A few weeks ago, I was saddened when I saw some Californian politicians (both Democratic and Republican) go to pro-Israel rallies. Just because you don't support Israel, doesn't mean you support the terrorist groups, dislike Jews or that you're a Nazi.
I didn't use the term "Anti-Semitic" on purpose because it is not used accurately. The languages of Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and the language(s) of India are considered Semitic. So I decided to shed some light on the subject.
"In the Western world, the Middle East is generally thought of as a predominantly Islamic Arabic community defined by frequent war. However the area encompasses many distinct cultural and ethnic groups, including the Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, Berbers, Chaldeans, Druze, Greeks, Jews, Kurds, Maronites, Persians and Turks." - Wikipedia
History has an interesting way of telling its stories of the past; the feuds of today stem from the fact that they have a starting point in history.
The Middle East is particularly unique in the construction of its beginnings. Both secular history and the Judeo-Christian traditions focus on similar points (MiddleEast.org).
The conflicts in the Middle East between Jewish Israel and the surrounding Islamic nations have their tale to tell, these different quarrels don't have a starting point in the 20th century; it goes back many thousands of years ago. Now if we are going to talk about the Middle East the concept of religion has to be mentioned. "Why?" You might ask, think of it like this:
Say the discussion about the Middle East is like having a Thanksgiving dinner; religion is the turkey of the meal.
With the recent fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, one must examine the history between the two groups.
Thousands of years ago they (the Lebanese people) were called the Canaanites.
The story goes (according to secular history and Judeo-Christian tradition) that the Jews, after having spent 430 years of slavery in Egypt, left and went to go to their promised land.
Upon arrival they encountered this group of people, the Canaanites. The ancient Israelites fought them many times.
One famous telling is the story of the fall of Jericho. The Israelites and the Canaanites in the past had a very unusual love-hate relationship.
Sometimes they actually liked each other, the Israelites admired the Canaanites for their written language and they were often attracted to their pagan gods.
The Canaanites also built King David's palace and King Solomon's famous temple.
Today, the two peoples' descendents coincidentally still have a love-hate relationship.
The Christian part of Lebanon is close to Israel, but the Islamic part isn't really too fond of Israel.
Much of this sentiment is felt, as we all know throughout the rest of the Islamic/Christian Middle East.
One reason for this is because of the 1982 Palestinian massacre, where the Israeli army killed many Palestinian refugees while trying to root out some terrorists.
In the recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel is criticized because it didn't just launch attacks into south Lebanon killing terrorists Muslims but also innocent Christians and innocent Muslims (Meed.com).
When the fighting stopped both Christians and Muslims became united within Lebanon.
This shows, as history has shown, the resiliency, the strength and the courage of the people of this historically troubled area with what many feel is an uncertain future (MiddleEast.org).
...see also Wikipedia for a list of historical conflicts in the area...
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