Deck 15: Ferment in the Middle East

Question 1

Which of the following was the first action taken by the United States after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks?

A)Overthrow Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
B)Negotiate a tentative truce with nuclear North Korea.
C)Invade Iraq and destroy the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein.

Answer 1

Overthrow Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Question 2

By the late 1990s, Iran's Islamic revolution had achieved which of the following?

A)It temporarily elected someone to high office who could be considered a moderate.
B)It overcame earlier economic problems, such as high inflation.
C)It permanently ended press censorship and university purges.

Answer 2

It temporarily elected someone to high office who could be considered a moderate.

Question 3

Which Iranian prime minister attempted to nationalize the oil industry in 1951?

A)Mohammad Mosaddeq
B)Ayatollah Khomeini
C)General Nasser

Answer 3

Mohammad Mosaddeq

Question 4

Which radical group was elected to power in Palestinian election in 2006?

A)Hamas
B)Hezbollah
C)The PLO

Question 5

Relations between revolutionary Iran and the United States were confrontational for all except which of the following?

A)Iran's military alliance with the Soviet Union, directed against Israel.
B)Americans were held hostage in Tehran.
C)The Iranian government's demand that the Shah be returned so he could be put on trial.

Question 6

The 1990 victim of Saddam Hussein's ambition to build a "greater Iraq" was which state?

A)Bahrain
B)Iran
C)Kuwait

Question 7

One of the issues that led Egypt to attack Israel in the Yom Kippur War was which of the following?

A)The fear that Israel might once against seize the Suez Canal
B)Israel's continued control of all of Jerusalem
C)Israeli plans to build permanent settlements on the West Bank

Question 8

Which Middle Eastern state's delicate balance between Christians and Muslims was upset by the influx of Palestinian refugees after the 1948 war?

A)Jordan
B)Syria
C)Lebanon

Question 9

During most of the 1970s, how is Iran best described?

A)It allied itself with the nearby Soviet Union against Western threats to seize Iran's oil.
B)It was ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's secular, pro-Western regime.
C)It suffered economic depression as a result of deep declines in the price of oil.

Question 10

After the election of Mohammad Khatami, how did most Iranian moderates respond?

A)They gave up hope, given the absolute power of the Muslim clerics.
B)They believed that significant liberalization of Iranian society was at least a possibility.
C)They began to make plans for a possibly violent revolution against the conservatives.

Question 11

In late 2000, peace talks between the PLO and the Israeli government broke down over which issue?

A)The future of Jerusalem
B)Israel's failure to withdraw from Lebanon
C)Threats from Iraq to use Scud missiles in the event of a permanent treaty of peace

Question 12

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was caused by all except which of the following?

A)The autocratic nature of the Pahlavi regime
B)The alienation of the intellectual community
C)A generation-long decline in religious beliefs and religious influences among all Iranians

Question 13

The PLO uprising against Israel in the 1980s and again in the late 1990s is referred to as which of the following?

A)Intifada
B)Arab Spring
C)Jihad

Question 14

Israel defeated the Arab states in 1948 for which of the following reasons?

A)Israel had a larger population from which to raise an army.
B)The Arabs suffered from internal divisions.
C)The Arabs could not agree about the necessity to defend the Palestinians.

Question 15

Where did the 1978 agreement between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin occur?

A)Jerusalem's Wailing Wall
B)Camp David in the United States
C)Geneva in neutral Switzerland

Question 16

Saddam Hussein survived his defeat in the Gulf War for what reason?

A)The victors feared a totally destroyed Iraq would tilt the Middle East balance of power toward Israel.
B)The victors, including the United States, lacked the military resources to drive Hussein from power.
C)The victors feared that his death or removal might cause a breakup of the country that would ultimately benefit Iran.

Question 17

Tensions between Iran and Iraq escalated for what reason?

A)Iraq's Shi'ite government's opposition to Iran's Sunni Muslim leadership
B)Iran's sometime support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq's mountainous North
C)The ambitions of the Ayatollah Khomeini to conquer Iraq by force

Question 18

What is the best description of Taliban rule?

A)It was all-encompassing, and the customs it made into law were strictly policed.
B)It was generally relaxed so long as a nominal appearance of Islam was kept up.
C)It was harsh at first but relaxes once the Taliban felt comfortable in power.

Question 19

Iran's revolution had what result?

A)It quickly led to better relations with its neighbor, Iraq.
B)It established a republic under Islamic religious laws.
C)It created a society, which allowed considerable social and intellectual freedom.

Question 20

Anwar al-Sadat's policies included all except which of the following?

A)An emphasis on capitalist principles and economic development
B)Persuasion of his Arab colleagues to accept Camp David agreement
C)An accession to the Camp David agreement

Question 21

After Egypt's Abdul Gamal Nasser seized power in his own right in 1954, he adopted which policy?

A)He followed a foreign policy sympathetic to the Soviet Union.
B)He nationalized the Suez Canal.
C)He restored King Farouk as a powerless symbol of the state.

Question 22

The modernist Islamic viewpoint argues that restrictions placed upon women, such as wearing the veil and polygamy, were which of the following?

A)Pre-Islamic folk traditions
B)Part of a conspiracy to undermine Islamic beliefs during the late nineteenth century
C)A twentieth-century reaction to Western imperialism

Question 23

Which one of these Middle Eastern states possesses the fewest oil reserves?

A)Iraq
B)Bahrain
C)Egypt

Question 24

What was the reaction to the recognition of the state of Israel in 1949?

Question 25

What is the PLO, and why is it significant?

Question 26

What is pan-Arabism?

Question 27

How is emigration in the Middle East, either temporary or permanent, best described?

A)It mostly follows economic pressures or opportunities, such as the great need for labor on oilfields in countries with small populations.
B)It has primarily been the result of availability and access to the numerous religious shrines in the area.
C)It has been minimal, as all states in the region oppose any and all emigration in order to maintain their population resources.

Question 28

What was the outcome of the Camp David Accords of 1978?

Question 29

Disparities in wealth have led some Middle East regimes to adopt form of socialism responsive to local cultures, as in which countries?

A)Iran and Iraq
B)Egypt and Syria
C)Jordan and Lebanon

Question 30

The Arab Spring produced revolutions or riots in all except which of the following countries?

A)Saudi Arabia
B)Tunisia
C)Egypt

Question 31

What was the Arab League, and why was it significant?

Question 32

Why did Nasser nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956?

Question 33

Which two Middle Eastern nations have large populations but almost no oil reserves?

A)Turkey and Egypt
B)Israel and Egypt
C)Saudi Arabia and Egypt

Question 34

Examples of Islamic "fundamentalism" have included all except which of the following?

A)Terrorism and assassinations
B)Dress restrictions for women
C)Abandonment of politics and public life generally

Question 35

How has the relatively unequal natural distribution of oil reserves affected the Middle East?

A)It has promoted greater cooperation between Middle East states, who share all proceeds from oil revenues.
B)It has led to several bloody conflicts between Middle East states to secure oil wealth for themselves.
C)It has produced large inequalities of wealth between both individuals and states in the Middle East, according to whether or not they possess oil reserves.

Question 36

In which states did an offshoot of al-Qaeda, called ISIS, establish itself in the early 2010s?

A)Iraq and Syria
B)Lebanon and Jordan
C)Iran and Yemen

Question 37

At the end of the twentieth century, the most prominent example of a Middle Eastern traditional monarchy was which of the following?

A)Egypt
B)Libya
C)Saudi Arabia

Question 38

An example of a Middle Eastern state where charismatic leadership has given way to a modernizing bureaucratic regime is which of the following?

A)Egypt
B)Israel
C)Jordan

Question 39

In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in getting its candidate Mohamed Morsi elected president of which state?

A)Egypt
B)Iraq
C)Iran

Question 40

Descriptions of agricultural resources in the Middle East are all correct except which of the following?

A)The amount of arable land is limited.
B)All food must be imported from non-Middle Eastern food-producing nations.
C)Traditionally most fertile land was owned by absentee landlords.

Question 41

How has Erdogan's presidency changed Turkey's approach to Islamic influences in society?

Question 42

What motivated Saddam Hussein's wars against Iran, Kuwait, and eventually a U.S.-led coalition? What were the results of these conflicts?

Question 43

What was the Arab Spring?

Question 44

How does oil wealth contribute to tensions in the Middle East?

Question 45

How did the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel in the late 1940s affect regional politics?

Question 46

How did Saddam Hussein come to power in Iraq?

Question 47

Why are most Middle East countries net food importers?

Question 48

Why did the new Iranian Republic take Americans hostage in 1979?

Question 49

What is the object of "modernist" Islam?

Question 50

How did the British-French-Israeli attack on Nasser's Egypt end in 1956?

A)With a surprising Egyptian victory
B)U.S. condemnation of the invasion, forcing a withdrawal of foreign troops
C)With the Suez Canal permanently under an Anglo-French consortium

Question 51

Why was the shah of Iran overthrown?

Question 52

What common themes exist in contemporary Middle Eastern literature?

Question 53

Why are Tunisia and Morocco considered "tolerant" Islamic societies?

Question 54

How did the Iranian revolution transform regional relations? How did it change relations between the United States and the Middle East?

Question 55

Why did the United States invade Afghanistan in 2001?

Question 56

What efforts were made to reach a peace settlement between Israel, Palestine, and other Arab states? What was the outcome of these efforts?

Question 57

How successful was pan-Arabism? Why?

Question 58

Why did the United States invade Iraq in 2003?

Question 59

The United Arab Republic, created in 1958, was a union of which two states?

A)Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
B)Lebanon and Syria
C)Egypt and Syria

Question 60

What was the Ba'ath Party, and why was it significant?

Question 61

How has the Arab Spring transformed (or not)the Middle East and North Africa? What were the initial motivations of its constituent movements, and what were the results?

Question 62

Which of the following was a result of the 1967 war?

A)Egypt's Nasser seized the Suez Canal.
B)Israel added one million Palestinians to its population.
C)Jordan sided with Israel.

Question 63

One of the factors complicating Israeli politics was which of the following?

A)That a majority of the population were Palestinians, many of the Muslim
B)The lack of any commitment to democratic procedures
C)Proportional representation in the Knesset, often giving fringe parties an effective veto on the policies of the center parties

Question 64

Why has the role and status of women become such a common issue in Middle East politics in the last decade?

Question 65

How has Turkey changed from 1987, when it applied to the EU, to the present day?

Question 66

How did ISIS form? To what extent did U.S. policies create conditions friendly to the rise of ISIS?

Question 67

How has literary expression served as a vehicle for social and political critique in the Middle East? How effective has it been in reaching its intended audience?

Question 68

One of the major issues that divided the Middle Eastern Arab states was the future of which of the following?

A)Oil resources
B)The strategic relationship with the USSR
C)Palestine

Question 69

How significant is foreign labor to maintaining the economies of Middle East countries? Why?

Question 70

How is the Palestine Liberation Organization, founded in 1964, best described?

A)It was opposed by Egypt's Nasser as too provocative toward the United States.
B)It stated that native Palestinians were the only rightful successors to the British mandate.
C)It guaranteed the continued existence of Israel so long as the Palestinians were awarded half of the state and Jerusalem was placed under international control.