COMMENTARY / OPINION
The Uncomfortable Truth About Islam By: Rabbi Elie Mischel
February 9, 2025
On October 7, Hamas terrorists – devout Muslims – stormed into Israeli homes, slaughtering entire families, raping women beside the bodies of their murdered loved ones, and burning infants alive. In Rotherham, England, thousands of young girls were systematically groomed and abused by Muslim gangs while authorities ignored their cries for help, paralyzed by fear of being called racist. These are not isolated incidents, nor the actions of a mere handful of extremists. How is it possible that millions of Muslims across the world subscribe to a system that allows—if not outright encourages—such atrocities? The answer lies not in the misinterpretations of a few radicals but in the cultural and moral framework of Islam itself, a system fundamentally at odds with the biblical vision of justice and human dignity.
Judaism and Christianity are steeped in the teachings of the Bible – a Bible that commands us:
לֹא תִּרְצָח׃ לֹא תִּנְאָף׃ לֹא תִּגְנֹב׃ לֹא־תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר׃
It demands compassion for the vulnerable:
וְגֵר לֹא תִלְחָץ וְאַתֶּם יְדַעְתֶּם אֶת־נֶפֶשׁ הַגֵּר כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃
These directives and others like them form the backbone of Western morality, teaching individuals to value life and practice kindness toward others. Jews and Christians are far from perfect – but because we believe in the Bible, we cannot justify heinous acts like rape and murder of innocents.
In contrast, Islam’s holy text—the Koran—contains verses that advocate violence and discrimination against non-Muslims. For instance, sura 4:24 permits Muslim men to have sexual relations with women taken as captives: “Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess [i.e., female captives]”—a shocking allowance of rape within the context of war. And consider Sura 9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah… who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”
There is a direct line to be drawn from these verses of the Koran to the rape of Jewish women taken hostage by Hamas and the grooming gangs in England. The atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians were not spontaneous acts of violence but actions rooted in a worldview that dehumanizes Jews and glorifies martyrdom. Without the moral compass provided by the Bible, actions that would otherwise be unthinkable become justified in the name of God.
The Bible teaches that morality begins with God’s word. The great Jewish Sage, Rabbi Akiva, famously said, “’Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) is the greatest principle of the Torah.” This teaching is revolutionary because it prioritizes the sanctity of human life and the dignity of each individual. But without the Bible’s commandments, humanity risks descending into chaos, where might makes right, and the strong exploit the weak.
The Hebrew term for “commandment,” mitzvah, shares a root with the word tzavta, meaning connection. Each commandment is not merely a rule but a way of connecting humanity to God and His divine morality. In the absence of such a connection, people are left to their own devices, often leading to the kind of moral darkness we see in cultures influenced solely by the Koran.
The Western world’s failure to address the dangers of Islam stems from its reluctance to acknowledge the moral shortcomings embedded in Islamic doctrine. Instead, we are told that these murders and rapes are the result of a small number of Islamic extremists who twist the words of the Koran. This narrative is not only false but dangerous. By ignoring the cultural and religious roots of these atrocities – the Koran itself – we allow these atrocities to continue.
As Itai Elitsur astutely observed, the West’s inability to recognize the enemy as a collective is its greatest weakness. Instead of addressing the systemic issues within Islamic culture, Western leaders focus on individual perpetrators, all while ignoring the elephant in the room: a culture that, in its totality, fosters hostility, violence, and moral degradation. Andrew C. McCarthy further illustrates this point with the example of Rotherham. For years, authorities turned a blind eye to the systematic abuse of young girls because acknowledging the religious and cultural motivations behind these crimes would be deemed “Islamophobic.”
The Bible remains humanity’s moral anchor, providing enduring wisdom that guides individuals and nations toward justice and compassion. Without it, societies will inevitably fall prey to ideologies that devalue life and justify cruelty. The time has come to confront the uncomfortable truth: the problem is not merely a few bad actors but the cultural and religious framework that enables them – Islam itself. Only by reaffirming our commitment to the Bible and living by its word can we hope to combat the darkness and restore a world built on dignity, love, and respect for one another.
After Hamas terrorists slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, an unholy alliance of Islamic jihadists and progressive activists joined together to fight an unholy war against the Bible. In The War Against the Bible, Rabbi Mischel offers a prophetic perspective on these dramatic events through the words of the Hebrew Bible itself. If you yearn for spiritual clarity amid today’s turbulence, let the power of the Hebrew Bible’s prophecies and call to action strengthen your faith. Click here to get your copy of The War Against the Bible: Ishmael, Esau and Israel at the End Times now!
Rabbi Elie Mischel is the Director of Education at Israel365. Before making Aliyah in 2021, he served as the Rabbi of Congregation Suburban Torah in Livingston, NJ. He also worked for several years as a corporate attorney at Day Pitney, LLP. Rabbi Mischel received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Rabbi Mischel also holds a J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law and an M.A. in Modern Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He is also the editor of HaMizrachi Magazine.
FIDF LIVE Briefing: Lt. Col. Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Vice President of NEWSRAEL
Feb 9, 2025 Friends of the IDF (FIDF) – FIDF CEO Steven Weil is joined by Lt. Col. (Res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Israeli Scholar of Arab Culture, Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, and Vice President of NEWSRAEL. Dr. Kedar elucidates the level of impact Trump’s recent press conference regarding his plans to relocate Gazan residents of Gaza in order to revitalize the infrastructure in Gaza had on the world, particularly the discourse in the Middle East around the State of Israel and the two state solution. In the wake of this landmark announcement by President Trump, Dr. Kedar explains how difficult it is to fathom that Zionism has come out as the victor after the tumultuous year and a half following October 7th. However, Dr. Kedar explains, Arab countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have no choice but to accept this new reality as it is rolled out, because they need the support of the U.S. Dr. Kedar suggests that Qatar should be the lead candidate to weather the impending onslaught of over 2 million Gazan refugees, as they have the planes, the space and the infrastructure in place to accept these refugees. Dr. Kedar goes on to explain the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose hateful and murderous ideology has spread throughout the Middle East and the western world. Looking into the future, Dr. Kedar believes that the fate of the future lay in the hands of the western world, and how they respond to the increase in radicalized Muslims residing in western countries.
Trump plan puts an end to the Palestinian state fantasy [14:54] Jonathan Tobin Daily
Feb 9, 2025 JNS TV – Moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip may not happen, but at least, there will be a four-year respite from pressure to achieve the unachievable.
Rabbi Notices Something Unique About The Trump Gaza Deal That NO ONE Noticed [16:28] Rabbi Dovid Vigler
Feb 9, 2025 – Rabbi Dovid Vigler on the Trump Gaza plan.
[Ed.: Like the rabbi said, the best solution is for Israel (if we were good children,) to re-occupy Gaza. Since we are not, better it should be a ‘U.S. Protectorate’ (but NOT an ‘International Zone’ funded by Qatar, Blackrock, or the richest bidders.]
Intel Agencies Caught in Massive Voter Fraud [52:45] JEROME R. CORSI, PH.D.
Dr. Jerome Corsi Interviewed by Greg Hunter
FEB 09, 2025 – Dr. Corsi discusses the improbable and even impossible mathematical anomalies of the vote results of the 2024 down ballot elections
From a variety of scientific and mathematical perspectives, the data does not support innocent and innocuous discrepancies, but rather, shows massive and almost undeniable evidence of systematic vote fraud by the dark forces in favor of Democrats.
Ongoing Necessity To Protect The Jewish People By Alex Grobman PhD.
11 Shevat 5785 – February 9, 2025 Jewish Press
The need for a homeland where Jews could protect themselves was another factor in establishing the Jewish state. After personally experiencing antisemitism, Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, wrote in his diary in June 1895 that he “recognized the emptiness and futility of efforts to ‘combat antisemitism’” in Europe. “Declamations made in writing or in closed circles do no good whatever; they even have a comical effect.” At one point he thought the press could be mobilized to fight antisemitism, but soon realized this idea to be a “feeble, foolish gesture. Antisemitism has grown and continues to grow—and so do I.” The only solution was for the Jews in the Diaspora to found a Jewish state.
Moses Hess, a Zionist theorist, independently concluded that nothing the Jews would do could change the views of antisemitic Europeans. “For despite the fact that the Jewish people has been living together with these nations for two thousand years, it can never be organically united with them.” Europeans “have considered the existence of the Jews in their midst as nothing other than an anomaly.” Jews “will always remain strangers among the nations which might well emancipate us out of humanitarianism and a feeling of justice but will never, never respect us…”
Antisemitism had taken its toll on the Jews of Europe and Russia, as Victor Jacobson, a member of the Russian-Jewish Scientific Society in Berlin and later a Zionist leader explained in 1883: “The consistent humiliation and slander of the Jews has led us to begin believing these lies.”
Nothing less than “a return to the land of their forefathers,” would be conceivable, insisted Asher Ginzberg (Ahad Ha’am), a leading ideologue of secular cultural Zionism. This “historic bond between the people and the land” meant that “allocating them the most magnificent expanses of farm land in Canada or Argentina will not enhance the strength of the wandering Jew as much as settling on the lowly plain through which the Jordan flows and upon which the Lebanon looks out.”
When a portion of modern Kenya was proposed and debated between 1903 and 1905 as a place to settle the Jews as an alternative to the Land of Israel, a firestorm developed against the idea, ending its feasibility. Without any religious, spiritual or historic ties to eastern Africa, the Jews would not have been motivated to emigrate there notes historian Shmuel Almog.
The systematic destruction of six million Jews by Germany during World War II demonstrated the extent to which Jews were not accepted in their respective countries asserts historian Arthur Hertzberg. They were killed simply because they were Jews. Whether Western civilization would continue to accept the right of Jews and other minorities residing in its midst as distinctive entities with their own group consciousness is a question the Holocaust raised, and one that remains unanswered. Antisemitism and racism are still part of Western culture, and will be so for the foreseeable future.
During the Holocaust, not one state in Western Europe offered to help the Jewish people “defend its interests or even its existence” against the Nazis and their collaborators, declared Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Ambassador at the UN. The same can be said for the behavior of the nations in the East. The inability to protect the Jews’ fundamental rights or compensate them for their suffering emphasized the necessity to establish a separate state.
The hundreds of thousands of homeless Jewish displaced persons (DPs) wandering in Europe seeking sanctuary and a means to earn a living added urgency to finding a solution. Speaking for the Jewish Agency for Palestine at the UN, David Ben-Gurion summed up their predicament when he said there exist “large numbers of homeless Jews for whom there is no other salvation in the future except in their own national home.”
When the issue of allowing the DPs into Palestine was broached, the Arab states argued that they should not be held accountable for the persecution of the Jews in Europe or compelled to alleviate their plight. No one assumed the Arabs would be responsible for solving the problem of the DPs or that Arab countries would be expected to absorb them, Ben-Gurion argued. Homeless and persecuted Jews were being brought to “our own country,” where they would be settled in the Jewish towns and villages of Petach Tikva, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Rishon le Zion, Jerusalem, Degania, and the Negev. Moshe Shertok (Sharett), another spokesman for the Jewish Agency, added that the Jews were not coming “as guests of anyone.” Every acre of land they would farm had been paid for and “had to be wrested from wilderness and desolation.”
A Final Note
What about those who claim that Jews today are less in danger than in most areas of the world than they are in Israel, and that Israeli policies are a significant element that threatens Jews in the world? To these charges professor of law at the Hebrew University Ruth Gavison had four responses.
“First, even if it is true that Jews in Israel are not safe, Jews in Israel do not depend for their safety and security on the goodwill of rulers and the societies hosting them. This is a critical element of what the Zionist revolution was all about. Second, the safety of Jews around the world may be related to the existence of Israel in complex ways. While debates and opposition to the policies of Israel may contribute to antisemitism, clearly antisemitism existed before Israel, and having a place of refuge and a state that may use diplomatic and other measures to defend Jews may be significant.
Third, Zionism was also concerned with the quality of Jewish life permitted by life in the Diaspora. Israel is the only country in the world that gives Jews an opportunity to apply Judaism to the totality of their existence, including the political level. Finally, Israel is the only place in the world where a Jew can live in a public culture that is Jewish. Israel is the only place in the world where pressures to assimilate work toward Judaism rather than against it. For those who care about the continuation of Jewish identity and transmitting it, Israel provides the only place in which Jewish identity can flourish in the ways made possible by a Jewish public sphere.”
Alex Grobman PhD. Dr. Alex Grobman is the senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society and a member of the Council of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. He has an MA and PhD in contemporary Jewish history from The Hebrew university of Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem.
TRUMP REPORTEDLY WANTS TO RESETTLE GAZANS IN SOMALIA by Daniel Greenfield
I can’t think of anything that would make Rep. Ilhan Omar madder.
(Feb. 6, 2025 JNS
Big if true, as they say.
“The Trump administration is considering three potential areas for the absorption of refugee Gazans after President Donald Trump announced that the US plans to take over the Gaza Strip and relocate those currently there to rebuild the area, N12 reported on Wednesday.
“According to the report, the areas being considered are Morocco, Puntland, and Somaliland.
“The report noted that what these three countries share in common is a strong need for US support, as Somaliland and Puntland seek international recognition, and Morocco has an ongoing territorial dispute over Western Sahara.”
Somaliland has been looking for recognition as an independent country. There were early reports that the Trump admin might recognize Somaliland. And the prospect of that is what keeps Rep. Ilhan Omar up at night.
Somalia and its various regional Islamist allies have been maneuvering hard to block efforts by Somaliland to build relationships with other countries. After heading off efforts for a deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia, the Somalis have been confronted with growing Republican support for Somaliland.
The case for recognizing Somaliland is straightforward. It’s been a de facto independent country for 30 years, and the idea that there is any “united” Somalia is mostly a myth anyway.
Puntland is more of a mixed Somali breakaway province, and like Somaliland there are clan politics at work here. The Trump administration recently carried out airstrikes targeting Islamic State in Puntland. So there is a relationship.
Both Somaliland and Puntland combined have a population of about 10 million, so I don’t know how many Gazans they could take, but trading U.S. recognition for Gazans is interesting, out-of-the-box thinking.
And I can’t think of anything that would make Rep. Ilhan Omar madder.
DANIEL GREENFIELD Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
[Ed.: It’s certainly a novel idea to send them to Somalia, but I think that the “Genocide” option is a much more comprehensive plan! (It’s their idea, not mine.)]
Trump Unleashes Deep States Worst Nightmare [VIDEO 32:53]
Brigitte on Trump Moves to Defang, Defund, and Dismantle Deep State Control
FEB 09, 2025 ACT FOR AMERICA – Brigitte Gabriel Joins Stephen Gardner on Taming Wall Street!
Join us as we dissect these critical issues and reveal why the current political climate is the Left’s worst nightmare.
Join the Fight: Defund the Deep State, Back D.O.G.E., and Demand Transparency for America!
Iran: Fear and Braggadocio by Amir Taheri
February 9, 2025 at 4:00 am Gatestone Institute
- In a year or so, Khamenei has tried to repackage those setbacks as great victories for his now defunct “Axis of Resistance.” His assumption was that if the worst came to the worst, he would play his joker: signaling readiness to revive the defunct Obama “nuclear deal” with a shaky Biden administration keen on securing any deal with Tehran to justify Kumbala’s “greatest diplomatic achievement.”
- [Below] is the ayatollah’s latest masterpiece.
After weeks of speculation about “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei’s strategy for dealing with the new Trump administration in Washington, it seems that he has opted for a cocktail of tantalizing pledges and boastful threats. Tehran circles sum the posture up with a simple formula advanced by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi: We don’t want war but are ready for it!
The signal that the Supreme Guide has decided to authorize new talks about his nuclear project but is also preparing for a putative war with the US or Israel came with a poem he put in circulation last week.
Khamenei has been writing or, as his unkind critics suggest, committing poetry since he was in his teens in the 1950s. But he has always been reluctant to offer his oeuvre to the public, refusing to publish a diwan as even the greenest saplings in the garden do.
Thus, those who follow his poetic career know that he publishes a poem only when a major challenge faces him or the regime he inherited from another poet, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The latest poem is a sonnet (ghazal in Persian and Arabic) of 14 rhyming hemistiches or seven lines (be it in Persian and Arabic) and is supposed to depict the poet’s inner struggle with rising fears and persistent doubts.
The message it wishes to pass is one of steadfastness regardless of the Islamic Republic’s recent setbacks in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and parts of Yemen held by Houthis.
In a year or so, Khamenei has tried to repackage those setbacks as great victories for his now defunct “Axis of Resistance.” His assumption was that if the worst came to the worst, he would play his joker: signaling readiness to revive the defunct Obama “nuclear deal” with a shaky Biden administration keen on securing any deal with Tehran to justify Kumbala’s “greatest diplomatic achievement.”
The latest poem, however, seems to have been composed after Joe Biden had packed his luggage to leave the White House.
The poet foresees “toil and trouble” on a battlefield and is gripped with fear and trembling. The aim of the poet is to stiffen his backbone with a reminder that he holds “the staff of Moses,” which swallowed the snakes and adders pitted against it by the Pharaoh’s sorcerers.
The intention is to produce a work of bravura known in Arabic and Persian as rajaz, the ballad that ancient warriors composed and read aloud on the eve of a decisive battle to enthuse their troops and frighten their foes.
Thus, Khamenei demands that his followers be “like a solid rock” leaning only on “a mountain,” presumably meaning himself. He insists that he and his followers would not flee from a “call-out” or challenge (da’a in Arabic and Persian).
Classical Arabic and Persian literature offer numerous examples of rajaz that rise to the highest levels of poetic creation. In Arabic, there are such masters as Muhalil Ibn Rahilah, Labid, and a more rough diamond like Antar Ibn Shaddad, not to mention the master of all, Imru’ al-Qays, who won the sobriquet of the “King of the Wayward” (al-Malik al-Dhalil) for having kicked Dhul-Khalasah, a mixture of idol and oracle in pre-Islamic Arabia.
In Persian literature, you find the greatest masters of the genre in Onsori, Assadi-Toussi, Asjodi, and Amir-Moezzi.
As a student of poetry, the ayatollah is surely familiar with that rich tradition in both Persian and Arabic.
And yet, surprisingly, he seems to ignore the basic features of the genre, the rules of the game, so to speak.
Arabic and Persian poetry come in nine basic forms, from ghazal to ruba’ee to qasidah or ode, each of which is regarded as suitable for passing a message. If you wish to pass on a bit of wisdom in a short, almost haiku-like form, you go for a ruba’ee. If you wish to narrate a story or preach a doctrine, your best bet is a mathnavi in one of the 13 meters available.
The ghazal is almost always used to convey a romantic view of existence, from reflecting the beauty of a garden to capturing the joy of an evening of merrymaking with friends to wooing a reluctant debutante or even a sin-seasoned Jezebel.
In other words, the ghazal isn’t a suitable form for rajaz, which always marches in as a qasidah. But then, a poem that falls short of 13 lines or 26 hemistiches, as the ayatollah’s does, cannot be regarded as a qasidah.
Then there is the question of the meter. The meter chosen by the ayatollah suits a ghazal of introspection, romantic fantasy, and music-and-moonlight wooing of a hard-to-get beauty. Rajaz needs a meter that beats the biggest drums and blows into the loudest trumpets.
Ghazal does the work of chamber music, while qasidah is the poetic form of a symphony.
The rajaz begins with narrating the grievances, sufferings, and thirst for vengeance in the name of justice. It hides whatever weakness, doubt, and fears the poet might be harboring, whereas the ayatollah’s ghazal depicts a man struck by self-doubt and unspecified fears lurking in the background, as in a haunted house.
Ignoring the “necessity of the unnecessary” rule of rhyming (lozum ma la yazem in Arabic), the ayatollah uses the word magoriz (“don’t escape” in Persian) to seal every line.
This is an unfortunate choice in a poem supposedly designed to inspire the stand-and-fight spirit, while the poet casts himself as the heir to “the heroes of Khyber and Badr battles of early Islam.”
Needless to say, the ayatollah’s poem is devoid of the reiterative metaphors that deepen each other’s message, as one nip of the sword widens the wound inflicted by a previous nip. The technique, used masterfully by Onsori, for example, turns the qasidah into something akin to painting by words.
I don’t know what mark classical experts on Persian poetry such as Shams Qais Razi or Nizami Arudhi would have given the ayatollah for his rajaz, but those dealing with his Islamic Republic might find some intriguing clues to his hidden thoughts. As for Iranians, they may pray that the man who rules them has more respect for the rules of governance than he shows for the conventions of rajaz.
Here is the ayatollah’s latest masterpiece:
Dear Heart! From the battle of toil and trouble do not escape
Turn onto yourself like a whirlwind and like the morning breeze don’t escape
The staff of Moses is in your hand, throw it in
fear not the snakes of sorcerers do not escape
You are the wave of courage and determination, don’t fear the sea
ignore the roaring of the storm, from your abode do not escape
Don’t be broken-hearted because of the infidelity of these times
Be a symbol like a banner, from the winds do not escape
Be a solid rock and lean only on the mountains
Give your heart to the truth and from call-outs( reckonings) don’t escape
You are a descendant of the heroes of Khyber and Badr
Be like Haidar with his double-edged sword, from challenges do not escape
Do not abandon the path with a sweet smile of hypocrites
With the poisonous smirk of a foe into hiding do not escape!
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.
Gatestone Institute would like to thank the author for his kind permission to reprint this article in slightly different form from Asharq Al-Awsat. He graciously serves as Chairman of Gatestone Europe.
‘The Palestinian People Does Not Exist’ by Nils A. Haug
February 9, 2025 at 5:00 am Gatestone Institute
- “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.” — Senior PLO official Zuheir Mohsen, interviewed by James Dorsey, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
- Jordan… actually was in possession of Jerusalem, if illegally, between 1948 and the 1967 Six-Day War. Jordan nevertheless, the first day of the war, insisted on joining the other Arab countries in attacking Israel, even though General Moshe Dayan had warned Jordan’s King Hussein at the time to stay out of it….
- The Al-Aqsa Mosque would therefore have been constructed six years after Muhamad’s death: c. 570- June 8, 632 CE.
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.” — Senior PLO official Zuheir Mohsen, interviewed by James Dorsey, Trouw, March 31, 1977. Pictured: Mohsen in 1975. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
While Islamism can be understood as an extremist political and ideological facet of Islam, Palestinianism comprises a narrow ideological expression of such Islamism. In particular, Palestinianism can be regarded as a subset of the broader jihadist Islamist agenda; one of its “action-arms” so to speak.
On the world stage and promoted by the legacy media, the Palestinian issue is relentlessly and often callously exploited by ruthless jihadist Islamists and their sympathizers, despite the immense suffering of many innocent civilians from both parties to the conflict. It is the gross misuse of the Palestinian people’s predicament for tactical purposes that has led to the fabricated ideology of Palestinianism. Admittedly, the Islamist propaganda “machine” has been partially successful in persuading the West as to the justice, however fabricated, of the Palestinian cause.
Islamist land claims pertaining to Palestine (by which they infer all of Eretz Yisrael – the land of Israel) are, unfortunately, based on false allegations of illegitimate colonialist actions by the Jewish people of the area. The Jews have, it is claimed, usurped the rights of Muslim Palestinians to their historical land. These allegations, however, are merely a façade for covering the true motives of jihadist Islamists who control the public narrative.
The less-than-elevating background to the “Palestinian movement” was exposed by leading Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz in his June 2024 article on the notion of Palestinianism. He explained that the dispute over land has escalated in recent times from “a resolvable conflict over land to an irresolvable conflict over religion.” The true nature of the conflict is thus one of religion.
The late senior PLO official Zuheir Mohsen even openly admitted in the Dutch daily Trouw in 1977 that the Palestinian cause is actually, well, fake:
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”
— Zuheir Mohsen to James Dorsey, “Wij zijn alleen Palestijn om politieke reden“, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
Palestinianism has nevertheless accelerated on the world stage through an intersection of Western ideologies based on the neo-Marxist premise that if someone succeeds, it can only have happened because they have oppressed someone else. A situation of win-win capitalism — with unions protecting workers, and profit-sharing plans and investments that share the opportunity so that if an enterprise is successful, all the investors win (and if it is not, they all share the risk and lose) — does not occur to them. For the Marxists, there must always be an oppressor and an oppressed.
Recent ideologies have related, for instance, to critical race and sex-gender constructs; allegations of settler-colonialist conflicts — one in particular referred to as Zionism, whereby the purportedly rightful landowners (Muslims) are displaced by Jews, even though Jews have also lived on the land continuously for nearly 4,000 years. Human rights violations are supposedly committed only by Israel, whether in war or peace.
Some leaders of Western nations are complicit, whether by commission or omission, in encouraging or tolerating Palestinianism, notwithstanding countless violent crimes committed in the name of the “Palestinian cause” by jihadists and their supporters. Nations that blame only Israel include Ireland, Norway, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, USA, Canada and UK.
Eli Wiesel, during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, reminded the world that, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Most Western leaders fail to counter jihadist attacks, jihadist sexual grooming and mass rape of children, violence against women, stabbings, vehicular ramming and other sociopathic behavior. They apparently want every vote.
The true motive of Islamists — in exploiting the Palestinian issue — might well be to take control and ownership of the holy city of Jerusalem and the rest of the land to which, since the Ottoman Empire, they appear to believe they are entitled. Jordan, however, actually was in possession of much of Jerusalem, if illegally, between 1948 and the 1967 Six-Day War. Jordan nevertheless, the first day of the war, insisted on joining the other Arab countries in attacking Israel, even though General Moshe Dayan had warned Jordan’s King Hussein at the time to stay out of it;
“Moshe Dayan, as Israel’s Defense Minister, did attempt to keep Jordan out of the Six-Day War in 1967. On the eve of the conflict, Dayan cautioned army commanders in Jerusalem to avoid provoking Jordanian forces. Additionally, on the morning of June 5, 1967, as Israel launched its preemptive strike against Egypt, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to Jordan’s King Hussein, stating that if Jordan made no hostile move, neither would Israel. Despite these efforts, Jordan ultimately joined the war on June 5, 1967, after receiving false reports of Egyptian success against Israel. This decision led to intense fighting between Israeli and Jordanian forces, particularly in Jerusalem and the West Bank.”
All other declared reasons apart from conquering Israel are simply a mask to distract from the real strategy for capturing all of Jerusalem and all of the land that now constitutes Israel. In this effort, they are happily aided by willing, often ignorant, Jew-hating sympathizers in the West, and jihadists in various Islamic states.
For this reason, a two-state solution has been continually rejected by Islamists since even before the days of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, despite the 1993-95 Oslo Accords promoting the sharing of Israel’s land. Islamists want all of it, not just portions. Israel and the Jewish people of the world can never allow that, nor should they.
The root of Israel’s current conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran therefore seems to focus first on Jerusalem – as does Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Jerusalem is the religious center of Israel and the heart of claims by the world’s three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam — despite Islam, among the three, having only the slightest legitimate entitlement to the city:
The primary Islamic claim to Jerusalem, as noted by journalist Roy Hirsch and Dr. Tanveer Zamani, founder of the People’s Party of Pakistan, is based on:
“The Quranic chapter Ibrahim 14:37 recounts that God instructed Abraham to leave Hagar and Ishmael in the barren valley of Mecca, while Isaac stayed in Canaan. This deliberate landmark separation not only highlights the distinct identities of these religious civilizations but also provides insights into resolving contemporary disputes over land claims.
“The Islamic connection to Jerusalem is linked to Prophet Muhammad’s brief, one-time stop at the farthest Temple Mount during his nocturnal journey to Heaven in 620 CE, as mentioned in Quran, Al-Isra -17:1.
[“Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).” Al-Isra -17:1]
“This passage describes a fleeting visit that should not be misused as a lasting religious claim. The stop at the Temple Mount was an initial stage of Prophet Muhammad’s nocturnal journey to Heaven, involving the witnessing of heavenly signs on Earth before his ascension. These Holy sites, associated with earlier prophets such as Abraham, and Isaac, lineage; Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and Zakariya, served as a prelude to his ultimate ascent to Heaven. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, established by Caliph Umar in 638 CE, was not even present during the Prophet’s time.”
The Al-Aqsa Mosque would therefore have been constructed six years after Muhamad’s death: c. 570 – June 8, 632 CE
The two holiest sites for Muslims, and exclusive to them, do not include either the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Jerusalem, but are the Sacred Mosque in Mecca (in the direction of which Muslims pray daily) and the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina – neither of which is anywhere near Jerusalem. Hence, declarations by Islamists claiming Jerusalem are not founded on history, reality nor legitimacy, notwithstanding the Palestinian Authority in 2000, “passing a law declaring Jerusalem to be their capital.”
In the result, the propagated basis for the invasions of Israel during times of intifada and particularly on October 7, 2023, ostensibly to prevent a Jewish take-over of the Al-Aqsa mosque, are simply false — part of Palestinianism propaganda claims first proposed as a pretext by Hitler’s ally, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al Husseini.
The October 7 jihadist operation, named “Al-Aqsa flood” supposedly to “liberate” that part of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount where the mosque is located, was therefore founded on a gross deception. The jihadist utilization of Palestinianism was, however, successful in gathering a mass of terrorists in a common cause to execute the Islamist agenda of conquering Israel, “liberating” Jerusalem, and killing all occupants. Hence the slogan, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Again, the jihadist strategy was doomed to failure — as are all attempts to annihilate Israel and its people.
In 2010, Eli Wiesel explained the exclusive sacred nature of Jerusalem to Jews:
“For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture — and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it is Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming.”
Historically, Jerusalem indisputably belongs to the Jewish people. Ever since King David declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the nation, some 3,000 years ago, the Jews have occupied and controlled the city — apart from only two occasions in history: once during the period of Roman rule and the other in more contemporary times when Jordan refused access to the Jews before the 1967 Six-Day War.
The enduring importance of Jerusalem is not only its historical connotations but the belief, by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, that the city and its surrounds is to be the redemptive center of world events leading up to the culmination of human history (see here and here).
As regards Islam’s attitude to Jerusalem:
“Islamic eschatology, as described in various Hadith and teachings, features Jerusalem in relation to the events of the end times. The emergence of the Mahdi, a significant figure in Islamic eschatology, is believed to occur in Jerusalem. Additionally, Islamic belief holds that Dajjal, a false messiah, will make an appearance, further emphasizing Jerusalem’s place in eschatological narratives.”
Religious Islamists, undoubtedly aware of these beliefs, would like to control Jerusalem, in addition to Mecca and Medina, for their own purposes. Their intent, however, can never become a reality. As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully declared in his July 2024 address to the America’s joint Congress,
“For nearly 4,000 years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people. It’s always been our home; it will always be our home.”
Israel, with its capital of Jerusalem, is the ancestral land of the Jewish people; they have nowhere else to call their own.
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, a faculty member at Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Dr. Haug holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology and is author of ‘Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity’; and ‘Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.’ His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, James Wilson Institute (Anchoring Truths), Document Danmark, and others.
The Historical Case for Trump’s Riviera Andrew Roberts
February 8, 2025
Much of the international condemnation of Donald Trump’s “Riviera” plan for Gaza rests on the assumption that the Palestinians retain sovereignty over the territory, despite all the events that have taken place since their incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, and that they also continue to have the right to choose their own government.
In fact, historical precedent suggests that Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel that day, and its condign punishment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), have severe implications for whether the Gazans still have the right to decide their own destiny, and who governs them.
For again and again in the past, peoples who unleash unprovoked aggressive wars against their neighbors and are then defeated—as the Gazans have been on any conceivable metric—lose either their government or their sovereignty, or both. It would be strange were Hamas somehow to buck this historical trend.
When the two Boer republics of Southern Africa, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, invaded the British colonies of Natal and Cape Colony in October 1899, a war broke out that two-and-a half-years later they had comprehensively lost. By the peace treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902, both republics were annexed by the British and lost their sovereignty entirely, their government having already fled for Holland.
Konrad Henlein was the Nazi leader of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia 1938, who invited Adolf Hitler to invade the Czech state in March 1939. He had much the same kind of willing-acolyte relationship with the Führer that Yahya Sinwar had with Iran. When the Second World War was lost in May 1945, Henlein committed suicide and his people were moved out of the Sudetenland, some 800,000 to the Soviet zone and the rest to West Germany. The Sudetenland was then entirely repopulated with ethnic Czechs.
In all, more than three million Germans were forced to leave their homes in the Sudetenland, Silesia, and other lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, where their ancestors had lived for centuries, indeed for much longer than most Palestinian families have lived in Gaza. They embarked on the 300-mile journey westwards under conditions of extreme deprivation, carrying only what they could carry. Once they reached Germany—whose new borders were drawn by the victorious Allies as they had lost all sovereignty—they settled and made the best of it.
Today, they and their descendants are among some of the most successful people in Germany, and however powerful modern Germany is, she makes no territorial claims on either Poland or the Czech Republic. The Palestinians could learn a great lesson from the catastrophe that overcame the Sudeten Germans almost contemporaneously as the “Nakba” (catastrophe) that overcame them. Yet will they learn from it? Almost certainly not.
The decision of the Vichy government of France to fight against Britain in the Second World War, with bombing raids on Gibraltar and open warfare in Syria, so delegitimized it that when the liberation of France took place on D-Day in June 1944, it was swept aside and sovereignty was instead given to the Free French, who returned with the Allies. The legitimately elected government of France under Marshal Petain was thus overthrown and replaced by the chosen government of the incoming conquering Allies.
Surprise attacks such as the one launched on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 naturally invite tough retribution, and in that particular case led directly to Japan losing her sovereignty under the overlordship of General Douglas MacArthur, whose word was law in Japan until 1952, a full seven years after the end of the war. The authors of the attack, including the Japanese prime minister General Tojo, were hanged. This pattern of the death of the leadership and loss of sovereignty of the country were similarly the fates of both Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, with the Allies having ultimate power over the governance of both.
After North Korea launched its vicious unprovoked attack on South Korea in June 1950 it was punished so severely by the American-led United Nations force that it lost over a million dead. (In those happier days, the United Nations supported countries that were invaded rather than the invaders.) North Korea lost territory in the armistice in 1953 and has been a pariah state ever since.
The percentage of North Koreans who died in that war was 16.5 percent. The Gazan health ministry is an arm of Hamas propaganda and routinely lies about the statistics of killed and wounded there, but even if we take its numbers as accurate, the total number of Gazans killed in this war has been 2.04 percent, which is not a figure that in any way aligns with accusations of genocide. If the IDF had wished to commit genocide, it would have killed far more than 2.04 percent of Gazans. By total contrast, Adolf Hitler killed over 50 percent of all of Europe’s Jews in what was a genuine genocide.
When the Argentinian military dictatorship suddenly invaded the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic in April 1982, and were utterly defeated 10 weeks later by Margaret Thatcher’s task force, the entire junta in Buenos Aires was deposed from power—some were jailed—and democracy returned to Argentina. There are thus profound consequences for governments involved in launching unprovoked wars, and they cannot expect to stay in power when they have brought down death, destruction, and defeat upon their people.
Saddam Hussein’s surprise attack on Kuwait was a similar example of when a country invades its neighbor suddenly and without provocation, and after defeat in war loses both its government—Saddam was hanged—and its sovereignty while the U.S.-led coalition attempted to rebuild the country. Such surprise attacks as Saddam’s, or indeed of Hamas’s on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was not intended to seize territory like Saddam but instead to kill and kidnap the largest possible number of Jews, are thus huge rollings of “the iron dice of war,” an all-or-nothing endeavor in which Saddam and Hamas cannot complain if they end in disaster.
In the collapsing former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Serb leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, General Ratko Mladic, and Radovan Karadzic took the cold-blooded decision to invade neighboring Bosnia and conduct an appalling program of what came to be known as “ethnic cleansing.” Those critics of Donald Trump who tritely refer to the population transfers under his Gaza plan as ethnic cleansing ought to revisit what the phrase actually means in terms of horror, violence, and bloodshed.
Once NATO finally took to the air in Operation Deliberate Force to end the brutality, all three of those Serb leaders were imprisoned and Serbia’s borders were decided by the West rather than by the Serbs themselves. The massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnians at the hands of the Serbs at Srebenica in July 1995 effectively ended Serbia’s right to sovereignty in its aftermath, and at the Dayton peace accords that December they had to accept the formation of two new republics.
The witness of history is therefore fairly uniform: If a government undertakes a vicious and unprovoked attack on a neighboring country, and subsequently loses on the battlefield, it cannot then expect to continue to exercise sovereignty and avoid population transfers. In a similar vein, Arab governments cannot in the same breath argue that Gaza is “a concentration camp,” but also that its citizens should not be allowed to leave such a beloved homeland. They can choose one propaganda line or the other, but not simultaneously both.
Mass population transfers have been common after wars. The classic example are those of the late 1940s, when there were no fewer than 20 different groups—including the Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus of the Punjab, the Crimean Tartars, the Japanese and Korean Kuril and Sakhalin Islanders, the Soviet Chechen, Ingush, and Balkars, even the Italians of Istria—who were moved to different regions. At the time of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, over 800,000 Jews from Arab lands were forced out of lands that they had lived in for centuries.
All of those peoples mentioned chose to try to make the best of their new environs except one, and most eventually succeeded. The sole exception has been the Palestinians, because Hamas and its predecessors have always unquestioningly chosen the destruction of Israel and the opportunity to massacre Jews over the best interests of their own people.
If each of the 22 Arab states undertook to receive 100,000 Gazans, the Strip could be the home to the remaining 100,000, living and working on Trump’s “Riviera.” The reason that can never in fact happen is the Arab states’ and the United Nations’ wholly cynical and self-interested policy since 1948 to use Palestinian refugees as a continual destabilizing force against Israel (as well as a well-grounded fear and hatred of easily the most violent population in Arabia).
As the international community yelps with indignation at Donald Trump’s remarks and their implications regarding Gazans’ sovereignty and Hamas’s right to govern there, history is on the president’s side.
Andrew Roberts is the author, most recently, of Churchill Walking with Destiny (Viking).
How is the first lady of Ukraine spending the money of the US taxpayers? by Slavisha Milaćic
The war in Ukraine is not only the death of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, it is also an excellent opportunity for the Ukrainian elite to make money. Using the example of the flights of the Ukrainian leader’s wife Olena Zelenskaya, I will show to our readers where the money of American taxpayers goes, and, most importantly, is it in US interest to continue financing a country that is doomed to lose in this conflict, and which is emptying the US treasury?
February 9, 2025
Unknown business jet
Independent journalists were drawn to the trail of an unknown charter that flew from Chisinau to Los Angeles on January 8, 2025, at the height of the California wildfires, and left the city a day later. It was assumed that the visit was business-like and directly related to the aftermath of the raging fire, and was interesting to find out who exactly owned this Airbus A-318 Elite business jet with tail number 9H-ICE, which returned to Chisinau on January 12, 2025, stopping in Monaco for a few days on the way.
Mysterious Passenger Airbus A-318 Elite № 9H-ICE
So, who was the passenger of the mysterious business jet? Before I name it, let’s study the plane itself. The Airbus A318 and Airbus A318 Elite are not very different in appearance (the second has fewer windows on the starboard side), the biggest diference is for the interior layout. While the civilian version can accommodate just over a hundred passengers, the Elite version can carry up to 18 people.
The very next day, January 13, 2025, the plane headed to Switzerland to the ski resort of St. Moritz, from where it flew to the parking lot at the airport of Milan, Italy. And a couple of days later, information appeared on the Internet that the first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska was spotted at a ski resort, namely in St. Moritz.
Former Ukrainian MP Igor Mosiychuk spoke about this on his You Tube channel. He claimed that Moldovan President Maia Sandu was with Zelenskaya at that time.
Having studied the video of the grand reception at the Swiss airport, it can be noticed a phenomenal similarity between this aircraft and the one that landed in California in early January. A logical assumption would be that the business jet is being used either in the interests of the President of Moldova or the First Lady of Ukraine.
The observations can go further. On January 16, the Airbus A318 Elite flies from Milan to St. Moritz and returns back to the capital of European fashion. Then the business jet goes to Dubai. It stays in the UAE for 5 days and returns to Chisinau.
First, let’s gather information about the President of Moldova. It turns out that Maia Sandu does not have a personal plane. And after the national airline of Moldova, Air Moldova, ceased operations in 2023, the administration of the President of Moldova has no opportunity for VIP flights, and the air force of this country does not have planes for such purposes. Moreover, the President of Moldova often uses economy class flights. This is confirmed by many photos and videos taken by passengers on various flights. Which means that only remains Olena Zelenskaya. It turns out that she flies on the Airbus A-318 Elite № 9H-ICE.
Where does the First Lady of Ukraine fly?
It should be noted that throughout 2024, the aircraft made many flights, while the nodal point always remained unchanged – Chisinau.
But the question arises, why was Chisinau chosen as the hub, and not, for example, Polish Rzeszow, which is logistically closer to the capital of Ukraine? The fact is that Kyiv’s relations with official Chisinau are much warmer than with Warsaw. Memories of the Volyn massacre and regular blockades of their borders by Polish farmers haunt the politicians of the two countries.
I tracked where Airbus A-318 Elite № 9H-ICE was flying from February 2024 to January 22, 2025:
The business jet stopped in Chisinau 37 times, Monaco 13 times, Barcelona 10 times, Istanbul 9 times, Budapest 8 times, Geneva 7 times, London 5 times, Stuttgart 3 times, Florence 2 times, Milan 2 times, Rome 2 times, Naples 2 times, Madrid 2 times, Munich 2 times, Paris 2 times, Riyadh 2 times, St. Moritz 2 times, Sion 2 times. I counted 129 flights in total. Note that the destinations include many cities associated with leisure, entertainment and fashion, rather than official visits by top officials.
It should be added that the total duration of Airbus A-318 Elite № 9H-ICE in 2024, connected to the Chisinau airport, is more than 290 hours. The cost of the services provided was more than 3 million euros.
The role of the First Lady of Ukraine
Since the start of the war with Russia, the First Lady has frequently spoken on behalf of Ukraine at various international venues, including addressing members of the US Congress, meeting with leaders of major Western countries, and attending the funeral of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Now let’s compare the flight list for last year of Airbus A-318 Elite No. 9H-ICE and analyze Zelenskaya’s Telegram channel for the same period of time. If the meetings were official and were held in the interests of Ukraine, then, of course, they should have been reflected in the social networks of the first lady.
The fact is that during official meetings, the First Lady of Ukraine uses other planes, and this one is used exclusively for her personal purposes.
Who are US taxpayers helping in Ukraine?
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. Congress has appropriated or otherwise provided nearly $183 billion to Ukraine. This is more than the entire collective support to Ukraine from the EU and EU member states, which by comparison amounted to $145.2 billion. This means that American taxpayers have a legal right to know how effectively subsidized Ukraine is spending their money.
I really hope that the upcoming audit of American funds allocated to Ukraine, initiated by the Donald Trump administration, will help to expose and punish corrupt officials from the Ukrainian leadership… And also, returning to the fires in California, it will be interesting to know about the purpose of Olena Zelenska’s visit to Los Angeles. Did that trip was because of concern that property was damaged by the fire? If so, then all information about it should be made public. Who bought it? When? And with what funds?
