THE PROBLEM THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED: The Arab-Israeli conflict has long been exacerbated by the unwillingness of the U.S. government to admit or act on certain indisputable truths. One of those truths is described by Michael Mandlebaum:

The Arab regimes bear a large share of the responsibility for the origins and the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it is in their power to do a great deal to end it.
Unfortunately, Bush's well-chosen words, and whatever Powell tells the Arab leaders privately, are likely to have little effect. Perpetuating the conflict with Israel serves interests that are more important to these governments than is peace with Israel or the approval of the United States.
...[I]n the year 2000, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat a Palestinian state on virtually all of the territory captured in 1967, with a Jerusalem shared with Israel as its capital, the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia urged him to refuse, which he did. The war he started in the wake of his refusal finally triggered the Israeli military operations of the last several days.
...The Arab governments supply Arafat with the money and political support upon which his position as Palestinian leader depends. If they chose to do so, they could pressure him to make peace with Israel or encourage the Palestinians to find another leader willing to do so.
But they have chosen to do neither...
The conflict with Israel is a convenient, perhaps even indispensable, device for each regime to divert the attention of the chief victims of its dismal performance - those it rules. It is also a way to place the blame for their condition on an external enemy - Israel - rather than on those - the rulers themselves - who bear responsibility for it.
Thus, like the Jewish communities that were singled out for blame for plagues and political and economic troubles throughout European history, Israel functions as a scapegoat for the misfortunes of its Arab neighbors.
There's more, all on target.