Farley Weiss is past president of the National Council of Young Israel and coauthor of the book Because It's Just and Right, the Untold Back Story of the U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
As a delegate to the recently concluded World Zionist in Congress in Jerusalem, I saw the left gleefully pushing for a Commission to investigate the Israeli government's failures that led to October 7. What I did not see was any sense of introspection by them for their own failures and their responsibility for October 7, 2023.
If one really wants to investigate the failures of October 7, 2023 one needs to start with the decision supported by the left wing American Jews and enacted by Israel's left wing Labor Government on September 13, 1993 to sign the Oslo Agreements with Arafat and the PLO (now the Palestinian Authority) based on the naive belief that the Palestinian Arabs wanted to live in peace with Israel.
Israel literally gave the Palestinian Arabs guns and land, and in the Oslo agreements, Arafat actually agreed to turn over Palestinian Arab terrorists who murdered Israelis. And the Israeli government naively believed him. I and others on the right opposed Oslo, believing it would not lead to peace but to a catastrophe, while the American Jewish left supported Oslo.
Under the Oslo 2 Accords Annex IV, Article II, Section 7(F) the Palestinian Authority legally obligated itself by agreeing that "Requests for arrest and transfer of suspects or defendants shall be made in writing and shall include all relevant information. The requested side shall promptly respond to such requests, and the requesting side shall be notified of the outcome of its request. Persons arrested as a result of such requests shall be promptly transferred to the requesting side.”
However, instead of turning such terrorists over as it had pledged, the Palestinian Authority passed a law financially rewarding such terrorists for these murders, with the more Jews and Americans murdered the more money received. Around 300 million dollars is budgeted and paid each year to such persons and their families including those who committed atrocities on October 7, 2023. Unsurprisingly, after Oslo, terrorism increased dramatically and Gaza under the rule of Arafat became a radicalized area educated in hatred of Jews and favoring the destruction of Israel.
The next catastrophic decision came after Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won the January 29, 2003 election in which he opposed the Labor party's plafform to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. Two years later, Prime Minister Sharon decided to adopt the idea that the Israeli electorate had rejected and decided to ask for support from his Likud party to disengage from Gaza, as polls showed that even within the Likud they now supported disengagement.
Likud Minister Uzi Landau led the oppostion to Disengagement and I assisted his efforts by providing the idea to base the campaign on letting Likud voters know that a vote to disengage would lead to a coalition with the Labor party and Shimon Peres. The slogan I suggested for Landau and that they adopted to oppose disengagement was "Vote yes get Peres". In one month Sharon went from leading by 30% in the polls to losing by 20% in the actual vote. Sharon fired Landau and decided to ignore the result of the vote and carry out Disengagement anyway. The leadership of left wing American Jewry, many of whom attended the World Zionist Congress, supported Disengagement.
Israel expelled 8,500 Jews from their homes in Gaza in 2005 and the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas took over. In 2006 with the support of the Bush Administration. Parliamentary elections were held in Gaza and Hamas defeated the Palestinian Authority and violently pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza. The Prime Minister of Israel at the time was Ehud Olmert, not Netanyahu. Once Hamas took over Gaza, the tunnels started to be built as well as the missile factories. Israel was repeatedly attacked by Hamas in Gaza with rocket fire in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021 and on October 7, 2023.
People blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for agreeing to the requests made by the then Head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar, who said that providing Hamas with money would keep them happy and keep the border quiet. Netanyahu was wrong to listen to Bar, who was eventually replaced after Bar's catastrophic failures - not only did he fail to prepare for October 7, despite warnings, but he did not even notify the Prime Minister and Defense Minister any time before the Hamas attack at 6:30 am that morning, despite he himself having several hours notice of the potential attack. People today falsely claim that Netanyahu wanted Hamas to stay in power in Gaza and yet October 7 showed that the only way to get Hamas out of Gaza was for Israel to take over Gaza militarily, something that Israel would only consider doing after October 7.
Netanyahu allowed a limited number of Palestinian Arabs from Gaza to obtain permits to work in Israel, up to around 7,000, but the Lapid-Bennett government that took over on June 13, 2021 and stayed in power until November 1, 2022 vastly increased this number to 20,000 or more in coordination with the Biden Administration. The idea was that this would economically benefit the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and help lead to peace. Instead, these Palestinian Arab workers helped map out the border areas of Israel and relayed detailed information about the Israeli families who employed them to help prepare for the catastrophic Hamas attack on October 7. On that day, about 3,800 Hamas terrorists were joined by at least 2,200 Palestinian Arab civilians in the barbaric massacre, beheadings, rapings and burning alive of babies perpetrated on October 7, 2023.
In September 2025, the Israeli government approved construction of 3,000 units in E1 which is a 4.6 square mile area between Jerusalem and the Judean city of 40,000 Israeli Jews in Maale Adumim. I was part of a small group that received a briefing on the building overlooking E1 from Maale Adumim the day before the Conference. The left in the Conference pushed for a resolution to prevent Jews and only allow Palestinian Arabs to live and build in E1. The only reason behind this was to create a Palestinian Arab state in the area, as if the American left had learned nothing after October 7.
The Israeli public has learned from the catastrophe of the quasi-Palestinian Arab state that ruled in Gaza before October 7 and is now firmly opposed to such a state. The result in Israel is that the Knesset overwhelmingly rejected such a state in July 2024 in a 68-9 vote with no Zionist parties supporting such a state. Furthermore, no Zionist parties opposed Israeli construction in E1, but the American Jewish left at the Conference did oppose such building.
At the World Zionist Congress, the American Jewish left showed that they have not undergone a most necessary process of introspection, and have not taken responsibility for their errors of judgment before October 7, 2023. They urgently need to do so.