The Two Superpowers and the Arab-Israeli Conflict between 1948 and 1978

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

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.

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.

After World War 2 the U.S and USSR was fighting in the Cold War. As a result, in Europe the countries became separate and both sides formed an alliance. While, there was disagreement of communism between the two superpowers the USSR and the U.S caused tension beginning the Cold War. In Asia, the proxy wars were fought in Vietnam and Korea. In Latin America, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

The creation of Israel meant that the Israeli’s were able to fulfil their long term aspiration of creating their own state, which had been fuelled by

In 1948, the Zionist movement realized its goal of creating a national home for the Jewish people by founding the State of Israel. Zionists had been working toward this goal for decades, but only won decisive international support in the aftermath of the Holocaust, a catastrophe that supported the Zionist argument that the Jewish people would only be safe in their own state, where they could live as they chose and defend their culture. Indeed, the Holocaust was the single most important factor in the creation of Israel, in large part because the international community was shocked by the scale of the Holocaust and felt responsible for aiding the Zionist project.

In 1978, during Jimmy Carter’s administration, he was trying to fix the war between egypt and israel. The war broke out in 1948 and it wasn’t going well. The Us offered the defacto recognition of israel provisional goverment , during the war united states couldnt do anything because the stayed in arms embargo. The un sparked a conflict with the jewish, arab groups within palestine. In the first three wars israel always defeated the egyptians

Meanwhile, Zionists had been organizing small but steady waves of immigration into Palestine as early as 1882. The new, Jewish settlements, dubbed the “new Yishuv”, grew in strength; though it initially faced serious financial setbacks, the new Yishuv had become a viable political community by the eve of World War I. Arab resentment toward the Zionists emerged due to economic and political concerns: the local Palestinian population were justifiably afraid that the Jewish population would monopolize trade or provide unwanted economic competition, while the Arab nationalists were anxious that Zionism not interfere with their own political aspirations.

A common misconception about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is deeply rooted in religion. However, it instead is a dispute over claims on the same land. Israelis believe that they are entitled to the land now known as Israel, while the Palestinians believe that they are entitled to this same land in which they call Palestine instead. Religion does, however, come into play as both sides believe that their God actually gave them this land, and giving it away would simply be unjust. After viewing both articles, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Mark Tessler, and Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict A primer by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, I believe that truly understanding the Israeli-Palestinian and its entirety means breaking it down in a historically

Almost the ending of the Cold War,after World War II the United States and the Soviet Union were the superpowers of the world. They became rivals as they each sought to prevent the other from gaining too much power.

The Holocaust saw the systematic murder of six million Jews through a Nazi attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population from the European continent. With a strong sense of something needing to be done to atone for the Holocaust and thus compensate the remnants of the European Jewish population, pressure mounted on the British and the Americans to grant them a sovereign Jewish state in the Middle East, hence conceding to an idea that had been set in motion long before the war. It is therefore through a consideration of the effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish communities, British and American policy towards the region, as well as the Palestinian Arabs, that its role in the establishment of Israel can become clear.

In the post -World War II era, the competition of global supremacy between the superpowers of the time, United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. Many countries in the world were pulled into this rivalry including many of the states of the Middle East. Allies against the Soviet Union received substantial quantities of United States aid and were encouraged to purchase weapons of Western means. Those who were in opposition to the United States’ power received economic and military assistance from the Soviet Union. The United States were inclined to view the rivalry between them and the Soviet Union as a vie for global supremacy. The challenge of attaining democracy in the Middle East has been insufficient leadership specifically in those who shared a common border and were in proximity to the Soviet Union. The United States, in their determination to impede the threat of expansion of the borders of the Soviet Union as well as contain the spread of communion, provided economic and military assistance to keep Iran, Iraq and Turkey politically stable. Although this was the goal of the United States, they actually impeded the democracy and political stability of these countries through its persistent influence in government affairs, determining its future’s livelihood.

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

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.

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”.