Yeah, def go to North Korea. I wouldn't worry about the political situation - I imagine Pyongyang is probably the safest place in the world for an American, because you have a team of government minders/spies watching your every move and ensuring you don't get hurt and cause a propaganda scene! In general, you can't talk to everyday people, and even the vendors you interact with are the "elite"; nonetheless, I managed to sneak away from the minder long enough to talk to some vendors (in Chinese, which my minder didn't understand), and they both thought it was rad that I was American. It's incredible (and sad) how little the people there know, though; it's not a stretch to say that most people have no idea that man has walked on the moon, for instance. NK is really the only old-school Stalinist-style country left, so if you're interested in 20th century history, it's the only place where you can see what life was like for enormous numbers of people from the 1940s to the 1970s (USSR, China, etc.).
I haven't been to that bit of the Mideast, but there's no way to go via Syria if you've already been to Israel, since they won't let you across the border with evidence of a visit to Israel. You can cross from Egypt to Jordan directly on the aqaba ferry. I'm not sure what direction you're going, but maybe Syria -> Jordan -> Israel -> Egypt -> cheap flight to Turkey could work.
The unsafe bit of Turkey is way to the east of the Syria border on the Med, so crossing Syria -> Turkey should be perfectly safe. I wouldn't worry about most of Turkey - there are major tourist destinations in the center and east (Mt. Ararat in the far east, and Cappadocia in the center (known for treks and famous cave hotels!)). Lebanon and Syria are safe for the most part, as far as I know; I would stay in Beirut and not venture near the camps in Lebanon, though, and would avoid the desert/Iraq border areas in Syria. I would imagine it's safer to be a solo woman than a solo man in these areas, even (though again, it's not that dangerous for a solo man). If you know any specific examples of danger in Syria/Leb/Turkey, let me know, but I think you should be OK.
In general, I compare safety to car driving. Something like > 1 million people die in car accidents worldwide each year. In nearly any place (basically, anything other than the few examples I listed a few posts up), you're far, far more likely to be hurt in a taxi crash than hurt because of terrorism/street crime. It's worth being careful (don't walk around the bus stop in the middle of the night, for instance), but safety from crime is really nothing to be worried about.
Edited by: kevincure
