Boundary Issues: The Middle East in Crisis

The conflicts in the Middle East are all about boundaries -- not simply physical borders, but religious, ideological, and cultural boundaries as well. The various groups that inhabit the region, such as the Sunnis and Shiites, the Syrians and Lebanese, the Iranians, Iraqis, and Israelis feel an absolute and burning necessity to assert and clarify their boundaries for the world to accept and respect.

This identity-crisis of sorts is playing big on the world stage, with authority figures like the United States and the European Union heavily invested in the outcome.

That investment (whether it be about security, power, oil, democracy, or all of the above) brought about the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which successfully erased some Sunni and Shiite boundaries.

Sunnis and Shiites

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Sunni Arabs were the dominant ethnic group, although a minority in the total population. They were in charge of Sadaam Hussein’s military and Baath party while Shiite Arabs and non-Arab Kurds suffered persecution. Hussein’s policies angered Shiite-led Iran, and the two went to war over such boundary issues in 1980.

The Iran-Iraq war lasted until 1988, and was disastrous for both countries, costing an estimated 1 million casualties and $350 billion. Although the war was also about physical boundary disputes, the countries’ borders remained the same at the conclusion of the war. But when the U.S. deposed Hussein and turned Iraq into a "democracy," Iran turned its energies elsewhere, namely to its nuclear program - an unintended consequence for the region and the United States.

Iran’s power has also poured into a Shiite organization in Lebanon called Hezbollah or, "party of God." Hezbollah is a militia, a political party, and a social service organization that has vowed to fight against Israel until Palestine’s boundaries are fully restored.

This brings us to the crux of the conflict: the geographical, cultural, and religious boundary issue between Israel and Palestine.

History of Israel and Palestine

Both Israel and Palestine believe that they have the exclusive right to inhabit the sliver of land north of Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the Mediterranean Sea. For a political map of the Middle East, click here.

The Jewish people were slowly expelled from this region for about a thousand years prior to 132 CE, when the Roman Empire conducted a large-scale expulsion of Jews.

The Arabs conquered the region in 635 CE. Their power fluctuated and was then reestablished in the 12th and 13th centuries until the Ottomans expanded into the region. By the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was among the world's most powerful political entities.

Jews returned to the region over the centuries, but the first modern immigration of Jews took place in 1881, when they bought land from Ottoman and individual Arab landholders. After they established large agricultural settlements, tensions erupted between the Jews and Arabs.

Before the First World War, Jewish scholars called for the establishment of a national Jewish state. These people, called Zionists, were later validated by a 1917 letter from British Foreign Secretary James Balfour to a leader of the British Jewish community, Lord Rothschild. This letter, called the Balfour Declaration, agreed with the Zionist plans for a Jewish national home, but made clear that the Jewish State should not compromise the rights of groups already living there.

World War I changed the map dramatically - four empires disappeared: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian.

Modern History

The rise of Nazism in 1933 encouraged Jewish immigration to the region and by the end of World War II, the Number of Jews in Palestine was approximately 600,000. By this time, Palestinians were deeply opposed to Jewish settlements and violence raged between the two groups.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan to divide the territory into two states with the Jewish area making up about 55 percent of the land and the Arab area roughly 45 percent. This arrangement, called the UN Partition Plan, made Jerusalem an international region administered by the UN.

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion accepted the partition and the Arab League rejected it. Instead of peace, the Partition Plan was followed by civilian attacks and intense fighting on both sides.

Following the State of Israel's establishment in 1948, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq joined the fighting and began the second phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. These nations continue to support the Palestinian cause, as is made clear by the most recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

Today’s battle

Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers prompted a two-week war between Israel and Lebanon. This latest battle is the most recent chapter in a two-thousand year old book.

What we as American women must ask ourselves is, how do we want our country to participate or not participate in these crises? How can we ensure that our leaders and friends avoid simplistic responses (such as "this is just about oil, terrorism, Israel, or nuclear Iran"), which ignore this complex question? We can insist on accurate information and public debate – not simply a body count for each side. We can insist that the complex physical, political, cultural, and religious boundary disputes intertwined in this issue are considered in our foreign policies.

To learn more, tune in to WomenMatter radio shows Migration: Who, Where, and Why? and Oil and Energy: What Choices Do We Really Have?

About WomenMatter

WomenMatter is a place to discuss life issues with other women. We don’t want to wedge women apart, but rather bring them together to dialogue. To participate in our blog, click here.

WomenMatter is the place where we can take one issue at a time, match what we do about it every day of our lives to the facts of the bigger system that we all live in and recognize that every idea for making it better has tradeoffs.

To explore our archive of past Security Life Issue updates, click here.

WomenMatter is dedicated to empowering women to participate in the political process. To do this we have invested in the most in-depth NONPARTISAN information, because we trust each woman to make up her own mind.

• We track nine issues every week and update this website several times a week.
• We launch after school GirlsMatter Clubs in middle and high schools to grow the next generation of politically aware women through a full curriculum and startup kit on girlsmatter.com.
• We do continuous research to make sure that we are meeting the needs of women across the country of all ages, races, incomes, preferences, and religions.

We offer all our services free of charge without memberships or subscriptions. To help us maintain this work - not just in election years but as a continuing part of women’s lives - please make a tax deductible donation, click here.

Update Posted on: 8/18/2006