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Some nice food, some nice architecture, I'm sure there are some nice people. I would love to see the pyramids, but there's no way I'd ever visit the Middle East, not even Turkey.

Great historical landmarks..rich history..
But as a female I wouldn't take one step into any mid eastern country.

Oil?

There are certain people here in the US who promulgate the ideas that all conflicts between nations or ethnic groups are caused by misunderstandings; that a utopia of multiculturalism is possible and quite achievable; and that if everyone simply sits down together in a spirit of Love and Tolerance and has a Dialogue over their differences, they can live together peacefully in Harmony and Diversity.

The Middle East is a wonderful demonstration that the above ideas are a load of crap.

There are certain people ... and certain groups of people (and I'm not just talking about in the Middle East) ... that cannot coexist peacefully. The people in the Middle East know this, because of centuries of direct, bad experiences at close range with their hostile neighbors. Who's to blame isn't even important (although there's plenty of blame to go around in all directions). If group X and group Y interact, there will be trouble, period; and it's stupid to think otherwise, just as it's stupid to think that on the thousandth attempt at jumping out of a window while flapping ones arms a person might succeed in flying like a bird.

If the Middle East was studied in US schools, presented on our MSM more rationally, etc as a lesson to demonstrate that point, our US politics might be considerably saner. I don't know if that's "something positive," but there it is.

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It's not too far to the west or east, it's right in the middle. Goldilocks would like it.

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It's sunny :)