At the onset on the war, in 1861 and 1862, they stood as relatively equal combatants. The Confederates had the advantage of being able to wage a defensive war, rather than an offensive one. They had to protect and preserve their new boundaries, but they did not have to be the aggressors against the Union.
When Israel was established as a country in place of Palestine in 1948, the other countries around them, (some Arab), attacked Israel in an attempt to crush the newly formed nation, triggering a series of smaller wars that Israel had to fight in for their own defense. In other words, based on this historic event, we can infer that the Arab community didn't exactly appreciate, much less like the Israelites.
The leaders of europe got together and changed the borders of various countries in hope of creating a large number of countries with relatively similar levels of power