Do people whose native languages are read right-to-left experience mathematical statements differently? When I see the equation
$$A = B$$
the first idea to occur to me is that $A$ can be transformed into $B$. Although of course
$$B = A$$
has the same content, to me it connotes rather that $B$ can be transformed into $A$. I imagine that this is because English is my native language and I read left-to-right.
Native speakers of Arabic or Hebrew, do you find that the opposite is true for you? Do you find that you experience written mathematics differently at all?
 A: Another point: Sometimes when you write $A=B$, it does have a different content from writing $B=A$. This is not emphasized in algebra classes, AFAIK.
For instance,
$$(x+1)(x-1)=x^2-1$$
is "expanding", and
$$x^2-1 = (x+1)(x-1)$$
is "factoring". However, they're the same equation. (Or they're isomorphic. Or something like that.)
A: In the end, I think it's all isomorphic.
An example where the right-to-left reading is more natural than left-to-right is with the function notation $fg(x)$, where $g$ is applied first, despite being written after $f$. But we Westerners got used to that, right? 8-)
BTW, 2000 years ago, Chinese mathematicians did Gaussian Elimination, but they wrote the equations in columns, not rows (because Chinese is read top-to-bottom).
A: This may be of interest to you, maybe not so much for written language differences rather than more fundamental "thinking" differences that probably transcend language, but maybe not entirely transcending language. I've seen it first hand, sometimes in physics, multiplication of operators in group actions, and composition of functions, is sometimes thought in a way that gives expressions reversed compared to the way that more "traditional mathematics" would do it. Maybe someone can post an example, it's been a long time since I've seen those very strange physics notations so I can't give a concrete example off the top of my head, I just know they exist. =)
A: My native language is English, but I have taught many international
students from countries that read right to left. My observation is
that in very simple examples such as your $A = B$, it makes no
difference at all, roughly for the reasons mentioned in Comments.
However for long displayed equations, it does seem to me that
these international students are more likely to look at the end
first. Sometimes this gives them valuable orientation as to
motivation. I often suggest that all students browse through
the whole equation to get an idea what is going on before
plunging into the details of justifying each equal sign,
inequality, or implication (from left to right).
On a related matter, many students in north Asia are taught
to deal with the denominator of a fraction before the numerator.
This has more to do with training and habits than with language
differences. However, there sometimes seems to be a real
advantage to looking at the denominator first. One example
of this is in probability problems with combinatorial
solutions: if both numerator and denominator count ordered
arrangements, this is often more quickly seen by looking
at the denominator first. Also, looking at denominators
first is sometimes an advantage in something as simple as
adding fractions that need a common denominator.
This is indeed more a psychology question than a mathematical
one, but there may be important implications for math
education. The relatively strong advantage of looking at
denominators first, may give added credence to my claim
that there is a (somewhat weaker) advantage in looking
at the end of an equation first.
For everyone, I think the lesson is to 'size up' a math
problem from several 'angles' before plunging in.
