At the end of last year, the Knesset authorized a fifteen-billion-shekel plan to better the circumstances and further the integration of Israel’s Arab population over the next five years. Sanguine about the plan’s prospects, Meir Elran and Eran Yashiv outline its most significant elements and explain its importance:

Special emphasis is being placed on teacher training and professional development, learning achievements, and expanded informal education. . . . Transformation in allocation mechanisms, [however], is perhaps the most significant measure in the new program, and connotes a clear public assertion by the Israeli government that it acknowledges the ongoing discrimination in allocations to the Arab population and Arab communities. The [most] prominent objective of the program is that allocations to minorities match those to the Jewish majority.

These two components, acknowledgment and change, bespeak a fundamental political change that must be tested over time. The fact that the program was adopted by the current right-wing Israeli government, in the midst of yet another time of rising tension between the Jewish and Arab populations, reflects awareness that improving the conditions of the Arab population is in the economic and social interest of both the minority and the majority.

On Tuesday, representatives of Hamas met with their counterparts from Fatah—the faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) once led by Yasir Arafat that now governs parts of the West Bank—in Beijing to discuss possible reconciliation. While it is unlikely that these talks will yield any more progress than the many previous rounds, they constitute a significant step in China’s increasing attempts to involve itself in the Middle East on the side of Israel’s enemies.

By contrast, writes Tuvia Gering, Taiwan has been quick and consistent in its condemnations of Hamas and Iran and its expressions of sympathy with Israel:

Support from Taipei goes beyond words. Taiwan’s appointee in Tel Aviv and de-facto ambassador, Abby Lee, has been busy aiding hostage families, adopting the most affected kibbutzim in southern Israel, and volunteering with farmers. Taiwan recently pledged more than half a million dollars to Israel for critical initiatives, including medical and communications supplies for local municipalities. This follows earlier aid from Taiwan to an organization helping Israeli soldiers and families immediately after the October 7 attack.

The reasons why are not hard to fathom:

In many ways, Taiwan sees a reflection of itself in Israel—two vibrant democracies facing threats from hostile neighbors. Both nations wield substantial economic and technological prowess, and both heavily depend on U.S. military exports and diplomacy. Taipei also sees Israel as a “role model” for what Taiwan should aspire to be, citing its unwavering determination and capabilities to defend itself.

On a deeper level, Taiwanese leaders seem to view Israel’s war with Hamas and Iran as an extension of a greater struggle between democracy and autocracy.

Gering urges Israel to reciprocate these expressions of friendship and to take into account that “China has been going above and beyond to demonize the Jewish state in international forums.” Above all, he writes, Jerusalem should “take a firmer stance against China’s support for Hamas and Iran-backed terrorism, exposing the hypocrisy and repression that underpin its vision for a new global order.”