My European History class discussed Machiavellian foreign policy. Your correspondent disagrees particularly with one assessment: that the Arab sympathy for the plight of the Jews is of any consequence.

It isn't. For the Arab states, Israel is a projection of American power into the Middle-East. The popular cry that American power invaded the Middle-East along with the invasion of Iraq is a myth: American power has long existed in the Middle-East courtesy of a sphere of influence centered on Israel. America funds Israel's military and the US can reasonably expect Israel to react aggressively to any Arab action that threatens American interests. Because Israel's survival depends on America's ability to fund Israeli military affairs, Israel's foreign policy both reflects and takes into account America's needs in the region as well. Israel is not a client state. But Israeli power calculations will always lead (as long as American funds are purchasing Israeli planes, guns, and tanks) to a foreign policy that protects American interests in the region.

The US can expect Israeli bellicosity if Iran were to threaten oil lanes; American can expect Israeli support if the Arab states were to join a league with a power bent on subverting American interests. Witness the Israeli reaction to Egypt and Syria in the mid-twentieth century.

Arab people and Arab leaders may sympathize with the Jewish experience of pogroms and the Holocaust. Their compassion may even move them to donate to Zionist charities. But in matters of state, Arab leaders cannot and ought not give these sympathies an audience. The Arab states will never cooperate or cease harassing Israel because Israel represents an American influence in the region. Whether or not America's policies at the time are in line with any Arab state's policy is irrelevant: American can influence events in the region, which implies American supremacy. Because America has so staunch an ally in Israel, Machiavellian or Morgenthauian theory suggests that the Arabs seek the destruction or weakening of America's medium for extending their power overseas.

If America wants to reach bursts of short-term peace in the region between Israel and her neighbors, it ought to emphasize the common enemy of both Arab and Jew: the Iranians. While my class was discussing Machiavelli, it ought to have recognized, as he did, that a common enemy unites the most disparate of cultures. If America needs stability, it paradoxically must convince Arab and Israeli that Iran threatens to upset the regional balance-of-power. Iran sought to destabilize Iraq with terrorists between 2007-08; that sort of meddling to create a power vacuum for Iran to fill is exactly the threat that would bring Arab nations together.

Israel, the regional avatar of American influence, is the Arab common enemy. Their animosity reflects their dislike of the influence America can have on the Middle-East. Let American foreign policy exploit their fear for their sovereignty by diverting their attention to Iran. Pakistan and Israel -- sworn enemies -- secretly allied in the '80s to combat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The same arrangement can be found here.