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Majority and Minorities in the Arab World: The Lack of a Unifying Narrative
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Zvi Mazel - The current sociopolitical eruption in the Arab world is the result of the total failure of Arab states to create a unifying national narrative and establish modern egalitarian polities. Instead of seeking what is unifying, and constructing a society that mobilizes its resources to defeat backwardness and improve the economy, the elites have attempted through Arab nationalism and/or Islam to impose a unity that has always left parts of the population outside the majority community. At this stage no one in the Arab states is thinking about minorities and national unity. There is no talk of reconciliation or minority rights. Indeed, the situation of minorities has only worsened. The writer, a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center, is a former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, as well as Sweden and Romania.