Yes, Troll, there were Jews in Palestine, only 66,000 in 1922, but rapidly rising; 400,000 Jews entered Palestine 1922-1944, mostly from Poland. The creation of Israel in 1949 stripped the Arab areas of all important coastal areas and the large area from Jerusalem to Beersheba, including much of the area bordering the Dead Sea. There were about 5 million Jews in Israel by 1995. Neighboring Lebanon was a peaceful country, half-Christian and half-Moslem, now it barely functions and the southern part is occupied by Israel. The country has lost many of its Christians, who have dropped from 52% to less than 30%. I have focused on the Israeli problem, but Arabs are rebelling over 250 years of domination by the West. Michael Binyon, of the Times of London, writes: "Islamic radicalism draws its strength from a burning sense of injustice. ... since Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, barely a decade has passed without some Muslim area in Asia and Africa being lost to the Western Christian powers, or Muslims fighting against the encroachments of these powers. The campaigns of the past century in Central Asia, East Indies, North Africa and India and more recent interventions in Iran, Turkey and the Arab world add up to more than 250 years of combat. Muslims see them as wars of religion, not only in defence of territory but also of Islam. ...if we think about the havoc the West has caused in the Muslim world, we think of what we have given...technology ...and the western way of life. We do not think of what we took away, what we destroyed...: Koranic education, a sense of community, social coherence, the old religious legal system; above all, respect for Muslim culture and values. ...The crisis has been gathering pace and bitterness. ...The result can be a zeal bred in the alleyways of Gaza or the slums of Teheran that sees hope only in the elimination of the enemy, the crushing of the "Great Satan."