Israel – El's View from the Crow's Nest

About the Kotel

There are many misconceptions about the Temple Mount, the Kotel (the Western Wall), and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Confusion and even much conflict can be dispelled when the facts are made clear. Here are eight things you need to know about these sites:

1) What is the holiest site on earth for Jews? Did you answer, “the Western Wall”? If you did, that’s a mistake many people sadly make! Kotel literally means “wall” in Hebrew. This wall is so important that it became unnecessary to designate which wall it is, it’s the wall. At the same time, its importance is not in itself but in its proximity to what is really important: the Temple Mount. The holiest site on earth for the Jewish People is the Temple Mount, in the heart of Jerusalem.

2) Why is the Temple Mount holy to the Jewish People? It is written in the Roman-era Midrash Tanchuma¹: “As the navel is set in the center of the human body, so is the land of Israel the navel of the world…situated in the center of the world, and Jerusalem in the center of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem, and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary, and the ark in the center of the holy place, and the Foundation Stone before the holy place, because from it the world was founded.” It is believed that the Foundation Stone is the foundation G-d used to create the world. Around this stone, the Temple was built, and within the Temple, on the Foundation Stone, the Ark of the Covenant was placed. This is the source of the holiness of the Temple and its importance to Judaism. Jewish sources also identify this rock as the place of the Binding of Isaac mentioned in the Bible, where Abraham fulfilled G-d’s test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son. It was at that point where human sacrifice to G-d ceased to exist as a legitimate practice and, even before the 10 Commandments, Judaism took moral leadership in the world.

3) Does one say Kotel, Wailing Wall, or Western Wall? “Wailing Wall” is a commonly used, highly offensive term that is an ancient form of delegitimizing Jewish history by diminishing Jewish anguish at the loss of the ancient Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. This is the term of non-Jews who occupied Israel, ridiculing the pain of the Jews who stood weeping at the Kotel, the Western Wall, which is the only wall left standing of the ancient Temple in the heart of Jerusalem. (It’s not even a wall of the Temple structure itself; it is a retaining wall of the compound). During the period of Christian Roman rule over Jerusalem (circa 324 to 638), Jews were completely barred from Jerusalem except to attend Tisha B’Av, the day of national mourning for the first and second Temples; and on this day, the Jews would weep at the holy site. The term “Wailing Wall” was thus almost exclusively used by Christians, revived in the period of non-Jewish control between the establishment of British Rule in 1920 and the Six-Day War in 1967. This derogatory term mocks the pain of the Jewish people, as in: “There go those Jews, weeping again.” Kotel is the word used in Hebrew which simply means “wall.” The choice of this term is indicative of the importance of the structure in the Jewish mind: This one remaining wall is so significant that it is not necessary to detail which wall is being mentioned, it is the wall. It is not the wall itself that is holy; it was the Temple and what stood on the Mount that was holy. Two-thousand years, exile, and many terrible experiences along the way have not been enough to make the Jewish People forget the importance of the Temple. The wall has grown in significance because it is all that remains of the Temple, and because Jews were (and still are) denied the right to pray on the Temple Mount. The Kotel became precious because it was the closest Jews could get to the holiest site on earth for the Jewish People. “Western Wall” is a factual description of the Wall. The Kotel is the western retaining wall of the Temple and it is perfectly reasonable to describe it as such.

4) Did you know there is an egalitarian prayer section of the Kotel? Eratz Yisrael was opened to balance the needs of different Jews who want to pray differently, enabling all freedom to worship as they please without bothering those who are offended by different prayer choices. The egalitarian section is open all hours of the day and night, just like the better known traditional section. Men and women are free to pray together. Women are free to sing as loudly as they wish and read from the Torah should they choose to do so. Unlike in the traditional section of the Kotel, in Eratz Yisrael there are tables with sunshades so people can read from the Torah without having to stand in the sweltering sun. An added bonus is that Eratz Yisrael is in the middle of an archeological site where you can see Temple-era remnants, making it easier to imagine yourself back in the time when the Temple was still standing!

5) Did you know that most of the Kotel is underground and accessible only through the Kotel tunnels? Over the centuries, natural buildup of archaeological layers buried much of the Kotel. Excavations have given insight into the splendor of the building project of the ancient Jewish Temple. Inside the tunnels you can walk alongside the Kotel, marvel at the size of the stones from which the wall is built and even enter what was once an open-air street market that is now completely underground! At one point in the tunnels you will probably see women praying at the place which is directly across from the Foundation Stone – one would only have to walk through the wall to get to it. Excavations are ongoing and the more work that is done the more of our ancient past is uncovered. If you are in Jerusalem, don’t miss a tour of the tunnels!

6) When did the Temple Mount become holy to Islam? Interestingly, Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran at all! Jerusalem became important in Islam not for religious reasons, but to serve a political need. Early Islamic sources state that the “Al-Aqsa Mosque” (literal meaning: “the farther mosque”), mentioned only once in the Koran, was one of two mosques located near Ji’irrana, a village located between Mecca and Taaf in the Arabian Peninsula (now Saudi Arabia). One of the mosques was called “al-Masjid al-Adna,” meaning the “closer mosque” and the other “al-Masjid al-Aqsa” (the “farther mosque”). When the Koran refers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque while telling the myth of the Prophet Muhammad’s night time journey from the “holy mosque” of Mecca to al Aqsa, that is, the “farther mosque,” it is referring to the mosque in Ji’irrana.

7) What is the Al-Aqsa Mosque? Most people believe that the golden domed mosque is Al-Aqsa, the mosque Muslims discuss in regards to the importance of the Temple Mount. This is not true. The golden domed mosque is called the Dome of the Rock because it was built on top of the Foundation Stone which, according to Jewish tradition, is the holiest place in the world. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a low, grey-roofed mosque also located on the Temple Mount, across from the Dome of the Rock. While Jews, wherever they are in the world, pray facing the Foundation Stone, Muslims pray facing Mecca. This means that Muslims praying on the Temple Mount pray with their back to the Foundation Stone.

8) ‘Apartheid’ on the Temple Mount: Although the State of Israel was established in 1948 and Jews reunited Jerusalem in 1967, to this day Jews (and Christians) are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Visiting hours for Jews are highly restricted: Sunday through Thursday (notice that Jews are not allowed to visit on Shabbat!) Summer: April through September: 8:30 – 10:30 am and 1:30 – 2:30 pm Winter: October through March: 7:30 – 10:30 am and 12:30 – 1:30 pm Non-Muslims enter the Temple Mount through only through the Mughrabi Gate (over the traditional Kotel women’s section). On entry, non-Muslims are subject to search by Israeli police and are warned not to use any religious objects or take any actions that might be seen as praying. You cannot take out a bible, close your eyes and pray in your heart, bow to the Dome of the Rock, or show any ritual signs of mourning. In contrast, the Temple Mount is open to Muslims at all hours of the day and night via gates only Muslims are allowed to use. At entry they are not searched. The definition of apartheid is two separate sets of laws for the same people. The Temple Mount is the only place in Israel where Israelis are subject to different laws based on being Muslim or Jewish.

International Association of Genocide Scholars?

According to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Israel is most definitely committing genocide in Gaza. They released a statement to the press, and this has been repeated across the InterWebs, so it therefore must be true.

Except, they didn’t list any of the criteria for determining whether or not a country is committing genocide against another, nor did they offer any evidence that their claims were true.

The internationally recognized definition of genocide, as codified in Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, consists of two main criteria: a specific mental intent and a set of prohibited physical acts.

Mental element: “Specific intent” (dolus specialis)

The “specific intent” element requires proof that acts were committed with the explicit purpose of destroying a protected group, in whole or in part. This intent must target national, ethnical, racial, or religious groups, aiming to destroy the group as a group. Destroying a “substantial” part of the group is considered sufficient.

Starting with this one, Israel has no intention now. not ever has had such an intention, to eradicate the palestinian population. The above mentioned International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) failed to prove this very important element of the UN Convention. As a matter of fact, NO ONE has been able to provide evidence that such is the case. I speculate that the reason they did not bring this up is the very fact that they have no evidence.

Physical element: Prohibited acts

In addition to specific intent, at least one of five prohibited acts must be committed against the targeted group:

Killing members of the group.

Israel is at war with Hamas, the elected government of Gaza. It’s a war, so by very definition people will be killed. I have always maintained that warfare is inherently genocidal. But the operative condition here is “intent.” Does Israel intend to wipe the palestinians off the fact of the Earth? The answer is “no.”

What is interesting to me is that Hamas’ intent, and this is stated in their charter, is to eradicate Israel and all Jews from the Middle East:

Adopted during the First Intifada, the founding charter was explicitly antisemitic and called for the destruction of Israel. Key points include:

Destruction of Israel: Calls for the “annihilation” of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state across all of what was formerly Mandatory Palestine.
Religious conflict: Explicitly frames the conflict as a religious one, citing antisemitic tropes and a call to kill Jews.

By their own admission, Hamas intends to commit genocide, and they have committed acts that illustrate their resolve. This was especially true on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel and brutally murdered 1,200 non-combatants, including women, teens, children, infants and elderly people.

Physical element: Prohibited acts

In addition to specific intent, at least one of five prohibited acts must be committed against the targeted group:

2- Causing serious bodily or mental harm, such as torture or sexual violence.

On October 7th 2023, during their invasion of Israel, Hamas recorded themselves committing gang rapes against women and girls, leaving bodies with broken pelvises. They cut these girls breasts off; they drove nails through their vaginas; they tortured and murdered their victims and made children watch, then murdered the children. Infant bodies were found in microwaves and ovens, burned alive.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have NEVER, in their 80+ year history, committed such atrocities.

3- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to cause the group’s physical destruction, which can include deprivation of essential resources.

Israel has allowed thousands and thousands of kilos of food and medical supplies to be delivered into Gaza during the duration of this war. Hamas has, up until recently, hijacked such deliveries, ware housed the aid, and sold it back to Gaza citizens at inflated prices. Recently they have been deterred from hijackings, so they fire on Gaza civilians lined up to receive aid.

Therefore it is Hamas that inflicts conditions of life calculated to cause the group’s physical destruction.

4- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, including forced sterilization or abortion.

This is not happening at all. In fact, during the current war, 85,000 births have been recorded there. Prior to 10/7/2023, Gaza’s population was estimated at 2.3 Million. Sources state that 64,000 Gazans (including both military and civilians) have been killed during the past 698 days. This means, that despite the on going war, the population of Gaza has increased to 2,321,000, or 21,000 more than before the war began.

If Israel is committing genocide, as they are accused, they are failing miserable. In a genocide, the population does not increase.

5- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, aimed at dismantling the group’s identity.

No one is doing that, although there have been unsubstantiated reports of Israeli children being kidnapped over the last 80 years.

So, who exactly is this International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)? The Wikipedia reference has only been in existence since February 2018. The article claims that the IAGS was founded in 1994. It is interesting that we’ve only heard of this group since September 4th, 2025. It’s almost as it they were invented “out of the blue” to legitimize the genocide lies. It is interesting also that the only statement they have to offer, without any substantiating evidence, is that Israel “meets all the criteria” for committing genocide, yet, as we have stated at the very beginning of our post, the number one criteria is the nations intent, and no one has proved Israel has such an intent, and, this is important, Israel’s actions have shown that they have bent over backwards to minimize civilian casualties, as they have done in their entire 77 year history.

Here are some other opinions/observations concerning the IAGS:

This is why the charge of “genocide” against Israel is a vicious lie

Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa recently said that “Israelis should not feel safe anywhere in the world” and called the world to “wipe that vile colony from this earth.”

The irony of such a statement is staggering. Because the truth is simple: If Israel ever sought to “wipe” “palestinians” off the map, the capabilities are already in their arsenal. They have the technology, the firepower, and the global reach to erase entire cities in hours. But they don’t. Not because they can’t. Because they won’t.

“Israel could “wipe” its enemies from the earth. They choose not to.”

And that is the moral difference.Israel is one of the most technologically advanced nations on earth. They have one of the world’s most sophisticated air forces, precision missile systems, and world-class cyber capabilities. Their intelligence apparatus is unparalleled in the region. At any moment, Israel could flatten Gaza, dismantle Hezbollah in Lebanon, or silence Iranian proxies across the region.Yet they don’t.They fight wars with restraint — often to their own detriment — because the moral fabric of our society demands it. Hospitals in Gaza aren’t rubble because the IDF spends millions on precision-guided munitions and warning systems to limit civilian casualties. It is why humanitarian aid still flows into Gaza, even while Hamas uses those same corridors to smuggle in weapons.

This moral calculus isn’t new.In 1948, when five Arab armies declared war to destroy the fledgling Jewish state, Israel could have expelled every Arab within its borders. Many nations throughout history would have done exactly that, especially in the aftermath of a genocide against their people. But Israel didn’t.Hundreds of thousands of Arabs remained and became citizens. Today, they sit in the Knesset, serve on the Supreme Court, and head hospital departments.The same restraint showed in 1967. After the Six-Day War, Israel controlled vast swaths of territory. Many voices demanded annexation and total expulsion. Instead, Israel offered “land for peace” — offers the Arab leadership rejected.

That pattern has repeated itself through history: after Camp David in 2000, after Israel’s peace proposal in 2008, and even after the Trump peace plan in 2020. The answer from “palestinian” leaders has always been the same: no peace, no compromise, only continued violence.

“Israel could “wipe” its enemies from the earth. They choose not to.”

Every modern war tells the same story. In 2014, when Hamas used schools and hospitals as rocket launch sites, Israel issued evacuation warnings and dropped leaflets before striking. In 2023, after Hamas committed atrocities on October 7th — the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust — Israel could have unleashed wholesale destruction on Gaza.Instead, they targeted infrastructure, avoided civilian zones when possible, and paused operations repeatedly to allow humanitarian aid — knowing full well Hamas would exploit those pauses. Even in the middle of a war, the IDF used phone calls, text alerts, and “roof knock” warnings to minimize civilian casualties, something no other military in the world attempts during combat operations. If you don’t know what “roof knocking” is, it’s a tactic the Israeli military invented to warn “palestinian” civilians before a strike. Instead of dropping a lethal bomb first, the IDF fires a small, non-lethal munition on the roof of a building to signal that a strike is imminent. It’s essentially a last warning: Evacuate now, because this location is being targeted. No other military in the world takes such extraordinary steps to minimize civilian casualties, even when those civilians are being used as human shields by terrorists.

And yet, despite this restraint, much of the world blames Israel for the destruction in Gaza. Images of rubble and suffering flood television screens and social media feeds, stripped of all context, and the easy — and lazy — narrative is that Israel is to blame. But the reality is far more complex, and far more damning for those who actually rule Gaza.Hamas embeds its terror infrastructure in civilian areas — schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, even mosques — not by accident, but by design. They fire rockets from rooftops and alleyways, store weapons in homes, and use civilians as human shields, knowing that any response from Israel will be broadcast globally as “proof” of cruelty. International law calls this a war crime; activists call it “resistance.”

What critics never acknowledge is that Israel invests enormous effort and risk to minimize civilian harm. No other military on earth drops warning leaflets, places phone calls, sends text alerts, and even fires “roof-knock” dummy rounds to urge civilians to leave targeted areas. And yet Hamas tells civilians to stay put, blocks their evacuation, and sometimes shoots those trying to flee — because their deaths are their greatest propaganda weapon. Blaming Israel for Gaza’s destruction ignores the core truth: Gaza is in ruins because Hamas chose war, and because it hides behind its own people to fight it. Israel did not choose this fight; Hamas did, with the full knowledge that their own population would pay the price. To pretend otherwise is not just dishonest; it is an inversion of morality.

And yet, for all the outrage directed at Israel, few stop to compare Israel’s conduct to that of other nations when faced with existential threats or devastating attacks. Contrast that with how other nations have responded to existential threats or major attacks. After Pearl Harbor, the United States firebombed Tokyo and dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After 9/11, the U.S. launched wars that reshaped the Middle East, with civilian casualties in the hundreds of thousands.Russia has leveled entire cities in Chechnya and Ukraine without a second thought. NATO bombed Belgrade for months. And yet Israel — facing an enemy that butchers its civilians, hides behind its own women and children, and vows to exterminate the Jewish people — still calibrates every strike with the intent to spare innocents. No one else in history fights like this, and yet no one else is more relentlessly accused of “genocide.” Those accusations collapse under the simplest examination of facts.

“Israel could “wipe” its enemies from the earth. They choose not to.”

If Israel wanted to wipe “palestinians” from the earth, Gaza would be empty within 24 hours. Instead, the “palestinian” population has quadrupled since 1948 and continues to grow year over year — even in Gaza, even under the supposed “genocide.” The numbers don’t lie. What does lie are the slogans chanted on college campuses and amplified by useful idiots who know nothing of the reality on the ground. Yes, there are “bad” Israelis. Extremists exist in our society. There are voices that call for collective punishment. But they are a minority, condemned by the majority of our society, our press, and our courts. Among “palestinians” , however, polls consistently show majority support for violence, for Hamas, for the destruction of Israel — not for peace, not for a two-state solution, but for annihilation. After October 7th, “palestinian” polling showed that over 70 percent of Gazans supported the attack. “Palestinian” children are taught from the youngest age that Jews are subhuman and that martyrdom is the highest goal. Their textbooks are filled with maps that erase Israel entirely, with lessons that glorify murder and demonize coexistence. This isn’t an accusation; it’s their own data, their own curriculum, their own media.

Do you know what Israeli children are taught? To cherish life — their own and the lives of others. They grow up with lessons about coexistence, with textbooks that talk about peace, about respecting their neighbors, and about building a future where two peoples can live side by side.They learn about the Holocaust, not to hate, but to understand the cost of dehumanization and to ensure “never again” applies to anyone. They are taught that the uniform of a soldier carries the burden of protecting civilians, not targeting them. In classrooms, they learn math and science, not martyrdom and murder.In summer camps, they sing about hope and renewal, not blood and vengeance. Israeli children are raised to see the humanity in others — even those who hate them — because that is what our culture, our history, and our ethics demand.That is why, time and again, peace has remained elusive. From the 1947 UN Partition Plan to the Oslo Accords to the Camp David talks, Israeli leaders have been willing to make painful concessions in the name of coexistence.

“Palestinians” leaders, backed by the majority of their people, have chosen violence. The result is the same every time: more death, more suffering, and more missed opportunities. “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” as said by Abba Eban, Israel’s foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations during the 1960s and 1970s, after the Geneva Peace Conference of 1973, criticizing Arab leaders for rejecting opportunities for peace following the Yom Kippur War.Has anything changed since then? What drives Israel’s restraint is not fear or weakness, but a deep ethical foundation.

The Jewish tradition teaches that every life has infinite value — “whoever saves a single life, it is as if he has saved an entire world.” This ethos permeates Israeli society, from the soldier in the field to the policymakers in the war cabinet.It’s why, even after October 7th, Israelis debated morality while our dead were still being buried. It’s why we send aid to our enemies, treat “palestinian” children in Israeli hospitals, and dream — sometimes naively — of a future where coexistence is more than a slogan.The world often tries to paint this conflict in shades of gray, but there is a fundamental difference between a people who have the ability to destroy but choose restraint, and a people who fantasize about destruction but lack the power to achieve it. Israel could “wipe” its enemies from the earth. They choose not to. That choice is not weakness; it is strength — the strength of morality, of history, of a nation that values life even when surrounded by those who chant for death.And until Palestinian society undergoes its own moral reckoning, until it values life over martyrdom, there will be no true peace. As former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” Because morality is not what you say when you are powerless. Morality is what you choose when you have power. And Israel, despite every provocation, continues to hold that bar incredibly high.

“Israel could “wipe” its enemies from the earth. They choose not to.”

5 reasons why Israel IS NOT committing genocide in Gaza

**1. “Genocide” refers to the physical destruction of an entire group in whole or in part that has been targeted on the basis of its identity. This is not Israel’s objective in Gaza.**

Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent, introduced the term genocide in 1944 to refer to events including the Nazis’ systematic extermination of Jews.

Lemkin explained the need for a new legal term to describe this horror, saying: “there has been no serious endeavor hitherto to prevent and punish the murder and destruction of millions…. there was not even an adequate name for such a phenomenon.”

The United Nations General Assembly recognized genocide as a crime under international law in 1946 and it was codified in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.

Israel Is Not Committing Genocide

The Convention defines genocide as the commission of grave harm against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group – such as by killing, causing serious physical or mental harm, inflicting conditions that bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly taking away children – with the intent to destroy the group as such.

Genocide means targeting members of a group because of their group identity and not something they are individually thought to have done.

Israel’s war is against Hamas: Israel is not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people or the Palestinian population of Gaza, which is what would need to happen in order to correctly apply the term “genocide.” Israel’s leaders have repeatedly asserted that their campaign in Gaza is solely against the terrorist organization Hamas. In fact, this type of military campaign is the exact opposite of reflecting an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian population.

2. Is Genocide Happening in Gaza? No. Israel is responding to a genocidal attack by Hamas

Since October 7, Israel’s objective in Gaza has been to destroy Hamas, a terrorist organization that carried out an unprecedented and brutal massacre against its people, including infants, children, elderly and disabled people.

A recent report concluded that Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war during and after the October 7 attack that Hamas terrorists, using widespread and systematic sexual violence across geographic locations, and against hostages in captivity.

The goal of Hamas is to wipe Israel and Jews off the map, and in the aftermath of the October 7 terror attack, its representatives reiterated that they will never stop pursuing it. That’s an example of genocidal intent.

While Hamas’s military capacity has been largely decimated by Israel, it still retains control over areas of Gaza and still continues to hold Israeli hostages.

Israel is fully justified in using military force to respond to Hamas’s October 7 attack (read AJC’s explainer on Israel, Hamas, and international law). Israel’s use of military force in Gaza in the face of such an ongoing threat is not evidence of genocide, but completely consistent with international law.

3. Israel’s actions reflect its desire to spare Palestinian civilians from harm, not to deliberately harm them

The IDF’s practices also disprove claims of genocidal intent, as the Israeli military has repeatedly relocated Palestinian civilians within Gaza in an effort to ensure they are out of harm’s way as it undertakes its legitimate military campaign to destroy Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.

In fact, since the start of the war, Israel has called for the temporary evacuation of t local populations in every part of the Gaza Strip where it deemed military action appropriate, and delays its ground operations in Gaza for weeks to allow civilians time to heed Israel’s warnings. It goes to great lengths to designate humanitarian corridors, or safe routes for Palestinian civilians to relocate from northern Gaza.

The IDF still endeavors to warn Gazans prior to attacks and has allowed humanitarian aid for civilians to be delivered under arrangements intended to prevent Hamas from diverting aid or controlling its distribution to reinforce its authority.

4. Hamas’ actions are designed to cause harm to Palestinian civilians and blame Israel

In the months that followed the October 7 attacks, Hamas fired thousands of missiles on Israeli towns and cities. Those missiles were fired from civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, and from inside, next to, and underneath nominally civilian areas in Gaza like residential buildings, schools, mosques, and hospitals. Hamas’s actions transformed what were once protected civilian sites into legitimate military targets that Israeli forces are now working to dismantle.

Hamas puts civilians in harm’s way: While Israel goes to great lengths to avoid harming civilians as it targets Hamas’s weapons and operations centers in Gaza, Hamas typically proceeds to place Palestinian civilians directly in the path of the IDF’s targets. It has repeatedly called on Palestinian civilians to ignore Israel’s warnings about impending strikes and reportedly forced civilians to remain in the vicinity of military objectives, using them, like its hostages from Israel, as human shields.

Hamas’ actions are not only aimed at protecting its leaders, weapons, and property but also at vying for leverage in the public opinion war by inflating the number of civilian casualties.

Through its actions in Gaza, Hamas greatly increases the likelihood that military actions by Israel that are permissible in war and not prohibited by the law of war – let alone by the Genocide Convention – will nevertheless result in some harm to civilians. International law does not prohibit Israel from undertaking legitimate actions that will likely result in civilian harm unless the expected civilian harm will clearly exceed the anticipated military advantage from the attack.

While Israel takes many steps to minimize civilian harm resulting from its attacks against Hamas targets, as much as it can, it cannot eliminate it entirely. This is a horrible outcome of war, but it is not illegal, and it certainly is not genocide.

**5. The “facts” of the genocide charge don’t add up**

Those who claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza not only misunderstand the legal definition of genocide and what the laws of war permit; they also base the charge on unsubstantiated claims, such as a report issued by Amnesty International.

It is unquestionable that many civilians in Gaza have died and even more have suffered immensely since October 7. However, there are so many “unknowns” with an important bearing on Israel’s conduct in this war that it is impossible to say with certainty that it is acting wrongfully.

The number of “innocents” vs. terrorists that have died: This is impossible to know given that the Ministry of Health in Gaza is under the control of and susceptible to influence by Hamas, and does not separate innocent civilians from fighters in its announced death tolls.
The circumstances in which numerous innocents have been killed in Gaza: This includes whether they died because of attacks carried out by the IDF or because of intentional or unintentional harmful actions by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups. A key example is the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which the U.S. and other governments have determined was caused by a failed rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and not, as Hamas, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, and many other sources claimed, by the IDF.
The nature of the military objective of attacks carried out by the IDF in which Palestinian civilians have died: Given that it is not possible for independent assessments to be conducted into whether a Hamas leader, tunnel, and/or weapons cache was present at the site of any specific IDF attack in Gaza, which Hamas still largely controls.

While some of those who claim Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza are doing so for malign purposes – for example, justifying Hamas’ October 7 massacre by claiming Israel is ‘worse,’ many others have been deliberately misled. Their goal of ending the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza would be far better served by placing blame for that suffering where it lies – with Hamas – and supporting efforts to bring about its defeat so that Palestinian and Israeli civilians can have the peace and security they all deserve as quickly as possible.

Accusing Israel of “genocide” has been effective due to the emotional power of the word, and so it manipulates people who would be otherwise rational into embracing irrational claims that are provably wrong.

Anti-Zionist (antisemitic) protests as Arcata’s City Council meeting(s)

NOTE to READER: This post got me placed in “NextDoor Jail” for six weeks (which is to say I was denied access to my NextDoor account). I am afraid we are becoming a fascist state.

It’s becoming a bad habit. Antisemitic protesters have been regularly showing up at Arcata City Council meetings, spreading their insidious lies and propaganda. The latest protest was especially vile.

First off, news anchor Erica Sutherland began the report by calling the Gaza/Israel war a “genocide,” (which I wrote to her about) but the real “star” of the show was this absolutely deranged woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs about how the city council should be ashamed of themselves for not supporting Palestine. Then she demanded that they divest from CalPers (which apparently has investments in Israeli businesses). She was very disruptive, disrespectful, and, well, at one time I worked as a mental health technician, and I think she’d be a good candidate for Thorazine.

I wrote to Erica Sutherland:
“You called the situation in Gaza “… the ongoing genocide.” Genocide requires the INTENTION to wipe out a people. If anything Israel has bent over backwards to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Stop spreading Hamas propaganda! I’m a huge fan of yours. Please take my concerns seriously.”
“See my blog for the whole truth about Israel: https://el.urgod.org/everything-israel/”

Rather than address my concern, Erica excused herself:
“Hey you need to email Ross. I didn’t write the story. So I’m not informed about this situation. Email news@redwoodnews.tv”

So, I did:
“Last night (I watch the 11:00 stream on Zeam) Erica Sutherland started the story by calling Israel’s war with Hamas a “genocide.” Although it has become popular among some Progressives (I am one) to characterize the situation as a “genocide perpetrated by Israel,” this is not the case at all. What is being repeated is Hamas propaganda. As a journalist, you are charged with telling the truth, not spreading lies. I don’t want to get into a long diatribe about this, but please, take the time to read my blog on the subject: https://el.urgod.org. Scroll down the right-hand menu to “EVERYTHING ISRAEL.”

Ross, I admire your work and that of the whole Redwood News team. I’ve been watching since my wife and I moved to Eureka in 2004. Please endeavor to speak the truth about Israel, and stop just repeating what is popular.

Namaste!”

He wrote back almost immediately:

“Hello sir,

I’ll need to get our reporter who interviewed the protesters on this topic. Here is the story as we aired it.
We said this in the introduction to the story:

LAST NIGHT TWO DIFFERENT PROTESTS WERE HELD AT THE ARCATA CITY COUNCIL MEETING AND TENSIONS WERE HIGH. ONE GROUP WAS PROTESTING ARCATA’S ALLEGED INVESTMENTS IN ISRAEL AND DEMANDED

THE CITY DIVEST DUE TO THE ONGOING GENOCIDE IN GAZA.
What we SHOULD have said was;

” ….. Demanded the city divest due to what the protesters call
the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

There is a big difference in whether Redwood News is saying there is an ongoing genocide in Gaza and what the people in the context of the report believe is occurring in Gaza.

You are correct. I will discuss it with the reporter/producer.

Shame on us for not catching the way that intro was presented.

Thanks for sending us your concerns.

Ross Rowley
News Director – Redwood News
KIEM-NBC3 / KVIQ-CBS17
Eureka, CA
707-443-6666 / 707-496-0626

I feel really good about this. I feel vindicated. Here is my final response to Ross:

“Thank you for your due diligence.
Actually, it has happened more than once over the past year. Abraham Nevaro (sp?) repeated the same phrase a few months ago in another story concerning local protesters.
I didn’t say anything at the time. But with the rapid escalation of antisemitism in our country I think active correction of these errors is way overdue.

Again, than you for your attention to this matter.”

Ross Rowley’s email address in news@redwoodnews.tv

Progressive psychics / mediums

Do you believe in psychics or mediums? Do you believe that some people have ESP? There are a number of these folks currently on YouTube. What makes them interesting is that all of them are politically Progressive. Here are the ones I am currently aware of:

They all have many things in common. They dislike Duck L’Orange and the MAGAs. They are all concerned about climate change, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, economic equality, freedom of speech, and all the other popular Progressive causes. They also dislike Putin and Netanyahu.

But, like many Progressives, they have bought the whole BDS/Hamas propaganda line, and for the most part regularly blame Israel for the alleged woes of the “palestinians.” The worse one of all of these is Linda Grindel, who can’t seem to get through a single pod cast without some mention of children being starved in Gaza, and she is sure that it is all Israel’s fault. In a show tonight which she shared with Sterling, she asked “when will the genocide in Gaza stop.”

I like to give people the benefit of a doubt. I don’t think any of these people are consciously ant-semitic. I think they suffer from the bandwagon fallacy and also perhaps confirmation bias. They all claim to be hearing from “spirit guides” (also “Angels,” “ETs,” “deceased spirits,” “ancestors,” and in one case, “reptilians”).

My wife is a huge fan of these folks, so I have listened in on many of their pod casts. They are currently all predicting that our POTUS, Putin and Netanyahu are all going to pass away in the period between October 1st, 2025 and March 30th 2026. They are all also predicting that the Democrats will take control of both Houses of Congress in the midterms (coming November 2026), and the Supreme Court will be reformed and the current right wing justices will be ousted. Well, we can only hope.

Typically, when one of them repeats some of the current popular lies about Israel, I will comment in their YouTube feed, attempting to correct them. I usually point them to the part of my blog where I have archived all my posts concerning Israel. I also attempt to say something along the lines of “I’m having doubts about the reliability of your (“guides,” “team,” “spirit advisors,””angels”). If they are real they couldn’t possibly have repeated such lies concerning Israel (Gaza).” Thus far I haven’t seen any reaction, but I have hope that I can persuade them eventually.

If they cannot, or will not, correct themselves then it is obvious to me that they are “false prophets.” A false prophet is a person who spreads false teachings or messages while claiming to speak the Word of Hashem. False prophets functioned in their prophetic role illegitimately or for the purpose of deception. The Nevi’im denounces false prophets for leading people astray.

In the Nevi’im, the actual term “false prophet}” does not occur, but references to false prophets are evident and abundant. In the book of Jeremiah, we encounter a clear description of false prophets: “Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds’” (Jeremiah 14:14; see also 23:21–33; Zechariah 10:2).

A note of clarification for the gentile reader: The Jewish Bible, called the Tanakh, has three sections: the Torah (the five books of Moses), the Nevi’im (the books of the Prophets), and the Ketuvim (This is the Writings section, which includes a diverse collection of texts such as poetry, philosophy, and historical accounts). The word “Tanakh” is an acronym derived from these three sections.

REMEMBER, THERE WAS A CEASEFIRE IN PLACE ON OCTOBER 7, 2023.

WHEN YOU CRITICIZE ISRAEL, you are supporting Hamas.

Stop supporting Hamas!

REMEMBER, THERE WAS A CEASEFIRE IN PLACE ON OCTOBER 7, 2023.

FACTS: The “palestinians” have actually had numerous opportunities to create an independent state, but have repeatedly rejected the offers:

• In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed the partition of “palestine” and the creation of an Arab state.
• In 1939, the British White Paper proposed the creation of a unitary Arab state.
• In 1947, the UN would have created an even larger Arab state as part of its partition plan.
• The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace negotiations offered the “palestinians” autonomy, which would almost certainly have led to full independence.
• The Oslo agreements of the 1990s laid out a path for “palestinian” independence, but the process was derailed by terrorism.
• In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to create a “palestinian” state in all of Gaza and 97% of the “West Bank.”
• In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to withdraw from almost the entire West Bank and partition Jerusalem on a demographic basis.
• In 2015, “palestinian” Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has publicly confirmed for the first time that he turned down a peace offer in 2008 that would have provided for an independent “palestinian” state containing all of the Gaza Strip, much of the West Bank (with land swaps), and a tunnel connecting the two areas.
• In addition 1948 to 1967, Israel did not control the “West Bank.” The “palestinians” could have demanded an independent state from the Jordanians. On the contrary whilst Jordan was in control Arafat said there was no longer a claim as it was no longer part of “palestine.” Once it was back in Israeli hands it miraculously became disputed land again! This is one of many reasons Jews and Israelis are cynical.

Also, it should be noted that Israel has peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt (In 1988, in it’s treaty with Israel, Jordan relinquished all claim to “the West Bank” (Judea / Samaria) so there is no internationally recognized “occupation” there).

The Palestinians have spurned each of these opportunities. Anyone that is against Israel should satisfy themselves as why this may have been? I believe, when it comes to the “palestinians,” “They Want It All”. Denying Israel’s right to exist.

Over the last decade+, Hamas has invested millions of dollars into digging extensive tunnel infrastructure below the surface of the Gaza Strip. Much of Hamas’s infrastructure is built in the heart of crowded civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, which means that military targets, including command and control centers, weapons production, weapons depots, military infrastructure, shafts for terrorist tunnels and combat management centers are all inside of civilian neighborhoods. Hamas uses its own people as shields. My heart breaks for all the innocent children. It’s the children who suffer. But Stop rewriting history!

ENOUGH PROPAGANDA!

*** The estimated global Jewish population in 2022 is approximately 15.3 million, with around 7.2 million residing in Israel. This means that nearly 48% of the world’s Jewish population calls Israel home.

In contrast, the Arab world population in 2022 is estimated to be around 464.7 million, spanning across 22 countries. ****

MORE FACTS: Scholars believe the name “palestine” is derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word peleshet. Roughly translated to mean rolling or migratory, the term was used to describe the inhabitants of the land to the northeast of Egypt – the Philistines. The Philistines were an Aegean people – more closely related to the Greeks and with no connection ethnically, linguistically or historically with Arabia – who conquered in the 12th Century BCE the Mediterranean coastal plain that is now Israel and Gaza. A derivative of the name “palestine” first appears in Greek literature in the 5th Century BCE when the historian Herodotus called the area Peleistine. In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which Jerusalem and Judea were regained and the area of Judea was renamed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian “Syria Palaestina” in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel.

At the end of World War I, the territory of the Ottoman Empire was divided between the French and the British, in accordance with the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916. When the British gained control of the region, at the close of World War I they adopted the name “Palestine” and its inhabitants Jewish, Muslim or otherwise were known as Palestinians. And then, during the 1920s, the nascent Palestinian national movement adopted the appellation “Palestinian” as its own.

The idea that “palestinians” are colonized depends entirely on the fake history promulgated by the Arabs and their supporters. Their narrative tells us that their “people” lived in “palestine” for hundreds or even thousands of years, before the European Zionists came along and threw them out. In reality, with the exception of the very small number that were descendants of the Arab colonizers of the 7th century (and those who were descended from Jews that the Romans missed in 135), most “palestinian” Arabs came to the land in the 19th and 20th centuries as economic migrants. This explains why there is so little specifically “palestinian” content to their culture, which is much the same as that of the Arabs in the surrounding region. There is no language called “palestinian,” and no unique religion. What true “palestinianism” that exists comes from their conflict with the Jewish residents of the land in the past hundred years or so.

LEARN THE HISTORY!

Israel is one of the most open societies in the world. Out of a population of 9.6 million, 21% of the population are Arabs, and 5.3% are non-Arab Christians and people who have no religion listed.

• Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote.

• Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel.

• Today, more than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel’s founding, there was but a single Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools.

• Israel has one of the broadest anti-discrimination laws of any country. According to the State Department, “The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, or sexual orientation. The law also prohibits discrimination by both government and nongovernment entities on the basis of race, religion, political beliefs, and age.”

Israel isn’t evil and it’s not the enemy. I hate how our country is filled with antisemitism. And ignorance on the topic.

It should also be noted that Israel is a strategic ally and US relations with Israel strengthen the US presence in the Middle East. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) is intended to promote US national security by contributing to global stability, strengthening military support for democratically elected governments and containing transnational threats, including terrorism and trafficking of weapons.

My open (form) letter to the DNC

Here is the (I guess “form”) letter I use to reply to all messages from the Democratic National Committee when they request money.

Even though I am a dedicated Progressive and lifelong Democrat, I cannot support the party unless they give unequivocal support for the Jewish State of Israel. This would be disavowing all of the heinous lies that have developed over the last few years, such as “Apartheid,” “Occupation,” “Genocide,” “Settler Colonialism,” etc. I would also request that you censure the members of the congressional “Squad” for promoting these same antisemitic lies. Don’t be like Mr. Trump. Stop repeating lies.

Ellis Arseneau Progressive ZIONIST
“Purveyor of unconventional wisdom”

Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism

Anti-semitism, also known as anti-zionism (yes, they really are one and the same thing) is growing by leaps and bounds across our nation. We used to expect this kind of unwarranted hatred from the Right, and to this day they have taken the lead in waging a propaganda war using Jew hatred as their MO. But increasingly we are starting to see it on the Left as well.

They like to call it antizionism: “No, I don’t hate Jews, just the zionists,” but the problem is that zionism is now and always has been an integral part of Judaism. For example, for the past 2,500 years, we have ended the Passover Seder with the words, “… and next year in Jerusalem.”

They try to pass off criticism of Israel, and increasingly emotional accusations against the Jewish state (“Apartheid,””Genocide,””Occupation,””Ethnic cleansing,”) as just exercising their freedom of speech. But by repeating and propagating these heinous lies on Social Media and elsewhere, they are priming the pump of hate crimes and violence against Jews. Here are some recent examples of the results of spreading this antisemitic propaganda:

🔴 Two young diplomats were brutally gunned down after attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

🔴 Demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, were attacked by a man who threw Molotov cocktails at them during a peaceful march in support of the hostages held in Gaza. An 82 year-old Holocaust survivor died from her burns.

🔴 The home of the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania was set on fire during Passover as his

🔴 In San Francisco, a beloved, Jewish-owned cafe has been repeatedly vandalized.

🔴 In Yonkers, New York, a high school basketball game was canceled because of vile antisemitic slurs hurled at young players.

All of these incidents can properly be placed at the feet of those who chant slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!,” “Free Palestine,” “Globalize the intifada!,” “Hitler was right!,” etc., ad adinfinitum, ad nauseum.

People who repeat these slogans are instigating violence toward Jews and vandalism against Jewish owned businesses and buildings, including outright murder as has happened in a few cases.

Violence, vandalism and murder are not Progressive values. The people who shout these slogans are not Progressives, even if that is what they pretend to be.

ALL ANTISEMITISM ORIGINATES IN RIGHT WING FASCISM.

Israel? An apartheid nation? NO!

This is a guest essay by Dr. Maarten Boudry, a philosopher of science who has authored six books and more than 50 academic papers.

I recently travelled through Israel with a delegation of the Europe Israel Press Association, a non-profit that’s independent of the Israeli government.While there, I talked to a wide variety of people: residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Bedouins and Arabs living in villages near the Lebanese border towns and in East Jerusalem, and members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) from various parties. During my visit, I was particularly struck by the loyalty that many Arab Israelis — though certainly not all — feel toward Israel. At the Sheba Medical Centre, we found Jews and Arabs working side by side in operating rooms, treating Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian children without distinction. Even though Arabs are exempt from the military draft, a surprising number have volunteered to defend Israel.We spoke to one of them: IDF Major Ella Waweya, a young Arab woman who joined the army against her family’s objections. (They have since become reconciled to her choice.) In 2016, she earned the highest military honour and now serves as Deputy Commander of the Arabic Spokesperson’s Unit. An observant Muslim, she is proud to speak Hebrew with an Arab accent.She told us that her career has inspired many others to sign up, including a dozen Arab recruits from her own village alone. In the Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, on the Lebanese border, one community member told us that he identifies as both Israeli and Bedouin and sees no difference between himself and his Jewish neighbours. They all serve in the IDF, their children attend the same schools, and they were evacuated together by the government following Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.I heard even stronger declarations of loyalty to Israel among the Druze community along the northern border. During the Six-Day War with Syria in 1967, Druze soldiers had no qualms about firing on their fellow coreligionists in the Syrian army. The Druze hold that national loyalty takes precedence over religious identity, especially in a country like Israel. They know something that many progressives in the West fail to grasp: Israel is the only country in the region to grant them freedom of religion and full democratic rights. In every other Arab nation in the region, the Druze face discrimination, oppression, and even persecution as apostates. It is possible that the Arabs and other minorities I met through the Europe Israel Press Association are not representative of that population at large. They may well have been screened by the organization for their pro-Israel views — and inveterate “anti-Zionists” would probably not want to have any truck with such a program anyway.But surveys suggest that these pro-Israel Arabs are not outliers. In a post-October 7th poll, 70 percent of Arab Israeli respondents said they felt a sense of belonging to their country, a dramatic increase over the 48 percent who expressed such sentiments prior to October 7th. In a 2024 poll, 32 percent of Arabs stated that they trusted the IDF and 23 percent said they trusted the police. While those numbers are significantly lower than those among Jewish citizens (80 and 42.5 percent, respectively), they’re surprisingly high for an allegedly “Jewish supremacist apartheid state.” Even Mansour Abbas, leader of the Arab and Islamist Ra’am party in the Knesset, emphasised that “we are part of Israel, committed to our citizenship.” When we asked him whether Israel was an apartheid state, Abbas said it was not, though he added that the country could become an apartheid state if it decided to annex the West Bank and Gaza, since incorporating 5 million Palestinians would threaten its Jewish-majority character. But for now, within its internationally recognised borders, Israel is a democracy, he agreed.It goes without saying that many Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza do not exactly share this positive appraisal of Israel and its military. But even in East Jerusalem, which has been under Israeli control since the 1967 Six-Day War, sentiment towards Israel is not always as straightforward as you might think.We paid an extended visit to Jinnovate, a centre that promotes tech entrepreneurship within Palestinian society, for which it receives funding from the Israeli government. The centre’s director, Mahmoud Khweis, is a Palestinian entrepreneur who grew up in East Jerusalem and was educated at Harvard Business School and The John F. Kennedy School of Government.Khweis is a firm believer in what he calls “science diplomacy,” i.e. bridging political divides by working side-by-side to tackle technical challenges. He has worked with the United Nations, the World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development, but has never received any support from the European Union. That’s because it views East Jerusalem as an illegally occupied territory, so collaborating with Jinnovate could be seen as legitimising “the occupation,” even though the centre provides invaluable opportunities for bright young Palestinian science students and engineers. Although it was not included on the press tour, I decided to check out the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem — a small, family-run business that made headlines earlier this year after the Israeli police raided it twice and arrested two of its owners, claiming that they were selling materials which incited terrorism.When I arrived, just before the start of Ramadan, there were no signs of the earlier commotion; the family was busy selling books as usual. I had a friendly chat with the young owner, a jovial guy who cracked jokes about his stint in prison and his growling stomach. (Being an observant Muslim, he was looking forward to breaking his fast.) I bought a few anti-Zionist titles by Ilan Pappé and Norman Finkelstein — as well as, for good measure, a book by political scientist Yascha Mounk, who is pro-Israel.I didn’t find any materials inciting terrorism, nor did I expect to. But one key detail, which you won’t find in most Western newspapers, is that the Educational Bookshop was allowed to reopen a few days later, once again offering a treasure trove of books which are highly critical of the State of Israel and Zionism — as they should be permitted to, of course, in any liberal democracy that values freedom of expression. I didn’t meet any Israelis who expressed a desire for genocide or ethnic cleansing in Gaza on my trip. However, I did encounter several people who admitted that, since October 7th, they have been unable to bring themselves to care about the fate of innocent Gazan civilians.Understandably, this sentiment was particularly strong at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, many of whose traumatised and heartbroken residents used to employ Gazan guest workers, some of whom may have acted as informants for the terrorists who carried out the October 7th attacks. Some of these kibbutzniks had even been among the volunteers who drove Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals. But the bluntest expression of this hardened attitude toward Gazans came from Kazim Khlilih, an Arab Israeli LGBTQ influencer who had volunteered to serve in the IDF. He told us, “I know I shouldn’t say this, but I have no compassion for the people in Gaza. I don’t care.” This may sound callous, but we should bear in mind that Kazim lost a cousin on October 7th, a paramedic brutally murdered by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival.Similarly, one of the most hawkish views on Gaza I heard during our trip was expressed by influential Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who is the son of an Arab-Israeli father and a Palestinian mother and was raised in East Jerusalem. Toameh suggested that “the IDF should have temporarily reoccupied Gaza and declared itself the government.” Instead of constantly moving in and out to fight shifting pockets of Hamas resistance, Toameh believes it would have been more effective had the IDF mimicked what Hamas did after its violent takeover: openly declare that they will rule Gaza, at least temporarily. In his view, this would have sent a strong message to the civilian population that Hamas’ time was over.Israeli society is far from perfect. The country grapples with its fair share of ethnic and religious divisions, which are intensified by ongoing wars and the constant threat of terrorist attacks. At least part of the Jewish population harbour strong suspicions toward the Arab minority. Israel is a liberal democracy but it is a “desperate and struggling one,” as historian Fania Oz Salzberger told me.Still, the existence of Israel shows that Jews, Arabs, and other religious and ethnic minorities can coexist peacefully. In some respects, Israel is actually doing a better job of integrating its Muslim minority than many of the European countries that have been quick to accuse the Jewish state of “apartheid” and “genocide.” The patriotism of many Israeli Arabs is remarkable — and would be unusual among their coreligionists in Europe. In fact, even if you’re a Muslim, you’re probably better off living in the Jewish state than anywhere else in the Middle East. Nowhere else in the region do Muslims enjoy so many political and religious freedoms.This is especially true for LGBT Muslims. When a mosque in Berlin announced that it would welcome women and gay people, its female imam received so many death threats that the police had to provide her with 24-hour protection. As Kazim put it, when we asked him about being a gay Muslim in the Jewish state, “It’s not easy, but if I compare it to Europe, thank God I’m a minority in Israel.” In his book, Orientalism, Palestinian-American academic Edward Said arraigns the “simple-minded dichotomy” found in Western orientalist discourse between “freedom-loving, democratic Israel and evil, totalitarian, and terroristic Arabs.”Of course, that’s a wild caricature of Western discourse about Islam; no one but the most extreme racist would portray all Arabs as inherently violent or evil. The Arab world is far from immune to Enlightenment ideas, as evidenced by the many liberal Muslims and ex-Muslims you’ll encounter in Israel and elsewhere.Yet Said, with his myopic focus on “discourses” rather than underlying facts — a tendency he inherited from French historian Michel Foucault — was overlooking an inconvenient truth: There is only one country in the Middle East that upholds liberal Enlightenment values. If you genuinely care about progressive values, you should hope that the surrounding Middle Eastern countries will come to resemble Israel more closely in the future. For all its flaws, Israel remains the region’s lone beacon of freedom and pluralism. On my last day in Israel, I had lunch with the Belgian ambassador at a restaurant in Tel Aviv. As we chatted about the political climate in Israel and the craven decision by some European universities to boycott the country, my host suddenly gestured toward the table beside us. “That’s my friend Ehud Olmert over there!” he exclaimed.I knew that Olmert had been Israel’s Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009, but I wouldn’t have recognised him on sight. Olmert is known for his peace offer to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in 2008, which Abbas rejected, but also for a less savoury reason: Olmert served 16 months in jail for corruption and bribery.As the elderly former statesman approached our table and I shook his hand, a thought struck me: This Jewish politician and lawyer, once the most powerful man in the country, ended up in prison thanks, in part, to an Arab Justice on the Israeli Supreme Court.

Does that sound like an apartheid state to you?