What causes instability in the Middle East?

Rather usual criticism of Israeli settlement activity meets unusually forceful response:
"The Europeans called for an immediate halt to settlement activity, adding that they hoped the government would follow through on its promises to bring settlers guilty of violence to justice.

"If instead of contributing to the stability of the Middle East, they invest efforts in inappropriately bickering with a country with a law and justice system that knows how to deal with lawbreakers, then they are losing their credibility and making themselves irrelevant," the Foreign Ministry stated in response to the European criticism."

A few comments:

1. There is questionable wisdom for Israel in openly quarreling with Britain, France and Germany, though probably there is no much harm in snubbing Portugal.

2. The wisdom of building more settlements is questionable as well. But, in my opinion, the question is too complex to claim that immediate stop to any settlement construction would be a good decision. Here are some of the reasons that make any straight statement regarding the settlements sound foolish:
- there are hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens already living in the settlements, many of whom were born and raised there - one cannot simply disregard the rights of these people for living in their homes and the place where they were born and grew up. Most of them have never broken the laws of their country.
- there is a need for natural construction and renovation in already existing settlements
- there are Israel's defense needs
- there is no promise for any reciprocal action from the Palestinian side or from the Arab states, should the construction cease
- there is finally the absurd question of demanding to stop any construction in the settlements that will surely remain under Israel's control in case of a peace agreement (which is a rather unrealistic scenario).

3. Nevertheless, the Israel Foreign Ministry has made a valid point: at this moment the European criticism contributes neither to the prospects of peace, nor to the stability of the Middle East:

- First of all, the instability due to the political changes happening in many Middle Eastern countries precludes both Israel and its Palestinian and Arab partners from committing themselves  to any potential agreement.

- The increasing influence of Iran, which the European nations refuse to confront even verbally, adds to the instability, preventing the resumption of the peace talks.
 
- Finally, this criticism of Israel is disproportional in the face of total European and American inaction in respect to Syria (where the daily deaths are counted by dozens) and Bahrain (where the protests were suppressed with the help of Saudi Arabia and under the passive watch of the American military). Such criticism
a) causes a lot of resentment towards Europe in Israel
b) feeds the anti-Israeli sentiment elsewhere
c) deceives the ordinary Europeans and Americans into thinking that Arab-Israeli conflict is the most violent conflict in the Middle East and the origin of all of the Middle Eastern problems.


Links to my past posts about the Arab-Israeli conflict: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here