Creation of Israel

Israel was created in 1948 after 50 years of trying to establish a Jewish homeland.  The leader of this movement was Theodore Herzl.  The movement was solidified with the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which expressed Britain support of the creation of a Jewish state.  After World War 1, violence between Arab and Jewish people steadily increased.  On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was official and Arabians immediately began attacking the newly profound state.  This feud became known as Israel’s war for independence.  It basically consisted of Israel vs. Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.  Surprisingly, Israel won and gained much territory. 

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Iranian Revolution

Between 1953 and 1963 there was unrest in Iran due to social and economic problems.  The Shah was governing Iran and he had a very good relationship with the U.S.  He gave us an abundance of oil.  Unfortunately, the Shah, however gracious and giving he was to us, treated his people very poorly.  There was poverty and famine in Iran over the course of his reign.  While he had the support of the upper and middle class, the Shah was resented by the lower class.  Many Muslims were disturbed by the United States relations and presence in Iran, thinking they were replacing Britain.  Rivalry began to sprout from conservative Muslims.  The Shah wanted to modernize Iran while the conservatives wanted to stay old fashioned.  Uprisings were beginning to threaten the Shah, so he leaves Iran.  The country was then, and currently is, ruled by strict Islamic law.  Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran out of anger and President Jimmy Carter for mediating the Camp David Accords.  52 hostages were taken and held 444 days.  The day Jimmy Carter was out of office, the hostages were released. 

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Iraq invasion of Kuwait

Iraq invaded Kuwait mostly because of the oil reserves that were there.  Iraq sent in 140,000 troops to Kuwait along with 1,800 tanks.  Kuwait on the other hand only had 16,000 soldiers.  Kuwait, for its small size and population, was doing quite well before Iraq invaded, but once Iraq was there, Kuwait was no match for Iraq’s manpower.  Iraq was going through economic hardships and Kuwait had some of the largest oil deposits in the world.  Consequently, Kuwait was very appealing to Iraq.  After the invasion, King Hussein of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt condemned Saddam’s decision.  The Middle Eastern countries asked President Bush to not intercede just yet and give them a chance to handle the situation on their own.  Bush obliged and left the situation alone for a few days.  Saddam was in favor of containing the situation because he despised foreign involvement from those who it didn’t concern such as the US.   The mistreatment of the Kuwait people was horrendous.  Women were raped, children murdered and abuse was abundant.

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Camp David Accords

In September 1978, Israel and Egypt signed two agreements known as the “Camp David Accords”.  President Anwar Sadat of Eqypt and Prime Minister Menachen Begin of Israel came up with the accords.  President Jimmy Cater also attended the meeting.  In fact, the meeting was held at Camp David Retreat in Maryland.  The two agreements were one; conclusion of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and two; framework for achieving peace in the Middle East.   The conclusion of a peace treaty included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Sinai Peninsula and right of passage of Israel ships through the Suez Canal.  The actually peace treaty was singed in 1979 and it closely resembled Camp David’s outline.  The fact that the treaty and possible end to violence was even being discussed at Camp David was a victory in itself for both sides. 

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Six-Day War

The Arabian states refused to recognize Israel as a state.  They thought that Israel had no right to be in existence.  The Six day war took place in June 1967.  The six-day war was commenced by General Moshe Dayan.  Israel thought they were going to be a attacked and thought this to be a counter-attack.  The war was fought between Syria, Jordan and Egypt.  Egypt had stationed its military in the Suez zone which Israel thought was a battle position in preparation for attack.  Instead of waiting from Egypt to make the first move, Israel made a military attack on the aerial forces of the three countries.  Israel defeated Jordan and Egyptian forces and then actually went into Syria and the Suez Canal.  Gamal Abdul Nasser, who was thought to be invincible, had a great loss.  The victory was vast for Israel, but this had given the new state a problem.  Now that Israel had so much new territory, it had Arab people in their boundaries.  The Arab residents joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was deemed a terrorist group by Israel officials.  Now, the Israel police had a new job on their hands.

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Pan Arabism

Pan Arabism is the concept of that all Arab should be united as a single state.  This concept strongly opposed western involvement in the Middle East.  The United Arab Republic in 1958 was the first attempt to make Pan Arabism a reality and not just a concept.  In 1971 the state officially became bust and ended.  The second and third attempt was in Libya conducted by Muammar al-Gaddafi, both of which failed.  Pan Arabism soon was moved to a less prevalent concept in society under Fundamentalism.

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The Cairo Conference of 1921

The Cairo Conference was held in March 1921 at the Semiramus Hotel in Cairo.  Winston Churchill hosted the event with the consent of his advisor T.E. Lawrence.  Churchill was a colonial secretary for Britain at the time and wanted to stabilize the British position in the Middle East while cutting expenses.  At the time the conference was held, Britain had just terminated an Arab revolt that had a financial toll of 40 million pounds.  Also, it was post WW2 so British citizens wanted the soldiers home from overseas.  The main objectives of the conference was to reduce British military overseas, to politically control Britain’s oversea territory stated in the Sykes-Picot agreement and to protect oil reserves in Iraq.  Another goal was to preserve the trade route in India.  The Cairo Conference appointed Faysal as king of Iraq and his brother Abdullah as the leader of Eastern Palestine, or Transjordan.  Arabs and Zionists were both unsatisfied with the outcome of the conference but Britain could withdraw its troops from Eastern Palestine and therefore cut many expenses. 
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