I have a theory.

Years ago, I had the (mis)fortune of spending some time in Cuba. I noticed that every economic and financial woe was presented as the fault of the US embargo of the island - which, by the way, is a joke. You can by American goods there cheaper than you can here. They get it all from elsewhere.

The parallel is that the entire Middle East seems to be focused on the "evil" of Israel. Everything, somehow, is the fault of Israel and Zionism.

Millions, possibly billions, of dollars flow freely into the coffers of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the like to combat Israel.

My theory is that Israel actually works as a steam valve for Arabic countries to refocus the jihadists away from their governments; in fact, I bet it would be the Saudi's and Jordanians worst nightmare if Israel actually went down.

If that happened, the nutcases would then target regional secular governments.

Make sense?