Jari Iivanainen has written very interesting article about Middle-East backgrounds....

http://koti.phnet.fi/elohim/Lastdays6

When talking about events before the coming of Jesus Christ, one of the most essential features is the contention around Israel and especially around Jerusalem because this area and the Middle East will be the main stage during the last days. This geographical area has also been in the media and in the headlines of newspapers probably more than any other thing during the last decades and often in the negative sense. It is probably due to the fact that this country has continuously been a target of attacks from the outside and from the inside – it has experienced three large wars and numerous suicide attacks – which has sustained the interest of the media.

But before we start examining the present-day events in this area and the future of this area in the light of the Bible's prophecies in detail, we are going to take a quick review of its history. We are going to look at e.g. what was the fate of the land and who ruled it after the year 70 A.D., when Jerusalem and its temple had been destroyed. Likewise, we are going to look at who are the Palestinians, where they have come from and other relevant issues. They are important matters to clarify in order to understand the background of the present problems.