The Abu Dhabi conference was surely a significant indicator of an increasingly positive view on engagement with Jewry on the part of religious and political authorities in the region.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong with a vengeance on the night of September 17, when four Israeli Air Force F-16s launched a successfully destructive raid on a warehouse in Latakia where sensitive military items destined for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon were apparently stored.
Turkey, Iran and Russia share three things in common: all are hostile to the United States, all are ruled by fiercely authoritarian leaders, and all are eager to expand their political, military, and economic influence in the Middle East. When they praise American policy, we should be concerned.
This Shabbat, I will join some 200 Jews from Egypt, now living in Europe, Israel and the United States, to pray in the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, their childhood house of worship, in Alexandria.