Why are Palestinians being reoffered what they have time and again rejected?

By Peter Bailey

The leading question in answer to the European intent to recognise a mythical State of Palestine is the location of the undeclared borders of a Palestinian State, and who gets to define those borders.

The idiom “be careful what you wish for” is an earnest warning to consider the law of unintended consequences, before making impulsive utterances that could have results totally opposite to the desired outcome. 

French President Macron and many of his European partners assert that they  will recognize the State of Palestine in September. Such recognition could well fall victim to the aforesaid law of unintended consequences. The whimsical recognition of a state without defined borders by the Europeans, offers far less than the recognition and borders offered by Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak in 2000, and Ehud Olmert in 2008, both of  which were spurned by the Palestinian leadership. 

Our friends in Europe should not forget that Fatah, with Yasser Arafat as one of its founders, was established in 1957, 10 years before Israel captured the West Bank during the Six Day War of 1967. The PLO, currently in control of the Palestinian Authority, and the potential rulers of an independent State of Palestine, was founded by the same Arafat in 1964, also before the Six Day War. Both Fatah and the PLO were not interested in a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but in the destruction of the State of Israel. While Hamas was established much later, in 1987, one of its objectives was the dismantling of the State of Israel,  and replacing it with an Islamic Brotherhood state ruled by Sharia Law. Nothing to do with the West Bank or Gaza, which are merely stepping stones in its quest for the end of the Jewish homeland, Israel, the realisation of the  Zionist dream.

Between 11 and 25 July 2000,   Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at Camp David, in an effort to end the ongoing Israel-Palestine dispute. While reports differ as to the precise final offer on the table, there can be no doubt that this was a serious and significant offer of peace by an Israeli Prime Minister and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian State within a very large part of the West Bank. Barak recalls that Arafat never negotiated, but continually said “NO” to every offer or concession. Barak and Arafat met again in December 2000 and January 2001, in  a last-ditch attempt at peace  again chaired by President Bill Clinton. This was  shortly before Israel’s election on 6 February 2021, with Barak dependent on a peace agreement to have any chance of re-election. 

The Jewish Virtual Library presents a long article on the December 2000/January 2001 meeting, featuring a portion of President Bill Clinton’s autobiography, “My Life”, published in 2005. In the excerpt from Clinton’s book that follows, he is scathing of Arafat’s refusal to accept a peace deal saying  “Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions. However, many Palestinians and Israelis are still committed to peace. Someday peace will come, and when it does, the final agreement will look a lot like the proposals that came out of Camp David and the six long months that followed.”

The full article can be viewed at:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/president-clinton-reflects-on-2000-camp-david-summit

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud   Abbas in Jerusalem in September 2008 to discuss peace and the establishment of a Palestinian State. Olmert recalls that he presented a plan which included  withdrawal from almost 95% of the West Bank, while Israel would retain 6.3% of the territory in order to keep control of major Jewish settlement blocs. He further offered to exchange about 5.8% of Israeli land in return for the settlement blocs. The offer also included a land bridge connecting the West Bank with Gaza. During a 2015 interview on Israel TV Channel 10, Abbas is reported to have said of his reaction to Olmert’s offer “I did not agree, I rejected it out of hand.”

The European leaders who seem obsessed with a State of Palestine within undefined borders, but presumably within the area Jordan named as the West Bank after Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, seem unfazed by the Palestinian rejection of all and any offers for a State of Palestine within the West Bank and Gaza. The rejection of the principle  of ‘Two States’ as a solution to the problem was made obvious 78 years ago, when the League of Arab States, speaking on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs, refused to accept the  1947 United Nations partition Vote, which the Jewish authorities  did accept, albeit with great reluctance. The Arab League chose instead to wage war on the nascent State of Israel immediately after its Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948. It should be clearly understood that the war was for control of the area now popularly defined by pro-Palestinian activists as the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean coast. There can be no doubt that Israel ended up with far more territory after the 1948 war than it would have had, were the Arabs to have accepted the partition plan.    

 Following the 1948 war with the nascent State of Israel, Jordan illegally occupied, and then on 24 April 1950, illegally annexed the territory, naming it the West Bank (of  Jordan), to distinguish it from rump Jordan, east of the Jordan River. The illegal annexation by Jordan was  only ever recognised by Great Britain and Pakistan, and ended with Israel occupying the entire West Bank during the 1967 Six Day War. Between 1918 and 1948, the sovereign power had been Great Britain in terms of its Mandate over Palestine. Britain’s relinquishment of its Mandate in 1948, left no sovereign power in control of the region, hence Jordan’s vain and illegal attempt at annexation. Then, with Jordan’s King Hussein on 31 July 1988 renouncing all claims to control of the West Bank, it effectively ended Jordan’s illegal occupation of the territory since the Armistice Agreement signed  with Israel on 23 March 1949. This effectively reversed Jordanian occupation, bringing the entire former Mandate of Palestine territory west of the Jordan River under Israeli control. This would have been the de jure situation after Britain’s withdrawal  from Palestine, followed by Israel’s Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, had the Arabs not attacked Israel. 

Then, as has happened so often with Israel’s wars since 1948, the Western European nations, the Soviet Union and the United States brought intense pressure to bear on Israel  for a cease fire and an end to the war. Prime Minister Ben Gurion steadfastly refused to recognise the Jordanian occupation or annexation of the West Bank. Israel has never referred to the Armistice Line with Jordan – dubbed the Green Line – as an actual border. This approach remains an unchanging  factor of Israeli policy with regard to the West Bank, which Israel regards as Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley.  Notwithstanding this, numerous offers with differing minutiae have been made for the establishment of a Palestinian State, all of which have been spurned by the Palestinian leadership.

The calls for the recognition of a State of Palestine in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, is incomprehensible, as it will  result in all of Israel being subject to threat by a Hamas type insurgency sometime in the future. There can be little doubt that the calls for the recognition of a Palestinian State within the non-existent pre-1967 so called borders, is a response to the global mass hysteria calling for “Palestine to be free, from the river to the sea”, effectively negating the existence of the State of Israel. European recognition of the State of Palestine  is thus nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to populist calls for an end to the State of Israel, in the vain belief that this will satisfy the pro-Hamas constituency in their own countries. European leaders need to internalise that Arafat in 2000, and Abbas in 2008, refused very generous offers to accept a Palestinian State in the West Bank, simply because they wanted all of Israel, not just the West Bank, and that remains the case today.

The migration of Muslim Arabs to Europe has changed the population demographics and created political realities far removed from traditional European politics. The modern-day anti-Israel fanatics across the world,  who have been activated by Hamas, the PLO, Iran, Qatar and others, to call for a State of  Palestine between  the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea will not be satisfied with a State of Palestine in the West Bank. They want it all with no Israel. European leaders beware; the route you are choosing is littered with obstacles and pitfalls beyond your worst nightmares. European meddling  in the borders of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Israel over the last 100 years, have brought bedlam, mayhem and war to the region. Ignoring the lessons of history, the current crop of European leaders are rushing in where angels fear to tread. They must face one reality, the Palestinian leaders do not want a state within the West Bank, they’ve said so often enough, so start believing them. 

About the writer:

The writer, Peter Bailey, a military history buff, was a Major in the South African Army Reserve before making aliyah in 2013.  He is the author of two books: Street Names in Israel; and Men of Valor: Israel’s Latter Day Heroes. 

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).

Hellbent on shaming Israel in the midst of an existential war, the media ignores the mega-million starving across the world.

By Allan Wolman

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Gaza was the only place on Earth where children go hungry. Just switch on CNN, Sky, or BBC – every night another solemn anchor, another indignant UN official, another weepy “expert” telling us what a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza. And yes, it is tragic. But if starvation is now characterised as the world’s ‘No. 1’ war crime, what about all the other famines the media doesn’t bother to cover?

Remember Ethiopia in the 1980s? Over a million dead of hunger—an entire nation skeletal and forgotten – until Bob Geldof grabbed a mic and shamed the West into coughing up for Band Aid. No 24/7 news ticker, no panel of UN pundits. Just silence. The fact is, Africa has seen starvation used as a weapon of war for decades, if not centuries, but little of it made the prime-time cut.

However, when it comes to Gaza, suddenly every camera lens, every crocodile tear, and every moral sermon is locked in. The media’s appetite for images of starving children seems oddly selective – especially when it’s Israel in their crosshairs. We hear next to nothing about starvation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe or the Horn of Africa. These don’t suit the media’s narrative. Gaza, however, does.

And yet, while Amanpour and company bleat about Gaza, they continue to miss – or ignore – what’s happening in South Africa. This is no war zone. No blockade. No siege. This is a country run by a government that shouts “a better life for all!” while literally letting its children starve to death.

Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now pulled no punches back in 2022 when he asked, “Too corrupt to feed starving children – is this freedom?” He was talking about South Africa’s ruling party – the ANC – which, instead of feeding its own people, dumps nutritious food into landfills. Meanwhile, kids are dying.

That same year, William Saunderson-Meyer highlighted the horror: in just three years, 2,818 children under five died in public hospitals from malnutrition. UNICEF says chronic undernourishment is responsible for over half the deaths of South African children under five. One in three children in the country is physically stunted from lack of food. Cape Town’s Children’s Institute revealed that 4 million children are growth-stunted, and 10 million go hungry every single day:

– Not during war

– Not under sanctions

– Just under the ANC.

But will you see that on CNN? Will BBC dispatch their moral heavyweights to the Eastern Cape or Limpopo? Will the UN scream genocide in Pretoria? Of course not. South Africa doesn’t fit the preferred narrative.

When the ICJ hears South Africa’s accusations of genocide against Israel, perhaps someone will ask: what about the slow-motion genocide of your own children?

There’s something truly rotten when the loudest voices claiming to care about human suffering go mute when the victims are poor, black, and too close to home.

Apparently, black lives only matter when it suits the script.

About the writer:

Allan Wolman in 1967 joined 1200 young South Africans to volunteer to work on agricultural settlements in Israel during the Six Day War. After spending a year in Israel, he returned to South Africa where he met and married Jocelyn Lipschitz and would run  one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg – Rosebank Travel. He would also literally ‘run’ three times in the “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well as participate in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. Allan and Jocelyn immigrated to Israel in 2019.

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

An award of ignominy given to deluded Middle Eastern leaders who have tried to destroy Israel.

By Neville Berman

There are many prestigious awards in the world for exceptional achievements. Anyone awarded a Nobel Prize instantly receives international recognition and fame. The film industry has the Oscars. Journalists have the Pulitzer Prize. The music industry has the Bafta awards. Time magazine has the Person of the Year award, and FIFA has Best Footballer of the Year awards for both men and women. The British King or Queen annually bestows titles and medals to individuals in recognition of outstanding services to the country. Every country has developed some way of honoring exceptional people in their society. 

However, there is one award that has never previously been awarded, that has attracted a number of nominees. The award is the Bermuda Triangle Award. (BTA) This award is for leaders who by their own deliberate policies and actions, have brought poverty, death, destruction and in several cases starvation to the countries that they rule or ruled.  

As this article is limited in length, the numerous post-colonial African leaders and other infamous dictators who should suffer the ignominy of being awarded a BTA have been omitted. Instead, only Middle Eastern leaders, both deceased and living, are included. Let us start with those nominees for a posthumous BTA.   

Gamal Abdel Nasser was President of Egypt and a charismatic leader who promoted the concept of Arab unity known as Pan Arabism. In May 1967, he ordered the United Nations to withdraw all UNEF troops from Sinai. He then closed the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, and boasted that Egypt was ready for an all-out war that would push Israel into the sea. On the morning of June 5, 1967 Israel responded with a preemptive air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground. Nasser then lied to Syria and Jordan by informing them that the Egyptian air-force was bombing Tel Aviv. Syria and Jordan then joined the attack on Israel. In what is known as the Six Day War, Israel routed the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Israel gained control of the whole of Sinai, Gaza, East Jerusalem, Judea (West Bank) and the Golan Heights. Not since the Egyptian army was destroyed in the Red Sea pursuing the Israelites, has Egypt suffered such humiliation. 

In 1979, Saddam Hussein gained control of the Sunni Muslim Ba’ath Party and became President of Iraq. Iraq has the 5th largest crude oil reserves in the world and should be wealthy and prosperous. In 1980, Saddam attacked Iran in a territorial dispute. After nearly 8 years of fighting and an estimated 500,000 deaths, the war ended in a stalemate. In August 1988 both sides accepted UN resolution 598 that ended the war.

Two years later Saddam attacked Kuwait. When Saddam refused to leave Kuwait, America formed a coalition and decisively defeated Saddam and liberated Kuwait. In 1993, under the Presidency of George W Bush, America again invaded Iraq. The premise for the attack was that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that were a direct threat to America. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Instead, Saddam was found hiding in a hole in the ground. An Iraqi Special Tribunal convicted Saddam of crimes against humanity and he was hanged on December 30th 2006. It was the end of a tyrant who was responsible for the deaths of an estimated million Iraqis in war, arbitrary arrests, torture, and disappearances. Iraq has yet to recover from the 24 years of the rule of Saddam Hussein.   

Yahya Sinwar was one of the leaders of Hamas. Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. Hamas is a terrorist organization with a genocidal charter aimed at killing all Jews. Since 2007 it has fired over 30,000 rockets at Israel. It has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian aid and then sold it to the inhabitants in Gaza at inflated prices. It has built 500 kilometers of underground tunnels to attack Israel from and to hide in. Many of the tunnels are built under hospitals, schools and mosques. The main headquarters of Hamas was built directly under the maternity ward of the European hospital in Gaza. Without any doubt, Hamas uses babies, children and civilians as human shields. Under the leadership of Sinwar, Hamas planned and executed a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The scale of the attack and the barbaric actions were proudly filmed by the attackers themselves. Hamas scored an opening victory that consisted of mass killings, beheadings, rapes, hostage taking, destruction of property, and unbelievable cruelty to babies and families. It has now turned into a pyrrhic victory. At the time of writing, Gaza is unrecognizable from what it once was. Thousands of Hamas terrorists have been eliminated, and those that are still alive are living like rats in tunnels underground. The only card that Hamas still holds are Israeli hostages captured in the initial attack. Both Yahya Sinwar and his brother, Mohammed Sinwar, who succeeded him have been eliminated. The legacy of the Sinwar family is death, hunger, poverty and destruction.  

Starting in 1992, Hassan Nasrallah was the undisputed leader of Hezbollah. Before the rise of Hezbollah, Beirut was considered the Paris of the Middle East. With backing from Iran, Hezbollah basically took de facto control of Lebanon and effectively destroyed the country’s economy and prospects for a peaceful and prosperous future. With an estimated 150,000 rockets supplied by Iran, Hezbollah posed a direct threat to Israel. After Hezbollah decided to join the attack by Hamas on Israel, the vast majority of Hezbollah’s rockets were destroyed by Israel. Nasrallah himself was assassinated in his bunker in September 2024.  Another posthumous BTA.

Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father as President of Syria when his father Hafez died in July 2000. Bashar retained power for 24 years by ruthlessly oppressing all opposition to his minority Alawite rule. Between 300-500 thousand Syrians were killed, and approximately 5 million Syrians became refugees during the rule of the Assad family. Assad even used poison gas against his own people. After Israel effectively reduced the capacity of Hezbollah to support Assad, opposition forces took advantage of the situation and seized control of Syria. Assad fled to Russia on December 8, 2024, where he was granted political asylum. Naturally the International Criminal Court has never charged Assad with committing any crimes against humanity. It appears that the killing of hundreds of thousands of Arabs by Arabs is not considered a crime. In an absurd double standard, if Jews kill Arabs in self- defense, then the ICC leaps into action against Israeli leaders.  

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi became leader of the Houthis in Yemen in 2004. Yemen is situated at the entrance to the Red Sea and is more than 2,000 KM from Israel. There is no territorial dispute between the two countries. In 2014, the Houthis took control of parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa in a civil war. Since then, the Houthis have carried out missile attacks against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. They have attacked scores of ships in the Red Sea, and have fired inter- continental missiles at Israel. The Houthis are supported by Iran and are sacrificing themselves for Iran’s ambitions to destroy Israel. All of their actions have brought zero prosperity to the Houthis. They will continue to suffer because of the stupidity of their own leaders. By reducing shipping through the Red Sea, the Houthis have caused billions of dollars of lost revenue to Egypt. Some recent reports say that Abdul -Malik is no longer alive. Either way, he is a nominee for a BTA.

In 1989, Ali Hosseini Khamenei became the second Supreme Shiite leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran is larger than France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands combined. It has approximately 90 million citizens. It has the third largest oil reserves, and the second largest gas reserves in the world. Its geographical location affords it significant control over the vitally important Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Under normal circumstances, Iran should have a thriving economy and a prosperous society. Instead, Khamenei  has a fanatical religious aim of destroying Israel. Iran has built a nuclear program that it claims is for peaceful purposes. In a daring clandestine operation, Israel obtained the actual archives of the Iranian nuclear program. The archives provided 100% proof that Iran is actively trying to build a nuclear arsenal and that its nuclear program is not for peaceful purposes.

Iran has poured billions of dollars into building a crescent of proxy allies to try to wipe Israel off the map. Every country and terrorist entity that is supported by Iran, has suffered as a result of accepting Iranian so-called help. Iran’s policy of building a ring of fire around Israel has been a total failure. After Iran attacked Israel directly with inter-continental missiles and drones, Israel effectively destroyed Iran’s missile defense system and then attacked its nuclear and missile facilities. In what has been called the 12- Day War, that included an attack by American B2 bombers and tomahawk missiles on Iran’s nuclear program, the Iranian nuclear program is no longer a current threat to Israel or the world. Iran has wasted billions of dollars on trying to destroy Israel. This waste of money, coupled with American sanctions has devastated the value of the Iranian Rial. The present black-market rate of the Rial is close to 1 million to the dollar compared to 70 to the dollar before the Shah was overthrown. Khamenei has led Iran down a path of poverty, destruction and despair. Over 500 executions take place annually in Iran. Khamenei has proven that he is prepared to use the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to kill those demonstrating against the regime. Without any doubt Khamenei is the leading nominee for a BTA.  Hopefully it will soon become a posthumous award.

What Israel builds, others try to destroy. This is the reality of the Middle East. 

About the writer:

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

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

Visiting South African photojournalist, Ilan Ossendryver, captures in real-time the Measure and the Mood in Israel during Iran’s devastating missile attacks.

By Rolene Marks

South African photojournalist Ilan Ossendryver was stranded in Israel during ‘Operation Rising Lion’. Recognizing the magnitude of the war, Ossendryver grabbed his camera and went to the various sites of impact to record this time in history – and show the destruction on civilian infrastructure caused by the Iranian missiles.

Ossendryver had been due to launch his book, “Israel after October 7” – a collection of photographs documenting the destruction and horror on the Kibbutzim and communities following the attack on 7 October and was staying with family in Givatayim – when suddenly he found himself confronting new devastation. He spoke to the news agency and wire service, JNS about what it was like to be in Israel during the war with Iran and the impact of recording history as a photographer:

“ I have covered many of Israel’s historic events.  Personally, the most difficult was October 7 atrocities. That as a photographer and as a Jew has been the most difficult. All other photo stories – even tough ones to cover such as suicide bombings – the atrocities carried out by Hamas has been the hardest.”

He continues:

“As the air raid sirens blared and we ran to bomb shelters, I like everyone prayed that the missile would not hit us and when the all clear was given, we sighed with relief and thanked G-d… until the next siren.  I was personally afraid and was worried. After spending time in the bomb shelter and getting the all clear, I visited the sites where Iranian ballistic missiles struck with such devastation.”

The imperative to document what was happening was paramount to him – especially when the media in his native South Africa gives little, or any, coverage to Israel’s side.

Continuing, Ossendryver told JNS:

“It was still incredible to be here in Israel. This is my second huge war. It reminds me of the scud missiles fired here in 1991 by Iraq; the world doesn’t really understand what is going on, especially in South Africa where you don’t get these reports. Only one side is reported. I am here with my family documenting life in Israel under war.”

Documenting various sites horrendously impacted by the Iranian missiles, Ossendryver says:

“It is actually quite remarkable and even though countries in the West don’t want to admit it, but Israel is defending the West. They keep complaining about it but Israel has to defend itself.”

The damage caused by direct impacts was immense. Buildings and neighborhoods were totally destroyed.  Many of these areas will have to be bulldozed and cleared in order to create new housing developments. “Buildings shops houses, all destroyed but the miracle was that even though there were some deaths, the death toll, considering the state of destruction, was remarkably low,” says Ossendryver.

Operation Rising Lion, which many are referring to as the “12-Day War” tested the nation’s collective resilience muscle. The Israeli people, still deep in their trauma following 7 October have endured nearly two years marked by loss and war but remain strong.

Ossendryver was profoundly impacted by his experiences and notes that “the lasting impressions for each of the impact sights was the resilience of the Jewish people, the Israeli people, that didn’t scream hate, that didn’t call for death but said plainly that our hearts are still beating and we shall rebuild.”

About the photoprapher:

Ilan Ossendryver has been a photojournalist for over 25 years covering international news events such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Gulf War, the war in Lebanon, the Israeli Jordanian peace agreement, and the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin. He photographed at Hosni Mubarak’s palace in Cairo where the late Yitzhak Rabin met Yasser Arafat for the first time. He also documented life under Apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela. He has covered two American presidents, seven Israeli prime ministers, as well as many well-known people from Leonard Bernstein, Pavarotti, FW De Klerk, Michael Jackson and Gorbachev.
Illan’s photographs have appeared in many international newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Forbes, Der Spiegel, South China Morning Post, The Times of London, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Yedioth Acharanot, Maariv and The Star of Johannesburg. He is currently the resident photographer of the Johannesburg based Jewish Life Magazine and the South African Jewish Report.

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

The issues on the White House agenda of upcoming meeting between Bibi and Donald are clear; everything else is unclear.

By Jonathan Feldstein

On Monday, all eyes will be on President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu as the later comes to Washington for what will be their third meeting this year. This makes Netanyahu the world leader who has most visited Trump in the White House since the start of 2025. Conspiracy theorists and anti-Israel propagandists will tell tales of the Netanyahu (Israel) tail wagging the Trump (US) dog, and worse. Their venom will stream as they scream of schemes, bringing radicals across the political spectrum – from left to right – into an unholy alliance. Their biased agenda to bash Israel at every opportunity aside, nobody truly knows what’s going to happen in front of the camera, much less behind the scenes.

There are many things that are intuitive, many guessed about, and perhaps some leaked. However, as far as the agenda items, it’s anyone’s guess about what that and the outcome will be.  Here are some things to look for.

Both leaders will take and share credit publicly, praising one another for the recent achievements in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, literally if not figuratively spiking the ball in the end zone. Will there be public declarations of deterring Iran and other bad actors, announcements of additional support for Israel to heighten its preparedness? Privately, it’s reasonable to imagine they will discuss intelligence assessments of actual accomplishments, additional threats, and the need for regime change in Iran to actually bring peace, not just for Israel and the US, but also for the Iranian people, albeit while not publicly stating this. If the Iranian nuclear program has only been set back by two years, what’s Plan B?

As for the highly enriched uranium that created the urgency for the recent attack, enough to produce as much as ten nuclear weapons, the question is what happened to it. If it was in Fordow, one would think that radioactive fallout would be an issue. Could it have been smuggled out of Iran to North Korea, China, or Russia? Could it have been moved, protected, turned into dirty bombs, to be smuggled across borders and threaten Israel, the US, and the rest of the world?

There are indications that high on Trump’s agenda will at least be a push to end the war in Gaza, maybe even some declaration about how that is happening, with Netanyahu smiling at the president’s side. Will such remarks be coordinated or a surprise?  Ending the war meaningfully however requires more than Israel’s withdrawal of its troops.  It requires the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza, and the release of the remaining 50 hostages. Talk of a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for a handful of hostages will embolden Hamas and not achieve either of these goals. It will not bring peace.

Reports that Israel has accepted such a framework and Hamas has rejected it are not surprising or new. Netanyahu will surely remind Trump that Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure can be defeated, but its ideology (and influence elsewhere) remains alive and well, and that what’s needed is a true solution for peace in Gaza. In this context, there will likely be declarations about a Gazan future free of Hamas, but will there be any other long term realistic plan proposed?

After celebrating the recent joint success in eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat, it’s hard to imagine Trump doing a 180-degree pivot, strong-arming Netanyahu (particularly as a surprise) to agree to an end of the war in Gaza without achieving the war’s goals. But it’s also hard to imagine Netanyahu not bowing to a degree of pressure by Trump, in order to maintain the relationship. Surely Netanyahu is not coming to Washington for a public dressing down as happened with Ukrainian President Zelinsky.

Would peacemaker Trump, seeking and believing that even the most intractable issues and genocidal of jihadis can be dealt with through a deal, place himself as guarantor for Hamas not having control in a restructured Gaza? How could that be enforced? Would that mean US control, even boots on the ground, as he hinted in previous statements? Might additional brazen comments be made, even if less than practical, to cajole the Arab world into a broader deal as well? 

It could be risky for Trump because Hamas is not looking for a deal, but to survive another day, to achieve its goal of annihilating Israel. Terrorism is their means, and the hostages are their currency. That won’t change. Yet such an offer, if it could even happen, could take pressure off Netanyahu at home, claiming success for bringing (some) hostages home, and buffer challenges to his premiership from within his own coalition on one hand, and from the public on the other that he has not done enough to secure the hostages’ release and end the war on the other.

Only time will tell – and it will tell it soon!

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).