History and Democracy of the Modern Middle East - HIST 235 Resource Guide

After Egypt's president Sadat visited Jerusalem in 1977, US president Carter arranged meetings between Sadat and Israeli prime minister Begin at Camp David which led to a treaty in 1979 between Israel and Egypt (the first Arab state to take such a step). This recognized the state of Israel, promised autonomy to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and returned the Sinai to Egypt.
Includes map.

This chapter discusses the end of the Civil War. It explores the role of Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev in ending the war. It notes that the U.S. and the Soviet Union acted rationally in the Middle East during the conflict.

Palestinian uprising, specifically between December 1987 and September 1993, during which time a loosely organized group of Palestinians (the Liberation Army of Palestine, also called Intifada) rebelled against armed Israeli troops in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Their campaign for self-determination included strikes, demonstrations, stone-throwing, and petrol bombing.

Protracted and costly Middle Eastern military conflict that began on September 22, 1980, with a surprise Iraqi invasion of western Iran along their common border. The war was in many ways a continuation of the ancient Persian-Arab rivalry fueled by 20th-century border disputes and competition for hegemony in the Persian Gulf and Middle East regions. In the late 1970s, the longstanding rivalry between these two nations was abetted by a collision between the Pan-Islamism and revolutionary Shia Islamism of Iran and the Pan-Arab nationalism of Iraq.

This chapter discusses the superpower rivalry in the Middle East during the 1980s. It explores the consequences of the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It also chronicles the impact of the Iran-Iraq war during the period

War 16 January-28 February 1991 between Iraq and a coalition of 28 nations led by the USA. The invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq on 2 August 1990 provoked a build-up of US troops in Saudi Arabia, eventually totalling over 500,000. The UK subsequently deployed 42,000 troops, France 15,000, Egypt 20,000, and other nations smaller contingents

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon, code-named Operation PEACE FOR GALILEE, began on June 6, 1982, when Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, acting in full agreement with instructions from Prime Minister Menachem Begin, ordered Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops into southern Lebanon to destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) there.

UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) provides assistance, protection and advocacy for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory, pending a solution to their plight.

Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center,research.institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents.