In order to understand any persistent conflict in the world, one must investigate its historical origins. The Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East remains one of the most dangerous flashpoints facing the human race in 2005 because it involves elements of great power politics, cultural, religious, and racial prejudice, the struggle to control oil, and the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, primarily, but not exclusively by Israel. In 1922 the League of Nations laid the groundwork for the conflict by giving both France and England colonial authority in areas of the Ottoman Empire that was conquered by the West in the First World War, thereby creating the modern states of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, as well as Jordan, then known as Transjordan, and Palestine (Wikipedia 2004). The population of Palestine at the time of the mandate consisted of 589,200 Muslims, 83,800 Jews and 71,500 Christians.
The core of the conflict is a fight between two religions for control of a small strip of land to which they each feel entitled - the Jews because of
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