39geostrAtegic shifts
The early 1950s saw the ascendance of Nasser as his pan-Arabism held its
sway in much of the Middle East and even monarchies which were opposed
to him had to content with pockets of support for his secular nationalism.
This got a rude awakening when Nasserism was buried in the ruins of the
June War of 1967. The decisive Arab military defeat compelled Nasser and
his fellow nationalists to come to terms with the emerging Islam-dominated
political order. In return for the promise of a meagre annual support for
the states confronting Israel, Egypt was forced to recognize the emerging
Saudi-dominated regional order. The Khartoum Arab summit which met
shortly after the June War curtailed Nasser’s politico-diplomatic options.
Angered and humiliated by the military defeat, the Arab countries^3 unani-
mously settled for the infamous three NOs: no recognition, no negotia-
tion and no peace with Israel (Meital 2000 ).
The Arab defeat also weakened Nasser’s ability to influence the
Palestinian movement. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that
he helped to form in 1964 (Shemesh 1988 ) recognized the futility of
depending upon the Arab states to achieve its goals (Sayigh 1989 ). The
West Bank from where the Fatah movement carried out much of its
Fedayeen activities had now come under the Israeli control, and in 1969
its founder Yasser Arafat decided to join the PLO. This eventually resulted
in Fatah becoming the most dominant component of the Palestinian
movement with Arafat as its head (Shemesh 1988 ).
The June War was followed by two other developments that consoli-
dated the Saudi regional influence. The first was the fire in al-Aqsa Mosque
in the Israel-controlled old city of Jerusalem. On 23 August 1969, Denis
Michael Rohan, a mentally disturbed Christian Australian tourist, set fire
to the pulpit of the al-Aqsa Mosque which “destroyed part of the old
wooden root and an 800-year-old pulpit—a gift from the Islamic hero
Saladin” (Lieber 2016 ). The al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest place in
Islam after Mecca and Medina and the incident enraged the Muslim
masses across the globe. Various forms of protest actions happened in
many countries, including India. Coming in the aftermath of the Arab
defeat in the June War, this incident spurred political Islam taking the
centre stage of the Middle Eastern politics.
(^3) The conference was boycotted by Syria.
DRIFTING APART