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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Makes Umar Run - The Devils and the Details,
By
This review is from: The Arab States and the Palestine Conflict (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Paperback)
Good history books seldom get dated. This one is particularly good!
Covers the period from 1897-1957, but also draws implications that lead up not only to the year of publication (1981) but also the present. There is a particularly strong emphasis on key periods in the 1930s and 40s. Rubin provides a wealth of information, not only about the prime political movers and motives within each of the Arab States vis a vis Palestine, but also the counter currents and personae which both influenced and opposed them. Each are shown to effect a balance towards affinity towards a) Islam b) Arabism (or Pan-Arabism), which is (my interpretation) is more or less the secular flip side to Islam with a similar sense of Manifest Destiny c) Domestic politics and d) Inter-Arab rivalry. For Jordan's King's Abdullah and then later his grandson King Hussein the driving force is paternalism and a wish to increase the territory under their control. The group he represents, the Hashemites, originates in Hijaz, now Saudi Arabia. At several junctures Abdullah offers a deal with the Jews to create a commonwealth with a Jewish component under his rule, a deal the Zionists turn down. Their main rivals are shown to be the al-Hussayni's (represented by the "Grand" Mufti from Jerusalem, Hajj Amin) and the ibn Saud and his successors. For their part the Saudis are concerned with consolidating the 1920's conquest of Arabia and through their control of Mecca and Medina be regarded as the Guardians of Islam. Ibn Saud's antisemitism is touched upon (see pp 89!) Iraq is a particularly intriguing case as it was cobbled together after Paris 1919. Ruled by Feyzel, Abdullah's older brother from Hejaz and both deriving political legitimacy as descendants of the Prophet and (now former) hereditary guardians of Mecca, anti-Zionism is initially used as a rallying cry against the Young Turks who were perceived as being anti-Arab and pro-Zionist. Post Feyzel (heart attack in '33) Iraqi foreign minister Nuri al-Said asserts Iraq's regional prominence by attempting to negotiate directly with the British over Palestine while the opposition consorts with the Mufti and fosters ties to Germany and the Nazis. The British involved the 4 Arab Kingdoms (Iraq, the Saudis, Egypt, Trans Jordan) as interlocutors for the Palestinians not only to bypass the Mufti and his Nazi supporters but also as a political offering to keep them in the British camp during the war. The material here is a good Baghdadi view of Iraqi politics over the course of the 30s, the short lived coup of 41, the jockeying for position under the Prince Regent until the final elimination of the royal family by the Baathists in the fifties. There is some mention of the fate of the Jewish community as scapegoat and the decline of allowed participation in society. Islam seems less of a factor than Iraq's international clout in the Arab world. One observes that talking to the Arab leaders individually one could often make headway. Get two or more together in the same room and each would try to outdo the other in rhetoric as champions of the "Arab Cause." Lebanon's treatment is interesting though short. The delicate balance between Christian and Muslim groups keeps the small nation from being too outspoken. Indeed they turned out to be one of the few Arab winners as the 1948 Arab "loss" of the Port of Haifa turned out to be of considerable business advantage to the Port of Beirut. Egypt however has a deeper sense of their own history that goes centuries beyond Islam. Here there is a greater emphasis on domestic nationalism. Anti-Jewish government measures which occur in Iraq in the early 1930s don't arrive until 1948. Foreign policy thrusts allowed politicians cover for ineffective domestic efforts. But politicians also could appeal to a deeper Identity that was purely Egyptian and non Arab. Egypt was also the home of the Muslim Brotherhood which allied themselves with the Mufti, and while this resonated at some level on the street it did not with the more secular people who were running the government, both before with King Farouk and after with the members of the Officer's Coup. They had their own sense the Egypt was more modern and progressive. On pp112-113 Rubin relates an exchange on May 17, 1939 between the Egyptian delegates and the Mufti led Palestinian representatives (Arab Higher Committee) after the MacDonald Commission. Ali Mahir, for the Egyptians (a senior Egyptian political figure, Primer Minister for a short time in 1936 and would serve again in that capacity 3 more times) points out that if the Palestinians accept they will have everything - a country where Jews are limited to 1/3 of the population and restricted to where they can live, zero Jewish immigration, control of the government and full autonomy in 10 years. It is not enough. Syria was under France in the 30s and a Vichy regime during the War and as such did not get a seat at the table with Britain however did meet with other Arab countries. The Mufti"s earlier orientation was to see Palestine as a segment of Greater Syria. At a pan-Arab conference in 1938 Cairo the 1938 Syrian foreign minister recommends the absorption of Palestine and Trans Jordan into Syria. This does not go over well, except for the Syrian delegation and the Mufti's representatives. Yet later Syria would not let Iraqi or Jordanian troops on it's soil - Rubin feels that it was not clear that they would have been in favor of a third potentially hostile state run by the Mufti on it's borders. One of the most informative books on the ME that I've yet come across. Barry Rubin, a former Fulbright Scholar is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs. His political analysis blog on Israel and the ME politics (which I've been following for about a year) can be found at rubinreports blogspot com. Well worth owning! Recommended!
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