As we know, since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, there has been a significant increase in incidents of antisemitism in America. In fact, this pattern began well before the Hamas attack.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), over the past decade there has been a 900% rise in antisemitism in America alone.

To address this dangerous trend, our Jewish community has significantly increased our efforts in Holocaust education for 2025.

Together with Temple Beth-El’s Kurt and Tessye Simon Fund for Holocaust Remembrance, the Okon Family Fund for Holocaust Education of the Jewish Federation, and the Federation’s Holocaust Education Speaker’s Bureau, we are coordinating our work to increase our impact.

Thanks to the combined efforts of these organizations, and the outreach work of Jewish Federation Executive Director Moshe Kruger to raise funds from local foundations, 2025 will see a significant increase in Holocaust education in local schools.

This year, we will fund five school field trips to the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie: the Simon Fund for Holocaust Remembrance will fund a field trip for students from Adams High School, and the Federation will fund four field trips for students from Discovery Middle School, the LaSalle Academy, New Prairie High School and Penn High School.

In April, we will be fortunate to host a very special event: the theatrical performance Remember: The Story of Abe Price, that retells the amazing story of a Holocaust survivor and former South Bend resident.

The play was produced by the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida.

According to their website, Remember: The Story of Abe Price is a new original play based on the true story of Abe Price. … At just 16-years-old, Abraham Piasecki’s life is uprooted by the Nazi invasion of Poland. From living in the ghetto of Kielce to imprisonment at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Remember brings to life the harrowing true story of a Holocaust survivor who escaped Nazi captivity five times (gulfshoreplayhouse.org).

We have arranged for three presentations of this performance in our community. Two will be held in local high schools (Adams and Penn) and then the play will be featured at our Federation’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration on Thursday, April 24th.

Beyond these special projects, our Federation continues the work of our Holocaust Education Speaker’s Bureau that we offer to local schools. The speakers include Bob Feferman, Omer Karavani, Sid Shroyer and Terry Tulchinsky.

Dozens of presentations given by our speakers in local schools over the past four years have had a major impact on local students in sensitizing them to the dangers of racism and antisemitism.

The importance of Holocaust education in helping to prevent antisemitism should not be underestimated.

Research done by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says, “In addition to building knowledge about the events surrounding the Holocaust, secondary school education on the Holocaust is correlated with reduced antisemitism, increases openness to differing viewpoints and builds civic efficacy.”

If you would like to learn more about our ongoing efforts in Holocaust education, please visit our Jewish Federation website where you can learn more about Holocaust education.

Bob Feferman
Director of Community Relations
rfeferman@thejewishfed.org
(574) 233-1164 x1815

The challenge we are facing in the mainstream American media was aptly summed up by New York Times columnist Brett Stephens who described it as follows. Israel’s problem in the American media is a phenomenon that he called, “Getting it right while getting it wrong: the facts may be correct, but the context is missing.”

Since the brutal Hamas attack on October 7^th, 2023, the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley, and our community partners, have been doing our part to fill the missing context. To that end, we work in two parallel tracks: information for our Jewish community and information for the non-Jewish community.

Just five days after the Hamas attack, on October 11^th, we held a previously scheduled event featuring Middle East expert Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, co-sponsored by the Simon Foundation of Temple Beth-El and our Federation’s Community Relations Committee. Dr. Schanzer’s talk could not have been timelier, and we also turned the event into a gathering for support and community solidarity.

Since then, we have hosted several other speakers.

The South Bend Rotary Club hosted our son Dan Feferman for a briefing via zoom arranged by Anne Feferman and Moshe Kruger. Dan also gave a briefing to our Jewish community in November 2023, along with Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu-Toameh, in an event sponsored by the Community Relations Committee.

In February, we arranged for Yinam Cohen, Israeli Consul General to the Midwest, to speak to a group of students at Holy Cross College. Mr. Cohen also provided a briefing at our Federation on the same visit.

Working in partnership with Temple Beth-El’s Simon Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana, our Federation co-sponsored a briefing in June featuring South Bend native Dan Goldwin and former Israeli diplomat Ofer Bavli.

Our shaliach, Omer Karavani has given several inspirational speeches at Jewish community events including the solidarity event on October 11^th, 2023, the campaign kickoff in 2023, and more recently at the one-year memorial ceremony for the victims of October 7^th. All of his speeches have been published in Our Community Newsletter.

At the one-year memorial ceremony for the victims of the war on October 27^th planned by our Partnership Committee (P2G), Rabbi Friedland gave a moving talk about his visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, and Rabbi Kaminsky shared beautiful poetry to commemorate the victims.

Our Federation also hosted two IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza for briefings to the community. In August we hosted Shiloh Tor who serves in the Givati Infantry Brigade, and in October we hosted Noam, an IDF commando.

In our efforts to provide “the missing context” to the non-Jewish community, over the past year I have published two opinion articles in the South Bend Tribune and one in the Observer, the student newspaper of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. Recently, I gave a one-hour talk about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church.

On October 24^th, two of our community members, Megan New and Ina Rosenberg participated in a panel discussion about Antisemitism at the church.

In addition, our shaliach, Omer Karavani has presented “My Israeli Story” to several church groups in the area and he will also be presenting again at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church and Saint Joseph High School.

This spring, Omer Karavani and I will be taking part in Forever Learning Institute with a 5-part course titled, “Understanding Modern Israel: the People, and their Struggle for Survival and Peace.”

Finally, shortly after the war began, our Federation began a collaborative project called “The Missing Context,” co-produced by Steve Lotter and myself. The purpose of this bi-weekly publication that we send to the Jewish community is to provide in-depth insight and analysis on issues surrounding the war from non-partisan experts.

This project provides an opportunity for each of you to take part in the effort to address the challenge of the “missing context” in the American media.

If you see an article or an interview, we publish that you like, I encourage you to consider sharing it with family and friends. Or, if you see an article or interview that you think we should consider using, please send it to me so that we can share.

In the effort to support Israel as it fights a war for its survival on seven fronts, each one of you can become what the military calls, “a force multiplier.” I encourage you to help defend Israel in the eighth front, the battle for public opinion. All you need to do is help provide information and “the missing context.”

Bob Feferman
Director of Community Relations
rfeferman@thejewishfed.org

Enter the Islamic Republic of Iran and its destructive role as the arsonist of the Middle East. 

Decades of violence in the Middle East have ensued because of the Iranian regime and its obsession with the destruction of Israel. This obsession is symbolized by the “countdown clock” in a square in Tehran that predicts the destruction of Israel.

Based on a statement in 2015, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted that after 25 years — by 2040 — Israel will no longer exist.

In its efforts to achieve this destruction, Iran supports terror proxy forces including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq. Together, they are called “The Axis of Resistance” by Iranian leaders.

Victims of this tragic war include civilians in Gaza who have been recruited — against their will — to act as human shields for Hamas leaders who hide in private homes, hospitals, schools, and underground tunnels. 

Iran’s military strategy toward Israel can be summed up in three words: “ring of fire.” This refers to the efforts of Iran to provide rockets, missiles, and munitions to its terror proxies that are actively trained by Iran to build this “ring of fire” around the State of Israel.

Through this strategy, Iran actively works to terrorize and demoralize the citizens of Israel with constant attacks.

Since 2007, the year Hamas took control of Gaza, nearly 20,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza, with the targets being Israeli civilians. All this was before the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.

Since the war began in October 2023, we have seen this "ring of fire" activated in full force. This includes the firing of more than 12,000 rockets and drones from Hezbollah in Lebanon, more than 19,000 rockets from Hamas in Gaza, and hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran itself, all being fired at civilians in Israel. In addition, the Houthis in Yemen have also fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel. 

It's also important to remember the historical context of the conflict. Iran has done everything possible to sabotage the hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

With the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, there was a real hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians through the two-state solution.

Yet, Iran, the arsonist of the Middle East, could never let that be. Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations, backed by Iran, embarked on a campaign of terror to blow up those hopes for peace. 

Between 1993 and 2005, Hamas and other proxy terror organizations carried out more than 150 suicide bombings in Israeli cities on buses, in restaurants and in shopping malls, killing over 1,000 Israeli civilians. 

The leadership of Iran works actively throughout the Middle East to achieve its ambitions for the destruction of Israel. To that end, Iran is determined to maintain Syria as another base of operations against Israel.

The tragedy of Syrian civil war is a prime example. 

During the civil war in Syria that began in 2011, Iran provided extensive support to prop up the brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of the Iranian regime.

Iran provided the Syrian regime with an endless supply of ammunition, weapons, billions of dollars in economic support, and tens of thousands of fighters from Hezbollah and other proxies.

The human cost of Iran’s support for the Syrian regime: over 500,000 dead Syrians and the creation of more than five million refugees.

In an article published in the Atlantic in 2018, Middle East expert Karim Sadjadpour wrote:

“Distilled to its essence, Tehran’s steadfast support for Assad is not driven by the geopolitical or financial interests of the Iranian nation, nor the religious convictions of the Islamic Republic, but by a visceral and seemingly inextinguishable hatred for the state of Israel.”  

The time has come for the international community to clearly see the motivations that inform Iran’s behavior and to hold Iran, the arsonist of the Middle East, accountable for its deadly agenda.

Until then, peace will remain a distant dream for both Israelis and Palestinians, with more unnecessary suffering to be played out for the people of the entire region.

Bob Feferman is Community Relations Director for the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley in South Bend. 

On that front, Israel’s enemies claim that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. A look at the facts shows the opposite is true.

First, let us remember that on October 6th there was a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The war began on October 7th with the unprovoked cross-border invasion of Israel with more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists who brutally murdered 1,200 Israelis, raped women, and took 250 hostages.

What Israel did in response to this unprovoked Hamas attack was a legitimate act of self-defense to free the hostages and prevent another October 7^th.

It is also important to remember the history of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Following the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations carried out more than 150 suicide bombings (1993-2005) to blow up the hopes for peace through the two-state solution. Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, they have fired nearly 20,000 rockets at Israeli civilians. And all this was before October 7^th.

In his response to the accusation of genocide by the International Court of Justice, on January 24th, former Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak delivered this statement to the court.  

He wrote:

“Central to the crime of genocide is the element of intent, namely the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such.”

Justice Barak refuted the charge of genocide with this powerful argument.

He wrote:

“The evidence presented by Israel shows that it is the opposite intent that is plausible and guides the military operation in Gaza.”

He went on to write:

“Israel pointed out that it has adopted several measures to minimize the impact of hostilities on civilians. For example, Israel continues to supply its own water to Gaza by two pipelines; it has increased access to medical supplies, facilitated the establishment of field hospitals and distributed fuel and winter equipment…. the IDF is doing everything possible to avoid harming those not involved.”

The proof of Israel’s intentions can be seen in the number of casualties. Gaza has a population of more than 2.1 million civilians. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 38,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began.

There is no doubt that every civilian casualty in Gaza is a human tragedy. And the pictures of devastation show the ferocious battles being fought in a complex urban environment.

Yet, the numbers given by the Gaza Ministry of Health do not give an accurate picture of the casualties.

According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has killed more than 14,000 terrorists since October 7th. The Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Although we may never know the accurate number of civilian casualties in Gaza, if we include the number of terrorists killed by the IDF, the number of civilian casualties is much lower than the 38,000 cited by the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Just based on these facts alone, it is obvious that Israel is not committing genocide. Yet, the question remains: Has the IDF done everything possible to mitigate harm to civilians?

To answer this question, it is important to read the analysis of John Spencer, America’s leading expert on urban warfare.

John Spencer is the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He also served as an infantry soldier for 25 years including two tours in Iraq. And he has visited Israel three times during the war and gone into Gaza with IDF forces.

In an important article in Newsweek, he wrote:

“…by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The blame for the tragedy of Gaza must be placed squarely on the leadership of Hamas. Since their violent takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, Hamas has squandered millions of dollars in the building of more than 350 miles of tunnels and thousands of rockets to serve one purpose: its war for the destruction of Israel.

Following the attack on Israel on October 7^th, Hamas has been cynically using its civilian population as human shields above ground while its leaders and fighters hide in tunnels below ground.

The accusation of genocide is just one more falsehood meant to demonize Israel, delegitimize its right to self-defense, and question its right to exist.

Bob Feferman
Director of Community Relations
Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley

Apartheid, as it was practiced in South Africa, was a system of racial separation. To claim that Israel is an apartheid state is a false accusation. The very idea goes against Jewish values, and it has no basis in the reality of life in Israel.

Let’s put this into perspective. When you talk about the Arabs of Palestine or the Palestinians, there are four categories.

First, there are the 2 million Arab citizens of Israel usually referred to as Arab Israelis. They make up about 21% of the population of Israel and they enjoy full civil and political rights in Israel.

Arab-Israelis vote in Israel’s elections, serve in the Knesset, attend Israeli universities, and work in almost every sector of Israeli society. Arab-Israelis have served on Israel’s Supreme Court, work as doctors and nurses in Israeli hospitals, and serve in the Israeli police.

One example of a leading Arab Israeli figure is the Director General of Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya: Dr. Masad Barhoum, a Christian-Arab citizen of Israel (pictured below).

Although Arab Israelis are not required to serve in the IDF, many Americans would be surprised to know that today there are about 1,000 Arab Israelis now serving in the IDF as volunteers. Several Arab-Israeli civilians were recognized for their heroism on October 7th for saving the lives of Jews.

Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, the reality of the situation of the Arab citizens of Israel became noticeably clear.

Israeli-Arab activist Muhammad Zoabi wrote just a few weeks after Hamas’ attack, “On Oct. 7, it was that same exposure that made us feel more Israeli than ever — when we saw … the footage of the mass murder … it triggered a deep sense of solidarity from the Arab community, bolstering a shared sense of being Israeli.”

Then there are over 3 million Arab residents of the West Bank usually referred to as the Palestinians. Most of them live under the rule of the Palestinian Authority (PA) based in Ramallah that is currently headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. They have their own autonomous government and police force.

Each day, tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank come to work in Israel, go shopping in Israeli malls, and many come for special treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Another category includes the 350,000 Arab residents of East Jerusalem who live within the boundaries of the Municipality of Jerusalem. They make up around 37 percent of the capital’s population, are given the status of permanent residents of Israel, and can apply for Israeli citizenship, and many have done so.

As permanent residents of Israel, the Arab residents of East Jerusalem pay taxes and are entitled to Israeli state benefits like healthcare and social security. They can work anywhere in Israel and study at any Israeli university. Although they cannot vote in national elections, they can in Jerusalem’s municipal elections.

The truth is that Jerusalem is a much more integrated society than anyone can imagine.

The Arabs of East Jerusalem not only study at the Hebrew University, but also work in the Israeli hospitals of Jerusalem, especially Hadassah and Shaare Tzedek. And of course, they receive equal medical treatment in those hospitals. Also, many of them work in the management of the hotels of Jerusalem.

For those who have visited Jerusalem, the upscale Mamila Mall, just outside the walls of the Old City, is a good example of the integrated daily life of Jerusalem. You would only know who is Arab or who is Jewish if you spoke the languages.

Finally, there are the 2.1 million Arabs of Gaza who live under the brutal rule of Hamas. Since Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, these citizens’ situation is difficult.

The war that Hamas started on October 7th was the fifth since they took control over Gaza in 2007 after violently expelling the Palestinian Authority.

Instead of dedicating resources to the improvement of civilian life, Hamas has channeled enormous resources to building rockets to fire at Israel. They have dug hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath Gaza to serve Hamas and its war for the destruction of Israel.

The truth is that the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more civil and political rights than anyone in the Middle East. The residents of the West Bank who live under the control of the Palestinian Authority would be happy if they had all the civil rights and the high standard of living enjoyed by their fellow Arabs who live in Israel.

As for the Palestinians of Gaza, once Israel has removed Hamas from power, there is the potential for them to have a much better future.

The claim that Israel is an “apartheid state” is one more false accusation that has been promoted in Western societies to demonize Israel and question its right to exist. Israel has proven that it is the only true democracy in the Middle East that provides equal rights for minorities where Arabs and Jews can coexist in peace and prosperity.

Written by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to: rfeferman@outlook.com

Prepared by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to:  rfeferman@outlook.com

• How do you explain Zionism?

• How do you answer the accusation that Zionism is based on colonialism and racism?

• Following its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, is it true that Israel turned Gaza into an “open-air prison”?

• Is Israel an apartheid state?

• Do you think Israel should be doing more to achieve peace with the Palestinians?

• What were the causes and effects of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war?

• Did the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 create Israel at the expense of the Arabs of Palestine because of Western guilt over the Holocaust?

• According to the UN Partition Plan of 1947, the Arabs received 45% of Palestine, while the Jews received 55% even though they were fewer in number. Was this plan unfair to the Palestinians?

• What caused the Palestinian refugee problem?

• Do the Palestinians have a legitimate claim to a “Right of Return?”

• Are Israeli settlements in the West Bank an obstacle to peace?

• The United States now provides Israel with $3.8 billion in aid. Why should American taxpayers support this aid package?

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Question: How do you explain Zionism?

Zionism is the national movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people in the land of Israel — the historical homeland of the Jewish people.  It is based on the understanding that the Jews are a people, and as a people, we have the right to a nation-state. Zionism is the movement to create and support Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Although the modern political movement of Zionism began in 1897, the longing of the Jewish people to return to their homeland is ancient. In the book of Psalms (137), the Jews of the Babylonian exile wrote, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion…If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

After the annual Passover Seder, Jews finish with the words, “Next Year in Jerusalem.”

It’s important to recognize that thanks to Zionism, Jewish people from all over the world were able to come to Israel to escape persecution. That includes Jews from Ethiopia, the Middle East, and North Africa, survivors of the Holocaust, and refugees from the former Soviet Union. That’s why author Ari Shavit calls Israel “A home for the homeless people.”

Question: How do you answer the accusation that Zionism is based on colonialism and racism?

Zionism is nothing more than the national movement of an indigenous people- the Jewish people- to return to their ancient homeland, the Land of Israel. No colonial power sent Jews to colonize the land.

As Brett Stephens wrote in the New York Times, “Contrary to some opinions, Israelis are not “settler colonialists.” Jews believe they are originally from the land of Israel because they are. And Zionism, far from being a colonialist project, is the oldest anticolonialist struggle in history, starting during the Roman era, if not the Babylonian Captivity before it.”

Today, more than half of the Jewish population of Israel is comprised of Jews whose families never left the Middle East or North Africa. In America, they would be defined as “Indigenous peoples.” 

The Zionist movement was motivated by the understanding that the Jewish people needed a safe haven from centuries of antisemitism. To achieve that haven, in the late 1800s, the Zionist movement began to purchase land in Palestine from Arab landowners to create the nucleus for a new Jewish state.

Israel also has a large Arab minority- 21% of the population- who enjoy full civil and political rights. Israel may not be perfect, but it is a shining example of a diverse democratic society in the heart of the Middle East. Therefore, Israel is certainly not founded on racism.

It’s also important to remember that ever since 1947, when Jewish leaders accepted the United Nations Plan for the Partition for Palestine, Israel has recognized the principle of sharing the land with the Palestinian people through the two-state solution.

That principle was reconfirmed when Israel signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and validated by its agreement to two concrete proposals for the two-state solution in 2000 and 2008.

To deny the Jewish people their right to an independent state to live in peace alongside a Palestinian state is in itself an injustice. As the historian Noah Harari wrote in the Washington Post, “Proscribing Zionism implies that Jews can have no legitimate national aspirations, unlike all other peoples.”

Question: Following its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, is it true that Israel turned Gaza into an “open-air prison”?

In 2005, the Israeli government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ordered the unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli soldiers and settlers, thereby ending its occupation of Gaza that began as a result of the War of 1967. Contrary to the false accusation we often hear, Israel did not then turn Gaza into an “open-air prison.”

Following the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the Palestinian Authority took control of Gaza.  Following the Israeli withdrawal, an agreement was signed between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and the European Union on open borders between Gaza, Egypt, and Israel. Here was an opportunity for peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza. Everyone was happy with the agreement except Hamas.

The reason is simple: Hamas is a terror organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

In 2007, Hamas took over control of Gaza in 2007 by violently expelling the Palestinian Authority.  Then Hamas turned Gaza into an enemy territory by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians and digging terror tunnels under the border to attack Israel.

Israel has every right to defend itself. That’s why, in 2009, Israel put in place a naval blockade to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. To be clear, this was a naval blockade and not a military siege because every day, there were tons of food, clothing, medicine, and humanitarian goods coming into Gaza through the Israeli border crossings. Israel even helped to supply electricity and water to Gaza.

Unfortunately, Hamas prioritized its war for the destruction of Israel over the needs of its civilians. Since 2007, with the help of its sponsor in Iran, Hamas has invested enormous resources into building rockets and constructing hundreds of miles of tunnels for Hamas terrorists.

Since their 2007 takeover of Gaza, and before October 7^th, Hamas had initiated four rounds of fighting by firing 20,000 rockets at Israel.   

It’s also important to remember that there was a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas on October 6^th.  Life was improving for the people of Gaza. The government of Israel began to allow Palestinian workers to come into Israel, and there was an increase in international aid flowing into Gaza.

Today, the best hope for the people of Gaza is an end to the rule of Hamas. That would open the door to a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Question: Is Israel an apartheid state?

Apartheid, as it was practiced in South Africa, was a system of racial separation. This is a false accusation because Apartheid goes against Jewish values, and it has no basis in reality.

Let’s put this into perspective. When you talk about the Arabs of Palestine or the Palestinians, there are four categories.

• First, there are 2 million Arab citizens of Israel, usually referred to as Arab-Israelis.  They make up about 21% of the population of Israel, and they enjoy full civil and political rights. They vote in Israel’s elections, attend Israeli universities, and work in almost every sector of Israeli society. They work as doctors and nurses in Israeli hospitals, serve on Israel’s Supreme Court, and some Arab-Israelis volunteer to serve in the Israeli army. Go to any Israeli city, and you will see Arabs eating in restaurants and shopping in malls. That is certainly not apartheid.

• Then there are the 2.7 million Arab residents of the West Bank. The majority of the Arabs of the West Bank live under the rule of the Palestinian Authority with their own autonomous government and their own police.  Each day, thousands of Arabs from the West Bank come to work in Israel and go shopping in Israeli malls, and many come for treatment in Israeli hospitals.

• Another category includes the 350,000 Arab residents of East Jerusalem who live within the boundaries of the Municipality of Jerusalem. They make up around 37 percent of the capital’s population and are given the status of permanent residents of Israel. However, they can also apply for Israeli citizenship. As permanent residents, they pay taxes and are entitled to state benefits like healthcare and social security. They can work anywhere in Israel and study at any Israeli university. Although they cannot vote in national elections, they can vote in municipal elections.

• Finally, there are the 2.1 million Arabs of Gaza who live under the rule of Hamas. Since Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, their situation is very difficult. Hamas has dedicated its resources to firing rockets at Israel and digging terror tunnels under the border. Hamas has started five wars with Israel.

The truth is that the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more civil and political rights than anyone in the Middle East. Through their example, Israel has proven itself as a model for co-existence where Arabs and Jews can live together in peace.

Question: Do you think Israel should be doing more to achieve peace with the Palestinians? 

First, knowing what Israel has done to bring about peace is important. In 1947, the Jews accepted the U.N. Partition Plan that would have created two states for two peoples in Palestine. Unfortunately, the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab world rejected the plan and attacked Israel after it declared independence in 1948. 

And yet, even after the war of 1948, there were more missed opportunities for peace through the two-state solution.

According to the cease-fire lines of the war of 1948, between 1949 and 1967, Israel did not control the West Bank or Gaza. It was Jordan that controlled the West Bank and Egypt that controlled Gaza. Jordan’s rule included East Jerusalem and the Old City, where they prevented Jewish access to the holy site of the Western Wall.  

As we can see in this map of the pre-1967 borders, there was another missed opportunity for peace through the two-state solution. Unfortunately, neither the Arab world nor the Palestinians were interested in peace with Israel or the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, they continued to pursue their goal of the destruction of Israel.

Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza only as a result of its war of self-defense, the war of 1967.

Israel continued its efforts for peace with the Palestinians in 1993 when it signed the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority. As a result, Israel withdrew from the major cities of the West Bank. Today, the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank live under the control of the Palestinian Authority, not Israel.

As part of the Oslo Peace Process, in the year 2000, Israel agreed to the plan presented by President Bill Clinton that would have created a Palestinian state in all of Gaza, 95% of the West Bank, and a shared Jerusalem as the capital of the two states.

The Palestinians not only rejected the plan, but their leader, Yasser Arafat, started the Second Intifada (2000-2005) that led to more than 110 suicide bombings that killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians.

Yet, despite the Intifada, Israel continued its efforts for peace.

In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon unilaterally withdrew Israel from its occupation of the Gaza Strip. And in 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered another generous proposal for peace through the two-state solution that the Palestinians also rejected.

Question: What were the causes and effects of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war?

There are four main reasons why Israel felt it had no alternative but to launch a preemptive military strike against Egypt on June 5th, 1967.

Beginning in May 1967, the government of Egypt took four steps that caused the war:

• Egypt demanded the removal of a United Nations peacekeeping force on the border with Israel.

• Egypt then began to mass tens of thousands of troops along the Israeli border.

• Egypt created a naval blockade of Israeli shipping to Asia in the Straits of Tiran, which was a clear act of war.

• President Nasser of Egypt threatened the destruction of Israel by saying on May 27th, "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.”

Facing explicit threats to its survival and being outnumbered on three fronts, on June 5th, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive air strike against the Egyptian Air Force.

Israel attacked Jordan only after the Jordanian army began an artillery attack on the Jewish areas of West Jerusalem. This happened even though Israel asked Jordan to stay out of the fighting.

As a result of the ’67 war, Israel took control of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Following the Israeli victory in '67, Israel saw an opportunity to end the conflict with the Arabs. It was prepared to negotiate the exchange of lands taken in the ’67 war for peace with its Arab neighbors ("Land for peace").

Unfortunately, in September 1967, the Arab League responded with a decision at their summit meeting in Khartoum to reject any hope for peace with Israel. They decided: "No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.” 

This stalemate led to another very bloody Arab-Israeli war, which began with a surprise attack by the combined forces of Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur on October 6^th, 1973. The Israeli victory, which came at a high cost in Israeli lives, demonstrated that Israel was here to stay.

Israel finally achieved peace with Egypt (1979) in exchange for the return of the Sinai Peninsula and peace with Jordan in 1994. Israel continues to pursue peace with the Palestinians.

Question: Did the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 create Israel at the expense of the Arabs of Palestine because of Western guilt over the Holocaust?

The 1947 U.N. Plan for the Partition of Palestine was not created at the expense of the Arabs of Palestine. It could have been a win-win situation for both Arabs and Jews.

In 1947, the U.N. Partition Plan proposed to divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. It’s important to know that before World War II and before the Nazi Holocaust, the Jewish population of Palestine had already numbered 450,000. By 1947, it numbered 600,000.

During the 50 years before 1947, the Zionist movement built the foundation and the nucleus for a Jewish state through legal land purchases from the Arabs of Palestine.

On that land, the Jewish community of Palestine built cities, farms, factories, and Hebrew-speaking schools. They also created Hebrew newspapers, Hebrew theatres, a health care system, and a Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In other words, the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan recognized an existing reality.

The leaders of Israel have already recognized the rights of the Arabs of Palestine to their own state next to Israel. They did it in 1947 and again in 2000 and 2008. Peace will come when the Arabs of Palestine recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state called Israel.

Question: According to the UN Partition Plan of 1947, the Arabs received 45% of Palestine, while the Jews received 55% even though they were fewer in number. Was this plan unfair to the Palestinians?

Looking at a map of the U.N. 1947 Partition Plan, one can see a fair solution, and so did most of the member states of the UN General Assembly who voted for the plan. Here’s why.

It’s important to remember that when we look at the map of the U.N. Partition Plan, another map is not seen. That is a map of the Middle East and North Africa in which there are 22 member states in the Arab League. There is only one Jewish state- Israel.

It’s also important to remember how incredibly small Israel was supposed to be. According to the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, Israel would have been 5,500 square miles. Just for comparison, Indiana is 36,000 square miles.

Most importantly, it’s essential to know that 70% of the southern land area assigned to the Jewish state by the U.N. Partition Plan was the Negev desert. In 1947, the Negev desert was virtually empty of any population.

Even though the area assigned to them was tiny, the Jews accepted the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan that could have created peace through the two-state solution.   

Question: What caused the Palestinian refugee problem?

The story of the Palestinian refugees is a tragedy. The reality is that this tragedy should have never happened. In 1947, the United Nations created a plan for the Partition of Palestine into two states: one for the Jews and one for the Arabs. The Jews accepted the plan.

Unfortunately, the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab countries of the Middle East refused to accept that plan and attacked the new Jewish state in 1948.   During the war, about 700,000 Arabs left their homes in Palestine for three reasons:

• Some left because they were afraid to be caught in the middle of the fighting.  

• Some left because the Arab leader told them to go so that they would not be in the way of the invading Arab armies.

• Israeli soldiers evacuated others because Arab villagers attacked Israelis traveling on the roads. For example, because Jerusalem was under siege, the Israeli army had to regain control of the road to Jerusalem so that the Jews in the city would not starve to death. The Israeli military had no alternative but to evacuate Arab villages to save Jerusalem.

There is another aspect to the issue of refugees that is not often mentioned. The Arab attack on Israel in 1948 created a Jewish refugee problem. After 1948, more than 800,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries because of a rise in antisemitism.  And most of these Jewish refugees came to Israel.

To move forward, we need to get over the past. This conflict has been going on for more than 75 years.  The question is: when will the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza recognize the right of Israel to exist? 

Question: Do the Palestinians have a legitimate claim to a “Right of Return?”

The situation of the Palestinian Refugees is indeed tragic. However, that tragedy was the result of the decision of the Arab world to attack Israel in 1948, just after it declared independence.  

The war in 1948 created about 700,000 Palestinian refugees. Ever since the Palestinians have always claimed a “right of return” to their original homes in what is now Israel, this unreasonable demand remains a significant obstacle to peace through the two-state solution.  

It’s essential to recognize that the Arab attack on Israel in 1948 created two refugee problems: one Jewish and one Arab. After 1948, about 850,000 Jews were forced out of their homes in Arab countries, and most of them came to live in Israel.

The critical question is how to achieve a peace agreement to end the conflict. The only logical solution is two states for two groups of people. In any future peace agreement, the Palestinian refugees should be able to return to their new state in the West Bank, but not to Israel.

The Palestinian peace activist Sari Nuseibeh once said, “If we are to have a two-state solution, then you can’t have one state for the Palestinians and the other also for the Palestinians.”

Question:  Are Israeli settlements in the West Bank an obstacle to peace?

It’s essential to address the concerns of those who think that settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace through the two-state solution and put this issue into perspective.

• Between 1949 and 1967, Israel did not control the West Bank or Gaza; there were no settlements in these areas, and yet there was no peace. During that period, Israel’s Arab neighbors- primarily Egypt, Jordan, and Syria- were still working for the destruction of Israel.  Israel took the West Bank and Gaza only after a war of self-defense in 1967.

• Today, about 80% of the Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which amounts to about 5% of the area in what are called the settlement blocs. That 5% of the West Bank equals about one-fourth of the area of St. Joe County. 

• When Israel announces building in the settlement blocs, it takes place mainly within this 5% area of the West Bank that will remain part of Israel in any future peace deal.

Based on the peace plan presented by President Clinton in 2000, Israel agreed to create a Palestinian state in all of Gaza, 95% of the West Bank, with a shared Jerusalem as the capital of the two states. In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert presented a similar plan. In the context of these offers, Israel agreed to land swaps for the 5% of the West Bank it would keep in a peace deal.

Unfortunately, both offers were rejected by the Palestinians.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza by dismantling all the settlements and withdrawing 8,000 settlers for the sake of peace.

Israel has proven that it is willing to make painful compromises for peace. Therefore, whatever one thinks of settlements, they are not the primary obstacle to peace.

Question: The United States now provides Israel with $3.8 billion in aid. Why should American taxpayers support this aid package?

The people of Israel greatly appreciate the generosity of the United States and the American people. Because of the nature of the threats facing Israel and because Israel is a small country in a very tough neighborhood, this aid is essential.  Yet it is also in the national security interest of the United States to have a strong Israel as an ally and the only true democracy in the Middle East. 

There are several reasons why this aid package is of mutual benefit to both countries.

• According to the agreement, 75% of American aid money must be spent in the United States on weapons made in the United States. In other words, aid to Israel creates jobs in America. By 2024, 100% of the aid must be spent in the United States.

• Israel and the United States are close allies. They share intelligence on common threats like ISIS and Iran. This intelligence is crucial for American national security.

• The United States and Israel hold annual joint training exercises. The lessons learned from experiences on the Middle East battlefield save the lives of troops from both countries.

A strong Israel that can defend itself by itself is in the American national interest.

The phrase also assumes that Israel has not made any effort to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbors. A look at the history of the conflict since 1993 proves that the opposite is true.

In 1993, Israel signed onto the Oslo Accords. The foundation of this historic agreement was based on mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.). The basic idea was to initiate a “peace process” that would lead to the end of the conflict.

The P.L.O. was a terrorist organization created in 1964 and headed by Yasser Arafat. As its title suggests, it was dedicated to the destruction of Israel. The P.L.O. was notorious for many high-profile terror attacks, including the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Oslo Accords allowed for the transformation of the P.L.O. into the Palestinian Authority to be headed by Yasser Arafat. As a result of the agreement, Israel began to withdraw from its occupation of the major cities of the West Bank to allow for autonomy in areas to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

It was a time of great euphoria, and the hopes for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians were real.

It was also during this period that the government of Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies—Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—did everything possible to literally blow up the hopes for peace. Their efforts began just after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Between 1993 and 2000, Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out 20 suicide bombings. Although the Palestinian terror organizations provided the hateful ideology and carried out the suicide bombings, it was Iran that provided the financial means and technical support to commit mass murder.

In spite of Palestinian terrorism, Israel’s leadership was determined to continue its pursuit of peace with the Palestinians.

At the invitation of President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak went to the historic summit meeting at Camp David in July of 2000 to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The summit aimed to reach a comprehensive peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Although the meeting ended in failure, the two sides continued to negotiate.

In December of 2000, Israel agreed to the Clinton Plan for the creation of a Palestinian state in at least 95% of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and a shared Jerusalem as the capital of the two states.

The issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank would have been dealt with through land swaps. Israel would have kept about 5% of the West Bank in exchange for a similar percentage of its own territory to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, this generous offer for peace was rejected by Yasser Arafat.

In his autobiography, President Clinton wrote, “Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions. However, many Palestinians and Israelis are still committed to peace. Someday, peace will come, and when it does, the final agreement will look a lot like the proposals that came out of Camp David and the six long months that followed.”

Beyond Arafat’s rejection of the Clinton Peace Plan, Arafat then aligned himself with the Palestinian terror organizations. He gave a “green light” to the horrific period of violence we know as the Second Intifada.

Between 2000 and 2005, more than 110 Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up on Israeli buses, in restaurants, and in shopping malls. These suicide bombings and other terror attacks murdered more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and wounded many thousands more.

Yet, in spite of this traumatic period, Israel did not give up on its efforts for peace with the Palestinians.

In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ended the Israeli occupation of Gaza by ordering the unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza. The Palestinian Authority then took over control of Gaza.

Critics of Israel claim that Israel then turned Gaza into an “open-air prison.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an agreement was signed between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and the European Union on open borders between Gaza, Egypt, and Israel. This created an opportunity for peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza. Everyone was happy with the agreement except Hamas and their backers in Iran.

In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza by violently expelling the Palestinian Authority and turning it into an enemy territory by indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli cities.

It’s also important to remember the wider regional context in which Israelis live.

On July 12th, 2006, Iran’s loyal proxy, Hezbollah, launched an unprovoked cross-border attack on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The attack began with Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli communities near the border. Then, a Hezbollah force attacked an Israeli army patrol inside Israel, killed three soldiers, and took two as hostages.

In the ensuing conflict which became known as the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah launched nearly 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, killing 49 Israeli civilians. In the ground operation, 121 Israeli soldiers died fighting in Lebanon.

Despite the combined trauma of the Second Intifada and the Second Lebanon War, and with continuous rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made yet another peace offer to the Palestinians.

In 2008, Olmert met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and again offered peace through the two-state solution in a proposal similar to the Clinton Plan. Unfortunately, Mahmoud Abbas also rejected this peace proposal.

This brings us back to Gaza.

Since 2005, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired nearly 20,000 rockets at Israeli civilians. And this was all before the attack on October 7th.

Again, we see the deadly hand of Iran working with its Palestinian terror proxies to fulfill their common goal: the destruction of Israel.

In a virulent speech given by Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar in June 2019 about the long-range rockets of Hamas that can reach Tel Aviv, he said: “Let me reiterate. If not for Iran’s support for the resistance in Palestine, we would not have obtained these capabilities… Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment, and expertise.”

The historical record is clear: this tragic conflict cannot be accurately understood as a “cycle of violence.” Despite facing threats to its existence from the north and south, Israel has consistently made sincere efforts for peace with its Palestinian neighbors.

To revive the hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and fulfill the promise of the Oslo Accords, two things need to happen.

The international community must economically isolate the government of Iran until it ends its support for terrorism. Most importantly, the leadership of the Palestinian Authority must begin to educate their children about coexistence with Israel and fully commit to peace with Israel through the two-state solution.

Written by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to: rfeferman@outlook.com

In 1947, the Jews accepted the U.N. Partition Plan that would have created two states for two peoples in Palestine. Unfortunately, it was the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab world who rejected the plan and attacked Israel, starting the war of 1948.

After that war, between 1949 and 1967, Israel did not control the West Bank, Gaza, or the Old City of Jerusalem. Jordan controlled the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City with the Western Wall. And Egypt controlled all of Gaza.

Within the pre-1967 borders were yet another missed opportunity for peace through the two-state solution. Israel only took control of these territories as a result of a war of self-defense, the war of 1967, a war that Israel did not want.

There are several reasons why Israel felt it had to launch a preemptive military strike against Egypt on June 5th, 1967. They all can be summarized in one sentence: Israel saw no alternative to defending its right to exist.

Beginning in May 1967, the government of Egypt took a series of dangerous steps that caused the war.

On May 18th, Egypt demanded the removal of a United Nations peacekeeping force on its border with Israel. The U.N. complied with Egypt’s demand. With the U.N. peacekeeping force out of the way, Egypt began to amass tens of thousands of troops along the Israeli border with Egypt.

On May 23rd, Egypt created a naval blockade of Israeli shipping to Asia through the Straits of Tiran. This was a clear act of war. Finally, President Nasser of Egypt repeatedly threatened Israel. In a speech on May 27th, he said: “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.”

Facing explicit threats to its survival and being outnumbered on three fronts, Israel launched a preemptive air strike against the Egyptian Air Force on June 5th, 1967. Israel attacked Jordan and took over the West Bank only after the Jordanian army began an artillery attack on the Jewish areas of West Jerusalem.

It’s important to know that Israel made every effort to keep Jordan out of the war. According to historian and former Ambassador Michael Oren, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol reached out to King Hussein of Jordan to avoid war with the kingdom.

In a briefing in 2002, Oren said: “When the war began, Israel did its best to avoid conflict with Jordan. But on the morning of June 5, 1967, the Jordanian army bombed West Jerusalem, the suburbs of Tel Aviv, as well as targets in the Galilee. Eshkol sent Hussein a letter stating that Israel would take no action against him if he ceased hostile activities. Jordan, however, received misinformation of Arab victories emanating from Cairo and pressed forward.”

Following the Israeli victory in the ‘67 war, Israel saw an opportunity to end the conflict with the Arabs. It was prepared to negotiate the exchange of land taken in the war for peace with its Arab neighbors (“Land for peace”).

Unfortunately, the Arab League decided to reject peace again at its summit meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, in September 1967. After the summit, they issued the now infamous statement that would continue the conflict for decades by stating: “No recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no peace with Israel.”

The late Abba Eban, Foreign Minister of Israel, once famously said, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity for peace.” Nevertheless, Israel finally achieved peace with both Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994). And ever since, Israel has continued to pursue peace with its Palestinian neighbors.

In the next segment of the Case for Israel, we’ll look at Israel’s continued efforts for peace with the Palestinians after the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Written by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to: rfeferman@outlook.com

Calls for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas are understandable, as the impact on civilians in Gaza is heart-wrenching. We all want this war to end. In order to have an informed discussion over this issue, it’s important to step back and understand the bigger picture of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Let’s remember that on Oct. 6, there was a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. On Oct. 7, Hamas staged an unprovoked attack across Israel’s internationally recognized borders. Hamas raped and tortured untold numbers of civilians, live streaming some of the barbarity on victims’ own social media feeds.

Within hours, Hamas murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians and kidnapped 240 Israelis and foreign citizens. Today, 134 Israelis remain hostage in Gaza. As importantly, a Hamas leader proudly announced that Hamas plans to repeat similar atrocities in the future.

Thus, Israel was forced into a war against a terrorist organization that poses an existential threat to Israel (a country one-fourth the size of Indiana) and its citizens.

It’s also important to remember the recent history of Gaza.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. Apologists for Hamas claim that Israel then turned Gaza into an “open-air prison.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In 2005, an agreement was signed between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and the European Union on open borders between Gaza, Egypt, and Israel, creating an opportunity for peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza. Everyone was happy with the agreement except Hamas and their backers in Iran.

In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza by violently expelling the Palestinian Authority and began a practice of indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli communities.

That’s why, in 2007, Israel implemented a naval blockade to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Yet, every day, tons of food, clothing, medicine, and humanitarian goods continued to flow into Gaza through the Israeli border crossings. However, Hamas often commandeered those goods for its own purposes and denied them to Gaza civilians.

There is also another front in the war between Israel and Hamas.

After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Hezbollah, Iran’s loyal proxy in Lebanon, began to fire hundreds of rockets at communities in northern Israel, forcing 85,000 Israeli residents to evacuate their homes.

The destructive role of Iran in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often missing from media coverage but cannot be ignored.

For decades, Hamas and its Iranian backers have done everything possible to sabotage hopes for peace. Their reason is clear: Iran and its terror proxies do not want a peaceful resolution to the conflict based on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians. Instead, they are openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

Also missing from media coverage is a serious conversation over the false accusation that the Israeli army uses indiscriminate force in Gaza.

The truth is that Hamas intentionally embeds itself in and under civilian infrastructure — including hospitals, mosques, schools, and homes — using the civilian Gaza population as human shields.

Hamas uses this despicable strategy, knowing that Gaza civilians will be victims despite the best efforts of the Israeli army to avoid civilian casualties as it battles tunnel-entrenched Hamas fighters.

In his recent article, retired Col. John Spencer, an expert on urban warfare who teaches at West Point, analyzes the conduct of the Israeli army in Gaza. The article’s title says it all: "Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history."

We must not lose sight of the bigger picture. Responsibility for this tragic war and its victims in Gaza and Israel should be fully placed on those who started the war and promise to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 if not stopped: Hamas and the government of Iran.

Until the international community holds Iran accountable for supporting brutal terror organizations like Hamas, peace between Israelis and Palestinians will remain a distant dream.

Bob Feferman
Community Relations Director
Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley

It’s important to remember that in November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly (U.N.) voted to accept a plan for the partition of Palestine into two states: one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.

The Jews accepted the plan. Unfortunately, the Arabs of Palestine (known as the Palestinians) and the Arab countries of the Middle East refused to accept the plan. When Israel declared independence in May 1948, armies of five Arab nations attacked the new Jewish state with the goal of destroying it.

It was that attack that created the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees.

The situation of the Palestinian refugees was essentially a self-inflicted wound. As I wrote in my previous article, “Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 U.N. decision on the partition, there would have never been an Arab-Israeli conflict, and today, the Palestinians would have been celebrating 75 years of independence.”

During the war of 1948, about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs left their homes in what became Israel for three primary reasons; some because they feared being caught in the middle of the fighting, and others because Arab leaders told them to leave so that they would not be in the way of invading Arab armies.

Finally, other Palestinian Arabs were evacuated by Israeli soldiers. This was especially true of Arab villagers who attacked Israelis traveling on the roads. The example of the battle for Jerusalem is a case study of this factor.

After the U.N. decision on partition in November 1947, the Jewish community of Jerusalem came under siege. In fact, the Jews of Jerusalem were literally on the verge of starvation. That is why the Palmach (a Jewish pre-state militia) had to fight to regain control of the road to Jerusalem so that the Jews in the city would not starve to death.

Unfortunately, to achieve this goal and save the Jews of Jerusalem, the Palmach had no alternative but to evacuate some Arab villages along the road. And all this happened even before Israel declared independence in May 1948.

Many Palestinian refugees moved a few miles to the east in what would become known as the West Bank. Others went to what is now Gaza. Other refugees went to Lebanon and Syria. According to the Armistice Agreement of 1949, after the war, Jordan took control of the West Bank, and Egypt over Gaza.

Here was yet another missed opportunity for peace.

During the 18 years that Egypt and Jordan controlled all of the West Bank and Gaza, a Palestinian state could have been created in those territories. Unfortunately, the Arabs were more interested in pursuing the destruction of Israel than in the creation of a Palestinian state. That deadly obsession led to the events of 1967 that I plan to discuss in Part III.

In the big picture, the accusation of “ethnic cleansing” resulting from the creation of Israel has no basis in reality.

The fact is that during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, many Palestinian Arabs never left their homes in what soon became Israel. That is why today, the Arab population of Israel numbers over two million, accounting for about 20% of Israel’s population. They are full citizens of Israel and participate in every sector of Israeli society.

It’s also important to remember that the Arab attack on Israel in 1948 created two refugee problems.

Due to the rise of antisemitism in the Arab world that accompanied the creation of Israel, more than 850,000 Jews left their homes in the Middle East and North Africa. Most of them came to Israel.

One example is Iraq’s Jewish community, which numbered over 120,000 in 1948. This ancient Jewish community had lived in Iraq since the Babylonian exile.

The rise of Antisemitism in Iraq began in the 1940s due to the influence of Nazi propaganda. The situation reached a crisis point when the Jewish community of Baghdad became the target of the infamous pogrom called the “Farhud.”

In June 1941, more than 180 Iraqi Jews were murdered in this horrific massacre. After 1941, it became clear to the Jews of Iraq that they had no future in a place they had lived for 2,500 years. After Israel declared independence in 1948, the Jews of Iraq found a safe haven in the new Jewish state even though they had to leave behind all of their wealth and property.

It’s essential to recognize that today, more than half the Jewish population of Israel is comprised of Jews whose families left their homes in the Arab world due to the rise of antisemitism.

Today, 75 years after the creation of Israel, false accusations about causes of the Palestinian refugee problem remain one of the main stumbling blocks to peace. These claims have created an unreasonable demand by the Palestinians for a “right of return” to their original homes in what is now Israel.

According to the United Nations, today, there are more than 5.6 million Palestinians who hold the status of refugees.

They include the original refugees of 1948 and their descendants. It’s important to understand that implementing Palestinian demand for the “right of return” would essentially mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

In previous plans for peace through the two-state solution (e.g., the Clinton Plan of 2000), the Palestinian refugees of 1948 and their descendants would be able to return to a new Palestinian state in the West Bank or Gaza, but not to Israel.

Most Western analysts typically ignore the fact that Palestinian leaders have rejected generous proposals for peace through the two-state solution because of their insistence on the implementation of the “right of return.”

That is why the Palestinian peace activist Dr. Sari Nusseibeh once famously said, “If we are ever to have peace through the two-state solution, then you can’t have one state for the Palestinians and the other also for the Palestinians.”

This conflict should have ended 75 years ago. Just as Jewish refugees from the Arab world built new lives for themselves in Israel, it’s time for the Palestinians to look to the future, not the past. If they begin to educate their people for peace through the two-state solution, they will create a better life for themselves and their children.

Written by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to: rfeferman@outlook.com

For more than two decades, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement has been working tirelessly on college campuses to demonize and delegitimize Israel and its right to exist. Today, we are witnessing the troubling results of this campaign.

This article will be Part 1 of several articles to help support this information campaign that we’ll call: “The Case for Israel.”

Ever since Israel declared independence in 1948, there has been a pervasive and dangerous myth in the Middle East that undermines any hope for peace. Israel’s enemies claim that the Jewish state was created at the expense of the Arabs of Palestine in order to ease the conscience of the world over the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust.

The modern version of this effort to delegitimize the Jewish state is the false accusation that Israel is, “a White European colonial settler society.”

The myth—that Israel was born in sin—continues to fuel the fires of the conflict. It is behind the efforts to delegitimize Israel here in America. We must retell the story of Zionism for multiple reasons: to bring about peace, to support Israel in America, and to reaffirm Israel’s right to exist.

It’s important to remember that the area referred to geographically as Palestine had always been under control of larger Middle Eastern empires. Until the British took over in 1917 as a result of World War I, it had been controlled by the Ottoman Empire for 400 years. Britain’s temporary control of Palestine was recognized by the League of Nations. In 1920, the British were given a “mandate” to bring the peoples of the area to independence.

After World War II, the British decided to turn the complex issue of Palestine over to the newly created United Nations. In 1947, the United Nations created a committee to investigate and recommend a solution for the future of Palestine. It was called the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine or UNSCOP, which had representatives from eleven countries.

While there is no doubt that the tragedy of the Holocaust had an influence on the members of UNSCOP, what they saw during their visit to Palestine in 1947 had a much more profound effect on their eventual decision to recommend partition. They saw a well-organized Jewish community that had already created the institutions necessary for an independent state.

What were those realities, and how were they created?

During the 50 years of intense Zionist activity prior to 1947, the Jewish community of Palestine had created Hebrew-speaking schools, Hebrew newspapers, Hebrew theatre, agriculture, industry, a health care system, and a Hebrew University in Jerusalem. None of these accomplishments were done overnight.

In 1897, Theodor Herzl created the Zionist organization. Beginning the difficult process of nation building, the organization’s goal was to create a Jewish state in Palestine. And to be clear, Zionism was simply the desire of the Jewish people, an indigenous people of the Middle East, to return to their ancient homeland and fulfill their desire for national self-determination. In fact, today more than half of the Jewish population of Israel is comprised of families who never left the Middle East or North Africa.

Land that was legally purchased from Arab landowners by the Jewish National Fund—a creation of the Zionist organization—allowed for the building of Jewish cities and farms. This year we mark the 114th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv. Other Jewish cities like Rishon L’Zion, founded in 1882, even pre-date the Zionist movement.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust, the Jewish population of Palestine already numbered 450,000. And by 1947, the Jewish population of Palestine was 630,000.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accept the recommendation of UNSCOP and supported the partition of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. By doing so, they were simply validating a reality that already existed.

Click to see UN Partition Plan (1947)

On December 1, shortly after that historic vote, the London Times published an editorial that supported the decision of the United Nations with this powerful argument: “It is hard to see how the Arab world, still less the Arabs of Palestine, will suffer from what is mere recognition of an accomplished fact—the presence in Palestine of a compact, well-organized, and virtually autonomous Jewish community.”

There is no doubt that when the United Nations voted on partition, they did so with full knowledge that the Jewish people had earned the right to statehood through legal land purchases and the hard labor and sweat of Jewish pioneers.

It’s also important to note that the land area of the Jewish state proposed under the U.N. Partition Plan was a miniscule 5,500 square miles. At least 70% of the land area assigned to Israel was desert and virtually empty of any population. Jerusalem was to be an international city administered by the U.N. By comparison, Indiana is 36,000 square miles.

As we know, the leadership of the Zionist movement and the Jewish community of Palestine accepted the decision of the United Nations with great joy and celebration. And they did so with full recognition that they need to share the land with their Arab neighbors. Tragically, the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab world, rejected the U.N. Partition Plan. In 1948, they launched the first war for the destruction of Israel.

Had the Arabs accepted the U.N. decision on partition, there would have never been an Arab-Israeli conflict; and today, the Palestinians would have been celebrating 75 years of independence.

Recognition of these fundamental facts by Israel’s Palestinian neighbors and the Arab world will open the door to peace through the two-state solution. An understanding of this simple history lesson by anti-Israel students on American campuses would cause them to re-think the slogans they shout calling for the destruction of Israel.

Written by Bob Feferman, Former Community Relations Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley. Questions to: rfeferman@outlook.com

In 1993, Israel signed onto the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority. As a result, Israel withdrew from the major cities of the West Bank. It was a time of great euphoria, and the hopes for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians were real.

In both 2000 and 2008, Israel agreed to two generous offers for peace through the two-state solution. Unfortunately, Palestinian leaders rejected both offers.

It was also during this period that the government of Iran and their Palestinian terror proxies did everything possible to literally blow up the hopes for peace.

Between 1993 and 2008, Palestinian terror organizations, primarily Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, carried out 168 suicide bombings on Israeli buses, in restaurants and shopping malls. These suicide bombings, and other terror attacks, killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and wounded many thousands more.

Although Hamas and Islamic Jihad provided the hateful ideology and the suicide bombers, it was Iran that provided the financial means and technical support to commit mass murder and destroy the hopes for peace.

Iran’s Middle East strategy calls for supporting the “Axis of Resistance.” The goal is to surround Israel with terror proxy forces like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran uses these proxies for “resistance” to the very existence of Israel.

Gaza is an important part of Iran’s strategy.

When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, there was an agreement signed between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and the European Union on open borders between Gaza, Egypt and Israel.

Here was an opportunity for peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza. In fact, there was an opportunity for Gaza to become “the Singapore of the Mediterranean.”

Everyone was happy with the agreement except Hamas and their backers in Iran.

In 2007, Hamas took over control of Gaza by violently expelling the Palestinian Authority. It then turned Gaza into an enemy territory by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians and digging terror tunnels under the border.

Since 2007, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have fired more than 30,000 rockets at Israeli civilians.

That’s why in 2007 Israel put in place a naval blockade to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. And to be clear, this was a naval blockade and not a military siege, because every day there were tons of food, clothing, medicine and humanitarian goods that came into Gaza through the Israeli border crossings.

The tragic events we witnessed on October 7th were another obscene expression of the longtime obsession of Hamas and Iran with the destruction of Israel.

The timing of the attack was not coincidental. Many Middle East experts have claimed that the attack was motivated by the government of Iran to use Hamas to sabotage the hopes for a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

By massacring over 1,400 innocent Israeli men, women and children and taking 199 hostages, the Hamas leadership has brought even more suffering to the peoples of Israel and Gaza.

To be clear, the attack on October 7th was not just another “cycle of violence” as some analysts claim in the media. This is part of a war for the destruction of Israel instigated and perpetrated by Hamas with the support of the government of Iran. Israel is defending itself against this war of destruction.

Now is the time to empower those who seek peace and coexistence and not make excuses for groups like Hamas that pursue war and destruction. At the end of the day, Arabs and Jews are both children of Abraham. Both peoples deserve to live in peace, safety and dignity.

To achieve that goal, now is the time for moral clarity. You can be pro-Palestinian and pro-peace. You can be pro-Israel and pro-peace, but you cannot be pro-peace and pro-Hamas.

This article was originally published in the South Bend Tribune and The Observer.

Bob Feferman
Community Relations Director