The Middle East – NSFCC (Not Safe for Casual Conversation)

For much of the contemporary world, the Middle East is viewed through the narrow lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet the region is filled with myriad peoples, religions, political identities, and cultures that extend far beyond the strip of land comprising the modern state of Israel and the Palestinian territories. An appreciation for the complexities of this region is essential to our understanding.

Geography

The Middle East is essentially a geopolitical describing the region centered around the Fertile crescent. Its heart is made up of the lands in the Southeastern part of the Mediterranean basin, including present-day Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Most observers extend the "Middle East” to include Turkey, Iran, Arab North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. 

Religion and People

The many peoples of the Middle East have carried with them strong religious, tribal, ethnic and localized identities quite different from the European nation-state paradigm. The Ottoman Empire -- which collapsed in the aftermath of World War One-- contained Muslims, Christians and Jews organized into "millets" that allowed for a significant measure of religious and cultural autonomy (at least for those who were not Sunni Muslims).  Ethnic Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Persians, Slavs and others moved around, lived side by side, crossed boundaries and served the various empires, local lords and tribal chieftains that co-existed from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic. Much of the modern day violence the region has experienced is the result of borders imposed by Europeans in the aftermath of the two world wars. Nearly every single boundary has had the effect of separating members of the same ethnic group among one or more countries, accompanied by serious grievances.

Israel and Palestine

From the ashes of World War Two and the Holocaust, in which six millions European Jews perished, sprung the modern state of Israel. Its establishment in 1948 was a direct result of worldwide sympathy towards the Jewish people, but the Arab world saw it as an unjust colonial imposition comingat precisely the time when de-colonization was gathering steam. The subsequent Arab-Israeli conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in squalid camps in neighboring Arab countries, and the influx of hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews into Israel.

In 1967, a period of heightened tension led to a rapid war in which Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai Peninsula – more than tripling the territories it controlled. Since then Israel has suffered additional wars (1973, 1982), Palestinian uprisings (1987, 2000) and signed peace agreements (Egypt, Jordan). The significance of the conflict however, extends beyond the nations of Israel, the Palestinians, and their neighbors.

Many Arabs and Muslims continue to see the creation of Israel and the exodus of Palestinian refugees as a cause or a symptom of Western imperialist domination. One the one hand, this is an emotional issue that arouses sincere passion in millions of hearts. On the other, leaders on both sides have used the conflict to justify military dictatorships, human rights violations, and divert attention from domestic issues. Some religious leaders have helped turn what was at first a national/ethnic conflict into one with a religious component, making a solution even more difficult to achieve.

In the West, sympathy for Israel as a refuge for the Jews and an outpost of democracy has often led to a simplistic – and negative – depiction of Arabs and Muslims as anti-Semitic, bloodthirsty and extremist. The U.S. has some agenda items of its own (oil, arms sales, opening markets) and critics argue that support for Israel has been used to carry water for other goals. In recent years the issue of Islamic terrorism as a joint enemy of Israel and the West has become a strong theme, making it more difficult to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on its own merits, separate from fears of a nuclear Iran or al-Qaeda style terrorism.

The Legacy and Future of the Middle East

The religious and ideological currents of today have roots in the Middle East's conflict with the West as much as in its cultural. Secularism vs. religion, fundamentalism vs. tolerance, looking backwards towards an idealized past or reaching forward to a utopian future – all are the legacy of a heated co-mingling of world powers and cultures. Together, we shall explore this world. Not merely to understand – but to advance what we hope is the common good, for those in the Middle East, and around the world.