Possession of no other piece of real estate on earth is more contested than the Middle Eastern territory of Palestine. Three of the world's most influential religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, regard it as sacred territory.

Peace will not come to that part to the world until its religious issues are resolved. This is becoming increasingly clear, even to news commentators.

Dennis Prager's column on July 18, 2006 gives a concise history lesson about the conflict between the nation of Israel and its Arab neighbors during the past sixty years. His opening statements go to the heart of the matter.

"The Middle East conflict is difficult to solve, but it is among the simplest conflicts in history to understand.

"The Arab and other Muslim enemies of Israel (for the easily confused, this does not mean every Arab or every Muslim) want Israel destroyed. That is why there is a Middle East conflict. Everything else is commentary.

"Those who deny this and ascribe the conflict to other reasons, such as 'Israeli occupation,' 'Jewish settlements,' a 'cycle of violence,' 'the Zionist lobby' and the like, do so despite the fact that Israel's enemies regularly announce the reason for the conflict. The Iranian regime, Hizbollah, Hamas and the Palestinians—in their public opinion polls, in their anti-Semitic school curricula and media, in their election of Hamas, in their support for terror against Israeli civilians in pre-1967 borders—as well as their Muslim supporters around the world, all want the Jewish state annihilated."

I would add another crucial observation. The 'why' of the conflict began with the skewed relations between Ishmael and Isaac, the two sons of the biblical patriarch Abraham.

To Ishmael's mother Hagar, already pregnant with Ishmael, God sent this message by an angel, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count ... You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael ... his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" (Genesis 16: 10-12, New International Version).

In this verse we see the beginning of the conflict between the two branches of Abraham's family. It is the same conflict we see playing out in the Middle East today. With the arrival of Islam among Ishmael's descendants in Arabia, this animosity turned from ethnic jealousy to religious competition.

Today, Islamic militants have turned that competition into an international campaign for not only Israel's total destruction but also for the destruction of the entire Western society. Their strategy is to create chaos throughout the world and blame the policies of Israel and the United States as its cause. Annihilating the state of Israel is their top priority.

Behind the scenes is a figure more powerful than even the most radical Islamic militant. Just a little over 2,000 years ago he was on the scene in Jerusalem before Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she was "ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born" (Revelation 12:2-4).

His identity is revealed as "the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (verse 9). He is the real author of anti-Semitic, anti-biblical hatred. He would like to engulf mankind in a global war that would extinguish all human life from planet earth. But man's Creator has no intention of allowing that total destruction to happen (Matthew 24:21-22).

Until Jesus Christ returns and makes Jerusalem the capital of His world ruling kingdom, that city will not experience any lasting peace. "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:3, King James Version).

The present conflict will not end the attempts to annihilate Israel and return Jerusalem to Islamic control. More and more the Middle East is going to be the frustrating focus of international tensions and conflict.

For a fuller and clearer picture of how those tensions will lead the world to the most horrible time of warfare mankind has ever experienced, request or download your personal copy of our free booklet, The Middle East in Bible Prophecy.