RSS
Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel
Then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist party Raam at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 13, 2021. Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
Israeli soldier Uri Moyal’s visit to a café in southern Israel last Thursday ended up being his last.
While Moyal waited in line, Fadi Abu Altayef, from the nearby Bedouin city of Rahat, fatally stabbed the soldier from behind. With help from a bystander, Moyal shot Altayef dead before succumbing to his wounds. Moyal’s murder is an example of the worst in Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, but there have been many hopeful signs.
Altayef, 22, grew up in Gaza, where his parents currently reside. His father is from Gaza, but his mother is from Rahat in Israel. Under family reunification protocols, Israel granted Fadi citizenship in 2019 after he married a woman from Rahat. Fadi repaid that kindness by stabbing Israelis, but this extreme act represents a small minority of this minority community.
By contrast, fellow Rahat resident Ahmad Abu Latif, a reserve fighter in the Israel Defense Forces’ 8208 Battalion, was among the 21 soldiers killed in a building explosion in January in central Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to Ahmad’s family, and said, “Ahmad fell for the home of us all.” Countering initial reports that Fadi was his cousin, Ahmad’s family denied they were related and condemned the attack.
Since October 7, nine Israeli Arabs have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend Israel. During Hamas’ killing spree, the terrorist group killed more than 20 Israeli Bedouins and abducted another six. Ali Ziadna, whose family members are being held hostage in Gaza, confronted the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations on March 11, demanding their release.
Arab bravery was a bright spot on the Black Saturday, and — along with Hamas’ indiscriminate murder of Arabs and Jews — showed the shared fate of Israel’s citizens. Rahat bus driver Youssef Ziadna dodged bullets to rescue 30 Israelis from the killing fields. Ismail Alkrenawi and three relatives set out from Rahat to save his cousin Hisham, a worker at Kibbutz Be’eri. The Alkrenawis saved their relative and 30 to 40 Israelis fleeing the Supernova music festival. And Hamid from Arara, whose wife was murdered by Hamas that day, risked his life and that of his infant son to warn Israeli soldiers of a Hamas ambush.
Just after the October attacks, an Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll found that a record 70 percent of Israeli Arabs identified with Israel, up from 48 percent in June. And an IDI poll released on March 14 found significant increases in Israeli Arab faith in Israel’s institutions, including the army, between June and December 2023.
The high levels of connection to Israel are even more dramatic considering it was Israeli Arabs’ bloodiest year ever. According to a non-governmental organization focused on Israel’s Arab communities, 244 Israeli Arabs were killed in 2023. The deaths decreased sharply after the shock of October 7, but they did not disappear. While most of the killings were crime-related — they were not related to any acts of bias or hate — the violence has impacted innocent civilians. In separate incidents in 2022, stray bullets claimed the lives of two children on playgrounds.
A June 2023 survey found that 62 percent of Israeli Arab respondents were concerned for their personal security, but only 41 percent trusted the government’s ability to deal with the violence. Several factors contributed to the intolerable violence, including the preponderance of illegal weapons in Israel; the rise of Arab mafias following the decline of Jewish ones; financial challenges that have driven Israeli Arabs to rely on loan sharks; family honor murders; and Iran funneling weapons to Israeli Arabs to sow civil strife.
But while Israeli Arabs were reeling, they were also enjoying some incredible highs. Soccer-crazy Israel qualified for its first-ever Under-20 World Cup, eventually securing third place, a huge win for Israeli soccer. Israeli Arab Anan Khalaili scored the game-winning goal to send Israel to the quarterfinals, and he and Israeli Bedouin Hamza Shibli combined for two of Israel’s three goals to defeat powerhouse Brazil en route to the semis. The team served as a model for what can be achieved when Israel’s Arabs and Jews fight together instead of against each other.
The soccer success came not long after Israeli Arabs enjoyed unprecedented political success. From mid-2021 until the end of 2022, Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am party was part of the ruling coalition. Abbas’ pragmatic approach broke taboos among Israeli politicians that once blocked cooperating with Arab parties. He is committed to working within the Israeli political system to help his constituents, has rejected the canard of Israel practicing apartheid, and said that Hamas’ “massacre is against everything we believe in.”
But progress with Mansour Abbas has been mixed. Amid elevated Palestinian violence, Abbas’ inclusion in the Lapid-Bennett government became a vulnerability that helped lead to Netanyahu’s return. And a recent expose revealed that Ra’am promoted fundraising for a Hamas-tied charity, though Ra’am claimed it was unaware of the connection.
Jewish-Arab unity in Israel is a long and winding road. Much progress has been made, but much work remains.
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.
The post Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.
The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment program – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”
‘I’LL BE LEADING THE PACK’
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harboring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal temporarily curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
The post Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
The post Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
The post Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login