The Middle East; Racist!

"The second striking thing about Israel, arriving from the Arab world, is how much the two cultures have in common" (138). Israel and the rest of The Middle East have so much in common, but they refuse to get along. Many Middle Eastern countries won't even stoop to call Israel their proper name, instead naming it "the Zionist entity" or something else along those lines. Some even refuse to believe that Israel is its own country, instead saying that it is still under their control. Israel is not completely free from blame. They seem intolerant of their Middle Eastern neighbors, letting Horwitz go with out inspection because he was Jewish, but detaining his Palestinian friends for further interrogation. This prejudice has almost no foundation. These countries are almost identical; Arabic and Hebrew are very similar, many people from Israel are from immigrants from the Muslim world, and their recent history is almost identical. Why do these countries hate each other then? Their hatred seems to me to stem from two ideas; fear and anger. The Israelis seem too different to the Muslims, and vice versa, and therefore they are scared of one another. The most apparent difference between Israel and the Arab world is their religion. Obviously, people from Israel are Jewish, and people from Arab countries are Muslim. They don't know about each others religion, and it is human nature to fear the unknown. Also, people who live is Israel are mostly immigrants from other countries. There must be some resentment from the Arab countries that they are losing people to this pagan nation. There is also the fact that Israel created their own country, how dare they do that! The Middle East must think that Israel is very egotistical; people in Israel think that they are special enough to have their own country! This hatred between Israel and the Muslim world reminds me of racism in the US between the whites and blacks. We hated each other simply because of the color of our skin, even though we spoke the same language, had almost the same history and saluted the same flag. Israel and the rest of the Arab world need to come to terms with each other and stop this blatant racism. *gr*