The conflict between Palestine and Israel goes back thousands of years and has led to a number of drastic consequences, affecting peoples and current events all over the world to this very day. One reason for this is geography; Israel is situated in the centre of the Middle East. Also, the Middle East also possesses much of the planet's oil, an economic necessity in today's society. Faith has also contributed to the international interest of this very public conflict for approximately half the world's population adheres to religions born in the Middle East. The Middle East shares a deep and intense history, which has often led to controversy and heated tensions among dissimilar groups. The conflict between Israeli and Arab is both symbolic and substantial, and has drawn repeated military and diplomatic interventions. These, in turn have distorted and aggravated the situation and have resulted in a variety of consequences for the governments and persons of many countries all around the world. Issues at stake include sovereignty, resources, labor, trade and security, and quite importantly questions of justice, human rights and political freedom.
             The Arabs are a people united by a common language, history and culture. Although most are Muslims, notably in Egypt and Lebanon, are Christian. Arabs make up the bulk of the population in the Middle East. Especially between the two world wars, the Arab world became infuriated by the efforts to create a new Jewish state in Palestine. Although conflict between the Arabs and Jews began much earlier, the modern Arab-Israeli military conflict started on the day of Israel's foundation, 14 May 1948. Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people. Like the Arabs, the Jews were without their own nation.
             It has been estimated that 3 million Jews fled Eastern Europe in the thirty years before 1914 in order to escape persecution. At the same time, a mili...