“these people lie about everything”
Yep. I worked with many Arabs and can verify the lying. However, I worked for an Israeli defense company and sometimes the Israelis would compete to see who could get the most outrageous lie believed by one of our credulous Christians who, apparently, couldn’t believe anyone would lie. They thought getting him to believe lies was a hoot. (It annoyed me no end.) The Israelis would also lie to make others look bad and themselves look good. But, all in all, they didn’t lie as much or as widely as the Arabs I worked with. If it was something serious, they “generally” told the truth. Interestingly, I don’t think they lied to each other.
For many years in the ‘80s, I did criminal defense work, often court appointed, and lots of it. One of our favorite conversations was the different ways our clients lied to us. If from the middle east, the lies were intricate and always self serving. For an Asian client, the truth was wholly dependent on the necessities of the situation. That is, if no one could say what really happened, the truth depended on whose grandmother was ill and who needed the money or to stay out of trouble the most. Americans lied in a simple, dogish fashion, usually telegraphing their shame. The worst in my experience were the Filipinos who just lied in any way they wanted to without shame or malice.