ABSTRACT
Continued political-geographical analysis of region leads to examination of factors in major regional conflicts, of which by far the most significant is Arab-Israel conflict. This chapter consider several of the wars—hot and cold—and conflicts that have transgressed national borders, even involving countries far from the region. The modern conflict began with embryonic nationalism among Jews in Europe and Arabs in the Middle East. Beginning in the 1880s, eastern European pogroms against Jews engendered some migration to Palestine. Wars in region include Iran-Iraq War, Gulf Crisis, and US invasion of Iraq. In 2012, UNGA recognized Palestine as a nonmember state. As the Iraqis pulled back in defeat, they escalated the ecoterrorism by blowing up and setting fire to most of the amirate's oil wells. A 2012 study of global terrorism by the Institute for Economics and Peace found that of the 100 worst terrorist incidents in the decade following 9/11, no fewer than 49 of them occurred in Iraq.
