Nadene Goldfoot
On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, shocked the world when his army crossed the border into his neighbor state of Kuwait, and occupied it, and then annexed it. Saddam had fought an 8-year war with Iran from 1980, which was when I made aliyah to Israel, and lasted till 1988. Why did he do this? His country was bankrupt after this war, and he wanted to carry out a modernization program and needed the cash.
Kuwait was in the way by allowing international oil prices to crash to an all-time low. Saddam depended on an oil revenue. By his invasion, he figured, he would gain the world's largest pool of oil and dictate the price of oil, and then help himself to some of the Emirate's riches. He had given his country only 2 years of rest before starting another war!
Iraq had invaded Iran on on 22 September 1980. Iraq's primary rationale for the invasion was to cripple Iran and prevent Ruhollah Khomeini from exporting the 1979 Iranian Revolution movement to Shia-majority Iraq and internally exploit religious tensions that would threaten the Sunni-dominated Ba'athist leadership.
Iran had taken the lead of being the dominate state at this time, and Iraq wanted their old position of Babylon days when they were dominating the Middle Eastern world. It was another horse race with Iraq challenging.
Iraq, rather, Babylonia, had been conquered by the Arabs of Arabia in 637 after Mohammad had died in 632. The Jews were cheering for the Arabs, for Babylonia was governed by the Sassanids (The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name used for the Iranian dynasty which lasted from 224 to 651 AD. The Sassanid Empire, which succeeded the Parthian Empire, was recognized as one of the two great powers in Western Asia, alongside the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire, for more than 400 years.) who were persecuting the Jews. It didn't work out that way; Arabs occupied the land, while Jews were expelled from Arabia so they settled in Kufa, Iraq. Iraq for centuries was the center of Jewish life. It's ironic, as Jews had lived in Ur, city on the Euphrates River of Mesopotamia, and left there for Canaan with Abraham. That's where the Bible cites our origins.
President George Bush wasn't going to tolerate Saddam's invasion. He worried more about Saudi Arabia, where USA got its oil. He sent American forces to the region. The UN Security Council acted by issuing resolutions on that very invasion date demanding unconditional withdrawal and negotiations. Saddam's answer was demanding that Kuwait was his 19th province of Iraq.
Putting trade sanctions in effect took too long; over a year to make a dent. The Western powers joined the USA to defend Saudi Arabia. Arab countries held a summit in Cairo to decide what to do or not. They told Saddam to withdraw, and then they had to use force. Troops went in.
Saddam had THE solution. He suggested the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of ISRAEL from the "occupied" Arab territories in "Palestine,"Syria anad Lebanon. He also wanted Syrians to leave Lebanon and Iran to leave from parts of Iraq still in dispute. When all this was followed, then he would would talk about it as long as they remembered his historic rights of Iraq to this territory and the choice of the Kuwaiti people. (WWI had decided the breaking up of large empires into small manageable states for the West to watch.)
PLO leaders were living in Tunis, Tunisia, North Africa, and knew it was dangerous to support Saddam. Arafat publicly supported Saddam but Saddam wasn't supporting the Palestinians, so Arafat went to Baghdad. Saddam said it wasn't important to lose 5 million (Palestinians). Iraq had a large Palestinian Arab population. King Hussein of Jordan refused to condemn Saddam as the masses supported the Iraqi President.
James Baker of USA said, get out of Kuwait unconditionally. He failed to recruit Syria, however to the US side and this was bad. Syria was important as it was the apostle of Arab radicalism. Syria saw itself as the champion for Palestinian rights. Syria was on the list as a terrorist state.
January 15, 1991 was a deadline to leave Kuwait. On the night of the 16th and 17th, a coalition of Western forces attacked from the air. The next day, Saddam launched 5 Scud missiles on Tel Aviv and 3 on Haifa. The US figured he was trying to get Israel to retaliate and then the Arab states would not fight shoulder to shoulder with Israelis against Syria.
Moshe Arens talked to Dick Cheney. Israel was ready to fight. Baker persuaded the Israelis to restrain. Sharon wanted to fight. Saddam wanted the coalition against him broken up. They begged Israel to stay out of the war.
 | 1991: Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel Iraq has attacked two Israeli cities with Scud missiles, prompting fears that Israel may be drawn into the Gulf War. Israel's largest city, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, its main seaport, were hit in the attacks, which began at 0300 local time (0100 GMT), when most residents were asleep. |
40 Scuds landed on Israeli cities during this Gulf War; Israel didn't retaliate. On February 24, Saddam agreed to a cease fire, and arranged the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. The PLO, backer of Saddam Hussein was bankrupt again. Why? Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had stopped sending him money. King Hussein of Jordan had also supported Saddam, was weakened. Assad of Syria did support the coalition and then realized that the USSSR, his ally, was breaking up and was finally ready to go along with the USA. Israel was less vital to US interests and weakened. Bush felt that this was the time for Middle East leaders sit down at the negotiating table. Little did he know.
Resource:
Israel and the Arabs by Ahron Bregman and Jihan El-tahri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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