AboutDavid Expertise I am an expert in Middle Eastern history, and Israeli history in particular. My main focus is Biblical analysis, the origins of Islam, and medieval and modern historical events in Israel. Everything you see happening in the world today, has a history.
Experience I am a free-lance writer who has previously lived in, and studied the history of, Israel.
Organizations I contribute to the One Israel Fund and will be joining CAMERA shortly.
Question hi, i'm in 9th grade. i would appreciate it if you could answer in simple terms.
I've learned about UAR and how anti Nasserists did not agree with having to be under
egyptian leadership but why hasn't been a formal, big, attempt since then? and why did
pan-arabism fail? is it simply because arab nationalism is not strong?
Answer Hi Liz,
Actually, your question is a bit more complex than what you perhaps imagine it to be. If I were an Arab, I'd probably tell you "the Arabs are not united because Israel is a foreign entity right in the middle of the Arab world and the Israelis are constantly humiliating us" or some other bullshit like that. That's probably not an opinion. They've said similar things in public forums before. But I'm not an Arab so I'll to try be as factual with you as possible.
The UAR - the United Arab Republic - was formed in 1958 as an attempted union between Egypt and Syria. This was regarded as a first step toward a single Arab state stretching from Iraq to Morocco, so intially, it had wide popular support among the Arab people. The idea was first proposed by Syrian authorities since pan-Arabism was very strong in Syria as it was also in Egypt. Besides, the Egyptian and Syrian authorities wanted to stifle the growing communist and Islamist movements in their respective countries. Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was known to be a popular pan Arabist, was overwhelmingly elected president of the union with its capital at Cairo. As the dominant country of the union, the Egyptians had an arrogant attitude toward Syria causing resentment in Syria which felt itself becoming an Egyptian colony. All political parties in Syria which ran counter to Nasser's policies were bitterly suppressed. This union lasted until 1961 when anti union forces overthrew the Syrian government. For the next 2 years, there was a mini-civil war in Syria between pro union and anti union forces ending in 1963 with another overthrow of the Syrian government, this time by pro unionists. But the union was never reestablished and Egypt and Syria remain separate to this day.
The fact is that the Arab people have never been united - never in the history of mankind. Politically, in different periods of history, they were united as one but only because they were ruled by non-Arab empires e.g. the non-Arab Mamlukes of Egypt, or the Ottoman Turks in Turkey. And even then, they were often in rebellion, even against themselves. Numerous towns and villages were destroyed because of the many Arab civil wars that took place. When the Europeans took over and began creating all these separate artificial Arab states, there was hardly any resistance because there was no unity among tribes to resist. Now as independent states, they're still fighting among themselves. Since 1948, over 1 million people have died through wars and terrorism. Only about 2.5% of that total involved the Arab-Israeli conflict. Most of the rest were "inter communal" killings.
So why are they like this? Well, part of the blame lies with the Jews and Israel. Jews are universally hated and are blamed for everything wrong in the Middle East. Annihilate the Jews and destroy Israel, they say, and there will be nothing to get in the way of unity. On the other hand, part of the blame just lies in their nature as I mentioned above. But if you want to get into more detail, it would probably be best if you consulted a shrink or a sociologist because so many ordinary people have given up trying to figure them out.
