Middle East Press on: Israel, Truce, Iranian, Hamas, Terror: New Age Islam's Selection, 30 December 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
30 December 2024
The Year Israel Began To Live In Infamy
Israel's Resolve To Enforce The Truce Is A Signal To Both Our Enemies And Citizens
We Need To Unlock Israel's AI Potential
Individuals Leaving Israel Should Not Face Criticism
Failing Iranian State Gives Growing Opportunity For Regime Change
Switzerland’s Turning Point: Why Hamas Was Finally Declared A Terror Organization
-----
The Year Israel Began To Live In Infamy
By Hakki Öcal
Dec 30, 2024
Iam not composing this farewell message to the Year 2024 out of spite. I carry feelings of hurt, jealousy and the desire to lash out, as it has been a year of genocide. A genocide, something we thought was buried in the heap of ashes of history in Europe 80 years ago and in Rwanda and Bosnia 30 years ago, raised its ugly head in 2024 yet again. What makes it even more hurtful is the fact that its perpetrators, this time, are the people of its first victims. What is even more upsetting than that, is that we could have known the recent genocide that is happening would occur.
Humanity’s shameful legacy of “destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” began with Jewish people as its first victims in Europe, and ironically, Israelis have become the sole perpetrators of the last genocide in Palestine. We should not blame all Jewish people for this crime against humanity – neither Judaism nor its sincere faithful are the slaughterers of tens of thousands of Palestinians. But Zionism and its adherents in Israel, the United States and Europe were (and still are) at the helm of this deplorable atrocity.
Simply check out those internet sites dedicated to “Torah Judaism,” which refers to schools of thought in Judaism that are perceived to be most adherent to the Torah and other commandments. Orthodox Jewish groups often use the term to refer to their own system of beliefs. They are anti-Zionists; they do not serve in the Israeli army. They believe that the only enemies of the Jews are Zionism and Israel. This is not a joke: there really are religious Jews all over the world who work and pray for Zionism and Israel to disappear as soon as possible. They consider Zionism “a perverted ideology” and Israel “as an irreligious state.” You have to see Rabbi Cohen’s short history lessons on their social media sites.
Accordingly, Zionists are liars, thieves and frauds; they distort, desecrate and pervert traditional Jewish teachings. Judaism, like all religions, is the opposite of nationalism. However, the Zionism that began running rampant in the 1860s in Europe was not a religious but a nationalist ideology. The pioneering work on creating a “Jewish homeland in Jerusalem” was written in 1860 by Moses Hess, a German philosopher, and early communist whose theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, under the title of “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question.”
The homeland the “Communist Rabbi” proposed was a socialist country that would redeem Jews through agriculture. The idea of migrating all Jews out of Europe was so popular among the adherents of Zionism that one of its leaders, Theodor Herzl, appealed to the Ottoman state for a Jewish country. It was not exactly the idea of redemption through the land but the ample opportunity of real-estate deals in his mind. Herzl came to Istanbul in 1896 with a deal he thought the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II couldn't turn down. The Ottoman state was then under an accumulated debt burden; Herzl offered to pay $2.2 billion in today's currency for the Ottoman Sultan to issue a charter for Jews to colonize Palestine. Herzl, through his interlocutors with the Ottoman Sultan, Philip de Newlinski and Arminius Vambery, exclaimed that without the help of Zionists, the Ottoman economy would not stand a chance of recovery, but the Sultan refused the offer outright.
However, the story didn’t end there. Many non-Jews and even anti-Semites supported the idea of European Jews' migration to a place as a means of ridding what Europe called its “Jewish problem.” If they wanted to go to their Biblical homes and the Ottomans were not acceding, no problem: the Great Powers of Europe would dismember the Ottoman Empire and open the land for them.
Those Biblical times had passed a long, long time ago, like 3,000 years ago, and now those lands have been inhabited by several people. Yet the hospitable owners of these lands, the Christians, Muslims and Jews, who had migrated to the Holy Lands themselves, not as part of a massive migration, in a word, the Palestinians, opened their homes and villages to these new neighbors. However, there was a minor problem: the newcomers wanted the land, not the people on it.
As Chaim Weizmann wrote in 1914 in one of his letters: “There is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without a people, and, on the other hand, there exist the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary than to fit the gem into the ring to unite these people with this country? The owners of the country must, therefore, be persuaded and convinced that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the (Jewish) people and for the country, but also for themselves.”
The Zionists called this migration “a marriage;" they wanted the land for themselves. They were not interested in coexisting with the locals. The existence of the Palestinian population and identity, therefore, needed to be removed from the map and from historical memories. In this “marriage,” the Zionists only wanted the dowry and not the bride.
The Zionist hordes were so ruthless that they descended on the land like a catastrophe. The local Arabs, Christians and non-Zionist Jews, called the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property and belongings the Nakba (“the catastrophe”).
From day one, the Zionists wanted to destroy Palestinian society, and they suppressed their culture, identity, political rights and national aspirations. Thus, the concept of Jewish nationality transformed into Jewish superiority and, later, to Jewish supremacy.
Israel has become the dominant military force in the region. If we read our history books, not those by the Hesses and Herzles, but the recent ones, like the stories of 43 Israeli massacres since 1967, we would have known that Zionists learned everything the racist Nazis had done to the Jews in the first genocide. If we read, for instance, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, "The Message," we’d know that Americans and Europeans' favorite democracy in the Arabian desert was actually fascist killing fields:
“Having vanquished its Arab foes and established itself as a state, Israel began the process of securing as much land as possible for its new state while keeping as many Palestinians as possible beyond that state’s borders. This ethnocratic approach to state-building had deep roots in Zionism, which held that majority status within a strong Jewish state was the only true bulwark against antisemitism. Implanting this majority presented an obvious problem – the Palestinians. There is only one thing the Zionists want... for that is the way by which the Jews would gradually become the majority, and then a Jewish Government would follow automatically, and the future of the Arab minority would depend on the goodwill of the Jews.”
As we say, an example is better than a hundred precepts. Since Oct. 7, 2023, we have lived 450 hateful days, and we learned that Israel is no longer part of the modern family of nations. Like the perpetrators of the Nazi, Rwanda and Bosnia genocides, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his collaborators, domestic and international, will have their own day of reckoning.
Until then, the Zionists’ Israel will continue to live in infamy.
vhttps://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/the-year-israel-began-to-live-in-infamy
-----
Israel's Resolve To Enforce The Truce Is A Signal To Both Our Enemies And Citizens
By Jpost Editorial
December 30, 2024
Just over a month ago, on November 27, Israel and Lebanon agreed a ceasefire to end nearly 14 months of fighting, which began on October 8, 2023 when Hezbollah launched rockets and missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas’s brutal attack the day before.
Under the broad terms of the deal – one brokered only after Israel delivered staggering blows to Hezbollah and invaded southern Lebanon three months ago – the IDF would withdraw from Lebanon in a phased manner within 60 days, as the Lebanese Army troops would move south of the Litani River, take up positions there alongside UNIFIL forces, and dismantle all unauthorized military infrastructure.
It’s a promising plan. The challenge is ensuring that it is implemented.
IDF officials have said repeatedly in recent days that the army is preparing for the possibility of staying in southern Lebanon beyond the 60-day truce period because the Lebanese Army is not effectively moving south and taking control of Hezbollah positions.
In other words, the IDF is letting it be known that if Lebanon does not uphold its part of the bargain, neither will Israel. If there is no complete Lebanese Army deployment and dismantling of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon as stipulated in the deal, there will be no Israeli exit.
Northern residents need security
The 60,000 residents of the northern communities who have been displaced for nearly 15 months will not return home unless they feel secure. And they will not feel secure if they see that the ceasefire agreement is not being honored by the other side.
So far, they apparently don’t feel secure, as only a trickle are returning to the border communities – waiting to see if this time, things will be different and Hezbollah and Lebanon will honor their commitments.
Israel has been badly burned in the past when agreements that look great on paper – such as UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the Second Lebanon War – are not implemented on the ground.
Like the current ceasefire accord, that resolution also called for the Lebanese Army to deploy south of the Litani River, dismantle Hezbollah installations, and enforce a ban on the sale of arms and weapons to Hezbollah.
But none of that happened, yet Israel did little in response. Jerusalem saw how Hezbollah and Lebanon were completely ignoring the clauses of that agreement but allowed them to get away with it.
Why? Because the Jewish state sanctified quiet and did not want to challenge Hezbollah and Lebanon again, hoping the international community would ensure the implementation of the resolution.
That proved a futile hope. The international community is not going to do Israel’s work for it.
The IDF’s current stance – that it may remain in Lebanon beyond 60 days if the ceasefire’s terms are not met – reflects this hard-earned lesson. If the other side does not honor the agreement, there can be no agreement.
Signaling an intention to remain in southern Lebanon if the terms of the ceasefire are not honored sends the right message: this time, things will be different.
Israel has made this message clear from the outset. Within hours of the ceasefire taking effect, Hezbollah tested Israel’s resolve by sending operatives into Kafr Kila directly across from Metulla, and villagers began returning to southern Lebanon in defiance of the agreement’s terms.
All of this was designed to test Israel’s resolve. Would Israel let small violations pass, even though they would eventually add up to a wave of violations that would sweep away the effectiveness of the agreement? Or would it take steps to implement the accord?
Israel opted for decisiveness. Since the ceasefire began, the IDF has acted repeatedly against violations across Lebanon, making clear its resolve to enforce the truce.
Staying in Lebanon, if necessary, reinforces this stance. The days when Israel ignores actions inimical to its interests and security taking place just across the border – especially actions prohibited by international agreements – are over.
This message is not only intended for Israel’s enemies. It is also for its own citizens. Only such resolve can assure the displaced residents of northern Israel that it is safe to return home.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-835306
------
We Need To Unlock Israel's Ai Potential
By Hadas Lorber, Yaron Shilat
December 30, 2024
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative tool reshaping industries, economies, and societies. Countries worldwide are embracing AI to drive growth and innovation, with estimates suggesting that AI adoption could contribute an additional $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
According to recent reports by Telecom Advisory Services for Israel, the potential economic impact is equally significant, with gains of $11.4 billion in 2023, including $10 billion from cloud services and $1.4 billion from cloud-enabled AI technologies – amounting to 2.23% of the country’s GDP. However, while Israel is renowned for its tech ecosystem, significant challenges remain in realizing AI’s full potential across industries and regions.
A recent joint study by Deloitte and Telecom Advisory Services highlights Israel’s mixed progress in digital transformation. Only 9.1% of companies leverage advanced AI applications, reflecting broader global trends where technical barriers limit adoption.
On the other hand, according to the Global AI Report by Telecom Advisory Services, an estimated 72.2% of companies in Israel used cloud services in 2023. This suggests a growing readiness for AI, as cloud infrastructure is a foundational pillar for advanced AI applications.
Despite the challenges, Israel holds a unique position in the global AI ecosystem. According to the Network Readiness Index, Israel is a global leader in AI-related skills. Leveraging this strength, Israel can bridge the gap between potential and execution by implementing targeted policies and fostering collaboration across sectors.
The recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) report on AI adoption strategy offers a road map that Israel can adapt to its unique ecosystem. Central to this framework is the emphasis on democratizing AI–making tools, infrastructure, and knowledge accessible to businesses of all sizes. It advocates for demand-side policies, such as investing in digital skills and supporting work on technical standards to enable interoperability, alongside supply-side measures like affordable cloud access and standardized AI tools.
For Israel, implementing these strategies could address key barriers to AI adoption. Expanding cloud access for small and medium enterprises and reducing the cost of advanced tools would empower a broader spectrum of businesses to experiment with and benefit from AI technologies.
WHILE ISRAEL has excelled in areas such as fintech, cybersecurity, and medical technology, AI’s promise extends far beyond Israel’s hi-tech corridors. The diffusion of these technologies across underrepresented regions and traditional industries – such as agriculture, logistics, and manufacturing – remains inconsistent and presents untapped opportunities for innovation.
For instance, AI could revolutionize agricultural practices, optimizing crop yields through data analytics and predictive modeling. Similarly, logistics companies could use AI to streamline supply chain operations, reducing costs and improving efficiency.
As the AWS report suggests, targeted regional strategies can address these gaps, and highlighting success stories in these sectors could serve as proof of AI’s transformative power, inspiring broader adoption across the economy.
Workforce development is another critical area where Israel can align with global best practices. Reskilling and upskilling programs, designed to meet the specific needs of the Israeli economy, should go beyond generic AI training to include adjacent competencies like data science, automation, and responsible AI implementation.
Creating apprenticeship programs in partnership with leading corporations and start-ups can bridge the gap between education and employment, ensuring that graduates are workforce-ready. This is particularly relevant as industries increasingly demand not just theoretical knowledge but practical, hands-on experience with AI systems.
There is also a significant opportunity to enhance AI adoption in the financial services sector. A recent interim report on AI use in the financial sector by Israel’s Justice Ministry and Treasury outlines how AI can streamline investment consulting, banking credit, and insurance underwriting.
However, the report also offers several recommendations to ensure the responsible use of AI in finance, including stronger corporate governance, enhanced data privacy protections, and clearer regulatory clarity.
Israel’s fintech ecosystem, already a global leader, could leverage these principles to inspire AI-driven financial services. AI tools for fraud detection, credit scoring, and personalized banking can enhance customer experiences while ensuring compliance. This sector can serve as a model for responsible innovation, showcasing AI’s transformative potential across industries.
INTERNATIONAL collaboration is critical to help drive adoption. By positioning itself as a global hub for AI innovation and establishing joint research initiatives with leading academic institutions and innovation hubs, Israel can attract investment and establish partnerships that will further enhance Israel’s credibility and leadership in the field.
To unlock AI’s full potential, Israel must act decisively. A well-executed innovative approach such as setting up a regulatory sandbox focusing on a high-impact sector like healthcare or agriculture could serve as a catalyst for broader adoption. At the same time, government policies must align with global best practices while leveraging Israel’s unique strengths – its entrepreneurial spirit, culture of risk-taking, and deep well of technological talent.
Israel’s tech ecosystem has long been a source of national pride, but AI offers an opportunity to take that reputation to the next level. By addressing existing gaps and capitalizing on emerging opportunities, Israel can ensure that AI becomes a driving force for economic growth, innovation, and social progress. The challenge now is to translate potential into action – and to ensure that Israel not only keeps pace with the global AI revolution but leads it.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-835298
---
Individuals Leaving Israel Should Not Face Criticism
By Susan Hattis Rolef
December 30, 2024
On Channel 12 TV last Friday evening, reporter Almog Boker complained about an item on the Friday night news that dealt with the issue of junior and senior doctors leaving Israel, either permanently or temporarily. The main reason cited for their departure is the danger to liberal democracy that they perceive the current government as posing.
The departure of doctors is assuming worrying dimensions and intensifying the shortage of medical staff in Israel’s hospitals and medical system in general. Boker commented that he considers the decision of these doctors to be unpatriotic, especially in the current reality of an unending war of survival on several fronts.
Boker belongs to those who believe that true patriotism involves remaining in the country, for better or worse. I personally am not grappling with this question because I am too old to consider leaving, and am dependent on my pension and the fruit of the National Insurance paid by me, or on my behalf, since I was 18.
I also still stick by my decision soon after the outbreak of the 1967 Six Day War, that I can have but one home – in Israel. Nevertheless, unless early elections are held soon, and if, once elections are finally held, they are manipulated in such a way that the Center/Left has no chance of winning, I shall have no argument with those who might consider leaving.
I admit that at this stage, most of my concerns regarding the future of Israeli democracy do not touch on my immediate daily existence but rather on more general principles that are likely to change the whole fabric of our democratic existence over time.
However, there are already warning signs that certain elements in my daily life, which directly affect my sense of well-being, are liable to be irreversibly changed in the near future. I am referring particularly to the declared intention of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to close down or privatize our public broadcasting network Kan, and encourage the weakening and even closure of the liberal daily Haaretz.
Since the early 1950s, when I was a child, I have listened to the daily news on the public broadcasting station of Kol Yisrael, and nowadays Kan. Since way back when, I have had the radio in my kitchen, and the one in my car, tuned on Kol Hamusica – also part of the Public Broadcasting Corporation – which broadcasts classical music and jazz 24 hours a day.
Karhi argues that public broadcasting is an anomaly in the free market of democratic states. When the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was replaced by Kan in 2017, then-culture and sports minister Miri Regev argued against the establishment of the new Public Broadcasting Corporation. “What is it worth if we do not control it?” she remarked.
What Karhi and Regev did not – and still do not – understand is that public broadcasting is needed to make sure that broadcast radio and TV content that cannot exist commercially does not disappear; not to serve as a propaganda platform for the ruling government.
This content includes high-quality cultural programs; neutral news and current affairs programs in various languages (including Yiddish and Ladino) and for different communities; classical music; regional stations, etc. Of course, one should constantly seek to improve the quality of this content and ensure equality among the various potential communities of listeners.
Incidentally, if Karhi gets his way, Haaretz – which is particularly critical of the current government – will be pushed out of the market altogether. Already the government has stopped publishing its advertisements in Ha’aretz, and no longer pays for Haaretz subscriptions for civil servants entitled to receive a daily newspaper for free.
Exactly two months ago, in the Knesset plenum, Karhi called on Knesset members from the opposition to start getting their news from the extreme right-wing Channel 14 TV as the most satisfactory alternative for receiving the facts. Indeed, Channel 14 is a legitimate source of news but also a dodgy source of fake news and of frequently unbearable broadcasters who consider it their duty to insult and mock liberals and social democrats, such as myself.
Optimists within the Center/Left hope that Karhi will fail in his efforts. I am not so sure that there is any basis for such optimism, especially since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not expressed any public reservations about Karhi’s plans and statements.
But the media is only one of numerous spheres in our lives in which Israel’s liberal democracy seems endangered by the current government’s plans and activities.
If the government’s plans in the spheres of law and justice proceed undeterred; if the improper and even unconstitutional way the government makes major policy decisions continues; if certain government ministers and senior coalition MKs continue to speak out scandalously and irresponsibly on various issues without being called to order; if legitimate demonstrators continue to be treated increasingly harshly – frequently without any justifiable cause – life will become progressively unbearable, even though not everyone will be equally affected.
Add to this the poor quality of several ministers (some of whom head superfluous ministries), the deliberate deterioration of the quality of our professional civil service, the turning of parts of the police force into the personal militia of the national security minister, and the continued deterioration of the Israeli economy, the future looks gloomy.
The situation remains reversible
I still believe that all these realities and trends are reversible and that Israel can get back on a path of changes based on broad agreement, that will make life more bearable for everyone. Nevertheless, anyone who already finds the situation unbearable has the right to leave without being accused of being unpatriotic or even a traitor.
One of the basic rights of the individual in a liberal democracy is the right to emigrate. This right has been used by over half a million Israelis (some estimate the number at as many as 800,000) since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. These have included both left- and right-wingers.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-835296
----
Failing Iranian State Gives Growing Opportunity For Regime Change
By Dan Diker
December 30, 2024
In the late 1970s, Uri Lubrani, Israel’s last ambassador to the Iranian court, and the legendary historian Prof. Bernard Lewis predicted the fall of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Prof. Lewis recounted that the shah, in a state of agitation, referring to the Jewish-dominated Western media, demanded that Lewis “tell your people to stop writing negatively about me.”
Lewis, with a historian’s lens, saw the Shah’s anti-Semitic outburst as a signal of desperation that would foreshadow his downfall and the emergence of the Islamic regime.
Lewis was correct, then and now. Forty-five years later, the Islamic regime’s desperation to survive has fuelled an unprecedented anti-Semitic discourse targeting Jews inside Iran. Previously, the regime had limited its anti-Semitic statements to Zionism and Zionists, avoiding attacking the Iranian Jewish community. However, his growing desperation, especially after the fall of its regional flagship terror proxy Hezbollah in November 2024, has fuelled official regime Jew-hatred.
Today, the regime spreads anti-Jewish tropes methodically. Over the past year, imams in several Iranian cities have delegitimized “the Jewish nation” in weekly Friday mosque sermons. Mosque hate speech has transferred into mainstream television programming. Religious leaders, military officials, intellectuals, artists, and celebrities have moved beyond “anti-Zionist” invective to anti-Jewish slander. The regime seeks to create a perception that the Iranian people as a whole support their anti-Jewish agenda.
Examples abound. Mohammad Khazali, the son of a prominent ayatollah, in a recent debate, blamed Jews for regime woes. In another instance, the imam of the city of Qazvim, a Khamenei appointment, excoriated Jews on a regime prime-time television talk show, Throraya. He offered Koranic references to prove that Jews love money, are greedy, and should live in fear of their Muslim overlords.
In yet another example, senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member Gen. Mohammed Jafar Assadi said on the regime news station that the “cursed Jews” had wronged the entire Middle East since October 7.
When the interviewer asked, “Don’t you mean Zionists?” He replied, “No, there is no difference between them, they have done the worst things to their own prophets, it’s known (from Koranic sources).”
Iranian author Mohammed Tarizahedi further declared on prime-time television that the Jewish Purim holiday is “against Iranians and the Aryan race” and was “created to fabricate Jewish history and victimhood.”
Perhaps most consequentially, professional eulogizers – who traditionally perform before official speeches – referred to Jews as “infidels,” and said they should “expect a plague from Ali’s followers.” This was before a major speech by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran's implosion
As in 1979, regime antisemitism again appears as a predictor of its disintegration. The Iranian economy is crumbling. The rial has become one of the world’s weakest currencies. Poverty and hunger abound, with food and medical production facilities shut down. Massive fuel shortages and power outages plague the country, with 17 electricity plants shut down. The presidential compound is blacked out. Businesses, schools, colleges, police stations, and government offices are shuttered.
Iran’s implosion is largely the result of its overextended one billion dollar per year proxy program for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, now mostly neutralized. Iran’s Syrian vassal in the Assad regime has collapsed. The Israeli military destruction of Iran’s air defence system and other sensitive sites has added to regime vulnerability and desperation.
Internally, public dissent has taken a toll on regime confidence. The regime’s brutal crackdown on the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement following its murder of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 increased its repression, jailing, torture, and hangings of dissidents, indicating its fear of losing control.
He took to social media to mask regime failures and vulnerabilities, stating “They say that the Islamic Republic has lost its proxies in the region. Islamic Republic doesn’t have proxy forces. Yemen fights due to their faith. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad fight because their beliefs compel them to do so.”
Khamenei, opining over his loss of Syria, also posted on X, “The #Syrian youth have nothing to lose. Their universities, schools, homes, and lives aren’t safe. What can they do? They must stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity and God willing, they will prevail over them.”
Domestically, the mullahs continue to play on the public’s deepest fears. They charge Israel and the United States with plotting to break up Iran into ethnic cantons. The regime has threatened its people, predicting that a denuded Iran would share the fate that befell the Libyans after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi and that of the Iraqi public after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Regime manipulation and antisemitism signal a last-ditch effort to mobilize the Iranian public against its vulnerable Jewish community. Iran is today naked, vulnerable, and more desperate than at any time since its rise to power in 1979. The Arab world views Israel and the incoming Trump administration as the strong horses of the Middle East. A resurgence of a US maximum pressure campaign can help tip the scale.
Now is the time for the Iranian people to topple the regime and pave a new pathway to a free, democratic, and unified state.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-835292
---
Switzerland’s Turning Point: Why Hamas Was Finally Declared A Terror Organization
By Shaun Sacks
December 30, 2024
In what could have been a scene from a dark comedy, Swiss diplomats gathered in a gilded hall following Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza in 2007. While nodding solemnly at the undeniable atrocities committed by Hamas and acknowledging the history of suicide bombings and other murderous acts, the diplomats carefully crafted statements to avoid labeling Hamas as a terrorist organization. Switzerland’s sacrosanct neutrality, they argued, demanded open avenues of dialogue—even if those avenues were drenched in blood.
This absurd dance exposed a troubling truth: for the Swiss government, political posturing and neutrality trumped integrity. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Switzerland’s equivalent of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, clung to its justification for years, insisting that “open communication” with Hamas could somehow inspire the brutal organization to embrace peace with Israel, human rights, and democracy.
Another naive Swiss policy, also intended to nudge Hamas towards these important values, took the form of substantial funding directed by the FDFA to illusory human rights NGOs. Analysis by NGO Monitor has demonstrated that, ironically, Switzerland’s foreign funding practices were far from neutral. According to its own records, Switzerland supports an Israeli NGO that seeks to “break” Israeli “myths” about the country’s founding, while amplifying the Palestinian narrative. The FDFA also generously financed several NGOs that actively advocate for dismantling Israel and denying the legitimacy of a Jewish state – regardless of borders.
As part of this agenda, Swiss-funded NGOs are at the forefront of lobbying efforts to prosecute Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Additionally, Swiss-funded Israeli political NGOs have published demonizing accusations against Israel, labelling it an “apartheid” state and accusing it of “genocide.” These inflammatory terms are used to promote a narrative of unparalleled Israeli immorality and to advance legal actions against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The ruthless atrocities of October 7—the largest assault against the Jewish people since the Holocaust—laid bare the naïveté of Switzerland’s approach.
At this point, things finally began to change in Switzerland. In November 2023, the Swiss government announced that it was cancelling contracts with three of the most virulent Palestinian NGOs.
And more recently, on December 11, 2024, Swiss parliamentarians overwhelmingly voted to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.
One cannot help but marvel at the tragedy: it took a massacre of historic proportions for Switzerland to acknowledge what most democracies had long understood—that Hamas is, and always has been, a violent, despicable, heinous terrorist organization.
The decision in Switzerland to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, which should have been obvious, was too many years in the making. Discussions first emerged in the Swiss parliament in 2017, when numerous parliamentarians called for Hamas’ designation. Yet the Department of Foreign Affairs repeatedly resisted, claiming that Switzerland’s unique role as a neutral mediator required keeping channels open, even with groups openly committed to violence. “We talk to everyone” was the unofficial hallmark of Swiss diplomacy, as though engaging with terrorists was a badge of moral superiority rather than a superfluous folly.
When Swiss parliamentarians finally acted following the Oct 7 attacks, the process was straightforward. On November 22, 2023, the Federal Council proposed a Parliamentary act banning Hamas in Switzerland. It was discussed in committee in February 2024 and debated in the full parliament in May. On December 11, members overwhelmingly supported the move with a vote of 168-6. Now, the Federal Council is tasked with implementing the change, including freezing Hamas’ assets, prohibiting any support for the group, and aligning Switzerland with international efforts to combat terrorism.
The vote marked a decisive shift in Switzerland’s foreign policy.
By recognizing the undeniable reality, the country has taken a firm stance against terror. This decision not only aligns Switzerland with much of the Western democratic community but also paves the way for future action. As the focus now turns to Hezbollah, which the Swiss only designated last week, there is hope that Switzerland will continue to prioritize integrity over the illusion of diplomatic neutrality. The Swiss parliament’s courage and clarity in the face of difficult truths offer a promising vision for the future, where terror is unequivocally condemned, and justice prevails.
Shaun Sacks is senior researcher at NGO Monitor and has provided expert testimony on NGO funding before parliamentary committees in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-835317
-----
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/israel-truce-iranian-hamas-terror/d/134181
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism