Hi everyone, it's Beth here for a primer on Israel and Palestine.

I told a friend of mine that I was working on this primer and she said,

well, if you're going to talk about the Israelis and the Palestinians,

you're going to have to start with Adam and Eve.

And I think that she's right in a lot of senses that there's always going to be more complexity to this situation,

more history, more elements of faith and political interest than anyone could possibly cover in one place.

So as with all of our primers, I want to do my disclaimers. I'm not an expert.

I recognize that what I'm about to tell you is going to be oversimplified.

It is going to be incomplete.

But I'm hoping that I can give you enough context that you can watch what's unfolding in the news right now

with a little bit more clarity about the background because we're hearing so much about Israel.

And I think that many of us don't have the full picture.

So I'm going to give you as much of that picture as I can from the perspective of just another human being.

I have not spent my life or any portion of it devoted to Middle Eastern studies.

I've just done some research. I've read a lot.

And I've tried my best to condense my understanding into about 20 minutes for us together.

So since a lot of what we're talking about in the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians revolves around land,

I want to talk about how much land is at issue.

The state of Israel is a little bit larger than the United States state of New Jersey.

So this is a very small area. And I think that helps explain some of the volatility.

You know, we have a lot going on in a really small territory and a lot of people who feel claim to that territory.

Not just the people who live there, but when you think about the religious significance to many traditions of Jerusalem and Bethlehem,

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