“People debate Israel like it’s just a concept."

 (Thanks to AP Hamilton)

“People debate Israel like it’s just a concept."

As if it’s something you read about in a book or watch on Netflix.

You hear it in universities, in the media, on podcasts hosted by people who’ve never lived a day in this region or ever faced a single siren or buried a friend in uniform.

You hear it all: 

“Proportional response.” “Occupation.” “Ceasefire now.” “Colonial state.” “Resistance.”         “War hungry.” “Aggressor.” “Genocide.” 

They say it so easily. The words roll off their tongues like a case study, something theoretical.

But in reality, none of it is a story. None of it is a show. And none of it is theory. 

It’s human. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s painful. It’s horrific. 

This war isn’t being fought by politicians or polished debaters. It’s being fought by real people.

By 19-year-olds. By fathers. By women who were supposed to be planning weddings, not funerals. By people who didn’t sign up to be warriors — but were thrown into it.

In Israel, you don’t have the luxury of debating it. You can’t say, “It’s their war, not mine” — because it is yours. 

And that’s the thing about Israel — it’s small. So small that when a soldier falls, it’s never just a headline. It’s a friend. A neighbor. A cousin.

A community is left to grieve.

You go to a shiva, and half the town is there because everyone knew him.

He was at your kid’s bar mitzvah. He sat behind you in synagogue. He coached soccer on Sundays.

And while that pain is raw and fresh, people around the world go right back to their “debates.”

Debating whether their grief is valid. Whether their defense is justified. Whether their survival is acceptable.

Do you know what it’s like to live like this?

To send a young son off in uniform and not know if you’ll ever see him again?

To pack a husband’s gear and pretend you’re strong for the kids, even though your hands are shaking?

To watch a daughter put on body armor and disappear into the battlefield?

Do you know what it’s like to count the minutes during the day and pray through the night?

To stare at your phone, dreading every unknown number — wondering if this is the call that will change your life?

To open the door and see officers standing there with news you never wanted to hear, but secretly expected?

Do you know what it’s like to bury someone who still had plans?

Still had dreams? Still had their whole life ahead of them?

While you debate, these people mourn.

While you argue over maps and talking points, they’re holding funerals and wiping tears off their kids’ faces.

You talk about justice. They talk about survival. You talk about occupation. They’re just trying to make it to tomorrow. They’re not out for revenge. They just want to live. To see their families again. To come home.

And yet, they’re called monsters. Murderers. Oppressors.

As if they chose this. As if they asked for it. No one in Israel wants war. They want to work.

To raise their children. To build lives.

But when rockets fly and murderers cross the border, they don’t get to debate.

They have to fight. Because no one else will do it for them.

So you can keep your conversations about “balance” and “dialogue.”

But just know: while you’re talking, they’re bleeding.

While you’re analyzing, they’re breaking the news to mothers.

While you’re shouting “morality,” they’re holding funerals for kids who never got to be anything but soldiers.

This isn’t politics. This isn’t theories. This is Israel.

And this is what it means to survive there.”

 

Palestinian Leaders Play Musical Chairs To Dupe Western Donors

 The appointment of al-Sheikh needs to be seen in the context of Abbas's effort to dupe the international community into believing that he is serious about reforming the PA and sharing power. Abbas's main goal is to rid himself of the image of an autocrat and present himself as a reformist and democrat, so that Western donors will continue to pour money on him – foolishly with no conditions.

 Those who think that al-Sheikh would be different from Abbas are clueless. Al-Sheikh, a vteran member of Abbas's ruling Fatah faction, is an exact replica of his boss. Abbas and he share the same positions on almost every issue related to Israel. Both have always used harsh rhetoric to condemn and vilify Israel, especially in the international arena.

 Al-Sheikh may not represent the old guard in the Palestinian leadership, but his statements and positions reflect those of Abbas and the old guard. The Palestinians need real reforms that will end the corruption in PA institutions and remove corrupt and incompetent officials. The last thing they need is a new game of musical chairs designed to deceive both the Palestinians and the international community.

 For full report by Khaled Abu Tomeh see https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21577/palestinians-hussein-al-sheikh-musical-chairs

Yemini Attacks UNHRC in Support of Israel

Luai Ahmed, a Muslim and native of Yemen, arrived in Geneva to figuratively spit in the face of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. And he did it out of outrage—on behalf of Israel.

Here’s an excerpt from Ahmed’s speech (translated from the official UN transcript), which left an unforgettable impression on Palestinian advocates but was conveniently ignored by the global media:

*“I address the UN, the Arab League, and everyone who has been waving the Palestinian flag since October 7: where is the flag of Yemen? Where is the flag of my country, where half a million people have died in the past 10 years?

The greatest famine and humanitarian crisis of modern history—why does no one care when half a million Arabs die in Yemen?

What about Sudan? In less than two years, more than 150,000 people have been killed there. Where is the Sudanese flag?

What about Syria? Half a million people have been slaughtered. Where is the Syrian flag?

Mr. High Commissioner, why is it that when Arabs kill millions of Arabs, the world doesn’t even blink? Where is the outrage? Where are the protests?

Mr. High Commissioner, may I ask why, in your latest report (the Global Human Rights Situation report published on February 24, 2025), Israel is mentioned 188 times, yet the Islamic Republic of Iran is not mentioned even once?

How can you speak about this conflict while ignoring the side that armed, trained, and financed its proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis—who have launched thousands of attacks on Israel?

Why do you fail to mention that the Houthis in Yemen spent millions of dollars firing rockets at Israel instead of feeding my starving people?

Mr. High Commissioner, why is Qatar sitting here as a respected member of the Human Rights Council while it hosts Hamas leaders in luxury hotels and pampers them like honored guests?

What is your answer? Your answer is… silence.”*

➤ Luai Ahmed was born in 1993 in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.

He recalls that as a child, he attended a mosque where, at the end of every prayer, the congregation would chant: “May Allah destroy Israel, kill the Jews, and make the Zionists orphans.”

Later, he moved to Sweden—a country that, to put it mildly, is not particularly friendly toward Israel. But it was there, he says, that his eyes were opened.

Luai became a columnist for the Swedish newspaper Bulletin and, in 2021, published his book “The Paradoxical Journey of a Refugee: From Sharia to the Rainbow,” where he explored modern antisemitism.

On October 7, 2023, he wrote a heartfelt post that gained him 190,000 new followers overnight. A month later, he traveled to Israel in a show of solidarity. And from there, he headed straight to Geneva—to take the fight for truth to the UN Human Rights Council.

Can the Idan Family Realistically Return Home?

(as reported by Forest Rain Marcia)

The Hamas invaders filmed their atrocities, broadcasting their glee as they tortured, burned, and slaughtered. The footage from the Idan home is something I will carry with me forever. Watching Gali Idan, in the worst moment of her life, gave me an awe-inspiring lesson in what courage looks like.

 

Tzachi Idan had been taken hostage to Gaza, on On February 27, 2025, Hamas returned his body as part of a ceasefire deal. Tzachi was laid to rest in Kibbutz Einat, next to his daughter, Maayan.

 

18 year old Maayan was shot in the head, in front of her parents, her then 11 year old sister Yael and 19 year old brother Shahar. Terrorists were in their home and none of them knew what would happen next. The Red Alert siren blared repeatedly, warning of incoming rockets.

 

Gali, a ferocious lioness, tried to protect the lives of her children. Tzachi, his hands soaked with Maayan’s blood, trying to be a stalwart backbone for his family. The children, trying to understand what they are seeing. Shahar quietly asking his mother: Is it over? Is it over?

 

Try to put yourself in their place when the protest movement is pushing for an end to the war,

They say that Hamas will return the hostages if we do what they want, which HAS ALWAYS BEEN to leave them in control of the Gaza Strip and not control the borders. As if they won't follow through with their promise to repeat October 7th over and over until they achieve their goal of turning Israel into Palestine.

AS IF they have any incentive to return the hostages. They know that keeping the hostages is the best way to blackmail us, the best way to ensure that we allow them to continue to live.

AS IF it is possible to sign international guarantees not to attack Hamas again and then break those guarantees.

AS IF giving Hamas what they want after they invaded, tortured, slaughtered, and took hostages is not the best incentive to do the same thing again and again – and to do so all over the world where Jews have fewer protections than we do in Israel.

Worst of all, the people pushing for the end of the war, while claiming that this will save the hostages, are completely ignoring the reality of bereaved and traumatized people who need to be able to return to their homes in safety.

The Idan family is just one example. How can anyone look into the eyes of their children and tell them that would be ok to let Hamas remain their neighbors?

 

Iran Is Playing for Time in the U.S. Nuclear Talks

 For full article see https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/iran-is-playing-for-time-in-the-u-s-nuclear-talks

 The U.S. and Iran have kicked off nuclear talks in Oman, with Iran playing its usual game of strategic patience.

 Why it matters: Contrary to some of the more overheated commentary of recent months, the Iranian regional project has not been destroyed, or even conclusively defeated. Rather, it has been weakened, significantly.

• In light of this, Iran's strategy is clear: keep discussions tightly focused on nuclear issues, dodging any mention of its missile program or regional meddling. 

What's next: Iran's game plan is simple—either secure a deal similar to Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or drag out talks to dodge sanctions and military threats. 

• Iran’s strategy of proxy warfare, which had brought it unprecedented power and influence across the region, has suffered a number of very telling blows since October 2023. 

Some thoughts: The stakes couldn't be higher for U.S. foreign policy.

• Iran is banking on the U.S.'s eagerness for a deal, exploiting it to rebuild its strength while its adversaries watch warily. 

• Whether or not the regime manages to build them up again to their former capacity will be decided in Washington, and in Oman, in the coming months.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ismail Baqaei said on Sunday that Iran would refuse to discuss anything other than the nuclear programme in the talks. Tehran, Baqaei said, ‘will not have any talks with the American side on any other issue.’

One of the major criticisms of the 2015 nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) negotiated by Barack Obama’s administration was that it failed to address other aspects of Iran’s drive for regional hegemony. Specifically, the Iranian ballistic missile program and Tehran’s support for an array of proxy political-military organisations across the Middle East were left out of the discussion. The result was that the JCPOA removed sanctions on Iran, enabling it to ratchet up its campaign of subversion across the region, and to test-fire more than 30 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles over the past decade.

Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018, declaring he could negotiate a ‘better’ deal. Iran, meanwhile, is determined to ensure that the current negotiations maintain a similar narrow focus to those a decade ago.

With this narrow focus ensured, the Iranian regime will then seek one of two outcomes. It wants either a renewed nuclear agreement which, in its essentials, resembles the JCPOA, or a drawn-out negotiating process which leads nowhere but enables Iran to avoid further sanctions and the possibility of US or Israeli military action against its nuclear programme.

If the Iranian regime constitutes the most powerful anti-Western and Islamist force in the Middle East, and if it has been damaged and now needs time to recover, why are its enemies granting it what it needs? Why – when the regime is vulnerable, its economy in tatters, its regional proxies on the ropes, its standing among its own people at an all time low – are its enemies giving it the time it needs to emerge from its current low point?

Iranians themselves are watching carefully, and with concern. The basic structures of the Iranian power arrangement in the region remains intact, if enfeebled. Whether or not the regime manages to build them up again to their former capacity will be decided in Washington, and in Oman, in the coming months.

 

The New Jewish Fear and Exile from Europe

 Europe’s Silent Surrender to Antisemitism, full report here

Orléans, the city of Joan of Arc, the girl who saved France from English conquest during the Hundred Years’ War. The rabbi of Orléans, Aryeh Engelberg, is walking with his nine-year-old son when he is kicked and punched, bitten on the shoulder and insulted. In Orleans today 37 percent of young people in Orleans are non-European, compared to 2 percent in 1968.

A few hours earlier, a Jewish girl was walking through Christiania, the famous hippie neighborhood of Copenhagen. She thought she was in the “Free City,” self-managed and bohemian. The woman has an Israeli flag in her backpack. A man asks her if she is Jewish and she says yes. “Are you proud of it?” When the woman says yes again, the man spits on her. The woman calls the police, but in the meantime another man appears and tells her to throw away her “damn” Israeli flag.

“There were at least 50 people watching and when I screamed for help, one of the men smiled mockingly and said: ‘No one will help you here.’ He then grabbed me by the throat and started strangling me with his hands. When I finally managed to speak to the police, they didn’t ask me if I was OK, but why I was carrying an Israeli flag in an area like Christiania.”

Meanwhile, Faiz Shah from Bradford, Mohammad Comrie from Leeds and Elinaj Ogunnubi-Sime from Croydon kidnapped an Israeli Jew in London. Their victim, Itay Kashti, a music producer and composer from London, was lured to a holiday cottage in West Wales under the guise of working with musicians, only to be kicked, punched and handcuffed to a radiator by the three Islamists.

Welcome to Eurabia!

In France, there is an anti-Jewish attack every three days. In London, a Jew risks losing an eye. In Berlin, a foiled attack on the Israeli embassy (the one at the Shoah Memorial was successful). In Sweden, Jews under escort. In Rome, a boy wearing a kippah attacked on Via Nazionale. And all between January and February 2025

Norwegian Jews are increasingly concerned about being treated in public health facilities.

Who would want to stay in this Europe?

“In England, there are Islamic courts and police who apply Sharia law,” Pierre Martinet, a former French intelligence officer, just said. “Some neighborhoods are governed by Islam. In Europe, we have seen huge demonstrations with Al Qaeda or Islamic State flags. Doing nothing would be suicidal.”

And “57 percent of European Jews are thinking of leaving.” This is the other data just out of the Combat Antisemitism Movement conference in Vienna, which brought together leaders of European communities. The number of anti-Semitic incidents has increased by 400 percent in parts of Europe. “We are losing the battle,” Ariel Muzicant, president of the European Jewish Congress, said in Vienna. “In a few years, 50 percent of communities may no longer exist.”

“I would like to stick a sharp knife directly into the throat of every Jew I meet.” So wrote Herman Brusselmans, a well-known Flemish writer, in the magazine Humo. The European Jewish Association has filed a lawsuit against both the Belgian magazine and the writer, accusing them of “incitement to murder.” Now a judge has ruled: “It falls within freedom of expression.”

If he had written “I would like to stick a sharp knife directly into the throat of every black man I meet,” would he have been acquitted?

“Goodbye Europe, Welcome Israel.” This is the title of the Arte documentary about the Dutch Jew Shirli and the Italian Massimo who chose to leave Europe to make aliyah. Who can blame Shirli? Last week, another threat was made to a Jewish school in Amsterdam: “We will kill three of your students.” Only a madman would not take them seriously. Further, the University of Amsterdam is kicking out Israeli students.

Joel Kotkin talks about the “Jewish flight from the West”: “The Jewish population in Europe was 3.5 million in 1950, after the Holocaust. Today it has fallen well below 1.5 million. France is home to the third largest Jewish community in the world, but it is shrinking. Since 2000, 50,000 Jews have left France, mostly for Israel. Even more shocking has been the virtual annihilation of Jews in Islamic countries: one million until the 1960s, today there are less than 15,000 Jews living there.”

“The European Jewish population today is comparable to that of the Middle Ages,” warns Guillaume Erner. “With the Holocaust, anti-Semitism achieved its goal in Europe. While in 1939 Poland was populated by 3,500,000 Jews, in the European Union there remain 750,000, of whom 450,000 are in France. The other dizzying element, which no one talks about, is the disappearance of Jews in the Arab world. A million Jews lived there.” Today, no one.

And while Norway has only 1,300 Jews left; the country of Quisling has never seen such a wave of anti-Semitism. A Jewish boy was just kicked out of a shop in Bergen. “Because of the rising anti-Semitism in Norway and the Norwegian government, Norwegian Jews have started making aliyah to Israel,” writes Hanne Ramberg from Oslo. “I feel horrible that the Norwegian government does not protect its own minority, who have to emigrate to have a life of security.”

Meanwhile, Meir Villegas Henriquez, an Orthodox rabbi at the Beit Midrash (Jewish Studies Center) in Rotterdam, said in a video message recorded in his synagogue:

The chief rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Paris, Moshe Sebbag, also calls for departure: “There is no future for Jews in France. I tell all young people to go to Israel or to a safer country.”

Over the past fifteen years, 60,000 of 350,000 Jews have left Ile-de-France. Since 1972, 106,000 French Jews have left for Israel. “In a few decades, there will be no Jews in France,” said Richard Abitbol, president of the Confederation of French Jews.

After the liberation from the Theresienstadt concentration camp, the great rabbi and philosopher Leo Baeck wrote: “An era in history has ended for us Jews... We believed that the German and Jewish spirits could meet on German soil and, through their marriage, could become a blessing. That was an illusion: the era of the Jews in Germany is over once and for all.”

It would be one of the greatest successes in history to prove this great man wrong. But we should do as Hungary does, where today there is an ever larger and ever more secure Jewish community and we know why: they have very little Islamic immigration.

Natan Sharanksy asked French intellectual Alain Finkielkraut whether “European Jewry has a future in Europe,” the philosopher responded with a question: “Does Europe have a future in Europe?”

It will be a post-Christian, semi-Islamized, and Jüdenrein Europe. Many are working on this terrible scenario.

History has taught us that anti-Semites always start with the Jews, but never stop there. In other words, the Jews are the appetizer, the others are the main course. They could at least read the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog to realize that those for whom they demonstrate today will turn against them tomorrow. This is the relentless mechanics of History.”

And Europeans are like the frog that, slow-cooked, fails to jump out of the pot in time and is boiled.

 

Israel's Border Security and Visa Policy

 Border security and a visa policy. There isn’t a single sovereign state in the world that doesn’t have both. For full report of Honest Reporting see here.

The United Kingdom certainly does — a robust one, no less. For Palestinians, a visa is mandatory to enter the UK, whether for tourism, family visits, business, or study — short stay or long.

In addition to a visa, Palestinians must present a valid passport, proof of accommodation (hotel booking or invitation from a local host), evidence of financial means (bank statements, employer letter, etc.), and a return or onward travel ticket. Processing is time-consuming, often expensive, and far from guaranteed.

The irony of this, however, has been lost on British Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, who apparently believed their parliamentary status placed them above the entry requirements enforced on ordinary visitors when they arrived in Israel last week.

Upon landing at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and telling border authorities they were on a “parliamentary delegation to visit humanitarian aid projects in the West Bank,” they were found to have misrepresented the nature of their visit, denied entry, and promptly deported — just like anyone else who flouts standard entry procedures.

The two MPs were, in fact, on a trip arranged by Caabu — the Council for Arab-British Understanding — a lobby group that specialises in escorting British parliamentarians on carefully choreographed “fact-finding” tours of the West Bank. According to NGO Monitor, Caabu’s stated aim is to “counter the Israel lobby” in British politics — a mission it advances by promoting inflammatory, evidence-free accusations of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid,” under the guise of educational outreach.

For Mohamed, though, this wasn’t a matter of border policy, as she told the House of Commons, but an act of “control and censorship” — part of a broader effort, she claimed, to suppress those trying to “expose” Israel. She went further still, casting her routine deportation as political repression and invoking the familiar antisemitic dog whistle: “No state, however powerful, should be beyond criticism.”

One must assume, then, that Mohamed also views the UK’s visa system — which requires Palestinians to navigate layers of bureaucracy and reserves the right to deny them entry — as an example of a state’s unrestrained power.

Mohamed and Yang landed in Israel at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, on a flight from Luton, accompanied by two aides. During questioning, the two MPs — both vocal supporters of BDS — claimed they were part of an official parliamentary delegation. That claim was reportedly untrue: no Israeli authority had received notification of such a delegation, nor had any approval been granted, according to Israel’s Interior Ministry.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel denied entry to all four individuals “in accordance with the law,” noting their intent to cause harm to the state.

The UK’s own Foreign Office, it’s worth noting, explicitly states that foreign nationals can legally be denied entry to Israel if they’ve publicly called for a boycott or belong to an organization that has. It’s right there on the government’s website — advice Mohamed and Yang might have reviewed before confirming their airline tickets.

But their apparent disbelief that Israel would actually enforce its own laws has been matched, headline for headline, by the British media’s hyperventilation over the supposed diplomatic scandal.

Sky News has breathlessly tracked every twist of the saga, with headlines about the “furious row” over the Labour MPs’ denied entry and helpful explainers outlining “what the MPs said about the war in Gaza” — just in case anyone was still wondering why they might not be welcomed with open arms.

The Guardian is doing its best to amplify the manufactured indignation, leading its coverage with Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s condemnation of Israel’s decision as “unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning.”

Curiously, it failed to mention Lammy’s own support, back in 2008, for banning Israeli MPs from entering the UK — a rather pertinent omission.

So while the BBC blares about how “astounded” these MPs are, and The Independent frets about the “escalating diplomatic row,” let’s take a moment to remind the media — and our stunned British lawmakers — of a basic principle:

It’s called the law, and it applies to everyone. And as the Brits themselves might put it, this is nothing more than a storm in a teacup.