Excellent read. This is a fascinating problem that keeps coming up for the simple reason you mentioned. Tribes feel entitled to what they have. Some want more.

My almost 90-year-old mother comments about her father complaining about the problems in the Middle East back in 1947 when she was a kid.

When tribes make deals to grow and expand, there's conflict. As my father used to point out, most problems involve one of four things: land, money, control, or sex.

The leaders of Hamas are sipping tea in their penthouses in Qatar while collecting donations for the poor, oppressed Palestinians.

Orthodox Jews gain religious exemptions from military duty while holding fast to the belief that the Arabs should be driven into the sea.

The American Christian Zionists can't wait for the rapture, so they do whatever they can to push for the "final conflict" in the Middle East.

The rest of us just shake our heads when these things flare up and wonder if it will never end.