(4) Major Struggles and Wars in Saudi Arabian History

     Although the Arab-Israeli conflict is mentioned throughout the reign of the Saudi Arabian rulers, the Arab-Israeli conflict is nothing that should be looked over. Everything that came of the Arab-Israeli conflict started in the Palestine question. This means that the Arab world, the Western world, and the Israeli world were all trying to find solutions to who is the rightful owner in Palestine. For example, the Arab people believed that they had inhabited Palestine before the Zionist people that inherited Israel were ever there. This lead to major disputes between the countries. This conflict has gotten to the point that the Palestine people are considering building a wall between the Arab inhabited part of Palestine and the Israeli part. This will block off the Jewish inhabitants from crossing over and "annoying" the Palestinians. This is why Jewish people gained the land of Israel, to be separated from the Palestinians, even though Israel is about 77 percent of what had been Palestine in the past.

Arab-Israeli Conflict Broken Down

     Overall, this dispute has majorly influenced Saudi Arabia as the United States shares some different opinions in regards to the Palestine question. Although it may seem as if the United States government is sometimes siding with Israel, the United States is trying to bring peace to the situation. Saudi Arabia sides with Palestine but is also trying to keep more peace in dealing with this situation. The problem is that because the Arab leader in this controversy will not state that he is against terrorism, the United States cannot move forward in solving the problem between these two nations. This is due to safety issues regarding terrorist attacks on the United States. To conclude, the United States and Saudi Arabia have some similarities in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict (like bringing peace to Palestine and Israel), but there are also differences. This can lead to issues in the oil trade as prices rise from Saudi Arabia when the United States does not support their political moves. The Arab-Israeli conflict can either bring intense peace or a high rise in economic and social tension.


Arab Spring:

This Map shows the countries involved in the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is the monnicker given to a revolutionary wave of protests throughout the Arab world in the middle East and North Africa that have occurred since December 18, 2010.  Protests have lead to an overthrow of the ruling regimes in Tunisia (President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali), Yemen (President Ali Abdullah Saleh), Egypt (Mubarak), and Libya (Gaddafi).  Civil uprisings have also occurred in Syria and Bahrain, as well as major protests that have broken out in Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Moracco and minor protests in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara.


These protests have been provoked by numerous reasons ranging from dissatisfaction with government corruption, absolute monarchies and human rights violations  as well as economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors, such as the large percentage of educated, yet dissatisfied youth.  Some believe they are the result of the activities of dissident activists, as well as members of a variety of social and union organizations that have been active for years in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and other countries in the area.


The protestors use civil resistance techniques such as marches, rallies, and strikes and have taken advantage of social media.  They have often been met with violence by the ruling government which has been decried by the international community.  The protesters thus gain the support of Western countries.