After the Third World War of 1995, much of the Levant became uninhabited and uninhabitable and almost all of the surviving population was dispersed to other parts of the planet. However, an initially small party of Jews not native to the area continued to maintain that they had the Right Of Return. Due to the technological fallout resulting from the developments of orbital habitats, long-haul planetary missions and the lunar and Martian bases, it proved to be possible to build sealed habitats on the sites of the former cities which were self-contained and self-sufficient. In 1997, a man claiming to be the Messiah led the construction of these bases and founded a new nation in the area.