The Middle East: Oil and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

History 106May 20, 2009

Some Websites of Interest

• MidEastWeb—a large collection of information and opinion, pro Palestinian-Israeli peace

• A detailed Palestine history website• A brief YouTube video on Israeli occupation

and settlements as a barrier to peace

Reminder• Readings this week (Week 8): Bentley and

Ziegler, chapter 39; Ayatollah Khomeini on “Crimes of the Shah,” 1976. Continue reading either Dumb Luck or Jasmine.

• New: Study guides for Jasmine and for Dumb Luck now on line

• Final exam is scheduled for Wednesday, June 10, 10:15-12:15. I’ll have the instructions and essay question handout available by June 1.

Zero-week (June 15-19) (4 credits)

Hist 388 Vietnam May

Weekend (June 27-28) (1 credit)

Hist 399 Am. Environment through FilmSpence

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Automobility: Dream and Reality

Oil and the Environment

• Extracting Oil• Transporting Oil• Burning Oil

– At right, NASA photo of Kuwait oil well fires residue, 1991

Santa Barbara Oil Spill 1969

Largest Oil Tanker Spill: The Prestige, off Spanish Coast 2002

• About 63,000 tons of oil (80% of tanker’s cargo) spills– About twenty million

gallons

• Damage to wildlife (about ¼ million seabirds killed) and coastal societies– At right, the tanker’s hull

split in two.

Gulf War Oil Well Fires, 1991

A Note on Coal and the Environment• Coal’s dirty history

– London and the Great Smog 0f 1952 (at right)

– Mining fires, explosions, collapses (see below)

• A “Clean Coal” future?

Geography of Oil• Oil geologist

Ernest DeGolyer, 1944: “The center of gravity of world oil production is shifting…to the Middle East—to the Persian Gulf area.”

Oil, the CIA and the Third World: Iran 1953

• Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

• CIA coup – “Operation Ajax” video clip, c.10 min, on coup

• Shah of Iran as American ally until 1979 Islamic Revolution

Violence in Tehran, 1953, during CIA-organized coup against nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

“The Seven Sisters”

In mid-20th century, these seven Western-owned oil giants controlled most of the world’s oil reserves, refineries and marketing capacity.

Oil Producers Seek Control• Organization of Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) forms 1960 – Middle East dominance– Battling against surplus– Long and short-term interests

• Peak oil in the United States--1970

The Oil Weapon

• Oil mixes with Arab-Israeli Conflict.– 1973-74 Oil Embargo on

US due to US military aid to Israel

– Oil price shock and the end of the Post-War Boom era

• Arab oil revenues fuel Middle East arms buildup.

• Producing nations nationalize extraction.

Oregon’s response to the oil crisis was this color-coded sign system.

THE TOO-PROMISED LAND: THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT 1948-2009

Part Two

Obama and Netanyahu Meet this Week

Toward Zionist Independence/Toward Al-Nakba

• Theodor Herzl and the Zionist dream– “A Land without People

for a People without Land”?

– The Palestinian Presence

• British rule and the Balfour Declaration (1917)

Conflict and the End of the British Mandate, 1948

• Rivals under the reign of the British Empire

• A bi-national secular nation or a Jewish state?

• Britain agrees to give up its mandate, UN approves

• Israel declares independence, bordering states declare war, 1948

Arab resistance grew along with Zionist migration to Palestine. This is a scene from the 1936 “Arab Uprising” against growing Zionist pressure for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

UN Plan for Partition, 1947• The United Nations voted

to partition Palestine between a Jewish territory (shown in blue) and a Palestinian one (in red). The zones were to be economically integrated.

• Israel reluctantly accepted, Arabs rejected this. As Israel prepared for independence in May 1948, Arab nations attacked.

Al-Nakba (“The Catastrophe”)• The 1948-49 war was a

catastrophe for Palestinians.• About 700,000 fled and

became refugees in camps in Arab lands.

• Israel ended up controlling most of the land the UN had designated for Palestinians. Hopes for a bi-national (Jewish and Palestinian) state or a separate Palestinian one were crushed.

Palestinian Refugees and the “Right of Return”

• Hundreds of thousands of refugees and their descendants have lived in camps in surrounding Arab states.– Many still aren’t considered citizens of the nations

they reside in.– Israelis have consistently denied Palestinians the

right to return to Israel– Jews around the world who emigrate to Israel have

an almost automatic claim to Israeli citizenship.

Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, 1951. Buildings replaced tents but many Palestinians remain in the camps almost 60 years later. Israel has consistently resisted Palestinians’ demands to be able to return to their familial homes and lands in Israel.

In 1982, during Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, Israeli troops allowed Lebanese Christian militiamen into the refugee camps at Sabra and Shatila. They massacred hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Palestinians.

• Israel grew rapidly with survivors of the Nazi holocaust and Jews from Arab lands arriving.

• Originally focused on the institution of the Kibbutz (semi-socialist communitarian rural settlements), Israel has evolved into a wealthy, urbanized modern society, basically capitalist, one with nuclear weapons and a powerful army.

Communal dining hall on an Israeli Kibbutz

1967: The Six Day War

• Anticipating an attack by Arab nations, Israel launched a war in June 1967

• By destroying much of the Egyptian air force on the ground, Israel gained air predominance

• The Six Day War was another historic defeat for the Arabs.

Israeli Occupation after 1967 War

• Israel’s seizure of Gaza Strip, the West Bank of the Jordan River, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights made them military rulers over a million overwhelmingly Moslem Palestinians.

• It also heightened resistance among groups linked together in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Israel as Regional Superpower: The Consequences

• 1978: Camp David Agreements—Egypt recognizes Israel

• Arab Nations Fear Israel’s Military Power

• Palestinian Resistance– Secular: Yasir Arafat and

the PLO– Islamic: Hamas (in

Palestine) and Hezbollah (in Lebanon) The first Intifada, a period of Palestinian

resistance against Israel, began in 1987.

“Facts on the Ground”

• As a result of agreements in the mid 1990s, the PLO agreed to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Israel less clearly agreed to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

• By the new century, a Palestinian Authority under the leadership of Yasser Arafat had limited power in the West Bank and Gaza.

• However, a Second Intifada began late in 2000• In 2007, following an election victory in Gaza, Hamas

took over control of that territory.

Solutions and Obstacles

• A two-state solution?– Oslo agreements 1993

and 1995– Israel and Palestine as

two nations with secure borders and viable territorial boundaries

• Obstacles– Israeli settlements– Palestinian demands for

a right of return to Israel– Control of Jerusalem– Palestinian divisions and

radical Islam– Israeli right-wing

opposition