The decision was primarily a result of the fact that the delegations of the United States and the Soviet Union, which were at loggerheads on every other important issue before the Assembly, stood together on partition. Andrei A. Gromyko and Herschel V. Johnson both urged the Assembly yesterday not to agree to further delay but to vote for partition at once. (Thomas J. Hamilton, "Assembly Votes Palestine Partition")The Soviet role in the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel was the biggest blow against socialism in the Middle East, as Jordanian Marxist Hisham Bustani argues in "Critique of the Arab Left: On Palestine and Arab Unity" (MRZine, 19 November 2007), and Arab socialists have never quite recovered from it.
The Arab power elites walked out in 1947. In 2007, however, they walked right into Annapolis. If 1947 marked the abortion of the Arab Left, 2007 may very well be the final nail in the coffin of secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism.
1 comment:
Very interesting post.
Annapolis is more about isolating Iran, it seems than Israel/Palestine. I think Syria's presence shows that.
GWB has to give the Arab leaders, Abbas something for their service, not to look like complete dolts.
I don't think Israel can carry on at a continual war footing, except for the arms industry. Another factor is Arab population growth is making the idea of a Jewish state a potential joke.
I'm part of what the MR article you linked to calls "metaphysical Arab-Zionist "workers' unity" plan."
Very nice blog.
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