a new theory on inherent strains on Israeli-Arab relations

Check this out. One simple picture explains it all. This is a venn diagram of the vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. Note the intersection of the two circles—the distinction between short a, i and u is made by both speakers, but Arabic lacks the mid articulation of short vowels, while Hebrew lacks the distinction of vowel length.
Now it all makes sense! Israeli's cannot say Salaam because of the long A। Arabs cannot say Shalom because of the O. No small wonder they can't come to an agreement! No wonder the harsh and unintelligible sparring of words, maybe they should resort to song.