Transcript Middle East Geography PowerPoint

Middle East Geography
Map of the Region
History of the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict
• 1880–1914
– The Zionist movement was founded in response to
the worsening persecution of European Jews.
– Thousands of Jews began immigrating to
Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman
Empire.
1918
• As a result of World War I, Britain wins control
over the area of Palestine from the Ottoman
Empire. The area becomes known as Britishmandate Palestine.
November 1947
• The General Assembly of the United Nations
recommended the partition of Britishmandate.
• Separate Palestine into two separate states,
one for Jews and one for Arabs. Fighting
breaks out soon thereafter, as all the
surrounding Arab states rejected the partition
plan.
1948
• In May, Zionist leaders proclaimed the state of
Israel. Fighting breaks out between the newly
declared state of Israel and its Arab neighbors
as British troops are leaving the country.
1948–1967
• Ongoing skirmishes between Israel and its
Arab neighbors.
1956 Suez Crisis
• An invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, by
Britain and France. The aims were to regain
Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove
Egyptian President Nasser from power.
• After the fighting had started, the United States,
the Soviet Union, and the United Nations forced
the three invaders to withdraw. The episode
humiliated Great Britain and France and
strengthened Nasser.
1967 Six Day’s War
• The mobilization of Egyptian forces along the Israeli
border in the Sinai Peninsula, Israel launched a series
of preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields on
June 5.
• The Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the
entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli
losses, giving the Israelis air superiority.
• Simultaneously, the Israelis launched a ground
offensive into the Gaza Strip and through the northern
and central routes of the Sinai, which again caught the
Egyptians by surprise.
1967 Six Day’s War
• Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the
Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt), the West Bank and
East Jerusalem (from Jordan), and the Golan
Heights (from Syria). The area under Israeli
control tripled, increasing the nation's ability to
defend its borders, as would be shown in the
subsequent Yom Kippur War.
• Across the Arab world, Jewish minority
communities were expelled, with refugees going
to Israel or Europe.
Yom Kippur War
• October 6, 1973
– Egypt and Syria organize a surprise attack on
Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan
Heights on the day of the Jewish fast of Yom
Kippur and the Muslim month of Ramadan, in
which the annual fast is performed.
– The war lasted for 3 weeks, ending on October 22
on the Syrian front and October 26 on the
Egyptian front.
1973 Oil Crisis
• Page 23 timeline book.
• OAPEC= Organization of Arab Petroleum
Exporting Countries. OPEC plus Egypt and Syria.
• The embargo was a response to American
involvement in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Six days
after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise military
campaign against Israel to regain territories lost in
the June 1967 Six-Day War, the US supplied Israel
with arms. In response to this, OAPEC announced
an oil embargo against Canada, Japan, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the US
1973 Oil Crisis
Camp David Accords
• Page 54 timeline book.
• The leaders of Egypt and Israel accepted
Carter’s invitation, and the summit began on
September 5, 1978, and lasted for 13 days. It
was extremely unusual for heads of state to
engage in a summit meeting at which the
outcome was so much in doubt.
Camp David Accords
• This led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and
normalized relations—the first peaceful
recognition of Israel by an Arab country.
Iranian Revolution
1953 coup d'état
• A nationalist prime minister, Mossadegh, was
elected in 1950. He nationalized much of the
industry in the country, including the oil fields.
• A CIA-sponsored coup soon thereafter ousted
Mossadegh and his nationalist supporters and
returned the Shah to power as an absolute
monarch. The previously oil companies were
returned to their foreign owners
Resistance to the Shah
• Open resistance began in 1977, when exiled
opposition leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
called for strikes, boycotts, tax refusal and other
forms of noncooperation with the Shah’s regime.
Such resistance was met with brutal repression
by the government, but still the protests grew.
• The Shah fled on January 16, 1979, and Ayatollah
Khomeini returned from exile two weeks later.
One Result: Iranian Hostage Crisis
• In late October 1979, the exiled and dying Shah
was admitted into the United States for cancer
treatment.
• In Iran there was an immediate outcry and both
Khomeini and leftist groups demanding the
Shah's return to Iran for trial and execution. On
November 4, 1979 youthful Islamists, calling
themselves Muslim Student Followers of the
Imam's Line, invaded the U.S. embassy
compound and seized its staff.