Tensions between Jews and Gentiles in the Middle East have been present since biblical times. In 70 C.E., when Israel was under Roman rule, the Jews revolted and fought for independence, but it was crushed and their temple burnt down. In 135 C.E. the Romans crushed the 2nd Jewish revolt and expelled nearly all of the Jews of Israel. The Romans then renamed Israel-Palestine, so as to remove any connection between the land and the Jewish people. (Tessler, 12) The Jews never forgot their homeland, and prayed three times a day to return to Israel and to the holy city of Jerusalem.

In the 7th century, a new religion, Islam, arose in the Middle East. The Muslim Arabs conquered Palestine from the Byzantines and began to settle the land. They built the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa

The 80’s brought even more bloodshed to the region, and tensions were increased by the formal proclamation of the entire city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon in an effort to destroy PLO strongholds and halt terrorist attacks on northern Israel. As a result, the PLO agreed to withdraw its guerrillas from Beirut, Lebanon. Israel also welcomed Jews from all over the world, although it concentrated on Jews from other Middle Eastern countries. In 1985, Operation Moses, a secret emergency rescue mission, brought over eight thousand Ethiopian Jews to Israel. (Silverman, 92)

This was not the end, in 1994, an Israeli extremist fired on Muslims worshiping at a Mosque in Hebron. Twenty-nine people were killed, and many more wounded. Although Israeli leaders condemned the attack, the PLO temporarily stopped talks with Israel. (Goldschmidt, 356) In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, terrorist suicide bombings began, launched by extremist members of the Muslim organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad protesting the peace process. In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a young Israeli extremist opposed to the peace process. Several times Israel withdrew its forces from some Palestinian cities, trying to make peace with the Arabs. In 1996, sixty-eight Israelis were killed by terrorist suicide bus bombings. From 1993-1996, 316 Jews were killed by Arab terrorists even as the Jews were giving away Holy Land for the sake of peace. (Benvenisti, 97)

During the First World War, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on Jewish daily life, because the Turks believed that the Jews were plotting with their enemies. Four hundred years of Turkish rule suddenly ends on December of 1917. The British army under the command of General Edmund Allenby defeated the Turks and captured Palestine. Just six weeks before the annex of Turkey and Palestine, the Jews had learned of a British document called the Balfour Declaration. It states,

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