Essay on "Analyzing Questions About the Middle East"

Essay 12 pages (4252 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

This war exacerbated Palestinian Arabs' hardships. Another group of Palestinians fled their country, seeking refuge in Jordan. The citizens who stayed behind were subject to Israeli control. Palestine was home to as many as 1,300,000 Arabs, not counting the refugees who fled (Shlaim and William 264-270). Moreover, the war triggered a surge in the Palestinian nationalist movement. For Israel, the political consequence of this war was that it strengthened the Jews' distrust of international assurances, accompanied by perceptions of changing party interests. Israel would be betrayed -- the promise by Eisenhower's Administration, in 1957, of unrestricted access to Tiran's Straits was not respected. This assurance received the support of other governments, including France. Though a potential disagreement might exist with regard to whether or not the U.S. broke the pledge made by Eisenhower's government, according to Israelis, the outcome was that America had not enforced the free passage idea when Nasser drove the United Nations peacekeeping force -- UNEF (UN Emergency Force) -- out. Preoccupied with the Vietnam issue, America was against forcing open access to Tiran's Straits, which annoyed the Israelis as it meant such assurances were valueless. At this point, one needs to bear in mind Israel's general isolation, since its relationship with the U.S. in those days was quite weak compared to the present day scenario (Result of The Six Day War Para 1-3).

The Middle East has witnessed numerous long-term effects of the Arab-Israel War. Jordan's resolution to wage war aggravated the refugee crisis by persuading some West Bank inhabitants to go across River Jordan to its East Bank. A few displaced individuals did return to the Israel-controlled West Bank. Together with their neighbors, they enjoyed extraordinary economic success during the subsequent twenty years. Israel's infrastructural investments in Gaza Strip and West Bank, in addition to policies that gave Arabs freedom of movement, increased Palestinians' living standards. They could now work in Israel as well as oil-rich Middle Eastern nations. In spite of this relative peace and prosperity enjoyed by them under Israeli rule, several Palestinians were not keen on continued Israeli occupation or on having their own state alongside Israel. Restrictions increased with increasing unrest. Violent uprisings, usually targeted at Israeli civilians, provoked increasing security measures by Israel. These cumulative actions had a cascading effect -- resulting in a progressively burdensome occupation. Ultimately, Israel re-established friendly relations with Egypt, and relinquished control over Sinai. This was followed by Israel's withdrawal, without any peace treaty, from Gaza Strip. However, this move was unsuccessful in ending Gaza's violence against Israelis.

Lastly, the war strained Jewish-Christian relations in America, with some Jewish rabbis faulting Christian organizations for their failure to speak out against the enmity Arabs had towards Israel, during the weeks leading up to the war. Initially, Christian publications accepted Arab nations' responsibility for this war. However, by the year 1968, Christian activists and commentators began voicing different views, of Zionist culpability and Arab innocence, for interpreting the Israel-Arab conflict. The 6-day war was unsuccessful in solving the issues that triggered it; rather, it only ended up greatly worsening the situation for Palestinians, and its after-effects continue to foster unrest even today in the area (Effects of 1967 War Para 1-4).

Question 4

Lisa Anderson's book is in the form of an analysis of factors contributing to monarchy's extraordinary resilience among Middle Eastern countries. The author rejects arguments like cultural determinism and regional exceptionalism, which put forward the notion that governance style of monarchy is traditional and, hence congenial, in Islamic countries. She considers such claims empirically unsatisfactory, due to their failure to account for Middle Eastern royals' apparent ability of accommodating and even fostering non-conventional political and social change. Further, she asserts that monarchy in Middle Eastern states reflects imperial policies. The Middle East's monarchies ascribed to and served colonial purposes; colonists formed, sustained, and reoriented them to suit their own preferences and ease of rule. Anderson believes they have survived owing to their flexibility of accommodation of state formation and nation building projects. Anderson's book addresses Moroccan monarchy; the author contends that the hereditary succession system advocated by European states has immensely increased these rulers' scope of arbitrary privileges, even for Morocco's monarchy. This is apparently applicable to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other prosperous monarchy systems, as well. Anderson rightfully highlights the monarchy's tactics for legitimating their rule. Her explanations aim at examining the symbolic institutionalization, with regard to other monarchy symbols more central compared to hereditary succession. However, the author's arguments may be regarded as historically debatable, because French colonial control did not trigger the state-building process of the above two nations. Instead, the protectorate served to expand it. Additionally, the author has attributed the solidification of Moroccan monarchy to colonialism (Anderson 3).

Continued prevalence of Absolutist monarchies' in the Middle East is certainly a peculiar phenomenon. However, one needs to bear in mind that every contemporary Middle Eastern monarchy has not survived. Thus, ascertaining what characteristics contributed to the survival of the monarchies that weathered the tempestuous twentieth century will prove illuminating in gaining insights into their resilience, regardless of the 2011 Arab Spring. Considering the above groundwork, this section will deal with the given question by concentrating on the endogenous factors to Arab regimes, and by expounding on the effect of exogenous factors in accounting for monarchical regimes' resilience, as against authoritarian republics, when confronted with the unexpected Arab Spring. Each contemporary Arab monarchical system has endogenous factors linked to its existence, which serves as a potential cause for its resilience during the months of uprising faced by the Middle Eastern region. The first contributing factor is that every one of the eight existing monarchies can foster a level of legitimacy when it comes to their governance, which presidents cannot attest. Hence, their overthrow for the sake of democratization is a more daunting task, which their citizens do not envisage engaging in. A second reason for their survival is the effect of regional dynamics and security politics that manifests itself most overtly via recent GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) actions, which is a great advantage enjoyed by Arab monarchs over autocratic presidents in these turbulent times (Keyman Para 4-8).

Four chief analytical interpretations and corresponding explanatory factors account for Middle Eastern monarchies' survival namely, economic-political Rentier-state approaches; geostrategic perspectives; legitimation-based justifications; and an intra-family, institutionalist account. Geostrategic approaches to the Middle East's monarchies highlight external military assistance of Russia (historically), the U.S., and other international powers, in addition to that of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or other regional powers. Concurrently, funds from arms deals and military aid do not suffice in the replacement of requisite domestic expenses for financing co-optation or suppression of local opposition. Diplomatic assurances, military interventions, and economic grants (in combination), constitute the major foreign patronage granted to Middle Eastern monarchs by the United States (particularly). Moreover, such aid has definitely helped them survive despite the 2011 Arab Spring. Rentier-state approaches emphasize oil-monarchs' political economies. Middle Eastern monarchs' survival may be potentially owing to the high, constant rent influx resulting, primarily, from natural gas and oil export to global markets. Further, it relates to significant rent payments to geostrategic and loyal clients like Morocco and Jordan. Additionally, the conditions contributing to monarchy survival may be best comprehended when royal political peculiarities are considered, particularly with regard to the non-inclusion or inclusion of some members of royal families in major decision-making organizations. Finally, the ultimate perspective on authoritarianism deals with legitimation politics (Bank, Thomas and Anna 7-10).

Question 5

The year 1900 marked 700 years of the Ottoman Empire's existence; however, it also marked the beginning of the Empire's collapse, which came violently and climactically. The forces behind the destruction of this mature and once great kingdom catapulted Europe, the Middle Eastern region, and in fact the whole world, towards a rise in chaos and instability. From the Ottoman Empire's ashes rose the forces that were direct or indirect determinants of some among the longest-lasting and most terrible of conflicts to plague the contemporary world since 1914. All related events and resulting global violence stemmed, to some extent, from the Ottoman Sultanate's death throes. By the year 1900, the Ottomans ruled over an area stretching from Africa's Libyan deserts to Kurdistan and Armenia's snow-covered mountains. The Sultan controlled South Iraq's marshes and oil fields, and Bosnian mountain valleys on the Bosnia-Austria border. Between the above geographic extremes was a huge, diverse empire that comprised of multiple religious and ethnic groups. Of these, many held more resentment towards one another than towards Ottoman Turks' rule. The empire's disintegration accelerated during the 20th century. By the year 1923, it collapsed completely and in its place was established the much-smaller Republic of Turkey. Further, a number of smaller nations arose out of its remaining Middle Eastern lands. Additionally, Arabia started transforming into the al-Saud-led Saudi Arabia (originally an Ottoman region comprising the holy Islamic cities -- Mecca and Medina… READ MORE

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