Arab v Jew - an endless conflict?

Often we think tension in the Middle East must have reached breaking point especially in Israel where religious, territorial, and cultural jealousies are it seems always at fever pitch.  Any Arab misdemeanour triggers impetuous reprisals by Jews - and vice versa of course if the Israelis step out of line.  To make matters worse, so much of the oil we seem unable to live without, lies under this troubled region.  Of all the world's trouble spots, this is the one we would most like to see peacefully stable.  Yet peace is tantalisingly elusive.  Even though we have from time to time seen attempts to broker peace between the two sides.  Why is this?

If no explanation is required, the blunt answer is that God decreed that it would be so!  We have time for only a brief expansion of this point.

God promised Abraham, the first Jew, a son who would be the beginning of the Jewish nation.  But Abraham's wife was very old, and the prospect of having their first child seemed laughable.  Taking matters into his own hands, Abraham had a child by his wife's servant girl.  Ishmael, the servant girl's son was the father of the Arab nations.  Later his own wife Sarah had the promised son Isaac.

In Genesis chapter sixteen we read that Ishmael would be the father of great nations, and in verse twelve that he -

"- shall be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him -"

Similarly when Isaac was born - the real son and heir - jealously and conflict was inevitable.  The Arab Israeli conflict was born, and will continue until the time is ripe for God to settle it once and for all.  Settlement of this conflict and the return of Jesus will herald the dawn of a new and peaceful world.  The Bible tells us that this will be soon.