The Middle East
1956 – 1999
GCSE History Revision
Notes
By Dane O’Neill
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Contents
Topic Key words: ..................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 - THE BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINE AFTER WW1 AND WW2 ............. 6
Palestine: the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict................................................................................ 6
Arabs become angered ....................................................................................................................... 6
Palestine after WW2 ........................................................................................................................... 6
The Morrison Plan, 1946 ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.2 - THE PALESTINIAN CRISIS WORSENS ...................................................................................................... 7
‘Haganah’ and the Jewish paramilitaries ............................................................................................ 7
Haganah and Irgun: the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, 22 July, 1946 ..................... 7
1.3 - COLD WAR TENSIONS: US INVOLVEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE US’ DILEMMA ........................... 7
1.4 - THE UN PLANS TO PARTITION PALESTINE , 1947 .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.5 - BRITAIN WITHDRAWS FROM PALESTINE AND CIVIL WAR ERUPTS ............. Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.6 - THE FIRST ARAB-ISRAELI WAR, 1948-1949 ......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.7 - THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.8 - THE SUEZ CRISIS, 1956 ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Origins: Tensions between Egypt and the West .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Nasser Responds: the Suez Canal is nationalized ................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Britain, France, and Israel respond ...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.9 - THE ARAB SUMMITS, 1964 -1965 ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Cairo Summit, January 1964 ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Alexandria Summit, September 1964 ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.10 - THE FOUNDING OF THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANISATION (PLO), 1964 ....... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
1.11 - THE SIX DAY WAR, JUNE 5-10, 1967 ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Origins .................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The fighting begins ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Aftermath of the Six Day War ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1 - TERRORISM: HIJACKINGS , 1970 ........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Dawson’s Field Hijackings, 1970 ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Munich Olympics (the Munich Massacre), 1972 .......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2 - THE YOM KIPPUR WAR, 1973 ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3 - OIL WARS AND ECONOMIC PRESSURES ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Oil Crisis, 1973 ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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2.4 - THE PALESTINIANS AND THE ISRAELIS .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The PLO, 1974-1975 ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Yasser Arafat at the UN Assembly, 1975 ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.5 - THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST BANK AND G AZA, 1977 . Error! Bookmark not
defined.
3.1 - PRESIDENT SADAT SPEAKING TO THE ISRAELI PARLIAMENT , 1977 ........... Error! Bookmark not defined.
‘The Sadat Initiative’ ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.2 - THE ISRAELI INVASION OF LEBANON, 1978 ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Background: The Coastal Road Massacre, 1978 .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Israel responds: the invasion of Lebanon ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.3 - THE CAMP DAVID MEETING, 1978: PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND EGYPT, 1979 ..... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, 1979 .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.4 - THE OSLO ACCORDS, 1993 ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The failures of the Oslo Accords .......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The Middle East: 1956-1999
WE WILL EXAMINE …
1) THE BACKGROUND TO THE TENSIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
2) HOW FAR DID THE EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1956 TO 1967 SHOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO FIND A
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
3) HOW CLOSE TO VICTORY WERE THE ARAB PEOPLES IN THE 1970S?
4) HOW FAR FROM PEACE WERE ISRAELIS AND ARAB PEOPLES BY THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY?
Topic Key words: Egypt; Israel; Palestine; Jews; Suez Crisis;
Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO); Arab Summit; Six
Day War; Terrorism/hijackings; Munich Massacres; YomKippur; Yasser Arafat; Gamal Nasser; Anwar Sadat; West Bank &
Gaza; Lebanon; Camp David; Jerusalem; Oslo Accords;
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Key Issue 1: How far did the events of
the years 1956-1967 show how
difficult it was to find a solution to the
problems in the Middle East?
1.1 - THE BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINE AFTER
WW1 AND WW2
Palestine: the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict
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In the First Century AD, the Jews were expelled from Palestine by the Roman Army.
Even though Jews had become scattered across the globe, they always considered Palestine
to be their national homeland
In the 19th Century, Jews formed the World Zionist Organisation, which called for Jews to
return to their Palestinian homeland and create a Jewish state.
During WW1, Britain declared that it would support the creation of a Jewish national state in
Palestine. When the war ended, Palestine was placed under British rule, and hundreds of
thousands of Jews returned to Palestine.
Arabs become angered
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Many Jews were returning to Palestine after the end of WW1, but there was a problem:
since the expulsion of the Jews in the 1st Century AD, Palestine had over time become home
to Arab peoples.
With the mass influx of Jews into Palestine after WW1, Arabs living in Palestine became
fearful that their lands and their possessions were under threat by the Jews.
As a result, the Arab and the Jewish communities in Palestine frequently clashed in violent
riots.
The Arabs petitioned the British government to create an independent Arab state within
Palestine in order to ensure that Arabs would be protected.
Palestine after WW2
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The Second World War had decimated the Jewish population, especially in Europe.
After WW2, the Jews wanted to return to Israel.
The US, sympathetic to the Jewish cause, pressured Britain into allowing 100,000 Jews to
return to Palestine, but the British government refused because of fears of escalating
tensions between Arabs and Jews.
Eventually, the British government agreed, but when the Jews returned to Palestine the
conflict between Arabs and Jews only deepened.
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The Morrison Plan, 1946
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Britain was desperate to find a solution to the tensions between Arab and Jewish
communities living in Palestine.
The British government proposed the Morrison Plan, whereby Palestine would be divided
into separate Jewish and Arab states that would be under British supervision.
To the US this appeared to be a form of European colonialism, and the US and the Jews
rejected the Morrison Plan.
1.2 - THE PALESTINIAN CRISIS WORSENS
‘Haganah’ and the Jewish paramilitaries
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The Jewish leadership was convinced that the British Administration in Palestine was unable
or unwilling to protect Jews from attacks by Palestinian Arabs.
The Jewish leaders created the Haganah (‘Defence’) in 1920 in order to protect Jewish farms
and businesses from Palestinian Arabs.
The Haganah began as a poorly armed, poorly trained localised militia comprising mainly of
Jewish farmers, but it very soon became a semi-professional, well trained and well equipped
army.
Haganah and Irgun: the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, 22
July, 1946
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The Haganah and other Jewish paramilitary groups launched a terrorist campaign against
the British and the Arabs in an attempt to establish a national Jewish state within Palestine.
Irgun, another Jewish paramilitary group, bombed the British headquarters at the King
David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.
Haganah authorised the bombing.
Between 1944 and 1948, Jewish groups killed 127 British soldiers and wounded 331.
Thousands of Arabs also died.
Britain responded by arresting Jewish leaders and preventing a ship carrying Jewish
refugees from entering Palestine.
1.3 - COLD WAR TENSIONS: US INVOLVEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE US’
DILEMMA
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The US was sympathetic to Jews after the holocaust of WW2, and the American government
supported the idea of establishing a home state for Jews.
But the US also depended on Arabian oil supplies. This left the US with a difficult decision to
make: do they officially support Palestinian Jews or Arabs?
If the US supported Palestinian Jews, this may cause Arabs to look to the Soviet Union for
help and reduce America’s access to Arabian oil. This might bring a Soviet communist
influence into Palestine – something America did not want to happen under any
circumstances.
But if the US supported Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian Jews might become more extreme,
leading to more atrocities.
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