Comment by colechristensen

Internationally, a certain amount of friendliness towards the US is beneficial to Arab states aligned or not, but internally, appeasing the "death to America/Israel" portions of the population which are quite large is both necessary and often advantageous to encourage. Having an enemy brings people together, and a wise Machiavellian prince will take every advantage of this.

Arab leaders who don't strike this balance correctly will find themselves deposed by their own people or a Western coalition trying to bring "freedom".