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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.
The post A Week to Celebrate in the Middle East, as Israel and the World Look Forward first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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France Set to Recognize Palestinian State Despite Majority of Citizens Opposing the Move, New Survey Shows
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
More than 70 percent of the French people oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next week, according to a new study that highlights strong public opposition to the contentious diplomatic move.
A survey conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) on behalf of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), the main representative body of French Jews, found that only 29 percent of French citizens support Macron’s initiative.
On Monday, France is expected to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in New York, with a handful of other Western countries — including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia — poised to follow suit.
However, the majority of the French people oppose the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, with 71 percent rejecting any recognition before the release of all remaining Israeli hostages still held in Gaza and the surrender of Hamas, according to the newly released survey.
Le Crif publie aujourd’hui un sondage réalisé par l’Ifop sur le thème : « Reconnaissance d’un État palestinien et antisémitisme : le regard des Français ».
71 % des Français rejettent une reconnaissance avant la libération des otages et la reddition du Hamas. Seuls 29 % des… pic.twitter.com/sCjqNUkz4t
— CRIF (@Le_CRIF) September 18, 2025
The study also examined how this diplomatic initiative and the ongoing war in Gaza have fueled the ongoing surge of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment across France.
Nearly 70 percent of the French people view antisemitic incidents as a serious threat, not only to French Jews but to the society as a whole, the survey found.
Meanwhile, according to the data, 19 percent of French citizens consider it acceptable to target Jews due to the conflict in Gaza, with the figure rising to 31 percent among those aged 18 to 24.
France has faced sharp criticism from Israeli and US officials who oppose recognizing a Palestinian state, warning that such a move would only reward terrorism, hinder Gaza ceasefire negotiations, and embolden Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has ruled the enclave for nearly two decades.
Israel is reportedly considering multiple retaliatory measures in response to Macron’s move, including accelerating West Bank annexations, closing the French consulate in Jerusalem, and seizing French-owned sites in Israel, such as the Sanctuary of the Eleona — a Christian pilgrimage destination.
For his part, Macron has pushed back against criticism of France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, arguing that it is a necessary step to counter Hamas.
“The objective of Hamas has never been to make two states, and especially two states as we propose … they want to destroy Israel,” Macron said in an interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. “The recognition of a Palestinian state is the best way to isolate Hamas.”
The French leader has argued that this move is the only way to bring peace and stability to the region, noting that the terrorist group has never supported a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would likely oppose a Palestinian state since it would have no governing role.
“Hamas is just obsessed with destroying Israel,” Macron told US television network CBS in an interview. “But I recognize the legitimacy of so many Palestinian people who want a state … and we shouldn’t push them toward Hamas.”
However, the Palestinian terrorist group has repeatedly praised such plans to recognize a Palestinian state as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and its aftermath as the reason for increasing Western support.
France’s expected move has also sparked strong reactions across the country, amid an already tense and hostile climate.
CRIF has repeatedly denounced the recognition of a Palestinian state, calling it “a moral failing, a diplomatic error, and a political danger,” and warned that it would exacerbate antisemitism amid a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes since the Oct. 7 atrocities.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has also condemned the initiative, accusing Macron of supporting it “purely for electoral reasons.”
Meanwhile, France’s left-wing opposition welcomed Macron’s decision, with Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, calling on mayors to raise the Palestinian flag over town halls on Monday.
However, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau asked prefects, the government’s local representatives, not to follow through with such gestures, citing the principle of neutrality in public services and warning that violations would be referred to administrative courts.
“There are enough divisive issues in the country without importing the conflict in the Middle East,” the French diplomat wrote in a post on X.
Several French town halls have been forced to take down Palestinian flags following court rulings.
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‘Jews Forbidden Here’: European Jewish Communities Targeted as Latest Outrages Rock Spain, Germany
The children’s bookstore in Sant Cugat, Spain, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and slogans, prompting outrage from the local Jewish community. Photo: Screenshot
Antisemitism continues to surge across Europe, with recent anti-Jewish incidents in Spain and Germany leaving Jewish communities shocked and outraged.
On Tuesday, a children’s bookstore in Sant Cugat, a small town by Barcelona, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and slogans.
An unknown individual spray-painted messages — including “Zionist” and “accomplice to genocide” — along with a Palestinian flag across the bookstore’s facade.
The store’s owner, Mont Soler, voiced her “deepest rejection” of this act of anti-Jewish hatred.
“This attack is not only against my bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence and respect that I have always stood for,” Soler wrote in a post on Instagram.
The Jewish Community of Barcelona (CJB) also condemned the incident, expressing solidarity with the store’s owner and urging the authorities to take action.
“This attack is not just against a landmark bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence, respect, and diversity that should define our society,” CJB said in a statement.
“Antisemitism and all forms of intolerance have no place in Sant Cugat, in Catalonia, or anywhere else,” the statement read.
This incident comes amid a surge in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment across Europe and around the world since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Wednesday, a shop owner in Flensburg, a small town in northern Germany, ignited outrage by displaying a sign in his store window that read, “Jews are forbidden here.”
The sign also said, “Nothing personal, not even antisemitism, I just can’t stand you.”
According to 60-year-old shop owner Hans Platen-Reisch, the sign was intended as a protest against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, but he insisted it was not meant to be antisemitic.
“Jews live in Israel, and I can’t tell who supports the strikes and who doesn’t,” Platen-Reisch told a local news outlet.
“To me, it’s hypocrisy. They always say history must not repeat itself, and then they do the same themselves,” he continued.
Social media photos reveal the interior of his shop, featuring a Reich war flag — a symbol used by Nazi Germany during World War II — behind his desk, a RAF poster referring to the far-left terror group Red Army Faction on the wall, and a Palestinian flag displayed in the window.
Shortly after the incident, the Flensburg prosecutor’s office filed five criminal complaints and opened an investigation into Platen-Reisch on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, denounced the incident as a shocking display of hatred and called for swift legal action.
“This is clear antisemitism, with direct connections to the Nazi period, when Jews were boycotted and signs like these were widespread,” Klein said in an interview with German television.
“This must not be tolerated under any circumstances,” he continued.
German Education Minister Karin Prien, the first Jewish woman to hold a federal ministerial post in Germany, also condemned the incident and expressed strong support for the Jewish community.
“Anyone who expresses or justifies antisemitism opposes everything our democratic life represents,” Prien told a local newspaper. “Let there be no doubt: We will not tolerate antisemitism – not in Flensburg, not in Germany, not anywhere in the world.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, voiced his strong condemnation of the incident.
“The 1930s are back! In Flensburg, ‘Jews forbidden’ is once again hanging in a shop window — in the year 2025. Just like back then, in the streets, cafés and shops of the 1930s,” Prosor wrote in a post on X.
“This is exactly how it started — step by step, sign by sign. It is the same old hatred, only in a new guise,” the Israeli diplomat continued.
Die 30er-Jahre sind zurück!
In Flensburg hängt wieder „Juden verboten“ im Schaufenster – im Jahr 2025. Wie damals in den Straßen, Cafés und Geschäften der 1930er.
Genau so hat es angefangen – Schritt für Schritt, Schild für Schild. Es ist der gleiche alte Hass, nur in einer… pic.twitter.com/seZmJ4OPsv
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) September 18, 2025
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Trump Administration Plans $6.4 Billion in Weapons Sales to Israel, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Feb/ 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
The Trump administration is seeking congressional approval to sell Israel $6.4 billion in support equipment and weapons including attack helicopters and troop carriers, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Israel‘s military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure.
The news of the proposed sale came days before world leaders were set to gather in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly next week, which the UN Security Council is also due to hold a high-level meeting on Gaza.
The planned package includes a deal worth $3.8 billion for 30 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and $1.9 billion for 3,250 infantry assault vehicles for the Israeli army.
Another $750 million worth of support parts for armored personnel carriers and power supplies are also working its way through the sale process, one of the people said.
US Republican President Donald Trump’s full-throated support for Israel‘s military contrasts with growing wariness about Israel‘s campaign in Gaza among Democrats.
On Thursday, a group of US senators introduced the first Senate resolution to urge recognition of a Palestinian state and more than half of Democrats in the Senate recently voted against further arms sales.
The Wall Street Journal reported the potential helicopter and vehicle sales on Friday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.