Political Science Essay”International Relations Of The Middle East”

  • Abraham: 2,000 BCE
  • Leaves present day south-eastern Iraq and heads west
  • Takes family/clan/tribe with him
  • Moses: 13th Century BCE
  • Leads a group out of Egypt
  • Region
  • Philistines control the coast
  • Canaanites control the hills
  • Kings Saul/David/Solomon: 11th to 10th Century BCE
  • Create the Kingdom of Israel
  • Split into two Kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south

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  • Israel conquered by Assyrians in the 8th century and Judah taken by Babylonians in the 6th
  • Return in 397 BCE and reclaimed the land for the Jews
  • Greeks conquer region in 332 BCE
  • Jews didn’t care for Hellenistic culture
  • Revolt 165 BCE (Hanukkah: Festival of Lights)
  • Rome takes region: 64 BCE
  • Jews still aren’t happy
  • Revolt 66 AD: Brutally put down, Jerusalem sacked
  • Revolt again 132-135, brutally put down and Jews dispersed: Diaspora
  • Byzantines take a hard whack: 628/629
  • But anti-Semitism in Europe drives the occasional Jew back to the region
  • Muslim rulers generally lenient and accepting

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  • Israel: Over 8.6 million
  • About 75% Jewish citizens and nearly two million non-Jewish (mostly Arab) citizens
  • Various other groups: Christian/Druze
  • Males at 18 get three years of service/females 2 years
  • 35th largest economy in the world
  • Jews divided into European or Asia/African descent
  • A large proportion (35%) refugees or returnees
  • Proportional representation democracy
  • 3.25% of vote gets a seat in the 120 seat Knesset (Parliament)
  • Prime Minister elected by popular vote
  • 10 parties in 2016
  • Likud: 30 seats, Zionist Union (Labor/Green): 24 seats, Arab parties 13 seats

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  • After 1936-1939 Arab revolt the British severely limited Jewish immigration to Palestine
  • Policy effectively kills thousands of Jews attempting to flee Nazi controlled Europe
  • Jewish leaders have no choice to back England in WWII
  • Begin to form civilian militias
  • Haganah: Unofficial Army

Palmach: Regular fighting force of the Haganah

  • But some choose to oppose British rule
  • Irgun: militant offshoot of the Haganah

Targeted both British and Arab

Stern Gang or Lehi: more militant offshoot of the Irgun

  • Arab leaders have a choice and some flee to Germany (Arab religious leader of Jerusalem)

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  • Britain’s policy
  • Road to hell
  • Keep Arabs happy
  • Maintain access to oil during the war, and after
  • Arabs vastly outnumbered Jews
  • Keep Jews happy
  • But was never a consistent backer of a Jewish state
  • Peel Commission 1937: Only real answer is partition
  • Jewish state/Arab state/Neutral Jerusalem
  • 1921-22 movement of nearly 2 million Greeks/Turks
  • Arabs refuse anything short of Arab dominated region
  • Brits shelve Peel Commission findings
  • Saw itself as remaining a Great Power after WWII

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  • Post World War II
  • Can not survive financially and can not militarily control the region
  • Looks to set up Arabs as proxies in the region
  • All the region’s leaders are beholden to Britain
  • Sets up the “Arab League” in 1945
  • Turkey, Greece and Iran under increasing pressure from Soviet Union and internal communist parties
  • Soviets looking to set up proxies as well

Ala Eastern Europe

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  • Post World War II
  • Palestine
  • Arabs want Jews out and an Arab nation
  • Stop all immigration
  • Jews want increased immigration
  • Accept holocaust survivors

Britain refuses

  • Jewish terror organizations increasingly target British
  • Britain has over 100,000 troops in region
  • Financially and morally drained
  • Decides to give the problem to newly created United Nations

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  • An impossible problem
  • Arabs refused to discuss any option except their complete control over the region
  • Jews discussed the issue and got what they wanted:
  • A Nation
  • UN General Assembly Resolution 181, November 1947
  • Partition the region (ala Peel Commission)
  • Two state solution
  • 33 to 13 with ten abstentions

All Arab Nations voted no

US and USSR voted yes

Britain sets the date of 14 May 1948

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  • Problem:
  • Its not a solution to the problem if one side refuses to accept it
  • Arab League: Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia
  • Threaten war if partition went forward
  • Decided they didn’t need diplomacy

Would use military force and change Palestine to suit their needs

In retrospect, not the brightest move

  • Did not really agree on any war goals or aims, just that they would go to war.

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  • Early 1948
  • Britain slowly pulling out and vacuum is left
  • Jewish militias begin to take over not just “their” portion but also Arab portions
  • Control of key road intersections and key terrain
  • By end of April/early May Jewish forces controlled most of the area designated for the Jewish state but also half the area designated for the Arab portion
  • 9 April 1948: Jewish forces kill 100 to 250 Arab villagers

Panic spreads among Arab and many flee their homes

Arab leaders tell them it is only temporary and many Arabs leave to avoid the future battle they know is coming

Arabs are supremely confident they will crush the Jews

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  • Early 1948
  • Arabs weren’t organized in Palestine
  • No national government in the wings
  • Disorganized local forces with no leader
  • Arab nations do not coordinate any of their efforts
  • lack of trust between them
  • Differing agendas
  • Jordan’s Emir Abdullah only intention was to seize the Muslim Holy site in Jerusalem: Haram al-Sharif
  • Sincerely believe they were going to be victorious

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  • May 14 1948
  • Israel comes into existence
  • U.S. recognizes Israel
  • Arab league declares war
  • Army units from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq attack
  • Soviet Union recognizes Israel
  • May 15th to June 11th
  • Israelis hold off all attacks except the Jordanians
  • Truce brokered by the UN
  • July 8th to July 19th
  • Israel attacks Arab positions and expands boundaries except against the Egyptians in the Negev Desert and the Jordanians holding Jerusalem
  • Truce from 20 July to 14 October
  • October 15th: Israel attacks again and seizes West Jerusalem

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  • War causes over 750,000 Arab refugees
  • 180,000 to Egyptian controlled Gaza
  • 240,000 to the West Bank and 50,000 more into Jordan
  • 100,000 into Lebanon
  • 70,000 into Syria
  • Israel counts 500,000
  • Some (250,000) stayed
  • Arab countries still think this is a temporary problem
  • They will beat the Israelis
  • Dec 11th 1948: UN Resolution 194
  • Refugees should be permitted to go back to their homes
  • Problem:
  • There is still a war on
  • No Arab Nation recognizes Israel

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  • January 6th 1949:
  • Egypt agrees to UN sponsored negotiations
  • 1947 Partition plan gave Jews 55% of Palestine
  • By 1949 the Jewish state comprises 77%
  • Refugees: what should be done?

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Samaria

Judea

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  • May 15th 1948
  • Arab Nations ultimate futility against the independent nation of Israel
  • Lack of coordination
  • All (except Iraq) wanted a part of Palestine
  • All feared each other as well
  • Lack of preparation
  • Refusal to allow any “Palestinian” involvement
  • Little esprit
  • Military units had very little professionalism or experience (except the Jordanians)

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  • “western powers”
  • U.S. and USSR recognition of Israel
  • Truman over ruled the State Department recommendation to wait

US policy was not set and most leaned toward the Arab nations

  • Israeli weapons during the 1948 war were mostly smuggled in from East European countries
  • Soviet and US attention mostly focused on the beginnings of the Cold War

Greek and Turkish Communist parties

Closing of the Iron Curtain

Berlin Airlift: June 24 1948

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  • Internal enemies
  • “Western” backed Arab rulers
  • Syria: Independence from France and a democratic government in 1946
  • Hey, hey got to go
  • 1949: Three military coups by three Colonels in a single year

Another coup in 1951

  • Egyptian King Farouk
  • British backed Constitutional Monarchy during the inter-war years and after WWII
  • “Free Officers Movement”: Military coup in 1952

Another coup in 1954

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  • Internal enemies
  • Jordan’s King assassinated by a Palestinian in 1951
  • Begins a long love affair with Palestinian refugees
  • Jordanians are mostly Bedouin and the Palestinians look down on them as social inferiors
  • Jordan annexed/controlled the West Bank where nearly a quarter million Palestinians fled
  • Palestinians could become Jordanian citizens
  • Iraqi King overthrown by military coup 1958
  • First order of business: consolidate rule

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  • Egypt
  • King Farouk seen as a close ally of the British
  • Egyptian military seizes power and begins to consolidate power
  • Eliminates/silences opposition
  • Democracy advocates and religious extremists
  • Focuses populace on the external enemy
  • Nationalizes the Suez Canal

Leads to the Suez crisis

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  • Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez canal brings together a diverse collection of interests
  • England, France and Israel
  • England wants to control the vital waterway
  • France wants to get back in the game
  • Israel wants to punish Egypt for supporting harassing attacks from the Sinai and the Gaza strip
  • Egypt’s leader, Gamal Nasser, bets on the superpowers to intervene

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  • Israel seizes Sinai and England and France “respond” to protect shipping in the canal
  • U.S., trying to focus the world’s attention on the Soviets invasion of Hungary, forcefully informs the British, French and Israel to stand down and back off
  • England’s decline as a world power is complete
  • Israel wrings a free movement concession out of Egypt
  • Even though it lost and was unsuccessful in defending herself Egypt’s status in the region is increased
  • Air Force and most of her Soviet supplied military equipment destroyed

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  • Based loosely on the idea of Islamic equality and ethnic Nationalism
  • All Arabs have a common cause and the Palestinian issue is a perfect catalyst
  • A good issue to rally the masses around
  • Come see how the West is mistreating your fellow Arabs
  • Little to no incentive to “solve” the problem
  • Egypt is the first to successfully manipulate this idea but
  • Refuses Egyptian citizenship to Palestinians in the Gaza strip

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  • No Arab country recognizes Israel
  • No peace treaty
  • Egypt supports attack into Israel
  • by Palestinians
  • Egyptian Commandos
  • Artillery
  • Syria occasionally fires artillery rounds into Israel

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    • Egypt becomes the focal point for Pan Arabism
    • The issue of Israel is still unresolved
    • France is the primary military supplier for the Israelis
    • But after ’56, England and Israel also develop close ties
    • U.S. is still cool to Israel
    • Nasser creates the “Palestine Liberation Organization” in 1964
    • Based and supported by Cairo
    • Intends to manipulate the organization and declares it as the sole source of Palestinian nationalism
    • Precludes the Jordanians (who still control the West Bank)
    • PLO
    • Palestinian people are a distinct nation
    • Armed struggle as the only way to liberate Palestine
    • Goal is the elimination of Israel

 

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And nobody came?

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  • April 1967: Syria fires artillery into Israel
  • Israel responds by destroying Syrian artillery units and shooting down six Soviet supplied fighters
  • Syria whines to Egypt
  • Egypt
  • Nasser’s prestige as the modern day Saladin on the line
  • Receiving loans and military equipment from the Soviets
  • Styles himself as a leader of the non-aligned movement
  • distinctly anti-colonialism
  • Supports “liberation” movements

Support for Algerian independence one reason for French support of Israel

  • Sees Israel as an European colonizer that can be forced out like other western colonizers
  • Begins to mobilize Army: 100,000 troops

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  • Egypt
  • Secures support from Syria and Jordan for an attack on Israel
  • Orders United Nations observers out of the Sinai
  • Begins to move units into the Sinai
  • Israel begins reserve unit mobilization
  • U.S. informs Israel not to start a war

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  • 5 June 1967
  • Israeli pre-emptive war
  • Destroys most of Egypt’s Air Force while it is on the ground
  • With air superiority, Israeli ground forces crush the Egyptian Army in the Sinai
  • Egyptians fall back to the Suez canal
  • Jordan fires some artillery rounds into Jerusalem in support of Egypt (probably against orders)
  • Israel responds to Jordanian aggression and seizes the West Bank
  • Since the West Bank isn’t technically part of Jordan, the Jordanian Army is only too happy to let the Palestinian issue fall to them

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  • The Six Day War
  • Syria loses the high ground in the Golan Heights
  • Syrian Air Force destroyed and Damascus is threatened
  • Superpowers intervene:
  • Egypt and Syria are effectively client states of the Soviets
  • Push for a cease fire
  • U.S. does not want to see any further escalation
  • Vietnam has effectively tied their hands
  • Cease fire after six days

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  • The Six Day War
  • Egypt loses Sinai
  • Jordan loses the West Bank
  • 200,000 to 300,000 Palestinians flee into Jordan
  • Syria loses the Golan Heights
  • Arab prestige in the region is shattered
  • Israel captures land 3 times its size
  • 40,000 square miles

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  • Neither side got any peace
  • Israel did not, could not, press home a peace treaty
  • The traditional approach:
  • you crush the enemy’s army, occupy their capital and force a peace

Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City…excuse me)

  • Superpowers raided the game
  • Both had their reasons for not wanting to see further conflict
  • Israel did offer the land taken, minus bits of Jerusalem, for a peace treaty with the Arab nations

*

Mexico City

Paris

Berlin

  • Arabs hid behind the skirts of the Soviets
  • Arab summit in Khartoum in ’67
  • The three “Nos”
  • No peace, no recognition, no negotiations
  • Sinai, West Bank and Golan not critical territory

Palestinians becoming an Israeli problem

Gaza and West bank occupied

  • Defeat became increasingly blamed on the “West”
  • The West was defending her last colonial position in the Middle East
  • You’d think we would have chosen one with more oil…

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  • No peace means…
  • conflict
  • Egyptian forces raid/harass Israeli positions in the Sinai
  • Trying to make conflict expensive for the Israelis
  • Nasser seizes up and Sadat takes over
  • Israelis become overconfident
  • Build “impregnable” defensive positions opposite the Egyptian held Suez canal
  • Arabs can’t fight

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  • Egyptians and Syrians attack on Jews holiest day, Yom Kippur: October 6, 1973
  • Day of Atonement, a day of rest and fasting
  • A well planned and coordinated attack
  • Routs the Israelis from the eastern side of the Suez canal and pushes them back into the Sinai
  • They don’t follow through
  • Build a security zone and defensive positions
  • Meanwhile…
  • The Syrians are in serious trouble and Damascus is threatened

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  • Egyptians feel compelled to continue the attack to relieve pressure off Syria
  • Israeli and Egyptian armor battle in the Sinai
  • Egyptians are no match for the more flexible Israeli armor and lose all the territory gained
  • Israeli Commander, Ariel Sharon, crosses into Egypt and by 25 Oct. Israel controls both sides of the Suez canal
  • Sadat is hailed as a great hero (?)

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  • But for one brief and shining moment the Arabs were successful against the Israelis
  • Sadat realizes the futility of fighting the Israelis begins to look for another way out
  • Peace?
  • 19 November 1977 Sadat travels to Jerusalem
  • 1979 Camp David Peace accords
  • Egypt gets back the Sinai and formally recognizes Israel
  • What about the Palestinians in Gaza? The refugees? The Nakba?

The who…?

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  • You remember the Palestinians, don’t you? This was all about the brave Palestinians.
  • Well…
  • Occupied Gaza and West Bank
  • No one is negotiating with Israel because it’s not their land
  • PLO is the “sole representative” and they clamor for the destruction of the “Zionist” entity.
  • Hundreds of thousands fled into Jordan
  • Began to pressure Jordanian government

Attempted assassination of Jordan’s King

Time to go

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  • Jordan’s Army crushes Palestinian militia fighters in Jordan
  • Kills thousands of civilians and exiles tens of thousand Palestinians
  • Palestinians flee to…
  • Syria. No, the Syrians don’t want them
  • Egypt. No, the Egyptians don’t want them
  • Kuwait? Iraq? Saudi Arabia? Iran? No, no, no, no.
  • The weakest Arab nation
  • Lebanon

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  • Lebanon
  • Influx of thousands of Palestinians upsets the delicate governmental balance established by the French
  • Christian and Muslims in an increasingly unstable relationship
  • Palestinians tip the balance into a full scale civil war from 1975 to 1989
  • Syrians and Israelis both use this civil war to their advantage

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  • UN General Assembly Resolution 181: 1947
  • Partition of Palestine
  • UN General Assembly Resolution 194: 1948
  • Right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes
  • Non-starter for the Israelis
  • UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967)
  • No Arab state supported it
  • Remember Khartoum?
  • Israel really didn’t support the “spirit” of the resolution

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  • UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967)
  • The Security Council, expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,
  • Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,
  • 1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
  • (i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
  • (ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
  • 2. Affirms further the necessity
  • (a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
  • (b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
  • (c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
  • 3. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative…

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  • Increasingly controlled by non-aligned, previous colonial states
  • Arabs, and many other newly emergent nations, see the Israeli presence as a form of European colonialism
  • UN General Assembly Resolutions 3375, 3376, 3379
  • PLO, still calling for the destruction of Israel, accorded equal footing with other parties
  • Palestinian people have “inalienable” rights
  • Zionism is racism
  • Israel’s disdain for the General Assembly is complete

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  • Egypt sues for a separate peace
  • Syria no longer advancing a Palestinian position and increasingly concerned about getting the Golan Heights back
  • But Lebanon is tempting
  • Syria invades Lebanon in 1977 to “stabilize” the situation
  • Occupies the Bekaa Valley
  • Rise of Hezbollah (Party of God)
  • Backed by Syria and Iran
  • Arab League (1982)
  • Suggests Israel may actually exist

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  • Jordan renounces all claims to the West Bank
  • Wasn’t involved in the ’73 war
  • Is seen as the most pro-west regime in the region
  • PLO conducts a series of terrorist operations in the 1970s but only serves to completely alienate Israel for discussing situation in the occupied territories

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  • Gaza
  • Too many Arabs and refugees
  • Cordon it off
  • West Bank
  • Occupies the high ground and the fertile Jordan river valley
  • Controls most of Israel’s water supply
  • No Arab state claims it, no one “speaks” rationally for their inhabitants
  • Israel
  • Seizes absentee land or land owned communally

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  • Increasingly Israeli settlers move into region
  • Specifically around Jerusalem
  • 200,000 settlers
  • And high ground
  • 17,000 in the Golan
  • 230,000 more scattered throughout
  • Create conditions on the ground
  • US policy since 1970’s: settlers are “obstacles” to peace
  • Weakness of the Palestinian position drives them to despair … and negotiations
  • PLO leadership driven from Beirut by Israel in 1982
  • First Intifada (1987-1993)
  • Rise of Hamas: 1987
  • Charity and bombs
  • Oslo: talks with the enemy

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  • Arafat and the PLO forced into recognition of Israel
  • Takes until 1998 until PLO removes the destruction of Israel clause from their National Covenant
  • Israel recognizes the PLO
  • Someone to negotiate with
  • Oslo I and II
  • Envisioned a series of withdrawals but not a complete withdrawal
  • Jerusalem and larger settlements
  • Zones A, B and C

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  • Hamas
  • Reaction to the corrupt and incompetent PLO
  • Began as an Islamic aid organization in the occupied territories
  • Using the teachings of Islam it becomes a force for good works in the territories
  • Helps women and children, builds clinics, fairly distributes aid
  • but also develops into a organized resistance to Israeli occupation
  • Suicide bombers: 1991
  • Whole concept of fairness and justice gets brought up

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  • Israeli religious fanatics and settlers
  • Israeli settlers doing God’s work
  • Need it for security reasons
  • Need roads to the settlements
  • Cheaper housing and lower taxes
  • Reclaiming the Holy Lands of Samaria and Judea
  • Land belongs to Israel
  • “Palestinians” don’t really exist
  • They’re just Arabs

They can go somewhere else

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  • Main groups, PLO and Israeli government, realized they needed to compromise
  • Knesset votes 61 to 59 to accept Oslo
  • But the process is derailed by internal enemies
  • Jewish terrorist assassinates Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in late 1995
  • Israeli elections set for May ‘96
  • February 1996 Hamas planned series of bombings kill 59 Israeli civilians
  • April ’96: Hizbollah rocket launches from Lebanon into Israel
  • Moderate Peres who supports Oslo loses to right wing Netanyahu

 

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  • Netanyahu
  • “Freezes” peace process, stops any withdrawal of Israel from occupied territory
  • Comes under increasing pressure from the U.S.
  • Palestinian extremists continue to kill Israeli civilians
  • Occupation cracks downs and settlers continue to flow
  • Netanyahu can not deliver Israeli government to any peace process movement and his government collapses
  • Peace process in Israel difficult to maintain

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To where?

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  • Hamas
  • Reaction to the corrupt and incompetent PLO
  • Began as an Islamic aid organization in the occupied territories
  • Using the teachings of Islam it becomes a force for good works in the territories
  • Helps women and children, builds clinics, fairly distributes aid
  • but also develops into a organized resistance to Israeli occupation
  • Suicide bombers: 1991
  • Whole concept of fairness and justice gets brought up

*

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  • Israeli religious fanatics and settlers
  • Israeli settlers doing God’s work
  • Need it for security reasons
  • Need roads to the settlements
  • Cheaper housing and lower taxes
  • Reclaiming the Holy Lands of Samaria and Judea
  • Land belongs to Israel
  • “Palestinians” don’t really exist
  • They’re just Arabs

They can go somewhere else

*

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  • Main groups, PLO and Israeli government, realized they needed to compromise
  • Knesset votes 61 to 59 to accept Oslo
  • PLO becomes the Palestinian Authority, PA.
  • But the process is derailed by internal enemies
  • Jewish terrorist assassinates Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in late 1995
  • Israeli elections set for May ‘96
  • February 1996 Hamas planned series of bombings kill 59 Israeli civilians
  • April ’96: Hizbollah rocket launches from Lebanon into Israel
  • Moderate Peres who supports Oslo loses to right wing Netanyahu

 

*

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  • Netanyahu
  • “Freezes” peace process, stops any withdrawal of Israel from occupied territory
  • Comes under increasing pressure from the U.S.
  • Palestinian extremists continue to kill Israeli civilians
  • Occupation cracks downs and settlers continue to flow
  • Netanyahu can not deliver Israeli government to any peace process movement and his government collapses
  • Peace process in Israel difficult to maintain
  • Settlers and religious groups don’t want it
  • Security concerns continue to strike fear

*

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  • Camp David: 2000
  • President Clinton determined to bring peace and establish a legacy beyond Monica
  • Heavy pressure on new Israeli Prime Minister Barak
  • Series of negotiations in the summer and desperate final talks in the winter of 2000 and 2001
  • Clinton’s final “offer”: 23 Dec. 2000
  • Israel turns over 94 to 96% of the West Bank and all of Gaza
  • Shared sovereignty over the Sharif/temple complex
  • Jerusalem: districts’ majority population determines who controls
  • Palestinian refugees right of return: Ain’t gonna happen
  • Palestine a non-militarized state: no Army, but a Security force

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  • Barak accepts
  • Arafat: Delays and wants continued negotiations
  • Perhaps using violence to gain more concessions?
  • Or just corrupt and incompetent because…
  • Clinton leaves office in January 2001
  • Sharon and Likud elected in February
  • Negotiations with Arafat and the PA are severed
  • Palestinians in the West Bank get the shaft
  • Occupation continues
  • Economy gets worse
  • Settlers keep pouring in

*

 

  • Any U.S. pressure on Israel disappears
  • Pictures of Palestinians celebrating the attack not very helpful
  • Continued low level violence by both sides
  • Targeted assassinations against extremists
  • Catch the odd, unlucky innocent (legitimate casualties?)
  • Random suicide bombers wandering into civilian crowds and blowing themselves up
  • Arafat unwilling or unable to control extremists
  • Hamas/Islamic Jihad
  • Hamas electoral victory in 2006 seals the deal

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  • God given right to land
  • Given to Abraham by God 5,000 years ago
  • Israel needs it/deserves it
  • History of pogroms/expulsions/genocide
  • Only democracy in the Mid-East
  • The rest are a bunch of autocratic thugs
  • Successful in war
  • Only gained land when Arabs attacked
  • Truly seeks a peaceful co-existence
  • Arabs know only terror and war
  • Backward, regressive culture
  • Refugees
  • Israel takes in Jews from everywhere, Arabs can’t reciprocate?

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  • Internal institution dedicated to derailing any peace process
  • Security
  • Palestinian Authority and Hamas
  • Institutionalized anti-Jewish/anti-Israeli incitement
  • Anti-Israeli cartoon characters for the kids
  • Release known terrorists from Palestinian jails
  • Failure to control illegal weapons (like rockets)
  • Conducts violent para-military operations against Israeli civilians
  • Places riflemen in “peaceful” demonstrations to elicit an Israeli response
  • Belief that violence against any and all Israelis is legitimate
  • Any concessions seen as a weakness

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  • There is no-one to negotiate with
  • By design?
  • Separation is the only real solution
  • Pullout of Gaza and close it off

Gaza has “no hope whatsoever on the horizon.” Sharon

  • Build a security fence between the parts of the West Bank Israel does not want and the parts they do

Continue to build and expand settlements in the West Bank

Export workers from southern Europe

  • Continue settlement building and occupation of the West Bank

creation of broken, disconnected islands of Palestinians

Apartheid

  • Israel as a “Jewish” State

Arabs living in Israel?

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  • Land was given by Europeans to other Europeans
  • Straight colonial arrangement
  • Zionists have stolen their land and continue to steal their land
  • Self determination
  • Other nations have a right to fight for their nation, why are Palestinians denied that right?
  • Palestinian people are a distinct nation
  • Armed struggle is legitimate in the cause of liberating Palestine
  • Israel continues with a brutal and repressive occupation
  • Denies basic human rights to Palestinians
  • Establishing an apartheid and racist state
  • Israel wants to establish a “Greater Israel”
  • Permanent injustices
  • Western powers (US) allow injustices to continue

*

 

  • Arafat negotiated, recognized Israel and nothing came of it
  • Israeli settlement increased
  • Occupation continues unabated
  • Daily grind of checkpoints, humiliation and martial law
  • Still have lousy economic situation with deteriorating daily lives
  • Israel violates international law with impunity and no one cares or does anything about it
  • Violates the Geneva convention and UN resolutions
  • The West is complicit and duplicitous in its dealings with the Palestinians

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  • Fatah (old Arafat party)
  • Corrupt, ineffectual and tainted by its association of working with the Israelis
  • Hamas is at least efficient and works to help the average Palestinian
  • Hamas gained electoral victory in 2006 (Democracy!)
  • Wants the destruction of Israel, does not recognize any agreements made by PLO/PA back in the 90s
  • Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian Nation
  • Right of 1948 refugees, all 4 million of them, to their old land back

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  • No nation states at war with Israel but
  • Hamas, the defacto leader of the Palestinians, believe any actions against the occupying enemy is legitimate
  • This includes any and all Israelis, or Zionists occupiers
  • Hezbollah, gaining electoral power in Lebanon, also sees Israel as an occupying colonial entity
  • Any military/terrorist action against Israel is legitimate
  • Secular Arabs have come to terms but for a rising tide of fundamentalist Muslims there can be no peace
  • Sounds like war to me

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  • Arabs disintegrating along religious lines

Sunni-v-Shiite

  • Iran
  • Leader of the Shia, and by extension the only force for minority rights in the region, maneuvering to obtain influence in the broader region

Provides weapons, supplies and support to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in West Bank

Geographical distance from Israel allows it to play without fear of getting to badly burned

  • Turkey

Distancing itself from Israel and supporting Sunni Arabs a tactic to regain influence in the region

Initial support for ISIS not well though out

Eliminating the Iranian supported Assad regime also not working out

  • All play off the Palestinians
  • Pressure Israel

Option limited as compromises directly impact the survival of the Israeli State

Surrendering control over the Gaza Strip did not lead to enhanced security so future land for peace deals are suspect until the Palestinians change

  • Pressure Palestinians

Palestinian demands make compromise difficult for leaders

Difficult for US to pressure the Palestinians as they are seen by the world community as the “victims”

  • Rights?
  • Justice?
  • Peace?
  • Borders? Settlements? Jerusalem? Refugees? Sovereignty? Physical and Economic Security?
  • Realists:
  • Liberals:
  • Islamists:
  • World Community: U.S./Arab League

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