Category: International Relations

THE WAR ON TRUTH

Lithuania’s Blood-Drenched Lies, Russia’s Vile Slander, and Hamas’s Murderous Deceit.

By Grant Gochin

THE COST OF LIVES AND GLOBAL COMPLICITY

Lithuania’s repulsive Holocaust revisionism has choked the screams of 220,000 murdered Jews, forcing survivors and their descendants, like me, to wage a war against a nation’s vile lies. Russia’s sickening disinformation smears Lithuania with fabricated crimes to stoke geopolitical hatred.[1] Hamas, those gutless cowards soaked in innocent blood, mirror this depraved rejection of truth seen in Nazism and Lithuania’s fraud, prolonging Gaza’s agony while Israel fights for survival on seven physical fronts – Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iran, Yemen, and Iraq – along with the eighth front of media and propaganda.[2] These monstrous deceptions—Lithuania’s erasure of Jewish slaughter, Russia’s historical perversion, and Hamas’s crocodile tears – are a shared playbook of evil: dehumanize the innocent, glorify butchers, and spit on justice.

Lithuanian Complicity. Revealing the truth and exposing the post-War denial, this photo shows a crowd of Lithuanians in Kovna, Lithuania in the immediate aftermath of a massacre at Lietukis Garage, where pro-German Lithuanian nationalists killed more than 50 Jewish men. The victims were beaten, hosed, and then murdered with iron bars. (Photo: Kovno, Lithuania, June 27, 1941).

Silence is treason. Those who amplify Hamas’s lies – sniveling UN bureaucrats, treacherous journalists, brainwashed influencer drones, vile profiteers who make their livelihood generating antisemitism, Hamas operatives masquerading as journalists, and the fake outrage machine profiting from spewing, spreading, and amplifying antisemitic venom — are as despicable as Lithuanian officials who worship murderers like Jonas Noreika or Russian propagandists who defame Lithuania. These Hamas cheerleaders, whether deliberate traitors or too stupid to see through the most insidious propaganda in history, are participants and collaborators in this eighth front, gleefully enabling genocide while masquerading as morally superior. Israel dominates seven battlefield fronts but crashes spectacularly in the media war, crippled by a pathetic failure to counter relentless lawfare and disinformation. This cowardice lets lies metastasize, fueling global complicity and trampling the memory of millions, while the relentless focus on lies about Israel consumes the world’s attention, enabling genuine genocides and human rights abuses to fester unnoticed, making those generating hate enablers of global atrocities.

Perverting Truth, Peddling Lies. In many ways, Lithuania pioneered the glorification of Nazi collaborators on a state level by perverting museums and tourist sites by honoring  the perpetrators of the mass killing of Jews in the Holocaust  as national heroes such as this memorial to Jonas Noreika on a library and the wall of national heroes in Vilnius, Lithuania. Will there soon be statues and streets in Gaza named after Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh?

Anti-Zionism is a filthy mask for antisemitism, wrapping raw hatred in sanctimonious garbage. It hands bigots a blank check to hate Jews while waving the flag of “democracy,” slandering Zionism as oppression[3]. By branding Jews as Nazis, this toxic cesspool fuels Hamas’s propaganda, echoes Lithuania’s justification of Jewish slaughter as “self-defense,” and mimics Russia’s fabricated attacks on Lithuania’s honor. Every Hamas apologist – whether a smug academic, a street-chanting useful idiot, or a profiteering hate-monger — is a traitor to humanity, propping up a genocidal cult with their vile complicity.

THE SEDUCTION OF LIES AND THE FIGHT FOR TRUTH

Young Jews who embrace anti-Zionism are a disgrace, spitting on the graves of their ancestors who fled pogroms and ovens to give them life in America. They don’t just reject their heritage — they torch it with rabid, self-loathing fury, their minds so easily twisted by Hamas’s slick propaganda that they turn on their own with fanatical conviction, betraying the very blood that runs through their veins. These spoiled brats, alive only because their forebears escaped the same antisemitic slaughter they now cheer for, will choke on regret when they realize they were pawns, manipulated by Jew-hating mobs and their own reckless stupidity. On university campuses, these deluded fools dive into a sewer of antisemitic lies, embraced by rabble who fetishize their distortions as holy truth, twisting the Holocaust into a sick justification for their hatred. Their betrayal is a knife in the back of every Jew who survived to ensure their existence.

Playbook of Evil. From the Nazi and Lithuanian playbook, Hamas did not spare mothers and kids as evidenced here of a destroyed home on kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023.

Europeans swill these lies like pigs at a trough, desperate to whitewash their grandparents’ Holocaust butchery. By pinning invented crimes on Jews, they morph their inherited guilt into a burning, self-righteous loathing, hating with a zeal that damns their own souls. This mirrors Lithuania’s vile revisionism, smearing Jews as Soviet collaborators to justify their slaughter, and Russia’s propaganda, slandering Lithuanians to serve modern agendas.

As I declared in “Lithuanian Holocaust Fraud[4]”, we are the warriors of truth. We must obliterate Lithuania’s betrayal, Russia’s manipulations, and Hamas’s deceit with unrelenting facts: Hamas’s theft of 90% of UN aid[5], their use of human shields, and their genocidal charter (Hamas Covenant, 1988). Lithuania’s lies thrive because cowards refuse to confront them; Russia’s disinformation festers by exploiting ignorance; Hamas’s propaganda surges because fools and bigots — especially those vile Hamas supporters, self-hating Jewish traitors, and antisemitic profiteers — lap it up. We must honor the victims — of the Holocaust, Russian disinformation, and October 7 — by smashing the lies that shield their killers. The Soviets, Nazis, Lithuanians, Russians, and now Hamas have mastered blaming the innocent. It’s time to strike back with truth as our blade, annihilating their narratives once and for all.

LITHUANIA’S HOLOCAUST REVISIONISM: BLUEPRINT FOR DECEIPT

History is a battlefield where truth is the first casualty. Lithuania, guilty in the slaughter of 220,000 Jews inside Lithuania[6], as well as tens of thousands of Jews in other European countries where they “virtuously”, “enthusiastically”, and voluntarily traveled in order to slaughter as many Jews wherever they could find them, has spent decades perfecting a grotesque campaign to bury its genocidal shame. As I exposed in my articles for The Times of Israel[7], Lithuania worships monsters like Jonas Noreika and Kazys Škirpa, who orchestrated Jewish massacres with bloodthirsty glee. Noreika caged Jews in ghettos like animals; Škirpa demanded their “elimination” with demonic zeal. Yet, Lithuania’s so-called Genocide and Resistance Research Centre[8] has the audacity to rebrand these butchers as national heroes, dismissing Škirpa’s genocidal calls as mere “antisemitic remarks” and Noreika’s murderous orders as harmless “letters”. This is a deliberate, state-backed middle finger to truth, calling the Lithuanians every bit as evil as Hamas, where the only difference is the IDF can prevent Hamas from being as successful as the Lithuanians.

The South African Jewish Report exposes the savagery: Lithuanians, not Nazis, spearheaded the early slaughter, with 80% of Lithuania’s Jews butchered by local “self-defense” units and police battalions before Hitler’s “Final Solution” kicked into gear. Ordinary Lithuanians joined the carnage, driven by greed, hatred, or sick thrills, raping, looting, and murdering with abandon, replicating and exceeding the pogroms of Europe, and serving as a model for Hamas on October 7, 2023. Yet, the government smears Jews as Soviet collaborators, claiming their slaughter was “national self-defense,” spitting on condemnation from Yad Vashem and historians worldwide. Killing fields are whitewashed, ghettos erased, and survivors’ descendants, like me, are silenced[9] in our relentless fight to rip the truth from this web of lies.

HAMAS PROPAGANDA: ECHOES OF LITHUANIAN LIES

Hamas, those spineless terrorists who revel in the October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of hundreds, have replicated Lithuania’s filthy playbook and wielded it with diabolical precision. Like Lithuania, they commit atrocities, then twist reality to paint their victims as villains. Their media war — the “eighth front” in their genocidal crusade — is a festering swamp of fake “genocide” claims and staged sob stories. They steal 90% of UN aid, starve their own people, and pin the blame on Israel. They rig civilian homes with traps, use children as shields, and shriek about Israeli airstrikes when their own bombs detonate[10] This mirrors Lithuania’s erasure of Jewish blood and Russia’s lies accusing Lithuanians of historical crimes to justify modern aggression. Those calling for “Death to the IDF” are vilely proposing that Hamas be as successful as the Lithuanians in their genocidal slaughter.

Hamas’s strategy thrives on a fanatical rejection of truth, amplified by social media, Islamist and radical leftist groups, and deluded Jewish turncoats who betray the very ancestors who fled persecution to give them life. Their supporters — whether chanting in streets, posting sanctimonious drivel online, or profiting from antisemitic bile — are contemptible enablers of genocide, their moral posturing a sick joke. Just as Lithuania justifies Jewish murders as “self-defense,” Hamas cloaks its genocidal intent in cries of “resistance,” manipulating global opinion to dodge accountability.

A SHARED PAYBOOK: DEHUMANIZATION AND DISINFORMATION

Lithuania, Russia, and Hamas are united in their obscene erasure of truth, wielding a shared playbook of lies. Tribune Magazine[11] exposes Lithuania’s neglect of Jewish ghettos, repurposing them to obliterate history, just as Hamas blames Israel for destruction caused by its own rockets. Russia’s propaganda smears Lithuanians as aggressors, echoing Lithuania’s lies about Jewish “collaboration” and Hamas’s false claims of Israeli “starvation policies” while hoarding aid. This is no accident — Hamas has mastered Lithuania’s art of dodging accountability, using it to wage a media war against Israel, just as Russia twists narratives to isolate Lithuania geopolitically. The only way to prevent future atrocities is a ruthless dedication to truth, as those who peddle, facilitate, and amplify lies are actively laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s horrors.

‘Digesting’ the Truth. Armed Hamas operatives that spread false claims about a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza are caught on camera looting an aid truck denying vital  aid for their fellow  Palestinians in Gaza. (Image: X/IDF)

CONCLUSION

Rise up, you guardians of truth, and unleash your fury against the liars who desecrate the memory of millions! Every one of you – scholars, activists, survivors, or ordinary souls—must become a relentless warrior in this fight. Share the evidence, shout it from every platform, and confront the cowards — whether self-hating Jewish traitors, antisemitic profiteers, or Hamas’s sanctimonious enablers — who fuel this global betrayal. The victims of the Holocaust, October 7, and every erased truth demand your voice. Stand firm, wield the truth like a hammer, and crush the narratives of these monstrous deceivers before their lies pave the way for more atrocities. Act now, or be complicit in the next genocide!



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/




[1] https://www.fpri.org/article/2024/10/contesting-russia-the-baltic-perspective/

[2] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/israel-law-review/article/hamas-october-7th-genocide-legal-analysis-and-the-weaponisation-of-reverse-accusations-a-study-in-modern-genocide-recognition-and-denial/322198E636341BE82F37ED7147FEB0F5?sfnsn=wa

[3] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/21st_century/hamas.asp

[4] https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/lithuanian-holocaust-fraud/

[5] https://nypost.com/2025/08/05/world-news/90-of-un-aid-trucks-in-gaza-were-looted-by-armed-militants-or-hungry-palestinians-before-reaching-their-destination-report/

[6] https://www.sajr.co.za/historical-accounts-show-lithuanian-responsibility-for-mass-murder/

[7] https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/grant-arthur-gochin/

[8] https://www.genocid.lt/centras/en/

[9] https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/criminal-trash-and-enemy-of-the-state/

[10] https://new.embassies.gov.il/nepal/en/news/false-narratives-and-fabricated-images-coordinated-fake-hamas-campaign-against-israel-31072025

[11] https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/airbrushing-the-ghettoes







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 FROM THE INSIDE

Succumbing to Hamas propaganda, South Africa’s government is part of an immoral minority on the wrong side of history

By Derek Arnolds

(recently retired senior intelligence analyst in South Africa’s Secret Service)

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7th, 2023, South Africa has emerged as the most vitriolic opponent of Israel over the latter’s military actions in Gaza. This article posits that Hamas’s propaganda war has fundamentally shaped South Africa’s policy vis-à-vis Israel. Employing discourse and deconstruction techniques, it unpacks the motivations for this negative trajectory trend. Despite a less-than-sanguine prognosis in resetting Israel-South Africa bilateral relations, renewed hope is possible if the South African government withdraws the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel in The Hague.

Dressed to Kill. The war between Israel and Hamas has exposed deep divisions in South Africa, with the government’s one-sided support for the terrorist group as reflected by President Ramaphosa and his ANC collogues  attired in Palestinian headscarf’s and colours.
 

Pretoria, then under the leadership of Hamas’ acolyte, the rapacious and morally bankrupt African National Congress (ANC), took the Kafkaesque step to charge the only Jewish state with genocide in the ICJ. Apart from the genocide case being meritless, it is the timing that reveals the extent of Hamas’ influence on South Africa’s foreign policy viz-a-viz Israel. Shortly after Hamas’ genocidal attacks on Israeli border communities, the South African government, under the direction of Naledi Pandor, former minister of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), used various platforms to issue the vilest statements against the Israeli government for purported “genocidal actions”, while providing moral succour to Hamas leaders such as the late Ismail Haniyeh. Pandor initially denied engaging with Hamas leaders, only to admit it later. Most disturbingly, Pandor and the ANC leadership failed to immediately condemn the perpetrator of the October 7th massacre despite Israel exercising its right to self-defence according to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

Pandor pandering to Terrorists. Ten days after Hamas launched its deadly attack resulting in a massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, did not call Israel’s leaders to offer condolences for the mass killings but phoned instead the leader of Hamas to offer support.

South Africa’s cabinet then took the reckless decision to close its embassy in Tel Aviv, disrespecting officials of the Israeli embassy in Pretoria, which prompted Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recall Ambassador Eliav Belotserkovsky, and laid a genocide case against the Jewish state just a few months after October 7. This is not isolated and fits a familiar pattern:

Hamas and its principal patron, Iran, have gradually captured South Africa’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Hamas and Iran have done this through disinformation campaigns, messaging, imagery, symbols, and media narratives, thereby controlling the narrative ecosystem in South Africa. This predates October 7.  Pandor’s successor, Ronald Lamola and the puerile Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, minister in the presidency, continue to spew anti-Israel venom to the delight of Hamas and Iran supporters in South Africa.

South Africa’s AND government support for Hamas goes back in time as seen here of Hamas officials, Khaled Mashaal (left) and Moussa Abu-Marzouk (right) at a press conference with officials of South Africa’s ANC party, in Pretoria on Monday, October 19, 2015 (screen capture: YouTube)

It is abundantly clear why Israel views the South African government as the most antisemitic following the genocide case. Since the war, South Africa has intensified its hackneyed broadside against Israel in international forums. This also resonates in statements, speech acts and policy positions of the South African government. The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, were influenced by South Africa’s hostile anti-Israel policy. Subsequent threats by Israel’s staunchest allies, France, Canada and the United Kingdom, to recognise a Palestinian state in September 2025 if no solution to the Gaza war is found, are a corollary of South Africa’s extremist anti-Israel policy. The timing of the genocide case warrants special scrutiny. The threshold for proving genocide is high, yet it took South Africa’s legal team less than four months to present its initial charge in The Hague. A case not in South Africa’s national interest, Israel’s allies in South Africa’s coalition government should pose the following necessitating an appropriate reply:

– When, where, and why was the egregious decision taken to charge Israel with genocide?

– Was it a coterie of ministers or a whole cabinet that deliberated on the matter? If so, was it a closed meeting? If it were not a closed meeting, then the minutes of that meeting should be made available to the South African public as per Section 32 of the South African Constitution, which guarantees the right of access to information. This is apposite since, in terms of the law of armed conflict, Israel has taken reasonable steps to prevent genocide during the initial stages of the conflict. The genocide case does not advance peace between Israel and Palestine, and only emboldens Israel’s enemies, like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Houthis and the homicidal Iranian regime.

Hamas at home in South Africa. Chief of Hamas Politburo, Khaled Mashaal addressing the media following bilateral meeting with ANC leadership in South Africa in 2015.

While historically, Hamas maintained close ties with the ANC under the pretext of being fraternal liberation movements, Hamas is not a liberation movement but an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood hellbent on obliterating the State of Israel. Although Hamas’s military capabilities and senior leadership have  been eliminated, it remains intact relying on – as Netanel Flamer masterfully explains in his new book, The Hamas Intelligence War Against Israel – geospatial, human, open-source, signals intelligence and cyber warfare against Israel. This was laid bare on October 7th.

Another dimension  – although not addressed by Flamer –  is Hamas’ influence on countries like Algeria, South Africa, Qatar and Türkiye. It is known that Hamas has ‘declared’ and ‘undeclared’ officials abroad, who promote the organisation’s extremist ideology as defender of the Palestinian resistance. According to open-source information, the movement has no official representation in South Africa. However, since October 7th, ANC officials and senior government members have openly met with senior Hamas leaders. In addition, Hamas’ propaganda war against Israel has emboldened extremism in some circles in South Africa. On a casual drive through some of Cape Town’s Muslim suburbs, one would be astounded by the sheer number of mosques festooned in the colours of the Palestinian flag as well as the flags of terrorist organisations –  Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Pro-Palestine groups like Africa4Palestine have been leading the campaign to delegitimise the Jewish state, impose sanctions and prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).   Social media is abuzz with imams glorifying the October 7th attacks, and one useful idiot even uttering:

 “We are all Hamas”.

‘Gunning’ for Jews. Jewish-owned businesses are being targeted by BDS SA for purported links to the Israeli government and the IDF such as this branch in Cape Town of Cape Union Mart, an outdoor gear retail chain founded in 1933.

Jewish-owned businesses are being targeted for purported links to the Israeli government and the IDF. Hamas’s messaging is clear: Most Jewish-owned companies aid and abet the “genocide” in Gaza. This is a fallacy since South African Jews are part of our society and have made a remarkable contribution to the Republic. It has always been recognised in South Africa that Israel, as the ancestral home of the Jewish people, is central to Jewish identity. However, useful idiots under the direction of Hamas and Iran have turned the Israel-Palestine conflict, which is a political conflict over territories, into a religious conflict. Scornful terms, notably, “apartheid”, “baby killers”, “occupiers”, “war criminals” and “genocidaires” are bandied about and have been normalized resulting in the “New Antisemitism”. Despite several countries taking steps to designate Hamas as a terrorist organisation, the movement nevertheless enjoys strong support in South Africa. This threatens South Africa’s Jewish community as well as the country’s national security. Recent findings by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering watchdog, reveal that South Africa is a central regional hub for terror financing. It should be noted that South Africa remains on the FATF grey list pending progress in compliance. However, the relevant South African authorities have been ineffective in combating this scourge. It behooves law enforcement and the civilian intelligence agencies to monitor suspected Hamas financiers, institutions and their modus operandi.  More importantly, the State Security Agency, a once rarefied institution, turned into a Potemkin agency by the feckless Ntshavheni, who is also responsible for state security, should immediately investigate if there are links between DIRCO officials and Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood members in South Africa and abroad. In this context, the South African government often deploys ANC loyalists and demagogues to key postings, instead of career diplomats. In April 2017, Ambassador Ashraf Suleiman, then South Africa’s head of the Ramallah Liaison Office, met Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders in Gaza. The meeting took place in the same year that the ANC passed a resolution to downgrade the South African embassy in Tel Aviv to a liaison office. Suleiman’s meeting with Hamas terrorists drew condemnation from Jerusalem. The liaison office’s riposte was that the mission is mandated to meet with all Palestinian political entities. The same ambassador is now serving as South Africa’s Head of Diplomatic Mission in Syria, which is governed by génocidaires and terrorists. South Africa’s ambassador Ebrahim Rasool’s expulsion in March 2025 from Washington, DC, was hardly surprising when, over and above his public antipathy towards Israel, it was revealed that Rasool had expressed during a webinar that Trump was “mobilising a supremacism” and trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle” as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US. Hardly an astute choice of words for a prospective diplomat to Washinton, DC!

Talking Heads. Former South African President, Jacob Zuma  (left) engages in conversation with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.  (Photo: Reuters/S.Sibeko)

It is palpable that Hamas is ascendant in the information operations domain, as antisemitism across the globe has increased dramatically, as evidenced by the magnitude of violent attacks against Jews. The South African government is now part of an immoral minority on the wrong side of history. It chose to pursue a case that elicited opprobrium from the American administration, its second-largest trading partner. This is the unintended consequence of siding with extremist entities such as Hamas and Iran. The best South Africa can do to extricate itself from an unfavourable situation – both morally and financially – is to withdraw its genocide case against Israel which is anyway grounded on fallacious reasoning. In the main, most South Africans have an affinity for Israel, and let it be known that the ANC’s position on Israel does not represent all South Africans. It is a position that reeks of “ideological necrophilia” – blind fixation with dead ideas. In a related vein, the media landscape is seemingly dominated by leftists or liberals who have abandoned classical liberalism to direct hateful scorn against the Jewish state. Contrarian or alternative perspectives are deemed as Zionist and pro-Israel.  A Derridean approach of recent analyses by so-called pundits fits this pattern.  On August 4th, 2025, Ziad Motala, professor of law at Howard University in the United States, penned an article in the Sunday Independent, titled “Propaganda masquerading as strategic realism”, wherein he took broadsides against the Sunday Times, a venerable South African newspaper. The central plank of Motala’s thesis is that the Sunday Times’s editorial integrity and journalistic objectivity had been compromised through its overt support for Israel and America and the Sunday Times had always welcomed diverse opinions. Motala further took umbrage at the newspaper’s journalists, who have advocated for improved bilateral relations between Israel and South Africa. Scornfully, Motala highlights a recent trip to Israel – sponsored by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) – by one of the newspaper’s staffers. The newspaper initially did not disclose the fact that the SAJBD sponsored its staffer’s trip; it later acknowledged the omission. Motala remained unforgiving and insisted that the paper’s editorial integrity had been captured by pro-Israel and pro-American apologists. What Motala failed to mention was that the SAJBD paid for the staffer’s trip to observe the objective reality on the ground, without fear of favour. Liberals who share Motala’s perspective have forsaken classical liberalism.

Situation at Knife’s Edge. Addressing a rally in Hamas’ honor in Cape Town, South Africa in 2015, Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal told a crowd of several hundred supporters waving Hamas’s white-and-green flags that the wave of knife attacks against Israelis would continue “until freedom is achieved and the land is for Palestine ….” (Photo: AFP/Rodger Bosch)

The renowned American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, deftly defends classical liberalism, based on limited government, the rule of law, and individual rights, and criticizes those on the political right and left that have pushed its core tenets to the extreme. In essence, the crisis of liberalism is not a failure of the classic variant, but rather the tolerance of authoritarianism, ethno-nationalism, extremism and bigotry under the guise of liberalism.  

At the time of writing, Israel is about to launch a major offensive on Gaza City  to eliminate any vestige of Hamas, ensure a steady supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans, and allow the enclave to be rebuilt and governed by a non-Hamas entity. Despite the entreaties of its sponsors, Hamas refuses to disarm and leave the Strip. As Hamas will eventually be eliminated in Gaza, it still poses threats abroad. Qatar and Türkiye continue to host Hamas leaders, who, by extension, were complicit in the October 7th attacks on Israel. These leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, Bassem Naim, Mousa Abu Marzouk and Khalil al-Hayya, should be brought to justice as designated terrorists. South Africa should take a noble step to designate Hamas and its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, as terrorist organisations. Several countries, like Switzerland and Britain, have banned Hamas activities in their territories. While Hamas’s military capabilities have been degraded, it is almost a Sisyphean task to destroy its extremist ideology, which permeates the globe. Therefore, its activities in South Africa should be closely monitored.

Israel should not abandon South Africa, as the country cannot be blamed for a venal ANC that is on life support and afflicted with political atrophy. Despite strained diplomatic relations, South Africa remains Israel’s largest trading partner in Africa.  Thus, Israel must intensify a sustainedstrategic communications campaignto counter Hamas and Iran’s grey zone operations in South Africa and beyond. David Saranga, Israel’s special envoy and seasoned diplomat, recently undertook an outreach and fact-finding mission to South Africa to open a dialogue channel between the two countries. This Israeli initiative is commendable, yet the biggest obstacle is the ICJ genocide case. The Israeli government can rest assured that it has allies in South Africa’s coalition government, who should exert pressure on the ANC, which initiated the ICJ case, to withdraw the lawsuit. Article 88 of the Rules of the ICJ makes provision for parties to withdraw a case “either by jointly notifying the Court of their agreement to discontinue the proceedings or by the applicant state informing the court that it no longer wishes to pursue the case”. The said Court may then direct that the case be removed from the list. Continued lawfare against Israel militates against dialogue between Israel and Palestine, is costly to the South African taxpayer, and only advances the extremist ideologies of Hamas and Iran.



About the writer:

Derek Arnolds is a freelance writer and corporate intelligence specialist. Educated at the universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, he previously held a teaching position in strategic studies at the South African Military Academy. He later served as a senior intelligence analyst for Africa and the Middle East in the South African Secret Service (later the State Security Agency: Foreign Branch). He retired from the Agency in May 2025.

Disclaimer: Although I previously served in the South African defence department and intelligence services, the opinions expressed in this article reflect my independent, open-source research. They are not intended, in any way, to reflect the views of the South African government.







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).

WHEN STATEHOOD  = A STATE FOR HOODS

Why reward a terrorist leadership holding Israeli hostages  rotting on the verge of death?

By Jonathan Feldstein

French President Emanuel Macron must be feeling particularly good seeing nations of the world following one of his country’s most honored traditions:

SURRENDER

Macron announced that he intended to recognize “Palestine” at the U.N. General Assembly next month. Immediately following Macron were British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Several other countries have indicated their inclination to do so as well.

The Macron, Starmer, and Carney ideological surrender is akin to recognizing Nazi controlled Vichy France. Mon Dieu! It not only does not bring peace any closer but, it hardens the position of the terrorists and emboldens and rewards their aggression.  That has been clear as Hamas has continued to entrench its intransigence any time serious talks of a cease fire and hostage release get close.

Terror Pays. No consideration that he is messagining that terrorism against Jews pays dividends.

MIXED MESSAGING

There is something else critical to “recognize” in the announcement of the intent to recognize Palestine. Among other things, Starmer made clear threats to Israel  that he would follow through to recognize Palestine if Israel:

 “…takes substantial steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire, and commit to a long-term sustainable peace, renewing the prospect of a two-state solution.”

Then there is Starmer’s message to Hamas that remains “unchanged and equivocal” in that Hamas “must immediately release all of the hostages, sign up to a cease fire, disarm, and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza.”

While the British PM’s threats to Israel are crystal clear, his “messages” to Hamas – while not vague – are meaningless.  Hamas will not run to London, the U.N., or anywhere else to lay down their arms, nor will it ever release the hostages without maximum pressure. Does Starmer’s conditional recognition of “Palestine” also require Hamas to disarm and release the hostages?  Do they need to post on their social media “In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful we will not play a part of the government of Gaza?”

Conditional Surrender. Unless Israel fufills certain conditions regarding Gaza within a stipulated time frame, the UK will reward the killers and hostage takers.

British-Israeli former hostage Emily Damari, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and released after 471 days in captivity Gaza, used her own social media to condemn Starmer’s announcement:

 “I am deeply saddened by Prime Minister Starmer’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood. This move does not advance peace — it risks rewarding terror. It sends a dangerous message: that violence earns legitimacy.”

In another post, Damari wrote:

“Prime Minister Starmer is not standing on the right side of history. Had he been in power during World War II, would he have advocated recognition for Nazi control of occupied countries like Holland, France or Poland? This is not diplomacy — it is a moral failure. Shame on you, Prime Minister!!!!!!!”

Reminding the meaning of V. British-Israeli Emily Damari who was held hostage by Hamas for more than a year and who lost two fingers in the attack on October 7, 2023,  said that Sir Keir Starmer is “not standing on the right side of history” after his conditional pledge to recognise Palestine as a state. “Had he been in power during World War II, would he have advocated recognition for Nazi control of occupied countries like Holland, France or Poland?”

In announcing his country’s intent to recognize “Palestine”, Canadian Prime Minister Carney also made this conditional.  He said it is:

“…predicated on the Palestinian Authority commitment to much needed reform including… to hold elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.”

He added that:

 “Hamas must immediately release all hostages taken in their terrorist attack of October 7…. must disarm… and play no role in the future governance of Palestine.”

His language is troubling on many levels, but the premise is absurd. What if, in his Never-Never Land of diplomacy, the Palestinian Authority did hold elections, and what if a rebranded Hamas were to win?  What if the PLO were to win, and then be summarily ousted in a coup in 2027 with Hamas in control of “Palestine”?  Would “Palestine” be required to meet Carney’s standards or risk Canada withdrawing its recognition?

If any of these leaders were really sincere about recognizing “Palestine”, they would just do so and not need to announce their intentions to do so, or with all these unachievable conditions.

If I were a Palestinian Arab believing in the right to live in an independent “State of Palestine”, I would take offence to the provisional nature of recognizing what I would believe as the occupation of my country. Those who advocate the purported right of Palestinian Arabs to have an independent state should be up in arms (pun intended) that their “rights” are conditional.

What is interesting in the context of this war against Hamas now entering its 22nd month since the October 7, 2023 massacre, is the broad consensus across the Israeli political spectrum, against the Macron, Starmer, Carney bulldozing for Palestinian statehood amidst the unresolved hostages crisis. While there may be differences on the conduct of the war and priorities or imperative to get the remaining 50 hostages released, there is uniformity in their condemnation of this intended move.

Multiple voices throughout Israel, not just the government and not just on the right, have voiced their outrage, even harsh denunciation of such a declaration at this point in time.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum is not an echo chamber for the Israeli government, and has largely been more critical of the government and its policies related to the hostages. But on this, there is widespread agreement. “Recognition of a Palestinian state while Hamas holds 50 hostages isn’t just a step away from peace, it is a blatant violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political violation that bestows legitimacy to horrifying war crimes.”

“The international community — if it wants peace — must join the efforts of the US and demand, before all else, the release of the hostages and then the end of the fighting.” The Forum represents most of the hostages’ families, and advocates a deal with Hamas to return all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the release of Palestinian Arab terrorists.

“Abducting men, women, children and babies, and holding them in tunnels against their will, amid starvation and physical and mental abuse, cannot — must not — be the grounds for establishing a state,” they added.

“The recognition of a Palestinian state before the return of the hostages will forever be remembered as a shameful, antisemitic step that renders terror acceptable as a legitimate means of achieving political goals.”

Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, enables terrorism and deprives Israel of leverage amid efforts to secure the hostages’ release. It also goes against the terms of the Oslo Accords to which France, the UK, and Canada all subscribed, requiring actual negotiations and not unilateral actions by all parties. These and other countries recognition of “Palestine” will not only not bring peace closer; it will harden the position of the terrorists and prolong the war.



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).

FALSE NEWS,DOUBLE STANDARDS AND APPEASEMENT

The new world order that threatens Western culture and civilization.

By Neville Berman

In 1982, in response to attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanon, Israel launched a military campaign against the PLO in Lebanon. Within days Yasser Arafat, the head of the PLO, announced that Israel had killed 20,000 people in Lebanon.  Newspapers throughout the world led with the headline ” Israel kills 20,000 in Lebanon.” The world was outraged. A few days later, a reporter from an international news agency arrived in Lebanon and asked to be taken to see the bodies or graves of the 20,000 people who had been killed. He discovered less than 300 people were actually killed. Not a single newspaper published an apology on their front page. The few apologies that were published were buried deep inside the publication. Fake news was seen to be very profitable. What everyone remembers is that Israel killed 20,000 people in Lebanon. I mention this as the phenomenon of reporting without any verification of the accuracy of the report has become widespread.

Every reporter in Gaza understands that he needs to report what Hamas wants him to report. Reports published by a reporter that are not approved by Hamas, are usually the last report of that reporter from Gaza. The fear of losing access to breaking news that millions of people want to see and read about in Gaza, results in zero verification of facts before publication. An excellent example was the report by the Gaza Health Ministry in October 2023, that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza and had killed 500 civilians. Every newspaper and TV channel in the world immediately headlined the report. No one thought of checking if the story was factual. What actually happened was that a rocket fired from Gaza at Israel, misfired and landed in the Al Ahli parking lot of the hospital and killed less than 50 people. Israel did not fire the rocket, the hospital was not bombed, and 500 people were not killed. The story that was carried by every news agency was completely false.  

Self-Inflicted Harm. The explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023, which was immediately blamed on Israel and led to instant protests across the Middle East as well as the cancellation of a summit between President Biden and Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders and led to a spike in viral disinformation was found to be a misfire from within Gaza from a local Palestinian rocket-propelled munition, most likely Hamas.

Hamas has tried every conceivable way to convince the world that they are victims and need to be supported. They first maintained that Israel had placed a blockade on Gaza. This must have been the worst blockade in human history. The southern border of Gaza is with Egypt. Thousands of tons of concrete used for building hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, and thousands of missiles that were fired at Israel, all came directly from Egypt into Gaza. In addition, Israel supplied food, water, electricity and fuel to Gaza. Hundreds of people from Gaza came to work daily in Israel. Obviously, there was no blockade.  

The “Gaza Metro”. To the accusation that has found traction globally that Israel has imposed on Gaza a “blockade”, how did Hamas manage to bring in so much material to build hundreds of kilometers of underground terror tunnels that runs throughout the Gaza Strip towards Egypt and Israel?  It must have been the worst blockade in human history!

They then claimed that Israel was an apartheid state. Every citizen in Israel over the age of 18 has the right to vote regardless of sex, race or religious beliefs. Arab citizens are elected into the Israeli parliament known as the Knesset. Arab citizens use the same hospitals, the same maternity wards, the same beaches, attend the same universities, and have senior positions within the bureaucracy of Israel. Clearly, Israel is not an apartheid state.

They then claimed that Israel was a colonial state. The truth is that Jews have lived in the Middle East for over 3,000 years and Israel is the ancestral home of the Jewish people. The First and Second Jewish Temples were built in Jerusalem. To claim that Jews are colonialists is a total fabrication. 

They then claimed that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. The Palestinian population in Israel has grown annually for decades. If Israel was committing genocide, then the Palestinian population would be decreasing and not increasing. It does not take a genius to understand that Israel is not committing genocide.     

The Genocide Libel. Palestinians on a Gaza beach in 2006. The accusation that Israel’s longstanding policy for Gaza has been one of “genocide” hardly gels with the statistics that Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 1.99% (2023 est.), the 39th-highest in the world. Normally genocide leads to a dramatic decrease in population yet the Palestinian population of Gaza (estimated as at 2023 at 2.1 million) is relatively young when compared globally and more than half are 19 years or younger.
 

Hamas is now claiming that Israel is causing starvation in Gaza. The truth is that hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza are stolen at gunpoint by Hamas. The aim of Hamas, not Israel, is to starve the children of Gaza in order to get the world to accuse Israel of starvation. To prove that starvation is taking place, pictures of malnourished and emaciated children in Gaza are distributed by reporters from Gaza and published worldwide. The New York Times, like most newspapers, recently featured a large picture of a starving child on its front page. The United Nations immediately reported that it was outraged at the monstrous starvation that Israel was causing in Gaza. The condemnations of Israel became a torrent of threats even by friends of Israel. A few days later The New York Times issued an apology. The medical records of the child had been found and proved that the child was suffering from a debilitating genetic problem from birth, and that his malnourished appearance had nothing to do with lack of food.  A check of the original picture shows both the mother and the brother of the starving child looking completely healthy. False news has become an industry that is spreading hatred around the world.

There is no doubt that news stating or implying that Israel is committing crimes against humanity and genocide is what the majority of the 2.4 billion Christians and 2 billion Muslims want to read about, hear about on social media, and see on their TV screens. It is a 24 /7 onslaught against Israel perpetrated by the vast majority of the news media of the world. It is a hate campaign based on 2,000 years of Christian blood libels against Jews, and an Islamist view of Muslim domination of the world. Whether the news is true or false is of absolutely no concern. Israel is guilty, no matter what Israel does.

European appeasement is back in vogue. Appeasement has proven to be a disaster in the past and it is worthwhile to carefully contemplate its implications for the future. Let’s look at what Khaled Mashal, one of the leaders of Hamas stated:

 “The (Palestinian) state will come about from resistance not negotiation. Liberation first, then statehood. Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concessions on any inch of land. We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation, and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel. We will free Jerusalem inch by inch, stone by stone, Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem. ”

Clear Message. Khaled Mashal , the former chief of Hamas’s political bureau and current leader of Hamas’s diaspora office expresses it clearly: “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concessions on any inch of land.”

I suggest that the European leaders who are now calling for the recognition of a Palestinian State, carefully read the above statement and reconsider what they are contemplating. The genocidal policies that both Hamas and the PLO openly call for in their respective Charters is available for anyone to read in English. All you need to do is google Hamas Charter or PLO Charter to read exactly what the Palestinians want. They are not interested in a two-state solution at all. What they want is one Palestinian State from the river to the sea in place of Israel. That is why they have rejected every offer of a Palestinian State living side by side with Israel. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al -Husseini stated that even if Israel is the size of a postage stamp, the Arabs will reject it. Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, has stated that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in the State of Palestine. You cannot appease this kind of thinking. It is a fool’s errand.

Supporting a Palestinian State will inevitably have unintended consequences.  Voting in order to appease the growing Muslim population in the West, could end up being a one-way street leading to the obituary of Western culture and civilization in the very countries that are now announcing their support of a Palestinian State.

One should be very careful what you wish for.



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).

EUROPE AND THE PALESTINIAN LITMUS TEST

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. 

Presidential Predicament. Without agreement or defined borders, what precisely is the French President recognising beyond ‘recognising’ mounting Muslim pressure within his own country?

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. 

Fact not Fiction. From the Mufti of Jerusalem, Yasser Arafat, Saeb Erekat and Mahmoud Abbas, the consistent and enduring Palestinian rejection of any and all peace initiatives with Israel, calls into question the commitment of the Palestinian leadership to a peace deal that accommodates any Jewish sovereignty in this region. (Images via Wikimedia)

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

Talk to the Trees. Several times, from 1936 to the 21st century, Arab and Palestinian leaders were offered a state of their own in which to live side by side with their Jewish neighbors but repeatedly declined.  

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.    

Seeking Solution or Dissolution? Why are European leaders more keen than Palestinian leaders for a Palestinian state as part of a Two-State solution’?

 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.

True Intentions. Hardly pushing for a Two-State solution when at every anti-Israel protest, the dominant sign is “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” that translates into the erasure of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state – not alongside – but instead of.

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).

FALSE FIXATION

South Africa’s hateful obsession against Israel, reflects its failure to address monumental problems at home.

By Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe

September, a month synonymous with renewal and new beginnings, will be the most challenging period in South Africa’s political and economic landscape due to actions likely to be taken by the US against the country. The first is the end of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is set to expire in September. However, the new 30% tariffs introduced by the US for SA will likely override the existing AGOA conventions when they take effect at the beginning of August 2025. The second biggest conundrum will be the possibility of the US Senate’s decision on the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025.

Rand on the Run. Already a vulnerable currency, South African rand falls before looming US tariffs. Nevertheless, South Africa continues to antagonize the US with its anti-Western policies.(Photo: Reuters /Mike Hutchings)

The ground is fertile in the US to act against the South African government, which is believed to have acted against the US’s national interests. The US has been very critical of South Africa’s foreign policy stance, which, on many occasions, went against the American national interests. This has been evident in their divergent voting patterns on various United Nations (UN) platforms, where South Africa and the US have often taken opposing positions. The relations between the US – SA did not break during the Trump administration, and Joe Biden also raised similar concerns about South Africa.

The ANC should be told, “You made your bed, now lie in it.” They have chosen to strengthen their alliances with the geopolitical rivals to the West at the expense of decades of working partnerships with the Western powers. It was very shortsighted of the ANC to believe that there would not be actions or reactions from the side of the US on how it is being undermined by Africa’s powerful regional bloc.

The escalating tensions between the US and South Africa took an uphill path in 2022 when South Africa was alleged by the US to have loaded the Lady R with armaments that would be used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The South African government dismissed this allegation. In 2023, in the aftermath of Israeli attacks by Hamas on the 7th October 2023, we saw South Africa continuing with its support for Hamas, a designated terror organisation by countries such as the US and European Union (EU) countries. Dr. Naledi Pandor kicked off a diplomatic storm when she admitted that she had a telephonic conversation  – offering support – with the same Hamas that invaded Israel and massacred more than 1200 innocent civilians as well as kidnapping more than 250 people, some still held under the tunnels in Gaza to date.

Closer to Home. While this 2024 photo of angry South Africans taken outside a courthouse in Soweto crying over the horrendous murders of women and children, the government prefers to allocate its scarce resources to issues it knows little about outside the country – notably the war in Gaza.(Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Just when we thought that the ANC would tone down its anti-US messaging, it dragged Israel into the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ). Their legal basis was that Israel was committing genocidal acts in Gaza. While this act by the South African government would be seen as heroic by some, others criticised the move because it failed to deliver a viable solution to the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict. It is possible that the ANC’s thinking at the time was to maximise its electoral fortunes, which drastically dropped to below 50%. Their energy on the issue is draining because it is not yielding them the political capital they had planned.

“Do More” but Does Less. In 2024, while the ANC government focused its attention against Israel neglecting the interests of its own people,  the people responded at the polling booths denying the ruling party a first-time outright majority for the first time since winning in the first post-apartheid elections 30 years earlier.

If indeed South Africa was genuine about fighting for the rights of the vulnerable people around the world, they could have started with their own population, wherein 14 million people are living in dire poverty, not knowing what they would eat the next day and where so much of the youth are dangerously unemployed. The youth unemployment rate in South Africa –  which measures job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old – climbed to 62.4% in the first quarter of 2025, the highest level since the first quarter in 2022 up from 59.6% in the previous period. 

Devious Diversions. South Africa’s government prefer to have photos on their TV screens of hungry children in Gaza in the midst of a war with Israel then the visuals of their own children starving to death.
 

Furthermore, if South Africa’s corrupt and inept leadership  directs its attention to deaths in wars abroad, what about those dying a violent death AT HOME every day. Between January and March 2025, 5,727 people were murdered, an average of 62 per day. Some 6 985 attempted murders were recorded amounting to 75 per day. These staggering figures are unmatched throughout the world – a record we should be ashamed of!

The South Africa obsession with Gaza is a mere diversion of its failures to address pressing issues at home.



*Feature Picture: The ANC government is failing  to address the poverty across Southy Africa preferring to divert public attention to problems outside the country.



About the writer:

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






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

WHEN DOES LACK OF FOOD MORPH INTO LACK OF TRUTH

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.

It’s Not Gaza, Stupid! Any media covering this? No, its none stop covering a food crisis in Gaza caused by its elected rulers – Hamas!

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.

No Interest, Not Gaza. While Yemen fires ballistic missile at Israel, the world ignores that the rate of child malnutrition in Yemen is one of the highest in the world with 75% of Yemeni children suffering from acute malnutrition. In Yemen’s Al Sadaqah hospital, four-year old malnourished Abdo is comforted by his uncle (above) before passing away days later. (Photo: UNOCHA/Giles Clark)

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.

Who Cares? When its Africa and not Gaza in order to blame the Jews, it’s not news!

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).

SMALL IN SIZE HUGE IN HEART –  THE DRUZE COMMUNITY

A world indifferent, Israelis understand why the Druze in need have to be supported by Israel in deed.

By David E. Kaplan

Last week I received a call in Israel from my cousin in Australia opening with:

 “What’s going on; you guys are now invading Syria; attacking Damascus?”

When I started explaining by mentioning Israel coming to the rescue of “the Druze,” I was interrupted by:

 “Yes, I heard mention on our news something about the Druze….Who are they? Never heard of them! What religion are they? Where did they suddenly spring from?”

With well over a 1000-year history, they did not exactly  ‘suddenly spring’ out of nowhere. They were a proud people with their own unique religion long before there was an England, a France, a Germany or new kid-on-the-block – Australia. A community of 150,000 with elements of all three religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – the Druze in Israel are an enriching and warm people embedded in this ancient land as its timeless rock. Mainly because of its paucity in number and concentrated largely in northern Israel, not too much is known about this special and endearing people.

Community facing Catastrophe. Israeli Druze approach the Israeli-Syrian border fence to protest in solidarity with their vulnerable community in Syria, July 16, 2025. (Photo: Michael Giladi/ FLASH90).

BONDED IN BLOOD

It was clear from my conversation with my cousin, there was paltry reportage in Australia  – as there was across the world – about the existential threat to Syrian Druze following a massacre of its people, their relationship with Israel’s Druze community or who the Druze are.

Israel’s Druze leader Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif  was frank to the press:

“… These are beasts… They talked about a ceasefire and then continued the massacre, the cleansing, going from house to house. … They raped a five-year-old girl, they entered a holy place where women were hiding to avoid being harmed, and they burned them alive. They killed, beheaded, it was pure cleansing. This is only because they are Druze…”

Identifying with what the Jews in southern Israel experienced, Tarif continued:

“We’ve seen this movie with Hamas, they are the same people, let’s not get confused. They didn’t let ambulances pass; the bodies were in the streets.”

For Majd Al-Shaer, a 21-year-old Druze man, “This is not a conflict anymore, this is extermination,”  he told the Indian news network NDTV. “They are humiliating our elderly, killing our women and children. This is a campaign to wipe us out. An ethnic cleansing campaign is taking place against the Druze.”

However, on the international news networks, the narrative typically conveyed by the panel of ‘usual experts’ was that Israel was using the Druze as a pretext to attack Syria. What’s more, the global media mostly IGNORED that the Druze – both in Israel and Syria  – had appealed to Israel to save them from the same fate that Hamas has for Israelis. This appeal was couched “Israel owes the Druze” and it is true –  Israel does. It was brought home to me back in 2007 when reporting for The Jerusalem Post (https://www.jpost.com/features/patriot-games), I visited the largest Druze town in Israel,  Daliyat el-Carmel perched on top of the Carmel Mountain range to meet and interview a Druze family, including the legendary Kamal Mansour. Mansour, who subsequently passed away 2023, was an Israel Prize recipient who had been appointment by Israel’s third president, Zalman Shazar, as his Adviser on Minority Communities and continued to serve in this position under presidents Ephraim Katzir, Yitzhak Navon, Chaim Herzog, Ezer Weizman, Moshe Katsav and Shimon Peres.

Excruciating Anguish. Druze from Syria and Israel protest in Majdal Shams on the Israeli-Syrian border amid the ongoing clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida where the UN says it has credible reports of summary executions. (AP Photo/Leo Correa).

Mansour enlightened me on history that I was not familiar with – important history that illuminates the special relationship between Jews and Druze. While Most Israelis are familiar with the spectacular escape from Atlit in October 1945, when the Palmach (Israel’s pre-state fighting force), under the command of Yitzhak Rabin (who later became Israel’s Prime Minister), broke into the illegal immigrant detention camp at one o’clock in the morning setting free over 200 Jewish prisoners, what followed next, most do not know.

Massacre in the Making. Syria’s government forces entering Suweida city amidst the turmoil.

Bedraggled and exhausted, the escapees – mostly holocaust survivors – dodged the British mandate forces as they fled on foot uphill over the Carmel to Kibbutz Yagur on the northern side of the mountain range. The story made international front-page news. What did not make news was that at the top of the mountain range, some of the fleeing Jews briefly connected with a people equally rooted to the land who helped them elude the pursuing British forces – the Druze. Kamal Mansour was a young boy in 1945 living in the then small village of Isfiyah where his father was mayor when some of those exhausted and hungry Jewish escapees crept cautiously into his village. “It was pitch dark, and my parents welcomed them and offered them tea and cake and a place to rest before guiding them on in their escape to freedom. Not only had my family, but other Druze families as well, opened their homes to these frightened new immigrants. Proudly,” Mansour says, “We acknowledged in deed the Jewish State before there was a Jewish State.”

This hardly known episode in modern Jewish history reflects the characteristically low profile of a unique and special people who chipped in from the start to be a part of the modern state of Israel.

“Whatever the temptations in 1948,” continued Mansour, “the Druze community opted against mainstream Arab nationalism and before the draft was introduced, Druze soldiers served as volunteers in the Israeli army.”

During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, many Druze, mainly from the villages of Shfaram, Usfiya and Daliat El-Carmel joined forces with the Jewish Haganah forging a relationship that led during this war to the creation of the Minorities Unit, which recruited Druze volunteers, mainly from these three towns. “This trend continued and an increasing number of Druze,” says Mansour, “voluntarily joined the Minorities Unit of the IDF right up to 1956, when compulsory service was introduced, a decision by the way, that was initiated by the Druze leadership.”

Mansour proudly says:

 “Although I was too old when conscription for Druze was introduced, I nevertheless served in the reserves for 26 years and six days.”

Mansour referred me to the Druze poet, historian and diplomat, Reda Mansour, who wrote:

“We are the only non-Jewish minority that is drafted into the military and we have an even higher percentage in the combat units and as officers than the Jewish members themselves. So, we are considered a very nationalistic, patriotic community.”

Loose Cannons. Bedouin fighters who have clashed with Druze militias in Syria’s Al-Suwayda province. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio in a post on X has demanded an end to “the rape and slaughter of innocent people.”

Kamal Mansour, who was the first Druze to serve on the Board of Directors of Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), the Board of Governors of both Haifa University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and to be a member of the plenum of the Israel Broadcasting Authority chuckled as he recalled his service on the Committee to investigate the proposal to introduce TV to Israel. “It is hard today to envisage the debate at that time. Both Golda [Meir] and Ben Gurion were dead against it. Ben Gurion thought people would stay away from work to watch TV.”

Early Days. Kamal Masour (left) whom the writer interviewed in 2007, seen here with Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion (centre) and Kamal’s father, Najeb Mansour, who was then mayor of Isfiya.

However, for Mansour who was presented in 2010 with the Israel Prize in recognition of the enormous service he had rendered to the State of Israel, said “I had no such misgivings.”

And Israel should have no misgivings of supporting the Druze community in Syria. As Catherine Perez-Shakdam writes in The Jerusalem Post (‘The Druze and the great betrayal’ July 21,2025), “It is Israel that stands, quite literally, between the Druze and the abyss.”

Comrades-in-Arms. Druze have been dying in battles alongside their Jewish comrades. Seen here is Colonel Ehsan Daxa, 41, commander of the 401st Brigade within the IDF’s 162nd Division who was killed in Gaza. From Daliyat al-Karmel, Daxa had expressed pride in leading a “special and courageous generation of fighters and commanders” committed to decisively defeating Hamas.

How can Israel do otherwise as the world ignores the plight of the Syrian Druze. This writer is left with the words of Kamal Mansour:

 “We acknowledged in deed the Jewish State before there was a Jewish State.”



Feature picture: Separation and Solidarity. A community divided, in this pre-war photo, Druze gather to contact their relatives on the Syrian side of the border from the Israeli Golan Heights. (Photo: Amnar Awad/Reuters).





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 DRUZE AND ISRAEL – A COVENANT IN BLOOD

Israel is and always has been short of friends.

Today, Jews across the world are finding themselves alone, ostracized and vulnerable.

One people that have stood by Israel sacrificing life and limb since 1948, is the country’s Druze community, who through thick and thin, war after war, have thrown in their lot with the destiny – and fate – of Israel. In the current Israel-Hamas war, Druze have fought and died alongside their fellow Jewish soldiers in the IDF as they have done in all previous wars.

Today, the Druze in southern Syria, family to the Druze of Israel, are under attack with regime forces aiding Syrian Bedouins in perpetrating atrocities – including the summary execution of Druze civilians.

Israel could not sit back, particularly as Israel’s Druze community’s leadership has appealed to Israel to save their people across the border in turbulent Syria from slaughter.

Lay of the Land fully supports Israel’s efforts to help save the Druze of Syria.



Why Israel helps the Druze in Syria





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).




ALL QUIET IN THE WEST WING

With discussions at the White House held in private and no clear announcements of a major Gaza deal nor followed by the customary Oval Office photo, what can we read?

By Jonathan Feldstein

The third summit between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu this year has ended, but there are still more questions than concrete answers about the nature of their meetings and the outcome. To help understand the significance of their meetings, what took place, and what to look for in the coming weeks and months, in the recent episode of the “Inspiration from Zion” podcast, military and political analyst Elliot Chodoff and journalist Jonathan Tobin provided a deep dive into the high-level meetings. The conversation was rich with strategic and political analysis, explored the outcomes, implications, and future projections as a of these talks, the war against Hamas, returning of 50 hostages, implications of the war against Iran, and the broader Middle Eastern geopolitical landscape.

The Trump-Netanyahu meetings were marked by significant speculation about potential breakthroughs, leading many to look for “A Big Beautiful Deal” particularly regarding a ceasefire with Hamas and broader regional agreements. In fact, the absence of a major announcement, such as a ceasefire with Hamas or an expansion of the Abraham Accords raised questions as to the nature of the meetings. Chodoff and Tobin emphasized the importance of the meetings was significant alone due to the strategic importance of maintaining a close U.S.-Israel relationship, particularly under Trump, whose personal style demands loyalty and public displays of alignment. Tobin highlighted that Netanyahu’s visit was not merely a “love fest” but a critical effort to align Israel’s interests with American priorities, especially given the personal nature of Trump’s diplomacy.

What’s the Big Deal? With expectations of a “Big Beautiful Deal” relating to the hostages, a ceasefire and expansion of the Abraham Accords, in the absence of a major announcement left everyone guessing.

A central focus of the meetings was the ongoing war in Gaza, where Israel’s stated goals – destroying Hamas and securing the release of hostages – remain elusive after 21 months. Chodoff outlined a three-tiered view of Hamas relating to these objectives: its military infrastructure (largely dismantled), its guerrilla capabilities (still active), and its ability to control the Palestinian population through fear (nearly impossible to eradicate). He argued that Israel has entered a phase of diminishing returns in the active combat with recent ambushes, like the loss of several soldiers in each of two consecutive weeks. He suggested a fatigued IDF still adapting to Hamas’ guerrilla warfare.

Chodoff speculated that Netanyahu might welcome a U.S.-imposed ceasefire, allowing him to claim he had no choice, thus avoiding domestic backlash while stepping back from a costly operation. The domestic implications of this might be the weakening of Netanyahu’s coalition government, but strengthening his position with the end of combat, weekly deaths, and return of the hostages.

Tobin, however, expressed skepticism about a ceasefire, noting that Hamas “gets a vote” and may not agree to terms that allow it to survive without significant concessions. He warned that a deal leaving Hamas intact could enable it to claim victory, undermining Israel’s strategic objectives. Both agreed that the goals of defeating Hamas and returning all the hostages are likely mutually exclusive, posing a political and strategic challenge for Netanyahu. Tobin emphasized that Trump’s desire for a deal to bolster his second-term legacy might pressure Israel into concessions, though he acknowledged Trump’s sensitivity to Israel’s security needs.

People’s ‘Parliament’ in Session. Always in a waiting-for-news-mode, these Israelis appear in anxious conversation on the terrace of a coffee shop. Everyone’s lives are on hold waiting not for the ‘Big Deal’ but the ‘Big Breakthrough’.(Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images) 

Regarding Israel’s and the US’ recent tag team military campaign against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion” and “Midnight Hammer,” Chodoff described it as a tactically flawless 12-day operation that set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by years. However, he cautioned that it was a campaign within a broader war dating back to 1979, not a resolution. Chodoff criticized Trump’s decision to impose a ceasefire, arguing it halted Israel’s momentum in weakening Iran’s regime control institutions, potentially missing a chance to empower internal opposition. He dismissed negotiations with Iran’s Khomeinist regime, equating their anti-Israel stance to a non-negotiable religious tenet.

Tobin agreed that Iran’s nuclear threat was reduced but argued that Trump’s strategy – inflicting damage and then offering negotiations – might suffice, given Iran’s financial constraints. He noted a divergence in U.S. and Israeli interests. While both oppose a nuclear Iran, the U.S. is less inclined to pursue regime change, which Trump views as risky. Both underscored the need for continued vigilance, with Chodoff advocating a zero-tolerance policy for any Iranian violations, similar to Israel’s approach with Hezbollah.

There had been anticipation of an announcement of the widening of the Abraham Accords, with Trump reportedly eager to include Saudi Arabia, and Syria and other Arab and Islamic states floated as possible members. Tobin was skeptical, arguing that Iran’s weakened state reduces Saudi motivation for formal recognition of Israel, as their covert cooperation sufficiently serves Saudi interests. He also dismissed the notion of Syria joining the Accords under its new leadership, led by a former terrorist leader, describing Syria as a “banana republic without bananas” due to its unstable, tribal nature. Chodoff agreed but suggested that symbolic gestures, like removing Syria from terrorist lists, could be reversible and worth exploring cautiously, provided Israel does not cede tangible assets like territory.

The outcome of the international summit also has implications for Netanyahu’s domestic standing. Tobin noted that despite the October 7, 2023, attack occurring under his watch, Netanyahu’s political resilience—bolstered by a loyal 25-30% voter base and favorable demographics—makes him the likely winner in the next election currently scheduled for late 2026. However, Chodoff highlighted emerging challenges, including economic fallout from the war which has still yet to be fully absorbed, and discontent among reservists and religious Zionists, which could erode his coalition. Both agreed that the war’s unresolved issues and economic costs could shape Israel’s political landscape, with new centrist movements led by reserve officers potentially complicating Netanyahu’s coalition-building. Yet both agreed that Netanyahu is never the candidate to count out.

Trying Times. While the region’s future is in the hands of politicians, this young armed Israeli father in the reserves has his hand on his kid’s pram as he walks along deserted streets in Tel Aviv the day after Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire on June 24, 2025. (Photo: Fadel Senna, AFP Via Getty Images)

Looking ahead, Tobin advised watching Trump’s statements for signs of frustration with Israel’s positions, which could embolden US critics. Chodoff echoed this, emphasizing the need for alignment without compromising Israel’s security.

With no clear announcements of a major deal or anything concrete, and the significant discussions held in private without even an Oval Office photo opportunity, a delicate balancing act exists : Netanyahu navigating domestic pressures, Trump’s deal-driven agenda, and the intractable and yet to be completely defeated challenges of Hamas, Iran, and regional diplomacy.

See the entire conversation HERE, or listen to the audio HERE.



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).