Middle East Perspectives
Personal Recollections (1947 – 1967)
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A few years before January 26, 1952, the thin lines of a quasi-stable Arab world crumbled under the impact of the war for the Holy Land. The survival instincts of the remaining nineteenth-century empires drove their rulers to find a new modus operandi. Britain was quick to realize that in the atomic age, it was in a position of incumbency to revisit sensitive areas within its vast empire, whereas France, thoughtlessly, forgot for a while her ideas about democratic sociability. One of their weaknesses was the apparent inability to distinguish their needs from their greed. On May 15, 1948, the British Mandate over Palestine lost both validity and viability. British troops hurriedly scuttled out of the Holy Land. The State of Israel was declared and greeted at once by the United States and the Soviet Union. Any observer of the historical relationships between individual European countries and the Jews would have advised caution: instead, the Arabs, angered at the situation, which was perceived as totally unjust, called for a war of liberation “from the claws of a group of Zionist gangs.” Staunch members of the Muslim Brotherhood, urged by their outspoken Morshed Hassan el-Banna and many clerics in the mosques declared a jihad.
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About the Book
Middle East Perspectives is the first book of a trilogy about the Middle East and it addresses the period from 1947 to 1967. The author seeks to portray personal recollections of events that occurred mainly in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, over a span of twenty years. Decisions made by key political players have influenced their lives, and many readers can offer a concise preliminary account of their experiences in the Middle East and provide a dramatic journal of observations. Contributions in terms of personal perspectives and interpretations focus on international affairs not personal minutiae. The author talked with many people from Egypt and the Levant, who left there but who voluntarily allowed him to draw on their knowledge and experiences. He kept diaries from his high school days as well as personal memoirs to which he often referred to look up particular dates, for instance, the demonstrations that were started during his high school days for the causes of Algeria and Patrice Lumumba and the launching of Lebanon’s first rockets. Volume One addresses the period beginning with an early stage when the Middle East was still experiencing the unforeseen repercussions of the victorious Allied Forces over Germany in World War II, until the commencement of the one hundred and twenty hours of the Arab-Israeli War in 1967. In fact, the ensuing situation is still one of the factors behind the turmoil in the Middle East. When the governing elite begin to compete and fight among themselves, there is every certainty that their journey will be hazardous, and there is no guarantee they will arrive safely. It is true that their differences in the end will prove to be illusory, and in the absence of any serious effort at reconciliation, rebellious second raters will take over. The prestige and importance of the incoming rebels is considered to exceed by far that of those of the outgoing rulers themselves. The political powers of the newcomers are interwoven with the material rewards of offices. When the rebels become rulers, the palaces, jewels, and treasures of the deposed monarchs (as for example in the cases of Kings Farouk I of Egypt and Faisal II of Iraq) are taken over and distributed among the minority of their successors. Eventually these rebels begin to establish a tradition for which they have perceived hereditary rights to their new important offices, each to retain the position as heirs or next heirs to the authority. This fact, strangely typical of its kind up to now, should be borne in mind when considering the explosive relations between clans at this juncture of Middle Eastern history. And that will continue to be true as long as a constitutional Statehood is not in place. One of the primary objectives of the junta is to figure out how to preserve their presence and maintain power. Deeply moving is when foreign intervention begins to capitalize on such weaknesses; thence, the wheel begins to turn full circle. As the realm flounders in inflation, the intellectual elite and upper-middle classes leave their home countries, which can no longer satisfy their needs. Thus begins the influx of immigrants arriving in Australia, Europe, and America.
About the Author
Bassil A. Mardelli was born in Egypt, grew up in Cairo and Beirut, and received his education in those two capitals. A keen follower of contemporary regional history, he is the owner of a library of more than 2,000 books and an archive of approximately 3,000 magazines. Mardelli’s fascination with the Middle East prompted him to record his observations in what he refers to as a “free self-analysis,” with the understanding that history is a record of human behavior. The author lives with his wife in Beirut, Lebanon. Middle East Perspectives: Personal Recollections is the first book of his new trilogy covering the author’s early years.