Behind the New Mideast Crisis
Laqueur, Walter
The Communists are now revealing themselves as the dominant political force in Jordan, Syria and Egypt Behind the New Mideast Crisis By Walter Z. Laqueur This dispatch by Walter Z. Laqueur, the...
...But the process of slicing away collaborating parties one by one is more complicated in this region, and the Communists envisage a prolonged relationship with the "national bourgeoisie...
...In the newspaper field...
...But all this is probably less disastrous than it appears at first sight...
...Among the leading candidates for their jobs are Khaled el-Azm, probably the richest feudal landowner in the country...
...Shukri al-Kuwatly and Sabri el-Assali, pliable instruments in the past, will probably be replaced before long by more reliable fellow-travelers...
...In Jordan, young King Hussein's latest attempt to reverse the Communist tide appears to have failed...
...Colonel Nasser established the political police, headed by Wing Commander Ali Sabri and Colonel Abdul Kader Hatem, because the regular police, directed until recently by Zakaria Mohieddine, was considered too ancien regime...
...Although articulate opposition to Soviet policies in the Arab lands is less developed than it was in Eastern Europe, the local Communists are hardly as numerous and must rely on assistance from the "National Socialists" (Nasserism in Egypt, the Ba'ath in Syria and Jordan, the National Congress in Iraq...
...King Saud is reported to have offered them several million dollars...
...Ma'arouf Dualibi...
...Of the five leading Arabic-language dailies, only the evening paper Al Masa...
...For while the new Communist and pro-Communist leadership may be more capable than the old leading elite, there is little reason to believe that it is either able or willing to tackle successfully the urgent domestic problems of Syria, Jordan and Egypt...
...The outcome of this attempt, both inside Jordan and along its frontiers, was still problematic as The New Leader went to press...
...Communism in Russia, China and Europe has come as a result of the free will of the peoples...
...Communists and fellow-travelers have gained tremendous influence since last November in the new political police and in the press...
...Saud, however, countered with his own announcement that Saudi troops would enter the Aqaba area, which he and his father long claimed was part of their kingdom...
...The Syrian Government of Shukri al-Kuwatly and Sabri el-Assali is, as the Lebanese newspaper Al Dunia observed in mid-February, "a prisoner in the hands of the Communists and their fellow-travelers...
...Rose al Yusej has been a semi-official Communist organ for some time, but Al Tahrir— founded by a group of Army officers —has now become even more anti-Western and pro-Soviet...
...Yusef Idris...
...Indeed, the following quotation from the March 2 issue of Sawt ash Sha'ab, an Amman weekly, is typical of the view held by the Nabulsi regime: "America has either lost her mind and really believes in the Communist danger to the Arab states, or else she thinks we are little children and wants to frighten us with the big bad wolf in order to use us as tools for her own ends and for increasing her own wealth...
...The Communists can guide and manipulate their partners, but they must proceed cautiously...
...Since neither Syria nor Jordan (where the process is most advanced) has a common border with the Soviet Union, direct intervention must be ruled out for the time being...
...Not only did the attempt to break up the powerful trio of Major Serraj, Ba'ath leader Akram Haurani and Communist chief Khaled Bakdash fail, but the Communists and their allies emerged stronger than ever...
...Nothing could be further from the truth...
...Consequently, the Arab Legion cannot be expected to move against mass demonstrations staged by the Communists and the Ba'ath...
...Arab Communism is the least formidable of all the Communist movements...
...One of them actually was a leading member of the recently ousted cabinet...
...Nevertheless, they have good reason to hope that the fellow-traveling parties will gradually become subsidiaries of the CP...
...and, as in most backward countries, they constitute the most important political element in Jordan...
...Attempts to halt this progressive satellization in Syria and Jordan have brought reports that these countries are now "veering toward the West...
...Mohammed Mossadegh's well-known practice and took to his bed...
...edited by former junta member Khaled Mohieddine, used to be outspokenly pro-Communist...
...this may be recognized by the Arab intelligentsia, most of which now seems only too willing to give the Communists a try...
...Similarly, when the King demanded that Communist propaganda be curbed, Communist activities were stepped up...
...Among them was Major Ahmed Hamid Serraj, head of the pro-Soviet military junta...
...But pro-Soviet forces do not lack funds, either: The Communists and Ba'ath have reportedly received a million Syrian pounds each for giving the Czechoslovak firm "Techno-export" a contract to build an oil refinery...
...Fakher al-Kayali, head of the pro-Communist wing in Ku-watly's Nationalist party...
...Recently, however, another former junta member and newspaper editor...
...Apart from his new aide, however, the King can count on the support of only three or four senior officers to oppose the "upstarts" now vying for control of Jordan's small army...
...The rest of the daily press has also been gleichgeschaltet: Ismail Abdallah...
...Communists and fellow-travelers have now achieved a virtual monopoly...
...Hussein did manage to oust his aide-de-camp, Mazen Ajlouni—a member of the pro-Nasser, pro-Soviet military junta headed by the Arab Legion's chief of staff, General Ali Abu Nuwar...
...There is a distinct parallel with Russian General Kornilov's abortive anti-Bolshevik coup in September 1917...
...In fact, negotiations for such a merger got under way in Syria three months ago...
...He did succeed in ousting Premier Suleiman Nabulsi and his pro-Moscow cabinet, but the latter rallied popular support and promptly blocked the monarch's efforts to install a pro-Western government...
...Thus, Nasser's "integral nationalism" is being eroded from below by a far more potent political force...
...Similar attempts have failed in the past, and no such move is likely to succeed for any length of time...
...This is symptomatic of the struggle that may well develop for Jordanian territory...
...In the long run, too, this development may prove beneficial to the Arabs themselves...
...and Dr...
...The new outfit is commanded on most levels by pro-Soviet elements...
...Moreover, most of the students in Amman and Arab Jerusalem have followed the line set down by these parties...
...The political setup in the countries cited has misled many people, nurturing the illusion that they can still be won over by the free world, that they are merely nationalist or neutralist...
...Of the two leading weeklies...
...Thus, last month, prodded by Saudi Arabian aid offers, they made a vain attempt to reassert their power...
...In the light of past experience, this is not surprising...
...Two Syrian brigades are already stationed in northern Jordan, and it was recently announced that more troops will move into the Aqaba-Ma'an region after the final British evacuation...
...If a full-dress showdown is delayed, it will merely be because of Jordan's fear that her neighbors might exploit such a crisis to partition the country...
...The answer must be no...
...In a few \ears...
...Major Salah Salem, was purged for pro-Western deviations and replaced by the prominent fellow-traveler Lufti Wakid...
...The Communists are now revealing themselves as the dominant political force in Jordan, Syria and Egypt Behind the New Mideast Crisis By Walter Z. Laqueur This dispatch by Walter Z. Laqueur, the author of Communism and Nationalism in the Middle East, was filed before King Hussein of Jordan made his attempt to nrl> Communist power by ousting chief of staff Nuwar and other pro-Nasser figures...
...In these circumstances, can King Hussein win a permanent victory...
...Earlier, when Hussein ordered Nabulsi to rid the Cabinet of Communists, the latter replied by purging all those suspected of pro-Western sympathies...
...On March 15, 120 Army officers, including leading Communists and National Socialist activists, were informed of their impending transfer to less sensitive posts...
...Finally, the Communists, who appear under the National Front and National Bloc labels, have already managed to secure key positions...
...In Egypt, too...
...a top Nazi agent who spent World War II in Berlin...
...Nevertheless, this report by a seasoned observer provides pertinent background for understanding the crisis and its possible repercussions...
...Hamid Abdul Eyla and other Communists, all inmates of Nasser's jails in 195455, now occupy important editorial positions...
...while Defense Minister Khaled al-Azni refused to countersign the order...
...With the real political forces in the area now emerging from behind the scenes, the free world may finally come up with a realistic appraisal of these countries...
...Jerusalem What Matyas Rakosi once called the "salami tactic," used by the Communists to achieve power in Eastern Europe, is now being applied in the Middle East...
...The officers simply refused to obey and threatened to march on Damascus...
...When Kuwatly realized he was checkmated, he followed Dr...
...We have never heard of aggression on the part of the Soviet Union...
...Ali Shakalani...
...The only two people in the Mideast who are unaware of this, unfortunately, are Kuwatly and Assali...
Vol. 40 • April 1957 • No. 16
