The historical reappraisal including current developments in the region now widely known as the Middle East seem to have a Revolving Door. Let’s briefly review the important happenings in the Middle East since World War-1. In 1914, Enver Pasha's alliance with Germany led the Ottoman Empire into the fatal step of entering World War-1 on the side of the Central Powers against the Entente, an alliance that included Russia, Great Britain and France. The British saw the Ottomans as the weak link in the enemy alliance, and concentrated on knocking them out of the war. When a direct assault failed at Gallipoli in 1916, they turned to fomenting revolution in the Ottoman domains, exploiting the awakening force of Arab, Armenian, and Assyrian nationalism against the Ottomans. The British found an ally in Sharif Hussein, the hereditary ruler of Makkah, who led an Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule, after being promised independence. The Entente won the war and the Ottoman Empire was abolished with most of its territories ceded to Britain and France; Turkey just managed to survive. The war transformed the region in terms of shattering Ottoman power which was supplanted by increased British and French involvement; the creation of the Middle Eastern state system as seen in Turkey and Saudi Arabia; the emergence of explicitly more nationalist politics, as seen in Turkey and Egypt; and the expansion of oil industry, particularly in the Gulf States.
When the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies in 1918, the Arab patriots did not get what they had expected. Islamic activists of more recent times have described it as an Anglo-French betrayal. The governments of the European Entente had concluded a secret treaty before the armistice, the Sykes–Picot Agreement, partitioning the Middle East among themselves. The British had in 1917, endorsed the Balfour Declaration promising the international Zionist movement their support in re-creating the historic Jewish homeland in Palestine. After the Ottomans withdrew, Arab leaders proclaimed an independent state in Damascus, but were swiftly defeated by the forces of Great Britain and France who soon after establishing control, re-arranged the Middle East to suit themselves. Syria became a French protectorate as a League of Nations mandate. The Christian coastal areas were split off to become Lebanon, another French protectorate. Iraq and Palestine became British mandated territories. Iraq became the "Kingdom of Iraq" and one of Sharif Hussein's sons, Faisal, was installed as the King of Iraq. Iraq incorporated large populations of Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmens, many of whom had been promised independent states of their own. When World War-II ended, the British, French, and Soviets withdrew from most parts of the regions they had occupied both before and during the War-II and seven Middle East states gained or regained independence: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus; almost all remain simmering and gasping for peace till to date nevertheless.
In Palestine, conflicting forces of Arab nationalism and Zionism created a situation the British could neither resolve nor extricate themselves from. Zionism is an ethno-cultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century, which aimed to establish a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism, with central importance in Jewish history. A Palestinian state was also an attractive alternative to the Arab and Persian leaders, instead of the de-facto British, French, and perceived Jewish colonialism or imperialism, under the logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
The Arab—Jewish struggle culminated in the 1947 United Nations plan to partition Palestine. This plan sought to create an Arab state and a separate Jewish state in the narrow space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but Arab leaders rejected it. In May 1948, when the British Mandate expired, the Zionist leadership declared the State of Israel. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War which immediately followed, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia intervened and were defeated by Israel. About 800,000 Palestinians fled from areas annexed by Israel and became refugees in neighbouring countries, thus creating the "Palestinian problem", which has troubled the region ever since. Approximately two-thirds of 758,000–866,000 of the Jews expelled or who fled from Arab lands after 1948 were absorbed and naturalized by the State of Israel.
That shall explain the earlier referred to Revolving Door to the ME and the ongoing Israel-US joint efforts supported by old colonial actors to eliminate Palestinian from Gaza and subsequently from the West Bank regions and their envisaged relocation in Egypt, Jordan and in other Arab countries with the realization of Zionist’s dream of Greater Israel. The massacre of Palestinians and unabated annexation of Palestinian, Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian lands and resources by Israel with total support from the USA and the historical and inherent but controversial push and pull strategies adopted by the Arab States, Iran and Turkiye fall in place with the above stated background understood; sadly, respective National Interests supersede all human, moral and collective religious obligations. --to be continued.
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