the discrimination thing

Everyone knows that the Israelis and the Arabs have a longstanding hate-hate relationship. And so it isn't surprising (it's sad and unfortunate, but not surprising) that there is rampant racism by the Israelis against the Arabs. What may be a lesser-known phenomenon, is the racism within the Israeli/Jewish population. It started with the division of the Jews into 2 main groups as a result from the diaspora, all so many many years ago. There were the Ashkenazim, who settled in northern and eastern Europe, and the Sephardim, who settled in southern Europe, the Middle East, and north Africa. Two different kinds of Judaism emerged, influenced by the dominant cultures in those regions. Different languages, clothes, customs, etc. When the state of Israel was being built and these communities came together, it turned out that the Jews weren't one big happy family. The Ashkenazim (lighter-featured, generally better educated, and wealthier) became the "ruling class," looking down on the Sephardim. While there isn't (always) blatant racism between these groups today, it is still a very real part of daily life here. And in addition, there are the Ethiopian Jews who came as refugees, who are often considered the most-discriminated against group of Jews. There are even more groups, I think, I just don't understand the details very well yet.

The thing is, I don't understand how Israelis know who to discriminate against, because in some of the groups, you can't tell just by how people look. Many Sephardim, to me, look the same (if not darker) as many Arabs. And then there are the Sephardim and even Arabs who look as white as me or any other northern European. And contrary to their best efforts, there has been some interbreeding between the various groups. So how do you know if the person walking towards you is an Arab, a Sephardi, an Ashkenazi, a mix of the above, or something altogether different? And why is it important? Ok I understand that it is naieve to think that all Israelis can be friends with all the Arabs, or that either group even wants that. So maybe it would be good to know how to tell the difference between a Jew with dark coloring and an Arab. But the bigger truth is that I wouldn't want to run into either in an alley at night, but I wouldn't want to see an Ashkenazi either. Maybe I should just stay away from dark alleys at night. But my point is, it is all quite complicated. It is the Middle East, after all...