For some reason when the West discusses the Middle East all conflicts are seen as linked together so that the resolution of one will ease the prospects for reconciliation for another.  Conversely, one  conflict that remains unresolved inhibits the solution of another.  This thinking gave birth to the 1990s idea of "Comprehensive Peace."  That is an all-encompassing peace that satisfies all parties. 

Of course, each Middle Eastern state or actor has a different set of interests so the theory of a comprehensive peace means that specific people or governments will be representing the "greater interest."  This is problematic because what is good for the Syrians is not necessarily good for the Palestinians, and the Iranians share a different worldview from Iraq, and so on.

It used to be that if you asked a Westerner about their thoughts on the Middle East conflict, they'd automatically know that you were referring to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In September 2007, the Boston Globe wrote an interesting headline: "The Other Mideast Conflict."  What was curious about the headline is that the article discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Annapolis summit.  Therefore, the article was assuming that the primary Mideast conflict was the war in Iraq.

People reading this blog tend to have more education than the average person on the street.  Yet, the man on the street scores abysmally on world - indeed, national - geography.  I myself have friends who are not well-read by any means in middle east conflicts.  I remember showing one friend a map of the Middle East and pointing to Israel.

"That's it?" he replied. "I figured it must be as large as Saudi Arabia given the time spent on it in the nightly news."

The 2006 National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy surveyed geographic knowledge of 18- to 24-year-olds across the United States.  It showed that while U.S. geographic knowledge is poor, 37% could identify Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  26% could identify Iran but only 25% could find Israel.

Apparently, wars teach Americans geography.  No doubt few American citizens could find Vietnam on the map today but imagine how few could find it without a war fought close to 40 years ago?

Martin Kramer writes, "The last time I counted papers at the Middle East Studies Association annual conference, about two years ago, there were 85 papers on Palestine-Israel, 30 on Iraq, 27 on Iran, and only 4 on Saudi Arabia. Here, too, the skewing is conflict-driven—that is, the judgment that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians should command American attention."

MESA puts out one of the most influential Middle East journals, the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has a strong hand in determining Middle Eastern studies' curriculum in the U.S.  According to what is taught in American classrooms, the Middle East conflict would seem to be defined as that between Palestinians and Israelis and all other conflicts are secondary but linked to the first.

Jimmy Carter clearly sees things the same way.  He was recently asked: "Is the Israel-Palestine conflict still the key to peace in the whole region? Is the linkage policy right?" Carter's answer: "I don't think it's about a linkage policy, but a linkage fact.... Without doubt, the path to peace in the Middle East goes through Jerusalem." Likewise, Zbigniew Brzezinski: "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the single most combustible and galvanizing issue in the Arab world."

Unlike the question of the Kurds, which most people have no clue how to resolve, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains the widest studied issue with a Western, self-imposed obligation to solve it.  As Thomas Friedman wrote in his book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, Israel exists in the Western mind as a fantasy they've read about for their entire lives. All have opinions on how it should ideally behave because whether or not one has visited the place, it represents what heaven on earth should be.

Middle East expert, historian, and author, Bernard Lewis has frequently put it simply: "If it's Jews it's news."

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