The Middle East: Oil and the
Arab-Israeli Conflict
History 106
May 20, 2009
Some Websites of Interest
• MidEastWeb—a large collection of
information and opinion, pro PalestinianIsraeli peace
• A detailed Palestine history website
• A brief YouTube video on Israeli occupation
and settlements as a barrier to peace
Reminder
• Readings this week (Week 8): Bentley and
Ziegler, chapter 39; Ayatollah Khomeini on
“Crimes of the Shah,” 1976. Continue reading
either Dumb Luck or Jasmine.
• New: Study guides for Jasmine and for Dumb
Luck now on line
• Final exam is scheduled for Wednesday, June
10, 10:15-12:15. I’ll have the instructions and
essay question handout available by June 1.
History summer classes
Zero-week (June 15-19) (4 credits)
Hist 388
Vietnam
May
Weekend (June 27-28) (1 credit)
Hist 399
Am. Environment through Film
Spence
Students Sing the Praises of UO
Summer History Courses
History summer classes
First four-week session (June 22-July 16) (4 credits)
Hist 382
Hist 386
Hist 396
Hist 399
Hist 399
Hist 410
Latin America
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Samurai in Film
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Pacific War (W.W. II)
Aguirre
McGowen
Goble
Ostler
Good
Hanes
History summer classes
Second four-week session (July 20-August 12) (4 credits)
Hist 191
Hist 240
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Hist 347
Hist 399
Hist 399
Hist 410
China, Past and
War/Modern World I
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20C Mexico
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Xia
Angeles
Walsh
Wanke
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Ruiz
Dracobly
Our Distinguished Professors Enjoy the
Campus in Summer
History summer classes:
Group-satisfying and/or multi-cultural
Hist 191
Hist 240
Hist 309
Hist 347
Hist 382
Hist 386
Hist 396
China, Past and
War/Modern World I
U.S. Women II
USSR
Latin America
India
Samurai in Film
Xia
Angeles
Walsh
Wanke
Aguirre
McGowen
Goble
Automobility: Dream and Reality
Oil and the Environment
• Extracting Oil
• Transporting Oil
• Burning Oil
– At right, NASA photo of
Kuwait oil well fires
residue, 1991
Santa Barbara Oil Spill 1969
Largest Oil Tanker Spill: The Prestige,
off Spanish Coast 2002
• About 63,000 tons of oil
(80% of tanker’s cargo)
spills
– About twenty million
gallons
• Damage to wildlife
(about ¼ million
seabirds killed) and
coastal societies
– At right, the tanker’s hull
split in two.
Gulf War Oil Well Fires, 1991
A Note on Coal and the Environment
• Coal’s dirty history
– London and the Great
Smog 0f 1952 (at right)
– Mining fires, explosions,
collapses (see below)
• A “Clean Coal” future?
Geography of Oil
• Oil geologist
Ernest
DeGolyer,
1944: “The
center of
gravity of world
oil production
is shifting…to
the Middle
East—to the
Persian Gulf
area.”
Oil, the CIA and the Third World: Iran
1953
• Prime Minister
Mossadegh nationalizes
Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company
• CIA coup – “Operation
Ajax” video clip, c.10
min, on coup
• Shah of Iran as American
ally until 1979 Islamic
Revolution
Violence in Tehran, 1953, during CIAorganized coup against nationalist
Prime Minister Mohammad
Mossadegh.
“The Seven Sisters”
In mid-20th century, these
seven Western-owned oil
giants controlled most of the
world’s oil reserves, refineries
and marketing capacity.
Oil Producers Seek Control
• Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC)
forms 1960
– Middle East dominance
– Battling against surplus
– Long and short-term interests
• Peak oil in the United
States--1970
The Oil Weapon
• Oil mixes with ArabIsraeli Conflict.
– 1973-74 Oil Embargo on
US due to US military aid
to Israel
– Oil price shock and the
end of the Post-War
Boom era
• Arab oil revenues fuel
Middle East arms
buildup.
• Producing nations
nationalize extraction.
Oregon’s response to the oil crisis was
this color-coded sign system.
Part Two
THE TOO-PROMISED LAND: THE
ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT 1948-2009
Obama and Netanyahu Meet this
Week
Toward Zionist Independence/Toward
Al-Nakba
• Theodor Herzl and the
Zionist dream
– “A Land without People
for a People without
Land”?
– The Palestinian Presence
• British rule and the
Balfour Declaration
(1917)
Conflict and the End of the British
Mandate, 1948
• Rivals under the reign of
the British Empire
• A bi-national secular
nation or a Jewish state?
• Britain agrees to give up
its mandate, UN approves
• Israel declares
independence, bordering
states declare war, 1948
Arab resistance grew along with
Zionist migration to Palestine. This is a
scene from the 1936 “Arab Uprising”
against growing Zionist pressure for a
Jewish homeland in Palestine.
UN Plan for Partition, 1947
• The United Nations voted
to partition Palestine
between a Jewish
territory (shown in blue)
and a Palestinian one (in
red). The zones were to
be economically
integrated.
• Israel reluctantly
accepted, Arabs rejected
this. As Israel prepared
for independence in May
1948, Arab nations
attacked.
Al-Nakba (“The Catastrophe”)
• The 1948-49 war was a
catastrophe for Palestinians.
• About 700,000 fled and
became refugees in camps
in Arab lands.
• Israel ended up controlling
most of the land the UN had
designated for Palestinians.
Hopes for a bi-national
(Jewish and Palestinian)
state or a separate
Palestinian one were
crushed.
Palestinian Refugees and the
“Right of Return”
• Hundreds of thousands of refugees and their
descendants have lived in camps in
surrounding Arab states.
– Many still aren’t considered citizens of the nations
they reside in.
– Israelis have consistently denied Palestinians the
right to return to Israel
– Jews around the world who emigrate to Israel
have an almost automatic claim to Israeli
citizenship.
Palestinian refugee camp in
Lebanon, 1951. Buildings replaced
tents but many Palestinians
remain in the camps almost 60
years later. Israel has consistently
resisted Palestinians’ demands to
be able to return to their familial
homes and lands in Israel.
In 1982, during Israel’s occupation of
Lebanon, Israeli troops allowed Lebanese
Christian militiamen into the refugee camps
at Sabra and Shatila. They massacred
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
Palestinians.
• Israel grew rapidly with survivors of the Nazi
holocaust and Jews from Arab lands arriving.
• Originally focused on the institution of the
Kibbutz (semi-socialist communitarian rural
settlements), Israel has evolved into a wealthy,
urbanized modern society, basically capitalist,
one with nuclear weapons and a powerful
army.
Communal dining hall on an Israeli
Kibbutz
1967: The Six Day War
• Anticipating an attack by
Arab nations, Israel
launched a war in June
1967
• By destroying much of the
Egyptian air force on the
ground, Israel gained air
predominance
• The Six Day War was
another historic defeat for
the Arabs.
Israeli Occupation after 1967 War
• Israel’s seizure of Gaza Strip, the West Bank of the Jordan River,
East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights made them military rulers
over a million overwhelmingly Moslem Palestinians.
• It also heightened resistance among groups linked together in
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Israel as Regional Superpower: The
Consequences
• 1978: Camp David
Agreements—Egypt
recognizes Israel
• Arab Nations Fear
Israel’s Military Power
• Palestinian Resistance
– Secular: Yasir Arafat and
the PLO
– Islamic: Hamas (in
Palestine) and Hezbollah
(in Lebanon)
The first Intifada, a period of Palestinian
resistance against Israel, began in 1987.
“Facts on the Ground”
• As a result of agreements in the mid 1990s,
the PLO agreed to recognize Israel’s right to
exist. Israel less clearly agreed to accept the
creation of a Palestinian state.
• By the new century, a Palestinian Authority
under the leadership of Yasser Arafat had
limited power in the West Bank and Gaza.
• However, a Second Intifada began late in 2000
• In 2007, following an election victory in Gaza,
Hamas took over control of that territory.
Solutions and Obstacles
• A two-state solution?
– Oslo agreements 1993
and 1995
– Israel and Palestine as
two nations with secure
borders and viable
territorial boundaries
• Obstacles
– Israeli settlements
– Palestinian demands for
a right of return to Israel
– Control of Jerusalem
– Palestinian divisions and
radical Islam
– Israeli right-wing
opposition