Radical Islamists and their supporters have attempted to enlist the world in banning Jews.
They have attempted to ban Jews from living in certain locations.
They have attempted to ban Jews from praying at their holiest locations.
They have attempted to ban Jews from having “normal” interactions with other groups under the banner of “BDS.”
They do this by placing Jews under concocted banners such as “illegal settlers” and “colonists.”
And they do this, whether Jews live in Jerusalem or not, in the “West Bank” or not, or in Israel or not.
If Jews want to visit their second holiest site of the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs in Hebron, the anti-Jewish media bannerizes Jews regardless of the location of their homes.
The radical socialist-jihadi horde bannerize the Jewish holy site under their colonized name “Ibrahimi Mosque” because all of the other Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs buried at the site prove it is a site especially holy for Jews. They recharacterize Jews walking around as “storming” and “forcing” their way into places they do not belong.
Anti-Jewish organizations and governments label any Jew who wants to visit their holiest sites as “extremists,” while Muslims visiting the same sites which are less holy than for Jews receive no such callout.
Bannerizing Jews happens in the Jewish diaspora as groups block Jews from attending classes under the banner that Jews are “Zionists” and consequently “enemies” who must be confronted everywhere. People may just call Jews “they” under the banner “from Gaza to Detroit” or a complicit component of “the ownership class” and “empire.”
The blatant discrimination against Jews is happening with alarming frequency as people rename Jews and Jewish sites to mask the antisemitism. Bannerizing Jews is rank Jew hatred and must be confronted.
At its founding after World War II, the United Nations was declared a bold and righteous institution designed to bring about world peace. To accomplish its mission, it granted itself certain powers under the presumption that the agency’s role and workers were impartial and noble.
Alas, people are people, and the UN’s corruption and partiality grew over the years. It has made the UN not only a deformed shadow of its mission but a deeply dangerous and immoral tool cloaked in nobility.
When United Nations “peacekeepers” were deployed in Africa and Haiti, their role was to stop fighting between warring groups. However, during the deployment, many soldiers raped local women and some young boys. Investigations of the incidents confirmed multiple accounts of sexual assault, and noted that the UN’s shield of immunity protected the rapists, putting the local population at further risk.
Many UN “peacekeepers” have been accused of rape and shielded from prosecution by the UN’s cloak of immunity.
Over the past decades in Gaza, thousands of local Arabs join UNRWA, the UN’s “temporary” agency to house and educate the descendants of internally displaced Arabs who left homes a few miles away. It pays well and provides protection to carry out rapes and massacres like the one they perpetrated on October 7, 2023 in Israel.
Or so the UN terrorists hoped.
After many UNRWA workers were proved to have taken part in the barbaric massacre and provided material support to the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group Hamas, victims of the atrocities and their families sued the UN. The UN claimed “immunity” from prosecution and the U.S.’s Biden administration agreed, stating “Because the U.N. has not waived immunity in this case, its subsidiary, UNRWA, retains full immunity, and the lawsuit against UNRWA should be dismissed due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
In a pathetic attempt to mask its complicity, the UN fired some of the UNRWA workers, several of whom were already dead. It would not prosecute the fired living workers and left such matter of justice to local Gazans and Hamas to manage. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said he fired the workers “in the interest of the Agency,” not as a matter of justice for thousands of butchered, raped and injured civilians in Israel.
It was a despicable display of inhumanity cloaked in virtue.
UNRWA’s Philippe Lazzarini
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had enough. On April 14, 2025, he introduced legislation called the LIABLE Act to strip immunity from toxic bodies like UNRWA. Upon introducing the legislation, Cruz said “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency officials have for decades knowingly provided support to Hamas terrorists, including salaries and materials. That support facilitated Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7th, which was the worst one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and included the murder and kidnapping of dozens of Americans. Those victims and their families deserve the ability to hold UNRWA accountable, and the LIABLE Act would give them that opportunity.“
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
The United Nations has morphed into something deeply corrupt and unjust long shielded from prosecution, even for heinous actions. Perhaps the LIABLE ACT is the first domino to end the invincibility of barbarism under cover of white hats.
The Passover Haggadah has a 15 line song called “Dayenu,” which means “enough” in Hebrew. The song reviews fifteen actions that God did for the Jewish people, any one of which would have been amazing on its own. The point of the song is to recount the many fantastic blessings God gave the Jewish people so that there is no way to show proper appreciation.
Jews around the world might ponder their various actions and contributions, and wonder why they not only don’t get appreciation but scorn.
Despite Jews being instrumental in the creation of Hollywood, they were deliberately omitted from the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Despite Jewish scientists creating many life-saving drugs, people accuse them of doing so only for profit.
Despite the Jewish State making tons of technological innovations that permeate everyday items and lives like smartphones, anti-Israel agitators try to promote a boycott of the country even as they use the country’s technology.
Despite Jewish philanthropists pouring billions of dollars into American universities, the school administrators allowed systemic antisemitism to take over the institutions.
Despite Jews being at the forefront of the civil rights movement, few Black leaders have come out and denounced antisemitism today.
Despite Jews allowing the Jordanian Islamic Waqf to administer the Jewish Temple Mount and continue Islamic prayer on the site, the Waqf denies Jews the basic human right to pray at their holiest site.
Despite Jews being the most targeted group of hate crimes in the US by a significant margin every year, they were never afforded protection because they are considered “white” and “privileged.”
Despite Jews having 3,700 years of history in the holy land and whose homeland is central to its religion, antisemites and university professors call them “colonizers.”
Despite Jews contributing a disproportionate amount to the entire world in regards to medicine, science, technology, and economic matters, antisemitic politicians call them “racists” and “profiteers.”
Despite the Islamic Arab armies’ invasion of Israel in 1948 and ethnically cleansing all Jews from the territories it illegally seized, Israel granted citizenship to all non-Jews including Islamic Arabs in the remaining land it ruled.
Despite Judaism not seeking to convert people around the world and believe that non-Jews go to heaven, antisemites say Jews suffer “Jewish Superiority.”
Despite Israel ceding land several times in an effort to make peace with its neighbors – which its neighbors never have – antisemites at the United Nations claim that the country is seeking to build a “Greater Israel.”
Despite Israel not wanting or starting wars, offering numerous ceasefires that were rejected, and would stop the current war immediately if terrorists surrendered themselves and the hostages, the international courts have deemed Israel’s actions a “genocide.”
Despite Jews thriving on debate and inquiry leading various intellectual and political movements across the spectrum, antisemites vilify Jews as a single shadow power attempting to control the world.
Despite Jerusalem being the center of Judaism, the United Nations passed a law making it illegal for Jews to live there.
Whereas Dayenu is a song to God that Jews appreciate every single item done on their behalf, Despite is a chilling reminder that nothing Jews do will satisfy the antisemites.
Watching the United Nations trip over itself to not call out Hamas and other Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) terrorist groups who should be brought to justice is a spectacle in rife antisemitism. Sometimes, watching the UN Security Council call out heinous attacks in other parts of the world serves as a reminder as well.
On March 21, 2025, terrorists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), an ISIL offshoot, shot at worshippers in a mosque in Niger. At least 44 worshippers were reported killed and 20 injured. The UNSC issued a statement less than one week later. I include it below in its entirety with bold for emphasis:
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in Kokorou, Niger, on 21 March, which resulted in the deaths of at least 44 civilians and 13 severely injured.
The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the authorities and the people of Niger, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.
The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. They underscored the importance for all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate with the authorities of Niger as well as all other relevant authorities in this regard.
The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
UN Security Council
It seems pretty straightforward to condemn the murder of 44 people. So why couldn’t the UN Security Council get it together after the October 7, 2023 murder of 1,200 people in Israel?
Eleven days after the attack, on October 18, the UNSC tried to get a resolution passed – and failed to do so. Why couldn’t the condemnation happen on October 8? 9? 12th? 15th?
Because there was no consensus.
The UNSC played with resolutions for days, including on October 16. Activity began to heat up after a hospital in Gaza was hit on October 17, and the world incorrectly jumped to the conclusion that Israel launched the missile. The United States vetoed the proposed resolution because “the draft did not mention Israel’s right to self-defence.”
There is no pathway for Israel to obtain basic rights and consideration through multilateral venues. It must pursue its interests on bilateral bases with countries around the world.
Israel has long stood with few allies at the United Nations. As the Iranian Proxies War against Israel has continued and brought new anti-Israel resolutions, it is a strange and welcome relief to see a new name appear alongside Israel and the United States in votes to support Israel: the east African country of Malawi.
United Nations Votes
UN Watch has a database which tracks how countries vote on matters related to Israel. Whether at the General Assembly, Human Rights Council or World Health Organization, Malawi has started to break from the Global South and is abstaining from condemning Israel and sometimes providing outright support for the Jewish State.
Examples include a UNGA vote on the International Court of Justice condemning Israel in September 2024. With an overall vote tally of Yes (124), No (14), Abstain (43), and Absent (12), Malawi was one of the No votes. In a December 2024 vote condemning Israel for not signing onto the Middle East nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Malawi abstained, even as 153 countries voted yes. When the UN Human Rights Council voted in April 2024 to condemn Israeli “settlements,” Malawi was one of only three countries to vote against the measure.
It is therefore worth understanding the country more and appreciating why it is siding up to Israel while much of Africa has not.
Demographics
Malawi is a country of roughly 20 million people and very poor, with a GDP per capita of only $1,590 in 2020. The total fertility rate is relatively high compared to the world at 3.4, but half the country’s figure in 1982 (7.7). It has one of the highest population densities of Africa and among the youngest average populations. Sadly, the country has one of the highest incidents of AIDS and child orphans.
While agriculture represents 30 percent of Malawi’s GDP, and 90% of the population is employed in primary production agriculture, the country is vulnerable to extreme weather including cyclones and flooding. Only 15% of the country had electricity and the same percentage had access to a computer.
Around 77% of the country is Christian and slightly less than 14% are Muslim. This is a more Christian country than neighboring Mozambique and Tanzania, while less Christian than Zambia.
Agricultural Workers
Malawi’s strong understanding of agriculture and low GDP per capita make the country a good source of workers to replace Gazans who are no longer allowed into Israel because of the war it initiated. According to Statistica, there were 165,000 Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) working in Israel before October 7, 2023 in a variety of fields, of which 35,000 were illegal. Today, there are only 15,000 Arab workers from Gaza and E49AL/West Bank. That’s a lot of workers to replace.
In April 2024, Malawi opened an embassy in Tel Aviv. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nancy Tembo said at that time that there was an effort to bring as many as 3,0000 agricultural workers to Israel.
When asked to discuss the war, Tembo said, “They [Israel] helped us get where we are now. We can’t, therefore, cut our ties with them today because there is a war in Gaza. Much as we regret the loss of lives, we reaffirm our firm solidarity to Israel.” The “help” provided by Israel included in areas of agriculture over the years.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Malawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nancy Tembo at the opening of an embassy in Tel Aviv on April 18, 2024 (photo: Yossi Zeliger/TPS )
The first batch of 3,000 agricultural workers is a good start but nowhere near enough, as the number of Arab workers has declined by 150,000, with tens of thousands attending to farms.
Today, the vast majority of foreign farm laborers in Israel are from Thailand, estimated to have been around 30,000 before October 7, 2023, reaching around 38,000 now. Israel has become a top four destination for Thai workers. Expectations are that a similar dynamic may play out for Malawi’s agricultural workers.
However, it is not that linear. According to recent reports, many Malawians over the past year used agricultural visas to enter Israel and then abandon the fields for employment in Israeli cities. For their part, Malawians protested that they were not paid according to the contracted rates. Israel is, therefore, also turning to India and Sri Lanka to supplement the depleted number of foreign workers.
Yet Malawi is still considered a strong source for workers, especially in farms. Earlier this week, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel visited Malawi to ink a new bilateral labor agreement with Tembo. The agreement will facilitate Malawians placement and training in Israel with good quality and stable jobs, and likely cut the illegal migration of Malawians into South Africa looking for work.
In the 1970s, Israel’s agriculture accounted for over 10% of its economy but that has shrunk to around 2% as the country developed a thriving position in technology. Still, the country has a strong food business and has invested significantly in food technology, so is focused on protecting its farm production. Malawi workers may be a growing part of that labor force, with complementary votes for Israel at the United Nations.
In the world of archaeology, there is nothing as prized as finding something in situ, meaning in its original place. The location helps provide archeologists with clues as to the surroundings’ age and usage, who lived in that location and the nature of society. Once an item moves, critical details of the environment are lost forever.
From that moment, the provenance is often a curiosity. Who owned the item and for how long? How did it come to find its way into this collection or that museum and what happened to the artifact over this time? These matters are often used to prove the subject’s authenticity, by tracing it back without interruption to the point of discovery.
When it comes to works of art (rather than archeological finds), provenance is less of a curiosity. Experts and viewers mostly focus on the art itself as well as the artist. The visual and message are the primary matters, not the journey of the art onto a museum’s wall.
Yet there are stories too remarkable to ignore. Sometimes the provenance is as much of the subject as the art itself, even reorienting the very perception of the artwork to modern viewers.
A Dutch Masterwork, As Seen By A Jew, A Nazi And Complicit Government
Consider the painting A River Landscape with a Waterfall (1660) by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682).
A River Landscape with a Waterfall (1660) by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682).
Van Ruisdael was considered among the greatest landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. While his peers Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and Rembrandt (1606-1669) mostly painted people, Van Ruisdael painted scenes of nature.
In A River Landscape with a Waterfall, we see the artist’s work with contrasts. The right side of the painting is illuminated by the setting sun, with a solid house on a hill set under clouds. To the left is dark scene in the shadow of the sun. Broken branches lay on the rocks and a hint of a house protrudes from the standing leafy trees. A barely perceptible person makes his way towards that house before sunset. A stream separates the two sides of the painting with a small waterfall.
This is one of many waterfall paintings by Van Ruisdael during the middle of his life. Of them all, this one is the most serene, with the title’s inclusion of “river” and “waterfall” seemingly an exaggeration of a modest calm landscape.
The story of the painting’s journey to the Phoenix Art Museum where it is exhibited today was anything but calm.
In the mid-1930s, the painting came into the collection of Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940), a Jewish Dutch art dealer who was among the foremost collectors of Old Master works. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Nazi military leader Hermann Göring confiscated Goudstikker’s collection. Over the course of the war, Göring is estimated to have amassed over 4,000 works of art. Most of the art was taken from France, including from the Rothschild family. Goudstikker’s collection made up a sizable part of the non-French collection, as he was partial to landscapes and the Old Masters.
Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940), a Jewish Dutch art dealer
As the war started, Goudstikker fled Holland with his wife and one year old son. They first went to England and then caught a boat to the United States. On the ship to America, Jacques accidentally walked into an open hatch and plummeted to the ground below, dying instantly. His wife and son made it to America without him.
At the end of the war, the Dutch government confiscated the looted Nazi art. Most of the paintings did not find their way back to the rightful owners as there were few notes about the provenance of each work. However, because Goudstikker was a leading arts dealer, he had ledgers with each work, including this Van Ruisdael painting. Despite the clear markings on the back of the painting with Goustikker’s seal, and Goustikker’s wife and family showing records of being the proper owners, the Dutch government would not release the painting to the family until 2002, 57 years later. The family sold the painting in 2007 to a doctor in Phoenix, Arizona who donated it to the Phoenix Art Museum in 2022, where it hangs today.
During World War II, private art collections like Goustikker’s were often seized by the Nazis, while those from public museums were better able to protect the most prized works.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands, the Mauritshuis public art museum in The Hague is having an exhibition until June 29, 2025 called “Facing the Storm – A Museum in Wartime.” It relays the efforts taken by the museum to hide its most valuable art from the Nazis. As described by the museum, “The exhibition will devote attention to the travels of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring during the war. The Mauritshuis had a bombproof ‘art bunker ’ in which it would store all its masterpieces overnight, bringing out a few – including the Girl – during the day…. During the course of the war, the most important works of art were taken to the various ‘National Storage Facilities’, where they remained until the war ended. During this time, the gallery walls at the Mauritshuis were a sorry sight, lined as they were with empty frames.” During some of the public showings during the war, Hitler featured his personal paintings and his book Mein Kampf alongside the museum’s Dutch masters.
Moving paintings from Dutch museum to hide from Nazi theft and bombings
There was a split dynamic between public and private museums as well as viewing art during the day and night during the war in Holland. Private collections were seized and public collections were hidden at night. When collections made it to the light of day, they were used as propaganda for Dutch residents and the enjoyment of Nazi officers who were able to walk the streets freely. Empty frames were like the disappeared Jews of Holland, perhaps hidden away like Anne Frank and her family, or shipped to Nazi concentration camps for liquidation.
Empty frames at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, July 1944
The background story and provenance of the Van Ruisdael painting is very much part of viewing the painting today. The pastoral scene of light and darkness owned by a Dutch Jewish family on the eve of World War II was seized – and enjoyed – by Nazi criminals. After the defeat of the Nazis, the Dutch government held onto the artwork and would not return it to the Jewish family which had to flea across the ocean to survive the Holocaust, even as the man who owned the painting did not survive.
To view the painting with such knowledge, the stream becomes an ocean which the Goudstikker family crossed to save themselves. They left their open, illuminated and public house on a hill for an unknown future. Indeed, Jacques’ untimely death during the journey is like the broken branches in the foreground of the painting.
The home and art the Goudstikkers left behind became a showcase for Nazi propaganda, like the house on the right side of the painting enjoying the full setting sun and completely exposed to the world. The dark left side of the painting are the works of art and the Jews of Holland who were hidden and transported to death camps, or perhaps they were lucky to leave the war early like the Goudstikkers, attempting to find a new uncertain home across the ocean. And even when they made it safely to the other side, did they get to enjoy their freedom, or were they fighting for their basic rights and property, such as against the Dutch government who would not surrender their art?
A painting made in the 17th century can be understood anew hundreds of years later because of its provenance. Journeys can shape the subject.
That is most certainly true of Jews, especially on Passover.
Passover Seder As Seen By A Guest
It is a tradition for hundreds, if not thousands of years to invite someone to a Passover seder. Inviting a guest unfamiliar with the story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago – especially for meals that do not have any children present – provides an opportunity to tell the story of the Jewish journey from slavery to freedom, and from Egypt to the Jewish Promised Land.
The seder uses a Haggadah, a standard text used by Jews around the world, which not only discusses the Exodus, but prior generations telling the story of the Exodus on Passover. The seder is both a story FROM 3,000 years ago at the point of origination, as well as the journey of that story over the intervening years until today.
The guest at the seder is not only learning about ancient Jewish history but seeing and hearing the provenance of that history.
A person can read the bible at any time of year to get a clinical understanding of the Exodus from Egypt. However, to sit at a seder is to see the redemption of Jews in a new light, incorporating the journeys they have taken over the centuries.
The story of the Exodus and the journey of Jews for millenia are too remarkable to ignore. Viewing both simultaneously is the magic of Passover, a gift for everyone attending a seder.
Well before the brutal October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel, antisemitism in the United States had reached horrific levels. Jews were shot in synagogues and supermarkets. Held hostage and hacked with machetes. Vilified by famous athletes and entertainers. Accused of being too powerful in the news and told by the leading powers in the country to hide their Jewishness.
“Experts” said that the antidote was to teach people about the Holocaust. If only potential Jew-haters saw what results from “big” antisemitism they would avoid smaller antisemitic acts.
The author Dara Horn scoffed at the idea in April 2023 and now in April 2025. She argues that a narrow focus on the Holocaust limits people to thinking that Jews were wiped out as a people in the past. Israel is framed as a consolation prize awarded by Europe to appease their guilt in the genocide. Lost is the rich history of Jews.
In fact, Jewish history is not passively lost but actively obliterated and vilified. To attend universities in America about “Palestinian Studies” is not a review of any positive history of Arabs in the small slice of the Middle East that Jews view as holy, rather a demonization of Jews.
Visit the University of California, Davis website regarding reading materials on “the Situation in Palestine and Israel,” last updated on October 18, 2023, right after thousands of Gazans massacred people in Israel. The materials are completely anti-Israel, whether books, blogs or articles. Israel is condemned as a “colonial project” over again, tied to “imperialism” and “militarism.” The boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS movement) is advanced everywhere. People are urged to “revolt” against Zionism and Zionists.
Nowhere is there an iota about the thousands of years of Jewish history in the land, nor about the centrality of Jerusalem in Judaism. Rather, it includes links to articles by groups like Palestinian Youth Movement which the Israeli government has tied to U.S.-designated terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Palestineism is not a study about Arab culture or history but a rank course in antisemitism, denying thousands of years of Jewish history and the centrality of the land – and Jerusalem in particular – in Judaism.
Jewish History In Israel and Judaism
There is over 3,000 years of history of Jews in the land of Israel. Well before the modern idea of countries was formulated, Jews lived throughout their holy land. They had kings and kingdoms. They had holy temples which Jews would visit at least three times every year, ensuring they remained close to Jerusalem.
Jews have been a majority of Jerusalem since the 1860s, before the advent of modern Zionism. For hundred of years, Jews have ended their passover seder with a call “Next year in Jerusalem!” The Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, was written in 1878, well before the First Zionist Congress, in a song about Jews being in Jerusalem and Zion. Israel is the only country in the world whose national anthem is all about its capital city.
There are certain religious Jewish practices that can only be observed in the land of Israel. Jews are the only religious group with a diaspora, defined as those Jews living outside of the land of Israel, because it is the only religion tied to a specific land.
A field in Israel with a sign that it observes “shmita,” meaning the land is resting, a Jewish tradition only observed in Israel in keeping with laws in the bible (photo: First One Through)
Whether one likes the current government of Israel and its policies is irrelevant. The LAND of Israel is the Jewish homeland. That fundamental fact is not only omitted but deliberately erased in socialist-jihadi schools like UC Davis.
It is time to rethink education and focus more on the land of Israel and its centrality to Jews and Judaism, than Holocaust studies. We need to prevent anti-Jewish lessons and teach Jewish education. To prevent another genocide of Jews, start with thousands of years of Jewish history and culture in the holy land, instead of classes about the European Holocaust.
Israel is conducting a thorough review of what internal failures led to the massacre on October 7, 2023. The inquiries and analyses are designed to both assure accountability for mistakes, as well as to prevent future tragedies. The primary focus is on Israel’s military deployment and readiness, which will likely conclude with several changes inside the military.
Another analysis is needed externally – focused on Hamas and Gaza. The timeline below is meant as a framework to better consider how to address the conflict going forward.
Timeline of Key Moments in Gaza That Set October 7 Massacre
1948-9: There are two principle differences between the area east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL/ West Bank) and Gaza:
The majority of E49AL/WB Arabs are locals, whereas the majority of Gazans used to live in Israeli towns and villages;
E49AL/West Bank was annexed by Transjordan and all Arabs were given Jordanian citizenship; Gaza was only administered by Egypt
The Arabs in the much larger E49AL had citizenship and sovereignty. While most of the world considered Jordan’s annexation illegal, the local Arabs had pride in their Muslim Arab country. They also had control of Jerusalem/al Quds, the third holiest site for Muslims.
Not so for Gazans, who were in a much more confined space without citizenship, sovereignty or holy sites. Instead, they were wards of the United Nations which promised them that they would move into the Israeli towns in which they once lived.
1967: The 1967 war was a much bigger loss for West Bank Arabs than Gazans, as the Gazans already had less. Still, being under the rule of the Jewish State made the lack of sovereignty much more bitter.
2000: The Second Intifada started at the collapse of the Oslo Accords. While pundits point to a Temple Mount visit by Israeli Ariel Sharon as the trigger for the multi-year Arab riots, it was the failure of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to secure all of Arab demands in the negotiations, including moving millions of descendants of refugees and internally displaced people into Israel. This was especially true for Gazans.
2004: As Israel put down the Second Intifada, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured a letter from U.S. President George W Bush on April 14 that in exchange for pulling all Israelis out of Gaza, the United States would back Israel in assuring that all Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) would move to a new Palestinian State and not into Israel, and that new borders of Israel would account for new major Jewish population centers to be incorporated into Israel.
President George W Bush 2004 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
2005-7: Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and the Palestinians elected Hamas to 58% of its parliament in 2006. In 2007, Hamas took over full control of Gaza, outsing its rival political group Fatah. In response to the antisemitic genocidal group sworn to its destruction taking over Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade of strip to halt the flow of arms. Gaza, now with self-determination, opted for radical Islam.
2008-14: Under the banner of jihad, independent Gaza did not focus on building up its economy and society but instead focused on destroying Israel. It launched wars against the Jewish State in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014, each put down by Israel. Meanwhile Hamas began to heavily invest in its underground infrastructure inside of Gaza, which in the past was principally used outside of Gaza for raids into Israel (like kidnapping Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006) and smuggling goods from Egypt.
2018-2022: Under the banner of the “Great March of Return,” Hamas led Gazan society to prepare to invade Israel. With United Nations support, thousands of students from UNRWA schools would march to the fence with Israel, familiarizing themselves with the terrain and normalizing their presence for Israelis watching their movement.
2021: When Israeli courts approved the eviction of Arab squatters from Jewish owned homes in the Sheik Jarrah section of Jerusalem, Hamas launched missiles into Israel. The action caused Israel to put the evictions on hold, educating Hamas that terror pays.
2023: By this time, Hamas’ underground infrastructure was in place and it had stockpiled thousands of missiles. It had gotten Israel accustomed to “peaceful” protests along the Gaza border fence. Better, it watched Israeli society fight amongst itself about judicial reform, and for the first time ever, a majority of Democrats favored SAPs over Israelis. With Iran on the verge of nuclear weaponry breakout and Hezbollah in Lebanon well armed with roughly 150,000 missiles, Hamas was poised for an all-out war, well beyond the limited skirmishes of prior years.
Gazans are more religious than West Bank Arabs and many more consider themselves entitled to move into Israel as UNRWA wards (81% vs. 49%). Those supporting Hamas were much more likely to understand the “Great Marches of Return” were about external political matters than those from Fatah (59% to 24%, according to a September 2023 PCPSR poll).
While the devastation to Israel on October 7 happened over a single day, it took years of planning. Just as importantly, there was societal buy in for the attack.
Key Takeaways
Israel – and the world – should consider the events that led to Hamas’ genocidal invasion of Israel and formulate strategies beyond eliminating Hamas and its military infrastructure.
The UN and Saudi Arabia must adopt the contours of the 2004 Bush letter. Over 80% of Gazans believe that the world supports their moving into Israel, validating their storming the fence. There will not be peace until the UN and Saudi Arabia make clear that a two state solution means SAPs move into a new Palestinian State, not Israel.
Dismantle UNRWA in Gaza and the West Bank. The United Nations has encouraged generations of students that Israel is not really a sovereign entity and that the UN will dictate that Israel will be forced to accept millions of Arabs. With clarity that Arabs will be settled in Gaza and the West Bank, there is no reason for UNRWA to exist in those territories.
Decimation and Vilification of Hamas. As Gazans suffered more over the course of the war, a greater percentage became interested in forging peace with Israel. Additionally, people who supported Hamas were more likely to have not seen any of the footage of the October 7 massacre and did not believe that Hamas conducted rapes. Therefore, Hamas should not only be defeated militarily, but vilified clearly so it will be abandoned by Gazans and West Bank Arabs.
Reroute funding. Gaza’s principal backers have been from Qatar, Iran and Turkey. All of these countries have hostile or tense relationships with Israel and foment anti-Israel hatred. Future funding for Gaza should principally come from countries with good relationships with the Jewish State.
No immediate plans for a Palestinian State. Gazans had internalized that terror pays, as the Second Intifada made Israel abandon Gaza, and the 2021 war stopped the evictions in Sheik Jarrah. The devastation of Gaza must terminate that notion. The only immediate plans for Gaza should be how to rebuild. Engaging in a discussion now about statehood would once again make local Arabs believe that there is nothing beyond the pale in pursuit of self-determination.
The timeline of how Gazans got to October 7 should inform the world about future actions, just as Israel’s inquiries into its military failures will change its practices.
Nothing sounds so lofty as the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), a global organization that should theoretically be at the vanguard of protecting civilians around the world. Alas, it made itself into a highly biased joke by having ten standing items during each session to cover broad matters, with an exception for a single region – Item 7 – being dedicated to the “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
On April 5, 2024, amid the Gazan-initiated war on Israel, the UNHRC went to town on Israel, passing the outrageously biased Resolution 55/28 with a vote of 28 in favor, 6 opposed, and 13 abstentions. The Global South was joined in voting for the resolution by Belgium, Finland and Luxembourg from Europe. The chickens which abstained were: Albania, Benin, Cameron, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Georgia, India, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, and Romania.
The eight pages of vitriol went well beyond actions during the war. It went beyond settlements. It went beyond withholding taxes.
It implicitly backed Gazans’ genocidal war against Israel stating that the council “reaffirm[s] the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation in accordance with international law.” This statement labeled the State of Israel as a “colonial” power, stripping it of rights of defense and designating it a rightful target for attacks.
The antisemitic text even decried Jews living in their holiest and capital city of Jerusalem. It criticized Israel for archeological excavations near the Temple Mount.
Only in three spots (marked in light blue) in the long list condemning Israel was there any expression that Gazans were doing anything wrong. Each related to the immediate situation of war and none condemned the thousands of Gazans who initiated the war killing 1,200 people, raping women and abducting 251 people, nor the Gazan leaders who threatened to commit the barbaric attacks again and again.
In multiple locations (highlighted in orange), the UNHRC demanded that countries withhold supplying arms to Israel and not take any actions against groups around the world which support the Hamas-led war against Israel. It urged countries to not supply Israel with “dual use” items like jet fuel or facial recognition software which could have both civilian and military purposes.
The text is a sickening farce, especially considering the heading of the resolution which highlighted “the obligation to ensure accountability and justice.” The text of the resolution clearly showed the HRC’s belief that only Israel should be held accountable, while Gazans should be absolved of their actions under the UN’s ode for the Stateless Arabs of Palestine (SAPs)‘ “legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence.”
In April 2025, one year after this shameful resolution passed, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tried to pass two resolutions in the U.S. Senate to block America’s sale of arms to Israel. His introduction to the vote lambasted AIPAC as a nefarious organization, and then called the Israeli government “racist and extremist” engaged in a “barbaric war against the Palestinian people,” even though the Israeli military constantly warns civilians to move out of battlefields and has the lowest civilian-to-combatant death toll of any modern urban war.
Fourteen senators joined Sanders in voting to block the arms sale to Israel in the middle of the multi-front war, including Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
The fact that all fifteen senators voting against supplying Israel weapons during the war were Democrats should not be a surprise. According to a March 2025 Gallup poll, Republicans favor Israel over SAPs by 75% to 10%, while Democrats favor SAPs over Israelis by 59% to 21%. This is a continuation of a trend that started BEFORE Gazans’ October 7 atrocities, as highlighted in Gallups’ February 2023 poll.
It begs us to answer the framework of “the obligation to ensure accountability and justice” in general, even before applied to war. What is the baseline that the UNHRC and Democrats (HRC & D) see the Arab-Israeli conflict?
The HRC&D seemingly believe that Israel is a colonial power and SAPs have a legitimate fight for “liberation.” In such framework, even leaders of Hamas’ “political bureau” are regular “civilians entitled to protection,” (as stated by HRC). HRC&D prioritize imposing sanctions on Israeli Jewish “settlers” in the immediate aftermath of October 7 (as urged by Sen. Van Hollen in November 2023).
The HRC&D baseline for considering “accountability and justice” is that Arabs are justified in fighting Israel, while Israeli Jews are wrong for just living.
Anyone and everyone should be upset with the loss of so much civilian life in the war which started eighteen months ago. But the number of dead on each side obscures the fundamental issue in the conflict is the competing views that Israel is a legitimate sovereign state or a colonial outpost which should be combated by “any means necessary.”
Masked anti-Israel agitators at Columbia University call for the destruction of Israel
While the UN Human Rights Council and fifteen Democratic senators have not gone so far to endorse a genocide of Jews in Israel, they are actively seeking to shield Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups and their supporters which seek the destruction of Israel from proper measures of justice.
The expression of being “stuck between a rock and a hard place” relates to being in a very difficult spot between two equally terrible bad choices.
It has been used to describe the situation of the Arab civilians in Gaza, caught between Israel and Hamas. On one side, is an enormous military which Gazans view as interlopers on their land, bombing them to pieces. On the other is their leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Hamas, who rules the Strip with an iron hand.
The Israeli military is accused of “starving” the population and advancing a “genocide” to “ethnically cleanse” the region of Arabs. On the other, Gazans have an organization which may torture and shoot those who protest against them.
On one side, there is an Israeli military that offers financial rewards for information about hostages, bounty for Hamas leaders, millions of dollars to disrupt the “financial mechanisms” that prop Hamas, and billions of dollars to Hamas to disband. On the other is martyrdom.
Leaflets dropped by Israel offering rewards for Gazans who provide information on hostages
From the Israeli side, Gazans hear a party that will end the war immediately if the hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders. From Hamas, they hear that the Arab fight is a holy one sanctioned by Allah, as they ask Gazans to sacrifice their children for the holy mission of cleansing the land of Jews.
Are Gazans truly between two EQUALLY terrible choices?
For the devout, they are asked to decide between a peaceful and prosperous life in this world, and one of holy jihad to rid “Palestine of filth of the Jews.” The Global North (3% Muslim) would immediately chose the former while the Global South (26% Muslim and 42% Muslim excluding Latin America and China) would urge Gazans to chose the latter.
Global North in blue and Global South in red
The Gazans are similarly divided according to devotion. In a PCPSR poll conducted in November 2023, soon after the October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel and abduction of 251 people, support for the massacre was correlated to religious beliefs, with “religious and the somewhat religious (76% and 71%, respectively) compared to the non-religious (42%)” supporting Hamas’s attack.
The calculus is changing now that Hamas’s power is collapsing.
Gazans are not numb after 18 months of war, having experienced ceasefires. They see that Israel is not intent on a “genocide” the way portrayed by their leaders but are intent on achieving the aims of releasing the hostages and ending Hamas’s rule. Gazans also see a severely weakened Hamas which cannot round up opponents en masse and drag their bodies through the streets or toss them off buildings.
So Gazans have started to protest Hamas’s rule.
But Hamas will not go quietly. It has begun to execute protestors, including 22-year old Odai al-Rubai.
So Israel reentered Gaza with ground forces and tanks, intent on applying maximal pressure on Hamas to give up the hostages and surrender, and hopefully inspiring Gazans to pressure Hamas to end the war.
Gazans see that they are no longer between a rock and a hard place, at least as it relates to the PHYSICALthreats from Hamas. They will still have to square whether their Islamic beliefs will permit coexistence alongside a Jewish State, or will accept a short-term “hudna” truce and patiently wait for the Islamic world to rally for “the cleansing of Palestine of the filth of the Jews” in the years to come.
From a Global North’s perspective, there should not be a divide between religious faith and coexistence. Gazans should not feel torn between practicing Islam and living in peace alongside a Jewish State.
But the tension is very real as preached by “Muslim Scholars” based in Qatar and elsewhere. Radical Islam is poisoning the Middle East, placing Muslims in a quandary of life, land and belief, which can only be resolved by killing every Jew in Israel.
The end of the current physical war is approaching. The ideological war remains.
First One Through 