The Arab-Israeli Conflict
In the last 60 years…
 ISRAEL
3,971 civilian deaths
35,356 injured
92 military operations
against Palestinians
 PALESTINE
72,785 civilian deaths
67,602 injured
12,800 rockets launched
against Israelis
7 regional wars – 45,251 Arab + 22,684 Israeli
deaths
4,981 attacks in 23 countries – 9,175 deaths
11 years ago…
4 years ago…
3 days ago…
Gaza rockets hit south Israel, army strikes
back
GAZA (Reuters) - Seven rockets fired from the Gaza Strip
landed in southern Israel during the Jewish Passover
holiday on Monday, drawing retaliatory air strikes from the
Israeli army, officials said, the first cross-border clash in
several weeks.
WHY?
Religious Claims
 Abraham
 Covenant
 Canaan - “Promised
Land”
ROOTS OF CONFLICT
To whom does the covenant
belong?
HAGAR
slave
ISHMAEL
first born
12 Tribes of Arabia
Muslims
ABRAHAM
SARAH
wife
ISAAC
second born
12 Tribes of Israel
Jews
The Kingdom of Israel
 Conflict with
Philistines
 David conquers
Jerusalem – capital,
 Temple Mount
 Turbulent existence
Foreign Occupation
 Assyrians c700 BCE
 Babylonians c600 BCE
 Persians 516 BCE return to Israel
Roman Conquest
 Invasion 63 BCE rename Palestine
 Zealot revolt
 Temple destroyed
 Diaspora c130 CE
Western Wall - Wailing Wall
Byzantine Empire – 330 CE
 Christian
 Jerusalem –
Church of the
Holy Sepulchre
Islamic Empire – 638 CE
 Muslim
 Dome of the Rock
 Tolerance –
Peoples of the
Book
Crusades
 Holy Land
 1099 CE – 1244CE
 Roots of conflict
between Muslims
and Christians
Recap
Jewish Claims:
 Abraham—Promise of land
 Political Kingdom of Israel
(1000 BCE) and occupation
of territory until kicked out
by Rome (63 CE)
 Holy Sites (Western Wall)
 Some Jews there even after
Rome
Muslim Claims:
 Also trace descendants to
Abraham
 Political Kingdom of Islam
and held by Muslim rulers
from 630-1922 CE
 Holy Sites—Dome of the
Rock
Egypt
Kingdom of Israel
Assyrians
Babylonians
Persians
Greeks
Romans
Muslims
Crusades
Mongols
Ottomans…
Whose
Land
Is
This?
LET’S SKIP AHEAD TO
MODERN TIMES…
Ottoman Empire – Islamic revival to the
“sick man of Europe” (1300-1920)
Europe after the Roman
Empire
 Medieval period –
feudal states
 Rise of
monarchies to
nation states
 Competition for
world
resources/trade
European Jews after the
Diaspora  Anti-
semitism/Pogrom
s
 Assimilation
 Small population
in Ottoman
Palestine
 Zionism - 1896
Stop and Discuss

If you were a Jew living in Europe in the 1800s, would you…
 Keep your religious traditions but try to assimilate into western life
 Keep your religious traditions and stay separate

If you heard about Pogroms would you..
 Stay until something happened to you
 Try to move somewhere new—maybe to Palestine

Once Zionism started would you be more likely to
 Avoid it because it is a crazy, potentially dangerous dream
 Support it secretly but stay in Europe
 Support it openly but stay in Europe
 Support it openly and move to Palestine
World War I: European
Competition leads to War
 Militarism
 Nationalism
 Alliance
System
 Imperialism
World War I
 Wait?
Why are
we going
to war?
The Final cause of WW1--Imperialism
PAUSE: WORK ON
IMPERIALISM ASSIGNMENT
Alliance System
Central Powers:
 Germany
 Austria-Hungary
 Ottoman Empire
Triple Entente:
Russia
France
Britain
Why does WW1
matter in the ArabIsraeli Conflict?
Conflicting
Promises
 McMahon Letter
1915 – Arab support
against Ottomans =
An Arab State at the end
of the war
 Balfour Declaration 1917
Balfour Declaration
 His Majesty's government view with favour
the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement
of this object, it being clearly understood that
nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing nonJewish communities in Palestine, or the rights
and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country.
The Real Plan
 Sykes Picot
Agreement 1916
– secret
British/French –
mandates, Suez
Canal
 1922: British
Mandate
Stop and Discuss
 Was it a smart decision for Britain to
make these promises? Why or why not?
 How could these promises contribute to
modern day problems in the Middle
East?
Jewish migration to Palestine
 Discontent of Arabs
grows – the Black
Hand and the Arab
Revolt 1939
 Haganah and the
Irgun created
 Birth of terrorism
 White Paper 1939
WWII – Hitler’s Holocaust
1939-1945
Creation of Israel
 Sympathy for
Jewish
genocide
 UN Resolution
181
 May 14 1948
1948 War
 Arab neighbors
attack Israel
 “War of
Independence” or
“The
Catastrophe”
 Palestinians lose
all land – Israel
and Egypt/Jordan