What we are seeing at the moment is a sectarian war across the Islamic world waged between the Sunni and the Shia.The Arab Israeli conflict is on the back burner because the followers of the two main branches of Islam hate each other more than they hate the Israelis. I find it amusing to read the hate directed by some western media at Israel because of the casualties among Arab civilians when the Arabs have committed atrocities on their own populace in vastly greater quantities.The Arab world has actually given up on the Palestinians due to their self inflicted catastrophes. Hamas is reducing its followers to poverty stricken squalor with its idiotic confrontation with Israel. I spent the best part of 20 years in the Middle East - including Iran - and came to the conclusion that the Arab world is incapable of unifying for a common purpose. The Iranians would never really ally themselves to any great extent with the Arabs as they regard themselves as superior. The wealthiest of the Arab states really are not countries,they are basically large commercial enterprises where millions of foreigners go to work.