Meanwhile, deep in the Macedonian Empire

One of the advantages of having a little perspective and understanding of history is that when people say that they have a right to piece of land X because their ancestors had it you realise that their ancestors had it because they stole it from someone else.

Take a look at this animation, which shows changes in rule of the Middle East (and bits of Europe) over the last 3500 years. It's a tad incomplete, and the supposition at the end seems remarkably unlikely to me - but it gets the general point across.