"Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East," Albanese muttered in his trademark anodyne tone when relating to the attack. This was pushback against insinuations of Australian diplomatic culpability made by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and many Jewish leaders.

Albanese is wrong. He is blind, purposefully in denial. His enthusiasm for promoting Palestinian statehood led to the Bondi Beach slaughter.

Albanese's impudent and insolent, in-Israel's-face, at-Israel's-expense, over-Israel's-objection, stance on this matter indeed makes him culpable in the murder of 15 Australian Jews. As Emile Zola famously wrote: J'accuse!

This may be an accusation not comfortable to make, but Israeli and Jewish leaders around the world must insist upon it in every interaction with politicians and diplomats.

Leaders like Albanese – and prime ministers Keith Starmer of Britain and Mark Carney of Canada, and President Emmanuel Macron of France – must be told that their insane insistence on unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, specifically after October 7 and especially as calls for the destruction of Israel escalate in Palestinian society and in Western streets – is immoral.

Unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood in defiance of Israel obnoxiously delegitimizes Israeli historic-national and security positions and callously undermines the right to dignity of Jewish supporters of Israel. It amounts to abrogation of Western commitment to Israel's security and to abandonment of the Jews. It is criminal appeasement of the enemy beast (and the beast will never be appeased).

It declares open season for hunting down Jews and "Zionists." Yes, it directly paves the way to Sydney-style bloodbaths.

You see, the dereliction in countering antisemitism of the Australian government (and of the British, Canadian, French, and other governments) is clear, but that is only part of the picture.

Undeniably, they have been delinquent in setting proper limits on democratic discourse and in applying concrete policies that would combat the escalating hate fest. They have let the jihadist mobs rant-away in their streets with calls of "Gas the Jews," Death to the IDF," "Globalize the Intifada," and other threats to Jews near and far.

Alas, dereliction of duty in combating such hate is an accusation easy to make and substantiate. It is a painfully obvious and searing indictment, but also too thin of an indictment. Western leaders must be charged with more – with mollycoddling the rapidly accelerating civilizational assault on the Jewish People and their indigenous homeland, the State of Israel.

WHEN GOVERNMENTS like Canberra give credence to false anti-Israel narratives about the Gaza war (such as allegations that Israel intentionally starved Gazan children, or targeted hospitals and journalists) – Hamas is handed a victory, and supporters of jihad are given incentive for violence against Jews everywhere.

When these falsehoods are presented as legitimate criticism of Israel's government, Israelis and Jews inevitably become classified as villains undeserving of rights or sympathy – and outrages like Bondi Beach as well as campus and subway attacks on Jews become likely, even normalized.

When governments like Canberra blabber about the "urgency" of Palestinian statehood and shower Israel with "tough love" in this regard through highhanded UN resolutions – Palestinians get a green light for more war against Israel, and antisemites are encouraged to rev-up their attacks on Jews.

When governments like Canberra continue to massively fund the nefarious Hamas-penetrated agency, UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians) – this feeds the Palestinian claim to a so-called "right of return" that would demographically destroy Israel and nourishes the convictions of jihadist gunmen that they can freely pop-off Jews on beaches or in synagogues.

In short and in plain language: By slap-happily bashing Israel and recklessly promoting Palestinian statehood at this existential moment, governments like those of Prime Minister Albanese weaken Israel and prolong the Palestinian campaign to demonize Israel. And this fuels the mobs rampaging through Jewish neighborhoods in Sydney and Melbourne, London, and Toronto.

And when Western leaders are willfully and stubbornly oblivious to this linkage, their professing of support for Jews rings hollow.

Every thinking Jew in the world knows this to be true. We feel this in our bones. Albanese and his ilk can deny this perspective and profess to be concerned both for the rights of Palestinians and for the safety of Jews with no contradiction between them, but we Jews know otherwise.

To paraphrase the actor and podcaster Jonah Platt: Western leaders absolutely do not get to foment hatred of the one place in the world where Jews are not a minority and where half of all Jews on Earth live – and then pretend they care about Jewish lives.

They absolutely do not get to dismiss mainstream Jewish community voices while tokenizing fringe anti-Zionist Jews who agree with them and who libel Israel – and then pretend they care about Jewish lives.

Mr. Albanese, Mr. Starmer, Mr. Carney, and Mr. Macron: You absolutely do not get to superciliously ignore the genocidal intentions of Palestinians against Israel and the murderous aims of antisemitic rioters against Jews – and then pretend you care about Jewish lives.

Instead, breed a strategic brain and scale back your dangerous delegitimization of Israel and Jews. Get some gumption and tell Palestinians that there will be no Palestine "from the river to the sea" (i.e., no erasure of Israel). Grow a collective spine and tell your own publics that you reject the relentless equation of Israel and Jews with the evils of faddish radical discourse (imperialism, colonialism, apartheid, white supremacy, genocide, etc.).

Stop scurrying about the international stage with schemes to ram a hostile Palestinian state down Israel's throat while offering crocodile tears when local Jews pay the price of your maliciousness and malfeasance.

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Because the incident took place at a Hanukkah event attended by thousands of Jewish celebrants, and because of the distant footage and the white shirt that looked a bit like the kind worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews, the natural assumption was that this was one of the Jewish participants. And since it was Hanukkah, a little Jewish heroism would hardly have offended anyone.

Then came the surprise. The hero turned out to be someone whose name left no doubt about his religion or origins: Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-born man who emigrated to Australia in 2006 and runs a vegetable stand near the site of the attack. Al-Ahmed himself was shot several times and seriously wounded.

Once his identity became known, confusion set in. On the one hand, Islamist antisemitic terrorism targeting Jews; on the other, an Arab Muslim hero risking his life to save Jews. That contradiction quickly spilled over onto social media. On the left, people celebrated the proof that not all Muslims are terrorists. On the right, critics were forced to soften their rhetoric about Arab Muslims. Both camps were taken aback by the plot twist. There is a term for this reaction: racism of low expectations. It is a harsh label, but if we are honest, we are not entirely to blame for falling into it. We look around us and recognize the grim reality of our own swamp.

"The uninvolved who decided to get involved," said Eitan Mor, a former hostage, with painfully precise irony in a Saturday night interview on Channel 14's The Patriots. He described how, on October 7, after helping partygoers at the Nova music festival escape while terrorist gunfire whistled around him, he was captured by Gazans. Not Hamas terrorists, but civilians armed with "knives, saws and hammers," as he put it, some of them even elementary school-aged children.

Mor is not alone. Eli Albag, the father of Liri, a surveillance soldier who was abducted and later released, recounted that his daughter told him after her return: "There are two million terrorists there, don't make a mistake. I sat with an 8-year-old boy and 4-year-old children who would spit and say 'death to the Jew.'" Eli Sharabi, another heroic survivor, said: "No one in Gaza helped me. Civilians saw us suffering and cheered the terrorists. There is no such thing as 'uninvolved.'"

Nearly every hostage who returned from Gaza described how civilians—men and women, young and old—were part of the machinery that abused them during the abduction and throughout the long months in captivity. In some cases, the supposedly "uninvolved" civilians were crueler than the Hamas terrorists themselves.

From the very first day of the war, which began on Simchat Torah in 2023, until now, concepts associated with World War II have been heard repeatedly. "Nazis," "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," "extermination." Some were used by us to describe Hamas and its accomplices; others were hurled at us by our enemies or their supporters in Israel and around the world. But one concept was never mentioned: Righteous Among the Nations.

More than 30,000 Righteous Among the Nations from the Holocaust era have been recognized to date. The definition is clear: a non-Jew who acted to save Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk and without compensation. The list of countries they came from is impressive, ranging from Poland, the Netherlands and France, with thousands of honorees, to Egypt, Turkey and El Salvador, with just one each.

On October 7, 251 people were abducted. Some were held alive for months, even years. And yet not a single Gazan chose to become the first Righteous Among the Nations from Gaza. Ahmed al-Ahmed, somewhere in distant Sydney, showed us that it does not have to be this way. That an Arab Muslim can choose good, can act humanely, can risk his life to save Jews.

When the video of Ahmed's heroism was first published, before his identity was known, someone tweeted on X: "Is there already a medal or decoration named after the late Aner Shapira?" Indeed, Ahmed deserves recognition, and one can only hope that the State of Israel will grant him the honor he deserves.

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From the perspective of religious tradition, the holiday centers on the Jewish struggle against the religious decrees imposed by the Greeks. When the radical faction of Hellenizers is added to the picture, a clear dimension of civil war also emerges. The Talmudic discussion of the origin of the holiday makes it clear that Hanukkah was established for generations because of the miracle of the cruse of oil and the renewal of Temple service, while the military victory is barely mentioned.

When the military victory does appear in the prayer Al Hanisim, the emphasis is that it was achieved with God's help. Even Maimonides, who notes the restoration of independence, "and sovereignty returned to Israel… until the Second Destruction," still emphasizes the victory over religious decrees and the miracle of the oil.

With the rise of the Zionist movement, by contrast, there was a growing tendency to reinterpret Hanukkah and even to strip it of its distinctly religious content. In the words of historian Ben-Zion Dinur, later Israel's education minister, "Hanukkah became the festival of the Hasmoneans." From religious tradition, the words "for the miracles and the wonders," attributed of course to God, were taken, but in the famous song they were transformed into "for the miracles and the wonders wrought by the Maccabees."

The most striking example is the song We Carry Torches by Aharon Ze'ev, with its well-known line, "No miracle happened to us, we found no cruse of oil." The supernatural miracle of the traditional holiday disappears, or more precisely is made to disappear, and the acts of God, which leave the Maccabees in a relatively passive position, are replaced by heroic, initiative-taking Maccabees, whose heirs we are today.

Is there a need to choose between these two approaches, or can they be combined, allowing each individual and community to emphasize whichever elements of the holiday they see fit?

In religious tradition, a well-known question asks why we light eight candles, given that the miracle of the cruse of oil actually lasted only seven days. The oil that was found sufficed for one day, meaning the miracle itself occurred only during the following seven days. A wide range of answers has been offered over the generations, most of them attempting to explain why it nevertheless constituted an eight-day miracle.

But there is another answer. Rabbi Menachem ben Solomon Meiri (1249–1316) wrote, in addressing the question that troubled generations: "On the first night, when there was no miracle of oil, we recite the blessing for redemption and thanksgiving for finding the cruse." In Meiri's concise formulation, the proper synthesis of these seemingly opposing approaches is reflected.

Indeed, for the miracle of the oil we light only seven candles. But the first candle is lit "for redemption," meaning for the national military victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks. Yet there is something more to learn here: gratitude for finding the cruse. We tend to think that only a clear-cut supernatural event qualifies as a miracle, forgetting the ordinary, natural miracles that occur around us all the time. Even the very discovery of the single cruse of oil was itself a kind of miracle, not something that could be taken for granted as if it were obvious it would be found.

On Hanukkah, the Festival of the Maccabees, it is fitting that we look around us and not take anything for granted. Some of what has happened, and is happening, since the start of the war qualifies as a miracle, not necessarily a supernatural one, but a miracle nonetheless, even if we are the ones carrying it out.

The starting point was the most difficult since the establishment of the State of Israel, exacting a horrific price from us. Since then, Israel's strategic position has fundamentally changed for the better. The pager operation and Operation Like a Lion are examples of the miracles taking place around us and through our own actions. Chag Sameach.

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From Osama bin Laden's planned attack in New York on September 11, 2001, to the present day, Western nations have remained unable to eradicate the scourge of Islamist terror. Numerous attacks have been thwarted thanks to invaluable intelligence provided by Mossad to various intelligence services. Without these warnings, the list of Islamist attacks in Europe and Australia would have been longer and more deadly, targeting innocent men, women, and children.

Encouraged, trained, and financed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, terrorist cells from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah operate with impunity across all continents. Since October 7, 2023, they have been taking advantage of American restraint and European disarray. Worse still, Western powers are allowing pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the streets in the name of "freedom of expression." Chancelleries in Europe are working by all diplomatic means to create a Palestinian state. Are they unaware that their actions indirectly fuel anti-Semitic waves and sow terror? Are they so masochistic or so naive? Why this indifference to the just cause of the Jewish state? This "collusion" with the devil?

There is no difference between the Palestinian Hamas terrorists and all the Shiite and Sunni terrorists who perpetrate attacks in Sydney, Washington, Manchester, or Paris. They all wish to create Islamic states in place of the Jewish state and Christian countries. Even today, Saladin remains a hero of Islam, the great victor over the Crusaders in 1187. Why turn a deaf ear, why ignore the words of Islamist leaders who clearly declare in Arabic: "Our goal is to mobilize the Muslim masses for the conquest again of Jerusalem"?

The attack in Sydney on the first day of Hanukkah symbolizes our age-old struggle against evil. We light candles to dispel darkness and obscurantism, and to illuminate the fundamental values ​​of Judaism. Members of the Loubavitch movement were targeted once again. Islamist barbarians premeditatedly murdered representatives of Chabad, the Hebrew acronym for wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge.

We have no choice but to continue our tireless fight against the cult of death. It is our collective destiny, for better or for worse. For over a century, we have been fighting the scourge of Palestinian terrorism, and every day we thwart planned attacks and every night we arrest those who commission them, perpetrators, and suspects.

The Jewish state is therefore acting in legitimate self-defense and has the absolute right to wage a fight, without pity and without mercy, against all enemies of all kinds, against all those who want to wipe us off the map, whether they are Palestinian or Iranian.

No moral lessons, especially from Europe, and from France in particular, nor any condemnation will be able to prevent the Israeli government from continuing, with the support of the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad, the fight against the scourge of terrorism in Gaza, Damascus, Beirut, or Tehran.

The waves of antisemitism and acts of terror cannot be eradicated without an international strategy. It's not enough to simply increase police presence outside synagogues and community centers, organize mourning ceremonies, or express solidarity after each attack; these are merely empty words and fine expressions. What's needed is concrete action through draconian laws, including freezing bank accounts and cracking down on incitement to hatred of Jews in the streets and mosques.

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At first glance, this poem appears to be a patriotic song and an expression of loyalty to the homeland, but the hidden meaning, known to many Iranians, promotes continued conquests and the spread of Iran's name throughout the world, whether through military victories or cultural ones.

Since the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the regime, which also sees itself as continuing that extremist Shiite dynasty, has taken this message and developed it into the concept of "exporting the revolution". According to this concept, the Iranian regime strives with all its might and through every resource at its disposal – even at the expense of citizens and domestic challenges (witness the water shortage alongside massive aid to Hezbollah even in recent days) – to export its values everywhere in order to "conquer" every target, in the Middle East and the West, thereby transforming Iran into a superpower.

The means available to the Iranian regime for this goal include propaganda, manipulation, and brainwashing of large audiences, particularly those who do not identify with local authorities.

Thus, along with benefits such as religious events where they also provide food for masses of participants or even the establishment of civilian infrastructure like kindergartens, mosques, and various institutions at the expense of the regime and Iranian citizens for the benefit of these locals, Iranian emissaries buy the loyalty of locals and subsequently use them to advance the Iranian regime's goals – further dissemination of Iranian regime propaganda and even acts of terror or harassment against Jews or believers in liberal and democratic values.

The Iranian regime maintains at least 16 propaganda bodies operating inside but mainly outside Iran, in order to strengthen in their eyes Iranian national security through mass recruitment of immigrants from the Middle East or even locals in European countries, South America, Africa, and Australia.

There has often been substantial public criticism within Iran regarding the massive budgets of these propaganda bodies, which include Iranian television channels in various languages, sending clerics and preachers to all parts of the world to brainwash many and turn them into supporters of the Iranian regime, and the distribution of extensive literature and media, all at the expense of Iran's natural resources and oil revenues.

However, the Iranian leader who manages the propaganda bodies, exactly as he does the Revolutionary Guards, the nuclear issue, and terror, and who holds the real authority in the regime, continues to add more and more to propaganda budgets and does not heed the demands of the few figures within the regime who dare to plead for reduced budgets for the benefit of the water economy, environmental quality, or reducing the cost of living.

Therefore, even if the Iranian regime is not directly responsible for the Australian attacks, it bears indirect responsibility because it has established numerous mosques and Islamic centers on the continent where preachers on behalf of the leader preach against Jews (and not just against Israel), organize demonstrations together with Palestinian supporters but also promote the Iranian narrative and wave Iranian flags and pictures of the leader, and more.

Alongside Qatar, it appears that the Iranian regime has become the main financier and organizer of protest events and attacks against Jews, and it even dares to preach or promote physical harm to Jewish targets, since one of the goals of the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Force is to instill terror in Jews everywhere and bring about their uprooting from their place of residence or reduction of their activities.

Additionally, Iranian activity abroad provides inspiration and a security umbrella for other activists against Jews, and it is possible that reducing Iranian activity would lead to an overall reduction in the activity of other antisemitic organizations.

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It is not only Australia that has changed; almost the entire West has changed. Western civilization is being slowly conquered by Islam, with no response from the Christian world. The more common reaction is criticism of Israel, as if that will save those being overrun. Caught in between, in this clash of civilizations, are the Jews, still clinging to the altar horns of democratic states, hoping someone will wake up and come to their senses.

It will not happen. Progressive governments are captive to their Muslim voters and to wealthy Muslim organizations, and they prefer them over the future of their own countries. The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will make some notion of noise and issue foolish statements, but for the Jews who were murdered, it no longer matters. There is no future for Jews in Australia, not in Britain, and certainly not in France, Belgium or Canada.

The Australian government did not fight terrorism or antisemitism; it encouraged it through its actions and statements. The government in Canberra did little when synagogues were burned, did not arrest anyone when, at the foot of the Sydney Opera House, a frenzied mob chanted "Gas the Jews." Muslims waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags, along with those of other terrorist organizations, demonstrated freely. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong was apparently the only minister to visit Israel during the war, yet did not find the time to visit the site of the massacre.

Where was Australian intelligence? After all, they expelled the Iranian ambassador. Did they monitor incitement in mosques or examine bank accounts for the transfer of terror funds? The terrorists knew that this was the easiest place to carry out attacks. So, they did almost nothing, yet knew how to accuse Israel with lies, put obstacles in the wheels of the war on terror, and above all, the Australian government went so far as to declare recognition of a Palestinian terror state. What does it care? Now it is getting a terror state within its own borders.

If abandoning the Jews is the sin, the punishment will fall on all of Australia. Jews are the litmus test of a society. Pogroms against them are the prelude to attacks on other minorities and ultimately to the collapse of society. Prime Minister Albanese has abandoned Australia's Jews to their fate. He will not protect them.

Rest for a generation only to be uprooted again

About 20 years ago, I visited Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. Only a few Jews remain there. In the early 1980s, when dictator Robert Mugabe rose to power, most of them fled to Australia. Jews arrived in Rhodesia at the end of the 19th century from Rhodes. Those who did not migrate to Africa and remained in Rhodes were sent to Auschwitz during World War II. Where did the Jews of Rhodes come from? From Sicily, at the end of the 15th century, after they were expelled by order of the Spanish crown along with the rest of Spanish Jewry.

And so, the Jews wandered from Sicily to Rhodes, from there to Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe, from which they fled to Australia, resting for a generation or two, only to be uprooted again. And now where to? Has the time not come to understand the verdict of history?

Dear Jews, our brothers and sisters, what are you waiting for? You have no future in the Diaspora. Come home. Make Aliyah. This is your place.

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Every time Jewish history is tested, memories of life in the Diaspora resurface. The Jewish people have never been truly safe when dependent on the goodwill of others. From the exile after the Second Temple to centuries of wandering between nations and empires, Jews relied on fragile relationships based on mercy that repeatedly collapsed, leading to persecution and pogroms. There were exceptional leaders who managed to reduce harm, but almost never was there an effective Jewish defensive force.

The establishment of the State of Israel changed the equation. For the first time in modern history, a sovereign Jewish defensive force emerged. The Israel Defense Forces, the Border Police, the Israel Police, the Shin Bet security agency and the Mossad created a security system that enabled the Jewish people to stand on their own and defend themselves against armies and states. But the Oct. 7 massacre exposed another painful truth: an attack on Israel is also an attack on the Jewish people everywhere. Images from that morning ignited an unprecedented wave of antisemitism in our generation.

As Israel continues to learn, adapt and rebuild its military strength while fighting on seven fronts, Jewish communities abroad found themselves exposed and insufficiently protected.

On campuses, in the streets and in synagogues, Jews encountered rising hatred while relying almost entirely on local security forces. Some communities hired private security companies, but these companies cannot truly stop a mass-casualty attack, detect emerging incitement or deter extremist organizations.

This reality demands change. The world has shifted, and threats no longer develop only on the ground but also online, in politics, in protests and in acts of vandalism that spread at extraordinary speed. Jewish communities often stand alone on the front line, without a coordinated Jewish defense structure and without a rapid professional response.

That is why a new move is required: establishing a Jewish People's Guard. Not a local organization, not a security company and not a temporary initiative, but a permanent global structure that creates an international Jewish safety net.

Such a system would connect communities around the world with the State of Israel and official security bodies. It would enable rapid emergency responses, provide orderly training for community response teams and identify incitement processes before they turn violent.

A Jewish People's Guard would create a global alert mechanism, provide unified protocols and build an efficient defensive capability, working in full coordination with governments, local law enforcement agencies and key allies, especially the US. This is not an attempt to form militias, but to build a regulated and supervised system: a shared Jewish safety network that strengthens communities rather than replacing those responsible for protecting them.

The need is not theoretical. Oct. 7 revealed the cost of ignoring warnings. Israel paid in blood. Now we must ensure that Jewish communities abroad are prepared as well. Just as more than 1,000 local emergency squads were established in Israel, Jewish communities worldwide need a legally adapted version: global emergency response teams that can create resilience, provide security and act quickly.

This is the moment to take responsibility. Not out of fear but out of leadership. Not out of weakness but out of understanding that without a shared defensive structure, the next disaster may come, and it can be prevented. As Chami Goldin said at the funeral of his brother Hadar, may his memory be a blessing: "Look closely at this people, at this big family, because this is a family you do not mess with."

The Jewish people are one family, and in such a family, no one is ever left alone.

Editor's note: Due to the Bondi Beach massacre, this op-ed has been reposted. 

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The guest undoubtedly meant well. In his eyes, he was "merely" responding to those who aspire and actively seek to deny the Jews the right to maintain their own state, and there are many such people in Merz's Germany, across Europe and around the world. The problem with the German leader's remark is that he may have intended to bless, but ended up cursing. Knowingly or not, he adopted a discourse whose very existence contributes to the erosion of Israel's legitimacy.

Have you noticed that this sentence, which ostensibly affirms our state's right to exist, is said only about Israel? Merz would never utter it anywhere else, because it would be pointless. No country requires affirmation from its guests to justify its existence, just as no individual needs friends to reassure them that they are entitled to live in this world. Stating the obvious paradoxically makes it less obvious.

If Israel is the only country that needs confirmation from others to justify its existence, perhaps its existence is not a natural right at all. That is the conclusion Israel's detractors in Merz's country may draw, while others will go even further and claim they have both the power and the authority to prevent Israel from existing. And as if the patronizing and condescending tone were not bad enough, the statement is also harmful because it plants the notion that Israel's existence is conditional on the goodwill of the international community.

It is therefore no surprise that this overused and dangerous line often leads directly to the second, equally tiresome statement, which we also heard from Merz when he repeated the false mantra of a "two-state solution for two peoples." Here, the patronization reaches its peak. The visitor, who mistakenly believes he has the authority to approve or deny the Jewish state's right to exist, also feels, again mistakenly and with no basis whatsoever, that he has the authority to lecture Israel on how it should exist.

The patronizing attitude of the Germans, and Europeans in general, might have been understandable had they been able to boast success in fending off threats similar to those facing Israel. But the reality is entirely different. The experience of recent years, from waves of Islamist takeover to Russian aggression, repeatedly illustrates old Europe's inability to cope with its own challenges, as well as the self-destructive nature of its recommendations to appease enemies through concessions and withdrawals.

When Israel's prime minister visits Germany, it would never occur to him to demand that his hosts capitulate to their enemies. He would not lecture the Germans to establish an Islamic state in Muslim population centers in Frankfurt, nor would he demand that they once again divide Berlin and hand its eastern half to Vladimir Putin to satisfy his appetite.

The time has come for our German friends to recognize two simple truths. First, they have no justification for intervening in Israel's internal affairs or lecturing it on how to conduct itself. Second, their advice and admonitions are simply bad, because they do not work. Not in Europe, not in the Middle East and not anywhere else in the world. Instead, Europeans would do well to consider the opposite approach: learning from Israel that enemies are defeated or deterred through strength, not through withdrawals and concessions.

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UNRWA institutions in Gaza – schools, clinics, hospitals, and more – harbored Hamas killers and weapons, with Hamas terror attack tunnels built right underneath them. And dozens of UNRWA personnel were complicit or active participants in the October 7 assault on Israel.

It turns out that more than 2,000 UNRWA employees were also terrorists in either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). A fifth of UNRWA school administrators were Hamas terrorists, and 10% of the senior positions (school principals and their deputies, directors, and deputy directors of training centers) were also members of Hamas or PIJ. More than 200 UNRWA staff were Hamas killers with unmistakable terrorist records, and hundreds more openly celebrated the October 7 rapes and murders.

Beyond Gaza, UNRWA is rotten to its core. Its schools in Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon, and elsewhere validate the so-called Palestinian "right of return," the "right" to demographically overwhelm Israel, thus perpetuating Palestinian war against Israel instead of helping to solve the conflict.

Watchdog organizations tirelessly have documented the hate taught in UNRWA classrooms. Palestinian children learn that Jews are liars and fraudsters, and that Jews spread corruption which will lead to their annihilation. Terrorists are glorified as role models. Lessons that incite violence are taught across all grades and subjects, including in math and science classes. Inevitably, the systematic teaching of hatred and violence within the UNRWA school system results in Palestinian terror against Israel.

And of course, the agency does nothing to resettle Palestinian refugees. In fact, the number of UNRWA-registered "refugees" continues to exponentially grow. UNRWA refuses to remove from its registry millions of people who hold foreign citizenship and residency, and who, by any other "refugee" concept, would no longer be considered refugees.

In short, while UNRWA professes to be a humanitarian organization, its true goal is to perpetuate the hope that Palestinians will one day flood and destroy Israel. UNRWA is plainly an enormous obstacle to peace.

DESPITE THIS, last Friday the UN renewed UNRWA's mandate for another three years, on the mistaken assertion that the organization is an indispensable humanitarian tool.

Fortunately, real changes on the ground in Gaza and in eastern Jerusalem are proving just how wrong this is and how things can be done so much better without UNRWA.

In Gaza, UNRWA has been blessedly replaced by over a dozen other aid organizations. As Enia Krivine of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has shown, relief organizations are delivering aid and services just fine without UNRWA's radicalizing agenda.

The UN Development Program (UNDP) is managing waste management. Fuel distribution is managed by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS). The World Central Kitchen has been effective at delivering food alongside the World Food Program (WFP). The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has taken a larger role in children-related humanitarian responses. The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing medical aid to field clinics and hospitals.

UNRWA's decades-long monopoly on aid and services – which came part and parcel with annihilationist messaging about Israel – has finally been broken. The Trump administration (through its Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat) gets partial credit for this. Now the administration is considering hitting UNRWA with terrorism-related sanctions, something that would appropriately cripple the organization.

For its part, new Israeli laws that came into effect this year outlaw coordination with UNRWA, making it difficult for UNRWA (which had used Israel as its base of operations for decades) to continue delivering its services. Not surprisingly, UNRWA's well-paid lobbyists and advocates warned that Israel's move would have catastrophic consequences. It has not.

For example, UNRWA schools in Jerusalem have been closed down. A thousand or so eastern Jerusalemite Arab students have moved to other institutions, including schools that teach the Israeli curriculum. This is an exceptionally good thing. (Why the heck was UNRWA ever allowed to open schools in Jerusalem?!)

Under the new laws, all UNRWA facilities in Jerusalem are supposed to be shuttered too, especially the agency's vast, main compound in Maalot Dafna (Sheikh Jarrah). Israeli police finally raided the compound this week, seizing equipment and replacing the UN flag with an Israeli one (– an act that was of course condemned by the UN secretary general).

(The compound is scheduled to become a residential neighborhood with 1,400 apartments. Haredi community activists already are bickering over control of the project, which abuts other mostly haredi neighborhoods.)

Next is financial action against UNRWA. The Bank of Israel is supposed to force Israeli banks to close UNRWA's accounts, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare is supposed to stop processing benefit payments to UNRWA employees. The Ministry of Finance already has cancelled the agency's substantial tax exemptions on imported cars, fuel, and equipment. But UNRWA still owes Jerusalem years of unpaid property taxes, worth millions of shekels.

Slowly, slowly (too slowly), the ministries of defense and foreign affairs are stopping the issuance of work/residence permits to UNRWA employees, too.

MOVING from axing UNRWA to a constructive post-Gaza-war framework, the "international community" must focus on rebuilding Palestinian society – free from rank corruption, destructive indoctrination, coddling of terrorism, and the overall moral rot that for too long has contaminated international politics relating to Palestinians.

First and foremost, this means elimination of refugee status for all Palestinians living in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. "Refugee camps" must be transformed into regular neighborhoods or towns, and their residents redefined as, well, local residents – not refugees.

Second is meaningful curriculum overhauls in Palestinian educational institutions from kindergarten through university, eliminating antisemitic and anti-Israel materials, and the adoption of population-wide deradicalization initiatives.

Third is action towards total demilitarization of Palestinian areas (excepting lightly armed police forces), as envisioned and promised in the Oslo Accords 30 years ago – but never pursued seriously.

Alas, Israel has little confidence in the ability of anybody to swiftly rebuild Palestinian society or "reform" Palestinian government, unless the Palestinians themselves wish to do so.

Throwing more aid money at the Palestinians certainly won't help, just as it has not done the trick over the past thirty years since the Oslo Accords were signed.

Despite tens of billions of dollars and euros invested in the Palestinian Authority by the "international community," there is no democracy, no rule of law, no transparency, no sustainability, no investment in economic stability, and no peace education in the PA. Not a single refugee has been resettled. Not one hospital has been built in the West Bank. Only one sewage treatment plant.

But there is plenty of nepotism and corruption, "pay-for-slay" handouts (meaning the incentivizing and rewarding of terrorism against Israel), violent propagandizing against Israel (including support for Hamas's October 7 invasion and massacres), and diplomatic assault on Israel in every possible international forum.

As for Western "security assistance" to the PA, this has produced mixed results, at best. The PA does not effectively control key terrorist nodes in the West Bank, and PA security personnel repeatedly have participated in or facilitated terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. PA security personnel account for 12% of all Palestinian terrorists held by Israel.

In short, the overall return on Western investment in Palestinian maturity and independence is abysmal. Real reform of Palestinian government and society is going to be a long, arduous process and must involve penalty and penance not just reward and recognition.

Which is why it is asinine of France, Britain, Canada, and others to resurrect illusions of imminent Palestinian statehood. Regrettably, their gambit is a recipe for devastating disappointment and protracted conflict.

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