SGQ # 12

Crisis in the Middle East p. 3-9

What was the Jewish claim to Palestine?
They had lived there from about 1500 B.C. and they called it the "Promised Land" of their forefather Abraham, and had historical and religious ties to Jerusalem, the city of Christ's birth.

What was the importance of the Balfour Declaration?
This was a statement that Britain would support the Jews in establishing a homeland in Palestine, and the British had only meant it as a tool to gain American support in the war (American Jews would move their government, Britain believed), but the Jews took it as a promise from Britain to help them set up a Jewish State.

What was the Arab claim to Palestine?
In the 600s the Arabs (mostly Muslims by now) swept through the Middle East and north Africa including Palestine and took over with their religion and language until the Ottoman Turks took over in the sixteenth century.

To what extent was WWI a turning point in the struggle for Arab independence?
Because the British were scared of having their oil supplies cut off by the Turks in the first world war, the Brits wanted to support the Arabs' independence in return for their rebelling/fighting against the Turks. But because the Brits were more worried about their agreements with France than with the Arabs, instead of putting Kind Feisal as king of Syria as Lawrence suggested, Britain let France take over Syria, and put Feisal as King of Iraq and his older brother as ruler of Transjordan, but both territories were still British mandates. So, WWI was only partially a turning point in the struggle for Arab independence.

Why did Britain and France want mandates in the Middle East?
They agreed to split them in the Sykes-Picot Agreement; there were probably oil reserves and ports on the Mediterranean Sea and stuff that appealed to Britain and France, and of course the expansion of their empire and power.