Zionism and Judeo-Islamic Relations in the Middle East: Libya’s Position · 309in helping the new leadership to burst forth into the Arab Muslim world,
the only important foreign arena for Libya at that time. Such goals lent
legitimacy to his regime.
Moreover, being geographically remote from the borders of Israel,
Libya could afford to be as belligerently provocative as it wished without
risking military repercussions as long as Tripoli refrained from partici-
pating directly in any military activity against Israel. Taking these stipu-
lations into consideration, Qadhafi enthusiastically called on the Arab
world to “fire bullets instead of publishing slogans in red headlines.”^4
Precisely because of his professed devotion to fighting for the Arab
cause against Israel and his oft-stated willingness to commit his country’s
military resources to an all-Arab jihad aimed at annihilating the “Zion-
ist enemy,” Qadhafi was shocked when Egypt and Syria excluded him
entirely from the October War of 1973 against Israel. Following this bitter
blow and other caustic failures in the Arab arena, particularly the souring
relations with Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat (since Nasser’s death
in fall 1970), Qadhafi turned away from this scene in the mid-1970s, shift-
ing his focus to Africa and the Soviet Union.^5
Concurrent with the dramatic foreign policy changes, Qadhafi imple-
mented his “Popular Revolution” within the country with enthusiasm,
binding it to almost every facet of Libyan life. These upheavals injected
new tensions and a measure of instability into the state’s system and so-
ciety, resulting in increasing popular unrest. This culminated in 1975 in
a dangerous plot planned by Major ̔Umar al-Muḥayshi, aimed at over-
throwing Qadhafi’s regime. Although thwarted by the security forces, the
attempt shocked Qadhafi’s associates. They promptly promoted themes
familiar and recognizable to the Libyan masses, as well as to circles in the
state’s ruling echelons, doing their utmost to rally them around Qadhafi’s
leadership.
Within this context, ratcheting up the rhetoric against the “Zionist en-
emy” and pledging to further the struggle against it served this goal well.
The anti-Israel campaign was highly rewarding for Qadhafi’s political
prestige. The most astounding successes were the uprooting of Israel’s
diplomatic presence in Africa during the 1970s and the leading role Libya
played in the newly established Arab Front of Steadfastness and Resis-
tance against Egypt’s “treacherous” peace process with Israel in the late
1970s. These areas of high-profile activity, presenting the Libyan head of
state as a most devoted guardian of the Arab Muslim cause, injected new