A Line In The Sand Essay
In the book, A Line In The Sand, James Barr discusses the French struggle over the Middle East between 1914-1948. Throughout this book, it talks about two men, one visionary British politician and the other a veteran French diplomat; Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot. They both secretly drew a line from the Mediterranean to the Persian Frontier. Britain and France would divide and rule 5 countries which are Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon ad Syria. It made the two powers uneasy neighbors for the next 30 years. In this essay I will be talking about how the Franco-British rivalry over the Middle East shaped the development of the region in James Barr’s view. I will talk about the WW1 agreements and
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As stated, "From the very day after the Armistice I found you an enemy of France" the French prime minister accused Lloyd Georges. "Well", his British counterpart volleyed "was it not always our traditional policy?" (p. 78), truly the after war years led to even more back stabbing on both parts. Getting settled with Syria was one of the difficulties that the French went through, after the spread of the nationalist movements in hopes of reviving the promised Arab Nation and had even established a short lived government which Faisal headed. Revolutions filled with blood had started in Iraq against the British rule which led to the "election" of Faisal, who had recently been evicted from Syria by the French, as head of Iraq, and the French were furious as they thought Faisal’s reign would stir even more nationalist revolts in Syria.
Palestine has been known to be an area in the Middle East that is situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and Palestine was intensely engaged by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 which made them controlled under the
The Middle East has been a conflict ridden area due to clashing religions, and political and territorial disputes for centuries. Although deep-seated religious and political differences can easily cause violent rivalry, territorial dispute frequently causes long lasting tension and fighting between those involved. Specifically the area occupied by modern day Israel and Palestine and due to the area being a hub for religious pilgrims of Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic faith there has been controversy for centuries. Most importantly though, is the presence of Britain having control of the land beginning in 1917 due to the growth of Zionism. Eventually the United Nations created their partition plan as a way to try to have peace between the Arabs and Jews but as time went on it seemed less and less likely for peace to prevail (Fisher 5). Similarly, this view of the conflict being impossible to solve is present in Yasmina Khadra’s writings. Khadra in his novel, The Attack, suggests that a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is not possible through the extremist behavior of Sihem which correctly reflects that of the actual hatred of Israelis found in current
The Arab/Israeli conflict is a conflict between the Arabs and the Jews over a small piece of land known as the holy land which is an area in the Middle East of the Arab world. The Arabs call the land Palestine, the Jews call it Israel but both religions have strong religious links with the land. There is conflict between the two religions because they both believe that the land belongs to them.
The country of Palestine has a unique history that distinguishes it from other nations. In 1948, Israel became an independent nation, covering a large portion of another country called Palestine. Eventually, as time continued, Israel seized the rest of Palestine by 1967. This dominance resulted in the Palestinians lack of a homeland. Due to this, various altercations between both groups of people, the Israelis and the Palestinians, arose. The prospects for a peaceful settlement between both, Israelis and Palestinians, are minimal.
Before 1947 Palestine owned all of Israel including , the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Israel. But in 1947 that all changed when the United Nations divided up the land. They gave “55 percent of Palestine to a Jewish state.” - Negotiations Affairs Department. When only one third of the population was Jewish. After these events the Jews wanted even more land and eventually Israel became about. Israel had “control over
Despite current misconceptions of the tensions between Muslims and Jews, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. The Palestinians, both muslims and christians, lived in peace for centuries. Control of the city had historically, since 637 AD, been under Muslim control with guarantee of Christians’ safety, right to property, and right to practice religion. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to European nations colonizing many of its former lands, and the British gained control of Palestine. Social and political issues prompted European jews to flee from political unrest from their homes in Europe, and migrate to Palestine. Seeing the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, the Arabs fought back. The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations (UN) voted to split the land into two countries. The continued political unrest in the Middle East is the cause of United States involvement.
The novel House of Sand and Fog, written by Andrew Dubus III, is a story about how society, events from the past and present situations can affect people’s persona, anima/animus, shadow and self which eventually influences their decisions about life. Dubus explores the conflict between two completely different people with opposite persona. Colonel Masoud Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family’s dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. These two characters are drawn by their competing desires to the same small house and domed by their tragic inability to
I read House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III. This story is one of classic tragedy which also contains a nearly unbearable amount of suspense. It tells a story of the conflict between people of different races who have an inability to understand each other. They each want possession of a small house in the California hills but for very different reasons.
The Book of Sand by Jorge Luís Borges suggests the idea that humans have an intense, almost obsessive, desire to understand the unknown. In the Book of Sand the narrator becomes obsessed with interpreting how the book given to her was infinite in its number of pages, “A prisoner of the book, I almost never went out anymore,” (47). The narrator is fixated on discovering how the book itself can be “infinite;” this shows a thirst for knowledge and the need to understand foreign concepts. The narrator studies the book with such intensity that it consumes her, “Summer came and went, and I realized that the book was monstrous,” (47). With the realization that the book had taken over her every thought and motive, the narrator withdraws from her counterproductive
Many of the problems in the Middle East today are a direct result of actions undertaken in the region 's colonial past. I will argue that both imperialist ineptitude, deliberate meddling and outright deceit by colonial powers have sown seeds of distrust that linger in the Middle East today towards the West. I will claim that artificial boundaries, government structures and societal schisms created in colonial times have entrenched animosities and created internal structural instabilities in the area that are still being resolved. The imposition of Israel into Palestine, I will argue, remains an unresolved product of colonial rule. I will discuss how the discovery of oil and the regions importance as a trade route caused the World Powers to remain engaged in the area and oppressive in their demeanour. Finally I will argue that perhaps the greatest ongoing legacy of colonialism in the Middle east is an imperialist attitude by the west which continues to this day.
In The Sand Child, Tahar Ben Jelloun composes a multi-layered tale about Ahmed, a woman socialized as a man, who struggles to reclaim her sexuality. Ben Jelloun contrasts gender and sexual orientation to suggest that a person’s characteristics can be shaped and changed by will, but his sexuality is predisposed and will be the deciding factor of how he will act and identify himself within his community.
For many centuries, Judaic and Arabian societies have engaged in one of the most complicated and lengthy conflicts known to mankind, the makings of a highly difficult peace process. Unfortunately for all the world’s peacemakers the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly the war between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, is rooted in far more then ethnic tensions. Instead of drawing attention towards high-ranking officials of the Israeli government and Hamas, focus needs to be diverted towards the more suspect and subtle international relations theory of realism which, has imposed more problems than solutions.
This conflict is among Jews and Arabs. Palestine for the Arabs is a land whose Oil has been cultivated by them for generations. Israel, as later called by the Jews, is a land of inspiration that is destined for them, since many Jews had been living in Israel and emigrating previously (Fraser,1). This shows the Socio-Political and religious roots of the conflict. The Arabic population is currently located in Jerusalem, but the Jewish Population in Israel has a strong desire of relocating to Jerusalem someday, and have been fighting for this to happen
The part of the Middle East being discussed involves the following: Iraq, Transjordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. All of which were directly impacted by the borders which were set up by European countries in the early 20th century. The borders had benefits of course, but they also brought with them quite a few problems. While the Middle Eastern borders are important to dividing that part of the world into different countries, the borders seem to have brought with them a lot of problems that the people living in this part of the world have had to deal with. There are multiple factors involved with this topic, including a few treaties, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the start of World War I. The different treaties were the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, both of which involved European countries deciding the future of these countries. All of these factors had a direct impact on the Middle East and had a lasting effect on the people who live in this area of the world.
The place where I feel most comfortable is a place where I am calm. A place that is peaceful in its own ways. It is the place to go to get away from all my troubles. It is the one place where I could sit forever, and never get tired of just staring into the deepest blue I have ever seen. It is the place where I can sit and think the best. A place where nothing matters but what is in that little moment. The one place capable of sending my senses into an overload. This place is the ocean.
the conflict in the middle east between 1948-1973 was not purely fuelled by the interest and concerns of the superpowers but rather of a series of conflictual incidents, aswell as the main wars that took place from the years from 1948-1967 such as the: 1948 War, The Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973. But although the conflict was not fuelled by the superpowers, the influence of the superpowers and the reach of the superpowers into the Middle East was evident in the years both prior and following 1978. But even despite the influence and interests of the superpowers between and including 1948-1967 being undeniably evident, the extent of this influence cannot be said to have “fuelled the conflict”.