11 Conflict in the Middle East, lowe notes, i love history and bob marley

11 Conflict in the Middle East


Summary of events

The area of Middle East has been one of the world’s most troubled regions, especially since 45
The Middle East contains the following states: Egypt, the Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Turkey, the Yemen republics, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Oman
Most of the states except Turkey and Iran are peopled by Arabs. Iran contains though a big number of Arabs.
The Middle East contains also the small state of Israel, set up by the UN in 48
The creation of Israel, an area that belonged to Palestine, outraged Arab opinion throughout the world (other Arab states outside the Middle East are: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya)
The Arabs especially blamed the British because they were more sympathetic to the Jews than the Arabs.
The Arab states blamed US the most because they supported the idea of a Jewish state very strongly
The Arab states refused to recognize Israel as a state and vowed to destroy it
Although there were 4 short wars between Israel and the Arab states (48-49; 56; 67; 73), Arab attacks failed and Israel survived
Two other ideas got mixed up with the anti Israel struggle:

1. The desire of some Arabs to achieve political and economical unity among the Arab states
2. The desire of many Arabs to put an end for the foreign intervention in their countries. The Middle East attracted a lot of attention from both Western and Communist powers because of its strategic position and rich oil resources

· In this case you must use source criticism. The British thought Colonel Nasser was some kind of Hitler while most Arabs thought he was a hero, the symbol of unity and freedom.


11.1 Arab unity and interference from the outside world


a) Arabs have several things in common

1. They all speak the Arab language
2. they’ re all Muslims
3. they all wanted to destroy Israel, so that Palestine could gain back their country
4. many Arabs wanted to form a sort of political and economic union


· several attempts were made to increase unity among the arab states

1. The Arab League (45) included Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Membership later expanded to 20 states 1980. However, it achieved very little politically and was constant hampered by internal squabbles.
2. in the mid 50 the Arab Unity received a boost with the energetic leadership of Colonel Gamal Nasser of Egypt who gained lots of prestige after the Suez Crisis. In 58 Syria joined Egypt to form the United Arab Republic with Naseer as President. This only lasted until 61, when Syria withdrew because Nasser wanted to dominate the union
3. After Nasser’s death in 70, his successor President Sadat organized a loose union between Egypt, Syria and Libya, known as the Federation of Arabs Republics, but it never amounted much


In spite of the things that they had in common, the Arab states disagreed over certain things:
Jordan and Saudi Arabia were ruled and still are by conservative families who were often criticized for being too pro British by the governments of Egypt and Syria, which were pro Arab nationalists as well as socialist
The other Arab states fell out Egypt in 79 because Egypt signed a separate peace treaty with Israel. This caused Egypt to be expelled from the Arab league

b) Interference in the Middle East by other countries
This happened because of several factors:

1.
Britain and France have been involved in the Middle East for a long time
Britain ruled Egypt since 1882 until 1922 when the country was given self independence with own king. Nevertheless, the British remained in Egypt and still controlled the population
After the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were given several countries in the Middle East to prepare them for independence. This process was called for “mandates”.
Although Britain gave independence to Iraq 32 and Jordan 46, both remained pro British
France gave independence to Syria and Lebanon 45 but hoped to maintain influence in the areas

2.
The Middle East held a very important strategic position in the world. It acted as a sort of crossroad between the Western nations, the communist bloc and the Third World countries
3
The Middle East once produced 1/3 of the world’s oil.
4.
The lack of unity in the Middle East encouraged other countries to intervene


Most Arab states had nationalist governments which bitterly resented (disliked) Western influence. One by one, ever government which was thought pro western was replaced. This meant being free to act independently of both East and West


Egypt

· At the end of WW2 British troops stayed on in in the canal zone of Egypt (the area around the Suez Canal)
· This would maintain British control over the canal, in which over half of the shares were owned by the British and French
· In 52 some Egyptian army officers overthrew Farouk, the king of Egypt because he was not firm enough with the British
· The officers gained power themselves and by 54 Colonel Gamal Nasser became President and his policy led to the Suez War of 56
· This brought complete humiliation for Britain and end of British influence in Egypt


2. Jordan

King Abdullah had been given his throne by the British in 46
He was assassinated in 51 by nationalists who disliked British influence
His successor, King Hussein ended the treaty which allowed British troops to use bases in Jordan and then all British troops withdrew 57

3. Iraq

King Faisal and his Prime Minister Said were pro British. In 55 they signed an agreement with Turkey THE BAGHDAD PACT to set up a joint defense and economic policy
Pakistan, Iran and Britain also joined. Britain promising to help Iraq if she was attacked
The British humiliation in Iraq encouraged the anti British movement in Iraq to act
The King was murdered and Iraq became a republic
The new government was sympathetic to Egypt and withdrew from the PACT.
This marked the end of Britain’s attempt to play a major role in Arab affairs


4. Iran

In Iran important changes took place
Iran was the only Middle East state which had a frontier with the USSR
In 45 the Russians tried to set up a communist government in northern Iran where the communism had great influence
The ruler Reza Pahlevi resisted the Russians and signed a defense treaty with the USA 50
The Americans considered the situation as part of the Cold War and supplied Reza with military and economic aid
Nevertheless there was a strong nationalist movement in Iran which resented all foreign influence. This soon began to turn against Britain and the USA
This was because Britain held a majority of the shares in the Anglo Iranian Oil Company. It was felt that the British took too much of the profits
In 51 the Premier of Iran Dr Mussadiq nationalized the company
Most of the world, encouraged by Britain boycotted Iran’s oil and Mussadiq was forced to resign
In 54 they compromised; Britain gained 40% of the shares and Iran now took 50% of the profits
This was not enough for the left and devout Muslims. They resented the Shah’s close ties with the USA which they considered to be an immoral influence in the country. They also suspected that a big amount of the country’s GNI was going to private fortune
In 79 the Shah was forced t leave the country and an Islamic republic was set up under a religious leader, the Ayatollah (high priest) Khomeini. Like Nasser, he wanted his country to be non aligned





11.2 The creation of Israel and the Arab –Israeli war 48-49

a) Why did the creation of the state Israel lead to war

1.
· everything started almost 2000 years ago, when the Jews were driven out from their country by the Romans
· until the end of the 19th century though, there were never enough Jews to make the Arabs, who now looked on their Palestine as their homeland
2.
In 1887 the Jews that lived in Europe founded the World Zionist Organization in Basel. They believed that the Jews who already suffered persecution in Russia, France and Germany should gain an own refugee. This would be in their old homeland
3.
Britain became involved in 1917 when they supported the Jewish idea of a Jewish state
After 1919 when Palestine became a British mandate, large numbers of Jews began to arrive in Palestine and the Arabs protested a lot
They wanted an independent Palestine for the Arabs and the end of Jewish immigration of Jews
The British explained that the Jews had no will of occupying the whole state of Palestine and claimed that these two could share the same state without being an obstacle for each other





4.
Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany caused a lot of refugees and by 40 half of the Palestine population was Jewish
In 37 the British Peel Commission proposed a dividing Palestine into two different states, but the Arabs rejected the idea
In 39, the British tried again offering an independent Arab state within 10 years, but this time the Jews rejected the idea

5.
WW2 caused even more pressure. Because of Hitler’s persecutions several millions Jews wanted to have somewhere to go. The USA pressed Britain to allow 100 000 Jews into Palestine, but the British refused, not wanting to offend the Arabs.

6.
The Jews after Hitler decided to fight for an own homeland. They blew up the British headquarters, in order to convince the British to alter policies. The British responded by turning back ships that were coming full of Jews to Palestine
7.
The British unable to cope with the problem, also because of the consequences of WW2 gave the problem in the hand of the UN.
The UN voted 47 for a divided Palestine
48 Britain withdrew from the problem and let the UN to find the proper solutions
In 48 Ben Gurion declared independence of the new state of Israel, and withdrew all her troops
Israel was already fighting with Palestine and other countries such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, immediately attacked Israel

b) Who was to blame for the tragedy?
· Some people blamed Britain for taking such an immature decision. It was claimed that the British troops could have stayed until the partition of Palestine became peacefully. The Jews accused Britain for being pro Arab and for reducing the immigration in the country and the Arabs accused the British for being pro Jews
· The British blamed the Americans. They said that the USA which reduced the Jewish immigration to the US to 0. They accused the Americans also for rejecting the Morison Plan which would have set up Arab and Jewish provinces under British supervision. It was also the Americans that pushed for the idea of a divided Palestine
· Some historians defend the British. They claim that the British tried to be as fare as possible and trough their withdrawal, they would force the US and the UN to react. Britain did not have resources to keep on fighting neither.

c) The war and its outcome

Most people expected the Jews to loose. But not only that the Jews defeated the Arabs, they also gained more territory than UN gained them.
The Jews desperate war lead to victory and to a huge amount of victims
A huge amount of the Arabs, being afraid of the Jews fled to neighboring countries, where they had to live in miserable conditions
The USA, France and Britain guaranteed the borders of Israel but Palestine promised that the ceasefire was only interim
The Arabs claimed that they would not recognize the legality of Israel and warned that this was only the first attempt of gaining control and destroy Israel


11.3 The Suez War 1956

a) Who was to blame for the war

It is possible to blame different countries depending on the views

The Arabs blamed the Israelis who actually began their hostilities against Egypt
The communist bloc and many Arab states blamed Britain and France accusing them of imperialist tactics (trying to keep control in the Middle East against the Arab wish) by attacking Egypt. They accused the Americans of encouraging Britain to attack
The British, French and Jews blamed Colonel Nasser for being anti Western
Some British historians agree that Britain overreacted by using force

1- Nasser was pro Arab unity and anti Israel, so everything he did irritated the British, Americans or French
· He organized guerrilla fighters that would go inside Israel and sabotage and murder
· In 36 the British signed an agreement with Egypt which would allow them to keep troops at Suez. When it expired in 56 the British wanted it to be renewed, but Nasser refused
· He helped other anti western conflicts
· He signed an arms deal with the communist bloc 55 which give the Egyptian military Russian aid and training

2. The Americans were very hostile to this decision. They knew that Egypt had become a part of the Cold War and treated Egypt like USSR. USA cancelled the grant of 46 million dollars towards the building of a dam. Trough this decision, they wanted the Egyptians to abandon the Russian aid

3. Nasser nationalized the canal and the shares which were mainly British and French. Through the nationalization he wanted to supply the dam. He promised compensation to the shareholders
4. The British believed that Nasser wanted to build an united Arabia under Egyptian control and communist influence, which could cut off all Europe’s oils supplies. The British actually ignored the fact that Nasser had offered them compensation and had promised that their all ships (except Israel) would be allowed to use the canal
5. UK, France and Israel planned a coup. They would attack Egypt simultaneously, the first two with the pretext of defending interest. They would occupy the canal and topple Nasser from power.
6. there was actually a plan that could avoid the war, but the British and French rejected that possibility





b) The war

Israel attacked and captured the Sinai Peninsula and the French and British soon arrived too.
The Americans did not support the attack because they did not want any more problems with the Arabs
The Russians and Americans decided to end this war. They appeal an UN decision
The UN moved in and the invaders accepted to withdraw

c) The outcome of the war

· This was a triumph for Nasser and humiliation for Britain, France and Israel
· For the ordinary Arab people Nasser became a hero and the nationalism increased
· The Egyptians blocked the canal, the Arabs reduced oil supplies to western Europe and American aid was replaced by Russian
· The British action lost the Iraqi support, the pro British Iraqi president was murdered and exchanged by an anti British leader 58’-
· The Algerians were encouraged in their struggle for independence from France which they achieved in 62.
· The war for Israel was not a disaster because it stopped the fedayeen raids (the sabotage forces) and destroyed a huge amount of Egyptian equipment. This gave the Jews a breathing space in which to consolidate



11.4 The Six Day War of 1967


The Arab states still wanted to destroy Israel. In 67 they joined together again and wanted to destroy Israel. The lead was taken by Iraq, Syria and Egypt

a) The Build Up To War


In Iraq a new government came to power in 63 which was influenced by the ideas of the Ba’ath party in neighboring Syria. The Ba’ath believed in Arab independence and unity and was left wing in outlook, wanting social reform and better treatment for ordinary people. They were prepared to collaborate with Egypt and to wipe Israel off the map!
In Syria political upheavals brought the Ba’ath to power 66. they began also a bombard of Israel
In Egypt colonel Nasser was very popular, his socialist policies were very successful. They included the limiting size of farms and redistributing surplus land to the peasants, he attempted to industrialize the country; he built factories, and cared a lot about the Dam project that would supply a huge part of the country with water and electricity. Since everything went well at home, he decided to start a new attack on the Jews.
The Russians encouraged Egypt and Syria and continued with their anti Jew propaganda. Their aim was to increase their influence in the Middle East
Syria, Jordan and Lebanon also sent troops while Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria joined them
The Israelis decided that it’s the best to attack first, rather then be defeated. They devastated most of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground. Israeli troops moved fast capturing the Gaza Strip and the whole of Sinai from Egypt, the rest of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. The Arabs had no choice but to accept a UN ceasefire and everything was over in less then a week. The reason for the Jewish successes were:
The slow Arab troop build up which gave the Israelis plenty of warning
Israeli superiority in the air
Inadequate Arab preparations and communications

b) Results of the war.

For Israel it was a great success: they actually gained more territory, but also a new problem occurred. What should they make with the Arabs in the captured areas?
It was a humiliation for the Arab states and especially for Nasser that now realized that he needs foreign aid in order to win against the Jews. The Russians did not sent aid, and in order to restore relations with the Arab states, the Russians now supplied them with modern weapons. The next arab attempt to destroy Israel came in 73 with the Yom Kippur War

11.5 The Yom Kippur War of 1973

a) Events leading up to the war

· The Palestine Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat contained a more extreme group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This smaller group considered that too little action was going on, so they hi-jacked airliners and flew 3 of them to Jordan where they blew them up. All this to show the world the injustice to the Arabs in Palestine. This was embarrassing for King Hussein of Jordan, who now favored a negotiated peace and in sept. 70 expelled all PLO members based in Jordan. This terrorist attack went on and some Jews were killed under 72’s Munich’s Olympics
· Before PLO terrorism turned world opinion against them, Sadat the president of Egypt since Nasser’s death in 70, was becoming increasingly convinced of the need for a negotiated peace settlement with Israel. He tried to gain the American support but they refused to get involved
· Sadat, together with Syria, decided to attack Israel again, hoping that this would force the Americans to react as mediator (middleman). The Egyptians had modern army and were feeling confident

b) The war began on 6 October 1973

Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked on the feast of Yom Kippur, a Jewish religious festival, hoping to catch the Israelis off guard.
After some early Arab successes, the Israelis using mainly American weapons were able to turn the tables.
The Jews were undefeatable; they even hung on to the territory which they gained in 67 and even crossed the Suez Canal into Egypt.
The UN decided to intervene. They proposed a ceasefire that both sides accepted

c) The outcome of the war

The end of the war gave the people some hope of peace
Egyptian and Israeli leaders came together (not in the same room) in Geneva
The Israelis agreed to withdraw their troops from Suez, if the Egyptians would open the canal (closed since 67), but not to Israeli ships
The Arab oil producing states tried to bring pressure to bear on the USA and to Western European states that were friendly to Israel, by reducing oil supplies
This caused serious oil shortages, especially in Europe
Because of the oil need, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began to raise oil prices substantially. This contributed to inflation and caused energy crisis in the world’s industrial nations

11.6 Camp David and the Egyptian –Israeli peace 78-79

a) Why did the 2 sides begin to talk to each other?

· President Sadat understood that Israel could not be defeated by force, and it was foolish to keep on spending resources on war. In spite of all dangers, he decided to go to Israel and talk to Knesset (Jewish parliament)
· Israel suffered economic problems, partly because of their defense and world repression
· The US pressed them to improve relations with at least some of the Arabs and the Jewish Prime Minister Menahem Begin, visited Egypt the following month
· President Carter of USA played a vital role in setting up formal negotiations between the 2 sides at Camp David, near Washington which began in September 78.

b) The Peace Treaty and its aftermath

With Carter acting as intermediary, the main points made were:
The state of war which had existed between Egypt and Israel since 48 was now ended
Israel promised to withdraw its troops from Sinai
Israeli ships could use the Suez canal
This treaty was condemned by PLO
World opinion began to move against Israel and to accept that the PLO had a good case
But when the USA tried to bring the PLO and Israel together, the Israelis would not cooperate
This treaty caused the death of Sadat of Egypt; he was killed by a Muslim because he was considered as a traitor. His successor Mubarak announced that he will continue the Camp David agreement
During the 80’s the conflict was reduced for a while because of the Iran-Iraq war which took plenty of attention. Then the Muslims in camps protested also against the brutal Jewish behavior

11.7 Peace between Israel and the PLO

The elections of a less aggressive government in Israel (labor) 92 raised the hopes for better relations with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Peres both believed in negotiation. Arafat, the PLO leader responded and talks opened. But there was so much mutual suspicion
· Nevertheless both sides preserved and by 96 remarkable changes took place



a) The peace of September 93

This was the most important, it was agreed that:

Israel formally recognized the PLO
The PLO should recognize Israel’s right to exist and to give up terrorism
Israeli troops would withdraw from parts of the Gaza strip and West Bank.

· Extremists on both sides opposed this agreement
· People were still against each other, but they had the courage to take the first step

b) Self Rule for the Palestinians (September 95 )

· Israel agreed to withdraw its troops from most of the West Bank. This would end Israeli control of the areas which they held since 1967
· All Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would be released in 3 phases
· The extremist’s of the country claimed that their leaders were guilty of shameful surrender
· Tragically Rabin was murdered and Peres became the Prime Minister
· The murder caused a disgust against the extremists and the agreement was put into operation
· In 96 King Hussein of Jordan paid a public visit to Israel, for the first time
· Arafat became the new president, which was expected to hold office until 99 when it was hoped a permanent peace agreement would have been reached
· The situation changed dramatically in 96, when 4 suicide bombings carried out by militant Palestinian groups, Hamas, claimed 63 lives























11.8 Conflict in the Lebanon

· Lebanon was made a French mandate at the end of WW1 and became fully independent in 45
· It soon became a prosperous country, making money from banking and from serving as an important passage for the exports of Syria, Jordan and Iraq
· However in 74 civil war broke out, it ended soon but chaos and disorder continued through the 80’s

a) What caused civil war to break out in 75?

Religious differences

· There were 4 main Christian groups were: Maronites (wealthiest and most conservative), Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenians.
Muslim: Shia (the largest group, mainly poor working class), Sunni (smaller group, wealthier and more political influence), Druze (small peasant groups)


· There was a long history of hatred between Maronites and Druzes
· The president was always a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni, the speaker s Shia and the army chief always a Druze

The presence of Palestinian refuges from Israel

· This complicated the situation even more. They were always fighting and the Christians in the country thought they were a bad influence.
· By 75 the PLO had its headquarters in Lebanon, and this meant that Syria, the chief supporter of the PLO, was constantly interfering in Lebanon’s affairs

A dispute between Muslims and Christians over fishing rights (75)

· This upset the delicate balance
· It began when the Muslims in the country joined the Palestinian Muslims and faced the Christians in the country
· Soon a full scale civil war developed: the Maronites saw it as a chance to expel the Palestinians who had formed an alliance with the Druze , long time enemies of Maronites
· The both sides accused and blamed each other
· For a time it looked that the Muslims would win, but then the Jews warned to attack Lebanon. Syria, did not want this to happen. So Syria, sent troops to avoid a Jewish attack and to control PLO troops. Now Syria was in charge of the country. Arafat had to agree to withdraw his stupid troops







b) Chaos continued

· It took over 10 years before peace started to arise
· In the south fighting started between Palestines and Christians, the Jews helped us with troops
· A small semi independent Christian state of Free Lebanon was established
· By 82 there were 7000 UN troops in the area and was a constant struggle of peace
· In 82, in a reprisal for a Palestinian attack on Israel, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon and penetrated so far as Beirut
· For the time the Gemayels supported by the Jews were in control of Beirut
· During this period Palestinians were expelled from Beirut and PLO got divided
· The Jews withdrew, the hardliners were not welcomed where they went and a multi national force was set up to maintain the peace
· However, a spate of attacks and suicide bombings forced them to withdraw
· In 84 an alliance of Shia and Druze backed by Syria drove President Gemayel out of the country

At the end of 1986 the situation was extremely complex

Shiite Amal militia backed by Syria alarmed at the new renewed strength of the PLO which seemed likely to set up a state within a state, were surrounded the refugee camps hoping to starve the to death into surrender
At the same time an alliance of Druze and communists was trying to drive Amal out of West Beirut. Several European and American hostages were seized
With the country seeming to be in state of total disintegration, President Assad of Syria, sent troops and tanks into West Beirut 87.

c) Peace at last
In 90 important changes were introduced in the country’s constitution, giving the Muslims fairer representation.
The government gradually restored its authority over more and more of the country and managed to get most of the militia armies disbanded


11.9 The Iran-Iraq War 80-88

The Middle East got even more confused when Iraq invaded Iran

a) Iraq’s motives

· President Hussein was afraid of militant Islam spreading across the border into Iraq from Iran. Iran had become an Islamic republic in 79 under the leadership of Ayatollah
· Iran’s government wanted to be ruled by God.
· The population of Iraq was mainly Sunni muslims but there was a large Shia minority.
· Saddam whose government was non religious, was afraid that the Shia’s might rise against him and he had some of the leaders executed by 80
· The Iraqis claimed that the Iranian province of Khuzestan should rightfully belong to them. This was an area peopled largely by Arabs and Saddam hoped that they would support Iraq
·