Where are we really as a nation [Archives:2003/678/Opinion]

While the British were wooing the late Sherif Hussein, the nominal ruler of Hejaz (now a part of Saudi Arabia) in the pre World War I era to rise up against the Ottoman Turkish occupation of Arabia and most of the Near East through the convincing visions projected by T. E. Lawrence, a British Intelligence Officer, of a new Arab Renaissance, the scene was being set for a whole different scenario. Little did the Sherif Hussein (great grandfather of the late King Hussein of Jordan) know that this vision of an Arab Renaissance was no more than a deceitful ploy to try to break the balance between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, by undermining the remaining strength of the ailing Ottoman Empire and paving the way for British and French domination of the region. The gullible Sherif Hussein went along with the British. The British tried to woo the Imam Yahya of Yemen, who himself has managed to wrest most of the authority that the Turks had in Yemen, leaving the Turks to manage external affairs and some minor nominal encroaches upon total sovereignty, while recognizing the Imam’s uncontested authority over the internal affairs. The Imam would not fall easily for the British promises of helping the Imam expand his domain, because the Imam found it treacherous to side with non-Moslems against his fellow Moslem Turks, even though the latter were not at all liked by the Imam or the Yemenis. The British asked the Sherif Hussein to get the Imam to hop along, but the Imam was adamant in his adherence to the principle that Moslems should never align themselves with enemies of other Moslems and that it is up to Moslems to rebel against any disliked occupation or domination by another fellow Moslem State, all on their own. He noted that there is no way he can trust the British while they already had a foothold on Aden and the surrounding “Protectorates”. The Sherif Hussein eventually lost his Hejaz dominion because the British worked diligently to support the Saudi family, who were fast taking over the hinterland along with their religious-military “brotherhood” of “orthodox Moslem fighters. The British support was a significant factor in the Saudi success to take over most of the hinterland of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab Renaissance promised by the British was no more to be heard. When Palestine had developed into a serious Arab national crisis after World War II, the kings of the Arab states, most of which were weak or under the tight control of the colonialist powers, nevertheless were unfailing in recognizing the right of the Palestinians to count on their fellow Arabs for all the support they needed to defend their land and lives from the Zionist invasion of Palestine. While all that was delivered by these “reactionary kings” was no match for the well organized and well equipped Zionist military and paramilitary gangs, both in numbers and in quality, it was nevertheless all they had at their disposal and were not hesitant in answering the call of alarm by their helpless Palestinian brethren, who were being massacred left and right to terrorize the rest of the Palestinians into fleeing for their lives to make room for more Zionists to take their land. Later on when “Republics” replaced most of the monarchies in the Arab World, most of the wars against the Israelis were actually initiated by the Israelis through different calculated campaigns of intimidation to make sure that these “Republics” never develop any serious level of strength and to keep the surrounding countries in a state of restless instability. By 1967, the Israelis dealt the deadly blow that proved the lack of serious preparedness of the Arab kingdoms and republics against the dangerous and wily Zionist invaders, who were carrying out their agenda on schedule, in a well organized and well orchestrated drive to achieve the ultimate goal of Eretz Israel (from the Euphrates to the Nile). The October War of 1973 proved that the Arabs still had it in them, and a lot of the myths that were being related about the Israeli military prowess were thrown out the window. The limited resources of the Arab States (mainly Syria and Egypt) and the direct interference of the United States turned the tide in favor of the Israelis, who could not maintain any endurance of their initial momentum. But again, thanks to the “reactionary” Arab support of the late King Faisal (who shot the faucet of the oil flow to the West), America pressured the Israelis to make concessions that set the Zionist agenda back many years. In the meantime the Arab Republics and other Arab states were amassing significant arsenals, but eth Israelis continued to hold their superiority, and American Israeli relations were getting stronger and stronger. The US was adamant in eliminating any chance of repeating the long petrol station lines of 1973. King Faisal was murdered in a dubious plot that surely had the blessings of the CIA and Arab leaders since then have placed the Palestine problem in the lip service category of their politics. Moreover, with the end of the Cold War over, Palestine was no more than a tickling the emotions gesture, when Arab leaders felt the heat getting too much on them. The actual plight of their brethren in Palestine was no more a stimulus for any brotherly feelings and it became more and more obvious that the Arab World was farther from national cohesion than it ever was even under the rule of “reactionary regimes”. The ability of Ariel Sharon and the Bush Administration to disseminate havoc in the region is clearly more our fault than it is that of external forces, and the Arabs everywhere are sensing that somewhere along the way, their great leaders have failed them, misled them and paved the way for their enemies to have a field day with them, in Iraq, in Palestine, in the Arabian Peninsula and God knows how it will come out in the end.
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