320
because of Nasser’s association
with the Soviets and his unceasing
diatribes against the West. Nasser
felt insulted and immediately
nationalized the Suez Canal. The
move was popular in Egypt, as the
canal was a source of Arab pride.
Nasser was a secular modernizer
who advocated the separation of
religion from political life, believing
it the hallmark of Arab modernity,
but this was not universally
welcomed. The Muslim Brotherhood,
founded in Egypt in 1928, argued
for Islam to have a central role in
government. After repeated calls
for the application of Sharia law—a
legal system based on Islam—and
an assassination attempt against
Nasser, the organization was finally
banned in 1954.
In 1967, Arab countries suffered
a crushing defeat at the hands
of Israel in the Six Day War, in which
Israel took the Sinai from Egypt, the
Golan Heights from Syria, and the
West Bank and East Jerusalem from
Jordan, meaning Israel was now an
occupier. In the 1970s and 80s, the
Arab–Israeli conflict largely moved
in the direction of peace: in 1979
the Israeli–Egypt peace deal ended
30 years of war. The rise of thePalestine Liberation Army (PLO)
and of other Palestinian groups
attacking Israel, however, as well
as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in
1982, where many of the PLO were
grouped, destabilized of the fragile
peace continuously.The Iran–Iraq War
Like many countries in the Middle
East, modern Iraq was carved out of
the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in
the aftermath of World War I. Iraq
was a land divided along ethnic
lines between Arabs and Kurds,
as well as sectarian lines between
Sunni and Shia Muslims, the latter
being the majority group. Saddam
Hussein, a Sunni, became leader in
1979, and suppressed ethnic Kurds
and Shias alike using immense
brutality. He, like Nasser in Egypt,
espoused Arab nationalism and
ruled Iraq as a secular state.
In 1979, events in Iran inspired
Islamists throughout the Middle
East. The secular, Western way of
life was swept away in an Islamic
revolution in which the US-backed
Shah was ousted. The new regime,
under Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shia
Muslim, based its laws and ideology
on the strict teachings of the Koran.
Saddam felt threatened by the
Islamic revolution and a possible
Shia uprising in his own country, so
he invaded Iran on September 22,
1980 under the pretext of a territorial
dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, a
waterway that lies between the
two countries.
The invasion triggered a bruising
eight-year war that devastated both
countries and increased tensions
in the Middle East. Iran’s principal
ally was Syria, but Libya, China, and
North Korea all also sent it weapons.
Iraq’s support came mostly from
the Arab Gulf states, which viewed
Iran as the greater danger to their
security; Saudi Arabia and KuwaitTHE SUEZ CRISIS
US President Jimmy Carter (center)
looks on as President Anwar Sadat
of Egypt shakes hands with Menachem
Begin, Israel’s premier, after signing a
peace treaty at the White House in 1979.During the First Gulf War, Iraqi
forces set fire to more than 600 Kuwaiti
oil wells. Saddam Hussein’s desire to
control Kuwaiti oilfields had initially
led to Iraq invading Kuwait in 1990.provided billions of dollars in loans.
Ultimately, Iran was defeated; and
Iraq, now awash with armaments
supplied by several Western nations,
including Britain, France, and the
United States, invaded the oil-rich
state of Kuwait in 1990. The UN
demanded their withdrawal, but
Saddam announced that Kuwait had
been annexed by Iraq. The United
States, with support from coalition
forces, sent in troops during the
First Gulf War (1990–91) and toppled
Saddam from power.The 9/11 attacks
The continued US support of Israel
led to profound grievances among
Islamists. To them, the capitalist,
secular US, with its greed for oil,
symbolized all that was wrong with
the West, and terrorist strikes on US
targets grew. Al-Qaeda carried out
the most shocking on September 11,
2001, against four targets in the
United States, including the World
Trade Center in New York City.
In response to the 9/11 attacks,
a successful US-led international
intervention brought down the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan,
which the US believed had given
sanctuary to Osama bin Laden andUS_318-321_Suez_Crisis.indd 320 15/02/2016 16:45
321
al-Qaeda. After September 11,
President Bush declared a “War
on Terror” and, in 2002, with help
from the British government,
attacked Iraq on the premise of
destroying “weapons of mass
destruction” (WMDs) deemed a
threat to national security. Western
intervention in the Muslim world
heightened the belief among
Islamists that the West was the
enemy of Islam.The Arab Spring
The 9/11 attacks were inspired by
a radical ideology and belief that
the fundamental problems plaguing
Arab and Muslim people could
be resolved by attacking foreign
powers that were seen to oppress
Islam. In 2011, young Arabs—
looking inward to promote change
and blaming their own leaders for
decades of political, economic, and
cultural decline—were at the heart
of uprisings across the Arab world.
At its core, what became known
as the Arab Spring was a new
generation’s attempt to change the
state order. An extraordinary series
of pro-democracy uprisings, the
Arab Spring caused huge upheavals
in the Middle East and North Africa.
It started in Tunisia on December 17,2010 when a street vendor set
himself on fire in a protest against
police brutality. Protestors
throughout Tunisia demanded
democracy, and President Zine el
Abidine fled the country on 14
January. Disorder spread from
Tunisia to Algeria, where there
was unrest over lack of jobs.
On January 25, thousands of
protestors took to the streets in
Egypt, and after 18 days of protests
there, President Hosni Mubarak
resigned. By mid-February, civil
unrest had swept through Bahrain,
where it was brutally suppressed,
and into Libya. Muammar Gaddafi’s
violent response to the dissidents
led to civil war. An international
coalition led by NATO launched a
campaign of air strikes targeting
Gaddafi’s forces, and he was killed
in October 2011.
Further uprisings occurred in
Jordan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia,
but the worst violence against
civilians was seen in Syria, where
President Bashar Assad promised
reforms but used force to crush
the dissent—a move that merely
hardened the protestors’ resolve. In
July 2011, hundreds of thousands of
people took to the streets, and theTHE MODERN WORLD
country descended into civil war.
By August 2015, the United Nations
reported that more than 210,000
people had been killed in the
conflict. Capitalizing on the chaos
in the region, so-called Islamic
State (also referred to as IS, ISIS, or
ISIL), the extremist Muslim group
that replaced al-Qaeda, took control
of huge swathes of territory across
northern and eastern Syria, as well
as neighboring Iraq.Middle East instability
The Suez Crisis was the end of
one era in the politics of the
Middle East and the start of
another. It marked the humiliating
end of imperial influence for two
European countries, Britain and
France, whose role was soon
taken over by the US. It stimulated
Arab nationalism and opened an
era of Arab-Israeli wars and
Palestinian terrorism.
In modern times, the Middle
East has never seemed so unstable.
Wars are being fought over religion,
ethnicity, territory, politics, and
commerce, and these conflicts have
led to the worst refugee crisis since
World War II, with millions fleeing
anarchy and fanaticism. ■We shall not be satisfied
except by the final obliteration
of Israel from the map of
the Middle East.
Muhammad Salah al-Din
Egyptian foreign minister (1954)Terrorism in the Middle East
Since the mid-20th century,
terrorism has been synonymous
with the Middle East. The
Israel–Palestine conflict is one
of the world’s most challenging.
In 1964, Arab leaders
formed the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), declaring
Israel’s establishment illegal.
The PLO used terrorism to attack
Israel and Western targets for
their support of Israel. In 1970,
Palestinian militants blew up
three hijacked planes in the
Jordanian desert, and in 1972 agroup linked to the PLO hit the
Israeli Olympic team during the
games in Munich, Germany.
In 1983, Hezbollah, an Iran-
backed fundamentalist Shiite
Muslim group in Lebanon, blew
up the Beirut barracks of both
US Marine and French forces,
killing 298 people. Hezbollah
pioneered the use of suicide
bombers in the Middle East.
Both Jews and Muslims have
employed terrorism to derail the
many attempts that have been
made at peace in the region.US_318-321_Suez_Crisis.indd 321 15/02/2016 16:45