On October 7th, the world watched as a tragedy unfolded with Hamas killing 1,400 Jewish civilians. Israel proponents claim this was an unprovoked attack, while Palestinian proponents argue that the attack was the result of decades of oppression of their people.
The purpose of this article is to attempt to diagram the situation in the Middle East so that the reader can better understand the foundation of conflict in this region.
There are three key ingredients to unrest in the Middle East: 1) Israel; 2) Iran; and 3) Cultural stability.
Let’s start first with Israel and the history of the Jewish people.
History of Israel & the Jewish People
1300 BC – Israelites move into the land of Canaan (location of modern-day Jordan/Israel) after being released from Egyptian slavery and wandering in the dessert for several decades.
950 BC – Davidic branch in the southern part of Israel build first temple in Jerusalem.
500 BC – After the northern tribes are exiled by Assyrians; and Davidic branch is exiled to Babylon (modern day Iran); a remnant of Jewish people return to Jerusalem who build the second temple.
323 BC – Alexander the Great conquers most of the Greece, Turkey, Middle East, Egypt, and Asia creating Macedonia.
63 BC – Romans occupy the land that was called Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Jewish people lived in this area and were governed by Jewish kings/governors who were responsible to keep the peace with Rome. Non-Davidic Israelites, Samarians and other people lived in this area in addition to Davidic Jews.
70 CE – Jews revolt against Rome. Rome wins and destroys Jerusalem including the second temple.
136 CE – Jews revolt against Rome. Very bloody battle and Jews are defeated again. This time Rome renames Judea, Palestine as an insult to the Jewish revolt. Palestine is a name for the area occupied by the Philistines who had historically occupied what is now modern-day Gaza. Jews were forbidden passage to Jerusalem and scattered to other parts of the vast Roman Empire.
380 CE – Christianity becomes the formal religion of Rome. Christians were tolerant of Jews in Judea. As Christianity moved north, Christians were less tolerant of Jews in Eastern Rome.
636 CE – Arabs take over the land called Syria which would later be called the Levant which included modern day Gaza, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Jews continued to practice Judaism and pay the taxes required for non-Muslims in Islamic territories. Many other non-religious people in this region opted to become Muslim to avoid such taxes.
691 CE – Dome of the Rock … Al Aqsa Mosque built.
700-1100 – Jews seem to be mediators and traders between Christian Europeans and Muslim Arabs in a time when these two people groups were enemies.
1090 – Seljuq Turks occupy all of Asia into Jerusalem and forbid pilgrimage by Christians to Jerusalem.
1099-1290 – Crusaders are battling Arabs; and marauding Jewish settlements in Eastern Rome on their way.
1291 – Arabs defeat Christians and retake Jerusalem.
1350 – Black death spreads throughout Asia & Europe. Jews are blamed for transmitting the deadly disease and are expelled from these areas.
1492 – Spain expels Jews and Muslims. Ottoman Empire welcomes both Jews and Muslim refugees from European countries.
1517 – Ottoman Empire - Ottoman’s forbid Jewish purchase of land in Palestine; Jews still did deals to obtain land.
1600 – Poland accepts Jewish settlers; and many Jews migrated to this region. Close to 50% of the Jewish people are living in this region by 1648.
1660 – Cossacks (Modern day Eastern Ukraine) rebel against Polish nobility and execute 100,000 Jewish people in the region.
1795 – Russia pushes its borders west until it fully occupies Polish territories. Jews become residents of Russia where they are not welcome.
1800’s – Russian pogroms are violent massacres against Jewish settlements in Russia that are ignored by Russian authorities. Jews migrate to western Europe and the United States to escape persecution.
1882 – Oppressed Jews start returning from northern territories (Russia and Europe) to re-occupy historic Israel.
1897 – Zionist movement starts by Theodor Hertzel – desire to create a Jewish state in the historic area of Israel. Jews need a place for Jews to be safe from antisemitism.
1917 – Balfour Declaration by Britain to establish Jordan and Israel as a Jewish homeland. This was used to help war efforts to defeat Germany and other Central Powers in World War I. The British also lobby disenfranchised Arabic people who were unhappy with Ottoman rule in the middle east… promising them independence if they win the war.
1918 – The Ottoman Empire dissolves and Britain controls all of Jordan which includes modern day Israel, Gaza, and Jordan.
1920 – Organized massacres of Jews by Arabs in Israel.
1922 – British separate Jordan from Palestine. At this time, 10% of Palestine is occupied by Jewish people.
1929 – Hebron riots. Britain reacts by restricting land transfers to Jews.
1935 – Nazi Germany is actively oppressing Jewish people. Antisemitism is escalating in European and Asian cultures prompting Jewish people to migrate to Israel.
1937 – Peel Commission forms to subdivide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
1900 – 1940 – Zionist movement is revitalizing Palestine’s agriculture.
1939 – Brits restrict Jewish migration into Palestine to 75k per year.
1940 – WWII breaks out. Jews ally with Britain to fight Germany. In part to eliminate immigration restrictions to Palestine.
1940 – Palestinian Arabs ally with Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany carries out the Holocaust killing six-million Jews in concentration camps.
1947 – UN Partition plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Accepted by Jews and ejected by Arab states.
1947-48 – Arab terrorism on Jewish settlements.
May 1948 – Brit’s leave, Israel declares its independence.
1948 – Surrounding Arab states declare war on Israel as a reaction to their declaration of independence. Israel successfully defends their land and expands their borders. Egypt gains the Gaza strip; and Jordan gains the west bank and eastern Jerusalem.
1953 – 700,000 Arabs were either expelled or fled Israeli territories.
1964 – Founding of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Jewish people seek Israel as a safe haven from antisemitism in North Africa and European countries. Incoming migration of Jewish people increases.
1967 – 6-day war. Israel intelligence warns of an impending attack by neighboring Arab states. Israel pre-emptively declares war on Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. Israel wins war in 6-days; and occupies Egypt and extends borders into modern day Jordan and Syria.
1967 – Israeli settlers start moving into areas of the west bank and Jerusalem to occupy property previously owned by Jordanians.
1967 – UN demands that Israel give up its occupied territories.
1967 – Arab League Summit – Creates an Israeli policy that codifies their resistance to a state of Israel with the three No’s: No Peace; No Recognition; and No Negotiations.
1973 – Yom Kippur War. Syria and Egypt attack Israel to reclaim lands they lost in 1967. Israel suffers great casualties but defends its land and expands slightly. This battleground is also fought between the Soviet Union supporting Arab countries; and the U.S. supporting Israel.
1973 – OPEC is formed by middle eastern oil countries raising the price of oil by 70% to western countries and Israel; and decreasing production by 5% to cause the oil embargo of the late 1970’s.
1975 – Israel gives back land to Egypt and Jordan and retains control of land on the west bank and Gaza. Israeli settlers continue to gain property in these regions known as Palestine (West Bank & Gaza).
1979 – Camp David Accords; Egypt Israel peace. After peace treaty, Anwar Sadat is assassinated by Egyptian rebels.
1980 – Israel declares Jerusalem its capitol which is condemned by the UN.
1982 – Jordanian monarchy afraid of Palestinian rebels; and expel 10,000 radical Jordanian Palestinians to Lebanon.
1982 – Exiled Palestinians in Lebanon start war with Israel. Israel fights back and then withdraws.
1987-91 – Israeli’s start to oppress Palestinians living in Gaza and West Bank with water restrictions and other discrimination. Palestinian rebels wage an Intifada with terrorist attacks against Jews in occupied territories.
1991 – U.S. pushes Israel to negotiate with Yasar Arafat (PLO).
1993 – Oslo Accords; PLO to acknowledge Israel’s existence; and stop educating their children on hate. Palestine was to have full control of the Gaza Strip; and broken up portions of the West Bank. Some areas of the West Bank were supposed to be shared lands. This agreement was a complete failure and the fighting continued.
1998 – Wye River Agreements; Another broken agreement with Yasar Arafat.
2000 – Camp David II; Arafat refused to negotiate and launches massive round of violence.
2001 – 2004 – Israel builds wall along western part of the West Bank to prevent attacks in eastern Israel by Palestinian terrorists. The wall is declared to be illegal by the UN.
2004 – Yasar Arafat dies; Mahmoud Abbas takes over PLO which has now become the Fatah political party in Palestine.
2004 – Israel removes people from the Gaza Strip. Hamas burns empty Israeli homes and developments.
2005 – Last election in Palestine. Mahmoud Abbas is elected as the president of Palestine. The majority of elected leaders belong to Hamas.
2005 – Israel and Egypt enforce blockades around Gaza to prevent Hamas terrorists from gaining weapons to create war with Israel. It must not be working because Hamas is still launching rockets into Israeli territory.
2008 – Israel offers land swap. Mahmoud Abbas walks away and launches attack missiles. 1st Gaza war. Israel invades Gaza to stop attacks.
2014 – 2nd Gaza war. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas, Israel retaliates arresting 350 Hamas militants. The combination of Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes results in over two thousand deaths. Israeli air strikes destroy 50,000 buildings in Gaza.
2020 – Abraham Accords – Bahrain, Sudan, UAE & Morocco recognize Israel as a state.
2020 – The U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. A large majority in the UN are opposed to this move.
2021 – 3rd Gaza war. Attacks on Jews become a way to garner political support in Gaza for leaders in the region.
2023 – Hamas massacres 1,400 Jews; 4th Gaza war. Israel is in the process of destroying Gaza to retaliate for the violence perpetrated by Hamas. Hezbollah is launching rockets into Israel from the north.
The sources and illustrations of the territory of Israel for this timeline can be found in theses very helpful videos on YouTube: Video I : History of Jews
Video II : Israel/Palestine Conflict Video III: The TRUTH about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict It is helpful to visually watch these territories change. I urge anyone who wants to genuinely understand the history of this situation to watch each of these videos.
Iran
Iran has a deep and colorful history starting from the time of ancient Persia. Iran is separate from other Arabic countries in that its Muslim population is a majority of Shia Muslims as opposed to Sunni Muslims who occupy much of the middle east. Historically, modern day Iran has been separate from many of the same occupations of other Arabic lands. Iran has sponsored three major terrorist actions in the middle east:
Houthi fighters launching rockets into Saudi Arabia from Yemen; and random bombings in Yemen.
Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon launching rockets into northern Israel.
Hamas fighters in Gaza launching rockets into southern Israel and most recently massacring Jewish citizens.
Iran has also sponsored random attacks to American fighting forces in the middle east. These attacks are aggressive actions against naval ships in the Persian Gulf; terrorist attacks on U.S. military bases, kidnapping of U.S. citizens from the 1970’s until the present time.
Iraq had been an American ally against Iran prior to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. At the present time, Iraq has become friendly with Iran in trade.
Recent U.S. presidents have had different relationships with Iran. The Obama administration had hoped to convince Iran to delay its development of nuclear weapons in exchange for easing sanctions. The Trump administration opted out of the nuclear weapons dealings believing that Iran was not dealing in good faith. The Biden administration has wanted to restart nuclear weapons talks in exchange for easing sanctions. The Biden administration most recently released $6 Billion in Iranian funds in exchange for American hostages.
Iran has become closer with Russia and China as world allies since the U.S. has classified by Russia and China as undesirable allies. The invasion of Russia into Ukraine, and the subsequent oil trade between these countries has improved the relationships between these three world powers.
To counter the power of the U.S. dollar in trade, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed a group called BRICS. Iran is slated to join BRICS in January 2024. This move will reduce the need for U.S. dollars which will reduce the amount of U.S. debt buyers, thereby weakening the U.S. dollar as a world currency.
In the middle east, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have become enemies of Iran. Likewise, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen have become allies of Iran. Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait seem to be neutral. Depending on who the U.S. president is, the U.S. is mostly backing the anti-Iran coalition, while China and Russia are supporters of Iran.
Cultural Instability
Naming this conflict the… Israel/Arab or Israel/Palestine or the Jewish/Muslim.. conflict; are words that inflame many in the Arabic community against Israel. There is certainly a religious context to this conflict, but inflaming religious ire is not conducive to a peaceful solution. Based on my deeper awareness of this conflict, I believe it is more accurate to call it the Israel/Iran conflict.
Remember in the first and second gulf war when Saddam Hussein directed scud rockets to Tel Aviv when the U.S. was battling Iraq? This was an attempt by Saddam Hussein to pull Arabic nations into the war. He had hoped that Arab nations would see the Iraq/U.S. conflict as a chance to irradicate Israel while the U.S. was preoccupied with Iraq. It didn’t work.
The same tactic that was used by Saddam Hussein is being used by Iran. It is hoping to create enough ire toward Jewish people from Muslim people that the entire middle east will rise up to push out the U.S. and the Jews out of their land forever. This has been working to some extent. Civilians in Lebanon, Gaza, and many other Arabic nations believe that Israel is oppressing Muslims. The hope by Iran is that Muslims can be galvanized against Jews.
The other group that is getting pulled into this culture war are young people and Muslim immigrants in the United States. Many Hamas and Palestinian protests are being held in the U.S. advocating that Israel is an occupier and ought to give land back to Palestine; or at least not fight back when provoked by Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists.
The international community has recognized both Palestine and Israel as independent states. In the case of Palestine, 138 out of 198 U.N. members recognize Palestine as a sovereign nation. In the case of Israel, 165 out of 198 U.N. members recognize Israel as a sovereign nation. In this conflict, it is common to see protestors in many countries support Palestinians while few support Jews or Israel.
My Viewpoint
You should make up your own mind on this topic.
I genuinely want to see peace in this part of our world. While I feel sad for the plight of Palestinians, I don’t side with them in this conflict. I believe that Palestinians have purposely created hostility in this region and perpetuate more hatred with future generations to the point that peace will be improbable. This hatred is being fueled by Iran and others who have been determined to irradicate Israel. In this way, Palestine has become a pawn of Iran. I believe that Jewish people have been persecuted around our globe no matter where they’ve tried to live for no other reason other than their culture and heritage. I don’t understand antisemitism, but it clearly exists. Jews need a place to call home. Giving an extremely small plot of land and allowing them to live in peace is a small thing to ask of our world who has treated them so terribly throughout the past 2,000 years. It is a waste of time to negotiate peace with Palestinians. Why? Because Palestinians are pawns of Iran. Whatever deal Palestinians agree to will be canceled by their true power broker, Iran. The least we can do is negotiate with the country who controls Palestine and Lebanon (Iran), instead of pretending that these two countries have any independence whatsoever.
Where do we go from here?
I don’t have a solution. Sadly, I believe this conflict will escalate into another world war. Not just because of the Israel/Iran conflict, but because of all the other conflicts that will engage countries who want to gain power and will create world waring allies to gain that power. China wants to continue its power quest from Hong Kong to Taiwan and possibly other East Asian land grabs. Russia wants to reclaim the countries who once belonged to the Soviet Union. Iran wants a new Persian Empire in the middle east.
None of us want war. But we cannot be ignorant of what is happening in the world, either. Our continuing prompting of Israel to stop its aggression in Gaza or in Lebanon is not helping our side. Like it or not, we will have to pick a side at some point.
About the Author
Jeff Schuster is an accomplished businessman, engineer, and writer. Three of Jeff's books are attempts at helping people understand and solve political problems that are being made worse by political partisanship. His first book, Trial & Error, is a collection of 14 short stories. ReEngineering Education is a story of innovative education reform in the midst of political corruption. Engineering Unity is Jeff's most recent book published in August 2023 addressing political polarization on wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. You are welcome to join our private Facebook group called Reengineering Politics where we discuss politically polarizing topics in a civil manner.
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