How do you raise a child to feel proud, rooted, and secure in their Jewish identity while knowing that visibility can sometimes bring risk – an empathetic look at today’s mental health toll caused by antisemitism.
By Bev Moss-Reilly
Antisemitism is often spoken about through headlines, attacks, protests, security alerts, and rising statistics. All of those matters, and all of it is real – but there is another side to it that is quieter and often far less visible.
It is the emotional toll carried long after the headline fades.
It is the exhaustion of always being alert.
It is the hesitation before entering shul, the pause before sending a child to school, the decision about whether to wear a Magen David openly, and the internal calculation of what feels safe today.
For many Jewish people, the strain is no longer limited to one place. It is not only about Israel. It is not only about a synagogue in one city or a violent outburst in another. It is global, personal, and cumulative.
An attack in Sydney can shake a family in Johannesburg. Gunfire at a synagogue in Toronto can unsettle a Jewish teacher in London.
Hostility in Belgium, harassment in Massachusetts, online hatred, campus intimidation, graffiti, threats, and the growing normalisation of anti-Jewish rhetoric all contribute to the same emotional reality. Safety begins to feel fragile, and daily life becomes heavier than it should be.
This is where the mental health burden deepens.
Antisemitism does not only wound in dramatic moments. It settles into the nervous system. It can leave people hypervigilant, anxious, emotionally drained, angry, grief stricken, numb, or unable to relax fully even in ordinary settings. Some struggle with sleep. Some become more withdrawn. Some avoid public Jewish spaces. Others push themselves to keep functioning while carrying an invisible level of tension that slowly chips away at wellbeing.
For parents, the burden can be especially painful. They are not only managing their own fear, but also trying to protect their children from it without pretending the danger does not exist. That balancing act is exhausting. How much do you say. How much do you shield. How do you raise a child to feel proud, rooted, and secure in their Jewish identity while knowing that visibility can sometimes bring risk. Even when parents say very little, children often sense the unease. They hear changes in tone. They notice extra security. They pick up snippets of conversation, phone calls, headlines, and the tension in adults around them. Children do not need every detail to feel that something is wrong.
Teachers and school staff carry another layer. A Jewish educator is not simply doing a job in an emotionally neutral environment. They may be teaching children while processing their own distress, concern for family members, or anxiety about the wider climate. They may be expected to create calm, safety, and continuity for learners while silently holding their own fear and fatigue. The same is true for rabbis, communal leaders, volunteers, and those who work in Jewish organisations. So many become emotional anchors for others while rarely being asked how they themselves are coping.
There is also a uniquely Jewish depth to this pain. Current antisemitism does not enter an empty room. It lands in a people with memory. For many Jewish individuals and families, today’s hostility can stir inherited grief, historical awareness, and intergenerational trauma. Even those who did not personally live through earlier atrocities may carry the emotional residue of stories, silences, losses, and collective memory. That does not mean Jewish life is defined only by suffering. Far from it. Jewish life is rich with faith, humour, continuity, learning, family, and resilience – but it does mean that present threats can reverberate more deeply because they touch old wounds as well as new ones.
Germany… Again! As Jews and Israelis face a relentlessly hostile climate in Germany, the Jewish community in Potsdam, a city just outside Berlin, fears it may not be safe to open a new Jewish daycare center amid growing security concerns. Seen here, on May 9, 2026, anti-Israel protests in Berlin. (Photo by Erbil Basay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
One of the hardest parts of this experience is minimisation. Many Jewish people are not only distressed by the hostility itself, but by the way it is sometimes dismissed, rationalised, or explained away. When fear is minimised, the psychological impact often worsens. People may begin to feel isolated, unseen, or reluctant to speak honestly about what they are carrying. Validation matters. Being taken seriously matters. Emotional safety is not created only by guards, gates, and cameras. It is also created by being believed.
So how can we assist.
We can begin by recognising that this is a genuine mental health issue, not only a political or social one. Chronic vigilance, fear, and exposure to hatred take a toll. Jewish individuals and families need support that is culturally aware, compassionate, and free of judgement. They need spaces where they do not have to explain why they feel shaken by events happening far away, because those events do not feel far away emotionally.
Children need calm and honest conversations, not silence and not overwhelming detail. Parents need support in helping children feel safe without denying reality. Schools need trauma aware approaches that make room for emotion, routine, reassurance, and mental health care. Teachers need support too. So do rabbis, youth leaders, and all those expected to hold communities together.
Communities can also help by creating spaces of warmth and grounding. Prayer, music, movement, ritual, learning, shared meals, support groups, counselling, and simply being together all matter. These do not erase the reality of antisemitism, but they strengthen emotional resilience without demanding emotional suppression. There is a difference between resilience and pretending not to hurt. Real resilience allows room for fear, sadness, anger, and weariness while still making healing possible.
Professional mental health support should also be normalised. There should be no shame in saying that the strain has become too much, that sleep is suffering, that panic is increasing, that children are struggling, or that one feels constantly on edge. Trauma does not always announce itself dramatically. Sometimes it shows up in irritability, withdrawal, tears, overthinking, headaches, digestive upset, exhaustion, or a quiet sense of dread that never fully switches off. These responses are human, and they deserve care.
Calling in the Marines! Briton’s ‘The Mirror’, shared how Jewish pupils had been learning a “Sleeping Lions” game in which they sought safety in classrooms and toilets in preparation for a potential terror attack.
Jewish communities have always understood the power of showing up for one another. That matters now more than ever. In a world where hostility can flare in multiple countries and where fear travels instantly across borders, one of the most important things we can do is protect emotional wellbeing with as much seriousness as we protect physical safety.
Because when fear settles into everyday Jewish life, the answer cannot be silence. It must be compassion, awareness, support, and the steady reminder that no one should have to carry this weight alone.
School for Scandal. A Brooklyn high school became a haven for Hitler-loving hooligans who terrorized Jewish teachers and classmates. On Oct. 26, 2024, 40 to 50 teens marched through Origins HS in Sheepshead Bay chanting “Death to Israel!” and “Kill the Jews!” staffers said. “I live in fear of going to work every day,” said global history teacher Danielle Kaminsky. Students ripped down the Israel flag from her international display, missing above, and told her it was burned.
About the writer:
Bev Moss-Reilly is a Jewish freelance content writer living in South Africa with a deep and heartfelt focus on mental health, emotional wellbeing, trauma, grief, and the unseen struggles people carry every day. Through her writing and her Mental Health Packs, she aims to bring comfort, awareness, compassion, and practical support to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Her work is rooted in empathy, dignity, and the belief that nobody should feel alone in their pain, especially in times of crisis.
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).
Daily life in Israel when missiles are striking across Israel.
By Peter Bailey
Israel’s many wars, the first of which started before the rebirth of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, has resulted in an extremely efficient and effective system of everything possible being done to ensure the safety of the civilian population at all times. There is a well-worn comment that while Israel’s enemies have spent fortunes on developing armies and weapons with which to attack Israel, Israel has spent the bulk of its defense spend on defensive capabilities and citizen safety. The evolution of how wars are waged has seen the use of offensive weapons such as rockets, missiles and drones becoming the weapons of choice with which to attack Israel. The country has thus been developing increasingly sophisticated anti rocket and missile defenses, while also concentrating on the erection and maintenance of communal and private residential safe areas of various types.
I regularly found myself searching for shelter during the course of my daily travels as a result of the nature of my work for Beth Protea, a South African founded retirement home for seniors situated in Herzliya. I work with the Protea Home Care (PHC) division, which provides services to the elderly who reside independently in their own homes, but require assistance in managing various aspects of their lives. One of the services offered by PHC is the daily (Sunday to Thursday) delivery of well-prepared nutritious meals to clients, who, for various reasons are unable to prepare their own meals. These clients reside in an area which includes the cities of Herzliya, Raanana, Hod Hasharon, Kfar Saba, Tel Aviv, Ramat HaSharon and as far afield as Holon. The reality is that despite the emergency situation and missile attacks, meals have to be delivered and I am on the road four mornings a week. Recalling my experiences, might provide readers outside of Israel an idea of life governed by alerts announced on one’s cell phone, followed by the siren anywhere from one and a half to ten minutes later. Of course, if you are living in the north of the country, there may be no pre-siren alert and you may have less than 15 seconds to find safety before a missile strikes. Seeking safety quickly becomes the name of the game.
There are communal or public bomb shelters available in well-advertised and sign posted areas of almost all civilian population areas, office blocks and many of the older apartment buildings. Referred to in Hebrew as a miklat (plural miklatim), which is a communal or public bomb shelter or safe area, with many underground parking areas beneath malls, other public buildings, railway and bus stations also being used for public safety purposes. The disadvantage of the miklatim is that many of them are situated in basements, with many accidents resulting from people having to rush down stairs to the safe area. Since 1951, Israel has been passing increasingly more effective laws regarding the construction and availability of safe areas. The word miklat comes from the biblically ordained cities of refuge (ערי מקלט), so the word miklat translates as a place of refuge.
Making the most of a dire situation, Israelis do yoga at an underground garage, used as a public shelter, in Tel Aviv during the Israel-US war with Iran. March 17. 2026. (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
We then have the mamad, acronym for merchav mugan dirati, which means home safe area, with mamadim found in many apartments and free-standing homes. Legislation was passed in 1993, making it mandatory by law for all new homes, free standing or in apartment blocks, to have a mamad (safe room). This legislation was prompted by the 1991 Iraqi Scud missile attacks during the 1st Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm. The threat of chemicals or gas being released into the atmosphere by the exploding missiles resulted in the 1993 legislation, which also made provision for the proper sealing of all safe rooms.
The third category of safe room is the mamak, acronym for merchav mugan komati, which means the safe area on each floor of an apartment or office complex. The building in which I reside has a mamak, which means that it’s a short, safe and convenient walk down the passage to safety. Many older and disabled people residing in older buildings with a basement miklat, rather than a mamak or mamad, often resort to sitting in the lobby area outside their apartments as they are unable to get to the safe area in time and in safety. This is not ideal, but offers a small degree of safety, as long as there are no windows, which can shatter and cause injuries in the event of a nearby blast or explosion.
A chair for an elderly or disabled person in the lift lobby is a common sight . (Photo: Peter Bailey)
Finally, there is the migunit, which is a portable free standing safe area which can be placed in areas where there is no miklat. One of the reasons for this innovation is that business premises such as shops and restaurants are not allowed to be open for business during an emergency period, unless there is a nearby safe area for customers in the event of a missile alert. Necessity being the mother of invention, an answer to the problem was found.
A migunit or portable bomb shelter outside a supermarket. (Photo: Peter Bailey)
The most satisfying feature of my experiences seeking safety during my travels has been the friendly and helpful attitude of people wherever and whenever I have been in need of a safe area. My first experience of this camaraderie and unconditional helpfulness was following a warning alert that the siren would be sounding in the next few minutes was in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bavli. Immediately after receiving the alert, I looked for a safe place to stop my car, and as I did so, a young lady knocked on the window and asked if I was in need of shelter, and if so to follow her, which I did. A few metres down the road was the entrance to a school, and I soon discovered that many schools in Tel Aviv, closed because of the emergency situation, had opened their miklatim to the public. I followed the crowd down into the basement where despite my protestations, somebody insisted I take their chair, which I did with gratitude. Total strangers were chatting with each and with my Hebrew not too wonderful, a few people spoke to me in English and I was really part of a wonderful socialising event. When the all clear sounded, off we all went, going our own way.
Another learning experience was just after leaving a residential building in Herzliya where I had delivered a meal when the alert sounded on my cell phone. I retraced my steps into the building and followed the signs to the basement miklat, where I joined a small group of adults and about 20 young children. I knew that the building had recently been renovated, which meant that each apartment had its own mamad, so I was somewhat taken aback at seeing so many kids and so few adults. I soon had the answer. The war situation meant that children were not at nursery schools or kindergartens as these were all closed, which meant that parents had to take time off work to care for their children. The very practical solution in this building was for two sets of parents to be with the youngsters while other parents were free to go to work, with the ‘duty parents’ changing every two hours.
Duty parents with children in a miklat in an apartment building in Herzliya. (Photo: Peter Bailey)
Later that same day, I found myself in the Ramat Aviv suburb of Tel Aviv, when the alert sounded. It was already the fourth time that day. I saw a curbside parking bay available and parked the delivery van, and as I stood on the pavement looking around, a man standing at the entrance to a school beckoned to me. I went over to him and he invited me to join them in the school miklat, where I saw that there were mattresses along two walls of the safe area, but this time several adults were resting on the mattresses. My curiosity once again got the better of me and I asked the man who had originally beckoned me for more detail. It turned out he was the school principal, but with no pupils, he had opened the miklat to the public. The school was adjacent to a very old quarter of Ramat Aviv, with many of the nearby buildings lacking any form of safety for the residents, so they had been invited to sleep in the school miklat in case there were siren alerts during the night. I was offered coffee and a chair, while I marvelled at the resourcefulness of the school principal and unsolicited care and kindness shown to one and all while the sirens wailed.
SIREN IN THE SUPERMARKET
While shopping with my wife during Pesach (Passover) at the local hypermarket, we had just finished paying for our trolley, when the alert sounded on our cell phones. I pushed the full trolley to the area designated as the safe area, and while somewhat concerned, was instructed to leave the trolley outside, together with many other trolleys. We were shepherded through a door only to discover that this led to a stairwell, which was full of people as the miklat was already overcrowded. So, there we stood for the next 20 minutes, waiting for the ‘all clear’. Probably one of my less enjoyable miklat stays, although I was delighted to find my trolley intact with all our paid for shopping just as we’d left it. So good to experience honesty of the highest degree in adversity.
Not the saftest place nor recommended with an incoming ballistic missile from Iran, nevertheless a packed stairwell of a building following a siren.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
While on a delivery call in an area known as the Old North of Tel Aviv, not far from Hamedina Square (Kikar Hamedina), where there are many older buildings with no protection, the siren sounded. Where would I find safety here? While most residential building entrance doors in this area are usually locked with a code, I found that many doors were wide open with signs in Hebrew advising that a miklat was available. This was once again a wonderful example of the caring and sharing attitude of most Israelis. Although I’ve had many experiences seeking safety during this war, one particular miklat stay stands out. I was travelling on the highway near Hod HaSharon, having heard the alert warning that missiles from Iran were on their way and that the siren would be sounding in the next few minutes. I took the first off ramp and found myself outside the Sokolov Train Station, illegally parked in the no stopping zone right outside the station and jumped out the car as the siren went off. I was cutting it fine. The normally officious barrier guards who usually take no nonsense from anybody, were now holding the barriers open and ushering all and sundry into the station building. I was shepherded into a crowded small miklat behind the ticket office, which looked more like a staff coffee area than a miklat, but it had a proper bomb proof security door. I was touched at the total personality change of the security personnel, but it was nothing more than typical Israeli caring during times of adversity.
People find refuge in the miklat in Sokolov Railway Station. (Photo: Peter Bailey)
The last miklat I want to talk about is really a case of saving the best for last. While doing a delivery in Ra’anana the siren went off and I immediately sought refuge in the miklat of the building I was in. I’d walked into the gold standard of miklatim. What a pleasant surprise to find a carpeted floor, very comfortable chairs including a few armchairs, and to top it all, a ping pong table. That one must take the prize for the best appointed miklat I’ve been in. While living through a war with missiles dropping extremely dangerous cluster munitions on civilian areas, injuring some 8,000 people and killing 20, the residents of this building decided that if they had to spend many hours in the miklat, home comforts were important.
A more ‘up-market’ miklat with carpeted floor, television set, artwork, armchairs and ping pong table in Ra’anana. (Photo: Peter Bailey)
To bring home the danger and how daily life in Israel under fire reminds me of Russian roulette, a friend of mine was on her way to pay a shiva call (condolence visit) in Ramat Gan, an area she was unfamiliar with, when she received an alert on her phone. With the clock ticking until the siren went, she ran into a nearby apartment complex and followed others down into the building’s miklat. She was lucky – some were not. The building she had randomly selected took a direct hit from one from one of the thirty or forty cluster bombs released by an Iranian ballistic missile, and Yaron and Ilana Moshe, a disabled couple in their seventies, were unable to reach safety in time and were killed.
The damage to the building was immense.
A neighbor later recounted how after hearing the powerful blast, he exited his safe room to find his own apartment severely damaged. Rushing to check on his neighbor’s apartment, he discovered their front door destroyed and a large hole in the ceiling with another resident, they tried to clear debris at the entrance, fearing the couple were trapped inside. He later expressed to the media some relief that the victims’ grandchildren were not present at the time.
Such is daily life in Israel during this war with Iran.
Images of apartment hit by Iranian attack in which two Israelis were killed in Ramat Gan and which the writer’s friend took refuge in the building’s underground bomb shelter (miklat).
Feature photo: Packed tight, people take cover as siren warns of incoming missiles fired from Iran, at a public bomb shelter in Jerusalem, June 15, 2025. (Photo: Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
About the writer:
Peter Bailey made Aliyah from South Africa with his wife Jeanne in 2013 in order to join their three sons and families who were already in Israel. He spent 35 years in the glass industry in South Africa while also being active in military veterans affairs, being National Chairman of The South African Jewish Ex Service League prior to making Aliyah. He completed his compulsory military training in South Africa in 1964 and was commissioned as an officer in 1965, retiring with the rank of major, after 19 years service in the SADF Citizen Force. While on active service on the Namibian Angolan border in 1976 he commanded 101 Task Force’s Counter Insurgency Operations Training Centre. He has enjoyed a lifelong interest in military history and has conducted intensive research into the Jewish contribution to South Africa’s military history, writing many papers on the subject and giving relevant lectures across South Africa. He is the author of two published 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).
SA government acts decisively against US and Israeli diplomats – but greenlights despicable Iranian embassy transgressions of SA law
By Lawrence Nowosenetz
Early in April 2026 the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in South Africa posted on its social media platform on X the following:
“The U.S. Regime is implementing the policies of the Zionist regime.”
Accompanying the post is a digitally created image of a rat wearing a kippah or yarmulke (Jewish religious head covering) pointing forward while riding atop a large eagle in flight. The caption to the image bore the text “Who holds the reins?” and the subtitle “The U.S. seeks to implement the policies of Israeli Zionists.” The rat has peyyot (curly sidelocks worn by Hassidic Orthodox Jews) and the kippah has a large Magen David (Star of David)
Source: A now deleted post made by the Iranian Embassy Official X.com ( x.com/iraninsa)
The symbolism is unmistakable and we have seen it before. The rat wearing a kippah represents Jews and the bald-headed eagle is associated with the USA. The eagle, a traditional symbol of American power, is shown being ridden and directed by the rat. The message is that Jews as a people covertly control and direct American foreign policy. This is a classic antisemitic conspiracy trope with deep roots in Nazi propaganda.
In Nazi Germany, the portrayal of Jews as rats was a central component of dehumanisation propaganda used to justify persecution and genocide. The deliberate choice of a rat wearing identifiably Jewish religious clothing removes any ambiguity about the target of this imagery. It is classic Nazi era propaganda art. There can be no evasion or dishonest obfuscation about the rat referring to Zionists and not Jews. The traditional peyyot or sidelocks of the rat evoke the centuries old European ghetto Jew stereotype, beloved of antisemitic caricatures.
Antisemites Flock Together! A posting on X by the Iranian Embassy in South Africa was straight out of the Nazi playbook. Seen here is a 1940s Nazi propaganda poster in occupied Denmark where the text reads “Rats. Destroy them.” Rats is the metaphor for Jews.
An international working formulation of antisemitism was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) by 35 member countries in 2016. It has been accepted by numerous governments and institutions such as universities.
The definition includes:
“Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective, such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
The depiction in images of Jews as rats is specifically mentioned in the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA definition.
Historically, the Nazi propaganda imagery using rats to symbolise Jewish people is well known as a powerful depiction of antisemitism. A propaganda film in 1940 “Der ewige Jude” (“The Eternal Jew”) a work produced under Joseph Goebbels contained lengthy comparisons of Jewish people with rats, particularly their association with disease, filth, and vermin. This process of dehumanisation was calculated and formed the ideological basis for the Nazi genocide. As early as 1927, prior to the “Final Solution”, the Nazi publication “Der Stürmer”, depicted the fumigation of rats as akin to Jews.
From Berlin to Tehran. Premiered in Berlin on November 18, 1940, a scene of fleeing rodents (read Jews) from the infamous Nazi movie DER EWIGE JUDE (The Eternal Jew). The Iranian regime’s thinking is in sync with the Nazi theme of dehumanizing Jews linking them to rats; depicting as a grave threat warranting extinction.
Hate speech is outlawed in South Africa.
Section 16(1) of the Constitution which provides for freedom of expression explicitly excludes:
(a) propaganda for war;
(b) incitement of imminent violence; or
(c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”
Furthermore, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 prohibits:
The publication or communication of words, or the display of any image or symbol, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be hurtful, to incite harm, or to promote or propagate hatred on the basis of, inter alia, race, religion, or ethnic or social origin.
DIRCO, the South African foreign office has not been reluctant to sanction foreign diplomats for far less. After US Ambassador, Reuben EarlBrigety in 2013 publicly stated that South Africa was supplying arms to a Russian ship at the Simon’s Town naval base, DIRCO handed him a demarche expressing its utter displeasure. The US Ambassador had to issue an unreserved apology for failing to follow diplomatic channels. In 2026, US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell was issued a demarche by DIRCO for criticising a court ruling declaring the chant “kill the Boer” is not hate speech.
Devious Diplomacy. While ignoring the Iranian embassy’s virulently antisemitic posting transgressing South African law, the South African government saw fit to summon the then new US ambassador, Leo Brent Bozell III after he made what they called “undiplomatic” comments.
DIRCO declared Israel’s Charge d’Affairs Ariel Seidmanpersona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave South Africa. The reasons cited by DIRCO were unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practices by failure to inform DIRCO of visits by Israeli officials and insulting the State President on official Israeli social media platforms, thereby constituting a challenge to South African sovereignty.
None of these actions and statements were incitement, hate speech or religious dehumanisation.
Iran has been weaponising antisemitism as an incitement to terror against Jews worldwide since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 when Ayatollah RuhollahKhomeini seized power. Over the last 47 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has waged a relentless war against Israel which it calls the “small Satan” and the USA which it calls the “Great Satan”. This war is both physical and political. It has built a network of terror in the Middle East through the Houtis in Yemen, Hamas in the Palestinian areas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, in the Sahel territories of Africa and worldwide. Iran has been implicated in various terrorist attacks internationally, notably the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires killing 85 people and injuring 300 others.
A Clear and Present Danger. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, consistently advocated for the elimination of Israel, frequently using vitriolic language to describe the state as a “cancerous tumor” and a “germ of corruption” in the Middle East. He frequently stated that Israel “must be uprooted from the region” and described it as a “man-eating giant and a pagan usurper”.
Antisemitism and Nazism are at the core of the Islamist regime of Iran. Three state sponsored Holocaust cartoon contests have been held in Iran:
in 2006, 2016 and 2020.
Featured were Jewish blood libels, conspiracy theories and praise for Hitler. In 2020 an official poster was published calling for the “Final Solution” against Israel.
The Iranian regime seeks to use violence, repression and terror to seize control in the world and impose political Islam. Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1373 aimed at fighting terrorism after 9/11, the response by the world, save for the USA, has been weak. Appeasement by the West has proved ineffective and it will be the next victim if it does not take a strong stand. This begins with condemnation of the images such as this war propaganda post.
The historic targeting of the USA by Iran prior to the current war cannot be overlooked. Iranian militia or groups backed by Iran have killed US soldiers multiple times in the Middle East. These include the 1983 barracks bombing and attacks in Iraq and Syria involving drone strikes. The US attributes decades of terrorism against US civilians to Iran.
In our era of non-racism and human rights, international human rights organisations are duty bound to call out this racist hatred and mobilise public opinion among democratic and freedom respecting nations. This is a red alert to these defenders of humanity to expose this image as inciteful of hatred and to prevent further acts of random violence against Jewish communities, synagogues and organisations worldwide.
About the writer:
Born in Pretoria Lawrence Nowosenetz obtained his BA at University of the Witwatersrand and LLB at the University of South Africa. He has been admitted as an Attorney in South Africa and as an advocate in South Africa. He practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar and worked as a human rights and labour lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre a public interest law firm. Lawrence was Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and completed professional internship in the USA. He was a a labour arbitrator and mediator, part time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panelist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement. He was a member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Pretoria Chairman. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the Hight Court, South Africa. He now lives in Tel Aviv.
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).
Those who see ‘safety through solidarity’ as the ‘lesson’ of the terror attack have internalized what classical Zionist thinkers called an ‘exile mindset’ — a near-religious sanctification of Jewish powerlessness.
By Zev Dever
(Courtesy of Davar where article was first published)
In the aftermath of the terrorist massacre in Sydney, much of the Jewish discourse has highlighted praise for the individual bravery of the hero Ahmed el-Ahmed, the unarmed Syrian immigrant who intervened in the attack. It frankly seems as though many progressive Jews are relieved to have this Muslim man as a counterexample to the terrorists who carried out the massacre.
While el-Ahmed is certainly a hero, and the praise is well deserved, statements and posts from anti-Zionist Jewish groups, seem to take this praise a bit far, elevating the emphasis on el-Ahmed’s heroism to near parity with the massacre itself. This emphasis is taken to draw an interesting conclusion: again and again it is echoed that the lesson of this entire event, exemplified in el-Ahmed’s actions, is that “our safety lies in solidarity with others.”
Skepticism in Solidarity. While “safety through solidarity” might offer moral reassurance to vunerable Jewish communities around the world, but does it offer operational guidance?
It is truly striking how uniform this message is. It’s strange enough to highlight the identity of the hero and not the murderers, subtly transforming a Jewish tragedy into a morality tale about Muslims not being evil. To be fair, Jewish communities may understandably feel relief in highlighting the fact that many Muslims are good people. But to insist that this is the central and operative lesson is to deliberately obscure the essence of the story — namely a mass murder of Jews in the diaspora, following two years of rising antisemitism and public tolerance for Jew hatred.
What, practically, does it mean to insist that “Jewish safety lies in solidarity with others“?
– That Jews require non-Jewish saviors?
– That Jewish safety depends on staying on the good side of surrounding communities?
– That the correct response to mass violence is not protection or deterrence, but reaffirmation of ideological commitments?
When pressed, “safety through solidarity” might offer moral reassurance, but it offers no operational guidance.
Most plausibly, the practical lesson of this axiom may be that we should invest in encouraging moderate discourse and education against extremism. That idea I might buy into, but I find it hard to believe that the very groups pushing the message of “safety through solidarity” will.
Are we to believe that anti-Zionist Jewish groups will now focus on amplifying moderate Muslim and Palestinian voices? Will they stop parroting extremists, or even condemn those espousing extremism?
Of course not. There will be no self-reckoning.
I acknowledge that Jews do indeed need partners outside the faith, and the aim of this piece is not to denigrate solidarity as such, an important enterprise regardless of whether it benefits one’s safety. El-Ahmed’s bravery indeed made clear the value and importance of solidarity. But I am interested in the psychological phenomenon that leads some Jews to read the Bondi Beach massacre as a lesson in the importance of solidarity. Why do some Jews see the massacre as a sign that Jews ought to demonstrate more solidarity towards other groups?
Seeking Safety. The writer is intrigued in the psychological phenomenon that leads some Jews to read the Bondi Beach massacre as a lesson in the importance of solidarity.
THE SHTETL ROOTS OF “SAFTY THROUGH SOLIDARITY”
Even if such a logic is sincere, even if it is instrumental as a strategy to seek security, it is a mentality that delegates safety to external goodwill rather than Jewish agency. This psychological phenomenon is actually much older than any current popularized version of the theory of the intersectionality of oppressions. The Jewish roots of this thinking are actually something that the Zionist movement more than a century ago knew to classify and condemn. Zionist thinkers would characterize this way of thinking as a form of exile mindset, known in Hebrew as galutiyut.
In classical Zionist critique, exile mindset was not merely the fact of Jewish vulnerability or Jewish dispersion across the globe. It was a psychological and moral orientation, a deeply held and practiced belief that the Jews are not and cannot be masters of their own fate — that Jewish existence must be predicated on the goodwill of others, or failing that, on divine providence. Zionist thinkers condemned the world of the shtetl as a place where Jewish powerlessness was not only accepted but sanctified.
To compare today’s progressive, secular anti-Zionist Jews to God-fearing shtetl peasants may sound anachronistic. But the resemblance is structural, not stylistic. What has changed is the theology, not the logic. It is absolutely classic exile mindset recycled for the (post-)modern age.
In the classic theological expression, Jews are meant to accept as fact their impotence. They are meant to devote themselves to piety rather than anger the ruling powers by resisting or rising up as a nation. It was explicitly forbidden for Jews to seek self-redemption in this framework. Instead, Jews were guided to seek closeness to divinity: an all-pervasive truth that is inherently and profoundly good, and which underpins all existence and events, even those that are bad. At the same time the Jewish believer is guided by a rather vague vision of a perfect world after death or after the coming of the messiah.
The majority of radical leftists today are not classically religious, but they are in a very real messianic sense — driven, often obsessively, by a vision of a perfect and unrealized world to come which they are convinced must influence all current actions. To act against this idea is even framed as secularized sin or as it is often put being “on the wrong side of history“. Their God is, much like the old one, an all-pervasive truth which is universal and good and which underpins all things and events, even the bad ones (like the Bondi massacre).
To their credit, this all-pervasive truth many leftists believe in is genuinely good: it is a universal humanism, a belief in the sanctity and value of human life. Their heaven, utopia, is a liberated, just, post-oppressive world to come. Sometimes it is pure anarchism or an end to money, property, and exploitation. In other words, leftist eschatology promises, yet again, a vague vision of a perfect world to come after the advent of universal truth. The coming of the next world follows the death of this world, which is in the meantime almost irredeemably marred by ignorance and sin.
Sanctifying the Shtetl. When Jewish existence was predicated on the goodwill of others, early Zionist thinkers condemned the world of the shtetl as a place where Jewish powerlessness was not only accepted but sanctified.
ROMANTICIZING POWERLESSNESS
Within this drama, the Jews are assigned a unique role, the same one as in the old shtetl construction: the righteous victim. Morally pure, historically oppressed, exemplary in their suffering. Devoted to their truth, with moral purity replacing religious piety. This is a modernization of the classic exile mindset, the same old sanctification of powerlessness as a self-justifying moral identity.
Like many other Jews, anti-Zionists take pride in the inheritance of an oppressed people, invoking Jewish participation in past struggles for justice. Anti-Zionist Jews go further than most. They express deep discomfort, even open resentment at the fact that Jews now possess real power. Perhaps even a remorse over the fact that Jews have largely achieved assimilation in America, forcing them to play a slightly different role than the ideal victim. Now, their role seems to be that of privileged — or worse, oppressive — whites.
This resentment is often framed as anger at oppression done “in our name” by Zionism, but functionally, it is rage at the loss of moral position. Zionism is intolerable to these Jewish anti-Zionists not only because it wields power badly, but because it wields power at all. The fact that it wields that power against enemies shatters the sacred identity of the Jew as powerless, innocent, and dependent.
Thus, exile becomes not merely a condition but a vocation. This acceptance of — and even consecration of — the status of exile provides meaning, coherence, and urgency to the universal humanist mission and the role the Jew can play in it. That is, as long as Jews renounce collective self-assertion and vocally reject Jewish power, especially military power, regardless of context. This psychological stance characterizes pathological anti-Zionism as something distinct from even the harshest critique of Israeli actions, which can itself be a deeply Zionist act.
In the end, the core of exile mindset remains the same: the exile-bound anti-Zionist Jew would rather sacrifice their collective and sometimes even their individual existence in this life for the sake of purity. This mindset may rationalize its position in theological or ideological terms, but in essence it is indeed, as anti-Zionists admit, a plea for safety. Now as then, that plea for safety is premised upon trying as much as possible not to anger the non-Jewish and even antisemitic society that surrounds.
This helps explain the reaction to Sydney. Faced with the massacre of Jews by Islamic extremists, these groups instinctively center the Muslim rescuer. They downplay the killers. They warn about the potential of backlash against Muslims. Even while many non-Jewish anti-Zionists are busy blaming Zionists for the massacre, Jewish anti-Zionists repeat “safety through solidarity” as a kind of incantation.
This is not accidental. It is faith in the face of events that challenge it.
Like the old theology of exile, this ideology does not require empirical testing. It does not ask whether solidarity has, in fact, kept Jews safe amid rising antisemitism. It does not ask what actually prevents violence tonight, tomorrow, for the rest of the 8 nights and for years to come.
This is why these groups can look at a massacre of Jews and conclude that the lesson is less Jewish self-defense and more Jewish dependence. Less agency, more faith. Less mastery over fate, more trust in the moral arc of history to bend only towards justice.
To Israelis, living in a society whose ethos was founded on the negation of exile and exile mentality, this logic is incomprehensible. Ironically, even many heirs of traditional exile mindset in the diaspora have also abandoned it. Chabad, often on the front lines of antisemitic violence, as in this tragic case, embraces collective Jewish self-assertion and practical security.
Only anti-Zionist Jews still sanctify weakness. Only they insist that Jewish survival must be conditional, provisional, and morally earned. Only they repeat, in modern language, the old demand that Jews place their lives in the hands of others for the sake of purity. Exile mindset is the retreat of people determined that their role is to be helpless victims, and who are actually more comfortable in that role.
That is what “safety through solidarity” means in practice.
A bloodied talit from the Sydney massacre. (Photo: social media, used in accordance with Section 27A).
*Feature picture:Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is an American Jewish anti-Zionist and far left-wing advocacy organization. It is critical of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The group was formed in 1996, and as of 2024 had grown to over 32,000 active dues-paying members. Its chapters at Columbia and George Washington universities were suspended in 2024. (Wikipedia)
About the writer: Zev Dever is a Jewish educator originally from the US who has worked with Australian Jewish groups in Israel for several years.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
As the US was justified in killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Israel is justified in liquidating Hamas leaders wherever they reside.
By Neville Berman
September 11, 2001 was a day that shocked the world. On that day 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked 4 commercial airlines and used them to attack America. 2,977 people were killed and thousands more were injured.
That evening, President George W Bush was informed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that they had identified an Islamic organization known as al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, operating out of Afghanistan, as being responsible for the attacks. After the Taliban, who governed Afghanistan, rejected American demands to expel al-Qaeda and extradite its leaders, America ordered an attack on Afghanistan.
Justice for All. If it was acceptable that “Justice has been done,” as President Barack Obama said in announcing the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. military operation in Pakistan, May 1, 2011, why not for the Hamas leaders who perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?
Osama bin Laden went into hiding and evaded capture. America offered a $25 million reward to anyone supplying information that would lead to the capture of bin Laden. False information poured in.
For years bin Laden managed to send tapes with recordings of his speeches from his hiding place, to the Al Jazeera TV station in Qatar. The tapes were then broadcast to the 430 million households that watch Al Jazeera broadcasts around the world. Most of the speeches promoted the Islamic concept of Jihad against the West. Bin Laden was determined to bring down the West. The Palestinians were of no interest to him and he never mentioned them.
For years the relentless search to locate bin Laden continued. Tens of thousands of cell phone calls were recorded and analysed. Electronic messages and aerial photography from satellite imagery were studied. After over 9 years of searching, the CIA finally believed that they had traced the courier that was delivering the tapes to Al Jazeera from a house in Pakistan. The evidence was not 100% conclusive that Osama bin Laden was actually living in the house, but was persuasive enough for President Obama to authorize an attack on the site. On May 11, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear was put into action. A team of navy seals were flown by Black Hawk helicopters into Pakistan. They managed to enter the compound, locate and kill Osama bin Laden and several of his aides and family. They also retrieved a trove of electronic discs and files that shed light on al Qaeda. Bin Laden’s body was brought back for positive identification and burial at sea. The killing of bin Laden was seen as a turning point in the fight against terror.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally demolished all Israeli settlements in Gaza, and withdrew entirely from the area. They then handed control of the territory to the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by Yasser Arafat. Two years later, Hamas violently took control of Gaza by killing the leadership of the PA in Gaza. Hamas is a militant Islamic organization that is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that aims at a world living under Sharia law. Hamas does not hide their intentions. The Hamas Charter calls for the killing of all Jews and the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
From the moment Hamas took control of Gaza they promoted hatred as a way to radicalize the population. Under the guise of a liberation movement, Hamas infiltrated every aspect of the lives of two million people living in Gaza. They infiltrated the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. They radicalized the curriculum of all UNRWA schools in Gaza and promoted suicide bombing, jihad and martyrdom. They robbed banks in Gaza. They stole thousands of tons of humanitarian food aid and sold it to the people in Gaza at inflated prices. They collected taxes on all goods imported into Gaza. They set up monopolies that controlled cell phone services, petrol and gas supplies, and all other essential services. They built an army of radicalized terrorists, whose intention was nothing less than retaining absolute control of Gaza through force, and aimed at eliminating the State of Israel. They built hundreds of kilometres of tunnels under hospitals, mosques, schools and houses in order to hide missiles and military equipment and to be used to attack Israel. They built their headquarters in tunnels directly below hospitals. They used civilians as human shields to protect themselves from Israeli retaliation. They killed or maimed anyone who opposed them. They fired over 27,000 rockets into Israel. All of them were aimed at civilian targets. They broke every accepted norm of civilized behaviour, and ruled themselves out as ever being a peace partner. They brought death and destruction to the people of Gaza.
To the outside world they presented themselves as victims of Israeli occupation. Fake news about an Israel siege on Gaza, and Israel committing crimes against humanity, became their passport to an outpouring of humanitarian aid, especially from the gullible liberal west. Official figures published by the UN show the countries that financed UNRWA in 2023. The European Union and Britain were the largest contributors with 53%, followed by America and Canada with 38%. Japan and Australia contributed 5% and Muslim countries contributed 4%. Saudi Arabia donated $17 million out of the $1.2 billion UNRWA budget. It is clear that the West has an agenda to ensure that the Palestinians remain a threat to Israel, while the wealthy oil exporting Arab countries pay lip service to supporting Hamas. They see Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as a direct threat to their way of life and rule.
Eight of the top leaders of Hamas, left the squalor that they had created in Gaza, and went to live with their families in Doha, Qatar. They arrived with billions of dollars that they had embezzled and stolen from the people of Gaza. They do not care at all about the poverty and destitute lives of the people in Gaza. On the contrary, the catastrophic pictures of poverty in Gaza are their passport for more humanitarian assistance to flow in. The more aid that flows in, the richer they become.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. They attacked a music festival and nearby kibbutzim. They proudly filmed themselves committing barbaric crimes and openly boasting about killing, raping women of all ages, mutilating bodies, burning babies, and destroying whatever they could. They killed over 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages to Gaza. In deference to the families of those killed and taken hostage, the films taken by the terrorists have not been widely distributed by Israel. They are simply too shocking to be shown.
Israel’s ‘Ground Zero’. Like the site in New York where once stood the Twin Towers, the site in Israel where a massacre took the lives of your revelers at a music festival and shattered the Jewish nation.
Immediately after the attack on October 7, Israel set itself the goal of returning every hostage and eliminating Hamas. Now you cannot eliminate an ideology, but you can reduce the capacity of your enemies to be able to carry out their destructive aims. One of the ways of doing this is to eliminate their leaders. In July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh the overall political leader of Hamas who had been living in Qatar was assassinated while visiting Iran. The level of Israeli intelligence required to succeed in assassinating Haniyah in a pin point manner while in an apartment in Tehran, shocked Iran. On October 16, 2024, more than a year after Hamas attacked Israel, Yahya Sinwar the leader of Hamas in Gaza was killed. He was succeeded by his brother Mohammed Sinwar who was in turn eliminated on May 13, 2025. Both were killed in Gaza.
Killing Killers. Like the vow of US presidents from Bush to Obama to eliminate bin Laden, so Israel vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
On September 9, 2025 Israel decided to attack the 7 remaining leaders of Hamas who were living in Qatar. These leaders are terrorists in every sense of the word. They helped plan the attacks on Israel and they radicalized the people in Gaza. The attack did not go according to plan. Instead of killing the leaders of Hamas, 5 lower-level members of Hamas and one member of the Qatari security force were killed by mistake. None of the billionaire leaders of Hamas living in Doha were killed.
Now comes the double standards of the world towards Israel. When America killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one accused America of attacking Pakistan. When Israel attacked the leadership of Hamas in Qatar, the whole world accused Israel of attacking Qatar. Israel did not attack Qatar. It attacked Hamas leaders living in Qatar. There is a huge difference. The double standard is obvious.
To add insult to injury, on September 25, 2025, the Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu, while attending a meeting with President Trump in the oval office, was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar in an arranged phone call. He was also ordered to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. It was a deliberate humiliation of Israel’s elected prime minister. In trying to mollify Qatar, Trump sent the wrong message to the world. America should not be approving sanctuary for terrorist leaders in any country, especially not Qatar. Qatar is using its bountiful financial resources to advance a very serious double game of promoting chaos across America, while pretending to be an ally of America.
Coerced Call. Following Israel’s attack on the leaders of Hamas in Doha, President Trump orchestrates a call in the White House on September 25, 2025 where Israeli PM Netanyahu was ordered to personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Qatar and to promise that Israel would never attack Qatar in the future. The US had no qualms about taking out the leader of Al–Qaeda in Pakistan.
No matter how great a friend President Trump has been to Israel, it seems reasonable to assume that in the same way that America attacked the leaders of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Israel has the right to attack the leaders of Hamas in Qatar. What happened in the oval office does not augur well for the future of the American Israeli relationship.
About the writer:
AccountantNeville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
While global pressure for the two-state solution accelerates, maybe time to apply the brakes and study the facts.
By Peter Bailey
World leaders are living in the past when they talk about two states being the only solution to the “Palestine Problem”, when in reality their real concern is the “Jewish Problem”, without being honest enough to say so. The two-state solution was applied in 1921 when the League of Nations accepted the British proposal that Palestine east of the Jordan River become an Arab State, hence the birth of Transjordan, today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Mandate Palestine west of the river was set to become the Jewish Homeland, in terms of the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent San Remo Resolution. The two-state solution which has been touted since 1967 is thus in reality, a three-state solution. First, a short history lesson, which will establish the background and basis of the original two-state solution, while confirming my reasoning that the current demand is in fact for a three-state solution to the Arab Israel conundrum.
The leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and many others appeared most anxious to punish Israel by recognising a mythical State of Palestine in light of Israel’s defensive war against Gaza, following the vicious and criminal terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023. Leading the pack in this ill-timed, uninformed and imprudent quasi- recognition was French president Emmanuel Macron, who together with his partners in this folly were clearly not in lockstep with their predecessors who attended the San Remo Conference 105 years earlier. Britain, France, Italy and Japan saw no problem then in accepting the bona fides of the Balfour Declaration by including it in the San Remo Resolution dealing with the future of the Levant, an area comprising modern day Israel, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. With the exception of Israel, which had to proclaim its own independence in 1948, the other states were soon established by the Mandatory Powers in terms of San Remo in territories that had formerly been part of the Ottoman Empire before its defeat in the First World War. The establishment of the Jewish Homeland was thwarted by successive British governments.
Conference’s Consequences. Delegates to the monumental 1920 San Remo conference in Italy which has had far-reaching consequences for all the peoples of the Middle East not least, for the Jewish people who had been scattered across the world for two millennia. Despite the biblical enshrining into international law “the title deed to the land of Israel to the descendants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, over a century later, the very legitimacy of the Jewish state in their ancient homeland is still being challenged.
The First World War brought four unique individuals together in London between 1916 and 1918. The fabled four were British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, British Foreign Secretary Sir Arthur Balfour, South African Defence Minister General Jan Smuts and scientist Chaim Weizmann, President of the British Zionist Federation. Lloyd George and Balfour were both Christian Zionists, while Smuts, informed by his knowledge of Jewish history together with his rural religious South African background had an ingrained belief in the biblical Promised Land as the historical Jewish homeland. The association of these global statesmen led to the Balfour Declaration, which was no accident of fate, but rather a merging of ideas based on political realities, historical knowledge and religious idealism.
The essence of the Balfour Declaration, issued by Sir Arthur Balfour in 1917, was a British undertaking to promote the reestablishment of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine, considering the historical right of the Jewish People to the territory. The San Remo Declaration confirmed the establishment of the division of the Levant into several territories under French and British Mandates, which would lead to the eventual self-determination of the local residents. The inclusion of the Balfour Declaration was to ensure that one element of that self-determination would be the establishment of the Jewish Homeland in historical Israel.
The San Remo Conference was convened 105 years ago with the express purpose of deciding the future of the Middle East region that had been part of the recently defeated Ottoman Empire. Present at the conference were the leaders of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium and Greece, as well as the leaders of the Zionist Movement.
Following the conference, the San Remo Declaration, incorporating the 1917 Balfour Declaration, was issued, providing the legal basis for the establishment of the League of Nations British Mandate over Palestine, amongst several other Mandates. Sir Arthur Balfour remarked at the time that this confirmed the “historical right of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland.” While Lloyd George and Balfour were committed to the establishment of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine, their tenure in government was unfortunately destined to be short-lived, and their promise of a Jewish Homeland left unfulfilled.
Lloyd George was replaced by Conservative party leader William Bonar Law on 23 October 1922. Bonar Law, whose primary concern was an amicable arrangement to settle Britain’s War Debt with the United States, paid scant attention to Palestine. He was seriously ill with throat cancer and resigned in May 1923, to be replaced by Stanley Baldwin on 23 May 1923. The San Remo Declaration granted had Great Britain Mandatory responsibility for Mesopotamia and for Palestine in terms of the Balfour Declaration. Our concern is with Mandate Palestine, which has two distinct regions, one east of the Jordan River, and the other west of the river, extending to the Mediterranean coast. The failure of Great Britain to honour and carry out its obligation of establishing a Jewish Homeland in terms of the Balfour Declaration lies at the heart of many of the current problems facing Israel in particular, and the Middle East in general.
Unlike their predecessors who approved of the San Remo and Balfour Declarations, contemporary politicians analysing the history of Israel and of the Jewish People without considering the facts, has resulted in a bizarre revision of that history, led by the Palestinian mythmakers and their fellow travelers.
The original sin which lies at the root of the Israel Arab conflict can be defined as the general acceptance of the Arab myth of indigeneity to the land they call Palestine, sans any verifiable historical evidence. The same land is referred to as Israel by the Jewish people, with reams of verifiable historical evidence as to their indigeneity. The time is long overdue that the 193 member states of the United Nations recognise this truth, after which they would have a solemn duty to educate the Palestinian masses that they have no prior right to the land of Israel. Acceptance by all of the rights of the Jewish people to Israel, could result in a reset of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, which in turn, has the potential to result in a mutually acceptable conclusion to the never ending conflict.
HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE
The beating heart of Israel is the city of Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism, while the Arab Muslim world claims Jerusalem as a holy city in Islam, refusing to acknowledge the prior rights of Jewry to the same city. There are two indisputable facts regarding Jewish and Muslim claims to Jerusalem. The first being that the Muslim religion came into being between the years 600 and 620 of the common era, while Jerusalem is historically confirmed as the centre of Jewish religious life and home to the Jewish Temple at least 1,100 years earlier.
Roman historian, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23/24 – 79 CE), known as Pliny the Elder described Jerusalem as by far the most famous city of the East, while fellow Roman historian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, (c. 56 – c. 120 CE), described it as “the capital of the Jews, with a temple of enormous reaches.” The following excerpt (translated) from Historiae V, the fifth volume of Tacitus’ Histories, leaves the reader in no doubt as to the Jewish character of Jerusalem:
“But the city stands on an eminence, and the Jews had defended it with works and fortifications sufficient to protect even level ground; for the two hills that rise to a great height had been included within walls that had been skillfully built, projecting out or bending in so as to put the flanks of an assailing body under fire. The rocks terminated in sheer cliffs, and towers rose to a height of sixty feet where the hill assisted the fortifications, and in the valleys, they reached one hundred and twenty; they presented a wonderful sight, and appeared of equal height when viewed from a distance. An inner line of walls had been built around the palace, and on a conspicuous height stands Antony’s Tower, so named by Herod in honor of Mark Antony.”
While Pliny the Elder talks about the Essenes, a Jewish sect, in his history, Tacitus confirms that Jerusalem was the Jewish capital as well as corroborating the existence of the Temple, known in Judaism as the Second Temple. Neither Pliny nor Tacitus mention an Arab presence nor the existence of a mosque on the Temple Mount, simply because Islam did not exist in their era, only appearing on the world stage some 5 to 6 hundred years later. While there has been much conjecture about the existence of the First Jewish Temple, built by King Solomon according to Biblical records, there is sufficient proof placing the Jews in control of Jerusalem at least 1,000 years before the arrival of Mohammed and Islam on the world stage.
One of the results of the Roman conquest over Israel was the renaming of the region, particularly Judea and Samaria, as Palestina, in an effort to destroy the Jewish identity of the region, hence the name Palestine. One of the results of the birth of Islam was the military conquest of the entire Levant by Muslim Arab forces between 634 and 638 CE, the establishment of the Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Arab colonisation of the entire region. The Arab/Palestinian claim to Palestine originates from this colonisation, giving them some entitlement, while the claim of the rights that go with indigeneity can be debunked without further ado. The idea that Arabs are indigenous to Israel is of relatively modern origin, emerging around the same time as the modern Zionist movement and the subsequent birth of Palestinian nationalism, concomitant with the British Mandate over Palestine.
Apparently misinformed by the mythical contrived history of Israel, the 2025 United Nations General Assembly seemed to have a one-track agenda – the establishment of a Palestinian State in addition to the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River, popularly known as the Two State Solution. This was without any consideration for, or perhaps a lack of accurate knowledge, of the historical background. The map of Mandate Palestine below clearly indicates that in 1921, Britain divided Palestine into two separate units, the Arab entity of Transjordan, later the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, east of the Jordan River, with the clear intention that territory west of the Jordan would become the Jewish Homeland. That this was in fact the original Two State Solution has been long forgotten. The Arab Emirate of Transjordan was recognised by the League of Nations in September 1922, the first step to the implementation of the San Remo Declaration. The second step, the establishment of the Jewish Homeland fell by the wayside together with the Lloyd George government.
The small area in black with the legend – area ceded to Syria 1923 – this is the Golan Heights that were intended to be part of the Jewish Homeland, but removed.
The resignation of David Lloyd George on 19 October 1922 as the result of a financial scandal was followed by the election of a new government signaling the end of Britain honouring the terms of the Mandate. The establishment of a Jewish homeland became a very low priority, while Britain meticulously limited Jewish immigration to Palestine in order to maintain an Arab majority. Simultaneously with its Jewish immigration policy, Britain introduced a second Two State plan, while ignoring its own decision creating Transjordan in 1921 as the first step towards an Arab and a Jewish state in Mandate Palestine. The new two state plan, creating a second Arab state west of the Jordan River became the rallying cry of the Arab community. This was resolutely, and in many cases aggressively opposed by the Zionist movement, which demanded the application of the San Remo and Balfour Declarations. Trapped between Jewish determination and Arab demands brought about by its own perfidious plans, the British Government decided in 1947 to return the Mandate over Palestine to the United Nations.
1947 United Nations Partition Vote.
The General Assembly subsequently approved a partition plan in 1947, totally ignoring the Mandate division of Palestine, rather voting for a grossly unfair partition of the Eastern half of Palestine as shown on the above map. Needless to say, the Arab world refused to abide by the U.N. vote, now calling for a single Arab State, which would include a “Jewish component”. The Zionist movement in turn reluctantly accepted the vote on the basis of:
Half a loaf being better than none.
Britain vacated Palestine on 15 May 1948, the day after David Ben Gurion had proclaimed the Independent State of Israel in the region west of the Jordan River. The nascent State of Israel was immediately attacked by the surrounding Arab States in an attempt to strangle the Jewish State at birth. The rest of the story is the modern history of Israel, together with a never-ending call for the establishment of two states following Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 Six Day War. History also records that every offer by Israel of an independent Palestinian State has been spurned, regardless of the terms. The Two State solution with no Jewish State has become the new global cry on behalf of the Palestinian people, while the Palestinians themselves chant:
“From the River to the Sea”
This amounts to a call for a single state west of the Jordan River. Back to the future, I conclude with the all too familiar quote by legendary Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, who said in 1973:
“The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
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).
10 November 2025 – At The Car Wall / Nova Memorial and more on The Israel Brief.
11 November 2025 – The late Hadar Goldin laid to rest after 11 years and more on The Israel Brief.
12 November 2025 – President Trump requests pardon for Prime Minister Netanyahu and your headlines inThe Israel Brief.
12 November 2025 – Former hostages testify at the UN. Warning: Sensitive content. This and headlines in The Israel Brief.
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).
Israel’s extreme-right leadership is failing not only this generation but future generations.
By Peter Bailey
The foremost responsibility of every government is to act as the guardian of future generations by ensuring the long-term viability and security of the state. The major concerns of the government of the State of Israel seem to be directed at the short-term future of the governing coalition, rather than the long-term future of the country. Since the October 7 attack, with barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas, followed by Israel’s predictable subsequent military retaliation, a multitude of complex emotions have been unleashed in Israel, as well as within the Jewish world globally. Amidst the fog of war and an ever-increasing concern about the fate of the hostages, another kind of hostage drama sees Israel’s prime minister voluntarily held hostage by politicians on the extreme right of his coalition, inhibiting his ability to effectively govern Israel.
The inevitable decision to invade Gaza had the full and unequivocal support of the Israeli public, but as the war against Hamas in Gaza unfolded over almost two years, elements of doubt and disquiet began to surface in many minds. While several hostage recovery deals have taken place, elements within the governing coalition began latching on to United States President Donald Trump’s fanciful idea of turning Gaza into a Riviera-type holiday resort. Trump’s plan meant that the residents of Gaza would have to be temporarily housed elsewhere, while his unlikely plan unfolded. The hard right in the governing coalition immediately read occupation and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza into Trump’s outlandish proposal. Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader Ben-Gvir was very quick to ensure that his prized prime ministerial hostage, Benjamin Netanyahu understood clearly that any deal to end the war would end the coalition, forcing an election. The reality here is a strong likelihood that Netanyahu would no longer be the prime minister, reducing his court appearances to be like those of any other accused in a criminal case, sans the deference and special treatment accorded to him as prime minister. The bizarre determination to keep the war in Gaza on the boil with the Knesset Members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party continuing to support him, while he caves in to the demands of the far right, sets the scene for the dilemma of conscience with regard to morals, ethics and loyalty affecting many Israeli citizens.
While 47 hostages, 20 or 22 alive and at least 25 are confirmed dead, the stakes for releasing the hostages, even if it means ending the war, have never been higher for most Israelis. Similarly, for prized political hostage Benjamin Netanyahu, the stakes are at an all-time high. He has to stay in power to retain his VIP accused status, with the kid glove treatment that goes along with it. His personal political lifeline is to keep the war going, with an ever-increasing number of troops facing a deadly urban terrorist foe, while the living hostages remain subject to the whims of their cruel captors, who have no respect for the captives’ lives or wellbeing. Keeping the war going creates all kinds of challenges for Netanyahu, least of all being an outward show of being committed to the endless hostage negotiations being moderated by Qatar, Egypt and to a lesser extent the United States. The hostage families and other critics within Israel believe the government is not showing sufficient flexibility in the negotiations in an effort not to reach an equitable conclusion, freedom for the hostage captives and an end to the war. The reality is that Netanyahu, taking his own hostage status into account, does not have the political maneuverability to be flexible in the hostage negotiations.
Groping in the Dark. Alienating his country and causing divisions within, what is Benjamin Netanyahu really after?
The Trump Administration has been placing an ever-increasing degree of pressure on Israel to commit to a cease fire agreement, while the coalition government is doing its utmost to delay such an eventuality. The current deal on the table, presented by the U.S., puts Netanyahu on the spot. Refusal to negotiate will anger his friend and ally Donald Trump, negotiating in good faith and bending to Trump’s demands will alienate his political captors, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, leaving him very little wiggle room. It would seem that the creative solution he, or his advisers, came up with had the potential to kill two birds with one stone. Give flesh to Trump’s threats of “all hell breaking loose” on Hamas by taking a calculated risk with a precision military strike on the Hamas leadership in their safe haven in Qatar. The prize, a potential breakdown in negotiations without angering the U.S. looked inviting, while a collapse of the negotiations would keep Ben Gvir and company smiling. The jury is still out on the end result of the attack
Being a former South African who lived through the 40 years of National Party rule with government politicians judging loyalty on the degree of support given to the ‘Nats’, despite all the attendant dangers. The identical situation is unfolding in Israel, with those not supporting the right-wing government line being labelled as “traitors”, so similar to South Africa between 1960 and 1990. Zionist identity is being redefined in that those who question the extreme Revisionist line being taken, are declared to be unpatriotic at best, and anti-Zionist anti-Israel leftists at worst. The original Left Right political divide where the left-wing traditionally favoured progressive social policies through government intervention, while the right-wing sought individual liberty through limited government intervention, has become totally blurred in Israel. Israelis who favour some form of accommodation with the Palestinians, not necessarily two states, are labelled as leftists. Those who call for the annexation of Gaza, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) are the new right wing, who also see civil liberties as being discretionary and subject to government intervention, the exact opposite of classic right-wing beliefs.
Many Israeli citizens, myself included, have spent countless hours writing articles, answering criticism in foreign media and defending Israel however and wherever possible. We consider ourselves ardent Zionists and defenders of the State of Israel. The reality that more and more of these ardent traditional Zionists are questioning their determination to defend an Israel that is becoming increasingly indefensible. The majority of Israeli citizens accept that there is no widespread deliberate starvation in Gaza, but at the same time, many are beginning to understand that there is a hunger and potential human rights problem, which requires honest acknowledgement and intervention. With the viciously barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks on 7 October in the background making this exceedingly difficult, Jews and Israelis must never allow themselves to be lowered to imitate the inhuman and inhumane standards of the terrorist. We must continually bear in mind that Hamas are vicious terrorist murderers and not freedom fighters, while striving to maintain our own high Jewish ethical and moral values. This does not make those who maintain Jewish standards traitors, but rather labels those who call for the halting of aid and enforced starvation as Jews who do not fully subscribe to Jewish laws and morals as to how we are expected to treat our enemies.
Added to the disquiet over the way the war is being waged is the manner in which the hostage negotiations are being conducted, as well as the attempts at partisan appointment of officials to critical senior positions in the Judiciary and the Security Establishments. There is thus great concern about many aspects of life in Israel, from the attacks on the judiciary to an unequal military draft system with financial rewards to Yeshiva students for not doing military service, while reservists are expected to serve ever-increasing periods fighting in Gaza or elsewhere, causing long-periods of separation from their families, many with young children adding thus adding unbearable strain as well as financial concerns. Here again, any criticism of the unfair and unjust systems in place, labels the critics as “unpatriotic leftists” and even “traitors” to Israel.
Having said all this, let me clarify that criticism of the current right-wing government is not criticism of Israel, but rather the democratic right of the citizens of Israel to object to what they find abhorrent and totally unacceptable in everyday government policies.
*Feature picture: Troubling Triumvirate. Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister in the Defense Ministry.
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).
Women’s groups champion the rights of all victims of gender-based violence…. unless they are Jews!
By Grant Gochin
As a gay Jewish immigrant from South Africa, raised by three extraordinary women – my grandmother, Bee Smollan, my biological mother, Sandra Gochin, and my aunt, Valerie Smollan – I write this with great hesitancy as a man. In our household, the lines of motherhood blurred – each was equally and fully my mother. Growing up in a misogynistic, paternalistic society, these women were unyielding in their strength, instilling in me an unshakable belief in feminism as a lived truth. To me, women’s excellence in intellect, resilience, and compassion was self-evident, save for brute strength. I reject any claim to the contrary. Yet, I feel compelled to speak out because women’s groups, entrusted to champion the rights of all victims of gender-based violence, have let everyone down. By failing to unequivocally condemn the horrific sexual violence against Israeli women and men during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, these groups have effectively abandoned current and future victims of sexual violence, undermining the very principles they claim to uphold.
outRAGE. Protesters hold placards and wave Israeli flags as they take part in a “Rape is not resistance” demonstration in London on Feb. 4. (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
Feminism was as natural as breathing, yet its history revealed the profound role of Jewish activists. My Jewish friends shared my instinctive support for women’s rights, unlike some non-Jewish peers. Jews built feminism’s foundation, pioneering equality in secular, religious, and scientific spheres, only to see Jewish feminists especially betrayed, kicked when they were down by feminist movements, the United Nations, and global NGOs aligning with narratives that vilify Israel, attack Jews, and dismiss their suffering. The British All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on UK-Israel’s 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report, chaired by Lord Andrew Roberts and released on March 18, 2025, meticulously documents these atrocities, including sexual violence against both women and men, yet global feminist organizations remain silent. By prioritizing virtue signaling for Islamist ideals over condemning gender-based violence, these organizations undermine the progress Jewish feminists fought for, erasing their legacy. This article celebrates the Jewish legacy in feminism, highlights Israel’s strides toward gender equality, laments the antisemitic betrayal of Jewish feminists and male victims, and calls for accountability.
Selective Morality. Exposing the racism of the MeToo movement, if you are Jewish, and you are sexually assaulted, it’s acceptable because you are Jewish!
JEWISH PIONEERS OF FEMINISM
The feminist movement is inseparable from Jewish contributions, driven by a tradition of justice and tikkun olam – repairing the world. Jews were among the first to champion women’s equality, breaking ground in government, science, religious leadership, and anti-apartheid activism, setting precedents that feminist organizations later betrayed by ignoring Jewish victims and aligning with anti-Israel narratives.
In government, Jewish women were trailblazers. Bella Abzug, a U.S. Representative in the 1960s and 1970s, known as “Battling Bella”, fiercely advocated for women’s and civil rights, instrumental in establishing Women’s Equality Day. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Supreme Court Justice, reshaped gender equality law, ruling on landmark cases like Obergefell v. Hodges for same-sex marriage. Elena Kagan, appointed in 2010, became the fourth woman and eighth Jewish Supreme Court Justice, marking a historic moment with three female justices on the Court. Their leadership transformed American governance, advancing justice for all.
In science, Jewish women outpaced their peers. Vera Rubin discovered dark matter, revealing it constitutes 27% of the universe. Rosalind Franklin’s work on DNA’s molecular structure laid the foundation for the double helix model, though her male colleagues took credit. Ruth Arnon, with Michael Sela, synthesized the first synthetic antigen, revolutionizing immunology.
Jews also led in religious equality. Rabbi Regina Jonas, ordained in 1935 in Germany, argued for gender equality in Jewish law with her thesis, “Can a Woman Hold Rabbinical Office?” She served Berlin’s Jewish community under Nazi persecution and in Theresienstadt before her murder in Auschwitz in 1944, setting a precedent for female clergy that feminist groups later ignored.
The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, killing 146 mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women, was a turning point. Jewish union organizer Clara Lemlich rallied for better wages and safety. Rose Schneiderman’s speech – “We have tried you good people and found you wanting” – spurred labor and feminist reforms. Ernestine Rose, a Polish-Jewish immigrant educated in Talmud by her rabbi father, won a legal battle at 16 to secure her inheritance, rejecting an arranged marriage. Arriving in America in 1836, she advocated for women’s suffrage and abolition, declaring, “It is not enough to assert a right; we must exercise it.” Betty Friedan’s 1963 The Feminine Mystique ignited second-wave feminism, while Gloria Steinem, influenced by her Jewish father, co-founded Ms. magazine. Emily Gross, a Jewish philanthropist, supported Susan B. Anthony’s suffrage campaigns. Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, founder of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) in 1893, accompanied Anthony to the 1904 International Council of Women in Berlin, advancing global women’s rights. Fannie Rosenberg Bigelow, president of the Rochester NCJW, bolstered Anthony’s local efforts. Jewish men like Herbert Marcuse critiqued capitalist patriarchy, and Saul Alinsky’s strategies empowered feminist groups. Scholars like Nehama Leibowitz and Blu Greenberg aligned Jewish practice with equality. Yet, modern organizations like the NCJW, which now align with anti-Israel narratives, betray the legacies of Rose, Solomon, and Bigelow, ignoring Jewish victims’ suffering.
HELEN SUZMAN: A FEMINIST FORCE AGAINST APARTHEID
Helen Suzman, a Jewish South African MP from 1953 to 1989, was a feminist icon who fought apartheid’s racial and gender injustices. As the sole Progressive Party MP for 13 years, she opposed discriminatory laws, including those restricting black women’s rights, and advocated for gender equality through prison visits exposing brutal conditions and support for abortion rights. Her relentless criticism of apartheid, including the Sharpeville massacre, and visits to prisoners like Nelson Mandela were pivotal to black liberation, galvanizing global sanctions and aiding the ANC’s 1994 victory. Her Jewish feminist principles of tikkun olam made her indispensable, yet feminist organizations betray her legacy by ignoring Jewish victims.
JEWISH FEMINISM’S GLOBAL IMPACT
Jewish feminists shaped global feminism, especially in Israel, where Zionist ideals embraced equality. The Yishuv granted women voting rights in 1919, second only to New Zealand. Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi and Hannah Maisel-Shohat organized agricultural collectives, promoting women’s economic independence. Marcia Freedman brought second-wave feminism to Israel, challenging sexist laws. Mizrahi feminism, led by Henriette Dahan-Kalev, addressed ethnic discrimination. Women in Black, founded by Jewish and Palestinian women, championed peace and equality. Hadassah built hospitals in Israel, empowering women through healthcare. These efforts redefined feminism as a universal fight for justice, making the betrayal by global movements – prioritizing Islamist ideals over Jewish feminists’ suffering – all the more painful.
FEMALE EQUALITY IN ISRAEL: A NON-SEXIST SOCIETY
Israel is a beacon of gender equality in a region where women’s rights are suppressed. Its 1948 Declaration of Independence promises equality for all, manifested in women’s leadership, military roles, and societal influence, making Israel a non-sexist society despite the betrayal of its feminist allies.
FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN ISRAEL
Golda Meir, prime minister from 1969 to 1974, led with strength. In 2008, women held top roles: Dorit Beinisch as Supreme Court president, Dalia Itzik as Knesset speaker, and Tzipi Livni as Kadima leader. Today, women like Sharren Haskel and Orna Berry shape politics and tech. Women comprise 30% of the Knesset, surpassing many Western democracies.
WOMEN IN THE IDF
Israel, the first nation to conscript women in 1949, integrates them into 90% of IDF roles, including combat since 1995. Female pilots flew bombing missions in the 2025 Iran war. Leaders like Lt. Col. Oshrat Bachar and Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai broke barriers. Programs like Aluma support religious women’s service.
A FIRM GRIP ON SOCIETY
Israeli women dominate education (70% of teachers), healthcare (over 50% of doctors), and the judiciary (over 40% of judges). Tech leaders like Kira Radinsky drive innovation. The 1951 Women’s Equal Rights Law and anti-discrimination policies cement equality. The 2018 Tel Aviv protest of 30,000 women against domestic violence shows a society confronting gender challenges. Israel’s progress, unparalleled in the region, makes the feminist betrayal – sacrificing Jewish feminists’ progress for Islamist virtue signaling – unconscionable.
ISRAELI MEN: THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF OCTOBER 7 SEXUAL VIOLENCE
The Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, was a calculated assault on human dignity, targeting Israeli civilians with unimaginable cruelty. The 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report, released by the British All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on UK-Israel on March 18, 2025, confirms systematic sexual violence, including rape and mutilation, against men and women across attack sites, corroborated by UN document A/HRC/58/NGO/223. Yet, feminist organizations, the UN, and NGOs have largely ignored male victims, abandoning them to silence that compounds their trauma.
In Gaza, Hamas persecutes gay men, with documented executions, reflecting its misogynistic ideology. Yet, on October 7, Hamas operatives engaged in homosexual sexual violence against Israeli men, using rape and torture to dehumanize victims, as detailed in The Roberts Report. This hypocrisy reveals Hamas’s use of sexual violence as a tool of terror, regardless of gender or orientation. Feminist groups’ failure to condemn these acts sends a devastating message to future male victims: their suffering may be ignored if it misaligns with political agendas, perpetuating a culture of silence and stigma.
Shame on Silence. To shouts of “Shame on you!” at a rally in London against UN women for their silence, actress Maureen Lipman (center), told the over 1,500 rally-goers: “The silence from our sisterhood is just deafening, especially from the UN. They are utterly silent over gang rapes, pelvises being broken. Why? Because Jewish women don’t count.”
THE BETRAYAL: FEMINISM’S ABANDONMENT AFTER OCTOBER 7,2023
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was a horrorscape of violence: Israeli women and men were raped, tortured, and murdered. The Roberts Report and UN document A/HRC/58/NGO/223 document “credible” evidence of systematic sexual violence, yet feminist organizations, the UN, and NGOs, built on Jewish contributions like Regina Jonas’s rabbinate, Bella Abzug’s legislative victories, Vera Rubin’s scientific breakthroughs, and Helen Suzman’s fight for justice, have especially betrayed Jewish feminists, kicked when they were down by aligning with narratives that vilify Israel and dismiss Jewish suffering. By failing to condemn this gender-based violence, women’s groups undermine the principle of “believe all women”, prioritizing Islamist ideals with a double standard: “believe all women – unless they are a Jew.”
Blood on the Pants. Standing before the statue of prominent suffragist Millicent Fawcett in London’s Parliament Square, a group of women wearing clothes stained with red paint around the crotch to replicate the images of women who were raped on October 7, hold posters which said “ME TOO UNLESS UR A JEW”.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE’S ANTISEMITISM
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, embodies this betrayal with antisemitic attacks cloaked in UN legitimacy. She accuses Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” endorsing Hamas’s narrative while dismissing its October 7 atrocities. Her rhetoric, condemned by the U.S., France, and Germany, undermines Jewish victims’ testimonies, amplifying feminist abandonment.
UN COMPLICITY
The UN’s response was delayed and inadequate. Despite A/HRC/58/NGO/223 and The Roberts Report documenting sexual violence, a March 2024 UN report confirmed rapes but failed to condemn Hamas unequivocally. Antonio Guterres accused Israel of “misinformation,” undermining Jewish victims. UN Women’s eight-week delay for a tepid statement, contrasted with rapid reports on alleged Israeli violations, betrays Jewish feminists, contradicting “believe all women.”
NGO’S AND FEMINIST COLLUSION
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch fixate on accusing Israel of “genocide” and “war crimes,” ignoring Hamas’s sexual violence. Code Pink uses feminism to spread anti-Jewish hate, excusing Hamas’s atrocities. Women Deliver and the International Women’s Health Coalition (now part of Ipas) failed to condemn October 7. The Women’s March, which ousted Jewish co-founder Vanessa Wruble in 2017 for her perceived Zionism, remained silent. Jewish feminists Elyssa Schmier, who resigned from the DC Abortion Fund for supporting Israel, and Allison Tombros Korman, Senior Operations and Strategy Director at DCAF, who detailed her resignation due to antisemitic treatment in a Tablet Magazine article, exemplify this bigotry. Schmier stated on social media, “Intersectional feminism does not apply to Jewish women.” Korman founded the Red Tent Fund to advance abortion access rooted in Jewish values. Jewish women in reproductive rights coalitions reportedly face an anti-Zionist litmus test, sidelined for raising Israeli victims’ issues, betraying the feminist legacy of Rose, Franklin, Suzman, and Korman.
CALL TO ACTION: REJECT BETRAYERS’ FUNDING
The betrayal by the UN, Amnesty, HRW, Code Pink, Women Deliver, IWHC, Women’s March, Me Too International, V-Day, NWSA, and the Palestinian Feminist Collective demands accountability. These organizations, cloaking anti-Israel bias in feminist rhetoric, have abandoned Jewish feminists, undermining their contributions by prioritizing Islamist ideals. Jews and feminists must scrutinize charitable dollars, research recipients and refuse to fund betrayers who exclude Jewish victims and align with Hamas’s messaging.
CONCLUSION: RECLAIMING TRUE FEMINISM
As a gay man who cares desperately for women’s rights, I feel abandoned by feminist organizations that have forsaken Jewish feminists and male victims of the October 7, 2023, atrocities. Their silence demands a reckoning: Have these groups only ignored Jewish victims, or destroyed their integrity by prioritizing political agendas over justice? An investigation into their funding, leadership, and statements is essential. Jews and feminists must reject these betrayers, ensuring no dollar supports hate, so true feminism – rooted in justice for all – can be reclaimed.
*Feature picture: Sounds of Silence. Israeli women protest outside UN Headquarters in Jerusalem, in November. Finally, yet months too late, a UN team investigating the sexual violence against women in Israel on October 7 found “reasonable grounds” to believe that such violence did indeed occur. (credit: FLASH90)
DEDICATION
Schelly Talalay Dardashti, my cherished friend, advisor, and mentor, passed away on August 16, 2025. She was a woman of profound significance, whose wisdom and warmth touched countless lives. It was my immense honor to know her and call her my friend. I bow my head in deep respect and reverence, grappling with the unbearable truth that one of the greatest among us is gone. We remain but a shadow of her brilliance, forever inspired by her legacy. This article is written in her honor and memory.
About the writer:
Grant Arthur Gochin currently serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo. He is the Emeritus Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, which represents the fifty-five African nations, and Emeritus Vice Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the world. Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past twenty five years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped / inventoried / documented / restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation”, published in 2013. His book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. He is presently working on a project to expose the current Holocaust revisionism within the Lithuanian government. Professionally, Gochin is a Certified Financial Planner and practices as a Wealth Advisor in California, where he lives with his family. Personal site: https://www.grantgochin.com/
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
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).
