Maddy-Weitzman - A century of Arab politics: from the Arab Revolt to the Arab Spring

A Century of Arab Politics

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce.

A century of Arab politics : From the Arab revolt to the Arab Spring / by Bruce Maddy-Weitzman.

pages cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3691-2 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3692-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3693-6 (electronic)

1. Arab countries--Politics and government--20th century. I. Title.

DS36.88.M324 2016

909'.0974927082--dc23

2015030520

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

• Figure I.1 Middle East and North African countries, xi

• Figure 1.1 The Levant in the Ottoman Empire before World War I, 7

• Figure 2.1 Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916, 21

• Figure 4.1 UN 1947 partition plan for Palestine and 1949 Armistice Agreements, 52

• Figure 5.1 The June 11, 1967, and October 24, 1973, Arab-Israeli ceasefire lines, 97

• Figure 8.1 The Persian Gulf Region, 136

• Figure 11.1 Greater Kurdistan, 212

In one way or another, we are all products of our environment. In my case, I have had the great and good fortune to spend my professional life within the friendly confines of Tel Aviv Universitys Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Since arriving there thirty-six years ago as an aspiring graduate student, I have benefited immeasurably and matured as a scholar thanks in large part to the wisdom and guidance of teachers, mentors, and colleagues. Their substantial presence in the bibliography of this study reflects only a small portion of their contribution. No one could have asked for a more stimulating and supportive environment, reinforced by the solidarity and assistance of administrators and staff throughout the years. In particular, I will forever be grateful for the training and guidance of Daniel Dishon, of blessed memory. His penetrating writings on regional Arab politics during the 1970s had aroused my interest in the subject even before arriving at the Center, and the opportunity to work with and learn from him was priceless. This particular project was greatly enhanced by the constructive criticism and encouragement of two longtime friends and Center colleagues, Ofra Bengio and Asher Susser. Naturally, I am solely responsible for any remaining shortcomings. Special thanks go to Marie-Claire Antoine, senior acquisitions editor at Rowman & Littlefield, for initiating the conversation that led to this book. Thanks also to production editor Elaine McGarraugh and the entire team for shepherding the manuscript to publication, and to Robert and Cynthia Swanson for preparing the index.

This book is dedicated to the memory of another dear friend and colleague, Joseph (Yossi) Kostiner. Yossis contributions to the field of modern Middle East history are universally recognized. All who knew him would agree that his talents as a scholar were matched by his generosity of spirit, particularly toward students and younger colleagues, not to mention his ubiquitous sense of humor and fundamental human decency. I was honored when he invited me to collaborate with him in researching the dynamics of Arab regional politics, a journey that took us to places, physical and intellectual, that I never would have reached otherwise. Along the way, we received funding to support our work from the United States Institute of Peace and the Israel Foundation Trustees. Unfortunately, life interfered in various ways, and our planned joint study of contemporary Arab politics did not come to fruition. I have no doubt, however, that this particular study is informed by our years of collaboration, and I extend my belated thanks to the supporting foundations. Sadly, it is now five years since Yossi prematurely left this world, but his contribution to the Center and Department of Middle Eastern History remains ever-present, and his persona an enduring model of emulation.

Figure I.1Middle East and North African countries. Library of Congress.

This book is a political history of the rise and decline of the Arab regional order over the course of a century of upheaval and conflict, from the 19161918 Great Arab Revolt that helped bring an end to the four-hundred-year reign of the Ottoman Empire in the predominantly Arabic-speaking lands in the Near East and North Africa, to the contemporary upheavals of the Arab Spring. The first half of that century was very much the story of pan-Arabism as an idea and a movement, which decisively shaped regional politics and collective identities, notwithstanding its limitations and ultimate failure to achieve the cherished goal of Arab unity. The second half was characterized by the strengthening and legitimation of Arab territorial states, only to witness the progressive decline of the political significance of Arab nationalism, the decline in Arab power, individually and collectively, and the unraveling of many of the Arab states that it had spawned. In the Fertile Crescent/Levant region, this even included the effective erasure of the post-World War I boundaries and sovereign order that had been established there.

At its peak, pan-Arabism offered a compelling and powerful vision of unity that promised to restore the Arabs proverbial place in the sun, i.e., achieving power, dignity, and prosperity commensurate with their idealized image of the past. It was a vision that profoundly shaped, and in multiple and contradictory ways, the twin processes of state formation and nation formation in ex-Ottoman Arab lands. But the realization of that vision proved to be elusive, foundering on the shoals of deep-rooted socio-historical factors that made it impossible to triumph over the varied and competing interests of Arab states. The failing fortunes of pan-Arabism paved the way for the pragmatic acceptance of the colonially created state order, the entrenchment of the territorial state and accompanying formulations of territorial nationalism, a distorted form of secular modernity that enabled ruling Arab elites to dominate Arab societies but without acquiring the requisite degree of institutional legitimacy necessary for addressing the fundamental needs of their increasingly embittered and alienated publics. Indeed, the absence of legitimate and effective governing institutions all but guaranteed that the Arab Spring upheavals that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and cascaded back and forth across the Arab Middle East and North Africa would not produce a stable and pluralist political order (Tunisia being a conspicuous, albeit still fragile exception). The Arab collective appeared to have reached a Shakespearean moment, to be or not to be, as religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations fueled civil wars and even effectively erased state boundaries, particularly in the historic birthplace of Arabism, the Levant/Fertile Crescent region.