Reddit reviews The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations

I think the greater point the article was seeking to make is that some Christians who have recently supported Israel very robustly are doing so on intellectually flimsy and therefore easily shifted grounds. This is why the article ends on the note I quoted in my comment before--not to say that one must choose a dichotomous position but that there are ramifications for a sub-critical support or opposition of any of the parties in play.

Give Smith's journalistic history, it's little surprise that he would come down on greater understanding of all parties involved in the tension. Take, for example, his thesis that Americans typically don't understand the way Arabian politics work, which yields a net ineffectiveness in American attempts to resolve tensions in the Middle East in The Strong Horse, for example.

Excellent Post. You want to read the Strong Horse. The author reaches an interesting conclusion as why the Middle east is the way it is.

Here is the golden answer: Religion is a tool of political elites to remain in power.

The long answer: Ibn Khaldun described the nature of the middle east centuries ago as a cycle of violence in which strong horses replace weak ones. Sunni Muslims have ruled through the centuries “by violence, repression, and coercion.” The strong horse, not Western imperialism or Zionism, has determined the fundamental character of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.

How else can we really explain the Arab Middle East's cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism, and warfare?