@LadyMarissa A very common attitude, at least here in the US. A couple of things that might interest you:
As to the nuclear arsenal, while Israel will neither confirm or deny the existence of nuclear weapons on Israeli soil, the general consensus it that they have around a hundred of them.
Middle East Countries with Nuclear Weapons
The Guardian article
Nuclear Threat Initiative report
Syria and Lebanon might want to disagree with you over your statement about them keeping the fighting to within their own borders. I think they still possess some Syrian territory.
And, Israel just wishes the UN would leave them alone. Their actions have been condemned so many times and the have been considered in violation of so many resolutions that it isn’t even funny. The only thing Israel has going for it is its Big Brother (how appropriate these days) ‘Murica have the ability to veto anything and everything that comes along that even mentions Israel. That and if the UN were to take the territory back that they gave to Israel it would be tantamount to admitting they (the UN) screwed up in the first place.
The USS Liberty incident
Here is the Fox New Report on the incident
And, to be fair and balanced, here is a CNN report
And to be fairer and balanceder, here is a more conspiracy minded view from WhatReallyHappened.com