Arab and Iranian Muslims when speaking of Israel often discriminate between Jews whcih they say they have no problem with, and Zionists which they oppose.
When I looked at Mid East media years back I found an anti Jewish Iranian cite with an ugly cartoon animation that looked like some of the Nazi animations I saw.
They call Israel Zionists. Netanyahu represents religious conservative Israeli Zionists. Analogous to our Evangelical biblical creationists. It may have changed. Jewish academic clerics do not have to work, they are state supported, and they do not have to do military service.
Zionism, Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz Yisraʾel, “the Land of Israel”). Though Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, it is in many ways a continuation of the ancient attachment of the Jews and of the Jewish religion to the historical region of Palestine, where one of the hills of ancient Jerusalem was called Zion.
There are plosives to Israel. They developed a reasonable degree of democracy with the dame kind of individual rights we have. A free press.
In my amateur analyst opinion Israel was seen as a political threat to the Arab religious monarchies. After debate Israel was founded as a secular state. There is religious freedom in Israel.
I looked at the Saudi constitution. There is freedom, as long as it does not conflict with the Koran. Iran is a religious dictatorship, the ayatollah can over ride anything.
Israel is a glaring threat to he Muslim religious autocrats.
Israel led the US on gay rights. This too may have changed, there has been no civil-secular marriage in Israel. Marriage is lft up to individual religions. A gay couple can get married abroad and it will be recognized. Or so how I remember it.
Iran stokes the fire because it rallies Muslims to its side. Lebanon was a vacaytion spot and stanble is now an armed camp. There was a news report where there was a street with Muslims of different sides living on opposite sides of the street. Something set them off and they were in street fighting.
You can look at the wiki site on the Lebanon Civil War. Multiple factions on both sides having nothing to do with Israel.
When Arafat left college it was like he went to a job fair and chose terrorism as a career. He went to Jordan causing trouble, then went to Pallestine.
I don't think peace in the region is possible. Even without Israel the region is riddled with religious fanatics. Iran Iraq war. Yemen. Sudan.
When you look at a wall map of the region what struck me was all this conflict is occuring in small area.
