Arab-Israeli conflict

~noun

Entry: a conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs in the Middle East. The United Nations established Israel, a nation under control of Jews, in Palestine in the late 1940's, in territory inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. Israel was placed in the midst of four Arab nations - Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt - and the presence of Israel has led to constant contention between Israel and the Arab World. Both the Israelis and the Arabs claim land in Palestine as theirs by ancestral rights and war has periodically broken out between them.

@ Milton-Kindersley Advanced Dictionary