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Learning From the Wise Men of Chelm: Israel and a Palestinian State
Supporters and family members of hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, hold lit torches during a protest ahead of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem
A boy had been given money to buy things at the grocery store. On the way, he lost the money. Someone saw him looking for the money: “Did you lose it here?” the man asked. “No,” said the boy. “Then why are you looking here?” “Ah,” said the boy. “Where I lost the money it is dark, but here it is light.”
The Wise Men of Chelm (a Jewish folk tale)
Israelis have good reason to be worried about the current Hamas ceasefire. On the terrorist side, there is every intention to continue the jihad.
Reciprocally, Israel will soon feel renewed pressured to accept a Palestinian state. Still, like the boy from “Chelm” — who looks for lost grocery money only where it would be most visible — the Jewish State would be looking for peace in the wrong place.
A core principle of all civilized legal systems — one reaffirmed at the post-war Nuremberg trials — is nullum crimen sine poena or “no crime without a punishment.” Today, even following “perfidious” terror attacks on Israeli civilians, much of the world is apt to blame Israel for cumulative regional harms.
Though Israel’s counter-terrorist war in Gaza had been unintentionally harming Palestinian civilians, this war of self-defense was indispensable for national survival, and Israel-inflicted harms were entirely collateral. Altogether unlike the precipitating October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack, these harms were not the result of “criminal intent” or mens rea.
In these ongoing matters, logic must be paramount. To begin, the self-justifying Palestinian narrative of an Israeli “occupation” has always been founded on a flimsy edifice of legal falsehoods.
In essence, this narrative is a contrivance of structured propaganda. Even if the contrivance were not so blatant, Palestinian insurgents would lack any law-based right to intentionally harm Israeli noncombatants. In law, all war, even a “just war,” must be fought by “just means.”
Under international law, rape, murder, suicide-bombings, and hostage-taking can never express a permissible path to “self-determination.” Under law, these ends can never justify the means.
There is more. For the most part, Hamas and other jihadi killers are not “lone wolves.” They are spurred on by organized Palestinian incitements to barbarous terror-violence. Though generally overlooked, these determined criminals remain captivated by the Islamist promise of “power over death.” This is a delusionary power reserved for “martyrs.”
Among other inglorious traits, jihadist terrorists (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, etc.) are markedly unheroic in their search for Palestinian statehood.
More precisely, they are consumed by an elemental or primal cowardice. Should there be any doubts about this, one need only remember that the jihadist kills himself or herself in order not to die. This wanton murderer expects to suffer little more than a transient inconvenience on the path to “life everlasting.” Nonetheless, for themselves, jihadist leaders typically prefer luxury hotel suites in Qatar or Turkey to Islamist heaven.
Does the jihadi “foot soldier” truly believe in such a blessedly eternal life? To answer this question, one must first understand that religious faith can easily trump logic and science, especially in the Islamist Middle East.
A personally reinforcing point can be offered by the present writer, who many years back, interviewed a failed Palestinian suicide-bomber. When I inquired of this young man (face to face, with an Israeli captor-interpreter) how he felt about failure as a “martyr” (i.e., as shahid), the would-be terrorist replied without hesitation: “Devastated, because now I will surely have to die.”
Back to current jihadi criminal plans for Israel. Can there be a lawful “ceasefire agreement” between a genuine national government (Israel) and an inherently criminal organization (Hamas)?
Whatever the overall merits of each side’s position, the immediate effect of any ceasefire agreement is to bestow on a criminal-terror organization a legitimate position under international law and formal legal equivalence with a sovereign state. Among other things, the inherent illegality of Hamas as a “self-determination” organization can be extrapolated from the explicit criminalization of terrorism under both codified and customary international law.
What about “Palestine?” Though the name would seem to signify extant “sovereign equality” with Israel, the legal reality is different. There has never been a state of Palestine, nor does such a state exist today. For those willing to examine this time-urgent matter in appropriately legal context, the place to begin is the Convention on the Right and Duties of States (Montevideo, 1933). Among other things, this governing treaty on statehood dispels all prevailing falsifications regarding an alleged “state of Palestine.”
In the next year, and without a scintilla of objective legal verification, the global community could become convinced that Palestinians deserve an independent state and that fulfilling this presumed right would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians. Accordingly, there would be assorted incentives to interpret the Montevideo Convention as a validation or justification of Palestinian statehood. Bolstered by such faux reasoning, this jihad-based Arab state would accelerate its pre-independence program of war and terror against Israel.
From the standpoint of every operational Palestinian faction, all present-day Israel would be designated “occupied territory.”
Though openly genocidal, “From the river to the sea….” is already the pre-state Palestinian war cry. Should there remain any doubts about wrongful Palestinian definitions of an Israeli “occupation,” one need only to check official Palestinian maps. On each map, “Palestine’s” borders are drawn to include all of Israel. One should recall here that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO, forerunner of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas) was founded in 1964, three years before there were any “occupied territories.”
So what exactly was the PLO attempting to “liberate?”
During the many years that Palestinian terrorists were slaughtering each other as well as Israeli civilians, Israel’s law-based warnings about Palestine were widely ignored or harshly condemned. Not even after 9/11, when Fatah and Hamas celebrated America’s jihad-triggered misfortune, did the United States and its allies even bother to re-evaluate their traditional support of Palestinian statehood. We should expect, therefore, especially after the current ceasefire agreement, that Israelis would feel pressured to consider “Palestine” as a longer-term solution.
On the Arab side, theology could be determinative. For all jihadist forces in the Middle East, the conflict with Israel is never authentically about land or geopolitical advantage. Rather, it is always about God and variously derivative promises of “power over death.”
For Palestinian terror groups, the true enemy is never Israel as such. This enemy is “The Jews.”
The young Palestinian terrorist who strikes with axe or blade (both used for beheading Jewish children on October 7, 2023) is expecting to be rewarded as a “martyr.” Prima facie, this means an incomparable reward.
For Israelis, it’s time to learn from errors of the “wise men of Chelm”
It is time to look for solutions where “it is dark.” Plainly, Hamas and all other Palestinian jihadi organizations still seek a “One State Solution” for their “Jewish Question.” In principle, at least, certain earlier declarations of support for Palestinian “self-determination” might not have been unreasonable, but only if the Palestinian side had been committed to a genuine “Two-State Solution.”
Whatever their current differences, all jihadi groups agree that Israel is by its very nature intolerable (because any Jewish state, by definition, represents a religious abomination in the Dar al Islam) and that Israel is “Occupied Palestine.”
From the 17th century onward, the world political system has operated in a “state of nature.” In the corrosively anarchic Middle East, considerations of raw power have routinely trumped any binding expectations of authoritative international law. On particular matters concerning Palestinian statehood, it is high time to understand that everyone’s true enemy in the region is not Israel, but a persistently sordid mix of jihadist criminal forces.
Though counter-intuitive, any tangible advances to Palestinian statehood would disadvantage Arabs as well as Israelis. As a complicating factor, an irredentist Palestinian state would weaken Israel in its potentially survival struggle against a near-nuclear or already-nuclear Iran. For the Jewish State, the Palestinian threat (expanded anti-Israel terrorism) and the Iranian nuclear threat are never separate and distinct. Instead, they are intersectional and mutually reinforcing.
Finally, we may learn from the historic Nuremberg Tribunals and Nuremberg Principles an elementary pillar of justice first drawn from ancient Jewish law: “No crime without a punishment.”
In the end, if world leaders should choose to betray this “peremptory” principle (one that is per se inviolable), Palestine could wind up as Israel’s “last straw.” It follows that absolutely any post-ceasefire incentives to accept a Palestinian state should be rejected by Jerusalem. Recalling the boy’s lost grocery money in “Chelm,” Israel should never be tempted by any seemingly gainful advantages of “light.” In Jewish literary “Chelm,” the “Wise Men” was an ironic designation.
Prof. Louis René Beres was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the author of many books and scholarly articles dealing with international law, nuclear strategy, nuclear war, and terrorism. In Israel, Prof. Beres was Chair of Project Daniel (PM Sharon). His 12th and latest book is Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016; 2nd ed., 2018).
The post Learning From the Wise Men of Chelm: Israel and a Palestinian State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.