Israel/Palestine

Q1 how the world war I and the peace conference that followed shaped today's middle east
World War I, occurred in 1914 as the result of European nationalist tension, was the primary starter of the actual territorial tension between Arabs and the Jews within Middle East. The peace conference (Versailles Treaty) that followed and the Britain’s role in both war and the treaty directly shaped what became of today’s conflict and territorial outline of the Middle East.
World War I was the conflict between the Allied force (France, Britain, and Russia) and the Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Ottoman Empire. In fact, the prevalent nationalistic idea seems to have given the nations some justification to occupy the opponent’s land. During the war, anticipating an obvious victory, the Britain and France had a secret agreement, Sykes-Picot Agreement(1916), to take Ottoman and divide its land into pieces under their controls after the war. To accomplish this agreement, Britain made promises to Arabic tribes their independent nations for helping Allied Forces occupy Ottoman Empire. This was the first actual involvement of European power into Arabian territories, which later eventually caused the prolonged territorial conflicts in the Middle East. In addition to Sykes-Picot Agreement, in 1917, the British made another promise to Jews to give them Palestine, their biblical “homeland,” through Balfour Declaration: which contradicted their first promise to the Arabs. Such dual, contradictory promises were the direct cause of the later huge confusion in the Middle East.
After the World War I, the Treaty of Versailles resulted in the League of Nations and carved up Middle East into the nations that had not existed before. Palestine became British protectorate along with many other Arab nations, while Saudi, Iraq, and Egypt became independent. On the other hand, the League of Nations recognized Zionism and the Jews’ right to occupy Palestine. With this trend, more than 40 thousand Jews immigrated into Palestine before World War II and caused a great confusion in Palestinian land in which a number of Arabs had settled for centuries. The increasing tension between Arabs and Jews in Palestine made the serious territorial conflict inevitable.
In fact, after World War II, as the Europeans give up colonies including Arabic nations, the Palestinian Arabs’ situation got even worse. As Britain gave up Palestine as its protectorate, British supported establishing Israel nation of Jews in Palestinian land. Furthermore, Zionism—the need of Jewish nation—met an enormous boost as the result of holocaust, and thus Palestine became more likely to be occupied by Jews. The tension did not get resolved despite UN’s suggestion of dual countries(Israel AND Palestine), and it resulted in Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
In fact, the Arabic conflict in the post-World War II is only the continuation of the tension formed during and after the WWI. The direct cause of today’s situation in the Middle East would be Britain’s dual promises to 1) win the war and occupy lands in Ottoman Empire and 2)recognize biblical order & Zionism for the Jews, during and after the WWI. Britain’s such lapse directly resulted in such a prolonged territorial conflict in the Middle East.