middle east?

Question

why do they call like israel and all the countries around it the middle east like ... its not near the middle or east of europe or asia or anything or even the globe its not on the east

Answer 1

The term Middle East for its perceived Eurocentrism, because it was originally coined by Europeans and reflects the geographical position of the region from a European perspective. Today the term is used by Europeans and non-Europeans alike.

The region is only east from the perspective of Europe. To an Indian, it lies to the west; to a Russian, it lies to the south. The description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions.

Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Turkistan and the Caucasus.

With the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Near East largely fell out of common use in English, while Middle East came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Islamic world.

Answer 2

The Earth is usually divided into two hemispheres, the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, with the dividing line passing through the "prime meridian" or zero longitude, which in the old days was defined by the Greenwich, England astronomical observatory. Anything east of this line is "East", and anything west is "West". The near East is perhaps Poland and Greece, the Middle East is Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and the Far East is India and points even farther East. The farthest west is Hawaii and Alaska, until you cross the International Date Line, where you magically shift from farthest west to farthest east, or vice versa.

Answer 3

They also call them the Near East, which makes more sense.
I guess it became Middle East because it is situated in the middle between Europe and the Far East.

Answer 4

its all about who did what when, why and how.

The "far east" according to europeans was Asia. Trade with the far east was profitable. It was far east before the world was known to be round. That was the country farthest east on the maps. Europe was the farthest west.

Somewhere between far east and home is near east and middle east.