…There is a reality we have to live with here and that is the nature of Arab society, Arab culture, but not Arab civilization because I don’t think they have one. I’ve passed through a third of the Arab states and nowhere was there a city in a class with New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, San Francisco, Toronto, Prague, Florence. They don’t have cities, as that word is experienced in the West.

They are a culture if not a civilization which is related to the word for city, for in cities civilization reaches its pinnacle. In cities one finds business, universities, hospitals, research institutes, concert halls, museums.

The Arabs don’t have cities like this. And dealing with them is enough to try one’s soul.

How many times have we seen the same photographs and videos of young Arab males in the middle of street in jeans, running shoes, their heads wrapped in keffiyas throwing rocks at Jews?

How many times, oh Lord, how many times?