In the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Australia, a horse can be given steroids during training as long as the drugs aren't present in horse's system on race day.

WSJ: Horse-Racing Body to Review Steroids Policy

As Smith explains, today, Arab leaders view Israel as a possible strong horse that could defeat the rising Shiite axis that threatens them.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Israel the strong horse

The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations by Lee Smith, is a unique and vital addition to the current debate on the Middle East because rather than interpret the Arabs through the ideological lenses of the West, Smith describes them, their cultural and political motivations as the Arabs in all their ethnic, religious, ideological, national and tribal variations themselves perceive these things.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Israel the strong horse

The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations by Lee Smith, is a unique and vital addition to the current debate on the Middle East because rather than interpret the Arabs through the ideological lenses of the West, Smith describes them, their cultural and political motivations as the Arabs -- in all their ethnic, religious, ideological, national and tribal variations -- themselves perceive these things.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Israel the strong horse

And finally, that it is intra-Arab rivalries and the desire to rule and be recognized as the strong horse that motivates jihadists to wage continuous wars against Israel and the West and against regimes in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia alike.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Israel the strong horse

But the interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, sheikh of a predominantly Sunni Arab tribe, says that attacking Fallujah's insurgents is like shooting at a fly that has landed on your horse's head: you'll miss the fly but kill your horse.

ECONOMIST: Iraq