Many commentators describe the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people and between Israel and several Muslim-majority states as the biggest threat to global peace. Many recognize that resolution must be a diplomatic priority. Yet, the conflict is now, by one reckoning at least, 86 years old. This dates the conflict from the outbreak of Arab anti-Jewish riots in 1920–21. Speaking at the United Nations on 19 September 2006, French President Jacques Chirac identified the conflict as the ‘epicenter of global instability’. The conflict, like those in Northern Ireland and the Balkans, can be characterized in terms of rival nationalisms, between Israeli nationalism and Palestinian nationalism, contesting for the same territory. Any religious aspect can be downplayed, serving perhaps as a marker of identity since most Israelis are Jewish and most Palestinians are Muslim. Reference to Israel as the land that God promised, then gave to, the Jewish people might appear to elevate a religious aspect above others. However, by no means all Jews use religion or the Bible to justify their current claim on the land, although some do. The Palestinian claim on the land may be said to be primarily that of a long historical occupation. Specifically Islamic elements, such as the conviction that the initial Muslim conquest of Palestine was a sign of divine favor and that once territory has become part of the Dar-al-Islam (House of Islam) it must be defended, which is a sacred duty, can be regarded as secondary to the claim of possession based on historical occupancy (see Selengut 2003: 34–5).