Whose side is the US on in the Mid-East?

MISS the good old days when it was clear what the United States was doing in the Middle East? When the American role was to protect Western interests in the region, including maintaining the access to its oil resources - first, against the strategic and ideological challenge posed by Soviet Union during the Cold War, and later, against the evolving threat of Muslim terrorism?

And there was also the US moral commitment to assist the state of Israel that had fought several wars with its Arab neighbours who refused to recognise it and seemed intent on destroying it.

Indeed, for most of the post-World War II era there was a clear consensus in Washington and among Americans that the United States needed to use its diplomatic and military power - by allying itself with the moderate Arab governments, like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, and with Israel - to secure its interests and commitments in the Middle East.