Some folk on here are so caught-up in their little factional Sunni Vs Shia mindsets, they seem to forget the US and Israel have successfully played Sunni's against Shi'as in the region before. It was called the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam was armed-up heavily by the West and Russia, to the point it was believed he had the fourth most powerful mechanised army in the world. He was supported AND funded by the Gulf Sunni rulers to attack Iran and retake the entire Shatt-Al-Arab waterways, which was and still is Iranian soveriegn territory. That was an appalling decision, because the Iranians actually fought back and did not stop resisting Saddam's invasion. A truce and peace agreement ended the conflict some 8 years after it had begun. Saddam was forced into humiliating retreat. His army battered, the funds Iraq was given by the Gulf arabs were now being called in - to Saddam's fury. To add insult to injury, the Gulf arabs, particularly Kuwait, then started pumping far more oil than the market needed and there followed a slump in global oil prices, thus reducing Iraq's much-needed oil income. Unfortunately, the Americans played him, the Sunni Gulf rulers stood-by with the Americans and watched, Israel was on the floor laughing. A once rich nation was led to ruin by a hardline dictator in a war that was never going to be won. Its regional neighboors (brotherly nations) gave it the cold shoulder and stabbed it in the back at its most needy hour. Debt-laden Saddam's Iraq had few options and soon after he found himself in another war, against Kuwait, after what he believed was a US greenlight for his invasion. He was skillfully ensnared into the perfect trap. Then the first Iraq war happened - the rest is history.
It is exactly this 'divide and rule' tactic which they have successfully employed on a number of occasions now and will continue to do in the future. The question is whether Sunni's will be daft enough to actually fall for it yet again and allow Israel to come clean off the hook. Make no mistake, Israel is the only nation that benefits from these Sunni/Shia wars. The sooner Sunni's can accept that the Gulf Arabs states are acting in concert with Un-Islamic, external interests, we will be one step further to understanding what needs to be done for the better.