party_pants said:

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

I think that does, indirectly, have to do with oil.

If the US, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the West, doesn’t express a concern about conflict between Israel and Arabs/Iranians, and perhaps try to keep Israel on the leash, then Arab countries not directly involved (like Gulf states, who control a lot of oil) might decide to demonstrate the price of disinterest.

If we are a fair nation we should acknowledge the damage done to the Middle East over the 19th – 21st centuries and perhaps this is why terrorists exist.
We don’t though its all they are the baddies and we just twiddled our thumbs doing nothing wrong.
Sure the Middle East has fanatics but that’s religion for you
A United Middle East would be a powerful economic block and we couldn’t have that either

The whole region is a mess, and many of the countries and their borders are artificial, mostly drawn on maps by Europeans in years past without reference to the people on the ground. You’d expect them to be pissed at the west in general. But if the west leaves then China might step in to fill the void and start to rearrange things the way it suits them.

No easy solution that’s for sure