Above all, it is not decency or goodness of gentleness that impresses the Middle East, but strength.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Contrary to popular view, I've never been patronized in the Middle East. Men maybe treat women differently, but they do not treat them with disrespect. They don't hate women. It's a very different kind of mentality.
The idea that Arabia is best run by Arabs is no more palatable to Western leaders today than it was to Napoleon or Churchill.
Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East, but we have to apply our strength wisely.
A lot of the Koran does not speak very eloquently to a Westerner. Much of it is either legalistic or opaquely poetic.
The emotive power of hummus all over the Middle East cannot be overstated, being the focus of some serious tribal rivalries.
To achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East takes guts, not guns.
There are strengths in Islamic tradition. Islam actually, as a monotheistic religion, which defined man as a responsible agent by itself, created the idea of the individual in the Middle East and saved it from the communitarianism, the collectivism of the tribe.
There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.
Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.