Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 28)
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- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 28)
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dependence from colonialism. In that period, the Arab League
was timidly groping in the shadow of Western hegemony in the
area. Britain contributed to establishing the Arab League in
order to provide a collective institution for maintaining the
status quo, although the other impulse for the establishment of
the Arab League came from the Arab masses’ demand for uni-
ty.
The Arab-Israeli war in 1948 was the first big test-and
defeat- for the Arab League; it was clear then that this
framework was incapable of rising to fulfill the Arab masses’
aspirations.
In the late fifties and early sixties, several Arab countries
experienced revolutions and coups, which increased the
number of independent states. Nasser’s Egypt was the focal
point of the rising Arab national movement which comprised
the mass movement and newly established nationalist regimes.
The Arab League continued to exist, but Nasser’s Egypt had
greater political influence, and the Arab nationalist movement
served as a pressure on the traditional regimes. This was a stage
of Arab upsurge: The Suez Canal was nationalized; the
subsequent tripartite aggression on Egypt was defeated; the
Baghdad Pact was abrogated: and many Arab countries gained
independence, including Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria,
Kuwait, Somalia and Mauritania. Many foreign properties in
the area were nationalized. Moreover, the issue of Arab unity
was enthusiastically taken up for the first time, with the for-
mation of the United Arab Republic in 1958, by Egypt and
Syria (dissolved in 1961).
After the June 1967 defeat, the Nasserite project began to
retreat. Although the 1973 war was a partial military victory
for the Arab side, the seventies was the stage of decline for
Arab officialdom. In 1975, the civil war broke out in Lebanon;
the Camp David accords were negotiated and signed (1977-79);
having separated Egypt from the Arab front, Israel took the
opportunity to invade South Lebanon in 1978.
This decline continued into the eighties with the outbreak of
the Gulf War, followed by the 1982 Israeli invasion and oc-
cupation of Lebanon. Despite the Egyptian regime’s separate
treaty with Israel, it was gradually reintegrated into the Arab
arena in violation of the boycott decided in 1978.
One can see the deterioration more clearly when tracing the
decisions of the Arab League. At the Khartoum Summit
(August 1967), the Arabs raised the slogan: No compromise,
no recognition, no negotiations (with Israel), despite the June
defeat. At the last Arab Summit held in Casablanca (May
1989), there was a qualitatively dangerous change in the of-
ficial Arab consensus: Egypt was officially readmitted to the
Arab League, signifying the League’s tacit acceptance of the
Camp David formula. The usual espousal of slogans, that are
never implemented, was replaced by calls for being
«reasonable,» in addition to some feeble calls for uniting Arab
efforts to fulfill the economic needs of some Arab countries.
REGIONAL BLOCS
From the late fifties until the early seventies, the Arab
League existed in an atmosphere of unity. However, in the
eighties, it began experiencing a state of regional polarization
with the formation of three blocs: The Gulf Cooperation
Council, formed in 1981, which groups Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
28
Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman; the
Arab Cooperation Council, formed in 1981, which groups
Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and North Yemen; the Arab Maghreb
Union, formed in 1989, which groups Tunisia, Morocco,
Algeria, Libya and Mauritania.
These blocs are different from previous attempts at Arab
unity which proclaimed the ultimate intention of merger of two
or more countries. In contrast, the new blocs are an attempt to
adjust to the new realities in the area, via coordination on the
economic and political levels. Especially in the case of the
newest one, the Arab Maghreb Union, the member states have
pursued quite different policies in the past. All the blocs in-
clude regimes which have long allied with US policy in the area,
but not all of them have resolved all the outstanding con-
tradictions with imperialism, much less the Zionist state. All in
all, this is a new experience in the Arab world; its future will be
determined by how these blocs develop in terms of vital ques-
tions such as economic cooperation, presenting a united stand
on the Arab-Zionist conflict and the Palestinian cause, and not
least, addressing the need for democracy so that the Arab
masses can contribute to the development of their society and
national causes.
As of now, in view of the state of regional polarization, one
can say that the results of the Casablanca Summit were not a
surprise. In the summit, the downfall of the Arab national
security doctrine was legalized with the readmission of the
Egyptian regime,despite its treaty with the Zionist state and the
US. This was a culmination of the accumulated intentions to
end the unifying national trend, i.e., a culmination of the new
Arab order. The character of this order is a group of regional
entities that in theory could be merged into one unified entity,
but which choose to remain separate. This means that each can
chose its own defense and foreign policies, even if these are at
the expense of another Arab state.
THE IMPERIALIST CHALLENGE
In the seventies, when the Arabs decided the oil embargo,
Kissinger threatened to occupy the oil fields to prevent «Arab
barbarism from controlling Western civilization.» At that
time, Algerian President Boumedienne threatened the US that
the Arabs would burn the oil fields if they sensed such a threat.
Also in the seventies, the US administration feared the series
of successful revolutions that occurred in Ethiopia, Angola,
Mozabique, Guinea Bissau, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iran, and
then Zimbabwe in 1980. The Middle East was a main area of
concern for US imperialism. Thus, as one part of its global of-
fensive to counter these developments, the US gave Israel the
green light to launch a broad military operation that would
have regional repercussions - the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
The Arab response at the Fez Summit (September 1982) was
to continue to bet on the US. This was clear in the Fahd plan
whereby the Arabs were satisfied with merely calling on the US
to stop its unconditional support to Israel.
Today, there are two major trends in the Arab world. The
advocates of the first trend are working for more integration
into world capitalism, and more internationalization of the
Arab economy; they see no future for the Arab world outside
the sphere of world capitalism. The second trend, the Arab
national movement which is not the focus of this article, ad-
Democratic Palestine, October 1989 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 35
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