Reply #20: Actually

[Coastie for Truth]

Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were carved out of the former Ottoman Empire by the WW I victors, who then engaged in all manner of colonialistic and imperialistic and militaristic sport to:

a} Keep the oil under their influence, and
b) Have a Mediterranean littoral that could not pose a threat to the Suez Canal, the UK's East African colonies and South Asian colonies, and
c) Preclude the Russians from access to warm water ports.

You might want to read:

a) "A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" by F. William Engdahl, and
b) "Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East' by John Keay, and
c) - a blog run by an alternative energy guy who follows ME politics.