as far as i understand this went all the way back to the second world war (correct me if i am wrong). before the ww2 the britsih held controll of that are of land, the empire that had held it before was some arab one, i forgewt the name. now the british werent particularly liked, they werent really in any of the colonies. so the british basically said to the arabs help us fight and we will let u have this land.

but at the end of the war instead of giving the arabs jerusalem (lets not forget it is a holy city to muslims too). they gave it to the nely created state of israel, which was created from the mass of jews that fled europe during ww2.

now it is understandable why the arab people might feel that land is theres by right, so it is not unatural for them to go try and take it. on the other hand for the first time in a while there was a jewish state, a place of there own, so it is natural they would want to defend it. and so the wars started.

the wars in turn create animosity on both sides, leading to escalation.

now to the present. if you are from israel it is natural to feel anger at the terrorism from fanatics. but at the same time if you are a civilian arab, and your distict has been blown apart because there have been terrorists in the area you have just as much justification to feel angered. because the israelis attack atack the arab states, more young arabs fell they have to fight back to defend their country, eventually they become fanatics. and because the fanatics attack the israelis feel they have to respond in kind. and so the situation escalates again.

sadly i dont really know how to stop this, certanly violence only breeds more violence. and the combination of weak arab goverments and "gun ho" israeli army, will just lead to an escalation. and also sadly the west cannot make them stop, things will only change if the people in the gulf want it to change, if they want peace. and i dont think this will happen for a long time, because at the end of the day they bth want jerusalem.