Izzy- only as stupid as the US contracting out to Belgium for all the new M-16s we buy.
The whole matrix of the region is due to change very, very soon. The wealthy Arab oil-dictators are living on very borrowed time, and the destabalization of even countries like Saudi Arabia is under way. The historical prescident shows that power and propultion technology is a very dynamic thing, and already the vast consumers of fossil fuel have begun seeking alternate sources.
Man yearns to be free, and Arabs are no different. Their dicators (sheiks, etc) may be arrogant ignorant sand-n!@@ers but with an ever growing, ever enlightened populations in nations such as Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey (no matter how much the Turks wish to be thought of as European) will no longer stand for their elite rulers corrupting their cultures and supporting these bass-ackwards groups like Al-Quida. Muslim culture isnt being 'ruined' by Westernism, Muslim culture isnt so weak that it will crumble in the modern world. It is difficult to stay faithful in the modern world, but not impossible, this is true of all religions though, ask any young Morman, conservative Christian, or orthodox Jew.
No, some day and soon, the oil barrons will loose their source of power, and the masses in the middle east will realize that 'fundamentalists' are ruining the Arab world, not westerners. And when that day comes, Israel will have to re-define its national identity.
Rant off.