Essay
Establishment of Jewish homeland in Palestine
Stability of the Middle East remains questionable up to nowadays. An important part of the Middle East conflict is the struggle for the control of Jerusalem between the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In the field of International Politics, it can be considered to be a very deep-rooted conflict. It was considered, and remains to be, one of the most widely- and passionately-debated conflicts in the Middle East.
‘The Arab-Israeli conflict in the modern era is now in its 67th year (1948-2015), and is paralyzed’ (Anderson 2015). In my opinion, it can be explained by the fact that neither the Arabs, nor the Jews recognize the validity of the other as a state (Merrills 2011, 22).
Establishment of Jewish homeland in Palestine dates back to the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
At that time Palestine included all of Israel and other today’s Occupied Territories. In 1917 the British Empire which had a mandate over Palestine supported the establishment of ‘a Jewish national home in Palestine’.
After World War II, to be exact in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted for partition of Palestine into two states: Arab and Jewish.
It was expected that both the states would make up an economic union to be administered by the UN. However, suggested partition of Palestine territory turned out to be uneven. The Arabs would have 43 percent of the land while the Jews would get the remaining 57 percent of the territory.
The UN support for admission and statehood of the Jews within the territory of Palestine had political background and was made possible for numerous reasons.
Anyhow, the State of Israel was proclaimed on the 14th of May in 1948. The same year Palestinians were sent out from the territory of the new Israel into numerous refugee camps located in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, etc.
As far as I know, in 1967 Israel managed to double the size of its territory in six days and continued to attack Egypt, Syria and Jordan in order to capture new territories.
Land given to the Jewish people, or taken over by them when they won wars when the Arab states attacked them, are also known as Muslims holy ones.
Thus, for example, controlled by Israel, East Jerusalem is very important for Muslims from the religious point of view as well. And that is basically the main reason why Palestinian Muslims believe that they must necessarily gain control over East Jerusalem as an integral part of any lasting peace settlement in the Middle East.
I think that to speak of Israel's history means to speak of the history of the Jewish people. The Jews have always made it possible to stay within the territory of Palestine even before Israel was announced as a state.
In order to escape persecution from anywhere they faced it, the Jews struggled a lot to gain their promised land.
For centuries Jewish people 's stubborn adherence only to their ways of thinking and living provokes nothing but negative and even hostile feelings and attitude from the side of their Arab neighbors.
The unusual phenomenon is that some Arab states have even made peace with Israel and Israel in its turn has willingly supported this initiative.
Even nowadays it is mostly taken for granted that Israel is unwilling to give up complete control of the Gaza strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem to Palestinians.
Perhaps, it explains the fact that Israel can be proud of its one of the finest armed forces in the world.
I do believe that in order to settle the conflict down and to ensure the possibility of economic development of the region for both the sides of the conflict, both the Arabs and the Jews need to meet the basic needs of civilians in first turn. ‘Palestinians need to build their infrastructure in the Gaza Strip with the help of Israel and the international community’ (Anderson 2015).
The feeling of hatred remains very intense on both the sides.
That is why, as I personally see it, peace will require very powerful outside involvement. Some other states need to get together to reach negotiations and peace settlement.
Neither Israelis nor Palestinians seem to have any intention to reach a lasting agreement on borders. Most probably they need some international independent mediator to stand in between.
Iran – Iraq War
Saddam Hussein used Iranian involvement in Iraq domestic affairs as an excuse for the invasion to Iran in 1980.
Thus starting the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein refused to negotiate with the Iranian clergy. Moreover, he expected some threat to necessarily come from them on and on.
However, I think it is necessary not to forget that between the start of the Iranian revolution and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, relation between the two neighboring countries rapidly worsened.
The Iran-Iraq War, also known as the first war in the Gulf or the First Persian Gulf War, is said to be the 20th century longest conventional war.
A long history of border disputes and Iranian involvement in Iraq internal affairs resulted in war initiated by Iraq, which expected to take advantage of Iran’s revolutionary chaos.
Even though Iraq attacked Iran with no formal warning, it failed to make any significant progress.
All lost territory was regained by the mid-1982. The Iran-Iraq War resulted in numerous deaths, injuries, broken lives of people as well as in political and economic damages for both the sides involved.
Not only the duration of the war makes it aggressive but the alleged usage of chemical weapons as well.
According to the scholars Sabin & Karsh (1989), ‘Iraq’s resort to chemical weapons was also incremental and heavily circumscribed – Iraq did not employ lethal gas before it had indicated its intentions by prolonged warnings and the prior use of tear gas in July-August 1982’ (Sabin & Karsh, 1989).
Iran-Iraq relations could have hardly been said to be friendly or just indifferent. Establishment of the final borders remained questionable for many years. Tension in the countries’ relationship got fueled by Iran’s Islamic revolution.
The Iranians experienced real difficulties as they turned out to be not ready for the war. However, the lack of heavy weapons was substituted by the huge numbers of volunteer troops who would fight till their last breath.
Perhaps, both the sides can be said to have often lacked command. Demoralized, both the armies got involved into the deadliest conventional war of the 20th century. Truly speaking, the war cost both the sides a lot.
Iraq refused to withdraw its troops, while Iran refused to release the prisoners of war.
At the same time, it sounds really amazing that the countries managed to maintain diplomatic relationships and have their embassies operated until 1987.
Afghanistan – Soviet Union Relations
The Soviet Union established diplomatic relationship with Afghanistan at the time when an Afghan-Soviet nonaggression pact was signed. The Soviet Union is known to provide various aid and support to Afghanistan.
The first Soviet Union intervention to Afghanistan dates back to 1953. Soviet intervention was made possible with the main aims to threaten the Iranian oilfields and to strengthen its influence in the Indian Peninsula.
The Soviet intervention resulted in real Soviet Union invasion to the territory of Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviet troops were withdrawn only in February 1989.
Till that time the Soviet Union continuously supported the Afghan regime and provided various aid in huge amounts.
The Afghan ruling elite was more inclined to develop partnership with the United States.
After the World War II, Afghanistan government perceived America as the logical successor to Great Britain. Afghanistan government expected the United States to guarantee their country’s security.
Unlike the United States, the Soviet Union in its turn had more direct interests and goals to be realizes in Afghanistan.
Thus, for example the Kremlin planned to ‘prevent Afghanistan from serving as a base for a hostile power and thus encourage its policy of nonalignment [and] to develop Afghanistan as a showpiece of Soviet developmental assistance’ (Rubenstein, 1982).
Therefore, the Soviet Union was prepared to co-operate with Afghanistan on issues which the White House deemed inconsistent with its policy.
As far as I understand it, the character of the Soviet Union and Afghanistan relationship was mainly determined by the content of the Soviet Union relationship with Great Britain and the USA.
At this point it is interesting to mention that ‘declassified Soviet documents show how the Kremlin was fully aware of the United States’ growing geopolitical interests in Afghanistan and were clearly paying attention to their activities inside the Southwest Asian country as the months passed by’ (Tadman).
Later on, years after the conflict both the countries have improved their relationship in some way. Nowadays both the countries have its embassies on the territory of the corresponding country.
There is an opinion that the Soviet Union-Afghanistan war turned out to be a conflict that had influenced the basic institutions of the Soviet Union system.
However, some other scholars even ‘view this war as one of the key causes, along with systemic and leadership-based factors, in the disintegration of the Soviet Union’ (Reuveny & Prakash 1999).
According to Reuveny & Prakash (1999), the Soviet leadership’s perception changed as, the country ‘devastated the morale and legitimacy of the army (military effects), disrupted domestic cohesion (legitimacy effects), and accelerated glasnost (glasnost effects)’ (Reuveny & Prakash 1999).
Up to 1986, the Soviet Union-Afghanistan war was described by the Soviet media as a so called international duty, and exercise of good neighborliness relationship. In other words, officially the war in Afghanistan did not exist.
References
Anderson D. (2015). Briefing: Arab-Israeli Conflict, a framework for international negotiation methods. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/16249086/BRIEFING_ARAB-ISRAELI_CONFLICT_A_FRAMEWORK_FOR_INTERNATIONAL_NEGOTIATION_METHODS
Merrills, J. G. (2011). International Dispute Settlement 5th ed. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Reuveny, R., Prakash A. (1999). The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Review of International Studies. British International Studies Association. 25, 693-708. Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/aseem/afganwar.pdf
Rubenstein, A. Z. (1982). Soviet Policy toward Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan: The Dynamics of Influence. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Sabin, Ph. A. G., Karsh E. (1989). Escalation in the Iran-Iraq War, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 31:3, 241-254.
Tadman, K. The Soviet Union and Afghanistan. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/4961282/The_Soviet_Union_and_Afghanistan
