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In Israel’s Year of Strength, Israel and the Jewish People Must Emerge Stronger Than Ever
A general view shows thousands of Jewish worshipers attending the priestly blessing on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, Sept. 26, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.
As Israel begins its 77th year, one aligned with the word Oz (“strength”) due to its gematric numerical value, both the State of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide must embrace the concept, not just militarily — but morally, spiritually, and ideologically.
At a time when lies, propaganda, and revisionist history dominate the discourse, especially on Western college campuses, we must meet distortion with clarity and hatred with truth. Our silence or passivity in the face of these attacks is no longer an option. We must speak, not just loudly, but rightly.
Across North America and Europe, a new wave of anti-Israel sentiment is spreading, often masquerading as human rights activism. On too many campuses, students are taught to view Israel as a colonialist aggressor rather than a small democratic nation surrounded by hostile regimes. Jewish students are being harassed, physically threatened, and shouted down for supporting the right of Israel to exist. This is not criticism, but rather demonization. And it must be answered.
Consider just one recent example: Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, publicly denied the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, claiming absurdly that the ancient Jewish Temple was in Yemen. This is not just a historical falsehood, it is part of a long-standing strategy to erase Jewish history from its indigenous homeland. The truth? Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people since King David established it as such 3,000 years ago. It has never served as the capital of any other nation.
During centuries of foreign conquest, including the Arab conquest in the 8th century, Jerusalem was not chosen as the caliphate’s capital. There is a reason that Jerusalem’s center is the Temple Mount, because the Jewish Temple stood there, long before Islam was founded.
Despite the so-called Palestinian “truth” of the sole Muslim claim to Jerusalem and the city’s holiness in Islam, when Jordan occupied eastern Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967 (something that is never mentioned in the media), Jerusalem fell into disrepair, and outside of the Jordanian monarchy, not a single other Arab leader made a pilgrimage there.
During those 19 years of a true “occupation” by the Jordanians, Jews were forbidden from praying at our holiest site, and 58 synagogues throughout the Old City were destroyed.
When it comes to claims of Israeli occupation, in 1917, the British Mandate legally recognized the Jewish right to the land of Israel including Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Israel has made multiple peace offers, including full statehood for the Palestinians, at least eight times since its founding in 1948. Each time, the offers were rejected, not because of borders, but because of one simple clause: the one recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The issue has never been just land. It has always been a religious and ideological rejection of Jewish sovereignty in any form.
In 1948, Palestinian Arabs rejected the UN’s offer for a Palestinian state by aligning with Israel’s Arab neighbors and trying to kill every single Jew in the land, and claim the whole thing as their own. That pattern has not stopped for the past 77 years, and is the real reason there is no peace.
The world accuses Israel of apartheid, a blood libel as obscene as it is false. Arabs in Israel enjoy full civil rights: they vote, serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, and attend Israeli universities in large numbers. There are Arab doctors, teachers, soldiers, and entrepreneurs. This is not apartheid. This is democracy. That slur should be denounced, not tolerated.
Mahmoud Abbas is often described as a moderate partner for peace. But is a man who denies the Holocaust, glorifies terrorists, and pays lifetime pensions to the families of suicide bombers truly a moderate? Is someone who names schools after Jew-killers a peace-seeker? Let us not be naïve. We are not dealing with moderation; we are confronting radical, institutionalized antisemitism under the banner of nationalism.
The emblem of Fatah, Abbas’s party, is telling: it shows the entirety of Israel covered in a keffiyeh, with a rifle laid across it. This is not a symbol of coexistence. It is a call for erasure. The world must see these images and understand their meaning. Too many in the West remain blind to the truth, misled by slogans and half-truths.
The Jewish people are not intruders in our land. We are its indigenous people. We are not colonizers, we are homecomers. Despite being exiled, persecuted, and nearly annihilated over generations, the Jewish people have returned and rebuilt. Our presence in the land is not temporary. It is sacred.
So as Israel marks its 77th year, let us rise not just with military might, but with moral clarity. Let our leaders at every level — political, religious, and cultural — speak boldly and empower the Jewish community across the world with the truth. Let our students be armed not just with facts, but with pride in their Judaism.
The world may try to tear us down, but we will stand tall. With courage, with unity, and with the blessing of the Almighty, we will endure.
Morton A. Klein is the National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
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France Moves to Honor Alfred Dreyfus With Posthumous Promotion Over a Century After Wrongful Conviction
Alfred Dreyfus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
France’s National Defense and Armed Forces Committee has unanimously voted to posthumously promote Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general, in a symbolic act of justice more than a century after the Jewish army captain was wrongly convicted of espionage.
On Wednesday, the French Embassy in Israel announced the committee’s approval of Dreyfus’s posthumous promotion — a proposal put forward by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
“The French Nation is just and does not forget,” the embassy said in a statement. “This rights an injustice, honors a warrior, and clarifies that antisemitism, from history to today, will never have a place in the Republic.”
“האומה הצרפתית הינה חדורת צדק ואינה שוכחת, והיא מעלה לדרגת תת אלוף את אלפרד דרייפוס לאחר מותו”.
הצעת חוק שהתקבלה הבוקר פה אחד בוועדת הביטחון והצבא של האסיפה הלאומית, ופותחת את הדרך לאישור במליאה ב-2 ביוני הקרוב.
לתקן עוולה. לחלוק כבוד ללוחם. להדגיש שלאנטישמיות – של אתמול כמו של… pic.twitter.com/5GBFhxsLlk
— La France en Israël (@franceenisrael) May 28, 2025
With the approval of lawmakers on the committee, the bill is set to be adopted by the full National Assembly in its plenary session on June 2.
When introducing the legislation earlier this month, Attal said the law would “constitute an act of reparation, a recognition of [Dreyfus’s] merits, and a tribute to his republican commitment,” in an effort to rectify the wrongful conviction, which unfolded amid widespread antisemitism across the country at the time.
“Five years of exile and humiliation irreparably harmed his military career,” Attal said. “It is undeniable that, had it not been for this injustice, Alfred Dreyfus would have naturally ascended to the highest ranks.”
According to the French diplomat, the proposed legislation would also signal that the fight against antisemitism remains urgent, as France has seen a rise in antisemitic hate crimes following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded, according to a report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews.
In late May and early June, antisemitic acts rose by more than 140 percent, far surpassing the weekly average of slightly more than 30 incidents.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
In 1894, Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region in northeastern France, was accused of leaking secret information to a German military official and was put on trial amid a fierce antisemitic media campaign.
Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason based on a handwriting comparison with a document found in a German official’s wastepaper basket in Paris, sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana, and stripped of his military rank.
Years later, French Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, then head of military intelligence, secretly reopened the case and uncovered that the handwriting on the incriminating document belonged to another officer. But when he brought this evidence to the army’s general staff, Picquart was dismissed from his post and imprisoned for a year.
In 1899, Dreyfus was brought back to France for a second trial, where he was again found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, before ultimately receiving a pardon — though the charges against him were not formally overturned.
It was seven years later, in 1906, when Dreyfus was officially exonerated after the French High Court of Appeal overturned the original verdict and reinstated him with the rank of major.
He lived until 1935, dying at the age of 76.
The post France Moves to Honor Alfred Dreyfus With Posthumous Promotion Over a Century After Wrongful Conviction first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy Pushes for Israel-Syria ‘Non-Aggression Agreement,’ Says Peace Achievable
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani stands next to US envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack as he raises the American flag at US ambassador’s residency in Damascus, Syria, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack called for a non-aggression pact between long-time foes Syria and Israel during a high-profile visit to Damascus on Thursday, marking a significant diplomatic change in the Middle East.
Barack, who also serves as the US ambassador to Turkey, said he believes a peace agreement between Israel and Syria could be possible, praising the nascent Islamist government in Damascus for indicating openness to normalization with the Jewish state.
“Syria and Israel is a solvable problem. But it starts with a dialogue,” Barrack told journalists in Damascus. “I’d say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders.”
Following his meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace, Barrack suggested the agreement as a first step toward repairing relations between Jerusalem and Damascus, according to AFP. Barrack also hoisted the American flag over the US ambassador’s residence for the first time since the embassy closed in 2012, highlighting the swift growth of US relations with Syria.
Israeli and Syrian officials have been in direct contact and held a series of meetings in recent weeks aimed at calming tensions and avoiding conflict along their border, according to reporting by Reuters.
Sharaa became Syria’s president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted long-time Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war, with an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al Qaeda affiliate. Though previously designated as a terrorist organization by the US, HTS has since rebranded itself as a national force concerned with Syria’s wellbeing.
Following Assad’s fall, Israel conducted military strikes against much of Syria’s weapons arsenals and deployed ground troops to the buffer zone along their border to prevent its northern neighbor from becoming a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israeli communities.
The Israeli government has also pledged to defend the Druze community, an Arab minority sect whose religion is originally derived from Islam, in Syria with military force if they come under threat.
Despite suspicions of Syria’s new Islamist-led government, US foreign policy toward Damascus has shifted dramatically with the change in regime.
Barrack’s visit came after about two weeks after US President Donald Trump met with Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, urged him to normalize relations with Israel, and announced in a surprising turn that the US would lift all sanctions on the Syrian government.
According to Barrack, the Trump administration will remove Syria from the US State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that has heavily restricted foreign aid and investment in the country, saying the issue was “gone with the Assad regime being finished.”
Barrack told Reuters that Washington wants to give Syria’s new leadership “a fair opportunity to govern without the burden of external pressure,” suggesting a major recalibration of US policy in the Middle East.
“America’s intent and the president’s vision is that we have to give this young government a chance by not interfering, not demanding, by not giving conditions, by not imposing our culture on your culture,” Barrack said on Thursday.
The post US Envoy Pushes for Israel-Syria ‘Non-Aggression Agreement,’ Says Peace Achievable first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Baby Delivered After Pregnant Mother’s Murder in Terror Attack Dies Following Two Weeks in Intensive Care
On the left: Tzeela Gez, who was shot dead while in a car with her husband in the West Bank, as they were driving to hospital to give birth in May 2025. On the right: Hananel Gez holding his son, Ravid Chaim, who died two weeks after the terrorist attack. Photo: Screenshot
The infant son of Tzeela Gez, an Israeli mother of three who was fatally shot in a terrorist attack in the West Bank while on her way to give birth, died Thursday morning after two weeks in intensive care.
On May 15, Gez and her husband, Hananel, were on their way to the hospital to deliver their baby when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on Israeli vehicles, critically wounding the pregnant mother and injuring her husband.
After the attack, the 30-year-old woman was quickly transported to Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center in critical condition. Despite doctors’ efforts to save her, she was pronounced dead the next morning.
According to the hospital, Gez’s husband, who was driving the car, sustained minor injuries after his condition was initially reported as serious.
Doctors managed to deliver the baby, Ravid Chaim — a name Tzeela had chosen before the attack — via emergency C-section, but he had already suffered severe oxygen deprivation.
Despite intensive medical care, his condition remained critical, and he never regained full consciousness. After fighting for his life for more than two weeks, Ravid was pronounced dead Thursday morning at Schneider Children’s Medical Center.
Last week, Hananel described his son’s condition as being “between life and death” in an interview with Israel Hayom.
Shortly after the attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced an intensive search for the terrorist who fired on multiple vehicles, with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.
About a week after Tzeela was murdered, the IDF confirmed that it had eliminated the killer, Nael Samara, during a counter-terrorism operation near the Jewish community of Bruchin in the northern West Bank.
In a post on X, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shared the tragic news of Ravid’s death, while criticizing the international community for ignoring the terror attacks against Israeli settlers.
“Jews living in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] are the most attacked population in the world by terrorism. Despite this, too many in the international community prefer to speak about ‘settler violence,’ instead of the terror against settlers,” the top Israeli diplomat said.
Tzeela Gez was brutally murdered while on her way to the hospital to give birth.
Doctors fought for the life of Ravid Chaim, her newborn baby, for two weeks. Tragically, he did not survive.
He passed away today.
Jews living in Judea and Samaria are the most attacked population… pic.twitter.com/hWiVx0FreS— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) May 29, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “great sorrow and pain” upon hearing the tragic news.
“There are no words that can comfort the murder of a newborn baby along with his mother,” the Israeli leader said in a post on X. “The heroism of the pioneers of settlement in Judea and Samaria, and their dedication is what will defeat all our enemies. Earth does not cover their blood.”
בצער ובכאב גדול התבשרנו הבוקר על מותו של התינוק רביד חיים, בנה של צאלה הי”ד וחננאל גז.
אין מילים שיכולות לנחם רצח של תינוק בן יומו יחד עם אימו.
גבורת חלוצי ההתיישבות ביהודה ושומרון ומסירות הנפש שלהם היא זו שתביס את כל אויבינו.
“ארץ אל תכסי דמם”.
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 29, 2025
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he spoke with Hananel, whom he praised as “a true Israeli hero,” to offer his support and solidarity.
“The entire people of Israel embrace him in his difficult time and pray that he finds comfort and solace together with his children and the entire family. May their memory be blessed,” Herzog said in a post on X.
תנחומים מעומק ליבי לחננאל גז ומשפחתו על מותו של התינוק רביד חיים ז״ל – שהוצא מרחם אימו צאלה ז״ל שנרצחה בפיגוע אכזרי סמוך לברוכין לפני כשבועיים, כשהייתה בדרכה לחדר הלידה. כמה התפללנו שרביד הקטן יוכל להשתקם ולחיות עם משפחתו האוהבת.
ביום שישי האחרון שוחחתי עם חננאל, גיבור ישראלי…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) May 29, 2025
The post Israeli Baby Delivered After Pregnant Mother’s Murder in Terror Attack Dies Following Two Weeks in Intensive Care first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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