Arab Critic
Peretz, Don
Arab Critic The Changing Middle East, by Emil Lengyel. John Day. 376 pp. $5.75. Reviewed by Don Peretz A n excellent book for Zionist -f*- groups with preconceived ideas they would not like to...
...Actually, no substantive rivalry existed, but a synthetic political competition was created by the writings of Western observers who hoped to find in Iraq a counter weight to the independent course followed by Egypt even before Nasser...
...He repeats the charges about "the Hitler of the Nile" and his vicious plans to destroy the vestiges of democracy found only in Western Israel in the Middle East...
...Using such primary sources as The Reporter, Fortune, Time, the New York Times, and various Israeli spokesmen with access to the inner workings of the Arab world, he unfolds the diabolical schemes of Nasser and lays them bare...
...The era covered is principally the last decade and the regions range from Libya to Iran, and Turkey to the sheikdoms on the Indian Ocean coast, with greatest emphasis on the Arab world...
...It is true, no doubt, that most Christians are made uneasy by the rise of an Arab nationalism which increasingly tends to identify with Islam, but there are large numbers who are as ardent Nasser supporters as can be found in the Muslim community...
...Cairo, on the other hand, has been the center of Arab culture for generations...
...Reviewed by Don Peretz A n excellent book for Zionist -f*- groups with preconceived ideas they would not like to have disturbed, Emil Lengyel's The Changing Middle East confirms all of the worst suspicions held by those who are ardent critics of the Arab world, and it will no doubt give great emotional satisfaction to readers who feel that Israel is not getting a fair hearing in publications about the Middle East...
...Among the notions held by American Nasser haters which Lengyel fortifies are those concerning the age-old rivalry between Bagdad and Cairo...
...Lengyel has revealed the monstrous plots being hatched by Nasser in collaboration with Nazis and Communists to dominate the Arab East, Africa, and, if possible, the whole world...
...It did not even have a university...
...If one is looking for a volume which, as this is described in an Israeli publication, is not pro-Arab, and is uncritical of Israel, which ardent Zionists would consider fair and objective, this is it...
...No doubt a visitor to Bagdad in the era of Harun al-Rashid would support Lengyel's assertion about rivalry with the Nile valley, but from the time of the Mongol destruction of the ancient Arab capital until today the city has had little to offer enthusiasts other than its vague memories...
...During my last visit before the 1958 revolution I found that it resembled a great sprawling boom town surrounded by acres of mud hovels, producing nothing in the way of literature, art, music, or other culture...
...and feudalism as the cause of Arab-Israel tensions...
...The theory of Christian Lebanon's antagonism to Arab nationalism is another oversimplification...
...Its press, radio, cinema, and literature have had a larger audience throughout the Arab world than those of any other capital...
...Since Israel was established, many of its supporters have used the theme of "feudal opposition to the progressive Jewish State" as a means of rallying liberal support...
...Lebanese Christian fear of Arab nationalism...
...This facile explanation of Arab nationalism overlooks the opposition of such generally progressive minded groups as the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon, the National Democrats in Iraq, and the Arab Socialists in Syria and Jordan...
Vol. 24 • September 2006 • No. 7
