I have often had recourse in these threads to try to defend the Jewish State against calumnies. But the true and overwhelming suffering in the Middle East has certainly been Arabs and Muslims at the hands of pretty much everyone, especially their own nation states.
I knew some Arabs in school and my overall impression was that no people were so desirous of a better world for themselves, and so aware of the ironies of their situation, no people had so much hope for Democracy, and such awareness of the cracks in the process that would undermine it, in a word: The hypocrisy of those who held simple solutions to difficult problems.
Earlier today National Public Radio interviewed a young man in Ghouta, near Damascus,Syria. The gist of his comments was that he expected he could get killed at any time, and that he and the people in Ghouta had no faith in any of the actors, Syria included, rebels included, Russia included, United Nations included. I left out the U.S. because it has ceded Damascus theater of ops to the Russians and is currently enmeshed with the Turks and Kurds in Northern Syria, ANOTHER big success story.