The Arab-Israeli dispute provokes unique emotional passion in Western debate

Evidence

European and American attitudes to the dispute are greatly complicated by the fact that one party consists of Jews and the other of Arabs. Both peoples arouse powerful and irrational responses. This can be felt in the note of emotion, even of passion, that affects the public discussion of the problem—a passion that has few parallels in debates on other disputes between foreign nations. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1223

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the moral-panic literature on how identity-based conflicts short-circuit dispassionate analysis.