Why were there so many wars in 1945 in the Middle East?

Question

Why were there so many wars in 1945 in the Middle East?

Answer 1

Because at the end of WWII, the major Western powers (ie England, the US, etc) redrew all of the countries' borders, so there was a huge land struggle. They took some land away from some countries and gave it to other countries, they took land and created entirely new nations, etc.  

Answer 2

Anyone who answers with a knee-jerk 'blame Israel' response is completely off-base, and needs to conduct some actual research.

The question is a bit unclear though - there weren't that many wars IN 1945. This answer will focus on wars SINCE 1945, though the groundwork was laid earlier in the 20th century.

In fact, the answer dates back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Arab nationalism. With the various winning powers making various (and mutually exclusive) deals with factions over the land that had been part of the Ottoman Empire, a number of factions naturally arose - many of whom were sponsored in one form or another by a ruling power.

As Bernard Lewis has explained, another aspect of European action that continues to affect the region today is that the European powers more or less introduced the concept of the strongman into Mid-East politics, since strong leaders were easier to work with for an external power. And so Abdullah of the Husseini family was transplanted to a newly created entity of Transjordan (the vast majority of the Mandate of Palestine, incidentally), while Ibn Saud was given power over what would be renamed Saudi Arabia after him.

That's the groundwork. During World War II, all sides were at play, with the likes of Hajj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti, an avowed Axis supporter, even as the now-Vichy French territories in the Mid-East were viewed as potential sites for Axis offensives. More to the point, oil became increasingly important.

Now to get to why there have been so many wars since 1945 in the Middle East.

First, remember that many of the parties have clan histories dating back millennia - and rivalries that date back that far as well. Placed on a national rather than an intrastate stage, these rivalries have erupted as wars rather than skirmishes. Egypt's actions in Yemen come to mind. The Sunni/s**+'a divide comes into play here as well, of course.

Second, there was a rise changes of control of various nations, including military coups in Egypt (Nasser), Syria (notably, Hafez al-Assad), and Iraq (notably Saddam Hussein). Jordan narrowly avoided a PLO coup in the 1970s, while Iran suffered a revolution later that decade. Lebanon disintegrated after its balance of Muslim, Christian and Druze citizens was destroyed after the influx of Palestinian refugees from Jordan's reprisals for the attempted 1970s coup, becoming the virtual satellite of Syria that it is today.

Third, it could be argued that Israel's existence is a factor that prevents even more wars in the Middle East. So long as the various factions in the region have a single enemy to direct anger at, they are somewhat less likely to engage in full-scale operations against each other. There too, Israel's own formidability as a military power is a useful countermeasure, protecting Jordan from any military incursion (stating that an attack on Jordan will be treated as an attack on Israel) and nuclear capability - the reason several Gulf States, which loath Israel utterly, still would look to included under Israel's nuclear umbrella in the event of Iranian nuclear capability.

From here it gets even more complicated. But the simple answer is that the Middle East is an extremely complex region with a broad scale of issues that don't receive sufficient examination due to people's preoccupation with the Arab-Israeli conflict.  

Answer 3

In 1945 there was no war in the Middle East. It was the end of WW2 - no wars! So I am not sure what you want to know, but the date is incorrect. The first war in the Middle East was in 1947-1948 when the Arab countries attacked the fledgling new country of Israel. No other war till 1956.

Answer 4

Cause after Hitler was done with the Jews the allies didn't want anything to do with them either, so they conveniently made them a country called Israel at the expense of the Arabs who were already living there. This land struggle continues till this day between isreal and palestine.  

Answer 5

Simple, it was because of Israel. After World War II ended, the U.S. gave the Jews' Israel. Because many considered it "holy land", everyone was fighting for it.