Explain the three factors prominent in Mahan's Middle Eastern violence, how are these factors interdependent?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• The basis for terrorism in the traditional Middle East defined by the U.S. Navy's Captain Mahan as Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula was the situation at the end of World War II.
• As events unfolded, three factors became prominent in Middle Eastern violence: (1) questions about the political control of Israel and Palestine or the Palestinian question, (2) questions of who would rule the Arab world or Intra-Arab rivalries and struggles, and (3) questions concerning the relations between the two main branches of Islam: Sunnis and Shiites or the future of revolutionary Islam.
• These problems are all separate, but they are also interrelated.
• The sources of terrorism in the Middle East are symbiotic; that is, they are independent arenas of violence with a dynamic force of their own, but they are also related to and dependent on each other.
• All forms of Middle Eastern terrorism share certain traits.
• Primarily, many Arab groups express dissatisfaction over the existence of Israel.
• They are not necessarily pro-Palestinian, but they find the notion of a European-created, non-Arab state in their lands offensive.
• Most Middle Eastern terrorist groups are anti-imperialist.
• The intensity of their passion wavers according to the type of group, but terrorism has largely been dominated by anti-Western feelings.
• Another symbiotic factor is the pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic orientation of terrorist groups.
• Although they fight for local control, most wish to revive a united Arab realm of Islam.
• Finally, Middle Eastern terrorism is united by kinship bonds. In terrorism, as in Middle Eastern politics in general, familial links are often more important than national identification
• When the Israelis practice terrorism, they usually claim their activities are conventional military actions.
• At times, however, the Israelis have used the same tactics the PLO used in the 1960s and 1970s.
• It is perhaps more accurate to argue that all Middle Eastern violence, Arabic and non-Arabic, is locked into symbiosis; it is interdependent.