History 12Ms Leslie

After WWI – A British and French Mandate

After WWII – Oil reserves an important factor, UK and France still have involvement in the area.

Israelis and Arabs driven by extreme nationalism - both have aggressive foreign policies

Islam had expanded as a unified political entity

Fragmented along racial lines (Arab, Turk and Persian.)

Since then it’s the goal to unite the Islamic Nations

This has been delayed by European presence.

1946 - France gave Syria and Lebanon independence

Britain to deal with Palestine soon after

In a 1931 Islamic conference in Jerusalem the participants announced ‘The Arab lands are a complete and indivisible whole… all efforts are to be directed towards their complete independence in their entirety and unified.’

Created in 1945 was a first step toward this goal, uniting

Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen

By 1980 it had 20 members, but internal divisions prevented real political unification of its parts – despite several efforts to achieve integration.

Britain help create it in hopes of Arab Unity

Arab League

Goal of uniting the Arab NationsLed by Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser,Not much happened,A lot of tension between those who are nationalistic and those who want to co-operate internationally.

Pan-Arabism

In conflict with Pan-Arabism Jews have wanted to establish a

homeland since the Diasporia Late 19th century there have been Jewish

communal farming communities called Kibbutzim in Palestine. In what is now Tel Aviv.

1914 there are 40 kibbutzim Swelling Jewish population causes

tension

Zionism

After WWI, Jews and Arabs had both been promised their own national homeland

These 2 promises are conflicting and won’t work

1922 – the Nationalist Wafd Party declared independence for Egypt.

British troops remain in the Suez Canal Zone

1932 Iraq gets independence Palestine more difficult with the Arabs

and Jews fighting over the same land. Hitler’s Jewish policy caused a serge of

Jewish Immigration to the area This caused violence

1918 – Palestine 7% Jewish1939 – 38 % Jewish1937- Britain has a plan to divide the area

into 3 regions – 1 Jewish – 1 Arabian and 1 mixed.

This was met with universal condemnation1939 – British tried to placate the Arabs

by restricting Jewish immigration WWII – everyone gets along due to the

common enemy of Hitler.

To resist the creation of a Jewish State.

Sabotaged oil lines Jews also resort to

violence – Irgun Zwei Leumi and the Stern Gang used terrorist tactics to force the British to act (national Military Organizations)

Truman sees the escalating violence in the area and tried to get Attlee to relax the Jewish immigration restrictions – he refuses

1946- A wave of Jewish terrorism swept Palestine, with the blowing up of communication facilities and the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing nearly 100 people.

Illegal Jewish immigration was stepped up

The British were in an intolerable position, and in 1947 announced that there were going to give up trying to handle the problem themselves and passed it on to the UN

Zionists were upset that they were not honouring the 1917 Balfour Declaration and Palestinians were promised a separate state after WWI

The UNSCOP (UN Special Commission of Palestine) recommended a separate Jewish and Arab state

The Jewish state would be under UN trusteeship

Expanded the Jewish zone into the Negev desert to the south; giving them access to the sea in the South.

Jews liked the proposal, Arabs did not It passed in the UN anyways, with the

support of USA and USSR

UN Proposal

Palestine sank in to anarchy

British had to try to keep the peace and make sure the Jews did not grab more land illegally

May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion announced the formation of the Jewish State of Israel

On the following day, Israel was invaded by its Arab neighbours.

The USA asked the UK to stay and help… UK refused

1948 Palestinian war From the southwest, the

Egyptians advanced from Gaza.

From the East came Jordan’s Arab Legion

Syria and Iraq also took part in the war.

The British trained and equipped Jewish defense force, the Haganah resisted desperately.

Divided and poorly equipped, the Arabs had little success.

The war ended by February 1949, the Jews had successfully driven the Egyptians out, but faced a stalemate in the East, having lost much of Jerusalem.

Loss of a Palestinian homeland Egypt gets the Gaza Strip Jordan holds the West Bank 1 million Palestinian refugees These refugees for terrorist

groups and attack Israel from neighbouring countries

Arabs in the new Israeli state find themselves second-class citizens

Israel declared itself a Jewish homeland opening its borders to Jews from any nation.

Factors: Arab-Israeli dispute, Arab nationalism European imperialism cold was politics.

1956 - Suez Crisis

Nasser, who came to power in 1954, sought to unite Arabs in the cause of pan-Arabism and Palestinian liberation.

organized guerilla groups called the fedayeen (self-sacrificers) to launch terrorist attacks against Israel.

blocked the Gulf of Aqaba, cutting off trade to the Israeli port of Eilat.

fostered nationalist opposition to the British presence in the Suez Canal Zone.

Britain should abandon its base in Suez when the 1936 agreement expired in 1956.

angered the French by encouraging Arab Nationalism in Algeria

Late 1955 – signs arms deal with Czechosolvakia for russian arms

Tanks, planes and small arms.

1956 – America pulls their $56 million from the Aswan Dam project

Dam to provide power and controlling the Nile Floods

Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal so he can toll it to make money for the Aswan Dam.

Also takes funding from the USSRBritain and France now convinced

Nasser is creating a pro-communist, anti-western, pan-Arab

Threats to the flow of oil supplies to Europe are intolerable.

UK, France and Israel have a secret agreement to bring down the Egyptian leader.

Oct, 29, 1956, Israel seized the Gaza Strip and drove through the Sinai peninsula

UK and France demanded a ceasefire, which Nasser refused, so the they invaded the Suez Canal Zone

USA proposed a cease fire in the UN Security Council, and UK and France Veto it.

Oct 31 – UK and French bombers attack Egyptian airbases

Nov 5 – Anglo-French forces in Port Said

Nasser called for UN help and also blocked the canal by sinking block-ships in it.

The USSR when further, threatening nuclear attacks on the aggressor nations. Though the Americans made it known that they would not tolerate and attack on Paris or London, the Israelis were given no such assurance

The Suez Crisis came at the same time as the Hungarian Uprising – creating a distraction

Both USA and USSR were united in calling an end to Anglo-French aggression in the area

UN wanted to place peace-keepers in the Israeli-Egyptian frontier to reduce the fedayeen threat.

This allows the aggressors to withdraw with out losing face

Israelis destroy Egyptian military installations in the Gaza Strip and Sinai on their way home

He’s a Hero in the Arab world

Pan-Arabism given a huge boost

1958 – Syria joins Egypt to become the United Arab Republic – doesn’t last 1958-61

Reduction of oil shipments = gasoline rationing

Pro-British Premier of Iraq is murdered in 1958

French position in Algeria was further undermined and independence was achieved in 1962

No longer a powerful influence in the area

it had a client state in the Middle East, compensating it for its loss of influence in Iran after the end of WWII.

o Freed the Port of Eliato Took the Gaza stripo UN guaranteed to

stop Egyptian threats to Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran

o Better security = better economy.

o First time UN deployed peace keeping troops – a Canadian idea, Lester B Pearson proposed it.

o Britain and France discredited USA and USSR now influential in the area

End