History 1C: Lecture 19

The Middle East

*****The expression "middle East" is objectionable because it defines the region's location from a European point of view (the fact that this region is sometimes called the "near east" just adds to the confusion). Yet we will use the term Middle East for want of a better term. The region consists of Turkey, Iran, Arab lands southwest of Asia (including what is now Israel), and egypt. Some authorities include the Sudan and Afghanistan. North Africa is an extension of the Middle East sharing both Islamic faith and Arab culture with Egypt and the Arab countries. The middle east is the historic heartland of the Islamic world. "Islamic" is an adjective referring to the religion of Islam, the civilization of that grew up around Islam, or the people who believe in Islam. Muslim is the Arabic term for a person who accepts the faith. Arab refers not to religion but to ethnic identity and language. Most Arabs are Muslim, some are Christian, and some Jews still live in Arabic lands. Among middle eastern Muslims, the major non-Arab linguistic groups are Turks and Iranians.

I. Middle East

A. Crossroads for religious beliefs and migratory groups

B. Ethnically mixed

C. Western values hit after WWI

1. Ruled by Ottoman Empire til OE lost WWI

2. Mandate system (Wilsonian rhetoric: means that Britain and France did not own these "former" colonies but held them in trust for the League of Nations.

3. Treaty of Sevres they carved up the empire

a. Turks, Jews and Arabs all want some land

b. Britain and France also want a foothold to protect against the Bolsheviks

D. Treaty of Sevres (1920)

Final outcome of western grabbing at pieces of the now-defunct Ottoman Empire--France got Syria, Britain got Mesopotamia and Palestine and a protectorate over Egypt, Italy got the Dodecanese islands, Soviet Russia despite promises made by the allies did not get Constantinople and the Straits, but rather they were left under Turkish rule and to be demilitarized and placed under international control.

These provisions, so contrary to the stated aims of self determination at Versailles aroused a wave of resistance throughout the Middle East. A number of factors allowed the Arabs to scrap the Sevres treaty altogether and the Arabs won piecemeal concessions after ten years of stubborn struggle.

1.Problems of the Sevres Treaty:

a. Some of area under Greek control

b. Britain and France get some control through Mandate system

c. Doesn't resolve question permanently

d. Problems from then on a result of this treaty

II. Post WWII

The Middle East is, of course, a critically important region of the Third World, especially at the moment. Its strategic position and particularly its extensive oil reserves make it an area of great interest to the developed powers.

Unfortunately, the area is a powder keg and is almost certain to remain so for the foreseeable future. Tensions exist along three main lines:

Between categories of regime: traditional Arab monarchies and sheikdoms (e.g., Saudi Arabia and Kuwait); secular states, frequently dominated by the military and dedicated to the introduction of western technology and ideas, albeit sometimes with an Islamic veneer (e.g., Egypt, Syria, Iraq); and a revolutionary "Islamic Republic" (Iran).

Between "haves" and "have-nots;" i.e., countries with valuable natural resources (Saudia Arabia, Gulf States) and those without (Jordan, Egypt).

Between practically every Arab state and Israel.

The Creation of Israel

Israel occupies a unique position in the Middle East. It was created in 1948, under U.N. mandate, as a Jewish homeland.

Despite a vigorous Zionist movement since the 1890s, Israel probably would not have come into being but for the appalling moral example of the Holocaust.

From an Arab standpoint, it is essentially a European state forcibly imposed onto Arab lands. The Israelis essentially face the same problem as white South Africans: how to create an enduring society in a hostile political environment. Do you oppose that environment implacably or seek to come to terms?

In the forty-two years of its existence, Israel has fought four major wars, two quasi-wars, and an almost continuous low-intensity conflict against terrorism and internal revolt.

Nasser and Arab Nationalism

The first war with Arab states took place in 1948, as soon as Israel was founded. The Arabs lost. It was during this war that the now-intractable Palestinian refugee problem began.

The original U.N. mandate created both an Israel and a Palestine, whose frontiers were arranged in a "jigsaw" pattern that U.N. diplomats naively thought would be militarily indefensible and hence would deter war.

At Arab urging, many Palestinians left their homes when fighting broke out, certain that they could soon return.

But Israel won the war and established precarious but defensible borders that pretty much obliterated the old Palestinian areas.

In 1952, Abdel Gamal Nasser, a visionary who dreamed of uniting Arabs from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, became dictator of Egypt after a military coup.

Nasser's mantle, by the way, is one that Saddam Hussein occasionally likes to portray himself as wearing. But Saddam's pan-Arabism is probably a manipulative scam. Nasser's was powerful and genuine.

The Suez Crisis, 1956

Until 1956, Great Britain continued to hold a Suez canal zone somewhat like the U.S. Panama Canal zone. In that year, weary of terrorist attacks on its sentries, Britain withdrew from the canal zone. Nasser promptly confiscated the canal, seized it from its European owners, challenged Israel by sponsoring guerrilla raids into Israel, and provoked the U.S. by accepting massive infusions of Soviet military aid.

Britain and France, in collaboration with Israel but without consulting the U.S., invaded the Mediterranean end of the canal zone.

President Eisenhower, furious (he had sought to mollify Arab nationalism), sternly pressured the British into withdrawing. The French sullenly followed.

Israel defeated Egypt in a brief war but Nasser gained much prestige by standing up to the West.

The Six-Day War, 1967

In 1967, aware that Arab forces intended to attack it at any moment, Israel launched a brilliant pre-emptive attack that resulted in the seizure of the Sinai peninsula and West Bank.

The War of Atonement, 1973.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. This time Israel took longer to win but also acquired the Golan Heights from Syria.

The Arabs, furious with the U.S. for supporting Israel, organized an oil embargo through the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The Camp David Accords, 1979.

The U.S., interested in maintaining its strategically valuable relationship with Israel while improving relations with the Arab countries, tried repeatedly to find a peaceful, lasting resolution to the Arab-Israeli antagonism.

The most successful effort, by President Jimmy Carter, resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979 after two years of careful negotiation. Not coincidentally, Carter employed some techniques not unlike Gandhi's satyagraha.

The agreement, however, created outrage in many Arab quarters. Anwar Sadat, the courageous, far-sighted Egyptian President who signed the accords, was assassinated by embittered army officers in 1981.

Operation "Peace for Galilee," 1982.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian refugee problem remained severe for Israel. It presided over hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, some of whom lived relatively contentedly in Israel, most of whom languished -- alienated and angry -- in refugee camps on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Various Palestinian terrorist organizations, of which the PLO under Yasser Arafat is the most famous, launched constant attacks from bases in Jordan and (after Jordan kicked them out in 1971) Lebanon.

Lebanon was in a state of constant strife and civil war from 1975 onward. The absence of effective Lebanese government permitted the PLO to create, in effect, its own little state within a state in the southern part of the country.

In 1982 Israel attacked this area, drove the PLO out of the country, and established a security buffer zone in southern Lebanon where they remain to this day.

The attack alienated many American and European supporters of Israel and signalled a new Israeli hard line.

In December 1987, Palestinians in the West Bank rose up in a low-level, on-going revolt called the Intifada. That revolt continues to this day.

The Iranian Revolution, 1978-79.

The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988.