GCSE History: Conflict in the Middle East

Who lived in Palestine before WW1?

-The majority of the population was Arabs (650,000 people) with a minority of Jews (85,000)

-The Arabs had inhabited Palestine for centuries had had been mostly Muslim since the 7th century

-They wanted independence from Turkish rule

The Zionist Movement

-The Zionist movement aimed to allow the Jewish people to return to Palestine

-Palestine/Israel was the historic homeland of the Jewish people in biblical times but they had been forced to leave during the Roman occupation

-In Europe they faced persecution due to their lack of homeland e.g. periodic 'pogroms' in Tsarist Russia

-In the 19th century, the political movement emerged when a Hungarian Jewish writer and activist organised a Zionest world congress in Switzerland in 1896

-By 1914, 75,000 Jews had emigrated to Palestine, which caused resentment from the Arabs

The McMahon Letters (1915)

-Britain tried to win the support of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire, which was on Germany's side in WW1

-Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner of Egypt promised Sharif Hussein of Mecca (the most important Arab leader) that the British people would support the independence of the Arab people

-In return, the Sharif's son Prince Faisal formed a guerrilla army with Colonel T.E Lawrence to fight the Turks

The Sykes-Picot agreement (1916)

-Britain and France secretly agreed to partition the Middle East between them

The Balfour Declaration (1917)

-The British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to leading Zionist Lord Rothschild

-The letter offered a 'national home' for the Jewish people in Palestine

-This was vague and din't promise an independent state

-His aim was to gain support from the Jewish populations in the USA and Russia in order to influence their governments into supporting Britain in the war. Britain also wanted a Jewish presence in the Middle East after the war, which it expected would be pro-British

-Britain was now committed to two contradictory positions: support for an independent Jewish state as well as an Arab state in Palestine

Palestine becomes a British Mandate (1919)

-In 1919, Palestine became a British mandate (a territory entrusted by the League of Nations to an imperial power)

Jewish immigration to Palestine

-From the years 1919-48, the Jewish population increased from 65,000 to 650,000, which was a 10-fold increase

The Arabs and British rule

-The Arabs felt cheated because they had expected to win their independence

-They were angered by the British allowing the immigration of Jewish settlers, who took over land

-There was violence in 1921 when Arabs attacked Jews in the port of Jaffa. Jewish immigration was temporarily stopped but then restarted

-There was more fighting in 1929 when 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed

-The rise of the Nazis in Germany made the situation more difficult because if Britain allowed more Jewish immigration it would increase Arab resistance, while if it restricted immigration, Britain would be condemned abroad as inhumane

The Arab Revolt (1936-39)

-The Arabs organised a general strike in protest of Jewish immigration, which turned into civil war

-The Arabs felt that Britain showed favour to the Jews and was disproportionately harsh towards Arab fighters

-Britain set up a militia to protect Jewish settlements which became the Haganah (Jewish Defence Force)

The Peel Commission (1937)

-Lord Peel's commission recommended the partition of Palestine as he did not believe a single state in which both sides would be loyal would be possible

-The Jews accepted the plan but the Arabs rejected it and resumed the revolt

The MacDonald Report (1939)

-Growing tensions with Germany led Britain to seek Arab co-operation in the Middle East in order to ensure the flow of oil supplies in the event of a war

-The MacDonald report promised a Palestinian state would be set up in which Arabs and Jews would share government

-A quota of 10,000 Jews per year for 5 years would be allowed to enter Palestine, but after that Jewish immigration would cease unless the Arabs allowed it

-This angered the Jews

-The outbreak of of war meant that this was not implemented

The Impact of WW2

-All Jews wanted to make Palestine a place where they could all be safe from Nazi persecution

-Many Jews volunteered to help Britain to fight Nazi Germany, which they viewed as their greatest threat

-On the other hand, many Jews saw Britain as their main enemy

-The two Jewish resistance groups the Irgun Zvai Leumi and Lehi continued attacks on British targets in the hope of driving them out of Palestine e.g. The assassination of Lord Mayne, the British minister in Cairo

The Challenge to British Rule (1945-46)

-Increased terrorist activity led to the British sending 100,000 troops in by 1946; This extreme response lost the British the goodwill of moderate Jews

-The Irgun group bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was the headquarters of the British Military, in July 1946, resulting in 91 dead and 45 injured

-This lead to widespread arrests and interrogation

Jewish Immigration and World Opinion

-The British lost international sympathy through its attempts to restrict Jewish immigration

-Turning back survivors of the Holocaust damaged its reputation and led to pressure from the USA to admit more refugees

-The forced return to Germany of 4,500 refugees on board the Exodus in 1947 highlighted the problem

Britain gives up its Mandate (February 1947)

-Britain asked the UN to find a solution to the Palestinian problem and announced that it would leave by May 1948

-Palestine was costing too much to police and Britain's economy had been overstretched by WW2

-British opinion was against further loss of British servicemen, such as the taking of two sergeants as hostages and then hanging them in retaliation for the execution of the Irgun members

-Britain was under growing international pressure to allow more Jewish immigration, but the more Jews they let in the greater Arab resistance

The UN Partition Plan (1947)

-The holy city of Jerusalem was to be controlled by an international force

-Arabs were angry because the Jews were to receive more land despite their smaller population, which included the best areas of Palestine

-This caused fighting between the Jews and Arabs over land, particularly over the approaches to Jerusalem, to intensify

-After the British left in May 1948, Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel

-By then 300,000 Arabs had fled, mostly to live in refugee camps in Jordan

The Arab-Israeli war of 1948-49

-The surrounding Arab states (Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq) refused to recognise Israel's right to exist and immediately attacked

-The war consisted of a series of clashes

-The Israelis won even though they lacked planes and heavy artillery and had few armoured vehicles

-UN mediator Count Bernadotte proposed a truce in June 1948 but the Israelis rejected this as it would mean Arab control of Jerusalem, loss of land in the south and the return of Arab refugees

-Bernadotte was assassinated by the Stern gang and fighting resumed

-The Israelis then captured all of Galilee and pushed the Arabs back into the Sinai dessert

The 1949-49 War: Consequences for Israel

-Israel had gained more land than it had been allocated by the UN

-Israel's borders were vulnerable to attack as they were based on an armistice, not permanent peace

-The Arabs refused to sign a treaty as that would have meant recognising Israel's right to exist; This meant that Israel had to be constantly prepared for another war, with universal military service

-The state of Israel began to become to dependent for support on the USA

-The Law of Return was implemented in 1950 and it stated that any Jew in the world had a right to return to Israel; This Israel's population to increase from 770,000 to 1,718,000 in 1948-54

-Israel began to develop the land and irrigate the dessert for agriculture

The 1948-49 War: Consequences for the Arabs

-Nearly 800,000 Arabs fled to neighbouring countries where they lived in poor conditions in refugee camps

-This led to the uprise of resistance fighters called Fedayeen

-The Arabs wanted revenge after their defeat

-Arabs states began to look to the USSR for aid in response to the links between Israel and the USA

The Refugee Crisis

-Israelis maintained that the Arab refugee problem was caused by the Arab states' attack on its territory in 194

-Arabs believed that it had been caused by Israel's wrongful seizure of Palestinian land

An Israeli Sense of National Identity

-The slogan 'Masada shall not fall again'

-The trail of Adolf Eichmann

Colonel Nasser (1954-70)

-He was an Arab nationalist who wanted to modernise Egypt, end Western influence in the Middle East and unite the Arabs in a single movement

-He was non-aligned, meaning he was willing to take aid either from the USA or USSR

-He wanted to make Egypt independent

Events leading up to the Suez Canal Crisis

-Nasser negotiated the withdrawal of British troops from the Suez Canal zone in 1954

-His request for modern weapons from the USA was denied because e they believed he would use the weapons against Israel

-In February 1955, the IDF laughed a raid on the Egyptian army headquarters, claiming it was a reprisal attack

-Nasser negotiated a secret arms dead with Soviet ally Czechoslovakia in return for $300 million in Egyptian cotton

-In August 1955 a Fedayeen raid in Israel resulted in a reprisal attack by the IDF on Gaza that killed 72 Egyptian soldiers

-Nasser made the Czechoslovakian arms deal public and imposed a complete blockade on all trade through the Straits of Tiran

-In October 1955, the USA and Britain offered to loan Egypt $270 million for the Aswam Dam in an attempt to win back Egypt from an alliance with the USSR

-In July 1956, the USA and Britain withdrew their offer

The Suez Canal Crisis (1956)

-Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal

-In October 1956 a secret deal known as the Sèvres Agreement took place between Britain, France and Israel which stated that Israel would invade Egypt in order to allow Britain and France to invade under the guise of peace-keeping so that they could regain control of the Suez Canal

-President Eisenhower publicly condemned the attack

-The USSR threatened to intervene on Egypt's side

The Suez Canal Crisis: Consequences for Britain and France

-Their prestige in the Middle East was significantly weakened

-Their property in Egypt was confiscated by the Egyptian government

-The superpowers increased their competition with each other for influence in the Middle East

-In 1957, President Eisenhower offered aid to any country in the Middle East that was threatened by Communism in the Eisenhower Doctrine

-The USSR increased its aid for Egypt, sending thousands of military advisers there

The Suez Canal Crisis: Consequences for Israel

-Israel had established its military superiority

-It became more secure by destroying Fedayeen bases in the Sinai and by having the UN forces policing the Sinai

-Israel was able to gain access to the Gulf of Aqaba

-It was still surrounded by hostile Arab states and now Nasser had a reason to seek revenge

The Suez Canal Crisis: Consequences for Egypt

-Despite losing the land battle, the fact that Nasser had stood up to aggression meant that he became a hero in the Arab world

-Nasser's aim was to create a pan-Arab movement in the Middle East

-In 1958, the pro-Western monarchy in Iraq was overthrown partly due to his influence

-From 1958-61, Syria and Egypt were combined in the United Arab Republic

The Six Day War (1967)

-The Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike in response to Nasser's request for the removal of UN troops from the Sinai (which was possibly as a result of the Soviets' warning to Nasser and Jordan about Israel)

-It was a victory for the Israelis against the odds

-The Arabs lost 20,000 men, 430 aircrafts and 800 tanks

-The Israelis lost under 1,000 men, 46 aircrafts and 400 tanks

The Six Day War: Consequences for the Arab states

-Nasser was humiliated due the loss of the Sinai, Gaza and the blocking of the Suez Canal

-The USSR supplied more military equipment to Egypt and Syria, subsequently gaining more influence

-There was a war of attrition as Egypt bombarded Israeli positions in the Sinai, with Israel retaliating with raids until the US organised a ceasefire in 1970

The Six Day War: Consequences for Israel

-Israel increased its size by 350%

-The UN did not recognise Israel's claim over this new land

-Its boarders were easier to defend

-East Jerusalem was captured, which had symbolic/religious significance

-The West Bank had fertile land and created a buffer with Jordan

-The capture of Golan Heights prevented Syria from being able to place artillery there to fire on Israel anymore

-The capture of the Sinai desert created a buffer zone with Egypt and secured access to the Straits of Tiran

-The capture of Gaza meant that Fedayeen bases could be destroyed

The Growth of the PLO

-It was founded in 1964 with Al Fatah as its most important element

-It expanded after the 6 day war

-Palestinians felt that they were on their own as Syria, Egypt and Jordan had been defeated and were more concerned with recovering their own land

-Over 300,000 refugees had fled to the West Bank in 1937, which swelled the ranks of the PLO

-Israel launched an attack on Karameh in March 1968 involving 15,000 troops, which the PLO retaliated with using just 300 men; This success encouraged more Palestinians to join the PLO

-Yasser Arafat tried to focus the PLO on attacks on Israel

The Dawson's Field Incident (September 1970)

-Extremists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked three airliners and took them to Dawson's Field in Jordan

-They demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Britain, West Germany and Switzerland

-They let the passengers get off before they blew up the planes

-This event caused King Hussein of Jordan to fear foreign intervention, so he used the army to drive out the PLO. 10,000 guerrillas were killed and the rest moved to Syria or Lebanon

-A new extremist group called 'Black September' carried out retaliation attacks, including the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister

The Munich Olympics (September 1972)

-Black September members held Israeli athletes competing in the Munich Olympics hostage and killing 2

-They demanded the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel

-The situation ended with 9 more athletes, a policeman and 5 terrorists being killed when West German police attempted a rescue

-The Terrorists gained publicity

-Israel launched strikes on Syria and Jordan in retaliation

The Munich Massacre (consequences)

-This event shocked the world and lead people to considering the Palestinian problem

-In 1974, Yasser Arafat was invited to address the UN, which gave him international status and publicity for the Palestinian homeland issue

The Yom Kippur War (1973) (why?)

-Egypt began the war in order to regain control of the Sinai

-President Anwar Sadat had attempted to peacefully negotiate the return of the Sinai using UN Resolution 242 and by expelling 15,000 Soviet advisors in order to encourage the USA to put pressure on Israel, yet neither worked

-Syria wanted to regain control of the Golan Heights

The Yom Kippur War: Why Egypt and Syria were initially so successful

-They launched a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur, which meant that many soldiers were at home on leave and that Israel's military defences were at their weakest

-The Egyptians were incredibly efficient at crossing the Sinai: the Egyptian artillery bombed the Bar Lev line, high pressure water canons were used to overcome sand barriers and built temporary bridges. By 4:30pm, 23,000 Egyptian troops were in the Sinai

-The Egyptians were armed with modern missiles provided by the USSR, which were used to attack Israeli aircrafts and tanks

-The Syrians attacked simultaneously at the Golan Heights with 1,200 tanks and 60,000 troops, which far outnumbered the Israelis'

The Yom Kippur War: How did Israel manage to win?

-One advantage of the holiday was that the roads were clear, enabling rapid troop movement

-Better quality tanks (such as the Centerian, which could suppress the gun more, allowing more coverage)

-Their well-trained and motivated troops helped them to win the battle on the Golan Heights and push back the invaders

-The US supplies were crucial and were airlifted on the 15th of October

The Yom Kippur War: Egyptian Mistakes

-The Egyptian forces moved too far into the Sinai, beyond the protection SAM missiles

-They lost 260 tanks and were forced to retreat to the Canal

-Israeli forced crossed the canal and knocked out Egyptian defences, using fats and a mobile bridge, which left Egyptian forces still in the Sinai surrounded

The Yom Kippur War: How did it end?

-Both superpowers desired a ceasefire

-The USSR threatened to intervene when it realised that the Egyptian army was trapped

-This led to the USA to go on nuclear alert to deter Soviet involvement

-The Arab states stopped selling oil to the USA, which used its influence with Israel to cease fighting on the 24th October

The Yom Kippur War (consequences)

-Israeli PM Golda Meir resigned because of internal criticism of the handling of the war

-Sadat's standing was improved as the Egyptians and Syrians had fought well

-The Palestinians gained nothing and world attention now focused on the Israel/Egypt issue and ownership of the Sinai

-The USA now had to act as a force for peace as now they had realised that the Arabs could use the 'oil weapon' against them and they had almost been lead into a conflict with the USSR

-The US negotiated a separation of the 2 sides and the UN peacekeeping force went into the Suez Canal Zone and the Golan Heights

-The Canal was reopened in 1975

The Peace Process

-Anwar Sadat visited Menachem Begin in Israel, which was significant as it meant acknowledging Israel as a country and he was the first Arab leader to make a visit

The Camp David Accords (agreements)

-Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations, which made Egypt the 1st Arab state to recognise Israel's right to exist

-Israel was to withdraw from the Sinai

-Israel could use the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran

-Both Israel and Egypt would receive aid from the USA

-Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza could elect a self-governing council. After 5 years another agreement would be made on how to govern these areas

The Camp David Accords (what was left unsettled)

-The rights of the Palestinians weren't specified and they weren't consulted

-The Palestinians and other Arab states such as Syria condemned Egypt for betraying them

-Moderate Arab states such as Jordan remained neutral

-It was debatable whether Sadat and Begin deserved the Nobel Peace Prize

Israel's Invasion of Lebanon (1982)

-The PLO continued attacks on Israel from inside Lebanon

-Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 to destroy PLO camps there

-Civilians, as well as PLO members, were killed in the fighting

-Lebanon was already a country divided between Christians and Muslims and the Israeli intervention led to further destruction and civil conflict

-The PLO were driven out and settled in Tunisia

The Sabra and Shatila Camp Massacres

-Israel claimed that PLO terrorists remained in the refugee camps and allowed Lebanese Christian Militias to enter the camps, who carried out horrific massacres of up to 3,500 civilians

-The Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon was judged to be indirectly responsible because the camps were in an Israeli-occupied area and he was forced to resign

Israel's Invasion of Lebanon (consequences)

-Israel was more secure as a result of the PLO's departure (Tunisia was 2,400km away)

-Israel's image in the world was damaged by the brutal war in Lebanon

-An Islamist resistance group funded by Iran, called Hezbollah, emerged in Lebanon and waged guerrilla war against Israel

The Intifada of 1987

-Continuing poor conditions for the Palestinians in the occupied territories was underlying cause. They faced poor job opportunities, harassment by Israeli troops and loss of land where Jewish settlements were set up

-The trigger event was in December 1987 when the stabbing of an Israeli civilian was followed by an Israeli army truck crashing into an Arab truck

-This was seen as deliberate and led to violent protests in Gaza and the West Bank

-These disturbances were spontaneous (not organised by the PLO or Arab states)

-Israel's 'iron fist' military response damaged its image abroad

The Peace Process

-The intifada focused world sympathy on the Palestinian cause. 346 Palestinians, most of them young people, were killed in 1987-88

-Its success gave Arafat the confidence to moderate his demands

-He recognised Israel's existence and abandoned terrorism as it could no longer achieve any more and he did not want to be overtaken by more radical forces, such as Hamas

-Jordan withdrew its claim to the West Bank in 1988 so it could become a Palestinian territory

-There was limited progress initially

-The PLO was criticised for supporting Iraq in the 1st Gulf War when the USA led an international coalition to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait; This caused Arafat to lose the backing of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

-The end of the Cold War in 1989-91 helped the peace process because Russia was longer as supportive of the Arab states and the USA could put pressure on Israel to talk without fear of Russia in the Middle East

The Role of the USA

-Now that the USA was the world's only Superpower, it was in a unique position to drive the peace process

-US pressure on Israel, as well as the cost of military action and damage done to Israel's image, lead it to agree to negotiate

The Oslo Accords (1993)

-The new Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians

-He would rather deal with them than see support grow for Hamas, whose first suicide bombing was in 1993

-Arafat called for an end to the intifada and recognised Israel's right to peace and security, which was a major breakthrough

-President got the 2 sides together in Washington in September 1993

The Oslo Accords (agreements)

-Israeli troops were to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank

-There were to be elections for the Palestinian authority to govern these areas for a 5 year period

-This was followed separately by a treaty with Jordan in 1994, in which Jordan recognised Israel and agreed a settlement of borders

The Oslo Accords (what was left unsettled)

-There was still no progress with Syria

-The agreement did not cover the future of Palestinian refugees, or of Jerusalem

-It did not stop the building of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, with Palestinian homes often destroyed to make way for them

The Oslo Accords (consequences)

-Moderates accepted the agreement

-Israeli right-wingers saw it as a sell-out to their historic enemies and were worried that the Palestinians would press for more land. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist in November 1995

-Palestinian hard-liners were still dissatisfied as they still did not have a Palestinian state and Israel still had overall control of the areas, while the new Palestinian authority had limited powers