Israel and the Middle East

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Israel and the Middle East

• World History

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Where is the Middle East?

• The Middle East is a region just to the East of
  Africa and to the South East of Europe.
• It includes the Cradle of Civilization
  including the ancient civilizations of Sumer and
  Mesopotamia.

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What Is So Special About the Middle East?

• The Middle East contains vast oil resources
  commands strategic waterways including the Red
  Sea and the Persian Gulf.
• The Middle East is also home to the holy sites of
  three of the worlds five major religions.

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The Ottoman Empire

• Starting around 1300, the region was dominated by
  an empire called the Ottoman Empire.
• The Empire started to decline around 1600 or so
  and collapsed completely after World War I.

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What Happened to the Middle East After World War
I?

• Turkey became a free country after the war and
  modernized under Mustapha Kemal, who took the
  name Ataturk, or father of the Turks.
• The British and the French were given mandates
  throughout the Middle East. These were areas
  that they controlled.

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The Mandate of Palestine

• Palestine was a very small piece of land, but it
  contained many of the holiest sites for three
  major religions.
• Arabs who wanted their own country and Zionists,
  or Jews who wanted a Jewish homeland,
  increasingly clashed in this area.

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What is Zionism?

• Beginning around 1900, many Jews began to call
  for a Jewish state. Theodor Herzl is often
  called the father of this movement.
• For a thousand years, there had been small Jewish
  settlements in Palestine.

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Zionism Grows

• During the early 1900s, violent anti-Semitism
  against Jews caused many to leave their homes and
  move to Palestine.
• Millions of Jews fled pogroms, or violent attacks
  against Jewish communities, in Russia.

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The Balfour Declaration

• During World War I, two conflicting sets of
  promises were made.
• The British created the Balfour Declaration which
  supported a national home for the Jewish
  people.
• They also promised to protect the non-Jewish
  communities in Palestine.

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The Jewish Population Grows

• In 1919, there were 60,000 Jews in Palestine.
• By 1936, this number was 400,000.
• Jewish organizations began to purchase
  considerable amounts of land and some
  Palestinians tried to stop this.
• Violence and tensions ensued.

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The Response to the Holocaust

• As we have discussed, Jews had suffered
  horrifically during the Holocaust.
• Partly in response to this, the United Nations
  created a Partition Plan.
• This created two states.
• The Palestinians viewed this plan as illegitimate
  and the surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel.

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Wars Against Israel

• Surrounding Arab Countries will attack Israel in
  1947, 1956, 1967, and 1973.
• Israel will win all of these major conflicts.
• The first country to officially make peace with
  Israel was Egypt in 1979. Jordan followed in
  1994.

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Other Violence Against Israel

• Beginning in the 1960s, the Palestinian
  Liberation Organization (PLO) advocated the
  destruction of Israel.
• They practiced terrorism against Israel, most
  famously killing all eleven of the Israeli
  athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
• Israel responded forcefully to these attacks,
  killing many Palestinians.

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Palestinian Refugees

• Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still live
  in refugee camps inside and outside of Israel.
• They have no homes and hope to win a right of
  return to return to land that they believe they
  are entitled to.
• This picture is Jenin refugee camp, which was
  partially leveled by Israel in 2002.

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Violence Today

• The PLO became a political organization in 1993
  and acknowledged Israels right to exist.
• Israel still faces violence from terrorist
  organizations like Hamas in Israel.
• There are still a number of stumbling blocks to
  peace.
• If you have the solution to these complex
  problems including religion, politics, land,
  economics, hard feelings, war, and refugees, you
  just might win the Nobel Peace Prize.