Foreword: The Bumpy Middle East
The Middle East refers to the east of Europe, the eastern and southern Mediterranean, it spans about 23 countries, including Iran, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine and other countries, since ancient times it has been the main transportation route between the East and the West, and is rich in oil resources, so there is constant strife and perennial turmoil.
At the end of the eighteenth century, as Napoleon began to invade the last unified Islamic state, the Ottomans, many European powers (Christians) also began to establish colonies on Ottoman lands, including a part of the Middle East. In the 19th century, the conflict between Islam and imperialism intensified again, and in various social conflicts and changes, a series of revolutions such as the Islamic revival movement and the national liberation movement arose in the Middle East, and since then, the Middle East has officially become a place of war in modern history.
Post-World War II Palestinian governance issues
After the Second World War, the world pattern changed drastically, but eventually it tended to be a "bipolar pattern", and large-scale scuffles around the world were put to rest.
However, the British actively supported Zionism at this time, and introduced a large number of Jews to Palestine before World War II, and the British expressed their willingness to withdraw from the mandate in the Middle East. On 29 November 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 [1], which divided Palestine into east and west after the end of British mandate, with Israel (the Jewish State) established in eastern Palestine, and Jerusalem as a land of faith in the Middle East, and its surrounding 158 square kilometers of villages and towns as an independent subject, which would be administered by the United Nations.
On May 14, 1948, at the same time as Britain withdrew from the mandate of Palestine, Israel announced its statehood on the southeast coast of the Mediterranean, and just ten minutes later, the United States announced its recognition of Israel's national identity, but the Palestinian Arabs refused to recognize Resolution 181, and twelve hours after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Arabs organized a coalition and began to attack Israel, and the first Middle East war broke out.
At the beginning of the war, in the face of the state of Israel, which was not yet firmly established, the Arab countries were in a favorable position, and the Arab coalition even occupied more than half of Israel's territory. However, Jews around the world launched support operations, donated a large number of light and heavy weapons and bombers from Britain, the United States, France and other countries, and with the advantage of equipment, Israel established a regular defense force and began to counterattack the Arab coalition army.
Following its victory, Israel took advantage of the situation and encroached on most of the land provided for in the resolution, and since then, almost 80 per cent of the Palestinian territory, with the exception of Gaza and parts of the West Bank, has been owned by Israel. At the same time, nearly a million Arabs were driven out of Palestine, displaced and reduced to war refugees.
The ambitions of the great powers – the fragmented Middle East
In 1956, nearly seven years after the signing of the armistice, Britain, France, and Israel began war against Egypt under the pretext of banning Israeli ships from passing through the canal in order to control the Suez Canal and suppress the local Arab national liberation movement. In the course of the war, the Anglo-French coalition forces dispatched more than 100 aircraft carriers, cruisers and various ships to bomb military heavy areas such as the Egyptian Sea and air bases, trying to grasp the sea and air supremacy, but with the help of the Egyptian masses, they could not completely occupy Port Said.
Britain and France had to be forced to cease fire and agree to withdraw their troops, but the Egyptian army suffered more than 1,600 casualties and lost more than 240 warplanes in the war, while Britain, France, and israel only suffered more than 200 casualties and lost 20 warplanes, and the casualty ratio of modern wars began to gradually show imbalance in the Middle East.
At this time, the United States began to further intervene in the affairs of the Middle East, in 1967, the United States, the Soviet Union for the Middle East resources competition intensified, the United States supported Israel's outward expansion, under the pretext of the United Arab Republic (Egypt) blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba as an excuse, Israel on June 5, launched a surprise attack on Arab countries, the third Middle East war broke out.
At the beginning of the war, the Egyptian army's air base was attacked by 200 Israeli fighters due to lax garrisons, most of which were destroyed before they could take off, and within four days, Israel took advantage of its air superiority to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, and then Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights and marched to the West Bank and the East Jerusalem. The battle ceased in August 1970, and in two years of attrition, the Egyptian army suffered heavy losses and millions of Arabs were once again forced into exile and refugees.
The Fourth and Fifth Middle East Wars
After the defeat in the Third Middle East War, after several years of excellence, Egypt and Syria once again went to war against Israel in October 1973 in order to recover the lost land and get rid of the influence of the "no war and no peace" situation caused by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Known as the Fourth Middle East War, also known as the October War, many Arab countries and related organizations participated in the war. In order to achieve the suddenness of the attack, Syria conducted many military exercises, mobilization and demobilization and other deceptive means, and finally set the day of war on the Islamic month of Ramadan. It was also Yom Kippur Day, Israel stopped its general official business activities, and the Israeli army, with its own powerful air force, tanks, and reconnaissance intelligence network, was unprepared, and hours after the war, the Israeli high command still naively believed that Egypt and Syria did not dare to go to war.
On October 10, 1973, the Egyptian army initially achieved the predetermined combat objectives, encouraged by this, the Arab allies tried to eliminate the State of Israel in one fell swoop, but the State of Israel, in an extremely passive situation, quickly used reserves to temporarily contain the Syrian army's offensive and carried out a local counterattack, and counterattacked the next day to the 1967 ceasefire line, and incidentally hit the reinforcements of Iraq and Jordan, and the war gradually fell into a stalemate. On October 24, 1973, the United Nations Security Council intervened to mediate, and the Fourth Middle East War came to an end, while Egypt regained control of the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and Israeli troops completely withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula.
On June 4, 1982, in order to solve the "state of China" established by the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel used aircraft to attack the liberation guerrilla bases in Beirut and southern Lebanon, and dispatched four brigades to attack the Syrian army's Bekaa Valley in three ways, and the fifth Middle East war broke out. On June 27, the United Nations passed its seventh emergency resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional withdrawal from Israel, while the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed to withdraw from the Beirut area in order to preserve its strength.
The Fifth Middle East War, the largest between Israel and the Arab States, resulted in more than 3,000 Palestinian Liberation Organization casualties, more than 100 tanks, 500 artillery pieces and more than 400 secret warehouses; and more than 1,000 Syrian casualties, more than 400 tanks and 58 aircraft.
There is no doubt that there was no winner in this war, and although Israel forced the Palestine Liberation Organization to evacuate to eight Arab countries, including Jordan, Iraq, and Syria, it also aroused serious domestic anger because of the civil disasters created in Lebanon [2], with about 400,000 people participating in demonstrations, and the total population of Israel at that time was only 4 million.
epilogue
The perennial turmoil and war in the Middle East is caused by a variety of factors, such as the cultural differences between the various regions of the Middle East, as well as the entanglement between Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and then the intervention of the great powers and the inherent internal contradictions of many Arab countries, many complex factors intertwined, resulting in the Middle East conflicts in the 20th century, war after war, and even after entering the 21st century, the middle East disputes are still fierce.
While it is certain that the hatred between Israel and the Arab States has been passed from one generation to the next, an indissoluble vendetta of blood and fire, for civilians in war, both Jews and Arabs are anxious for peace in their hearts. In the face of chaos and life in the Middle East, no one side can stand on the moral high ground to condemn the other, as Stalin said: "There is no justice before the god of death" [3], and in the face of death, there is no one who does not desire peace, Jews and Arabs.
bibliography
[1] The future government of Palestine. UN
[2] War: Five wars in the Middle East. China Social Science Network. 2014-11-27
[3] Review of five Middle Eastern wars. www.phoenix.com.cn.2016-08-01