#6 dan, you might want to read Daniel Pipes, "Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition"
Basically the Arab league served two purposes. 1. It was used to clamp down on identity changes that threatened arab nationalism. Since Jordanian king Abdullahs project for a Greater Syria, with himself as king, ran counter to arab nationalism (since it emphasized greater Syrian identity instead, and attempted to subordinated the arab nationalists among the palestinians to Abdullah) the Arab league was a tool against Abdullah, and to restrain Abdullah. It was also a tool wrt then Maronite dominated Lebanon - which in the 40s was flirting with a Francophone, European identity, rather than an Arab one. The deal was that Lebanon had to stay arab, and declare war on Israel, in return for which the League would guartantee Lebanons territorial integrity - IE Lebanon would get to keep all the mainly non-Maronite lands the French had gifted them with. (of course this was a bad deal for the Maronites long term, and I suppose Arik Sharon has been contemplating that precedent)
2. It was a way of expresssing arab national identity that didnt threaten individual regimes. So rather than a more aggressive arab nationalism, that would attempt to destroy individual arab regimes in favor of a pan-arab state, the force of arab nationalism was diverted into safer channels, esp the war with Israel. |
