316 • 17 ISRAEL'S REBIRTH AND THE RISE OF ARAB NATIONALISMregime's pro-Western leanings and accused Sham'un of trying to keep
himself in power. The stage was being set for Lebanon's 1958 civil war.The Contest for Control of Syria
A British journalist named Patrick Seale has written an analysis of Arab
politics from 1945 to 1958 called The Struggle for Syria. As the title implies,
he argued that any power, local or foreign, that seeks to dominate the Mid¬
dle East must control centrally located Syria. Although geographic Syria in¬
cludes Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, even the truncated Republic of Syria
has become a cockpit for international rivalries. Between the two world
wars, France and Britain had competed to control geographic Syria, and in
the cold war the US and USSR contended for its favor. Rivalries among the
other Arab regimes have been even stronger. After World War II Amir Ab¬
dallah of Transjordan, hoping to rule a "Greater Syria," sought allies within
the country. So, too, did his main rivals, King Faruq and King Ibn Sa'ud.
Geography has almost dictated Iraq's interest in Syria, and Egypt has usu¬
ally opposed this interest, no matter who ruled in Baghdad or Cairo.
Syrian politicians, sensitive to these rivalries, have tended to ally them¬
selves with the outside contenders in their own power struggles in Damas¬
cus. After all, Syrians have usually been in the vanguard of Arab nationalism.
It was Syrians who had formed the Ba'th Party, which was committed to the
unification of all Arabic-speaking peoples within a framework that would
ensure individual freedom and build a socialist economy. The Ba'th consti¬
tution states: "The Arab nation has an immortal mission that has mani¬
fested itself in renewed and complete forms in the different stages of history
and that aims at reviving human values, encouraging human development,
and promoting harmony and cooperation among the nations of the world."
For the Arab nation to fulfill this mission, the Ba'thists would have to
gain as many Arab governments as possible and unite them into an or¬
ganic whole. Their first success was in Syria. In early 1957, after the Suez
Affair had compromised the country's pro-Western politicians, a coalition
of Ba'thists and other Arab nationalists won control of its government.
Spurred by Radio Cairo broadcasts and generous Soviet loans, Syria's new
rulers adopted what the West saw as a hostile stance. Scarred by previous
military coups backed by outsiders, Syria accused Washington of plotting
its overthrow and expelled some US embassy officials. As Turkey massed
troops on its Syrian border, the US and USSR both threatened to intervene
for their client states. The crisis receded by November 1957, but it made
some Americans view Syria as a communist satellite.