The term “Middle East” refers generally to the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. There is no worldwide consensus on precisely which nations are part of the Middle East; definitions of the region’s borders vary to some extent. The central part of this general area was formerly called the Near East, so named by Western geographers and historians who tended to divide the Orient into three regions: Near East (the lands nearest Europe, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf); Middle East (the lands extending from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia); and Far East (the regions facing the Pacific Ocean).

Since approximately the era of World War II, a widely accepted definition of the term “Middle East” has included the following states and territories: Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine (now Israel), Jordan, Egypt, The Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Some definitions also include the three North African countries of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, which share important cultural and ideological commonalities with the Arab states. Moreover, given their centrality to political events of recent times, many people now speak of Afghanistan and Pakistan in connection with Middle Eastern affairs.

In this section of DiscoverTheNetworks, the category titled Israel's History and "Right to Exist" examines how Israel came into existence, and explains why it is (contrary to the claims of much of the Arab world and the Arab lobby) a nation every bit as legitimate as any other in the world.

The category titled Myths and Facts provides information that dispels popular misconceptions about a variety of topics related to Israel, its history, and its people.

The category titled Israel's "Occupation" and Settlements explains that both of these terms convey the false impression that Israel has pursued an aggressive, expansionist policy against its Arab neighbors. As Efraim Karsh writes in "What Occupation?": "No term has dominated the discourse of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict more than 'occupation.' For decades now, hardly a day has passed without some mention in the international media of Israel's supposedly illegitimate presence on Palestinian lands. This presence is invoked to explain the origins and persistence of the conflict between the parties, to show Israel's allegedly brutal and repressive nature, and to justify the worst anti-Israel terrorist atrocities. The occupation, in short, has become a catchphrase, and like many catchphrases it means different things to different people."

The category titled Palestinians and Palestine examines the origins and history of the people commonly called "Palestinians." In the article "Palestinians: Aggressors, Not Victims," David Meir-Levi writes: “[T]he biggest lie of all is the existence of a ‘Palestinian People.’ … The term 'Palestine' (Falastin in Arabic) was an ancient name for the general geographic region that is more or less today’s Israel. The name derives from the Philistines, who originated from the eastern Mediterranean, and invaded the region in the 11th and 12th centuries B.C. … There was never a nation of ‘Palestine,’ never a people known as the ‘Palestinians’ nor any notion of ‘historic Palestine.’"

The category titled Israel's Treatment of Palestinians and Arabs explains that, contrary to the claims of Palestinian activists and their supporters, Palestinians who reside in Israel enjoy more freedom, education, economic opportunity, and civil rights than do any comparable Arab populations anywhere in the Arab world.

The category titled Palestinian Refugees / "Right Of Return" examines the origins of the ongoing Palestinian refugee crisis, as well as the Arab call for permitting those refugees to settle permanently in Israel. In his article "The Big Arab Lie: The Political Abuse of the Refugee Issue," David Meir-Levi writes: "In 1947, the UN partition plan mandated the creation of ... the State of Israel for the Jews, and another state for the Arabs. The Arabs rejected their state, and launched a war against Israel. This is the primal cause of the Arab refugee problem. The Arab refugees were roughly 725,000 people who fled because of the war that the Arab states -- not the Palestinian Arabs -- started." Today the Arab lobby calls not only for the return of the relatively few remaining survivors who were among the 725,000 original refugees, but also for the admittance of more than 5 million of their descendants (most of whom have never lived in Israel). This would render the Jews a permanent minority in their own country, and would thus spell the end of Israel.

The category titled Foreign Aid to Palestinians discusses the extent of international aid that is sent each year to the government and to related relief agencies in the Palestinian territories. It also discusses the factors that have affected the flow of aid -- factors such as Palestinian terrorism and the 2006 elections that elevated Hamas to a position where it became the leading political force for the Palestinian people.

The category titled Palestinian Poverty demonstrates that the primary cause of the Palestinians' economic hardship is their own corrupt leadership and their own pursuit of terrorism as a way of life.

The category titled Palestinian/Arab Terrorism explores the terrorist activities of various Middle Eastern groups and movements. The perpetrators generally derive justification for their actions from Islam's sacred scriptures.

The category titled Separation Barrier examines the justifications for, and criticisms of, the anti-terrorism barrier that Israel is currently erecting in the West Bank, in an effort to stop the once-relentless barrage of Palestinian suicide bombings that were aimed at Israeli civilians. In those areas where the barrier already has been completed, it has dramatically reduced the number of such attacks.

The category titled Arab-Israeli Wars explores the origins and history of the ongoing conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. As David Horowitz explains in one article: "[T]he Arab League ... declared war on Israel on the day of its creation, and five Arab armies invaded [Israel] with the aim of destroying the infant Jewish state.... [T]he five Arab armies ... were repelled. Yet there was no peace. Even though their armies were beaten, the Arab states were determined to carry on their campaign of destruction, and to remain formally at war with the Israeli state.... In 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan attacked Israel for a second time and were again defeated.... [T]he Arab aggressors once again refused to make peace. Instead, they declared themselves still at war with Israel ... In 1973 ... the Arab armies again attacked Israel.... Israel again defeated the Arab forces." Notwithstanding these defeats, much of the Arab/Muslim world -- most notably such terrorist organizations as Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- remains formally at war with Israel and determined to destroy the Jewish State.

The category titled Six-Day War (1967) examines the causes of, and the continuing significance of, the 1967 Arab-Israeli clash. As David Horowitzwrites in one article: "It was in repelling these [Arab] aggressors that Israel came to control the West Bank and the Gaza strip, as well as the oil-rich Sinai desert. Israel had every right to annex these territories captured from the aggressors -- a time-honored ritual among nations, and in fact the precise way that Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan had come into existence themselves. But Israel did not do so. On the other hand, neither did it withdraw its armies or relinquish its control. The reason was that the Arab aggressors once again refused to make peace. Instead, they declared themselves still at war with Israel, a threat no Israeli government could afford to ignore."

The category titled Text and Meaning of U.N. Resolution 242 explores this vital document, which was drafted by the United Nations Security Council to guide the actions of both the Arabs and Israelis in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. The Resolution addressed such issues as the withdrawal of Israel's armed forces from newly occupied areas; the termination of all belligerency and all threats to national sovereignty in the region; and a just settlement of the refugee issue. Since 1967, Resolution 242 has been invoked as the centerpiece of negotiation efforts in virtually all Mideast peace intitiatives.

The category titled Israel's Withdrawal from Gaza and West Bankexamines primarily Israel's 2005 decision to dismantle all its settlements in Gaza and to relocate all Israelis who had been living in the region -- in hopes of fostering a peaceful coexistence with Palestinians. As the Jewish Virtual Library explained in August 2005: "If the Palestinians were sincere about their desire for peace in exchange for land, they would do everything possible to allow for a peaceful transition. Instead, terrorists continue to attack Israeli soldiers and Jews in Gaza, try to infiltrate Israel to carry out suicide attacks, and fire deadly rockets at communities inside Israel."

The category titled Mideast War 2006 examines the causes, events, and legacy of the 2006 conflict between Israel and its Hamas and Hezbollah adversaries, in Gaza and Lebanon respectively.

The category titled Operation Cast Lead (Israel-Gaza War, 2008-2009) explores not only the factors that led to war in December 2008, but also the events of that war and the manner in which hostilities ultimately ceased.

The category titled Proportionality in War addresses those critics of Israel who accuse the Jewish state of using an excessive amount of military force against its enemies in the region.

The category titled Continuous Arab Attacks on Israel examines how, even in putatively peaceful times, Arab attacks against Israeli civilians continue unabated while drawing virtually no attention from the mainstream media. In her December 13, 2007 article, "Israel: Rockets Hit Sderot, Inflame the Israeli Blogosphere," Maya Norton writes: "Despite the fact that [the Israeli town of] Sderot has been under nearly constant attack from qassam rockets for the past 7 years, its tenuous position in the buffer zone of Israel and Gaza is conspicuously ignored in mainstream news channels.... Since the barrage began in 2001, over 6,300 rockets have slammed Sderot."

The Peace Initiatives category contains resources pertaining to the many proposals that have been made in hopes of bringing the Arab-Israeli conflict to an end.

The category titled Spinning the Arab-Israeli Conflict examines how media outlets around the world, when reporting on the ongoing strife between Israel and its Arab neighbors, demonstrate a bias -- sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle -- against Israel.

The category titled World Opinion/Double Standards gives evidence that a majority of the world's political leaders, NGOs, and populations at large tend to judge Israel with unique severity, particularly when compared to their judgments of other nations and peoples, most notably the Palestinians. In his article "'World Opinion' is Worthless," Dennis Prager observes: "'World opinion' has little or nothing to say about the world's greatest evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil.... The moment one recognizes 'world opinion' for what it is -- a statement of moral cowardice, one is no longer enthralled by the term."

The category titled Arab/Muslim Hatred, Anti-Semitism, & Intolerance examines the phenomenon of virulent anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world. As Andrew Bostom writes in his article, "Apocalyptic Muslim Jew Hatred": "Examples of ... archetypal Jew hatred from the sacred Islamic texts ... include: Koranic verses labeling Jews as malevolent enemies of Islam (5:82) and disobedient slayers of their own prophets who suffered justifiable abasement (2:61), including, for some, transformation into apes and swine (5:60); or the more profoundly hateful narratives ... which maintain that the perfidious Jews fomented sectarian strife in early Islam by promoting heresies ... that threatened the unity of the Muslim community (umma), and the canonical hadith ... that the Jews caused Muhammad’s protracted, excruciating death  from poisoning.... Hizbollah and Hamas have constructed core ideologies based upon this Islamic theology of Jew hatred."

The category titled Indoctrinating Arab/Muslim Children to Hate Jews examines the manner in which such youngsters are educated in their homes, schools, and mosques. As David Bedein writes in his September 2006 article, "Erasing Israel": "the new school books ... in the Palestinian Authority school system ... represent a curriculum that prepares a new generation of Palestinians to destroy Israel.... [These] books mention Israel only as an enemy ...; present Zionism only as an enemy movement ...; teach that the only ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs, ignoring any ancient Jewish presence ...; teach that Palestinians must use war and violence -- especially martyrdom -- to accomplish their goals ...; [and] feature children with names such as Jihad (holy war) and Nidal (struggle)."

The category titled Arab/Muslim Media examines the major themes and messages -- most notably of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and Islamic supremacism -- communicated by the major media throughout the Arab/Muslim world.