thing is, it's not just oil, it's about water (israel is afaik one of the parts of the middle east most rich in water along with turkey afaik), it's about strategic routes and supply lines, proximity to russia and the caucasus (and that's, especially chechnya, georgia etc, going become the real prize, evne more important than the middle east, espeically given the wealth of oil, sea access and other resources there, when oil is becoming increasingly scarce) and it's about religion. this will always be an issue to the world superpowers because of jerusalem and the ideological and cultural importance of it in christianity and islam, and there is something of an uneasiness about transferring (or threatening to transfer) control of it over to people who've freqently been seen as unbelievers or less friendly with the christian world (kathleen richardson goes in detail into this in her book perceptions of palestine), i know that jews were not seen like this, but the original colonists and to a lesser extent the largely ashkenazi elite are still seen as being more european today. I think the role of religion is always overstated in world affairs but not necessarily in this case.
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