Middle East (Study Notes)

Historian Points
Some historians have viewed the Cold War as a consistent destabilising element in the region with
the possibility of a regional conflict leading to a direct superpower standoff with the potential of a
nuclear war. Others, however, have asserted that the Cold War actually served to dampen tension
and conflict more often than not.
Initial Importance to the USA/USSR
The Middle East contained two-thirds of the worlds proven oil reserves at a time when the global
economy became increasingly dependent on energy derived from oil.
It was geographically an area of tremendous strategic value. The US and its allies attempted to
construct a system of defence alliances around the Soviet Union in order to contain what they
perceived to be Soviet/communist expansion.
Initially the USSR supported the split state and supported Israel because they wanted a neutral
Jewish state which appeared to be controlled by Moscow.

History of the conflict
Arab and Jewish claims to the region of Palestine are based on the history of the area. The Old
Testament refers to it as the promised land of the Israelites.
In the Balfour Declaration of 1917 Britain supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Between 1920-35 there were some clashes between Arabs and Jews.
By 1936 the Jewish population in Palestine was 380,000 almost 35% of the total population.
On 15 February 1947 the British government announced that it was handing the problem over to
the UN. The UN decided resolution 181 creating a portioned state for Jews and Arabs.
In 1945 the Arab states formed the Arab League which opposed Jewish migration to Palestine.

#1 War of Independence - 1948
At 4.00 pm the 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaimed independence. Within an hour the USSR
and the USA recognised the new state. The Arab reaction was as swift, as Tel Aviv was bombed and
the Arab League forces attacked Jerusalem, a key area for all religions.
- Bolded = Important places, dates, names
- Highlighted = Important points

The First War of Independence lasted until December 1948, Israel defeated Egyptian forces in the
Negev Desert.
In the first months of 1949 the Arab states each signed a separate armistice or ceasefire with Israel.
No Arab state signed a permanent peace treaty with Israel.
Post-War #1
Migration was assisted by the Law of Return 1950. Every Jew now had the right to immigrate to
Israel.
The constitution established a parliamentary democracy. The Parliament was called the Knesset.
Much of the economic development was financed by US aid.
In 1954 Gamal Nasser became president of Egypt. He undertook an economic policy aimed at
modernising Egypt. Nasserism became a pan-Arab force which dominated the Middle East for
much of the 1950s.
Egypt limited the means of trade and communication with Israel.
Arab terrorist raids and Israeli retaliation increased after 1953. Arab terrorist attacks were organised
by the Fedayeen.

#2 Suez Canal Crises - 1956
Nassers nationalisation of the Suez Canal In 1956 infuriated Britain and France. It was an access
route for trading and was of massive strategic importance (it was the shortest link between the
Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean). The Suez Canal Company was a joint Anglo-French operation.
In October 1956 a joint plan of attack between Britain, France and Israel was arranged on Egypt as
the West wanted to gain control plus get rid of Nasser.


Egypt was defeated, however due to pressure from the USA and the USSR, Britain and France
withdrew.
The UN arranged a ceasefire; a UN Emergency Force was to patrol a buffer zone between Israel and
Egypt.
Post War #2
Despite the defeat of Egypt, Nasserism prospered and he was hailed as the great leader in the
Arab world
In 1958 Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab League.
Egypt and the USSR developed close ties.
Aswan Dam Egypt became friendly with the USSR plus recognised new republic in China USA/GB
pulled funding from the Dam Nasser threatened to nationalise Suez Canal
However, by 1965 Nassers image was becoming tarnished. Many Arabs disagreed with Nassers
interference in the politics of other countries
In Syria and Iraq the militant Baath Party came to power and pursued a more aggressive approach
to the Israel problem.
Israels settlements were bombarded from the Golan Heights. Arab terrorists continued to attack
Israeli bases and kibbutzim
In 1964 the various Arab terrorist groups formed the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)
By 1968 Yasser Arafat emerged as its leader. On the 26 May 1967 Nasser proclaimed that Israel
would be destroyed
On the 28 May Israel formed a National Government and Moshe Dyan was appointed Minister of
Defence.

#3 Six Day War 1967
The Six day War started on 5 June 1967 when the Israeli air force attacked Egyptian airfields. Within
hours the Egyptian air force was destroyed. It was as much to do with the Arabs incompetence
rather than the Israelis superiority.
One theory is the the USSR sparked the war to justify an attack on Israeli nuclear facility. They
helped Egypt and Syria by arming them and giving them military tactics.
As a result the Arabs became refugees because Israel expanded their borders.
By 7 June the Sinai was under Israeli control and Egyptian forces were easily defeated.
Jordanian troops were defeated in Jerusalem and by 7 June all of Jerusalem was in Israeli hands.
The following day Israel controlled the whole of the West Bank.
By the time a ceasefire was arranged Israeli forces had advanced 30 miles into Syria and also seized
the Golan Heights.
By defeating its Arab neighbours Israel gained secure and defendable borders.
On the 10 June the UN arranged a ceasefire.
After the Six Day War the Arab states still refused to negotiate a permanent peace with Israel.
The Six Day war created another 350,000 Arab refugees.
The USSR saw the Egyptian defeat in 1967 as a reflection of their own weakness. They thus sent
arms to Egypt and Syria, military advisers and technicians, and stationed a fleet of ships off the
Egyptian and Syrian coasts.
Post War #3
Anwar Sadat succeeded Nasser at his death in September 1970. In July 1972 Sadat ordered the
Soviet advisers out of Egypt because out of Egypt because they would not support him sufficiently
against Israel.
Sadat began a strategy with Arab leaders against Israel.
The Soviets continued to supply arms to Syria.
Israels victory of 1967 assured them that the Arabs would not risk a full-scale war again the nation
felt secure.
USA disturbed at the vast Soviet influence in the region shipped planes and arms to Israel.
#4 Yom Kippur War 1973
At 4.00pm on October 1973 Mrs Meir the PM of Israel was alerted to an imminent Arab attack. The
attack began while Israelis were praying in their synagogues for Yom Kippur (one of the holiest days
in the Jewish calendar).
Initially the Arab forces enjoyed success however the Israelis were able to counter and eventually
won the war.
After four days of intense fighting with heavy losses the Israelis managed to push the Syrians behind
the 1967 ceasefire line.
The Soviets called for the Arabs to enforce an oil blockade and then began the largest airlift of
military equipment in history to Syria and Egypt.
A few days later, President Nixon ordered an emergency airlift of military equipment to Israel to
maintain the balance of forces and thus achieve stability in the Middle East this saved Israel.
The UN passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
For the third time in less than 20 years the Arab-Israeli crisis bought the US and the USSR to the
threshold of confrontation.
On the world scene Israel was isolated by the rest of the world as never before. Support for the Arab
cause had been expressed not only by the communist nations but also nearly the entire Third World
(countries that arent affiliated to an ideology). Isolation form the European countries more directly
resulted from the Arab oil embargo as Western Europe received almost 85% of its petroleum form
the Middle East.

The Cold War contributed to heightened tensions in the Middle East
Robert Freedman has noted that although the superpowers worked together to end wars in the
Middle East, their motives were different and in any case cooperation was the exception, not the
rule.
Indeed in both the 1967 (Six Day War) and 1973 (Yom Kippur) wars, the USSR either helped
instigate the conflict (1967) or did nothing to prevent it (1973) in both cases hoping to profit from
the outcome of the war. By contrast in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) Moscow proved unable to
prevent the Iraqi invasion or stop it once it had begun.
In sum according to Freedman, the Cold War neither restrained the USSR, nor its client states, and
through most of the struggle the Soviets were often the major contributor to Middle East instability.


War of Independence
Only in the case of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49 did Moscow play, at least from Israels
perspective, a more positive role. First the USSR backed the partition of Palestine into Jewish and
Arab states at the UN. Then it supported Israel in its war against the five invading Arab armies. The
available archival evidence indicates that primary Soviet motivation was an effort to create a neutral
Jewish state in a region that was perceived by Moscow to be controlled by Britain.
In the latter days of Stalins rule, because of the Israelis support for the US over the Korean War and
the growing anti-Semitism in the USSR, Soviet-Israeli diplomatic relations were broken in 1952.
Following the death of Stalin, while Soviet-Israeli diplomatic relations were restored, Moscow
increasingly moved to take a pro-Arab position in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Suez Canal Crises
Khrushchev saw the Arab world as part of the Third World that could be won over to the side of the
communists through Soviet military, economic and diplomatic assistance. The first major example of
this policy was the Soviet Arms deal to Egypt in 1955 that provided Cairo with long-range bombers
along with heavy tanks and other military equipment. The fact that this arms deal exacerbated the
Arab-Israeli conflict and helped motivate Israel to join retain and France in a tripartite attack on
Egypt in October 1956, this did not appear to be matter of concern for Khrushchev. Rather it was a
matter of increasing Soviet influence in the Arab world in what Moscow saw as a zero-sum game
struggle for influence with the US.
Six Day War
Following the 1956 war (Suez Crises), both the US and the USSR became involved with other conflict
areas (Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam etc) and became less active in the Middle East.
Moscow was, however, to play yet another negative role in Middle Eastern regional stability by
helping precipitate the 1967 Six Day War.
In 1966 Moscow urged the Arabs to join in an anti-imperialist unity, aimed against what Moscow
called the linchpin of US imperialism in Middle East (Israel). One result of the Soviet effort was the
November 1966 Treaty between Syria and Egypt.
In May 1967 Moscow provided false information to Egypt that Israel was about to attack Syria. The
end result was that Israel went to war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
During the 1967 war Moscow kept a low profile, with its only substantive action being the breaking
of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Yom Kippur
Following the war Moscow agreed to resupply weaponry to Egypt and Syria in return for access to
naval bases and control over air bases.
Moscow then helped to sabotage the US arranged ceasefire between Israel and Egypt in July 1970
by helping Egypt to sneak surface to air missiles up the Suez Canal. These missiles were to give the
Egyptian army protection from Israeli aircraft when Egypt attacked Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur
War.
Unlike the 1967 War, Moscow was far more active in the 1973 war, supplying Egypt and Syria with
replacement weaponry, and cheering on the Arab oil embargo against the US. At the end of the war,
when Israel went on the offensive, the USSR even threatened to intervene if he US did not stop
Israeli attacks on Egypt.
Unfortunately Moscows active intervention did not play any diplomatic dividends to Egypt. Anwar
Sadat, the new leader, changed his countrys foreign policy orientation from Moscow to
Washington.
Post War
The US mediated a series of agreements in 1979 between Egypt and Israel leading to their peace
treaty in 1979. While Moscow sought to undermine this process through such actions as promoting
the Zionism is Racism resolution to the UN General Assembly.
As noted by Freedman, all these Cold War actions helped to inflame the region rather than to calm
it. The most egregious actions taken by the USSR occurred in 1979 when they warmly praised the
Iranians who stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held its occupants hostage.
Later, the USSR invaded Afghanistan to protect the pro-communist government. As noted by
Freedman this was another negative action by Moscow during the Cold War and served to
destabilise the Middle East.
Another turning point was the Soviet invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The Cold War dampened region conflict in the Middle East
There were limits to how far the superpowers were willing to let things go before they intervened to
manage the several conflicts in the region.
Six Day War
There was little question that the USSR set off the chain of events that led to the 1967 Six Day War.
However, once the war broke out, the two superpowers worked to prevent the escalation of the
conflict. Moscow moved to impose a ceasefire when an Israeli victory seemed imminent. The
Kremlin severed diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and sent a note to US President Johnson
threatening military action when it appeared that Israeli troops would advance on Damascus.
The Johnson administration signalled to the USSR not to intervene by sending US ships towards
Syria.
The Soviet premier and Johnson praised their war communication during the war and concurred
that they had achieved some measure of success in ringing about a ceasefire.

Yom Kippur
Before the Yom Kippur War, the USSR proved unwilling to condone another Middle East war,
despite Anwar Sadats proclamation of 1971 as the Year of Decision.
But by 1973 that Brezhnev regime, fearing that Sadat would turn to the US, seemingly relented and
accelerated arms deliveries to the Egyptians.
Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein argue that although the arms were supplied, the Soviet
leadership privately urged Sadat to seek a diplomatic solution. In May 1973 Kissinger went to
Moscow, Brezhnev told him of the growing likelihood of war and hinted at the difficulties they were
having in restraining their allies. Once war erupted, Moscow sought a ceasefire while the Arabs were
still winning, because a victorious ceasefire would have avoided any escalatory potential. Both the
Syrians and Egyptians rejected the proposal.
On 10 October, Kissinger proposed that the USSR curtail their airlift to the Arabs in exchange for
American restraint in supplying Israel this suggestion was in turn rejected by the Politburo.
In the face of what was becoming a rout of his army, Sadat urgently requested a ceasefire.
Where the superpowers were unsuccessful, it was because they were caught between maintaining
relations with their clients in the region and managing their own relationship.
Post War
In 1977 the USSR and the USA turned their attention to conflict resolution. Transcripts of high level
meetings between US and Soviet officials reveal that Moscow was intensely interested in
collaboration Middle East issues.

Definitions:
Fedayeen Group of militants in the Arab World. Those who redeem themselves by sacrificing
themselves.
PLO is an organization created in 1964 with the purpose of creating an independent State of
Palestine.
Zionism is Racism The idea for Jews to remain Jewish and not live with any other cultures.

Important Figures:
David Ben-Gurion leader of the Jewish Independence movement
Gamal Nasser President of Egypt, serving from 1956-70
Yasser Arafat Was the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Moshe Dayan - Was the Defense Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel
Anwar Sadat - President of Egypt, serving from 1970-1981