Originally posted by TriPack
If I understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it is a little of both land and religion, mixed in with brotherly rivalry, but the story is interesting. Abraham was given the land of Caanan (Israel) as an eternal inheritance. Abraham had no son so he took his wife's handmaid and had a son Ishmael (the eldest) who as I understand is the progenitor of the Palestinian people. Abraham finally had a son, Isaac (though not the eldest son, he was the first son of Abraham's first wife and thus had rights to the birthright or in other words the land inheritance) who is the progenitor of the Jews (as well as the other 11 tribes of Israel). Isaac's son Jacob (also known as Israel and who had 12 sons, each a tribe of Israel) lived at a time of famine. Jacob and his sons left Israel and went to Egypt where Jacob's son Joseph saved them from famine. A new Pharoh ultimately puts the children of Israel into bondage in Egypt. They are later freed by Moses. Meanwhile who has come in and taken over the land of Israel??? -- the descendants of Ishmael or the Palestinians. When the children of Israel finally come back and takes Israel (the land) back by force the Palestinians feel they have not only been robbed of their land but their birthright. And so it goes.