Middle East Agreements - Essay Example

The major players in these agreements as stated by Goldschmidt were the British, Arabs, French, and Zionist. The British appear are a common force in the separate agreements (Goldschmidt and Davidson, 2009). These agreements were signed with the motivation being the different regional interests presented by the parties signing the agreements. Goldschmidt and Davidson try to address the cause of Arab bitterness. The Arab nations have always appeared to be divided. Muslim Arabs support for the Ottoman Empire was to protect Islamism.

Christian Arab nationalist while under the Ottoman Empire did not mind who ruled them, but this changed when they were under the rule of Tanzimat reformers. The Maronites benefited from French protection in the 19th century, whereas the Russians offered protection for the Greek orthodox Syrians. The American and French missionaries were the first to spread their influence over in Syria. The Americans in trying to solve the issue on education in Syria did influence the rise for the need for nationalism in the Arab nations.

The idea of nationalism was initially not for the whole of Arab, but it targeted the independence of Lebanon. However, it is evident that graduates of the American university of Beirut spread the concept of Arab nationalism among the Christian and Muslim speakers of Arabic (Goldschmidt and Davidson, 2009). The revolt by Arabs was because of their need to be free to decide on their interests such as leadership preferences as well as religious issues, which was controlled by the young Turks. The call for a Muslim holy war against Britain Russia and France did cause unrest in the Middle East.

The British serving in Egypt and Sudan had to formulate a plan to counter the pan Islamic proclamation. According to Esposito, a call for holy war is a practice common to Islamists. Esposito explains that a jihad to Islam is a defensive struggle (Esposito, 2011). A call by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire for a holy war was in an effort to expand the Ottoman Empire. The British had to build allies in revolting against the Ottoman Empire. The British ended up signing three war agreements, which have presented controversial issues in the leadership, in Middle East.

The three war agreements are controversial in the sense that, the Arabs under the leadership of Hussein believed they would gain their independence having guaranteed Britain a victory against the Ottoman Empire. However, in the Balfour agreement Britain’s promise an Arab land Palestine to the Zionist upon its victorious win against ottoman rule. The French, on the other hand, knew that when they allied with Britain and won the war they would divide Middle East into spheres of influence. The Hussein McMahon correspondence represents a debatable aspect of the British involvement in the Middle East.

The two leaders exchanged eight letters that negotiated the conditions under which Husain would encourage Arabs to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. The revolt was also a plan to enter the First World War by supporting the allies, the British. The terms of the letters were that, after the war, British was to declare the independence of the Arab areas namely Syria Jordan Israel Iraq west bank Gaza and Saudi Arabia. Hussein did lead the Arabs revolt, but at the end of the war, the Arabs were disappointed due to the disagreement between the McMahon and Hussein over the