Nor has using the search feature on Fars's English-language Web site ever resulted in a hit on my name. I have often wondered whether Fars accurately translates into Farsi what I have written in English, or whether its translation makes me sound supportive of Tehran's viewpoint and critical of Washington's.

In search of an answer, I once took copies of the e-mails of my responses to Fars's questions in English along with the Farsi language stories I was quoted in for comparison to a Farsi-speaking friend.

He assured me that Fars News Agency did, in fact, accurately translate my responses to its questions. Fars, though, did not include all my answers to its questions in its stories. And the quotes it chose to run, my friend pointed out, were usually ones more favorable to Tehran while those it didn't include were not.

It was after this conversation that the most recent set of questions from Fars News Agency arrived. This time, they were about Israel on the eve of its 60th anniversary as an independent state. The tone of the questions was, not surprisingly, unfriendly toward Israel. And since I sincerely doubt that Fars would be pleased with my answers to its questions (and hence would not publish them), I thought I might respond to one of its questions here.

"Most of world experts … believe that Israel is the main cause of instability and insecurity in the region," according to Fars. "What do you think about it?"

First of all, I am not at all certain that "most world experts" believe this. Indeed, I know of many who do not. But even if Israel is regarded as a "cause of instability and insecurity" in the Middle East, it is hardly the only one – much less the main one.

Israel did not cause the conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, or elsewhere in the Arab world. Nor did Israel cause the growing tension between the Arabs on one side of the Gulf and the Persians on the other. Nor again did Israel cause the tension between the Kurds on the one hand and the Turks, Persians, and Arabs on the other. Israel did not cause most other countries in the Middle East to be ruled by authoritarian regimes. Finally, it did not cause the principal opposition to these authoritarian regimes to be anti-democratic, revolutionary movements either.

Observing all this is not intended to downplay the importance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But even here: Israel did not force Hamas and Fatah to fight with each other. Nor does the fact that they are doing so bode well for the future stability of a Palestinian state, no matter what its borders might be.

There are, then, many causes of instability and insecurity in the Middle East. Claiming that Israel is the main cause does not change this. Nor does it help resolve these other problems.

I sincerely doubt, though, that this is a message the Fars News Agency wants its audience to read. Sadly, it is probably not a message that much of its audience is willing to read either.

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Mark N. Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University.