AT THE EASTERN end of the Mediterranean Sea lies a small piece of land once known as Palestine, about 280 miles long by 80 miles wide at its widest point. The land has no significant natural resources. Its fertile areas are covered in fields of grain, orange groves, and orchards, but other regions are dry, hot, and nearly barren of life. The land has no precise boundaries, and it is not a state. Today the region comprises the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (both controlled by Israel), and part of the kingdom of Jordan. Though small in size, the region has been the center of conflict for thousands of years. It is a natural passageway between Egypt, to the southwest, and Syria, to the northeast, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the lands east of the Jordan River. Invaders have crisscrossed this narrow strip of...