The Middle East Conflict

The U.S. was cautious in approaching the problem with Syria, though. They did not want to appear as having imperial motives and thus sought incite a regional response, especially the support of Saudi Arabia. The relationship with Saudi Arabia was strategic in itself because of its fundamental role in the Arab world, especially in dealing with Egypt, as well as its increasing wealth in oil. The U.S., though, did not get the response they were looking for. Saudi Arabia placed the problem squarely on the U.S. government’s shoulders and therefore caused them to change their policies towards Syria. One such change would be that of a military intervention in Syria. Eisenhower could not justify military intervention with Syria without separating it from the similar crisis in the Suez. Thus, military intervention in Syria was justified through asserting that Syria was secretly being infiltrated by the Soviet Union. To solidify this policy the United States needed to find physical proof that this was indeed happening in Syria. This further fueled the need for an all-Arab response in Syria. When other Arab nations refused to respond to the crisis the United States looked to Turkey to stage a military intervention against Syria. This move was not a smart one in that it prompted a response from the Soviet Union in which it warned Turkey not to take action against Syria.

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 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.

This tension came to a climax in 1936 during Arab Revolt, leaving 300 Jews and 5,000 Arabs dead, and over 15,000 Arabs injured. After WWII, large amounts of Jews were left as refugees, and on the eve of the expiration of the League of Nations Mandate, Israel announced its independence. A day latter, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon joined forces in order to stop Israel from becoming a state. There were a total of around 15,000 killed. A Palestinian’s journal explained the brutality when they wrote, “They took about 40 prisoners from the village. But after the battle was over, they took them to the quarry where they shot them dead and threw their bodies in the quarry” (10). Almost one million Palestinians were forcibly relocate. The war ended in 1949 in a ceasefire.

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

Since the middle east had rich oil the Soviet Union and western powers fought for territory and influence. The Soviet Union tried to control the countries Iran and Turkey, but the U.S. won them over by giving them military help and financial aid. But the Arab nations betrayed the U.S. trust by helping Israel their enemy. The Soviet Union saw that and saw that as an opportunity to take the Arab countries.

Furthermore, Eisenhower opposed the use of force—the U.S. sought a diplomatic solution to the problem. Unlike the U.S., Britain and France viewed Nasser’s action as a threat to their national interests, which led to Operation Musketeer, involving Israel. On October 26, 1956, when the United States learned of Israel’s military mobilization, President Eisenhower personally sent messages to Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion asking Israel to not take any action that would endanger the peace. However, on October 29, 1956, Israel attacked the Egyptian army, taking control of the Sinai and the Straits of Tiran. Britain, France, and Israel kept the operation secret from the United States. Eisenhower felt personally insulted by his allies—UK and France—for disregarding the Tripartite Agreement of 1950 and Operation Musketeer. “As a professional solider, he understood and did not rule out the use of force” (Lenczowski, 48). In response to these developments, Eisenhower used economic threats to force his British, French, and Israeli allies to withdraw from Egypt. Eisenhower valued the UN system and international law, which explains why he took aggressive action to resolve the conflict through the UN. In a resolution, the U.S. called for an immediate ceasefire and the evacuation of Israeli, French, and British forces from Egypt under the supervision of a special United Nations force.

“The Soviet-Egyptian arms deal of September 1955 seemed doubly troubling because it signaled new departures both in Soviet assertiveness in the region and in an Arab state’s receptivity to Soviet aid.” (Hahn 151)

The political issues between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 20th century resulted in global complications. Each of the major powers were attempting to spread their respective ideologies to emerging countries all around the world. While there was never any physical fighting, during the Cold War period the US and the USSR were always on the threshold, ready to fight. Nasser, Egypt’s president, was an independent leader who sought to develop Egypt’s economy and country. In order to do this he did not desire the engagement of foreign powers, but these goals required money that he did not have. As a result, he was forced to ally with either the US or USSR. The sole purpose of this alliance would be he could receive more benefits

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

The Middle East has long been home to very deep-rooted conflict. For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the central of death and fear. The animosity between few, takes the hope of hundreds. The Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict is most notably the largest issue preventing peace in the Middle East, but it is by no means the only issue. The issue of bankrolling and foreign aid are also issues preventing peace; because the U.S provides so much funding and foreign aid to certain countries, it is in some sense encouraging them to continue acting the way they act now and not change for the better of the region. It is also making the U.S look biased and can potentially cause issues for America in the long run, if they haven’t already. There is also the conflict of the Persian Gulf; the importance of these “new” resources and how it could affect the world economy and also the balancing of powers in the Persian Gulf; The U.S and the Middle Eastern nations will need to work to together to bring about security and stability into the Persian Gulf and hopefully it can overflow to the Middle East as well.

Historian Avner Cohen writes, “In the end Israel launched a pre-emptive aerial attack in which most of the Egyptian air force was destroyed, virtually deciding the Six Day War. Through Israel’s dominance they were regarded as the ‘strongest military power in the Middle East’. Also, the Arabs had become severely weakened as a result of the Six Day War, as they had lost a high amount of casualties and the relations between Syria, Jordon and Egypt declined as evident through Syria not accepting UN Resolution 242 while Egypt and Jordon did. Through Israel’s superiority, their relations with Egypt had improved as highlighted through Egypt recognising Israel as a state in 1979. Nevertheless, Israel’s dominancy also stresses its improvement in its relations with Jordan signing a peace treaty in 1994, and Iran signing a peace treaty in 1979. Even though, certain relations improved the Arabs would turn to terrorism and the Israeli army would be seen as the aggressor. By Israel dominating the Six Day War and establishing itself as the ‘strongest military power in the Middle East, its relations with other Arab countries had dramatically improved.

In 1956, Gemal Abdul Nassir announced that he wanted the nationalization of the Suez Canal. This canal has been operated by Britain and France since the 18th century and due to this, tensions rose between Egypt, Britain and France. Israel regarded Gemal Abdul Nassir as a threat to its national security and due to this it was easy for Britain and France to convince Israel in the invasion of Egypt and the overthrowing of its president. Israel invaded Sinai Peninsula, Britain and France landed their troops later on the pretence of separating the fighting parties. This was the start of the Suez crisis. The USA condemned their actions and forced the three parties to withdraw and this made it possible

were chosen by God to set up a state of Israel where they could not be

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.