MIDDLE EAST HISTORY

Middle East History

Middle East History

Question 1:

Thesis statement: The Arab-Israeli conflict is a dispute between Israelis and Arabians who have Palestinian origins.

Both groups claim the same area of land, which is the basic cause of this war. There have been attempted solutions to the problem, but none have accomplished peace.

The Zionist movements, which originated in the late 19th century, said that Jews had a right to a Jewish State. The Jewish state was supposed to be their homeland, which is the Land of Israel. In the early 20th century there were attempts to create a self reliant Jewish working class in Israel. Arabs that were forced out of jobs found it hard to regain jobs and this raised the threat levels that the Arabs felt from the Jews. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917 the United Kingdom supported creating a Jewish state, and therefore the Jewish population of Palestine grew.

At the end of World War II most of the countries that defeated Germany supported the creation of a Jewish state where Jews would be safe from persecution. In November of 1947 the United Nations approved a plan to divide Palestine into two sections, Jewish and Palestinian. The Jews accepted this plan while the Arabs rejected it. Both sides began to form militias which fought to gain control of other sections of land. On May 14th, 1948, the Declaration of the State of Israel, British forces withdrew from Israel which lead to an attack by Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis. Israel fought back against its neighboring countries and won. In 1949, armistice was signed and Israel took control of around half of the Palestinian land.

Solution:

A two state solution can be the best solution to end this dispute. A two-state solution envisions two separate states in the Western portion of the historic region of Palestine, one Jewish and another Arab to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict. According to the idea, the Arab inhabitants would be given citizenship by the new Palestinian state; Palestinian refugees would likely be offered such citizenship as well. Arab citizens of present-day Israel would likely have the choice of staying with Israel, or becoming citizens of the new Palestine.

Question 2:

Thesis statement: American vital interests in the Middle East are really two fold: uninterrupted oil and theocratic states.

American vital interests in the Middle East are really two fold. The first is that uninterrupted oil supplies be available and the second that theocratic states not become so powerful that they pose a challenge to our position as the only superpower. Our military presence in the region is related to the first interest while our support of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and a number of smaller Arab states is related to the second. They are also intertwined in the sense that our support of those states enables our military presence in the region through bases and ports which support logistics.

The strategic picture changes substantially if our interests ...