While Moderate Muslims Are Repenting, the West Is Capitulating to the Radicals

It was paradoxical that under President Trump, who was supposed to be belligerent and irreconcilable, a new avenue of understanding opened up with the Arab world, especially the Gulf States and Egypt. This relationship had gone awry under President Obama, who had started by prostrating himself before the Saudi King and speaking of accommodation and engagement with the Islamic world at Cairo University, but ended up supporting the Muslim Brother government there and condemning the Sisi coup that overturned it. The pragmatic move of President Trump, which scuttled the radical Muslim takeover of many Arab countries in the wake of the abortive "Arab Spring" of the 2010s, also helped open the road to a new era of reconciliation between Israel and the Gulf States, to which were gradually added Morocco, Sudan, and Chad, with more following. This move has launched a new, unprecedented wave of repenting Arab countries besides Egypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel, discovering that peace and cooperation were more fruitful and promising than vain hatred and repeated battles that resulted only in destruction, death, and loss. (About the Author) Raphael Israeli has taught Islamic, Chinese, and Middle Eastern history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A graduate of Hebrew University in history and Arabic literature, he earned a Ph.D. in Chinese and Islamic history from the University of California, Berkeley. Now retired, he has been a Fellow of the Harry Truman Research Institute at Hebrew University and the Jerusalem Center since the 1970s. He is the author of over 80 books and 100 articles.