The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict #2: Meet the Leading Actors

The Background for the Longest Soap Opera in History - Part 1

The world has changed. You can feel it in the water. You can feel it in the earth. You can smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost. For none now live who remember it. So, all we can do is rely on official records and have faith in Wikipedia as we go through the traces left by history when we learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meet the Leading Actors

The Ottoman Empire

British Empire

The French Republic

German Empire

Russian Empire

United States of America

The Ottoman Empire (Where Aladdin meets Game of Thrones)

Close your eyes and imagine the market of Agrabah in Disney’s Aladdin. Then imagine the Game of Thrones set in the 15th century, a militant era where violence controls every aspect of life, women are the property of men and have no rights, wars occur quite often, and the vast majority of men have the same morality and ethics as Ramsay Bolton or Joffrey Baratheon. Now combine the setting from Aladdin with the characters from Game of Thrones, and you will get the closest description of the era of the Ottoman Empire and the moral code of people back then, some of which remain to this day.

The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish empire that existed for 624 years, from the end of the 13th century to the beginning of the 20th century and stretched from Southeastern Europe to North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottoman Empire was among the main political powers in the world from the 15th century to the beginning of the 18th century and posed a threat to European countries until it disintegrated after the First World War. In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and the Sultan's government went bankrupt in 1876.

Following the decline of the Ottoman Empire and its failures in its last years, the French and the British, who were at war against it, expected a quick victory and were eager to divide the spoils of the empire's land between them. This expectation led to power struggles over the territorial division, which included a variety of drafts and secret negotiations that were revealed before they were signed. The negotiations that finally matured between the French and the British, and which culminated in the Sykes-Picot agreement, were conducted while supporting the Arab revolt in the territories of the Ottoman Empire. Following the disclosure of the secret agreement by communists, the Sykes-Picot agreement never came to fruition. Britain did not honor it, and in practice, the League of Nations determined the division by the mandate system, which gave Britain and France control over the territories de facto as alleged landlords.

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• Recommended reading: Follow the links in the text.
• Recommended to watch the full movie 'Lawrence of Arabia': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiZu5C6lCo