Civil Society in Middle East Essay

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The map of the Middle East was completely redrawn as a result of WW1, reflected especially in the case of Turkey, Iraq and Palestine. The Ottoman Turks had ruled the realm prior to WW1 and had an alliance with Germany. The English, always wary of a strong state on the continent making inroads in the Middle East, sought to undermine both German and Ottoman power, and thus allied with the House of Saud, which it supported against the Ottoman Empire. When war broke out, the destruction of the Ottoman Empire was a main objective for England and it achieved that goal. At the same time, the English were indebted to the Zionist Jews who sought a restoration of Israel (Palestine) as a state of their own. Thus, the Balfour Declaration, issued during WW1, promised Israel to the Jews—and as the English now controlled the territory in the wake of the fall of the Ottomans, the promise was expected to be paid in full.

The House of Saud for its support was rewarded with its own region, which became Saudi Arabia. Large portions of the Ottoman Empire were carved off at the end of WW1, and the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France saw Lebanon and Syria going to France and the area of Jordan and Iraq going to England. Jews were given a portion of land in Palestine according to the Balfour Declaration, although the state of Israel would not be recognized officially until after WW2 in 1948.

Palestinians would end up being pushed to the margins of Palestine as the Israelis would push themselves beyond the territory recognized as theirs by the UN. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank represent the main remnants of Palestine. Israel hardly recognizes Palestine as a state as it continues to occupy the West Bank. Turkey was able to retain some of its territories such as Anatolia even as the West sought to carve up the Middle East for itself. However, because the Ottoman Empire was multiethnic, what remained was a host of ethnic groups now clumped together without the adhesive that was Ottoman rule and Arab consent. The Ottoman Empire had stretched down to the Arab Sea prior to WW1. Post-WW1, Turkey’s southern portions were completely stripped away. Iraq was born, stretching down the rivers to the Persian Gulf. Syria was situated between Iraq and Turkey and Palestine below it. Turkey would have no access to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea. The Black Sea and the Mediterranean would be its own coastlines, thus severely restricting Turkey’s importance in terms of Middle Eastern trade routes, and limiting its geopolitical influence in the face of a divided up Middle East.

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Orientalism with regard to the Middle East was in Edward Said’s opinion a biased tradition by Westerners of viewing the Eastern world as an exotic world.

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In other words, Said explained that Orientalism was an expression of Western ethnocentrism—the act of looking at a foreign land not through the eyes of the culture of the land itself but rather through Western eyes only and judging that foreign land and its culture from the standpoint of Western imperialism. It was an attitude prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries in the West and it contributed to…

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…oversaturation of Orientalism. The East is also depicted as a land in need of saving, which is why the preacher in the novel aims to go there. A gypsy is also depicted in the novel and is described as a strange creature indeed; one who reads palms and pretends to be able to tell the future.

Mr. Rochester himself has something foreign and exotic in his manner and at the end of the novel his power is such that he can send messages through the air with the power of his spirit, thus summoning Jane back to him even though no correspondence has transpired between them. Yet, if Mr. Rochester represents an Oriental spirit, Jane represents the redeeming character of the West, and her return to Mr. Rochester is as nursemaid to one in need of aid. She saves him and finds fulfillment in doing so. This is as good a representation of Orientalism outside of Said as could be found: it shows the extent to which the exotic, foreign world was viewed as outside the realm of reason and salvation by the English world.

With respect to the Middle East, it was seen as one in need of a steady, ruling British hand; which is why the English sent Lawrence to Arabia, and why the English oversaw the breaking up of Ottoman Empire into states to be managed by the English and the French. There was the sense among them that the Arabs were not fit to manage themselves. The Jews who would settle in Palestine would run the British out soon enough and lay claim to the territory as their own, and the….....

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