensive research on the Israel-Gaza war by award-winning scholar and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, Major John Spencer of the USA was completely ignored by the Pillay Commission because his findings would not concur with the Commission’s predetermined finding of Israeli genocide.
Chapter 1 is ‘The Question of Starvation’, a highly fraught topic which is examined in detail with credible data of the number of trucks entering Gaza. Even taking into account the suspension of food deliveries in 2024, there were sufficient food supplies in Gaza and the allegations of famine are false. Much needed exposure is made of the diversion by Hamas of food for exploitation by black market sales and for own consumption. An aspect not examined by the Pillay report.
A chapter is devoted to what is termed “The Missing Context: Urban Warfare and Hamas’s Human Shields Strategy”, also a key omission from the Pillay Report. Massacre and deliberate killing, the question of Indiscriminate Bombing are addressed. Chapters 5 and 7 deal with the contentious question of casualty counting and assessment in conflict zones. The vital distinction between civilians and combatants overlooked by the Pillay Report are more carefully assessed. This has become a highly emotive issue with allegations made that Israel targets journalists. Many were found to have been active Hamas operatives. A comparative study is made with the war in Iraq, another vital methodology in evaluating legal consequences. Chapter 8: The Inverted Funnel: How to Study Conflict Zones reveals the problem with limitations on freedom of reporting in Gaza by Hamas and the repetition and expansion of this compromised data by media and researchers.
Partisan Pillay. Devoid of the attribute of impartiality, Nivi Pillay – following the Durban Conference of 2001 that devolved into an antisemitic hate fest where Israel was demonized as racist and Jewish attendees were threatened and intimidated – convened the 2009 Durban II conference, which was boycotted by most democracies, and provided Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a prominent platform to disseminate antisemitic vitriol.
Pillay and her fellow commissionaires, Miloon Kothari, and Chris Sidoti have all recently announced their resignations from the Commission of Inquiry , Pillay citing age and the others on the basis of “other commitments.” The sudden resignation of all three officials follows the US decision to impose sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, another UN official with a history of extreme anti-Israel statements, including denying Israel the right to self-defense against Hamas. No one is left standing to face criticism of this tawdry report.
Battered and bruised, but still very much alive, truth and justice will prevail while the Pillay Report will gather dust like the discredited Goldstone Report as another failed attempt to intentionally distort international law in order to vilify the Jewish State of Israel.
*Feature picture: Probing or Plotting. A year before the October, 2023 massacre and consequent war, UN commissioners Navi Pillay (centre) discusses with (l-r) Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari their probe into Israel and the Palestinians at the United Nations in New York. October 27, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel).
About the writer:
Now retired, Pretoria-born human rights and labour lawyer, Lawrence Nowosenetz practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Nowosenetz completed an internship in the USA and served as a part-time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panellist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement – the largest private dispute resolution provider in South Africa. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the Hight Court, South Africa.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Insights on the machinations of mounting a diplomatic coup against Israel.
By Andrew Fox
Canada, the UK and Australia have now formally recognised the State of Palestine. It goes without saying that the declaration of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank is likely to follow. Hamas is now further from agreeing to a deal than ever, as they are rewarded for 7th October and riding high in Palestinian polling. Peace in the Middle East looks further away than ever, thanks to this foolish and premature move.
There is more to it, though. How did these three countries align and synchronise in this manner?
An influential progressive think tank, aligned with Qatar’s agenda, has been quietly orchestrating a significant shift in Western policy towards Israel and Palestine. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington, D.C.–based NGO described by critics as a “pro-Qatar” organisation, has used its global network to encourage allied governments to recognise a Palestinian state and adopt more hardline positions against Israel. Under its international initiative Global Progress Action (GPA), CAP has brought together progressive leaders from Canada, Australia, the UK, and beyond at high-level summits. Within months of these coordinated gatherings, left-leaning governments across several countries publicly announced plans to recognise Palestine formally, echoing talking points remarkably similar to those crafted by CAP’s policy arm.
Cap it All! Described by critics as a “pro-Qatar” organization, the Washington, D.C.–based NGO, Center for American Progress (CAP), has used its global network to encourage governments to recognise a Palestinian state and adopt hardline positions against Israel.
This orchestrated campaign constitutes a diplomatic coup. It advances Qatar’s interests by isolating Israel, but it also produces dangerous side effects. As CAP/GPA’s influence has increased, all three Western countries involved have adopted sharply adversarial policies towards Israel, accompanied by a rise in antisemitic incidents at home. The evidence indicates that this is no coincidence: CAP and its GPA affiliate have promoted a narrative that delegitimises Israeli actions and extols the Palestinian cause, fostering an environment permissive to hostility towards Jews. What follows is an exposé of how this NGO network, funded and flattered by Doha, manipulates democracies abroad while secretly tolerating hatred within their borders.
Founded in 2003, CAP has long been a pillar of the American left, but in recent years its stance on Middle East issues has noticeably shifted in favour of Qatar’s foreign policy goals. Reports suggest that CAP’s close engagement with Qatari institutions is evidence of their increasing tilt towards Doha; for instance, sending senior officials like COO Gordon Gray to forums at Georgetown’s Qatar campus. CAP’s reports on Gulf affairs frequently portray Qatar positively (as a victim or mediator), while sharply criticising its regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Although CAP denies any direct funding from Qatar, its consistent alignment with Qatar’s narrative has raised eyebrows in policymaking circles, earning CAP a reputation as a de facto pro-Qatar advocacy organisation.
It is against this backdrop that CAP’s Global Progress Action initiative must be understood. GPA is essentially CAP’s international arm – an “incubator” for progressive strategies on a global scale. Launched through CAP’s 501(c)(4) Action Fund, GPA acts as a hub connecting left-of-centre parties and leaders across countries. Notably, Qatar’s interests align perfectly with GPA’s recent focus:
Using Western progressives to promote policies that pressure Israel and bolster the Palestinian cause.
By advocating for “inclusive societies” and opposing “authoritarianism” abroad, CAP cloaks its Qatar-friendly agenda in the language of human rights and democracy. This clever disguise has deceived many well-meaning liberals.
The main vehicle for CAP/GPA’s influence has been a series of Global Progress Action Summits. These glamorous high-level gatherings bring together prominent progressive politicians, strategists, and activists from around the world. At the 2024 summit in Montréal, for instance, global progressive elites assembled under CAP’s guidance to “collaborate on bold new ideas” for governance. The key figures alone demonstrate the network’s reach: Canada’s then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared the stage with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Mark Carney (then a UN envoy and Canada 2020 think-tank chair, now Canada’s Prime Minister). Also present was Paul Ovenden, Director of Political Strategy at 10 Downing Street until last week – a top aide to British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, reflecting that party’s support. CAP Action’s CEO Patrick Gaspard and Canada 2020’s CEO Braeden Caley (a key summit organiser) explicitly described the gathering as an “essential” meeting of the “global progressive movement” to strategise against common adversaries.
These summits serve as transnational war rooms for the progressive left. Behind closed doors, CAP’s operatives share polling, messaging, and policy templates, aligning strategies across continents. It is no coincidence that senior campaign operatives from multiple countries are deeply involved in GPA’s activities.
In Canada, Liberal Party strategist Tom Pitfield (a long-standing GPA partner) and Braeden Caley were crucial in planning the Montréal summit; within months, Pitfield became principal secretary to new PM Mark Carney, and Caley his deputy chief of staff.
In Australia, Paul Erickson, the Labor Party’s national secretary and campaign director for PM Anthony Albanese, has likewise been a GPA participant and conduit for CAP’s ideas.
In Britain, Starmer’s team has relied on Paul Ovenden (the then No. 10 strategy chief who joined GPA forums) to introduce CAP-endorsed tactics into UK Labour’s playbook. Through these “GPA partners” embedded at the highest levels of Canadian, Australian, and British politics, CAP quietly influences the direction of left-wing parties, especially on foreign policy towards the Middle East.
One striking pattern emerged 21 September, 2025: within minutes, progressive-led governments in Canada, the UK, and Australia all recognised a Palestinian state, a policy long championed by the far left but historically resisted by the political mainstream. The coordination was palpable. On 30 July 2025, Canada’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that Canada “intends to recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2025” – a radical shift after decades of aligning with Israel. Carney justified the move by citing collapsing prospects for a negotiated two-state solution, blaming both Hamas terror and Israeli settlement expansion and annexation votes. Crucially, his statement stressed that Canada’s recognition is conditional: the Palestinian Authority must enact governance reforms, hold elections (excluding Hamas from power), and commit to demilitarisation. In other words, Carney framed a dramatic pro-Palestine step as an effort to “save” the two-state solution from Israeli intransigence and Hamas’ malign influence.
Carney’s declaration follows similar announcements by France and the UK to recognise Palestine formally. Indeed, just days earlier, Britain had clarified its position. Keir Starmer stated that the UK “would recognise the state [of Palestine] in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace”. This ultimatum, threatening to recognise Palestine if Israel didn’t halt its military campaign, was unprecedented for a major Western power. It signalled a complete break from the traditionally staunch pro-Israel stance of Britain’s foreign policy, and Starmer’s language closely mirrored the demands of progressive activists during the Gaza conflict.
Then came Australia, which had already moved towards a pro-Palestinian stance under Labour. On 11 August 2025, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with Foreign Minister Penny Wong, announced that “Australia will recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th UN General Assembly in September.” The Australian government framed this as a way to support “international momentum” for a two-state solution and a Gaza ceasefire. Echoing Carney, Canberra highlighted new “major commitments” by the Palestinian Authority as justification, such as ending payments to terrorists and reforming schools, while explicitly condemning Israel’s actions. Albanese himself admitted that the timing of the recognition was aimed at achieving “a breakthrough in negotiations,” asserting lifelong support for both Israel’s security and Palestinian statehood.
Thus, within a few weeks, Ottawa, London, and Canberra all aligned behind the same historic policy shift that was enacted on 21 September, 2025:
Immediate recognition of Palestine, conditional on certain criteria, as a means to apply pressure on Israel.
They were soon joined by others, including New Zealand and several European states, in what was described as a wave of historic global momentum for Palestinian statehood. It is hard to imagine such coordination occurring by chance. All signs suggest that CAP’s Global Progress network facilitated this wave: the New York meeting, where a joint declaration was drafted (the so-called “New York Call” published by France), included Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and others, all pledging to recognise Palestine. That declaration explicitly reaffirmed commitment to two democratic states and the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority – themes also highlighted by Carney, Starmer, and Albanese in their speeches. Essentially, the GPA summits and side meetings acted as the organising hubs: progressive governments exchanged ideas and decided to act together. CAP’s influence was covert but vital in this choreography.
If the policies being adopted now sound familiar, it is because CAP pre-wrote much of the script. On 15 May 2024, as the Gaza war and its fallout dominated headlines, the Center for American Progress published a policy manifesto titled Principles and Positions on Israel and Palestine. This document can only be described as a progressive blueprint for rebalancing Western policy away from Israel. It called for what would once have been unthinkable for a mainstream D.C. think tank:
suspending arms transfers to Israel due to alleged war crimes,
holding Israeli officials accountable under international law, and
pushing aggressively for Palestinian rights and statehood.
CAP did not mince words – it labelled Israel’s occupation since 1967 as “illegal,” deemed Israel’s recent military offensive in Gaza “indiscriminate…represent[ing] grave violations of international humanitarian law,” and urged the US to halt lethal aid until Israel protects civilians and averts famine in Gaza. Simultaneously, CAP condemned Hamas’s atrocities on 7 October and supported efforts to bring Hamas terrorists to justice, but the main message of the paper was clear:
Western nations must leverage their power to force a change in Israel’s behaviour, while prioritising the Palestinian cause.
One particularly revealing section of CAP’s manifesto praised President Biden’s then-new Executive Order authorising sanctions on individuals involved in West Bank settlement expansion: “a welcome step to accountability for illegal settlement expansion,” CAP wrote, adding “the administration must apply these sanctions to all those responsible…to curtail continued illegal activity.” Fast-forward one year, and this is exactly the stance taken by progressive governments abroad. The conditional recognitions of Palestine by Canada and others carry an implicit threat of sanctions and isolation for Israeli officials who continue expanding settlements or resisting peace efforts.
In essence, CAP provided intellectual ammunition and moral cover for friendly governments to take unprecedented steps against Israel. By May 2024, CAP had established the rationale; by mid-2025, its GPA allies were implementing it. The CAP–GPA network thus served as a policy transmission belt, facilitating a progression from think-tank white papers to coordinated action by multiple national governments, all in pursuit of a progressive realignment on Israel-Palestine.
It is crucial to recognise that Qatar’s influence is evident throughout this agenda. Qatar is a key supporter of Hamas and has long sought greater international recognition of Palestinian claims (even as it plays double games mediating hostage releases). CAP’s positions (demanding a ceasefire, highlighting Palestinian humanitarian needs, condemning Israeli military tactics, and prioritising “Palestinian self-determination” in peace efforts) could have been taken directly from Qatari diplomats’ speeches. The difference is that CAP cloaks these stances in the credibility of a Western liberal institution and then spreads them through influential progressives worldwide. It is a nuanced influence operation: CAP is the idea factory and GPA is the distribution network, ultimately hijacking the foreign policies of democratic nations to align with Doha’s objectives. That is why this seemingly benevolent push for Palestinian statehood must be recognised for what it truly is: a dangerous, foreign-aligned campaign masquerading as grassroots progressive policy.
No to ‘Jewish’ State. Patrick Gaspard, the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund opening the Global Progress Action Summit, hosted by CAP Action and Canada 2020 in Montreal in 2023, prefers the One State Solution, crafting his reasoning as, “I firmly believe Israel must exist as a state. But I also believe Palestinians — if we are going to solve this problem — need to exist in an Israel that is inclusive of their full rights. The pushback has always been that if you have a single state, you can’t have a Jewish majority state that is democratic in Israel. I think that taking out the possibility of coexistence is, in itself, really cynical and tragic.” (Photo: Justin Tang)
What we are witnessing is the culmination of a polemical grand strategy orchestrated by a supposedly progressive NGO that is anything but benign. The Center for American Progress and its Global Progress Action network have exploited the goodwill of the left (its desire for peace, justice, and human rights) to advance a highly polemical, one-sided agenda scripted in Doha. This dangerous pro-Qatar NGO has succeeded in coordinating Western recognition of Palestine, an outcome Qatar’s regime has long desired, by co-opting influential voices in Canada, Australia, the UK, and beyond. In doing so, CAP and GPA have helped install an anti-Israel orthodoxy in progressive governments, strengthening the influence of left-wing elites under the guise of moral principles while marginalising more moderate or pro-Israel perspectives (indeed, far-left fringe parties were electorally crushed as their platforms were absorbed by the mainstream left, which then moved even further left).
Cahoots with Qatar. CAP, says the writer, labelled Israel’s occupation since 1967 as “illegal,” and deemed Israel’s recent military offensive in Gaza “indiscriminate…represent[ing] grave violations of international humanitarian law.”
The repercussions are profound. A key Western ally, Israel, finds itself diplomatically under siege not only from traditional opponents but also from friends who have embraced CAP’s narrative. Western unity has fractured: while the United States (under Trump in 2025) stood resolutely with Israel, its allies in Ottawa, London, and Canberra have broken ranks, emboldening groups like Hamas by signalling international impatience with Israel. Qatar’s propaganda could not have achieved this alone; CAP provided the professionalism and networks to turn it into reality. As a final indignity, Jewish communities in those very countries have been left to bear the brunt, facing increased threats and violence as antisemitic actors exploit the new political climate.
It is time to expose this cynical game. When a think tank, armed with influence and linked to foreign interests, orchestrates policy from behind the scenes, democracy is undermined. When that policy happens to appease terrorists and threaten minority communities at home, it must be revealed and denounced. CAP and GPA cloaked themselves in progressive rhetoric, but their campaign to coordinate recognition of Palestine, however well-intentioned some participants may be, is anything but a simple fight for human rights. It is a geopolitical power move that has compromised the moral integrity of progressive governments, turning them into instruments of a despotic Gulf state’s agenda and weakening the global stance against jihadist terrorism.
Those truly committed to peace and liberal democracy must root out the toxic influence of groups like CAP/GPA from the halls of power. Transparency and accountability are key: voters deserve to know which foreign players and ideologues are influencing their leaders. Only then can we ensure that “global progress” is more than a marketing slogan: that it actually means progress for all people, and not the agenda of an authoritarian benefactor hidden in the shadows.
*Feature picture:Men behind the Move. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a coordinated strategy, recognized on the same day, 21 September, 2025, a Palestinian state, thus endangering the hostages and deepening Israel’s isolation on the world stage.
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).
How naivety has led to chaos and the breakdown of western civilization
By Neville Berman
In the 1970’s and 80’s America was preoccupied with the Cold War against the Soviets. The Communists were the enemy and everything else was secondary. The disastrous Vietnam war cost America 58,000 lives and untold treasure and losses. In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in support of the Afghan government who were fighting the Mujahideen. Osama bin Laden decided to join the Mujahideen.
Bin Laden was born in Riyadh. His father was a devout Sunni Muslim born in Yemen. The family became billionaires in the construction business in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and attended courses in 1971 in Oxford where he learnt English. He was educated and rich and became a pupil of Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a militant Islamic preacher. In 1979, Azzam fled to Afghanistan. He was the key figure who persuaded Bin Laden to come to Afghanistan to help the Mujahideen in their fight against the Soviets.
In 1986, the American administration had the bright idea of making the Russians suffer in Afghanistan by supplying the Mujahideen with shoulder fired American Stinger missiles. The Russian helicopters had no defence against the missiles. After losing 15,000 soldiers, the Russians decided to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1979. The Mujahideen lost between 75,000- 90,000 fighters but celebrated the fact that they had defeated a superpower. It emboldened Islamists across the world. The decision to arm the Mujahideen would have unintended consequences for America and the world.
The year before the Afghan-Soviet war ended, Osama Bin Laden used his wealth and organizational skills to form a new organization in Afghanistan called Al-Qaeda. It attracted thousands of followers. His aim was nothing less than the destruction of America and the promotion of Islam across the world. He had no interest in the Palestinians.
In August 1998, Al-Qaeda simultaneously attacked American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. 224 people were killed and about 4,500 were injured. Twelve of those killed were American citizens. In October 2000, al-Quada attacked the US destroyer USS Cole in Aden in a suicide attack by a small boat packed with explosives. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 37 wounded.
Al Qaeda in Africa. Only a few years before 9/11, on August 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous bombs directly linked to al Qaeda, blew up in front of the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania resulting in the murder of 224, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 wounded. What lessons, if any, were learned?
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacked America directly. Nineteen terrorists boarded four American civilian aircraft. They hijacked the planes and flew two into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia, and the fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the hijackers. 2,977 people were killed on 9/11. Tens of millions of Muslims around the world celebrated the attacks. Islam was on the march.
In response, America decided on another brilliant idea. They attacked Iraq. They claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and supported Al-Qaeda. Sadam Hussein needed to be removed from power. No weapons of mass destruction and no link to Al-Qaeda were ever found. The attack angered the majority of the 1.7 billion Muslims that existed in the world in that time frame. The West then had another brilliant idea. In the name of multiculturalism, equal opportunity and diversity, it opened its borders to millions of migrants with no money, no education and a totally different culture. The majority of new immigrants arriving in the West, were not interested in assimilation. They arrived full of hatred and would soon use the right of “free speech” to bring chaos to the countries that welcomed them. The West had sown the seeds of its own demise.
After the attack on 9/11, it took America another ten years to find and eliminate bin Laden in Pakistan. His death did not end the Islamists aim of subjugating the West. The success of bin Laden, inspired the establishment of Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram in Africa and numerous other terrorist groups in the Middle East and across the world. The Al Thani family that controls Qatar also stepped into the breach.
Qatar has over 25 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and sells approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil per day. It is overflowing with wealth. Qatar has approximately 320,000 citizens and is punching way above its actual weight limit. It is using a much more sophisticated strategy to that of bin Laden to undermine the West. It is using its enormous wealth to corrupt and influence the world to promote militant Islam. It has established a TV channel called Al Jazeera that operates in 150 countries and broadcasts to over 430 million households in both English and Arabic. It broadcasts 24/7 the Islamic world view of subjugation and jihad. Al- Jazeera has radicalised thousands of Muslims living in the West.
Building Influence. London’s Canary Wharf is central to Qatar’s UK property empire. Instead of blowing up buildings in the West, Qatar is buying buildings and whatever else it needs to buy in order to gain influence in the West.
Qatar is portraying itself as an ally of the West. Their leaders appear on American TV speaking perfect English and smiling. The uneducated and ignorant American public lap it up. Qatar is using its massive wealth to buy whatever it wants. Everyone wants to do business with Qatar. Greed has no limits. Instead of blowing up buildings in the West, Qatar is buying buildings and whatever else it needs to buy in order to gain influence in the West. It has given massive loans to people who influence government policies. It has poured billions of dollars into sponsoring Departments of Middle Eastern Studies at the leading universities in America. Only lecturers who are known to be antisemitic and against western values are hired. The aim is for them to educate the next leaders of America to change its support for Israel and to promote the destruction of the West. They have already succeeded in creating chaos across America and many other countries. Qatar openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood that aims at achieving a world dominated by Sharia law. Qatar has supported Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Hamas is a designated terrorist group with a genocidal policy of killing all the Jews in Israel. Hamas hopes to remain in power in Gaza in order to repeat the atrocities that it committed against Israel on October 7,2023. Israel is determined to prevent this from happening. Hamas is not a boy scouts’ movement. Qatar has become the home of several of the leaders of Hamas. They and their families live in luxury in Doha, while the people in Gaza live in the squalor that they created.
In 1996, America entered into a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Qatar and built the Al Udeid Air Base in the south east of Doha. The base is the largest American air force base in the Middle East. About 10,000 American troops are based there. In effect America is protecting Qatar, while Qatar is actively trying to corrupt and destroy the American way of life in America, A more absurd situation is hard to imagine.
Qatar Cunning. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the largest US Military installation in Middle East with about 10,000 American troops stationed there. While the US is protecting Qatar, this mega-rich Gulf emirate is actively undermining the American way of life across the USA.
The bottom line is that oil and money have replaced the very foundation pillars of western democracy, including the rule of law, human rights and other values. It’s time to wake up to reality. Qatar is playing a double game. It is not a Western ally in any sense of the word. It is actively supporting the demise of the West. The question now is:
“Are there leaders in the West who understand what is taking place and have enough backbone to take action?”
About the writer:
AccountantNeville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
As countries trip over each other to recognise a Palestinian state, do they care they are midwifing a giant military base to perpetuate endless jihadi war?
ByDr.Gad Amar
The past failure of coexistence between two states, Christian and Muslim, in the same European country should give pause for thought, particularly to Europeans, and even more so to the French and Spanish, who were the first to be affected. This reflection is all the more necessary now that France announced on July 24, 2025, its intention to submit a draft resolution in favor of the creation of the State of Palestine at the next session of the UN General Assembly, to be held from September 9 to 23, 2025. In practice, this draft resolution aims to impose the coexistence of two states, Jewish and Muslim, on a small territory of 28,165 km² in the Middle East, comprising the State of Israel (22,145 km²) and the “Palestinian territories” (6,020 km²), controlled by Israel. The European country that has experienced such coexistence is Spain.
Right of Return. A meme doing the rounds on social media suggest Spain that has recognized a Palestinian state, should offer the southern part of its country as Palestine in lieu of allowing the Muslims to return to Spain whom they violently threw out in the 15th century.
Long before France’s announcement, a large majority of countries had already recognized the State of Palestine. The process, which began in Algiers on November 15, 1988, had gained the support of 75 states in the days that followed. By February 5, 2025, 148 of the 193 UN member states had already recognized the State of Palestine. The announcement of France’s plan ultimately convinced many European countries to join in, against the backdrop of the current war in Gaza and strong pro-Palestinian unrest among Muslims and left-wing extremists in European countries (see the list of countries recognizing the State of Palestine on Wikipedia).
“THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING UNDER HEAVEN” (Ecclesiastes, 3:1)
French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to create a Palestinian state, inspired by empathy for the Palestinians but nonetheless marked by a certain casualness, is in any case flawed by a stubborn underestimation of the current situation. It could be motivated by France’s desire to position itself at the center of the game of influence among foreign powers in the Middle East. Having lost all influence in its relationship with Françafrique, then in its efforts at arbitration in Lebanon, France is trying its luck again by antagonizing Israel.
The proclamation or theoretical creation of a Palestinian state as part of the two-state solution is not a good solution for either side today. The clamor rising from pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world demands a single, exclusively Palestinian state, and no one will be able to quell this fanatical fervor, which has its roots in a jihadist heritage. And barring a miracle, it is difficult to imagine that a young Palestinian state would escape totalitarian, fundamentalist, and corrupt rule. As in all dictatorships around the world, this regime would have no choice but to legitimize itself by presenting its people with a perpetual, fantasized enemy, Israel, thereby justifying jihad. It would be no better for its people than the Hamas government in Gaza or the Islamic State of Iran.
Ponder this Poll. While countries rush to recognise a Palestinian state, a 2024 well-respected Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) poll reveals that 65% of Palestinians oppose a two-state solution. Particularly alarming was the finding that 63% of Palestinians say they “support a return to confrontations and armed intifada,” and that 22% of Palestinians call for just “one state”, meaning an end to a Jewish state.
The proof? This ideal state could have come into being in the Gaza Strip, which has been free since 2007, self-governing and aided by the entire world, including Israel. The West Bank operates according to an identical ideology. It is the path of jihad that reigns in both territories, destroying any hope of tolerance and peaceful coexistence with Israel. And since the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, nothing has changed, neither in the rhetoric nor in the actions of the Palestinians or their leaders.
If they had a state, would they renounce jihad, a fundamental principle of their religion that is now deeply ingrained in them? It is essential to ensure this before granting them a country that could, as was the case in Gaza, become a military base for the perpetual war that is jihad.
But through the voice of its president, France does not seem to care about a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous future for the Palestinian people. It pits Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, against each other in a situation that promotes neither peace nor prosperity. Antisemitism has become the norm in France, but the president ignores it. This casual attitude reflects the president’s headlong rush forward in the face of the very complicated economic and political situation in which he has placed his country.
“WHY DO THE NATIONS CONSPIRE, AND THE PEOPLES PLOT IN VAIN?” (Psalm 2:1)
The almost daily pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Western Christian countries, where there is a visible Jewish community, but not in Muslim countries with no Jewish population, testify to their antisemitic nature. If we go further, we see the outdated Christian theology of substitution in its Muslim version, still alive in the Ummah (the Muslim people), proclaimed “the best” of all by the Koran (3:110). This theology, a deeply rooted legacy, fuels the fantasy of social substitution for Jews in the suburbs. Regarding “this sweet poison”, a modern commentator on the Quran (Dr. Al-Ajami) writes:
“What could be more comforting when you are at the bottom of the social ladder, and what could be more triumphant when you are at the top?”
Originally, this was a deviation from the status of “chosen people” granted to the people of Israel by the One God, and expressed in the Bible, at a time when the only monotheistic people were the people of Israel. All those who choose the One God, Father of all men without distinction, are in fact also chosen by God.
This fantasy of substitution is at the root of this campaign to reverse values and roles, in which Palestinians, the instigators and perpetrators of the genocide of October 7, 2023, are transformed into victims of imaginary apartheid and genocide.
A HUNDRED-YEAR WAR AND ITS ROOTS
Mr. Macron expects French Jews to adhere to his project, in accordance with their universalist tradition. It is true that there is a Jewish universalist tradition of a future messianic world in which peoples will live in peace with one another. Two universalist currents coexist today within Judaism: those who believe that this time is already present and those who believe that it has not yet come. The former were barbarically and atrociously massacred by Hamas on October 7, 2023; only the latter remain, who are contemptuously referred to as “messianists.”
Macron’s Misunderstanding. Despite Palestinian polls rejecting a Two-State Solution, says French president Macron that “… I recognize the legitimacy of so many Palestinian people who want a state….They want a nation.” Of course they do but not beside Israel but instead of Israel.
Some proclaim that this war has gone on too long, having lasted for nearly two years. In reality, it began with the pogroms perpetrated by Muslims against Jews in 1929. It is therefore approaching its hundredth anniversary and can be compared to another hundred-year war in the Holy Land 25 centuries ago. Returning from a 50-year exile in Babylonia after the edict of Cyrus in 539 BC, the Jews suffered 100 years of harassment from foreign populations settled in the Holy Land by Assyrian invaders and other populations recently established in the country. This century only ended with the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, which finally ensured the safety of the inhabitants and allowed the city to develop.
The unrest in the Muslim world over the war in Gaza stems from one of their rules, which forbids Jews from defending themselves if they are attacked.
There is another rule: the pre-Islamic period in Arabia is called Jahiliyya, meaning “ignorance”. According to this principle, everything that preceded Islam must be forgotten and erased. This is the case with Judaism.
THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION IN LIGHT OF EUROPEAN HISTORY
The reflection we propose here is a priori neutral, because Christian Spaniards and Muslim jihadists, notably the Almohads, mistreated the Jews of Spain with equal inhumanity.
The Spanish tyrannized the Jews on the eve of the invasion of Spain by Arab armies (forced conversions, prohibition of synagogues), then expelled them in 1492, out of religious intolerance and antisemitism. Muslims subjected Jews to the abuse of dhimma, a form of “protection” granted to citizens who had previously been declared illegal on the pretext that they had not adhered to a new religion imposed by violent and illiterate combatants.
The lessons of European history should serve everyone, especially Europeans. It is a matter of reviving memories of a tumultuous European past, specifically Spain’s past, in which the two-state solution, one Christian and the other Muslim, could not flourish.
The story begins in 711 when four-fifths of Spain and southern France are invaded by Arab jihadists supported by recently Islamized Berbers. The Arabs were stopped in France by Charles Martel in 732. The fifth, which remained independent, rose up in 1037, after three centuries of occupation, for a war of reconquest that would last four and a half centuries (1037-1492). Spain could have accommodated the presence, since 1350, of the Muslim kingdom of Granada in the south, which was less threatening than in the past and placed under the tutelage of the Christian kingdom of Castile. But history, undoubtedly marked by violence, led it to eradicate it. We must not delude ourselves: the jihadists of the past were no better than those of today, whether ISIS or Hamas. The Spanish undoubtedly believed that the demon of jihad could one day reawaken – and with greater force – from the kingdom of Granada.
The Muslim jihad that led to the conquest of Spain between 711 and 716 was followed by the Christian crusade that reclaimed the entire country in 1492. But history had not yet had its final say. Jihad continued at sea through the activities of pirates and privateers for three centuries, between Spain and other European countries on one side, and Morocco and Algeria on the other, with the Ottoman Empire entering the fray. Although the jihad of the North African corsairs no longer sought to conquer Christian lands in Western Europe after 1492, the Ottoman Empire was already filling the gap, having begun the conquest of Christian countries in Eastern Europe in the 15th century. Twice, Ottoman jihadists attacked Vienna, in 1529 and then in 1683, but without success, and their advance into the heart of Europe was thus halted. Can we imagine how far they would have gone if they had succeeded in either of their two sieges of the city?
This long history must be pondered. Christian Europe must not forget that it was only by a miracle that it was able to recover its territorial integrity and security.
Today, Western Europe, including Spain, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, is considering voting to create a Palestinian state, without even ensuring that it will not be jihadist, leaving Israel alone with the impossible task of eradicating this philosophy of Islam, particularly among Palestinians. One observation should challenge all these states, especially Spain: could we now envisage a two-state solution in Europe, more specifically in Spain, not for the Palestinians, but for the descendants of the Arabs expelled from Spain by the Reconquista five centuries ago? Why should those who were expelled five centuries ago have fewer rights than some of the Palestinian Arabs who were expelled for the same reasons more than 75 years ago? Why not at least give the Arabs expelled from Spain their former kingdom of Granada back?
It should be remembered that the Semites introduced civilization to Spain, in the literal sense, twenty centuries before the Christian era, and that their presence thus lasted thirty-five centuries. This presence is attested to by the names of several major cities on the Iberian Peninsula, from north to south, from Barcelona to Cadiz, and from east to west, from Almería to Lisbon. The very name of Spain, formerly Hispalis, derives from the “Great Baal”, Eth-Baal, celebrated by the name of the “River of the Great”, the Guad-al-Quivir, which flows through the city of Seville. This river is comparable to the river Kébar of Babylonia, mentioned by Ezekiel, in Akkadian Naru-Kabari, and to the Nahr al-Kabir, on the northern border of Lebanon with Syria. The original name of Seville is Esh-bilia, which also refers to Eth-Baal.
Europe, Spain, and France would do well to reflect on the long history of their own countries, for no one knows what tomorrow may bring.
The Writing is on the Wall. Indicative of antisemitism today in France, a Swastika and a graffiti reading “Jews pedophiles, rapists to be gassed” appears on a wall in front of the synagogue in Rouen. Unable or unwilling to control rampant antisemitism in France that might upset the countries growing Muslim population, Macron prefers meddling in the Middle East indifferent to the consequences of his ineptness. (Photo: Lou Benoist/AFP/Getty Images)
THE JEWISH STATE IN MINITURE
Christian Europe was attacked by jihad on two fronts: in the west by jihadists from Morocco and in the east by the Ottomans. Europe was caught in a pincer movement by this merciless war. Israel is now similarly caught in a pincer movement, in the west by Hamas’ jihad in Gaza and in the east by Fatah’s jihad in the West Bank.
Europe today faces a serious challenge due to the massive immigration of Muslims who are committed to their religion, which is their right. But fundamentalists are also part of the mix. Similarly, Israel is challenged by Israeli Arabs, a minority of whom identify primarily as Palestinian and are represented by elected officials who are largely anti-Israeli.
Western Europe must not believe that its support for the creation of a Palestinian state in the Holy Land will permanently remove the Islamist threats it faces. Such support will not be enough to remove the Islamist threats it faces.
A COMMON STRUGGLE
The fight against jihad is everyone’s business, and first and foremost that of Muslims themselves. With its ignorant and barbaric followers on the ground, this movement that claims to represent Allah has become an irreparable offense to Allah. It damages the image and sanctity in Islam, which should above all be a religion of peace and brotherhood with all humanity, and especially with the other two monotheistic religions.
Christians believe that the Son of God sacrificed himself for humans; Muslims believe that human sacrifice pleases God. Instead of such sacrifices, human beings should first love and tolerate one another, letting God do his work without seeking to take His place.
*Feature picture: The map above is a tongue‐in‐cheek (and purely satirical) take on the Israeli–Palestinian “two‐state solution.” It color‐codes only two “states” Spain (in yellow) and Portugal (in purple) then shades almost the entire globe (including Israel/Palestine) as “Portugal.”
About the writer:
Dr.Gad Amar, Chirurgien retraité, hébraïsant et arabisant, auteur d’études juives en hébreu et en français . (Dr. Gad Amar, retired surgeon, Hebraist and Arabist, author of Jewish studies in Hebrew and French.)
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).
Venomous verbiage and outright lies are today’s easiest access weapons of choice targeting the Jewish state.
By Grant Gochin
In an era where truth perishes first in the crucible of ideological warfare, Pallywood – the Palestinian staging of fake injuries, deaths, and atrocities to demonize Israel – alongside the UN, NGOs, and authoritative bodies unleashes a relentless torrent of lies against Israel. These calculated deceptions are intended to delegitimize Israel, ignite global hatred, and erode legitimate and civilized discourse.
Staged videos and genocide smears recycle discredited narratives without consequence; once exposed as frauds, the sources should lose all credibility forever, yet these liars pivot and spew venom anew, without shame. Their masks must be ripped away, and they must be held accountable for the bloodshed fueled by their mendacity.
This media assault constitutes the 8th front in the global war on Jews, battling for truth amid seven physical arenas: Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, West Bank, Syria, Iraq, and Iran – now joined by Türkiye’s severance of ties on August 29, 2025, as declared by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Betrayal extends to proxies like South Africa, whose actions expose deep integration with Iran’s anti-Israel agenda.
STAGING VICTIMHOOD
At the heart of Pallywood lies the staging of phony scenes portraying Israel as a monstrous entity, a deadly tactic designed to fabricate victimhood and spark anti-Jewish violence. Notable examples include Hamas falsely blaming Israel for the Al-Ahli Hospital blast – a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket – exploiting media lags to spread lies.
AP and CNN amplify these falsehoods by parroting Hamas, inflating casualty figures while ignoring terrorism, a bias rooted in antisemitism that has consistently endangered Jews. As a singular example, a recent Facebook video provides visual evidence of Pallywood staging, showing actors simulating child injuries with props, further exposing this manipulative tactic to a gullible global audience.
Disgruntled and Devious. Anthony Aguilar was terminated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “misconduct” in June. After failed rehiring attempts, he told the BBC he witnessed Israeli forces targeting civilians at aid sites. The US-backed organization investigated and called his testimony false, labeling him a “disgruntled contractor.”
The world media eagerly consumed and inflated the lies of Green Beret Anthony Aguilar, a former US soldier who claimed to witness Israeli Defense Forces shooting at starving Palestinian crowds at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid hubs. His July 25, 2025, BBC interview alleging “brutality and indiscriminate force” against an “unarmed, starving population” was repeated ad nauseam by outlets like The Guardian and Al Jazeera, despite the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and IDF labeling his claims “categorically false” and citing his termination for misconduct. This fabricated narrative, amplified without scrutiny, morphed into de facto truth, amplifying the demonization of Israel and showcasing media’s willingness to prioritize sensationalism over fact-checking.
Photos of children with genetic disorders have been cynically repurposed by anti-Israel activists and media like Reuters and BBC to portray Israel as starving Gaza’s population. These images, stripped of medical context and circulated widely, exploit viewers’ emotions, turning a medical tragedy into a propaganda tool.
Starved of the Truth. In a Madona like pose to appeal to Western Christendom, Hidayat Al-Motawaq holds her 18-month-old son, Mohammad Al-Motawaq, in their tent in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 3, 2025 to reveal to the world starvation in Gaza. The photo published in The New York Times went viral and was republished by the media across the world until it was established that the child had a pre-existing health condition, cystic fibrosis (CF). (Photo: Anas Baba/NPR)
These fabrications thrive as global audiences crave anti-Israel sensationalism over factual reporting, weaponizing manipulation with devastating effect. The Palestinian “lie industry” persistently twists narratives, suppressing the truth. Discredited hoaxes demand permanent banishment, but the perpetrators resurface unaccountably. Today, almost the only reason to check mainstream news is to discern the precise ways people are being deceived.
Media Manipulations. How a photo in The New York Times of a skeletal child sparked controversy about starvation in Gaza. While the child has cystic fibrosis, the caption to the photo reads his mother saying that her 18-month-old son Mohammed , “was born healthy but was recently diagnosed with severe malnutrition.”
LAUNDERING LIES
The UN has become a conduit for laundering anti-Israel disinformation, violating its neutrality by endorsing biased Palestinian claims of Gaza famine and genocide – tactics reminiscent of the “big lie” strategy that fuels antisemitism.
In Melanie Phillip’s piece “The Indestructible Myth of Famine in Gaza,” she condemns the blind acceptance of the UN’s genocidal portrayal, arguing it ignores reality. The call to “Dismantle the United Nations” insists that such distortions necessitate a complete overhaul or dissolution.
Western governments recycle these UN-Hamas narratives, vilifying Israelis. Retracted reports and biased sourcing have permanently discredited the UN, yet it persists unabated in its deceitful campaign.
The UN’s declaration of a “man-made famine” in Gaza belies a deeper struggle for narrative control and aid dominance. In May 2024, Israel and the US launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as an alternative to UNRWA, but the UN denounced it as “fake”, refusing cooperation and leaving food trucks stranded. The IPC, meanwhile, tweaked its famine criteria, adopting a MUAC shortcut and halving the child malnutrition threshold from 30% to 15%, a move that eases declarations amid restricted access and which critics attribute to political motives. Recent analysis by Israel’s Foreign Ministry exposes IPC falsifications, including 182 fabricated “virtual deaths”, misuse of prohibited MUAC data, cherry-picking from 7,519 of 15,749 surveyed children, and burying surveys showing no famine -proof of a deliberate agenda to demonize Israel. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, falsely claimed 14,000 child deaths in days, retracting the statement after 2.5 million views, though the damage was irreversible. This is a constant strategy to place lies into the public domain and generate hate and outrage against Israel. Facts be damned!
Lying with Intent. Accusing Israel of deliberately starving the Gaza’s population, Tom Fletcher, who leads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), made the now-debunked claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours.
WEAPONISING WORDS
European-funded NGOs amplify fabrications to fuel the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International propagate debunked claims deliberately overlooking rocket attacks and terrorism. Since October 7, they have inverted reality, accusing Israel of genocide to deflect from Hamas atrocities, while organizations like Defense for Children International spread known falsehoods online.
These NGOs weaponize rhetoric for International Criminal Court (ICC) lawfare, slapping apartheid labels via staged incidents and centralizing BDS with “collective punishment” lies, all funded by the EU and private foundations while omitting Israel’s right to self-defense. Phillips condemns this “unprecedented lie campaign demonizing Israel,” urging a robust counter-narrative.
LOADED LANGUAGE
Language is loaded as “genocide” and “starvation” are warped to target Israel. The UN labels Gaza warfare “consistent with genocide”, reinterpreting casualties and aid as extermination while ignoring Hamas’s role in shortages. Human Rights Watch claims “extermination/genocide” via starvation, disregarding deliveries, while Amnesty amends thresholds to fit the “starvation for genocide” narrative.
Despite exposure of the lies, the press persists regardless of the truth. Enough is enough – tear down the edifice of deceit, seize back the narrative, and let unassailable truth reign supreme. We stand at the epicenter of a global pogrom, a sinister transnational resurgence of antisemitism masquerading as righteous justice, twisting historical hatreds into a sanctimonious moral crusade. George Orwell’s most dystopian imagination pales before the orchestrated media war against Israel, a masterclass in manipulation where every lie is polished into propaganda, every distortion weaponized to vilify, and every shred of truth buried beneath a deluge of orchestrated falsehoods.
About the writer:
Grant Arthur Gochin currently serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. He is the Emeritus Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, which represents the fifty-five African nations, and Emeritus Vice Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the world. Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past twenty five years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped / inventoried / documented / restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation”, published in 2013. His book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. He is presently working on a project to expose the current Holocaust revisionism within the Lithuanian government. Professionally, Gochin is a Certified Financial Planner and practices as a Wealth Advisor in California, where he lives with his family. Personal site: https://www.grantgochin.com/
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Gaza has liberated people across the world to openly express their hate for Jews.
By David E. Kaplan
It sounds disgusting because it is disgusting.
The more pictures and video clips of suffering Gazans flood the media market, the more people across the world feel free – nay I say feel “liberated” – to once again publicly and proudly release their suspended or suppressed hatred of Jews. No longer the type of ‘civilized’, accepted or sanitized antipathy of the 1950s and 1960s that I recall from my native South Africa in the shape of refusing membership to Jews at golf clubs or being called “Hymie” at school. No, Gaza has now presented a free pass to all across this planet that Jews anywhere are legitimate targets for abuse and very much worse.
The result is they turf you off planes even if you are a group of 50 French Jewish youth movement kids returning home as a Spanish airline saw fit to do; kick you out of restaurants and camp sites, refuse your booking at hotels, spit at you, punch and kick, set fire to you when you are in a synagogue and even shoot you dead as you leave a Jewish event. This is not the Germany of the 1930s but much of the world in 2025 and Gaza opened the floodgates of this ‘liberated’, unabashed hatred! While the verb ‘liberate’ would normally be understood to mean “to free”, here it is a return to the automatic position of antipathy held over millennia now explosively unleased by Gaza.
Antisemitism – ‘Plane’ and Simple. Around 50 French Jewish children aged 10 -15 that were returning to Paris from a summer camp were removed from a plane in Valencia, Spain, which a camp organizer (seen here being aggressively arrested) said were treated unfairly because of their Jewish identity. (Photo: X/@AmichaiChikli)
The more the people of Gaza appear via the media to be suffering, the freer the people of the world feel to safely return to their default position of not only comfortably despising Jews but publicly expressing it – whether verbal or by violence. There is a calibrated correlation. When confronted over their dastardly acts against random Jews whether in Europe, UK, US, Canada or Australia, they respond in amplified verbiage containing the word “GAZA” – as if it’s an obvious satisfactory explanation or accepted legal defense. As he was dragged away after gunning down dead two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, 31-year-old Chicago-born Elias Rodrigues, shouted:
“…I did it for Gaza.”
‘Aiming’ to kill Jews. “I did it for Gaza,” explains the arrested killer Elias Rodriguez of Sarah Milgrim (l) and Yaron Lischinsky (r) who shot the engaged couple outside a Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.
This is reminiscent of the Middle Ages when killing Jews was not a universally illegal act and was often not punished, and sometimes even encouraged by authorities. For much of the Middle Ages, the GAZA then was the Black Death, when pogroms against Jews were permitted or even instigated by government officials across Europe. What has really changed when corruption of the truth back then and corrupting the truth today results in the same mass hatred leading to persecution of Jews?
Google ‘current rise in antisemitism’ – as I did – and you will be instantly met with endless links to articles like:
Gaza conflict leads to rise in antisemitism
Reflection & Resilience: A Year of Unprecedented Antisemitism
U.S. Antisemitic Incidents Skyrocketed 360% in Aftermath of Attack in Israel
Driven by Israel-Gaza War, Antisemitism in U.S. Reached an Unprecedented High in 2023
Protracted war in Gaza partly to blame for ‘unprecedented’ wave of Australian antisemitic attacks, experts say
SWC Alarmed by Unprecedented Surge in Anti-Semitic Incidents in Germany
Huge rise in antisemitic abuse in UK since Hamas attack, says charity
Frightening Facts. In aftermath of the attack in Israel from Gaza, antisemitic incidents in the US skyrocketed 360%, according to ADL Data.
What do all these articles – and can go on and on – have in common? All record increasing violence against Jews unleashed by the media mania’s contrived coverage of Gaza portraying Israelis as Nazis on a murderous spree of innocent Palestinians. Intentionally neglected in this narrative is that Israel:
– is engaged in an existential war with an enemy that perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
– that this enemy had proudly pledged to repeat such massacres in the future and
– that they are holding hostages in horrendous conditions facing imminent death.
FUELING THE FRENZY
With the mass hysteria against Jews persisting unabated, it does beg the question that if the war in Gaza was suddenly brought to an end, would the incidents of antisemitism commensurately dissipate? Probably because there would be much less visual media coverage which is fueling the frenzy. But then again, it would only be a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ that some other peg will appear for willing folk to happily hang their antisemitism on.
Jews Unwelcome. “WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE!” reads this poster in Greece intimidating Jewish tourists. This follows disturbing similar trends across Europe and the UK.
All this begs the question:
Have we crossed a bridge beyond what Israelis would commonly respond with “Kacha ze” (ככה זה) meaning “This is how it is” or has a threshold been breached where the lives of Jews globally are in mortal danger? Simply put:
Is there today no safe place for Jews anywhere on this planet without the provision of serious security?
A disturbing harbinger is the language of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who after accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza said:
“We have no atomic bombs to stop Israel”.
Spanish ‘Solution’. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez laments on September 8,2025 that his country did not have the “atomic bomb” to use in Gaza’s defense against Israel. (Photo: Borja Puig de la Bellacasa / La Moncloa/AFP)
Accusing Israel of a false genocide, the leader of a country that has a notorious history of antisemitism, threatens the Jewish state with a real genocide. The Spanish PM laments, “If only I had an atom bomb.”
The Iberian prime minister’s careful word choice reveals his deep-rooted national inclination – what the Spanish Inquisition did not ultimately achieve – wiping out any trace of Jews!
With the way the world today looks upon Jews is an unsettling reminder why there is not only the need of an Israel but a strong defensible Israel that can safeguard a Jewish future to ensure in the words of Israel’s illustrious late foreign minister, Abba Eban:
“Israel’s future will be longer than its past”
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).
