What are the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East?

Answer 1

These are both distinct terms.

JEW: Judaism is typically considered to be an ethno-religious group. It has certain elements that are common to all ethnicities, such as a common language, a common ancestry, particular customs of association, and a view of common historic nation-hood. It also has certain elements that other religions share such as a belief in divine beings and a God, specific divine mandates, houses of worship, and holy scriptures. (Other ethno-religious groups include the Druze and Yazidi.) The Jewish people claim descendence from the Ancient Israelite Tribes and consider themselves the direct inheritors of the traditions, beliefs, and Divine Law present in the Old Testament.

Many people use the term "Jew in the Middle East" euphemistically to refer to "Israelis", which is at best inaccurate and at worst prejudicial. Israelis are a national group, which is to say that they are a group of people who all have a certain citizenship. This is similar to the term "American" since a person is defined as being American by having a certain citizenship, not by race, religion, ideology, political aspirations, or creed. The term Israeli is just that. There are Jewish Israelis from as varied places as India, Ethiopia, Russia, Morocco, and the United States (among nearly 50 other nations) who form the majority of the country's population. Arab Israelis are both Christian and Muslim are a sizable minority. Additionally, there are guest-workers and refugees in Israel from Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

ARAB: Arabs are people of the Middle East that are united by a common language: Arabic, and a common history: the Islamic Caliphates. Arabs are not necessarily of the same ethnic stock and in many cases are of mixed heritage due to intermarriage between the Arabs coming up from the Arabian Peninsula and indigenous Semites and Berbers. Not all Arabs are Muslim, but all Arabs have (in their history) spent time under an Islamic government.