Back when he was notified about the death of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Jan. 23, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin thought it appropriate to offer a eulogy.

Rivlin praised the late king as if he were a fellow traveler on a certain diplomatic path. He called the monarch “an example of grounded, considered and responsible leadership” and declared that he “acted as a moderator, respecting the sensitivity and sanctity of Jerusalem, and sought to promote a vision of prosperity for the region.”

It's debatable whether the millions of Saudi Arabia’s Shiites would have shared Rivlin’s sentiments. After all, they are considered second-class citizens and subject to persecution by the regime. It is interesting to consider what the millions of refugees in Iraq would have thought, or the hundreds of thousands of people who lost loved ones in Syria to attacks by armed militias supported by the Sunni states.

Jerusalem does not recoil from choosing questionable partners, and eventually falls into their trap. In a cruel, cynical world such as this, it's easy to understand Israel’s course of action. As a democratic state it simply wants to survive in the volatile Middle East. Its leaders used to believe that if it was impossible to instill more liberal values in the neighboring regimes, then it's best to forge alliances with them based on common interests — some overtly and others less so. Such a policy stems from a realpolitik approach. But this approach has brought about the laundering of Hebrew terms, intended to adulate and whitewash the autocratic regimes surrounding Israel, regimes that gave birth to the horrors and atrocities we are now witnessing in our little corner of the world. After all, dictatorships have never been the solution when the frustrated masses turn to radicalism — dictatorships have always been the problem.