The course helped me get a more precise picture of what I had heard in generalities for a long time. I had heard for a long time growing up that the Near East has been a place of perpetual conflict since the ancient times, but my conception of the modern geopolitical situation was fairly hazy. I don’t think I quite understood the influence of Iran on all of the states in the region and on their threat level toward Israel.
As others have mentioned, learning about the various deals that have been proposed by the United States and Israel over the years and how they have either been rejected or violated by those other states is eye opening. It also reminds me how critical I need to be in taking in information and portrayal of a situation as complex as that going on in the Near East. Not everything is as simple as “good guys” vs. “bad guys,” but that can sometimes be really hard to tell when listening to modern discourse.