Middle Eastern Politics

Israel was a foreign threat and the war stemmed as much from Arab nationalist debates as from direct Arab Israeli hostilities.
Egypt and Nasser supported the Palestinian liberation organisation (PLO) while Syria supported a group called Fatah instead. Fatah was an organisation founded by young Palestinians in Kuwait in 1959 destermined to destroy Israel.

Israel threatened Syria and the Soviet reacted by falsely informing Nasser about Israeli forces on the Syrian borders. --> Nasser saw an opportunity to boost his anti-Israeli image and sent Egyptian troops. By doing this he recreated the circumstances that had been in place previous to the Suez war.
Israel attacked Egypt in 1967 (After being informed by the US that an Egyptian envoy would arrive in the US two days later to seek terms of resolving the crisis peacefully) --> Israel still attacked and conquered allot of land, much of the West bank and the Gaza strip now fell under Israel rule. Israel bombed targets inside Egypt and not just the channel, this was designed to humiliate Nasser and cause his downfall. instead it got the Soviet Union into the fight. Nearly 15000 soviet troops were sent to Egypt to bolster their defence. This altered the Cold war equation in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead of going along with the UN plans of cease fire the US viewed the conflict in light of global rivalry.

The defeat humiliating and a big blow for Nasser. Arabs had failed in their first attempt at collective security.

UN resolution 242 in 1967 (agreed upon by Nasser) called for: Occupied land in return for peace.

The Palestinians were alarmed by the rumors of cease fire because it could have led to negotiations where they would be excluded. The Palestinians attempted to overthrow Jordan's King Hussein as the first step in creating a more radical Arab front that could challenge Israel (Jordan was seen as a conservative state) --> The Jordanian army crushed the Palestinian forces which led to the PLO having to move headcuarter which again played a major part in instigating the Lebanese civil war in the 70's.

Nasser died shortly after negotiating cease fire with Jordan in 1971

SADAT succeeded Nasser and attempted a better relationship with the US. He expelled the Soviet Union but still failed to gain American backing to get Israel to withdraw from the occupied territory from the 1967 war.
This partly because Henry Kissinger was diverted by scandals pertaining Nixon's re-election campaign. American inaction contributed to the 1973 war.

Egypt and Syria invaded Israel again.

Jimmy Carted tried to negotiate peace, but failed

Intifada (popular resistance to oppression)
Palestinians rebelled against Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip and the West bank (that they occupied in the 1967 war) The brutality of Israels response focused international attention on the nature of Israel's role as occupier of these lands and called into question the future of the territories.
America called Israel to compromise.. they said NO

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 which led to Bush invading Iraq in 1991. The soviet union collapsed in 1991. The number of countries receiving American backing increased, America wanted hegemonic control in the region, prove their single superpower status gained after the cold war.
America opened up peace talks: Madrid 1991 and in Oslo 1993

Peace negotiations started in Oslo 1993 in secret and alongside American negotiations. In Oslo they reached an agreement --> DOP = a joint Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP), (based on the agreement worked out in Oslo, was signed by the two parties in Washington.) There would be an interim period of 5 years before the agreement would be binding.

DOP's principles:

• to transfer power to the Palestinians (transfer of power and responsibilities to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, so they may have control over their own affairs) - Israel retain the responsibility for security along the international borders and the crossing point to Egypt and Jordan during the interim period.

Self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area, including a withdrawal of Israeli forces from those areas, is to serve as a first step in the implementation of the DOP. Then governmental responsibilities will gradually be transferred over to Palestinians and there will be an election. Palestine will be a state on its own.

After five years when the above agreement have been carried out the final settlements will be agreed upon and this will determine the issues the declaration of principals have been silent on: the including Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbours

In short: the declaration promised to set in motion a process that would end Israeli rule over the two million Palestinians living in the west bank and Gaza. "It is easy to understand why the Oslo accord was silent on the issues mentioned above, because if they weren't there would have been no accord."

Robin and Arafat were the two main representatives who signed the accord. An agreement was reached between Israeli foreign minister Peres and Arafat (PLO chairman) and then sent to the Israeli Prime minister Rabin who signed it with Arafat.

After massive pressure Israel withdrew from Gaza but set up trade blockades and a massive wall to isolate them.
Fatah was helpless dealing with the Palestinian anger that followed. --> Hamas won the election in 2006 because of Palestinian desperation and increased sense of belonging to the Arab world that was now divided by religion.
Even though the US had initially supported the Hamas participation in the election because it would demonstrate Palestinian commitment to democracy they immediately condemned the result and joined Israel in furthering the military and economic blockade of Gaza.

Situation still bad and still going on.