The Middle East
No part of the world is both as unstable as the Middle East and as vital of a contributor to the world economy. The industrial world is incredibly dependent on Middle Eastern oil, but due to within Arab and Muslim conflicts and the greater conflict with the entire region and the state of Israel, there is enormous instability in the region.
The countries that comprise the Middle East are:
Syria
Saudi Arabia
Jordan
Iraq
Lebanon
Iran
Yemen
Israel
Qatar
Libya
U.A.E.
Kuwait
Egypt
Palestine
The Middle East is actually the cradle of civilization. The earliest civilizations were centered in what was known as the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq. The area is also the cradle of the three largest world religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Although all three religions have very different beliefs they all evolved and had influences on each other. The area is also home to a majority of the world’s oil. This makes the area economically very important and has set the stage for a lot of international interest in Middle East affairs. Most of the oil is concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait.
A Brief History Of Islam
Islam, which means submission to God, was founded by Mohammed in the 7th century. According to Islam, the angel Gabriel revealed God’s word directly to Mohammed, and this divine revelation is now known as the Koran (or Quran). Islam spread very fast throughout the Middle East. However, there was a split in the group shortly after Mohammed’s death. This schism was based on who was the rightful successor to Mohammed. The two groups became known as Sunnis and Shias, with Sunnis representing about 85% of Muslims in the world. By about the mid 700s, Islam had spread across North Africa and into Spain, and headed east to Turkey, India, and Indonesia and as far east as China.
There were several Islamic empires (the Abbasids, the Seljuk Turks, the Safavids [Iran/Persia], the Mamluk Turks, and finally the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks were a major power from about the middle of the 13th century until the end of the First World War. They managed to take over Constantinople (now Istanbul) and headed west all the way to Vienna, where they were finally sent back. Their military supremacy began to wane after about the 1600s and by World War I the Ottoman Empire known as the sick man of Europe. However, they had an important, influential role in the balance of power throughout both Europe and the Middle East/North Africa.
The end of the First World War brought about the end of the Ottoman Empire. In its place, European countries either protected or outright colonized large portions of the Middle East. Following World War II, these countries began to demand and achieve independence.
A Brief Look At Some Of The Key Players In The Middle East
Egypt
“Egypt is the Nile and the Nile in Egypt”
Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Modern Egypt is a highly populous, third world country that is very sophisticated in some ways. Cairo is a very refined and sophisticated world city, but poverty and ignorance is a much greater problem outside of Cairo. Egypt was once part of the Ottoman Empire. As the Empire weakened during the 19th century, Egypt managed to gain political autonomy. Its leader was intent on modernizing Egypt. He updated canals, introduced cotton to the agricultural economy, and began negotiations with France on building the Suez Canal. This growth did modernize Egypt, but wars, mismanagement, and other international affairs conspired to make Egypt very weak by the end of the 19th century. In 1882, Egypt became a protectorate of Great Gamal Abdel NasserBritain – partly to protect British investments, and partly to limit Ottoman influence in the area. However, Egyptian nationalism was very strong and resisted Great Britain’s rule from the beginning. By 1922 (only 40 years of colonialism), Egypt had, at least in theory, gained its independence. True independence didn’t actually arrive until British troops left in 1937 – only to return a couple years later during the Second World War. With Egyptian independence, the British installed a sympathetic King – Fuad. He died in 1936 and King Farouk succeeded him.
Truly modern-day Egypt began in the summer of 1952 when a group of military officers (known as the “free officers”) overthrew the King and established a new government. Their leader was named Gamal Abdel Nasser, and he became the leader of Egypt. He created a republic, but with only one viable political party – the National Democratic Party. Nasser was a beloved leader in Egypt and was completely opposed both to the creation and the existence of Israel. Nasser united with Syria and the Egypt/Syria union was known as the United Arab Republic (UAR). Nasser was known for his Pan-Arabism. He believed that all Arabs should be united (presumably under his influence), all the way from Morocco to Iraq (not actually continuing to Iran where they the people are Persians, not Arabs).
The Suez Crisis
One of the most serious crises of Nasser’s rule occurred in 1956. Nasser had planned on building a dam (the Aswan Dam) and had been promised to fund from both the United States and the World Bank. However, Nasser was considered not hostile enough to the Soviet Union, by the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Dulles arranged for Nasser to lose his funding for the dam. Nasser retaliated by nationalizing the Suez Canal, which was a private corporation owned by the French and the British. While controlling the canal, his animosity to Israel was demonstrated by limiting or preventing Israeli shipping from going through the canal. Israel, viewing this as an act of war, worked with both France and Great Britain and sent troops to seize the canal. This became a crisis of global proportions because the Soviet Union warned that they were willing to step in to help Egypt. The United States and the Soviet Union agreed that the troops needed to leave. The U.S. threatened Great Britain with some economic havoc (The United States had a great deal of British debt, and could destabilize the British pound). The economic blackmail worked, Britain pulled out, without warning to her allies, and the French and Israelis had little choice but to also withdraw.
· As a result of the Suez crisis, Great Britain and France were perceived as weak. This encouraged many independence movements throughout British and French colonies. The crisis also enhanced Nasser’s reputation and encouraged his pan-Arabism movement.
· Another result of the crisis was that France realized that it could not trust its allies and began working on its own nuclear program.
Israel
Israel was formed in 1948, out of what had been the British colony of Palestine. The overall, general plans for a state of Israel had been stated in the 1919 Balfour Declaration, but it was during and immediately following World War II when Great Britain and the United States supported the immediate creation of Israel. The UN plan that was passed called for creating two states within the Palestinian territory, but that plan was met with hostility by the native Palestinians and other Arab leaders in surrounding territories and countries. Immediately upon the declaration of the State of Israel, there was a war, in which the Israeli’s successfully defended their country. After a cease-fire was signed, the state of Israel, although resented, was recognized by most major countries, although none of the Arab countries.
The creation of Israel has been the center of much of the discord in the Middle East. Most Arab countries have been opposed both to Israel’s existence, and have resented the Palestinian refugees that left the Israeli part of the Palestinian territory and have ended up, mostly in Jordan and Lebanon.
In addition to the 1948 war, and the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt was one of the biggest and strongest opponents of Israel. Other dates in the Israeli/Egyptian conflict include:
· 1967 Six Day War
· 1973 October War
· Egypt sought peace with Israel
· Egypt shifted from Soviets to Americans
Israeli 1967 War
In 1967, a coalition of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan planned an attack on Israel. Israel hit them with a quick pre-emptive strike and won the war in about 6 days. The Israeli’s took over the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.
Israeli Victory In The 1973 October War (Yom Kippur War)
The Yom Kippur War was a surprise attack on Israel, by Egypt, led by Nasser’s successor, Anwar Sadat. The Arabs were initially quite successful, but Israel was able to turn the tables with three key elements: calling up reserves, an influx of American aid in the form of weapons, and especially the help of American intelligence that allowed the Israeli army to concentrate their troop movements very effectively. This war, although a victory for Israel, had a strong negative effect on the United States.
As a result of U.S. aid for Israel, OPEC nations retaliated by imposing an oil embargo. This oil embargo resulted in a gasoline/energy crunch in the United States. This energy shortage was one of the main causes of both high inflation and a concurring recession in the United States in the 1970s.
Egypt and Israel: Peace
Despite some of the negative outcomes of the Yom Kippur War for the United States, there were definitely some positive results for the relationship between Egypt and Israel. Sadat won the confidence of the Arabs and his stature grew, based on his initial successes in the War. Israel and Sadat began making overtures to peace, first with a visit by Sadat to Israel, at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This was followed by the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords. This treaty was brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who got Egypt to recognize Israel and accept its right to exist, while Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula and eventually the Gaza strip.
Sadat was a mild reformer who attempted to create a more just society. He tried to stop the number of unwarranted arrests and limit the power of the government. However, as his Presidency continued, he started to see more unrest and responded with a return to the more traditional hard-line government. In 1981, he was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood, both because there was a growing distrust towards his government and a resentment towards the Accords with Israel.
Following his assassination, Sadat was succeeded by his Vice-President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak’s rule has been marked by at least 6 assassination attempts. Two fundamentalist groups were generally the force behind them. As a result, during the 1990s, Mubarak cracked down on anyone perceived to be a member of either of the groups. His methods were severe, but he has managed to continue in his role as leader of Egypt. Moreover, his strong authoritarian stance his limited the number of splinter terrorist cells in Egypt.
Today, Egypt has the most populous country in the Middle East. It has an economy based on agriculture, gas, coal, tourism and the Suez Canal. Although it has a relatively modern economy, charges of corruption continually haunt the government and are used to explain the large gap between the rich and the poor. More recently, Mubarak was pushed out of office during the Arab Spring (in 2011). What became known as the “Arab Spring”, started with unrest in Tunisia that overthrew the government there. The unrest spread to Egypt, where the people demanded that the army take over the government until a new government could be formed. There have been continuing protests in Bahrain, Yemen as well as a new government in Libya and an ongoing civil war in Syria. The result is that the area is more unstable than ever before. Peace treaties that Egypt signed with Israel, while still in force are more precarious. Some countries are focused on differences between Shias and Sunnis (Bahrain), while others are focused on jobs and opportunities (Egypt), while still others are focused on distrust between leaders and their people (Libya). This instability has led to the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that is using brutal force to attempt to impose a Sunni based theocracy in the Iraqi/Syria border areas. They are threatening all non-Muslim, ethnic minorities, and anyone (even Sunnis) who disagree with them. They are notable for kidnapping and beheading foreigners.
Palestine
Another major player in this drama in the Middle East is Palestine. Palestine is a territory that is made up of what is known as the Levant. The broadest definition of the territory of Palestine was the territory ruled under that name by the British, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1918). Under British rule, Palestine included present-day Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This area is often also known as the Holy Land as it is the cradle of the three major religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The British took over Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. It controlled the area until 1948 when the State of Israel was formed, Jordan was granted independence in 1951, and what was to be the State of Palestine never actually formed due to the Palestinians rejection of the UN partition.
The biggest problems in the Middle East are between Israel and Palestine. The UN called for the creation of the state of Israel, and the partition of Palestine into two distinct countries. However, the Palestinians rejected that call and believed that it could prevent the formation of the State of Israel. Thus, Palestinians sided with other Arab countries in the wars with Israel. However, the two biggest allies of the Palestinians and the two largest enemies of Israel have come to peace with Israel. Both Jordan and Egypt have accepted the right of Israel to exist. This has left the Palestinians to rely on splinter groups and Syria as their allies. In recent years, there have been moves to trade land for peace, but so far these have failed.
The two main points with the greatest contention (other than accepting the existence of Israel, which is becoming slightly more mainstream), are the plight of the Palestinian refugees who were expelled from Israel in the 1948 war, and the control over what should be the Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel, following the wars in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War took over and eventually created settlements there. Israel had been forcing its residents to move and turn the areas back over to the Palestinians. However, this left Israel more vulnerable to attacks from the Palestinians, which is one reason that Israel blockaded the Gaza Strip in 2007, following rocket attacks perpetrated by Hamas. Since then, Israel has gone back to creating more settlements in disputed areas. The Palestinian Authority has been rendered helpless, as most of the Gaza strip is controlled by Hamas.
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I don’t blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either.” – Moshe Dayan
The Palestinian Liberation Organizaton
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (The PLO) was formed in 1964 by Egypt but became an independent organization in 1974. The goals of the PLO were to eliminate Israel and have self-determination for the area. However, its military and terror operations were, for the most part, unsuccessful and shifted sympathy to Israel. The PLOs failed attempts to retake land were followed by a spontaneous revolt called the Intifada in 1987. This Intifada was both successful and unsuccessful. It successfully gained some international sympathy as this uprising was marked by unarmed, sometimes small children, against Israeli tanks. However, it was unable to make any significant gains. It also got other nations involved, and finally, its leader, Yasser Arafat, recognized Israel’s right to exist in 1993 and accepted the idea of a two-state solution.
Since 1994, the PLO created the Palestinian Authority which has the right to rule over the Palestinian occupied territories. Other groups, such as Hamas, have not accepted the PA agreements with Israel. The fighting between Hamas and the PA has kept the PA from controlling the Palestinian areas and creating a more peaceful solution to the issues.
Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom
Saudi Arabia is a large country with a population of about 27 million people. It is the world’s largest exporter of oil, and yet, despite its oil wealth has a relatively stagnant economy and a large unemployment rate.
It is ruled by the Saud family and is a monarchy. Its laws are based on the Quran and thus it practices Sharia law. These laws apply to all citizens and foreigners, regardless of religion.
It is most famous for the two holy shrines of Mecca and Medina and has a substantial tourist industry as a result of these two holy cities. Not only is Saudi Arabia Islamic, but it practices one of the most fundamentalist types of Islam, known as Wahhabism. The wealth of the Saud family has allowed the family to promote Whahabbism throughout the world by sponsoring Whahabbi Islamic schools known as madrassas.
The Saudis are a close ally of the United States, and yet 14 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia.
Iran
1953-1979
Iran was a close ally of the United States from 1953 until 1979. This was a result of U.S. intervention in a coup d’etat. The elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1951, Mohammed Mossadeq, began to nationalize the oil fields (which were then owned by Great Britain). The CIA and British Intelligence backed a coup to overthrow Mossadeq. The coup was successful, Mossadeq was found guilty of Treason, and the Shah was encouraged to be more engaged with the government. Iran became a very close ally of the United States. Moreover, the British still lost their monopoly on Iranian oil, but the oil was divided up among the British, Americans, Dutch, and French (sadly Iran got none of it).
Following the coup, the Shah realized that he needed to keep a tight rein on the people or there could be more interference. However, his rule became very unpopular, and there were many charges of corruption. By the late 1970s, an Ayatollah (Islamic cleric), named Khomeini, had convinced the Iranians of the evils of the corruption of the Shah and there was a Revolution in January of 1979. Iran became a theocracy ruled by Khomeini, which also enforced Sharia law.
The United States was affected by the revolution in November of that year when Iranians invaded the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and took 52 hostages. This was in response to the United States allowing the terminally ill Shah to come to the U.S. for medical treatment. The U.S. responded to the hostage crisis by seizing Iranian assets. The crisis was a disaster for Carter’s Presidency and was one of the reasons that Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. The hostages were released after 444 days. Interestingly, the U.S. and Iran both have reasons to distrust each other. The U.S. still thinks back to the 1979 hostage crisis, while the Iranians think back to the 1953 U.S. backed coup.
Relations with Iran have been icy since 1979. However, the new President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been particularly anti-U.S. His strongly worded anti-Israel rants along with his professed denial of the Holocaust have also affected the U.S. view of both Iran and Ahmadinejad. Moreover, Ahmadinejad has become even more outspoken for several reasons: his reelection in 2009 was both controversial and contested. The protests that his re-election spurred, known as the “Green movement”, were like an early “Islamic Spring” that foreshadowed what happened in Egypt a couple years later (2011). However, these protests were met with heavy crackdowns, and as of now, although the Iranian government seems fragile, it is still very much in power. And, as other areas in the area have become more unstable, Iran’s power has grown. Iran’s leaders are still very worried about the dissatisfaction of its people. Recently, even as they pushed for Bahrain’s Shia majority to protest the ruling Sunni minority, Iran’s leaders had all of the leaders or potential leaders that had participated in the 2009 protests placed either under arrest or house arrest.
Iraq
Iraq was another country born out of the dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire. The British invaded Iraq in 1915, and finally captured Bagdad in 1917. Following the end of WWI, the League of Nations gave the British a mandate to rule the area. The British created Iraq and Kuwait. The British formed a monarchy for Iraq, and the official end of the British mandate was 1936. Immediately, the Iraqi government claimed Kuwait as part of the Iraqi government, but the British had not granted independence to Kuwait and sent troops along the border.
The Iraqi King was overthrown by a coup in 1958. For several years there were power struggles between the Ba’ath party and the Iraqi generals who had instigated the coup. In addition, there were also rebellions in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. In 1969, the Ba’ath Party took control of Iraq, and Saddam Hussein became a de facto leader (he was at first only a foreign minister, but held most of the power from early on). Throughout the 1970s, the Ba’ath party secularized Iraq and embarked on an economic growth plan. However, border disputes between both Iran and Kuwait continued to cause problems.
Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
These border disputes finally pushed the Iraqis to war with Iran. In one of the longest, bloodiest wars of the 20th century, (one million dead) Iran and Iraq fought each other to near bankruptcy. The end result was a restoration of the pre-war borders. The war was significant in its use of chemical weapons, which Hussein used both on Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels in the north. However, despite reported outrage on his use of weapons of mass destruction, the West, including the United States, continued sending Hussein arms and weapons shipments (including chemical weapons – and yes, the U.S. did provide Hussein with chemical weapons).
The result of the Iran-Iraq war for Iraq was near bankruptcy for Iraq. Furthermore, oil prices were at one of their lowest points in years. Iraq was struggling to pay back its war debts, and its largest source of income was at a low point. Worse, its neighbor Kuwait (another border dispute area), was continuing to break OPEC guidelines and overproduce its quotas, which kept the cost of oil even lower. And to add insult to injury, not only was Kuwait cheating on the quotas, it was also slanted drilling the oil in one of the border dispute areas! (So basically, Kuwait was underselling oil on the world market, keeping prices artificially low, and doing it with Iraq’s oil!) Saddam demanded Kuwait pull back and also demanded that his debt payments be put off until the dispute was settled. Although the leaders of Kuwait and Iraq met, no solution seemed likely. Hussein met with April Glaspie, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, who told Hussein that the U.S. had no interest in border disputes between Kuwait and Iraq. Hussein believed her and followed with an attack on Kuwait. The U.S. and other international response quickly expressed outrage at the move. Hussein was ordered to back off, he responded by announcing the annexation of Kuwait. A few months later an international coalition attacked Iraq and liberated Kuwait.
The Gulf War
· Saddam’s Iraq invaded Kuwait, Aug. 1990
· U.S. coalition victory in 4 days, Feb. 1991
· Sanctions regime until 2003
· Oil prices rose
Iraq Under Sanctions, 1991-2003
After Hussein’s defeat, the United Nations put Iraq under sanctions. They ordered oil exports capped which created an economic hardship on the Iraqi people. It is estimated that somewhere between five hundred thousand and a million children died during the sanction period.
Throughout the sanctions period, there was some civil unrest, some people in the government called for regime change. However, most of those calling for regime change were quickly killed. Throughout the era, the United States and the United Nations required Iraq to undergo weapons inspections. Their cooperation was doubted and justified keeping the sanctions on. However, towards the end of the 1990s, there was an Oil for Food Program created by the UN that was designed to keep the poor in Iraq from starving.
The Second Gulf War, 2003
Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration decided that Hussein was too big a threat and that his lack of cooperation with the weapons inspectors meant that he was hiding a weapons program. To be sure, there is strong evidence that the Bush administration had wanted to go after Saddam even before 9/11, but following the terrorist attacks, it was much easier to convince the public of the need.
The case for war by the Bush administration was weak. It relied on outdated, shaky intelligence, it made a false claim that Hussein was tied to Osama Bin Laden, and it convinced Americans that Hussein had been able to stockpile and hide large amounts of dangerous weapons of mass destruction. The weapons inspectors, despite their frustrations with the Hussein regime, did not believe that there were any of these weapons, but armed with questionable evidence, the Bush administration was able to clear both the UN National Security Council and the American public.
Since 2003, the war has had two very different outcomes. The first attack was generally a much swifter success than even the Bush administration foresaw. However, since the quick military success, there was a long, dragged out Iraqi civil war that has prevented the U.S. from being able to establish a successful Iraqi government. Most of that civil war was controlled by a surge of U.S. forces in 2006 – Write a paper; Professional research paper writing service – Best essay writers. The U.S. left Iraq at the end of 2011. However, now there is civil strife as the government is staunchly Shia and allying with Iran (which the U.S. didn’t really like), but with the rise of ISIS, the U.S. is also (at least temporarily) allying with Iran to fight ISIS. It now appears that while Hussein was indeed a dictator, he was keeping the area calm and relatively stable.
The Arab Spring
The Arab Spring refers to the protests that have swept the Middle East since December of 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer. The three countries that have had major changes since then are Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. However, there have been protests throughout the Middle East, still ongoing in places like Syria and Yemen. The first country affected was Tunisia, which had been ruled by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali since he had engineered a coup in 1987. In December of 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer, a protester self-immolated (set himself on fire) to protest corruption, and that set off a wave of protests, which culminated in Ben Ali fleeing for Saudi Arabia in February of 2011.
The next country to experience massive protests was Egypt (which I discuss further, above), and then Libya, which resulted in the overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi (also often spelled Qaddafi) in August 2011. He was then captured and killed in October of that year. The Yemeni president was nearly assassinated and severely injured after agreeing and then refusing to step down. He finally fled for treatment and left the government ruled by a council.
Things in Syria are still very violent. The president, Bashar al-Assad has refused to step down and has upped the violence against those in opposition. According to journalists and protesters he has gone after, not only protesters but also civilians. 15 other countries have called for recognizing a government in exile and many are asking for the U.S. and NATO to provide assistance (the U.S. and NATO provided air cover in Libya last year). So far, it appears that those governments have not been willing to do so. The problem is that there is no clear group to support. One of the biggest threats to Assad is ISIS, which is also a threat to both Iraq and to anything “western” or non-Sunni Muslim.
Some other leaders are hedging their bets by announcing that they will not run for re-election, most likely with the hope that by pledging to step down, people will tolerate the governments a bit longer. Those countries include Iraq and Sudan, while the King of Jordan has had to create 2 new governments in response to various protests.
Conclusion
The Middle East is one of the most volatile areas in the world. There roles of Israel and oil being probably the biggest flashpoints. The U.S. has entangled itself in many different roles within the Middle East. It is the largest purchaser of oil, the largest defender of Israel, one of the largest suppliers of weapons to Arab countries and Israel, and the biggest defender of the status quo. There are many entanglements and dangers in the area, yet it is one of the key areas to the world economy, thus its importance is assured, regardless of the number of problems in the area. Although, the U.S. has gotten involved for many reasons, do not forget that oil is probably the biggest. In regard to the first Iraq war, many people realized, even at the time, that had Iraq and Kuwait been arguing over orange groves, there would not have been any outside interference.
