Conflicts in the Middle East between 1949 and 1973

The role of the Middle East has been very crucial to the United States, especially after WWII. The U.S. had three strategic goals in the Middle East and consistently followed them throughout various events that unfolded in the region. First, with the emergence of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the U.S., policymakers began to recognize the importance of the Middle East as a strategic area in containing Soviet influence. This also coincides with the U.S. becoming increasingly wary of Arab nationalism and the threat it posed to U.S. influence. Secondly, the emergence of the new Israeli state in 1948 further deepened U.S. policy and involvement in the region while also creating friction between the U.S. and Arab states which were

On May 15 1948, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and Egypt moved their armies into Palestine causing a full-scale, Middle Eastern war. Over the next year, there were a series of campaigns and truces,

While the aftermath of World War II is often referred to as one of the primary creators of deep rooted turmoil in the Middle East region, the effects of the Cold War and the United States often over-zealous battle against communism is just as much a contributor if not more. The Arab world and the Middle East region were clearly going through quite an extraordinary period throughout World War II and its conclusion, primarily with the creation of most of the states we recognize today and struggling with the continuation of colonialism. These factors set the stage for the emergence of strong nationalist sentiments and Pan-Arab movements across the Middle East. Unfortunately, and much to the detriment of the region, the leaders of these young

The superpowers, namely the USSR and US were in engaged in a war by proxy, which is very easy to identify if you analyze the conflicts in the Middle East from 1948 until, and including, the Yom Kippur War of 1978. The superpowers would employ tactics such as supplying their various ‘allies’ in the Middle East with weapons and finances which would afford them the ability to engage in the many conflicts that took place in that period such as the Suez Crisis, Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. All of this was done without either superpower’s putting their own men on the ground to fight, for fear of an all out war between each other. However much the superpowers might have fuelled the conflicts with supplying the Arabs and Israelis with weapons and finances, they were not the cause for the conflicts as they are much deeper rooted. Israel and the Arab states have always seen tension as per their culture and religious differences, and the growing nationalism of the Arab states and Zionism in Israel, which amounted to extreme actions such as the three major conflicts during the time period 1956-1978.

The 1948 War set the stage for long-term conflict in the Middle East, because even after Israel defeated Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, the surrounding Arab

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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most controversial conflicts in modern history. The expansion of Israel since 1947 is seen as the beginning of the conflict, although its origins go back to the end of the 19th century, when Jewish immigration to Palestine began to increase. Since the start of the conflict, several peace negotiations have been carried out, resulting in variable degrees of success.

The calamitous destruction of World War II promised to revolutionize the international order to create lasting peace, but, while peace and friendly relations were established between most of the former Axis and Allied states, the world overall joined the new Cold War paradigm. In addition to the Cold War, the 1948 establishment of Israel introduced a new, destabilizing dynamic to the increasingly important Middle East. The creation of Israel also represented the dissolution of one of the final vestiges of British imperialism in the Middle East. With the British unable and unwilling to project power in the Middle East to any substantive degree, the United States slowly but surely integrated itself into the political and economic systems of

During the period following World War 2.The new Zionist movement of Jews immigrating to the Middle East to establish a homeland for all Jews in what was now Israel after being displaced for many years. This led to conflict between the Arabs and the Jews about who had rights to this homeland, with both the Arab Muslims and the Jewish Israelis having biblical claims to the cities in the Middle East. This conflict was further fuelled by both the USA and the USSR as they were trying to spread their sphere of influence by supplying aid in the form of weapons, ammunition and support to gain access to valuable resources and water ways. However their involvement was not a direct factor leading to the conflict between Israel and the Arab states but rather prolonging it by supplying tools of war.

After the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, tensions between the newly founded Jewish state and the Arab states were at an all time high, but it wasn’t until May and June of 1967 that tensions would turn volatile. The region was in a state of anarchy with multiple states competing for power within the region. Actions by leaders of both states made the already convoluted situation harder to interpret, and would ultimately lead to one state’s action. During those months, Arab nations, more specifically Egypt, began to impose trade restrictions, massing forces upon Israel’s border, and disputing Israeli water rights on the Jordan River. These actions began to bring forth the reasons as to why Israel, while greatly outnumbered, decided

From 1948 to 1978, in the Middle East, the two superpowers at the time the USA and the USSR were trying to exert their spheres of influence in the Middle East. Each superpower supported different sides to the conflict with the USA and the West supporting Israel and any other Arab country that saw the spread of communism as a threat and the USSR supporting the Arab states that wanted to destroy the Jewish state. The USA interests in the region were for the oil fields and the Suez Canal trading root while the USSR saw it as strategic value for the oil supplies to the west and the important trade roots. Both of the superpowers were supplying their allies in the region with financial and military aid. The four major wars that were fought during this time 1948 the war of liberation, the Suez crisis, the six day war and the Yom Kippur war had been influenced by the superpowers using the Middle Eastern countries as their pawns as one tried to undermined the others influence in the region. How each of the Superpowers used covert warfare in order to secure their interests in the Middle East.

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.

The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had

It is not entirely feasible to discuss every single precondition that leads to the war as that would require exploring the entire span of Middle Eastern history. The entire span of Middle Eastern history is a story of the breakdown of social capital between the various ethnic and religious population and wider world they interacted with. Social capital is

Between the period of 1948 and 1973 there was quite a bit of animosity and conflict between the Arab world and Israeli’s. This was caused by a struggle for land in the state of what was known as Palestine but to many it is now known as Israel. This conflict in the Middle East caused many wars between Israel and its surrounding Arab states. At the same time both USA and the USSR were trying to spread their ideologies and get a foothold in the Middle East because of strategic position, they would have access to the Indian and Mediterranean Oceans through the Suez Canal. They would also gain a resource advantage of oil as the Middle East is rich in oil. The involvement of these Superpowers was not the initial cause of the conflict it did “add fuel to the fire”. However the USSR and USA did not engage in any of this conflict because they did not partake in any of the wars by sending no troops what so ever so it could be said that they had little if any involvement in the conflict happening in the Middle East.