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dragonlich,
I don't know how you can assert that those nations want to become more powerful.
Their control over vast oil resources makes them quite powerful, in my estimation. If they wanted to get crazy, they certainly could. No, I think relations between many Muslim governments and Western governments is quite friendly.
I think we need to separate the population from the government when discussing this. The US (along with other Western powers) supports despotic regimes in return for access to oil. I think the internal conflict between the populations and their governments (families that were friendly to Western demands) is more to blame than anything else.
Israel might be a political rallying point now, but I don't see fundamental strife between Jews and Muslims. Over the centuries they have gotten along and the Muslims provided sanctuary to persecuted Jews around the globe. If anything, problems have been between Jews/Christians and Muslims/Christians, not Jews/Muslims--despite what Christians claim about centuries of conflict they pull out of their readings of the "old testament."
Also, it might be beneficial to not lump the entire Middle East populations together. They have different motivations and different relations with the West.
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