(Jewish Political Studies Review) Pinhas Inbari - The struggle in Syria is between two all-embracing outlooks - the pan-Arab one and the pan-Islamic one. Pan-Arabism is represented by the ruling Baath party headed by Bashar al-Assad, while pan-Islamism is represented by the groups fighting in the name of Islam. These are two absolute ideological positions; they inherently reject compromise and engage in total war while thoroughly negating the other. The pan-Arab stance in Syria could not accept Kurdish nationalism. The Kurds had either to be Arabs or not be at all. Because they insisted on not being Arabs, their Syrian citizenship was revoked. Seen in this light, the Jews are the "Kurds" of the Palestinians. The Palestinian attitude toward the Jews is one of total rejection. That is why they are not prepared to recognize Jewish nationalism, deny that we have any connection to Jerusalem, assert that the Temple did not exist and was never built, and proclaim that Jesus was a Palestinian. The Palestinians see themselves as part of pan-Arabism and their role is to liberate their sector as part of the overall pan-Arab struggle. The current Palestinian demand for recognition as an independent state is inauthentic. The Palestinian National Charter does not include a single article calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The first article states: "Palestine is...an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation." The struggle between Fatah and Hamas, which is grounded in the Muslim Brotherhood movement, is simply part of the struggle between pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism. Nasser Laham, editor-in-chief of the Ma'an news agency, which represents the mainstream of the Palestinian Authority, said in January: "It is forbidden for us to make the slightest concession, we want all of Palestine....We will fight until America is defeated, until Israel is defeated." Laham is not expressing an extreme position but the mainstream Palestinian position. The writer is a veteran Arab affairs correspondent who serves as an analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2018-08-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive