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A Week to Celebrate in the Middle East, as Israel and the World Look Forward
US President Donald Trump and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attend a signing ceremony in Doha, Qatar, May 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Mark Twain once said, “All generalizations are false, including this one.” Well, I wonder what Twain would have made of Raphael Patai’s 1973 book, The Arab Mind — an audacious attempt to anatomize the psychological DNA of an entire region by offering a sweeping, all-encompassing portrait of the Arab world.
Patai proposed a bold thesis: that Arabs — from Morocco to Iraq, from tribal sheikhs in the Gulf to Cairo technocrats — were shaped by a single cultural code: one that prized honor over truth, shame over guilt, and appearance over substance. It was, in short, a one-size-fits-all user’s manual for the Arab psyche.
Patai’s thesis was, in many ways, the alter ego of what Arabists like Edward Said and Arab leaders like Gamal Abdel Nasser were saying at the time. Although, where Patai saw dysfunction in a singular Arab psyche, they saw dignity. Where he pointed to tribalism and stagnation, they spoke of unity and resistance.
Nasser dreamed of a pan-Arab umma — a unified Arab nation stretching across borders and ideologies. Edward Said, for his part, accused Western scholars like Patai of reducing the Arab world to caricature, feeding a colonial narrative that portrayed Arabs as exotic, irrational, and eternally “other.”
And yet, even as they fought Patai’s conclusions, both sides shared the same assumption: that the Arab world was one thing — one mind, one heritage, one culture, one destiny.
For decades, The Arab Mind quietly but persistently shaped US military training manuals, diplomatic strategies, intelligence briefings, and Middle East policy assumptions. It became the go-to guide for Westerners trying to “understand” the Arab world.
But if Patai were writing today — this week, to be precise — he would have had to call his book The Arab Minds, in the plural. Because President Trump’s glitzy, headline-devouring state visit to Saudi Arabia — and other Gulf nations — has just buried the idea of a singular Arab “mind” for good.
This wasn’t a US-Arab summit from the history books. No fiery speeches about Zionist conspiracies. No somber declarations of Arab unity. Instead, it was a who’s who of the Fortune 500, flown in to celebrate hundreds of billions of dollars in investment deals between the US and its Arab allies. Artificial intelligence, military hardware, aerospace, healthcare, infrastructure — even a Saudi CubeSat hitching a ride on NASA’s Artemis II. This wasn’t pan-Arabism. It was pan-capitalism.
Although… Israel wasn’t invited. Cue the heartburn in Jerusalem. Why is Trump cozying up to the Saudis, the Qataris, even the Syrians — without us? Why is Israel being left out in the cold? But here’s the thing: it’s not a snub. It’s a setup. Because this trip — if you read between the lines — might just be the runway for some of the most unexpected Israeli breakthroughs since the Abraham Accords.
The winds are shifting. Trump’s announcement in Riyadh that US sanctions on Syria are being lifted wasn’t merely symbolic — it was seismic. Suddenly, Syria isn’t a regional pariah — it’s back on the guest list. Trump’s declaration that “peace in the region requires a new approach” may sound like typical political varnish, but it is more likely a nod toward Israeli-Syrian dialogue, which Trump requested from Syria’s new leader. A year ago, that would have sounded like science fiction.
Even more significant is the growing Arab consensus that Hamas and the Houthis are not cherished symbols of resistance — instead, they are a strategic liability. The Saudis and the Emiratis are done with them. Egypt’s stance has shifted. And Qatar, the lifeline for Islamists, is feeling real pressure: either keep backing terror, or keep your seat at the global investment table. You can’t do both anymore.
And here’s the real shocker: there’s serious talk that the Muslim Brotherhood, long hailed as the great hope of pan-Arabism, is on the verge of official disavowal. Arab leaders are beginning to say — openly — that the Brotherhood isn’t the engine of Arab renewal, but the architect of regional chaos. The entire pan-Arab narrative, once held together by slogans and shared grievance, is starting to unravel.
So where does that leave Israel? Exactly where it should be — at the center of the new story. Israel is proof that a small country in a tough neighborhood can thrive when it refuses to dissolve its identity, no matter how intense the pressure to conform or collapse. In a region finally swapping ideology for pragmatism, Israel is no longer the outlier — it’s the blueprint.
So yes, it may have stung to be left off this week’s summit stage. But it wasn’t sidelining — it was positioning. What we witnessed wasn’t exclusion. It was groundwork. This is the slow construction of something much bigger than a photo op or a flashy deal.
The Arab world is no longer a monolith. It’s a collection of countries with diverging interests and evolving priorities — finally ready to let go of the imposed identities of the past and embrace something far more honest, and far more promising.
Which brings us, unexpectedly but powerfully, to Parshat Emor. After a long stretch of laws about priestly purity and sacred times, the narrative suddenly shifts. A fight breaks out in the Israelite camp. One of the men involved is described not by name, but by lineage: “The son of an Israelite woman — who was the son of an Egyptian man — went out among the Israelites…” (Lev. 24:10).
This man ends up blaspheming the Divine Name and is ultimately put to death. It’s a grim episode, but what’s striking is how the Torah frames it. His identity — half Israelite, half Egyptian — isn’t incidental. It’s the whole point.
Here is someone who couldn’t let go of Egypt. Even physically standing among the Israelites, he remained spiritually tethered to a different world. And that wasn’t just a personal issue — it was a national warning.
This wasn’t the only time in the wilderness that Egypt reappeared. Again and again, the Israelites looked back: “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt!” “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!” But that longing wasn’t innocent nostalgia. It was sabotage. A refusal to embrace a new identity, a new mission, and a different kind of future.
Seen this way, the man’s sin may not have been blasphemy in the narrow sense — it was symbolic. Blasphemy as an expression of identity confusion. Of clinging to something toxic that had already been discarded. He couldn’t break free of Egypt — and in the end, it broke him.
And isn’t that exactly the drama playing out in the Middle East today? For decades, Arab leaders — some sincerely, some cynically — held tight to inherited identities: pan-Arab unity, perpetual resistance, and victimhood. The old slogans were seductive. But they were also paralyzing. And now, slowly, country by country, those slogans are being replaced. With individualism. With trade. With technology, education, and ambition. It’s not perfect — but it’s facing forward.
Israel figured this out a long time ago. That’s why it’s still here. And that’s why it thrives. For all the turbulence of Jewish history, Israel refused to ever be shackled to ghosts of the past. It chose to move forward — to build, to innovate, to surge ahead. And now the Arab world stands at that same crossroads.
Those who choose to let go of their ideological Egypts — who move past Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the tired illusions of The Arab Mind — just might discover what Israel already knows: that real strength begins the moment you stop looking backward.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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White House Urges UN to Fire Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights on the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The White House is pressing the United Nations to remove Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, over what officials describe as a pattern of inflammatory, legally questionable and antisemitic conduct.
In a formal diplomatic communication to UN leadership, the US accused Albanese of crossing ethical and legal boundaries by promoting fringe legal theories and issuing sweeping threats to American and international companies.
Albanese, an Italian academic appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2022 and recently reappointed for a second term, has come under increasing scrutiny for her outspoken criticism and targeting of Israel. Recently, she sent letters to major companies, some of them US government contractors, warning that doing business with Israel could constitute “complicity in genocide,” “apartheid,” and other grave human rights abuses. The letters alleged potential criminal liability under international law.
The Trump administration lambasted these moves as a campaign of “political and economic warfare.” In a sharply worded letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea argued that Albanese’s claims were built on “false legal premises” and “inflammatory rhetoric,” warning that such conduct poses risks not just to Israel but to global business and diplomatic norms.
The controversy highlights longstanding US concerns about perceived anti-Israel bias at the UN, particularly within the Human Rights Council, where Israel has frequently been the target of critical resolutions.
US officials have also cast doubt on Albanese’s legal credentials, alleging that the special rapporteur is not an actual lawyer. The state department contends she routinely presents herself as an “international lawyer” despite reportedly never having passed a bar exam or been licensed to practice law. That detail, the US argues, should disqualify her from the diplomatic immunities typically granted to UN officials.
The letters sent to companies are part of a forthcoming UN report, spearheaded by Albanese, that accuses Israel of operating an “economy of genocide” with the support of global corporations. US diplomats dismissed the draft as “legally baseless,” saying it misrepresents both facts on the ground and international law. “Private companies are not legally bound by human rights law,” Shea wrote in her communication.
A spokesman for the UN secretary-general’s office told the Washington Free Beacon it has “no authority over the human rights rapporteurs,” who report directly to the Human Rights Council, according to the outlet. “It is up to the Human Rights Council to handle appointments and to oversee their work,” said the spokesman.
Press representatives for the UNHRC did not immediately respond to a Free Beacon request for comment.
Albanese has long drawn criticism from Israel and its allies. She has accused the Israeli government of perpetrating a system of apartheid and has publicly compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, a comparison widely condemned across political lines. She has also been accused of rationalizing or downplaying the October 7 Hamas attacks.
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Danish Suspect Arrested for Spying on Berlin’s Jewish Community for Iranian Intelligence Amid Rising Middle East Tensions
The Iranian flag flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A man accused of spying on Jewish institutions and individuals in Berlin on behalf of Iranian intelligence — allegedly in preparation for potential terrorist attacks — has been arrested in Denmark.
In a statement released Tuesday, German prosecutors confirmed that a Danish citizen was detained last week in Aarhus, a city in western Denmark, on suspicion of being tasked by Iranian intelligence with collecting information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in the German capital.
According to German authorities, the man allegedly spied on three properties last month, “presumably in preparation for further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets.”
While it hasn’t been disclosed which sites and individuals were targeted, a report by German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that the suspect took photos of several houses, including the headquarters of the German-Israeli Society (DIG).
The suspect is accused of working for a foreign intelligence service, reportedly receiving orders from the Quds Force, Iran’s elite paramilitary unit responsible for directing its proxies and terrorist operations abroad.
After being extradited from Denmark, the suspect will appear before a German judge who will decide whether to keep him in custody pending formal charges.
This latest threat comes as concerns grow over Iranian sleeper cells while tensions in the Middle East escalate amid the ongoing conflict between Tehran and Jerusalem.
After Israel struck Iranian nuclear facilities last month to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Iran warned of retaliation, saying it may activate sleeper cells abroad and mobilize its proxies — from Hezbollah to the Houthis — to target Israeli assets in response to the attacks.
As tensions escalated between the two adversaries, Jewish security groups and institutions worldwide, including schools and synagogues, increased security measures and urged vigilance, anticipating that Iran — limited in its capacity to retaliate militarily against Israel — might target Israeli and Jewish interests abroad.
Tehran has a long history of deploying spies to orchestrate assassination plots and attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets across Europe and the United States.
For example, Swiss authorities last year arrested Swedish teenagers who, acting on Iranian instructions, attempted to attack the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
There have also been reports of Iranian links to a shooting at a German synagogue and planned attacks on Jewish sites in Cyprus in recent years.
In the US, one notable case is the foiled 2011 plot in which authorities uncovered an Iranian plan to assassinate the then-Saudi ambassador by bombing Café Milano, a Washington, DC, restaurant popular with American officials.
Germany has long been a strong ally of Israel, even as an increasing number of European Union members adopt anti-Israel stances and push for measures against the country.
At the same time, Berlin has maintained a tense relationship with Tehran while striving to re-engage Iran diplomatically over its nuclear program.
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Trump Administration Issues Harvard University Civil Rights Violation Notice
US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation accompanied by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House, June 21, 2025. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration has issued Harvard University a “notice of violation” of civil rights law following an investigation which examined how it responded to dozens of antisemitic incidents reported by Jewish students since the 2023-2024 academic year.
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the correspondence, sent by the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, charged that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a deluge of racist and antisemitic abuse following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, which precipitated a surge in anti-Zionist activity on the campus, both in the classroom and out of it. It concluded with a threat to cancel all federal funding for Harvard.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the four federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
On Monday, Kenneth Marcus, former assistant secretary of education for civil rights under the George W. Bush administration and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The Algemeiner that the notice signals the administration’s intent to see through its campus reform agenda.
“We have known for some time that the Trump administration believes that Harvard is in violation of Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964], but it is nevertheless instructive to see the Task Force lay out its case,” Marcus explained. “If the Justice Department intends to take Harvard to court, it is critical for them to take care of such formalities. Alternatively, if their focus is on negotiations, this is a sign of seriousness. Given the recent staff reductions throughout the federal government, it is important to see that the administration has the bandwidth to develop and advance detailed allegations.”
The Joint Task Force comprises Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum, Acting General Counsel for the Department of Education Thomas Wheeler, and Acting General Counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services Sean Keveney.
In a statement to The Algemeiner, Steve McGuire, a Campus Freedom Fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), wrote: “While ACTA has concerns about some aspects of the Trump administration’s approach to Harvard’s civil rights problems, it seems clear that the university is not going to fix them on its own. With respect to antisemitism, its own leaders and some of its most prominent defenders have conceded that it has a problem. Harvard has cultivated an intolerant intellectual culture in which mistreating Jews and Israelis is allowed or even encouraged. The Trump administration is right to call this out, and I hope it will engage in a full and proper process to ensure Harvard rectifies the problem.”
The administration, McGuire added, should aim “to ensure that cultural change at the university sticks and endures over the long run” while encouraging Harvard to “work to address other issues, including inadequate protections for free expression and its lack of intellectual diversity, if it wants to reform a culture that has clearly gone off the rails and made discrimination of various kinds acceptable at the university for way too long.”
Campus antisemitism expert Yael Lerman of StandWithUs, said, “This finding marks a critical milestone toward possible federal actions, such as withholding funding, and signals important progress in upholding Title VI protections. We hope Harvard’s response to this determination will be swift action to ensure the safety and equal protection to which Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli students are entitled.”
Harvard University has previously admitted to mismanaging the campus antisemitism crisis.
Several weeks after sparring with the Trump administration, as well as suing it in federal court, Harvard released its long-anticipated report on campus antisemitism. The over 300-page document provided a complete account of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color — and said that one source of the problem is the institution’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups.
Interim Harvard president Alan Garber apologized for the inconsistent application of anti-discrimination policy.
“I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” Garber said in a statement that accompanied the report. “The grave, extensive impact of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on campus. Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry. We will continue to provide for the safety and security of all members of our community and safeguard their freedom from harassment. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the university is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained, and contested in the spirt of seeking truth; where argument proceeds without sacrificing dignity; and where mutual respect is the norm.”
Monday’s notice from the Trump administration comes as Harvard resumes discussion with federal officials regarding a potential agreement for restoring $3 billion in federal research grants and contracts the government withheld in the early stages of its investigation of antisemitism at Harvard.
According to a report published by The Harvard Crimson on Thursday, Garber held a phone call with major donors in which he “confirmed in response to a question from [Harvard Corporation Fellow David M. Rubenstein] that talks had resumed” but “declined to share specifics of how Harvard expected to settle with the White House.”
Garber “did not discuss how close a deal could be,” the Crimson reported, “and said instead that Harvard had focused on laying out the steps it was already taking to address issues that are common ground for the University and the Trump administration. Areas of shared concern that have been discussed with the White House included ‘viewpoint diversity’ and antisemitism.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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