A (Very) Brief History of the Middle East Part 7

Who else feels a little Iraq-ed out? This one country dominates so much of our attention while much of the Middle East goes virtually unnoticed. Yeah Palestine and Lebanon pop up in the news every once in a while, and of course Iran (come to think of it I’ll skip Iran too. We know their story.) has been a major headliner recently, but what about Jordan? Or Syria? We know so little about these countries, and obviously I can’t completely remedy this situation (I’m just one man, it’s just one blog), but let’s see if I can’t give you a flavor of the Middle East. Out of fairness I’ll go alphabetically, and if anyone is omitted; forgiveness, dear friends, forgiveness.

Afghanistan: Afghanistan was ruled (for the most part) by a series of kings until 1978 (when what I call the “modern history” of Afghanistan started). In 1978 the communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan launched a coup known as the Great Saur Revolution and overthrew the government. As a part of the cold war strategy Jimmy Carter responded by covertly training and funding anti-government “Mujahideen” (same Arabic root as “Jihad”) forces made up of Muslims opposed to the official atheism of communist regimes.

The Soviet Union, citing the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness that had been signed between the two countries, retaliated by sending between 110,000 and 150,000 troops to bolster the 100,000 pro-communist Afghan troops already present. Many Afghanis saw this as an occupation, and over 5 million fled to Pakistan. The Mujahideen forces fought the Soviet occupation until 1989, killing over 15,000 Soviet Soldiers. In 1989 the Soviets pulled out, facing international pressure and this unexpected loss of life.

As an interesting side note, Osama Bin Laden was trained by the U.S. during this period, and was regarded as a hero for his efforts against the Soviet occupation.

Once the Soviet’s pulled out, the world lost interest in Afghanistan and did little to help rebuild the war-ravaged country. The communist government fell as it lost ground to guerilla forces, the majority of intellectuals and elites had already fled the country, and a power vacuum emerged. Various Mujahideen factions continued to fight amongst themselves and the country was soon ruled by assorted warlords.

This was until the Taliban emerged. This political-religious force seized Kabul in 1996, and by 2000 controlled 95% of the country, imposing strict Islamic law and harboring the Al-Qaeda network. Under Taliban rule many Afghanis experienced restrictions on their freedoms and violations of their rights. Women weren’t allowed to get jobs, girls were banned from school, communist opposition was eradicated, and criminals faced harsh punishments.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. launched “Operation Enduring Freedom” (I wonder how I could get the job of naming these things). The mission of this operation was two-fold: destroy the Al-Qaeda network and overthrow the Taliban government that supported it.

I’m guessing you know the rest.


Israel: It would be foolish to try and explain to you then entire history of Israel. Read the Bible. If you are familiar with the Bible, you know that Israel was founded as the Promised Land for the Jews, was conquered by a number of different nations throughout its years, and the Jewish population in the region dwindled due to mass expulsions. Finally, in 1517, Israel landed in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, where it remained for many years.

Like I did with Afghanistan, I’ll begin where, in my opinion, the “modern history” of Israel starts. During the early 20th century waves of Jewish immigrants began returning to Israel, facing persecution abroad. Tensions rose between the Arabs living there and Jews, believing that were returning to the land that was rightfully theirs. As the violence between the groups increased mandates were issued to resolve the disputes, but all were unsuccessful at appeasing either side.

In 1947, in the wake of the Holocaust, the UN General Assembly approved the 1947 UN Partition Plan, dividing the territory into two separate states, Israel and Palestine. The Jews were given 55% of the land, and the Arabs were given 45%. (Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UN_Partition_Plan_Palestine.png for a map of the partition) While the Jews tentatively accepted the plan, the Arab League flat out rejected it and ordered a violent three day strike against Jewish civilians. Underground Jewish militias responded in kind, starting a civil war known as the 1948 War of Independence.

Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon all joined forces against Israel and began invading. Remarkably, Israeli militias were able to hold off most invading forces until the UN declared a one month ceasefire, during which Israeli formed its official army, the Israel Defense Forces.

After several more months of war, an official ceasefire was declared in 1949 and temporary borders known as the Green Line were instituted. Somehow, through all this invading and fighting, Israel had secured 23.5% more of the land. Meanwhile, Jordan secured what would become known as the West Bank and Egypt took control of a small piece of land on the coast known as the Gaza Strip.

Arabs living on the newly acquired Israeli land fled or were expelled to Palestine, leaving 711,000 displaced Palestinian refugees. All the Jews still living on the Gaza Strip or the West Bank fled to Israel, doubling the population.

Scuffles continued until 1967, when Egypt expelled UN Peacekeeping Forces from the Gaza Strip. Egypt proceeded to close the strategic Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships and amass large numbers of tanks and aircraft on Israel’s borders. Israel deemed this cause to preemptively attack Egypt, and in the ensuing Six-Day War Israel defeated Egypt and its allies, territorially conquering the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Minor fighting continued until 1979, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty (as a result of the Camp David Accords). The peace between Israel and Egypt did little to lessen the tensions in the region. Israel continues to fight with Palestine and Lebanon, while Iran refuses to recognize their right to exist


Whew, that was a lot of information in one blog. I think I’m in way over my head. When I started this thing I figured I’d get through the entire Middle East in one post. I was way off. But no worries, I’ll keep writing if you’ll bear with me. Deal? Back on Monday with more on the lesser known Middle East.

Thanks for reading.