The mandates also set one of the most tragic and intractable conflicts of modern times: the conflict over Palestine which has, since 1948, ignited four wars, sent masses of Palestinian Arabs into exile, contributed to the energy crisis of 1973, and, from 1975 on, fueled the civil war in Lebanon.The conflict over Palestine actually goes back to 1896, when Theodor Herzl published a pamphlet called Der Judenstaat in which he advocated British-backed Jewish colonization in Argentina or Palestine. Herzl's writings and personal advocacy led to a political movement dedicated to the creation of such a state, and eventually focusing on Palestine. The Zionist claim to Palestine was mainly based on the fact that there had been periods of Hebrew rule in Canaan and the land west of the Jordan River between 1300 B.C. and A.D. 70.The Arabs considered this claim to be without substance.