PARIS: Since his appointment on Jan. 23 as ambassador in charge of communication in Arabic for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Patrice Paoli has been the Arab voice of French diplomacy in the media and on social networks. He regularly posts messages and videos in Arabic on his official Twitter account, for example, and engages with users in discussions
3. Still Makhlouf from the mellah: Unlike the other normalization deals, the one with Morocco holds extra meaning for many in Israel, with a large and thriving community of Moroccan immigrants and descendants, many of whom still travel there regularly.
“As opposed to Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago, and in contrast to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, three Arab nations that normalized relations with Israel this year, Morocco and Israel have a profound and ancient Jewish connection, and the Moroccan Jewish community, though small, still thrives today,” writes Raphael Ahren in ToI.
“While Israeli tourists have begun discovering the Gulf only very recently, they have been flocking to Rabat, Marrakech, Casablanca, Tangiers and Fez via third countries for many years. Once the two countries establish diplomatic relations and open direct air-links, that number can be expected to increase dramatically,” he adds.