In the Grip of Middle Eastern Chaos, Even Lying Becomes a Challenge!!

A lie is an intentional false statement.

This is not in praise of lying.  It is in demonstrating that the Arabs, while in the grip of total chaos, cannot even lie well.  The examples are endless.  So we shall offer here limited samples.  Samples of both lies and chaos.

"The Houthis in Yemen are Iranian agents."  A lie!!  The war in Yemen is an inter-tribal event.  The north is tribal and Houthi dominated.  The south is developed and wants to split from the north.  I authored for the World Bank a study on Yemen and judicial reform.

"Islam is of two kinds: Sunni and Shii."  A lie!!  There is a difference between faith and ice cream.  Faith is in the heart; ice cream is on the tongue.  Faith does not come in flavors: Sunni and Shii.  Ice cream comes in many flavors.  The Sunni-Shii thing is a mere cover for a fight 1400 years ago on who is the rightful successor (Khalifa) of Muhammad.  My present authorship of a biography in English on Ali evidences that his partisans (Shiis) have a logical claim.  Does such a claim in regard to succession make of the Shias apostates?  Nonsense.

"Iran has claimed for itself Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa, not as Arab capitals of independent Arab States, but as under Tehran hegemony."  A lie!!  That statement was never uttered by Tehran as an official statement.  It was a statement by an unofficial person who felt a bit of Persian triumphalism which means nothing.

"Hezbollah is a credible counter-weight to Israel's military might."  A lie!!  Yes Hezbollah stood its ground in 2006 in spite of Israeli huge pounding.  But standing its ground, and gaining grounds are two different proposals.  I wonder with amazement how the intervention by Hezbollah on the side of a killer called Al-Assad can help the cause of Hezbollah in either Lebanon or in the Palestinian/Israeli confrontation.

"Saddam should have been left to rule over Iraq securing its territorial unity."  A lie!!  Like Bashar of today, killer Saddam merely kept the lid on a boiling pot through resort to genocide against both the Kurds and the Shias.  I was in Iraq six times after the American war of choice on Iraq.  I have never met either a Kurd or a Shia or a Sunni who lamented his disappearance.

"The Egypt of El-Sisi, in its closure of the Rafah Crossing, is depriving the Gazans from even breathing."  A lie!!  Rafah is not a toll booth on a highway between Gaza and El-Arish in Sinai.  If the Gazans want access to Sinai, let them convince Hamas to abandon its Charter.  Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, while Hamas claims that not one grain of sand in historic Palestine should be claimed by the Jews.

"The Yemen war is a trap manufactured by the US to weaken Saudi Arabia."  A lie!!  Who in his right mind would expect the U.S. to encourage the Houthis to threaten Saudi Arabia and the security of the sea lanes to and from Suez?  And please make up your mind: Are the Houthis pawns of Iran or pawns of America?  They cannot be both.  Why?  Because they are neither.

"The Arab United Armed Forces has little support in the Arab world."  A lie!!  First, at the Arab Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in late March, reservations were made about it by only four Arab States: Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, and Algeria.  That is four out of a total of 21 States.  Second: No poll has been conducted in the Arab world about that.  Third: The Arabs have been hungering for a rebirth of the League of Arab States.  The coalition, as led by Saudi Arabia, is voluntary and its sphere of action is confined to limited engagements.

"ISIS is everywhere and its territorial gains are increasing, covering an area from Nigeria to Pakistan."  A lie!!  Just look at the map.  No territorial contiguity for ISIS.  Except in the no-man lands north-east of Syria and north-west of Iraq.  I was in Anbar, Iraq.  No border markers in that open desert.  Pledges of fealty to ISIS from various corners of the Arab/Muslim huge expanse are largely video fantasies intended for psychological warfare.

"El-Sisi is losing the adulation of large sectors of the Egyptian public."  A lie!! The popular bang at the beginning of his presidency is now translated to nation-building inside Egypt.  Thanks God, there are no high profile Nasser-like excursions about Egypt being "the leader of the Arab world."  Egypt should always be pre-occupied with Egypt.  The enormous mountains of need have to gradually come down in terms of meeting the basic needs of 100 millions.  Nearly a third of the Arab world.

"The Muslim Brotherhood has a huge  influence over Washington, D.C."  A lie!!  One photo op at the U.S. State Department does not arise to the level of a Brotherhood lobby in the U.S. Capital.  The fact remains that US media, thanks to correspondents like David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times in Cairo, has kept a drumbeat regarding the June 30 Revolution being a coup.  But the recent actions by the Obama administration which released lethal armament to Egypt shows a disconnect.  Except in the case of Israel, US media and policy considerations in America are mostly not directly related.

"The Egyptian judiciary, in dealing with cases of detainees, whether Egyptian or non-Egyptian, is a political tool of El-Sisi government."  A lie!!  Egypt's judiciary is immunized from such pressures.  Admittedly, mass sentences do not usually accord with the proper law of evidence.  But as a whole, if you are caught even as a bystander at an illegal demonstration (no license), you might be presumed guilty. After all, presence is a form of participation.

"The use of Egyptian armed forces outside of Egypt is contrary to the Constitution of 2014."  A lie!!  First, read that Constitution.  No such provisions in it.  Second, national defense does not stop at the national border.  Third, there is the Arab Defense Pact of 1950, an inter-Arab treaty without Arab borders.

"For Egypt, the present Yemen War is a repeat of the Yemen War of 1962-1968."  A lie!!  In the 1960's, Nasser acted on his own, by throwing Egypt's armed forces in the oven of an inter-tribal civil war.  The goal was to vanquish Arab monarchies in favor of Arab republicanism.  Egypt suffered massive defeat and further antagonized Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf States, Jordan and Iran of the Shah.  This time, in 2015, Egypt's involvement is through a decision of the Sharm El-Sheikh Arab Summit.  And clear Egyptian national interest in the security of the Suez and the Gulf are implicated.

"Iran has always been an enemy of America."  A lie!!  The U.S. intervened in Iranian internal affairs by toppling Prime Minister Mossadeq in 1953.  In his place, America helped re-install the Shah against popular will.  The lesson to be learnt by all, including Iran and the U.S. of today, is: intervention in the internal affairs of other States shall always backfire.  Under international law, Iran of the Ayatollahs is entitled to freely manage its own internal affairs.  But no revolution for hegemony is exportable.

"The Secretary-General of "Khorasan," a terrorist militia organization active in Iraq, announced that they recognize only Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Guide of the Islamic Republic of Iran."  A compounded lie.  First: Khorasan confuses between shiism and "the Rule by the Jurist" (Wilayet Al-Faqih).  The Rule by the Jurist came into vogue only with Khomenei in 1979.  Second: Khorasan, which claims that the Islamic world is borderless, manifests utter ignorance.  Admission to UN membership and regional organization is one of many indications of border legitimation.  Third: Khorasan manifests ignorance of the term "Islamic Umma."  In Islamic jurisprudence, "Umma" does not mean "nation."  It means "community."  

Conclusion: In the midst of massive chaos in the Arab world, even lying becomes a challenge!!  These lies must have been produced by amateurs!!  Engaged in hashish smoking!!

The New Egypt Notion of a New Arab Nation

One of the great novels in Arabic is "The Return of the Spirit" (Awdat El-Roah), by Tawfik Al-Hakim.  In this blog posting, I shall borrow his title for a contemporary context.  Namely the return to the Arab Nation of its spirit.  Enunciated by El-Sisi as Chairman of the recent Arab Summit of late March in Sharm El-Sheikh, Sinai, Egypt.

Closing his inaugural summit speech before all top representatives of 22 States, members of the League of Arab States, minus one -Syria, the Egyptian President, three times intoned: "Long Live the Arab Nation."  An apt reminder that after 4 years of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Arab world was discovering, in Egypt, the broad lines of an Arab concordat.

It is therefore a time for outlining the notion now held by the most populous Arab State, Egypt, of the newly resurrected Arab Nation.  Adversity, like need, breeds reinvention.  The Arab adversity has been the destructive side of the Arab Spring.  Fear has gripped "the Arab World." Now after the Declaration of Sharm El-Sheikh of March 29, 2015, it has been renamed "The Arab Nation."

The wave of fear began to thunder from barbaric terrorism.  Its gusts were submerging the Arab identity.  Arab capitals, namely, Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa, were being renamed by extremist Iranian triumphalists as "cities within the Persian Empire."  Persian versus Arab has become current lingo.

The issue here was misunderstood by the Western media as sectarianism (Sunni vs. Shii).  Wrong characterization.  It was Farsi vs. Arab.  And the Arabs were insulted by it.  Said "Amre Musa," former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States: "I have never felt so insulted in my whole political life."

As Sanaa was being run over by the Houthis, supported by Iranian funds and arms, the Arab leadership, including the exiled Yemeni President, Abdu Rabbut Mansour Hadi, hurried to the Arab summit at Sharm El-Sheikh.  They were in search, not for identity, but for affirmation of what to do about refurbishing their ID.

Saudi Arabia led the purposeful parade; the Gulf States coalesced, including Qatar; El-Sisi and his team, together with the institutional host, the League of Arab States, prepared the ground work; the Saudi air campaign which brought together an Arab Coalition of 9 other States was disrupting the Houthis advance towards Aden; and a revitalized Arab Nation was taking shape, pushing back against what a third of a billion Arabs perceived to be a revival of a massive inter-cultural clash with Tehran.  A clash with massive geo-strategic dimensions.

So what were the policy ingredients of Cairo's notion of a New Arab Nation?  These ingredients are still not receiving a unanimous vote of support from the other 20 Arab capitals.  Nonetheless, the broad framework is emerging.  Its shape is crystallizing along the following lines:

• Egypt now describes itself as "The Home of the Arab Family ."  A softer definition and a lesser involvement, and at a much lesser cost than "The Arab Leader."  The Nasserite ideology has become a museum piece;
• Recognition that the primary challenge facing the New Arab Nation is not ISIS, Khorasan, Al-Qaeda, or Al-Nusra.  Egypt, especially now with the release of previously-withheld US offensive armament, is confident of its combative efforts on these transitory fronts.  
• The main challenge is posed by outside neighborly powers (Iran; Turkey) whose regimes are looking westward, in the case of Iran, and eastward, in the case of Turkey.  "The cultural war" is no longer a term which is reserved to "a religious revolution;" it has been expanded into a confrontationist term which is backed not only by sermons, but by swords as well;
• "The New Arab Nation" is regarded as an amalgam of various faiths, creeds, allegiances and manners of worship.  The reference to a "Muslim Nation" seems, at present, to denote a Sunni/Shii amalgam where Al-Azhar, Kufa, Karbala, Najaf, and Qom shall continue to hold religious sway.  Within that concept of Arabism, the attacks on Christians, especially after the Libyan massacre of the Copts, have become attacks on Arabism.  For Egypt, at least, there can be no more repetition of the attacks on the All-Saints Church in Alexandria on the eve of celebration of the new year of 2011.
• "The New Arab Nation" is now sounding the alarm regarding the fragmentation in more than one Arab State into Statelets.  Especially in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.  Sectarianism, especially with funding from the outside, is the trojan horse whose objective is to replace the flag of the State by tribes with flags.  El-Sisi at the 26th Arab Summit, described this process as the "kidnapping the homeland."  This call for the need of a coordinated inter-Arab push-back was reiterated by a former Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Al-Orabi.  In a speech in Abu Dhabi (the Emirates), he, on March 31, stated: "Today's challenges impose on all Arab States the obligation of interdependency in order to escape the dangers of this bottleneck (of simultaneous challenges)."  Minister Al-Orabi had, on March 1 launched an initiative called "With Our Money We Build Our Army."
• At the Sharm Arab Summit, the League of Arab States was resurrected.  From dormancy to vibrancy, through the decision to create a unified Arab armed force for quick intervention.  No more total dependency on a Western military handout which at times, especially in the case of the U.S., was held hostage to the whims of internal politics.  
• El-Sisi advocated; Saudi Arabia led; the other Gulf States coalesced; air forces were scrambled for a showdown over who rules Yemen: the Houthis and a deposed ruler (Saleh) or the Hadi government which came to power through consensus.
• The Arab summit resolution on a unified Arab military force, adopted toward the end of March, had no non-Arab finger prints on it.  Propelled by real concern for fraud committed on the Arab ID card, it had an old and nearly forgotten foundation: The Arab Defense Pact of 1950.  
• But that was only a part of the legal context.  The Charter of the League of Arab States, set forth in Alexandria in 1945 well before the drafting of the UN Charter, was invoked at Sharm.  And the UN Charter was also cited (by implication Chapter VIII, on regional organizations).
• That Arab expeditionary force, to be created in a few weeks before having the Arab Defense Council issue its birth certificate, has become the center piece of the functioning of the New Arab Nation.  Its creation, declared both the Arab League Secretary-General, Dr. Nabil El-Araby, and Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri, was largely due to "unprecedented challenges." 
• That Arab expeditionary force benefits also from a political road map: membership in it is voluntary; not intended as a threat to a neighbor or another Arab State; defensive in nature.  
• However the triple threats of terrorism, fragmentation and external intervention  were cited geographically by President El-Sisi in his inaugural address to the Arab Summit.  These were: Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and Israeli illegal practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Other aspects necessary for the resurrection of a New Arab Nation, were not left out.  All the 21 Arab States (with the Syrian seat remaining vacant for now) addressed complementary issues needed for an Arab national renaissance: economic and social development; emphasis on equality before the law; the role of religious institutions in combating terrorism, the elimination of illiteracy by 2024, and the inclusion of women and youth in the efforts of an Arab Nation now under construction.
• In an interview with "The Voice of Lebanon," Amre Moussa, on March 30, commented as follows: "There are basic strategic considerations behind this regional Arab surge towards coordinated action.  Egypt has also a primordial interest in maritime security in the Red Sea and in the national security of Saudi Arabia."
• In that context El-Sisi's visit to Riyadh in very early March, and the meeting of minds between him and King Salman of Saudi Arabia have laid the ground work for the historic Arab summit held in Sharm.
• The Gulf's financial liquidity, now partly channelled through these new defensive inter-Arab structures, shall make non-Arab financial support to States like Egypt less conditional on meeting the donor's restrictions.

As the British adage goes, "nothing succeeds like success."  The anti-Houthi coalition now count 10 States: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, the Emirates, anti-Houthi Yemen and the Sudan.  Add also Pakistan, a Muslim non-Arab State.

US logistical and intelligence support to that formidable coalition, to which Egypt offered ground troops, cannot be underestimated.  Nor can the timely action by President Obama removing the weapons freeze against Egypt on March 31.  A thoughtful New York Times reporter, Peter Baker, attributed that action to Washington "seeking to repair relations with a longtime ally (Egypt) at a time of spreading war in the Middle East."

Despite continued terrorist attacks in Sinai, including the human loss by the security forces on April 3, there is one clear indication as to where the forces of destruction, and the forces of the New Arab Nation are heading: The former, downward to extinction, the latter upward to a new rebirth.  It is Easter time.  Like in the bible, the Quran provides that "Christ is Risen."  "The Arabs want to be in that number, when the saints come marching in."