Decolinization In The Middle East

17 November 2004 (Lecture #34)

• An artificial Israeli state was formed:

o British formed the Jewish state (Balfour recommended it)

o Jews grew to become a large portion of a population previously dominated by Arabs as the Holocaust occurs

• Nasser of Egypt calls Arabs to invade Israel

o Egypt seizes the Suez Canal (Suez Canal War)

o British land paratroopers to keep Egyptians in Africa as Israel conquers Sinai land (former Egyptian territory)

o Soviets threaten nuclear war unless they withdraw and back Egypt

§ Israel and the UK withdraw

§ US forced to back Israel

• Six-day war – Israel preemptively strikes, takes Sinai, Gaza, and northern lands – keeps Egypt on other side of Suez

o Returns all but Gaza in exchange for no more Arab aggression

o Gaza is mostly Palestinian; source of current and ongoing major disputes

o Israel wanted Gaza because it forms a very odd-shaped cutout from its country which was much harder to defend than a straight boundary line – being invaded from Gaza was like an interior attack

Conclusions

• Middle East forces of nationalism too hard for Europeans to control
• Continued source of disproportionate number of world conflicts