1. Israel and the Middle East
World History

2. Where is the Middle East?
The Middle East is a region just to the East of Africa and to the South East of Europe.
It includes the “Cradle of Civilization” including the ancient civilizations of Sumer and Mesopotamia.

3. What Is So Special About the Middle East?
The Middle East contains vast oil resources commands strategic waterways including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The Middle East is also home to the holy sites of three of the world’s five major religions.

4. The Ottoman Empire
Starting around 1300, the region was dominated by an empire called the Ottoman Empire.
The Empire started to decline around 1600 or so and collapsed completely after World War I.

5. What Happened to the Middle East After World War I?
Turkey became a free country after the war and modernized under Mustapha Kemal, who took the name Ataturk, or father of the Turks.
The British and the French were given mandates throughout the Middle East. These were areas that they controlled.

6. The Mandate of Palestine
Palestine was a very small piece of land, but it contained many of the holiest sites for three major religions.
Arabs who wanted their own country and Zionists, or Jews who wanted a Jewish homeland, increasingly clashed in this area.

7. What is Zionism?
Beginning around 1900, many Jews began to call for a Jewish state. Theodor Herzl is often called the father of this movement.
For a thousand years, there had been small Jewish settlements in Palestine.

8. Zionism Grows
During the early 1900’s, violent anti-Semitism against Jews caused many to leave their homes and move to Palestine.
Millions of Jews fled pogroms, or violent attacks against Jewish communities, in Russia.

9. The Balfour Declaration
During World War I, two conflicting sets of promises were made.
The British created the Balfour Declaration which supported a “national home for the Jewish people.”
They also promised to protect the non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

10. The Jewish Population Grows
In 1919, there were 60,000 Jews in Palestine.
By 1936, this number was 400,000.
Jewish organizations began to purchase considerable amounts of land and some Palestinians tried to stop this.
Violence and tensions ensued.

11. The Response to the Holocaust
As we have discussed, Jews had suffered horrifically during the Holocaust.
Partly in response to this, the United Nations created a Partition Plan.
This created two states.
The Palestinians viewed this plan as illegitimate and the surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel.

13. Wars Against Israel
Surrounding Arab Countries will attack Israel in 1947, 1956, 1967, and 1973.
Israel will win all of these major conflicts.
The first country to officially make peace with Israel was Egypt in Jordan followed in 1994.

16. Other Violence Against Israel
Beginning in the 1960’s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) advocated the destruction of Israel.
They practiced terrorism against Israel, most famously killing all eleven of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Israel responded forcefully to these attacks, killing many Palestinians.

17. Palestinian Refugees
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still live in refugee camps inside and outside of Israel.
They have no homes and hope to win a “right of return” to return to land that they believe they are entitled to.
This picture is Jenin refugee camp, which was partially leveled by Israel in 2002.

18. Violence Today
The PLO became a political organization in 1993 and acknowledged Israel’s right to exist.
Israel still faces violence from terrorist organizations like Hamas in Israel.
There are still a number of stumbling blocks to peace.
If you have the solution to these complex problems including religion, politics, land, economics, hard feelings, war, and refugees, you just might win the Nobel Peace Prize.