I think most people are puzzled by the intractable and irrational nature of the Middle East conflict. They want to know why the struggling nations in the Middle East can’t just get along. You would think, after so many generations of conflict, they would eventually get tired of it all and make peace.
The problem is though, that the conflicts in the Middle East are irrational. And they aren’t going to yield to rational solutions. These conflicts are so old that the people who hate one another have long since forgotten why they hate one another. The troubles in the Middle East are as old as the sons and grandsons of a man named Abraham.
It was true of Jacob and Esau, grandsons of Abraham. These two boys were twins, but a long way from identical. And they were struggling with each other even in the womb. We begin their story in Genesis, chapter 25.