What is the "fundamental conflict" in the Middle East?

Question

The war in Iraq, Israel vs Palestine, Israel vs Lebanon ... All my life I have been made highly aware of the tension and violence in the Middle East. I know that since one small sliver of land is held sacred by three separate religions, there's fight over territory. I know that since the area sits atop the world's largest oil reserve, what happens on the surface matters to us. But for YEARS I have tried to understand, though with not much devotion, the fundamental conflict in the Middle East, and I just don't get it. Why are we there? Why the suicide bombings? What is Hesbollah's purpose? Why do Palestinians want their own state? If you run out of room, email me at [e-mail]. Thanks

All your answers as so great, I cannot and will not chose a best answer. Thanks for answering.

Answer 1

Satan is and has always attempted to eradicate the "chosen people of God".
Canada has more oil in the tar sands than Saudi Arabia has in total.Canada has greater natural resources than any country on earth and the second largest land mass.If this was about oil or water or power IE hydro than we in Canada would be under attack.
Palestinians don't want their own state they want Israel to cease to exist.

Answer 2

Fundamentally, land was stripped from the muslims and a border was made and the United Nations declared Israel an official State. The Jews moved there because they were being persecuted by the Nazis in Europe. It is Jewish lore that all Jews would eventually return to their homeland and after the Holocaust, it was good enough reason for them to start thinking about that very zionist thought. "Just because its written in the bible doesn't make the land is theirs" according to muslims and thats exactly what is Hezbollah's quib about the entire land of Israel. It was taken just like the Americans in the 17 and 1800's when they enacted their philosophy called, "Manifest Destiny." Israel was created by Imperialism as well only that this movement period was supposed to have stopped long before the Jewish movement took place.

Answer 3

The land of "Israel" should be split in half. The northern half would be Palestine and the southern half Israel.
The new Israel and new Palestine completely disarmed, by force if needed.

In the middle occupying Jerusalem would be the new U.N. HQ with a corridor that divides these lands from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Stationed there should be 200,000 man Rapid Reaction Force capable of delivering a serious smack down to ANYONE in the region that acts out of line

Answer 4

I think part of the problem is the mixing of three forces in the Islamic world. 1>The fundamentalists believe that all laws must be based on scripture and all leaders decedents of Mohamed. 2>Revisionists believe laws can be made my the people and leaders elected. 3>The American government for years has created/supported oppressive "democracies" (like the Shaw in Iran and the situation today in Saudi Arabia) to facilitate businesses in the region.

The people are fed up with the dictators in the region and are turning to fundamentalism as an alturnative. We are there to counter this movement.

If the Americans were driven out of the US into Canada wouldn't THEY want a state someplace?

As to suicide bombings I have no idea. That's a hard one.

Answer 5

properly, obviously you forgot the U. S. developed the oil fields contained in the middle East so the tree huggers like Gore could fly their inner most jets, polute more effective than numerous small city, and seem down their noses on anybody else. in case you want to ensure what helps, what has a tree hugger executed as well conserving the U. S. from utilising the oil that God has blessed us with? Or what "advantages" have the middle East been? could the U. S. keep on with their lead in giving to humanitarian motives, lady's rights, gay rights, equivalent clinical care to all contained in the courts, sentences that contains whipping and putting, a thanks to address the detrimental, and their nationwide well being classes?

Answer 6

There are many reasons. Here are six;
1. Pay back. They are mostly very tribal and they still have a lot of ancient inter tribal animosities.
2. There are also religious differences (Sunni, Shite, Bahai, Christian & Judaism).
3. A racial component with Indo/European (Arab & Jews) and Caucasian (The Kurds & European Jews).
4. Then there is the criminal element who are in it for the money from Kidnappings & playing on confusion.
5. Then misguided element that are just wanting to kill anyone seen to be supporting Western Ideology.
6. Their lifestyle is still 13th century.

Answer 7

you have 2 competing causes for argument:
1. political -- that various countries don't want a state of israel to exist (the smokescreen of a palestinian state is a falsehood -- they were offered a state in 1948 and rejected it -- they want the entire region). so much now is based in anger because israel continues to exist

2. religious -- after the jews rejected mohammed, he made them enemies. jews in israel (and the entire western/non-islamic tradition) are targets of that anger.

Answer 8

Both the Jews and the Arabs trace their ancestry back to the Patriarch Abraham, who was old and his wife Sarah was past menopause. Sarah gave her servant girl, Hagar, to Abraham to have a child with, and Hagar bore Abraham a son whom Hagar named Ismael. Later, God blessed Sarah and she became pregnant by Abraham and bore him a son, Isaac. Sarah was jealous of Hagar and Ismael and so she drove them into the desert to die, but God had compassion on them and preserved them, saying, "I will make a great nation out of you." Arabs descend from Ismael and Jews from Isaac, and Arabs feel that they are entitled to ALL Abraham's ancestral lands due to the rights of the firstborn son. However, Isaac was the son of Abraham's true wife, and the Jews claim those same ancestral lands through Isaac, father of Jacob, who was called Israel.