Middle+East

Middle East



[|(Development of Isreal page)] -How was Israel developed?
Israel officially came into formal re-existence on May 14, 1948, under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion. On May 15, Arab armies, from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, attacked Israel, aiming to destroy the new nation. By early 1949, Israel had defeated the Arabs and gained control of about half the land planned for the new Arab state. Egypt and Jordan held the rest of Palestine. Israel controlled the western half of Jerusalem, and Jordan held the eastern half. Israel incorporated the gained territory into her new country, adding about 150,000 resentful Arabs to its population. By mid 1949, Israeli had signed armistice agreements with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. But formal peace treaties were not signed because the Arab nations refused to recognize the existence of Israel. Israel held its first election in January 1949. In February, the Knesset elected Chaim Weizmann president. He officially appointed Ben-Gurion prime minister. Link to Israeli conflict movie Arab-Israeli disputes- **

[|(][|Arab-Isreali disputes)]-What were some arab disputes?
Spans roughly one century of political tensions and open hostilities, though Israel itself only was established as a sovereign state in 1948. The conflict involves the establishment of the Zionist movement and the subsequent creation of the modern State of Israel in territory regarded by the Jewish people as their historical homeland, and by the Pan-Arab movement as belonging to the Palestinians, be they Muslim, Christian, Druze or other (and in the Pan-Islamic context, in territory regarded as Muslim lands). The conflict, which started as a political and nationalist conflict over competing territorial ambitions following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, has shifted over the years from the large scale regional Arab–Israeli conflict to a more local Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though the Arab World and Israel generally remain at odds with each other over specific territory.

[|(Palestine Conflict)]-What was the Palestine Conflict?
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, and one of the most enduring and explosive of all the world's conflicts. Although the conflict is wide-ranging, the key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, land rights, and legalities concerning refugees. The violence resulting from the conflict has prompted other security and human rights concerns on both sides and internationally. It forms part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. The term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between the Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the majority Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or British rule. There was a period of the Ottoman Empire rule in Palestine. In this time the Palestinians saw themselves as the overall Arab territories. The Arab territories were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. During this time, the conflicts were mostly based on religious background and not on national background.

[|(The Suez Crisis)]-What were some effects of the Suez Crisis?
The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956, following the United States’ decision to withdraw its offer of a grant to aid the construction of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, Egyptian President nationalized the Suez Canal. The governments of Britain and France secretly began planning for an invasion of Egypt. Israel soon was doing its own invasion planning, completing its final plan on 5 October. After several international mediation efforts had failed, Britain and France agreed in mid-October 1956 to undertake a joint intervention in Egypt. On 26 October, the United States learned of Israel’s military mobilization, and President Dwight Eisenhower sent the first of two personal messages to Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion asking that Israel do nothing to endanger the peace. In the Mediterranean on the 28th, the U.S. Sixth Fleet was placed on alert. Undeterred by U.S. diplomatic maneuvering, Israeli forces began attacks in Egypt on 29 October. The following day Britain and France began to make their move. The Suez Crisis increased in intensity on the afternoon of 5 November when the Soviet Union sent diplomatic notes to Britain, France and Israel threatening to crush the aggressors and restore peace in the Middle East through the use of force. Link to Suez Crisis movie

This is a link back to the table of contents