It is a commonplace of Arab discourse to proclaim Israel as the Middle East's greatest problem. Thus, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia declared on a visit to the White House in 1985 that the "Palestinian question ... is the root cause of instability and turmoil in the region."
Anything wrong can be ascribed to Israel. In this spirit, Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa announced in 1991 that, "Had there been no Israeli occupation [of the West Bank and Gaza] for the last twenty-four years ... perhaps there would have been no Iraqi invasion of Kuwait." Arabs have held Israel responsible for everything from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the lack of democracy in Egypt.
But do Arab leaders genuinely see Israel as the source of their problems? There is evidence to suggest that they do not.
In his 1994 history of the PLO, Barry Rubin recounts how Saudi officials began meetings with, "Of course, the Palestine issue is the most important question for us," then adding with a sigh of relief, "Now that we have that out of the way, our priority is to do something about the threat in the Gulf."
Come to think of it, that the conflict with Israel should outweigh all other issues facing the Arabs is inherently unconvincing. How can Israel, whose population and territory is similar to that of Massachusetts, be "the root cause of instability and turmoil" in a region larger than the United States?
Many other matters – the lack of democracy or accountability, the build-up in weapons of mass destruction, the radicalism of Islamist groups, the fluctuating of oil revenues – are clearly more consequential and more urgent than actions taken by Israel.
Oct. 16, 2021 update: Hussain Abdul-Hussain of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies writes at "In Private, Iraqis Support Peace With Israel" about something that had never occurred to me:
That America should look at the unfolding events in Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinian territories and decide that the "central cause" of injustice is Palestine has only increased the sense of injustice among Iraqis and Syrians, making many of them harbor ill feelings toward the "Palestinian cause."
