The Arab footprint on our world is profound - from Islam to astronomy, from oil to Osama bin Laden. But can the threads of a shared language, a mostly shared religion, and overlapping historical experience equip Arab states to the meet the intense pressures of the 21st century? The demand for food, water, education, and jobs - all driven by huge population growth - plus big-picture issues such as regional security are the stuff of nightmares. Peter Rodgers argues that the most direct way of cleaning up the mess that is today's Middle East is to remove the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the prop both for Arab illiberalism and for foreign meddling. The region's problems, he says, will continue to stain the wider world. The West will continue to guzzle Arab oil at an ever-increasing rate, to wring its hands over the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to fret about Iran, and to decry the shortcomings of the Arab world, while ensuring that no arms sales goes unclosed.