The Modern Middle East

THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

“An outstanding textbook on the modern Middle East. Kamrava’s writing is straightforward and lucid.”

—
Digest of Middle East Studies

“This is an ambitious and stimulating treatment of the modern Middle East. It is both informative and enlightening.”

—
The Historian

“. . . an in-depth analysis of a variety of issues that have plagued this part of the world for so many years.”

—Mahmood Monshipouri, author of
Islamism, Secularism, and Human Rights in the Middle East

“At a time when sensational books on the Middle East fill the market, this is a serious and sober contribution. Kamrava approaches the highly charged emotional issues of the Middle East with sensitivity and objectivity. He should be commended for a very useful and highly needed book.”

—As‘ad AbuKhalil, author of
The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power

“Kamrava has written a very well-researched, accessible, and up-to-date book. His themes are well chosen; his analysis is cogent and lucid. It is a welcome addition to the literature on Middle East politics.”

—Manochehr Dorraj, author of
Middle East at the Crossroads

The Modern Middle East

A Political History since the First World War

Third Edition

MEHRAN KAMRAVA

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley Los Angeles London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit
www.ucpress.edu
.

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 2013 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kamrava, Mehran, 1964–

The modern Middle East : a political history since the First World War / Mehran Kamrava.—Third edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN
978-0-520-27780-9 (cloth : acid-free paper)

ISBN
978-0-520-27781-6 (paper : acid-free paper)

ISBN
978-0-520-95685-8 (ebook)

1. Middle East—History—20th century. 2. Middle East—History—21st century. 3. Middle East—Politics and government—20th century. 4. Middle East—Politics and government—21st century. I. Title.

DS62.8.K366 2013

956.04—dc23 2013018594

Manufactured in the United States of America

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z
39.48-1992 (
R
1997) (
Permanence of Paper
).

To Melisa, Dilara, and Kendra

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

List of Tables

Acknowledgments to the First Edition

Acknowledgments to the Second Edition

Acknowledgments to the Third Edition

Introduction

PART I. A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

1.From Islam to the Great War

2.From Territories to Independent States

3.The Age of Nationalism

4.The Arab-Israeli Wars

5.The Iranian Revolution

6.The Gulf Wars and Beyond

PART II. ISSUES IN MIDDLE EASTERN POLITICS

7.States and Their Opponents

8.Repression and Rebellion

9.The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

10.The Challenge of Economic Development

11.Challenges Facing the Middle East

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

1.Turkish women in a late-nineteenth-century harem

2.Women in Algiers in the 1880s

3.Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Reza Shah conferring

4.Female members of the Iraqi Home Guard, Baghdad, 1959

5.David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the state of Israel

6.Israeli women joining the Haganah, Tel Aviv, 1948

7.Egyptian women celebrating Nasser’s announcement of women’s right to vote, 1956

8.Egyptian boys and girls receiving military training during the Suez Canal crisis, 1956

9.Israeli soldiers celebrating Jerusalem’s capture in the 1967 War

10.Egyptian soldiers celebrating the crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 War

11.Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution

12.Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi and head of the Russian nuclear agency Sergei Kiriyenko

13.Iraqi female police officers during their graduation ceremony

14.Iraqi forces on the “highway of death”

15.Shiʿite Iraqi women mourning after the Gulf War in 1991

16.A videotaped message from Osama bin Laden on Al-Jazeera

17.Saddam Hussein’s statue toppled in Baghdad

18.Former president Saddam Hussein on trial

19.British forces searching Iraqi women for weapons

20.Iraqi women inspecting the site of a car bomb explosion in the Bayaa district

21.Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

22.Protesters at Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in the first protest after the fall of Hosni Mubarak

23.Mohamed Morsi campaigning for the Egyptian presidency

24.The U.S. embassy in Egypt covered in graffiti, September 2012

25.The sewer pipe where Muammar Qaddafi was captured, with a dead loyalist gunman in the foreground

26.Syrian rebels engaging government forces near Saraquib City in April 2012

27.Emma Zvi Yona bathing her son at the unauthorized outpost of Moaz Esther

28.Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, first president of the Palestinian National Authority

29.A settler tossing wine at a Palestinian woman on Shuhada Street in Hebron

30.Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signing the Oslo Accords

31.Women marching in support of Hamas

32.A Jewish settler praying at sunrise from a former outpost

33.A Palestinian woman inspecting the rubble of her house after Israeli missile strikes

34.A Palestinian woman flashing the “V for victory” sign at Israeli soldiers

35.Funeral of a two-year-old Palestinian boy killed in Israeli air strikes

36.A Palestinian boy walking through the rubble inside the house of Hamas commander Raed al-Attar

37.Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshaal and Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya at a rally

38.Israeli schoolgirls taking cover next to a bus in Ashdod, Israel, during a rocket attack

39.Skyscrapers of Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, at night

Maps

1.The modern Middle East

2.The Sykes-Picot Agreement

3.French and British mandates after World War I

4.The United Nations Partition Plan

5.Territories captured by Israel in 1967

Tables

1.Jewish Immigration in Each
Aliya

2.Phases in Palestinian Nationalism

3.Palestinian Refugees of the 1948 War

4.Population Growth in Selected West Bank Settlements

5.GNP and GDP Average Annual Growth Rate in Developing Countries

6.Growth of GDP in Selected Middle Eastern Countries, 1980–2011

7.Number of Jobs That Need to Be Created in Selected Middle Eastern / North African Countries (2010–20)

8.Global Levels of Foreign Direct Investment

9.Share of Manufactures in Total Merchandise Trade by Region, 2010

10.Trade Indicators in Selected Middle Eastern Countries, 2009

11.Commodity Structure of Arab International Trade, 2006–10

12.Arab World Trade Partners, 2006–10

13.Population Characteristics in the Middle East

14.Fertility Rates in the Middle East as Compared to Other World Regions

15.Foreign Labor Force in the Oil Monarchies, 1975–2008

16.Age Structure in the Middle East, 2010

17.Passenger Cars per 1,000 Individuals in Selected Middle Eastern Countries

18.Annual Growth Rate of CO
2
Emissions in the Middle East

19.Per Capita Water Availability and the Ratio of Supply and Demand in the Middle East

Acknowledgments to the First Edition

The research and writing of this book would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of a number of individuals. I greatly benefited from the research assistance of Annmarie Hunter and Emily Smurthwaite. I am most grateful for their diligence and their enthusiasm for this project from start to finish. Terrence Thorpe, another outstanding student, also read several chapters and gave valuable suggestions. Bradford Dillman, Manochehr Dorraj, Nader Entessar, Mark Gasiorowski, Nikki Keddie, and Mahmood Monshipouri kindly read all or some of the chapters and gave invaluable and insightful advice. Of course, any omissions or shortcomings remain entirely my fault. Work on chapter 8 [chapter 10 in the third edition] was partly funded by a generous grant from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Northridge.

This book is the outgrowth of more than a decade of teaching and lecturing on the politics and history of the Middle East. In the process, I have learned a great deal from the innumerable students who have shared with me their insights, experiences, criticisms, and comments. Both directly and indirectly, their input is no doubt reflected here. For that, I am grateful.

Chapter 9 [chapter 8 in the third edition] is an expanded, much revised version of an article that originally appeared in
Third World Quarterly,
vol. 19, no. 1, 1998, pp. 63–85. I am grateful to
TWQ
’s editor, Shahid Qadir, for permission to quote extensively from the article here.

My wife, Melisa Çanli, deserves special thanks. Over the nearly five years that it took to write this book, she put up with my many solitary hours behind the computer, my frequent mood swings, and my far-too-frequent frowns. All along, she never wavered in her loving support for my work. As I was in the final stages of preparing the book, she gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Dilara. As a meager token of my love and gratitude, I dedicate this book to them both.