The Arab-Israeli conflict over the land of Israel, or Palestine, has been going on for over 4,000 years, and still remains unresolved. The original causes to it lie in the Old Testament, where God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants, however the term 'descendants' has been defined differently by both sides of the conflict, and the causes changed in May 1948 as the Jews declared independence and the Arabs' war turned from a war of conquest to a war of liberation. In the book of Genesis, God says to Abraham: "I give this country to your posterity" (Genesis XV: 18), and so this is the common argument used by Jews to claim right over the holy land, however, according to sources, the 'posterity' referred to in Genesis includes the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son by his concubine Ketirah, which include the Arabs, Christians and the Muslims. When...