  We show that the strong hybridization between the iron 3d and the arsenic 4p
orbitals, in the newly discovered iron-based high-T$_{c}$ superconductors,
leads to an explanation of certain experimental observations that are presently
not well understood. The existence of a lattice distortion, the smallness of
the Fe magnetic moment in the undoped systems, and the suppression of both the
lattice distortion and the magnetic order upon doping with fluorine, are all
shown to result from this hybridization.
