The document provides an overview of the historical and cultural context of the Middle East, highlighting the divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims stemming from early Islamic history, the impact of colonialism, and the significance of Zionism following the Holocaust. It discusses the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the Arab Spring as a response to youth dissatisfaction and social media mobilization. Lastly, it contrasts secular and ultra-Orthodox perspectives within Judaism regarding human rights and responsibilities in relation to the ongoing conflicts.

1. Edgecombe Community College GEO 111
Stephen Herring, Instructor
April 1, 2015
Key Vocabulary for Study of the Middle East
Chapter 7 covers the Middle East, also known as Southwest
Asia/North Africa
To understand this region you need to begin with the first round
of colonial expansion under Arab influences following the death
of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE. There was a division
right after his death between the Arabs and the Persians over
who would be the leader of Islam. This division led to the split
between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. This split has many
complex religious and cultural overtones, but it has been
historically exacerbated by ethnic and economic tensions
throughout the region between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Persians.
Sunni Islam is largely influenced by ethnic Arabs and Shiite
Islam is largely influenced by ethnic Persians. This is an
oversimplification because many Shiite or Sunni Muslims are
neither Arabs nor Persians, but this way of framing the conflict
helps us to see the influences of Arab colonialism throughout
the area.
Following the era of Arab colonialism we come into the period
of European colonialism, a time when many of the present day
nation states of the region had their borders drawn without
regard to pre-existing tribal or ethnic allegiances. Look, for
example, at Greater Kurdistan, a well- defined ethnic region
which came to be subsumed within Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and
Syria.
The next item required for an understanding of the Middle East
is the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the slaughter of over six
million Jewish men, women, and children under the Nazi
leadership of Germany during the Second World War. The
Holocaust was the direct result of accumulating attitudes of
anti-Semitism in the Christian West. There had been centuries

2. of pogroms and outbursts of anti-Semitic violence throughout
Europe prior to the Holocaust. The Holocaust brought about
the realization that there needed to be a Jewish sovereign state,
a Jewish homeland in the Biblical land of Israel. All religious
considerations aside, this was initially a purely practical,
secular observation, that there had to be an organized Jewish
state in order that the Jews might defend themselves effectively
against the threats of widespread anti-Semitism. This concept
came to be known as Secular Zionism.
Various definitions are available for Zionism, but for our
purposes it will be defined as the belief that there must be a
Jewish sovereign nation in the Biblical land of Israel. Today
within the modern state of Israel and elsewhere we have both
secular and religious Zionists.
After the Holocaust Jewish people migrated back to Israel from
all over the world. They claimed and settled the land of Israel.
The problem with this was that there were already people living
there who called the place Palestine. The Palestinians were
forced to leave their homes and property as Israel expended
through the 1950’s. The Palestinian refugees moved into
neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and
Egypt. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_people for
a good description of the process of the Palestinian diaspora.
These refugees often experienced extreme hardship resulting in
their becoming disaffected and ultimately hostile to what they
see as Western colonial interests. From the Palestinian
perspective, their forced resettlement was an example of
colonialism in action. From the Israeli perspective it was part
of the Zionist dream of building a secure Jewish state.
To recap, understanding the reality of the Holocaust helps us to
understand the concept of Zionism. Understanding Zionism
helps us to frame the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. Understanding
the Israeli /Palestinian dispute is the key to understanding the
Middle East prior to the Arab Spring.
It is important for students to understand that, no matter how
passionately they investigate the Middle East, they will only

3. understand half of the puzzle if they take sides in these
struggles. Both sides in this dispute have valid points of view
and valid concerns. The most effective intervention in this
dispute was accomplished during the administration of President
Jimmy Carter from 1976 to 1980. This intervention is known as
the Camp David Accords, often referred to simply as “Camp
David.”
Another huge set of issues putting pressure on Middle Eastern
nations comes under the heading of issues related to oil
production and global energy demand. Many (not all) middle
eastern countries have large deposits of oil. In 1960 a group of
oil producing countries organized as O.P.E.C. (the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries.) The history of OPEC
includes the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, and subsequent energy
crisis within the United States. Much of the United States
foreign policy toward the Middle East has been influenced by
our strategic dependence on foreign oil.
The legacies of Arab colonialism together with the corruption
caused by oil wealth, together with the side-taking produced by
the Cold War gave us a group of authoritarian governments
within the Middle East. Over time these governments became
increasingly inflexible, unresponsive to the needs of their
people, and corrupt. This epidemic of bad leadership set the
stage for the Arab Spring. Demographics were another factor
contributing to the Arab Spring. Many of these nations have
between a quarter and a half of their general populations under
the age of 15. These are populations full of youth. Youthful
populations have widely embraced social networking, using
portable electronic devices to communicate rapidly with large
groups of people. Facebook and Twitter provide prime
examples.
In late 2010 a young Tunisian fruit vendor named Muhammad
Bouazizi committed suicide in public by setting himself on fire.
(See his Wiki page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Bouazizi )
He did this in response to years of brutal abuse and humiliation

4. at the hands of a corrupt police force under the direction of a
corrupt authoritarian government. This would not have been an
unusual event were it not for widespread social networking
among the youth of Tunisia causing the event to “go viral.”
This in turn led to a wave of transformation and social change
known as the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring resulted in the
ouster of government leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
Violent protests also occurred in Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria.
Bahrain provides a great example of many of the issues
discussed here because their social tension comes from the
conflict between a Sunni Arab minority who manages
everything in line with an Arab colonialist legacy and a Shia
majority of working class people who feel their civil rights are
being ignored by their colonial overlords. Bahrain is an
example of an Emirate, a nation led by an emir. An emir comes
from an old tribal family holding wealth and power according to
the legacy of colonialism. The Emirates can also be corrupt as
the ruling family tends to meet its own needs and the needs of
their friends before taking care of the ordinary people.
Syria is in the middle of the most violent conflict coming out of
the Arab Spring. The authoritarian ruler of Syria recently
resorted to the use of chemical weapons in an effort to hold on
to power. It was this type of brutality that gave rise to the
chaos from which ISIS emerged. It remains to be seen how the
chaos in Syria will work itself out. The Syrian civil war has in
turn caused increased pressure on Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and
Iraq.
The situation in Egypt remains unstable as the democratically
elected Islamist government of the Muslim Brotherhood was
recently overthrown by the military in response to the minority
of Egyptians who want a more secular form of government.
Libya remains a mess following the September 11 2012
Benghazi attack which resulted in the death of the American
ambassador. The collapse of Libya has allowed an open door
for migrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Italy,
resulting in both a mass influx of needy people into southern

5. Europe and the deaths of thousands of people in poorly
equipped boats. There have also been many examples of both
human trafficking and smuggling of migrants complicating an
already intense humanitarian crisis.
The bottom line here is that large populations of disaffected
youth need to be listened to and they need to have their needs
met. Otherwise some these disaffected populations might
organize and arm themselves and become violent criminal
organizations, or “terrorists.” You can see examples by looking
at the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas, The al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, and, of course,
ISIS. Many scholars of the Middle East see these groups as the
results of uneven development, economic disparity, and corrupt
authoritarian governments.
Religion 110 Information required to compose a good essay on
Judaism
Your assignment is as follows:
Compose a well-developed essay examining conflicts over the
ideas of human rights and human responsibilities within
Judaism today.
In order to do this you first must understand that Judaism, as
with most world religions, has a secular and a more
fundamentalist side. The fundamentalist side of Judaism is
referred to as ultra-orthodox. (See page 82 in your book.) As
with other fundamentalist religious mindsets, ultra-orthodoxy
draws upon a pre-modern theological world view.
Secular Judaism is discussed on page 121 in your book.
Historically, secular Jews have played a tremendous role in
human rights movements including the American Civil Rights
Movement and the American Labor Movement.
Once you understand the question of secularism vs. ultra-
orthodoxy you want to understand the role of the Holocaust and
the history of anti-Semitism in bringing human rights to the
forefront of Jewish thought. (The Holocaust is covered in your
book, starting on page 128.) Awareness of the Holocaust brings

6. with it an awareness of the need for all people to respect
universal human rights.
The Holocaust brought Zionism into popular awareness as
people of good conscience in civil society saw the necessity for
a Jewish sovereign nation to allow the Jews to defend
themselves against widespread anti-Semitism. For our purposes
here, Zionism is defined as follows:
Zionism is the belief that there must be a Jewish sovereign
nation in the Biblical Land of Israel.
As with all aspects of religion, Zionism can be interpreted as
either religious or secular. Secular Zionism simply maintains
that there needs to be a Jewish state in order that the Jewish
people can defend themselves against ongoing hostility and
historic anti-Semitism. On the religious side, religious Zionism
assumes that God somehow favors Israel above all other
nations. This concept is based on a pre-modern world view that
equates the modern Jewish state with the ancient nation of
Israel. For religious Zionists, ancient Israel and modern Israel
are the same entity in the eyes of God.
The distinction between religious and secular Zionism is critical
to an accurate understanding of current Jewish views on human
rights and human responsibilities because religious Zionists to
not tend to emphasize the human rights of the Palestinian
population in Israel. Look, for example, at the humanitarian
crisis within Gaza City. For ultra-orthodox, religious-Zionist
Jews, Palestinian (Muslim) Arabs may be removed by force and
by violence from the Holy Land. According to this world view,
the Land (Eretz Israel) belongs to the Jews because God gave it
to the Jews. This point of view requires both a literal and a pre-
modern interpretation of scripture. This sort of thinking
inclines away from universal declarations of human rights and
leans more toward a concept of human responsibility. It is the
responsibility of Palestinians to not resist Zionist incursions and
to move peacefully away from their land. The results of these
ways of thinking, especially when combined with Jihadist
Islamic thought, (Hamas and Hezbollah) incline toward repeated

7. acts of terrible violence.
To review, secular Judaism tends to view human rights and
human responsibilities differently from ultra-orthodox,
fundamentalist Judaism. Both views are deeply conditioned in
response to the events of the Holocaust. The secular group
inclines toward activism in the areas of peace, justice, and
human rights. These folks have a long history of leadership in
both the American Civil Rights Movement and in the American
Labor Movement, as well as promoting an international agenda
for human rights. The fundamentalist/ultraorthodox tend to be
more aggressively defensive of Jewish interests, especially in
regard to the Land of Israel. Their view will incline more
toward fighting for security within the Land of Israel with less
interest in possible violations of the rights of Palestinians. This
fits into an emphasis on human responsibilities above human
rights.