MIDDLE EAST - Nearly all Arab states are finding it difficult to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. The gap between them and the modern world is widening, to the extent that there is doubt it can be bridged without a deep social and cultural revolution. There is less openness, pluralism and tolerance, and more violence and autocracy. Blaming Arab failures on a history of colonialism is a pathetic excuse, when we compare the Arabs to the achievements of post-colonial India in establishing democratic rule and removing hundreds of millions of people from desperate poverty, despite a heritage of the caste system. The failure is due to a society that clings to its tribal, patriarchal structures, whose values are not pluralistic. This political culture explains, to a large extent, the Arab states' few scientific achievements, the prevalence of terrorism among themselves, the failure of many Arab migrants to Europe to integrate into society, the Palestinians' rejection of compromise and delusion about the destruction of Israel, and the culture of violence, crime, and tribalism that is rife in Arab society in Israel.

MIDDLE EAST - US lawmakers castigated Abbas for terror payments during ‘tense’ Ramallah meeting. He said families would be penniless without ‘welfare’ money; they asked if PA also pays cancer victims; opposed his call for Israel-Arab deals to wait ’til Palestinian issue solved. A visiting congressional delegation expressed their disapproval over payments to terrorists and their families during a meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week, several members of Congress told The Times of Israel Tuesday. One congressperson described last week’s closed-door meeting with 10 visiting members of Congress as “tense at times, as it was clear that we didn’t see eye to eye on a number of issues.” The source spoke on condition of anonymity. Ramallah’s policy of paying stipends to Palestinians jailed for security offenses and the families of deceased attackers has long been a point of contention with Washington. While Israel argues that the payments encourage terror activity, Abbas has vowed to maintain the stipends, which the Palestinians view as a form of welfare and a national responsibility.

ISRAEL - In Israel, Jews and Arabs sit together in the waiting room of Hadassah Hospital waiting to receive the same care. I know, I have worked there. Jewish and Arab students doing top-flight research at Hebrew University and the Technion present their work side by side at major scientific conferences. I know, I have been there. Jews and Arabs start restaurants and other businesses together. I have seen it. Any claims of apartheid are fallacious. Given what I know, I was dismayed to learn of the Yale College Council (YCC) vote to condemn Israel and equate her with apartheid South Africa. The invalidity of this analogy is evident to any thinking student of history. I am frankly disappointed that the Yale administration has been embarrassingly silent in response to statements like that of the YCC. But I am doubly disappointed that Yale students, scholars-in-training, would so readily swallow the false claims underlying the YCC action.

MIDDLE EAST - As this year’s summer camp session begins, children around the world find themselves playing games, doing arts and crafts, participating in sporting matches, and swimming in the pool. For children in the Gaza Strip, however, summer camp looks very different. Rather than playing soccer or outdoor camping, some 50,000 children in Gaza participate in camps run by armed groups like the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Saraya al-Quds, which aim to instill radical Islamic values and provide military training to children. Promotional videos and advertisements entice young children into registering for such camps, culminating in the conscription of children in Hamas’ armed forces. On June 26, 2021, the Vanguards of Liberation camp was officially launched with a press conference given by camp spokesman Abu Bilal, who designated this year’s camps as the “Sword of Jerusalem.” The intention is for these camps to exemplify the Palestinian peoples’ achievements during the May 2021 war.

EUROPE - The EU has finally released its report on the Palestinian Authority's school curriculum, which documents the appalling material UK-funded teachers are delivering to Palestinian children. The report provides extensive examples of incitement to violence, anti-Semitism, denial of Israel's existence, and the near complete absence of any message about peaceful coexistence. Britain's government has rightly taken a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism, yet our continued support for Palestinian teachers who teach this material undermines our commitment to combating anti-Jewish racism [By UK Member of Parliament, Stephen Crabb].

ISRAEL - During the period of Israel's full control of the West Bank (1967-1992), the Arab population expanded by 79%, from 586,000 to 1,050,000, due to the unprecedented Israeli development of health, medical, transportation, education and employment infrastructure, following stagnation during the Jordanian occupation of the area (1948-1967). Arab infant mortality was drastically reduced, while life expectancy surged. The Arab population in the West Bank has also undergone massive urbanization (from 75% rural in 1967 to 77% urban in 2021). Israel, with a birthrate of 3.09 per woman (compared with 3.02 among West Bank Arab women), leads the 34 OECD countries in fertility. This is due to the Israeli state of mind, which is heavy on optimism, faith, patriotism, attachment to roots, collective responsibility, and the centrality of children. It is common for secular, highly-educated, working Israeli Jewish women to have three or four children, a trend unheard of elsewhere in the West. Israel's robust demography refutes the assertion that its Jewish majority is threatened by Arab demographic growth.

LEBANON - As a hybrid actor, Hezbollah has risen to become the most influential political organization in Lebanon. It enjoys legitimacy within the Lebanese state, but is able to operate without the accountability required of a state institution and without full responsibility to the Lebanese people. Holding power without responsibility is ideal for Hezbollah. In theory, the group has the military capability to take power in Lebanon by force, but it is not in its interest to do so. Western governments’ attempts to reverse Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon by focusing on curbing the activities of the group itself – such as through sanctions – are not sufficient. For as long as the current political system in Lebanon exists, it will not be possible to loosen Hezbollah’s hold over the Lebanese state.

ISRAEL - On Tisha B’Av, Bennett speaks of ‘freedom of worship’ for Jews on Temple Mount. Statement appears to be at odds with status quo at the site, under which Jews are allowed to visit but not pray; spokesman for police minister claims there is ‘no change in policy’ Prime Minister Naftali Bennett asserted on Sunday that both Jews and Muslims have “freedom of worship” on the Temple Mount, potentially hinting at a change in policy at the most contentious site in Israel. The statement, issued in English and Hebrew, came a day after Channel 12 news reported that groups of observant Jews have been ascending to the Temple Mount in recent months and quietly praying without interruption by police. The TV report called the development “a revolution, unfolding gradually, under the radar.”

JORDAN - King Abdullah will be visiting President Joe Biden at the White House on July 19. By granting the Jordanian monarch the honor of being the first Arab leader to visit the new president, the US administration is putting wind in Jordan’s sails as it seeks to fend off Saudi claims regarding custodianship of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. From the point of view of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other interested Muslim parties, Jerusalem is the crown jewel in what amounts to a battle for the soul of Islam.

USA - Anyone concerned about the future of American Jewish life pays attention when a new Pew Research Center report is released. While not always painting a rosy picture, the data has been helpful in stimulating discourse that focuses on Jewish relevance, inclusion, and new modes of involvement. However, the newest Pew Report offers some particularly worrisome data: “half of Orthodox Jews in the US say they have ‘not much’ (23%) or ‘nothing at all’ (26%) in common with Jews in the Reform movement,” while six-in-ten Reform Jews say they have not much (39%) or nothing at all (21%) in common with the Orthodox. This data, rarely highlighted in the glut of articles that came out after the report’s release, reveals an existential crisis facing the Jewish people: We are coming apart at the seams. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks put it: “We are united by a covenant of shared memory, of shared identity, of shared fate – even if we don’t share the exact same faith.” If we don’t recapture that spirit, if we don’t act now to come together, we may be facing an unraveling of the strong, proud history of the Jewish people.

ISRAEL - Europe must remember that Israel is under constant threat from Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. Lapid called Iran "the Number 1 exporter of terrorism in the world, which never gave up on its ambition to attain a nuclear weapon and never hid who its target is for that weapon: Us. Israel." Iran backs Hizbullah in Lebanon to the north and Hamas in Gaza to the south, he said. Israel would like "to broaden the circle of peace" to include the Palestinians, Lapid said. "Unfortunately, there is no possibility at the moment… If there will be a Palestinian state, it needs to be a peace-seeking democracy… You cannot ask us to build with our own hands another threat to our lives."

MIDDLE EAST - Palestinian movement Fatah called for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be expelled from the Arab League today as the Gulf state officially opened an embassy in Israel. Central committee spokesman Abbas Zaki branded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed “a traitor” to the Palestinian cause for having normalised relations with Israel. “If the UAE’s doors are opened to naturalise the zionists, you will perish,” he said. “The people of the Emirates are free and great and we do not attribute this betrayal to them, because the only traitor is Mohammed bin Zayed,” Mr Zaki added. The opening ceremony at the new embassy in Tel Aviv was hosted by UAE ambassador to Israel Mohammad al-Khaja and attended by newly appointed Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid opened a new embassy in Abu Dhabi to represent his country in the UAE capital.

ISRAEL - Ron Prosor's new book, Undiplomatically Speaking (in Hebrew; English in 2022), reflects [on the characteristics of] one of Israel's outstanding diplomats: initiative, offense, standing up for Israel's national honor, and battling for the justness of Israel's path on all fronts. He explains: "A good diplomat is one who takes the initiative and thinks outside the box. Diplomatic war is being waged against Israel that no other country in the world is subject to. Every Israeli diplomatic mission is a frontline command center." "Israel is held up to a… special standard… one that is so high it can't be met. If rockets are fired at Israel, they say Israel has the right to defend itself. But then they don't really allow you to strike at the terrorists. You do everything with one hand tied behind your back, with a threat hovering overhead that your soldiers and officers will be arrested if they leave the country… I can give you a long list of things that are just unbelievable, that only Israel is subject to."

ISRAEL - Why did Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, unlike any other conflict in the world, become a green light to intimidate and attack a minority community? Why are Jews and Jewish communities uniquely ascribed responsibility for actions in a decades-long, geo-political dispute thousands of miles away? In the dangerously simplistic binary world view which has gripped progressive circles, Jews are unjustifiably viewed as white and privileged, while Israelis are automatically seen as wicked oppressors, thanks to manufactured and frankly anti-Semitic stereotypes. Yet, too often, voicing concerns over anti-Semitism is treated as an affront, something of a threat to other minority groups. To express sympathy for Jews facing intimidation and attack is deemed offensive. Those concerned with equality and social justice should proudly demonstrate solidarity with any minority under threat, instead of singling out one sole minority undeserving of solidarity and protection.

MIDDLE EAST - The summer camps run by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are terrorist training camps for children to learn to become child warriors. A PIJ political leader explained that the children were being trained in how "to remove the alien corn [ie Israel] that was planted by the West and took over Palestine." What they are really doing is teaching kids to kill and die. Pictures from PIJ camps show children learning to field-strip and clean their Kalashnikov rifles, running obstacle courses, training under simulated battle conditions of fire and smoke, and learning how to clear rooms like SWAT teams. Those signing petitions expressing solidarity with "Palestine" should contemplate the disparity of sending their own children off to camp to sing around the campfire and play "Capture the Flag," while the children of Gaza sing songs of martyrdom and play "Butcher the Jews."