The received wisdom, via United Nations briefings and press accounts in Europe and America, holds that as a two-year war is winding down Israel is isolated, besieged, and globally despised. Then there are the numerous megadeals the Jewish state signs, including this week, with several countries. So how hated can a country be if Arab and European countries, as well as America, are so eager to trade with it?

“The country that we’re most closely aligned with has no resources, it is nine million people,” the Israel-obsessed podcaster, Tucker Carlson, said of the Jewish state this week at Doha. Never mind that the object of his affections is a country of 3.1 million people, and that only 360,000 of them are Qatari citizens. But no resources? Yesterday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed the largest gas-exporting deal in Israel’s history.  

The premier announced a 15-year agreement worth $34.7 billion, in which Egypt would purchase gas from the Leviathan field, located in Israel’s territorial waters in the Mediterranean. Cooperation between Israel, Egypt, and America’s Chevron will enrich the Arab country. Meanwhile, water management innovations benefit Israel’s neighbors. Jordan would parch without it. Israel’s desalination equipment quenches the arid Gulf and parts of Africa. 

Then there is Israel’s other resource, which was forced on it in decades of being surrounded by hostility. Last month Elbit Systems informed the Tel Aviv stock exchange of a $2.3 billion export of a “strategic solution for an international customer.” The recipient of the arms export, one of Israel’s largest ever, was undisclosed. This week a French outlet, Intelligence Online, disclosed that the missile battery technology was sold to the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE reportedly made the deal shortly after joining the Abraham Accords, President Trump’s signature peace achievement in his first term. Arab countries, including some that have no formal relations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, “expanded” military cooperation with Israel in the last two years of war, the Washington Post reported recently. At the same time those countries publicly railed on Israel’s conduct in Gaza. 

Qatar’s Al Jazeera systematically poisons the Arabic-speaking public with endless allegations of Israeli war atrocities. It is far from alone.7  Britain’s BBC and other Western press outlets pile on, doubling down on inflated UN reports of Israeli-induced suffering in Gaza and beyond. Such libel has led European governments, especially left-leaning ones, to partially or completely halt trade or impose arms embargoes on the Jewish state. 

Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised eyebrows in October when he announced a partial arms embargo on Israel. The ban lasted a few weeks and was soon after replaced with a massive arms purchase from the Jewish state. This week Berlin added a $3.5 billion acquisition of Israel’s Arrow-3 anti-missile system to a $58 billion package of weapons from Israel. Other Europeans, like Britain, denounce Israel while buying its goods, including arms.  

The Ukraine war awakened Europe to the fact that its decades-long vacation from history is about over, and that the Continent needs to spend more on defense. In June France blocked Israeli firms from participating in its air show. The Israelis instead displayed their prowess on world television screens, demolishing Iran’s air defenses and nuclear sites in a 12-day war for the history books. Where else would a continent go when it needs to quickly rearm?

One European publication that often takes the Jewish state to task, the Economist, writes this week in its year-end issue that in 2025 Israel was the third-best performing economy in a list of 36 countries. The Tel Aviv stock market is thriving. Remember last March’s Economist “Israel Alone” cover? The received wisdom was that the Jewish state is isolated, ostracized, and in despair. Innovation, resiliency, and grit are proving otherwise.