Foad Ibrahim

In the historic configuration, the Saudi state was not founded on the idea of nationalism, and the nationalistic ideology was not the tool that mobilized soldiers, nor did the Najdi tribesmen fight for its preservation. Frankly speaking and from a historical and geopolitical perspective, the Arabian Peninsula did not constitute an incubator for Arab ideas with its momentum of struggle and liberation, and there was no one in the region to fuel nationalist sentiment.

On the contrary, the nationalist project, which originated in the Hijaz, west of the Arabian Peninsula and under the rule of the Ashraf and which planted hope inside a group of Arab revolutionaries flocking to Hijaz in a bid to transform the Arab dream into an Arab state, always collided with plots by those like Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the founder of the third Saudi state. We are not here to assess the experience of the Arab national project in the Hijaz, but it has in a distinctive historic moment shaped, whether we liked it or not, the starting point of a Dream aborted by the Arabs, "Israelis", Great Britain, and Turkey...

The failure of the Arab nation-state project along with the demise of the rule of the Ashraf led to the emergence of the Saudi state as a hybrid entity which on the surface projects an apparently distorted dream of Arab unity with non-Arab characteristics, and has won international auspices, lacking an Arab identity.

The Saudi state has not achieved the status of Arabism in all its phases. It was conceptualized under a British sponsorship and continued to exist with US protection. The constant confrontations between the Saudi state and all the Arab regimes that have adopted the ideology of Arab nationalism and strategies were no coincidence. A general overview of the various Nationalist literatures [Nasserists, Baathists, Socialists ...], always reveals a duel trend: progressive regimes that embrace nationalism as an option and bet against the reactionary regimes cooperating with the foreign powers, the British and the American in particular.

Unanimously, Arabism identified itself through the following endorsements:

First, the struggle for the liberation of Palestine from "Israeli" occupation.

Second, the fight against colonialism for the liberation and independence of the homeland.

Palestine was the touchstone and destination of Arabism ... and the Saudi approach - from any angle we look at it - strips it off its nationalist character let alone its Islamic one. In light of a historic document - that cannot be dealt with lightly - evidence has emerged confirming and proving [the Saudi] act of treason against Palestine. The document in question - preserved in the British archives numbered CO 733/443/18, CO 733/443/19 and dating back to 1943 -refers to revelations concerning, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, holding secret negotiations over the possible sale of Palestine in exchange for 20 million [British] pounds.

The document states:

Reactions in USA: US approach to lbn Saud; discussions with Colonel Hoskins

- Academic and Arabist Harry St John Philby [father of the Soviet spy Kim Philby] proposes handing over Palestine territory to the Jews in return for £20 million compensation. Conspiracy and secret negotiations are evident between Philby and Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud [later king of Saudi Arabia], Chaim Weizmann [President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and later to become "Israel's" first president], Colonel Hoskins [US President Franklin Roosevelt›s special envoy to the Middle East] and even Roosevelt himself. However, after Philby leaks the story to other Arabs, Ibn Saud withdraws from negotiations and denies all previous involvement
Interestingly, and sadly, the scandal of the news of selling Palestine forced Abdul Aziz to exaggerate his bias in favor of the Palestinian cause ... but that was only for the sake of appearance.

We remember in 1936 how Abdul Aziz interfered with other Arab kings and in coordination with the British to stop the great Palestinian strike. He had sent his son Saud in 1935 to persuade the Palestinians to stop the strike. Back then rebel poet and martyr Abdul Rahim Mahmoud addressed Saud with a poem:

O Prince in front of your eyes is a poet

His ribs embrace a bitter complaint

Have you come to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Or have you come to bid it farewell before we lose it?

Abdul Aziz persuaded the Arab Executive Committee to collaborate with the Bill Committee, established by Britain in 1937, in an attempt to resolve the Palestinian ‘problem'. He opposed the Commission's recommendation to divide the land because it stood to strengthen the Ashraf, his opponents, who have become rulers of the Emirate of Transjordan. Ibn Saud's approach was evident during the St. James conference in London [1939], when he summoned his son and his Special Representative, Prince Faisal, for a British initiative to put an end to the conflict. He said he supported the British policy of «White Paper» after the failure of the conference. The «White Paper» issued on May 17th, 1939 was a deed of recognition of the partitioning of Palestine into an Arab, Jewish, and international entities. When the Palestinian ‘Intifada' or Uprising, rejecting the division, resumed, Britain employed the assistance of allied Arab regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Yemen in order to pass the partition plan. Then the «White Paper» appeared as an enhanced version to lay the foundation of the Jewish state, permitting Jewish immigration through the Mandate government.

Saudi Arabism is not monotheistic and is designed to contradict Arab Unity

In 1940, Ibn Saud worked through the framework of the Arab League to reject proposals that would harm the interests of the United States and Britain. He avoided providing substantial assistance to the Palestinians and opposed the war against the Jews. Ibn Saud was fast to settle for the United Nations resolution issued on November 29th, 1947, partitioning Palestine. In 1948, when the Jewish state was declared and the Arab armies launched an attack, Abdul Aziz was content with a symbolic participation - sending a small-untrained force under Egyptian leadership, which contributed little in the Arab war effort. The new reality in the region after the defeat of the Arab armies pushed Ibn Saud to abstain from interference in the affairs of Palestine.

British and "Israeli" archives provide, not just proof of reluctance of Saudi involvement in major Arab issues, but also evidence that could be described as a conspiracy.

One of which is the meeting that took place between David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Shertok with senior Saudi advisors in London in the 1930's of the last century [including Hafiz Wahba, one of King Abdul Aziz's senior advisers, an Egyptian national, all of the king's advisers were non-Saudis]. Ben-Gurion told Wahba, "only the kings of the House of Saud are able to influence the historical reconciliation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine." Did the "Israelis" arrive at this conclusion following the failure to normalize relations with the Egyptians and Jordanians and were now knocking on the Saudi door as well as that of other Gulf States [Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain]?

The second endorsement of Arabism represents the struggle against colonialism.

The fifties were a decade of Arab and Middle Eastern revolutions for independence from foreign colonization. The West feared that "Israel" might be exposed to serious risk due to the rebellious Arab peoples. «Internal discord» was a weapon to ensure the safety of the "Israeli" entity. The idea of an "Islamic alliance" in 1957 sprung out following a meeting between King Saud and President Eisenhower. On the surface, the alliance was designed to counter communism, but in practice it turned into a source for Arab nationalist movements, which was an ideology of struggle against colonialism and reactionary in all its forms.

In the Nationalist-Islamic confrontation, the formation of the "Islamic alliance" led by Saudi Arabia was primarily directed against the Arab national project. On January 5th, 1957, President Eisenhower announced his ‘doctrine' in foreign policy, pledging to provide military and economic assistance to any Middle Eastern country needing help in order to fight communism. The purpose of the principle was to face the Soviet's growing influence in the Middle East, resulting in arms shipments to Egypt from communist countries such as Czechoslovakia in 1955 - working as a cover for the Russian supplier of weapons - as well as a communist nationalist support from Arab countries against the British-French-"Israeli" attack on Egypt in October 1956. Eisenhower with the approval of Congress assured that he would use armed forces to protect the exploitation of any Middle Eastern country that requested US assistance.

In his memoirs, President Eisenhower revealed an occupation plan of Syria. He held talks on the matter with Turkey, but Egypt sabotaged the plan by sending paratroopers to Syria to support the army. Saudi Arabia and Turkey had already reached an understanding concerning the plan. After the Egyptian intelligence confirmed the existence of an American plot, with the participation of Turkey, to invade Syria, Abdel Nasser decided to rush the announcement of an Egyptian-Syrian unity pact.

Abdel Nasser exposed the Islamic alliance's scheme, and said in a speech on the occasion of Unity Festival in Cairo University that the US was seeking to establish a counter-revolution force to quell the revolution led by Egypt at the time. He added that Eisenhower proposed to King Saud to launch an Islamic propaganda campaign and establish an Islamic alliance. Eisenhower invited King Saud to the states and personally met him at the airport. The denials by King Saud and King Faisal concerning the idea of an Islamic alliance did not convince Abdel Nasser, especially since Saudi Arabia was promoting the idea of the alliance.

Eisenhower's doctrine was based on strengthening the reactionary conservative states such as Saudi Arabia, Royal Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya to face the Nasserist movement as a symbol of the Arab nationalist movement in the fifties. The United States wanted to pursue a confrontation with the Nasserists until the very end while strengthening its allies. In the end however, the US discovered that the Nasserists were strong to the extent requiring co-existence and acceptance... but it was too late.

According to the agreement between President Eisenhower and King Saud, US military aid worth $ 50 million had been provided to Saudi Arabia in the five years that followed 1957.

The aid included training and maintenance of the armed forces, building Dhahran Airport, $ 20 million in economic assistance, for the development of Dammam port of the eastern region. This as the United States sold Saudi Arabia 110 million dollars worth of military equipment [see the book: Salim Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism].

One month after the Eisenhower doctrine was initiated, which included pledges to support [US] allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia orchestrated a coup attempt against the regime in Egypt in December 1957.

During the fifties President Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers [John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, and Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA], refused a Soviet proposal to make the Middle East a neutral zone, and enable the Arabs to rule their countries. On the contrary, the United States launched a relentless war against Arab nationalism. And in order to lend legitimacy to Saudi Arabia's wagging of wars, nationalism was bundled with communism, especially after the outbreak of the Arab revolutions calling for the nationalization of the oil wealth.

It was not just a coincidence that a series of coup attempts took place in Sudan [February 1957], Syria [July 1957], and Egypt [December 1957] by groups hostile to Arab nationalism. The assassination attempt of leader Gamal Abdel Nasser took place in February 1958.

Eisenhower sought to isolate President Nasser and minimize his influence in favor of King Saud, who was not popular in the Arab world. On the contrary, the Saudi rule was threatened after demonstrations erupted in Dhahran, home of the US air base in the east of Saudi Arabia. The protests denounced the US military presence in the Kingdom and praised President Nasser. The emergence of the «Free princes», some of whom responded to an appeal for Arabism from Cairo, was also a threat to the Saudi King.

The United States continued its efforts to undermine Arab nationalism with its icon Gamal Abdel Nasser, and incited officers in the Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, Sudanese and Yemeni armies as well as religious parties, including groups that have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and coordinate with Saudi Arabia to organize armed rebel movements and overthrow nationalist regimes. The implementation of the scheme began respectively in the period between 1961-1967 with a conspiracy to break the unity between Egypt and Syria in 1961, and then the war in Yemen in the period between 1964-1967 and the attempted assassination of Abdel Nasser in 1965 by what was said to be a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood called the «Scientific Research» group - specialized in the manufacturing of explosives - and listing the assassination of Abdel Nasser on its objectives list.

With the death of Abdel Nasser in 1970, what the great journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal referred to as a "Saudi Era", began as a result of two variables: laying the path for a settlement with the "Israeli" entity after the October 1973 war, and the oil boom and rising incomes of the Saudi regime as well as the introduction of «bank checks» at the expense of the Arab struggle that had lost its historical symbol.

That era is much like the one being witnessed by the Arabs in the present day; the eradication of national consciousness by opponents of the revolutionary Arabism. A Saudi Arabism working against the Arab self, spirit, and composition ... It is the "Israeli" Arabism; an Arabism that comes to terms with its qualitative opposite, historic opponent, and the reason for its emergence, while promoting it.

Saudi Arabia, backed by neo-reactionaries protected Nasser's Arabism only to abduct it, but this time using a sectarian means. Unfortunately for this Arabism, it is reconciled with Zionism. It was not coincidental that the express train of normalization with "Israel" passes on the path of sectarian mobilization. Saudi Arabism is not unifying at all, but is designed to contradict the Arab unity and declare war using its name. The Arabism speech produced in Saudi Arabia has no Arabism characteristics in it. It is the same ideology that fought the real Arabism project with duality: the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the struggle for national liberation and independence. But yesterday it was raising the Islamist banner and today it lurks behind a domesticated Arabism. But the allies are the allies, the goals are the goals ... and treason is treason, but in different clothing.

Source: Al-Akhbar Newspaper, Translated and Edited by website team