AP World HistoryPOD #22 – Religion, Oil & War in the Middle East

Zionism & Israel

Class Discussion Notes

Bulliet – “The New Middle East”, pp. 781-786

Middle East in Transition

“After World War I Middle Eastern society underwent dramatic changes. Trucks replaced camel caravans. Landless peasants migrated to swelling cities. The population of the region is estimated to have increased by 50 percent between 1914 and 1939, while that of large cities such as Constantinople, Baghdad, and Cairo doubled.

The urban and mercantile middle class, encouraged by the transformation of Turkey, adopted Western ideas, customs, and styles of housing and clothing. Some families sent their sons to European secular or mission schools, then to Western colleges in Cairo and Beruit or universities abroad, to prepare for jobs in government and business. A few women became schoolteachers or nurses. There were great variations, ranging from Lebanon, with its strong French influence, to Arabia and Iran, which retained their cultural traditions.” (Bulliet, pp. 783-784)

Middle Eastern View of the European Mandate System

The Arabs viewed this as a promise of independence

The Arab peoples viewed the mandate system as another form of colonialism in disguise

The Arabs considered the European presence in the region not as liberation from the Ottomans, but rather as another foreign occupier

Great Britain & Iraq

The British used bribery and intimidation to control the region

Faisal, leader of the Arab Revolt, was made King of Iraq and was empowered with bombers to put down the rural insurrections

1931 – Iraq was granted official independence in exchange for the British right to keep 2 airbases, form an official alliance and protect continual access to the oil resources of Iraq

Great Britain & Egypt

Phony independence was used to cover up and distract from official colonialism

1922 – British declare Egypt independent, but reserved the right to station troops along the banks of the Suez Canal as a way to protect their crucial trade/transportation link with India

British attempted to remove Egyptian troops from the Sudan, a land the Wald (Nationalist) Party and the Egyptian government viewed as a colony

What is Zionism?

a philosophical movement, founded by Dr, Chaim Weizman, Theodor Herzl

non-Jews can’t be a part of Zionism to be a Jew you must be born a Jew, and to be a member of a

Zionist state you must be a Jew Zionism is an Eastern European form of nationalism- it desired

and exclusively ethnic (Jewish) state Judaism is a religious and ethnic movement Goal = create a living space for the Jews Target = Palestine Jews who have the money and opportunity will flee Europe during

the 1930s and 1940s Holy Land circa 1920: Jews made up about 15% of the population

and owned about 5% of the wealth and land

How did the Zionist movement look to gain greater strength and power in Palestine?

at the end of the Ottoman Empire (1918) many feudal barons owned the land and the British took control of these deeds (UN Mandate System)

the World Jewish Organization in the 1920s and 1930s bought up the land for Zionism leaving the Arabs homeless

the Arabs feared that the Jews would gain control of all of the land and argued for majority rule (which they had)

the Zionists have in mind the seizure of power, and the creation of the Israeli State

Time favored the Jews, as time passed the Arab majority shrank The Zionists felt they were vastly superior to the Arabs- nearly all

Jews recognized the World Jewish Organization- while there was no Arab unity

Jews have the guns, Arabs didn’t

Jewish Migration to Palestine

Before World War I, the Jewish population was a minority in Palestine (as it was in all of the other Arab nations)

Once Palestine became a British mandate the floodgate of Jewish immigrants to the region opened

Most settled in cities Many others established Kibbutzim or communal farms The purchase of land by the Jews angered the Palestinian tenant farmers,

many of whom were evicted to make room for the incoming Jews 1921-1922 – riots erupted between the Jews and the Arabs Due to the large number of immigrants and the resulting complications the

British attempted to limit the number of immigrants, alienating the Jews and still failing to pacify the Arabs

Many Jews arrived in the region without the proper paperwork, as they were smuggled in by the leading Zionist organizations

1930s – Palestine was torn apart by strikes and guerilla warfare the British could not control

All sides began to blame and hate the British for the conflict

What was the Balfour Declaration?

Zionism- a sociopolitical and non-nationalistic (all Jews allowed) movement that developed among European Jews in the last quarter of the 19th century

The Zionists wanted an Allied commitment to create a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine upon the demise of the Ottoman Empire

Lord Balfour of Great Britain declared the approval of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for Jewish people, but that the rights of non-Jews in the area had to be respected

Supported by the British Cabinet and President Wilson (USA) Husayn-MacMahon Agreement (1916) promised the creation of

an Arab nation state The same land was promised to both the Arabs and the Jews

How did the Arab community respond to the Balfour Declaration?

filed petitions to the League of Nations- but they get stonewalled by the British

1922 protest riots- 500 Jewish / 350 Arab casualties White Paper- Winston Churchill (1922)- restated the Balfour

Declaration and promises the immigration into Palestine as recognition for Jews, but also recognizes the rights of the Palestinians

1936 major Arab uprising in Palestine and Syria- the Arabs lost their political leaders and property from the resulting arrests (this was an anti-western imperialism uprising)

How was Israel created?

World War II accelerated the migration to Palestine and gain the Jews a great deal more sympathy

The Arabs takes the side of Germany and Italy (1941 summer Arab pro-Nazi uprising)

Jewish veterans who served in the British Army gained access to modern military equipment and advanced training

The Jews gained a close relationship with Britain and were given the opportunity to take over the British positions as they withdrew from Palestine

plans were dictated by power on the ground the British military headquarters at the King David Hotel was blown up by the

Jews the British left Palestine the Zionists wanted nothing but a State of David and control of Jerusalem the Muslims wanted to control Jerusalem and did not like the idea of Jewish

areas- they wanted control as a result of the “Arab Majority Rule” the Arabs opposed any loss of land *** This plan was based on the idea that if it could be done in Switzerland, it

could be done in Palestine