Arabs (they were not called Arabs then but that is what they were) invented god and Judaism and called themselves jews; jews invented jesus and called themselves christians. Meanwhile other Arabs reinvented god, calling him Allah inventing Islam.
Afterwards many other races became christians - the jews told a good story having had plenty of experience with judaism, and many other races became muslims. A few others became jews but the jews of today are mainly descendants of the early Arabs (yeah yeah I know they were all semites back then) that became followers of judaism. So the middle est is just Arab fighting Arab - good old fashioned family fued.
