 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
 |
 |
|
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
|
|
Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Inside the archives
The British Middle East analyst Michael Adams once described Mohamed Hassanein Heikal as "the undisputed doyen of Egyptian journalists and the most experienced and independent-minded political analyst in the Arab world".
Whether everybody in the Arab world would agree with this statement is a rather academic question, but what is beyond dispute is that Heikal is the most senior political commentator in the region. No one can rival his knowledge of modern Arab politics. He is a true insider, one who has been privileged to watch the making of the post-World War II Arab world unfold beneath his very eyes. He was personally acquainted with most of the Arab leaders involved in that process, and was at times directly involved in decision-making himself.
Of all the factors that have entered into the formation of the Arab world as we know it today, the question of Palestine remains the single most pertinent issue. On that question, Heikal is the uncontested chronicler and interpreter.
In his previous book, Secret Channels: The Inside Story of Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiations (HarperCollins, London, 1996), he traced the roots of what he called "the making of a taboo", mapping out the history of the Arab-Israeli struggle from its very beginning to the present day. The taboo in question is the refusal of one people to accept the other. Heikal explained that while the Arab refusal of Israel was a direct consequence of the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland, the roots of enmity ran much deeper. In his own words, "Buried in the collective memory were antagonisms accumulated over 3,000 years, beginning with what was supposedly a family dispute."
In this new book, rather than going back over the whole history of the struggle, Heikal chooses to put one particular moment under the microscope: 1948, the creation of the state of Israel, and the first Arab-Israeli war.
The book is divided into two main parts. The first deals with political power in the Arab world on the eve of the creation of Israel, and the second describes the state of the Arab armies on entering the 1948 war. There is also an appendix containing the testimonies of three of the main actors in this drama: the mufti of Palestine, the secretary-general of the Arab League and the general commander of the Egyptian Army in Palestine.
In the first part, Heikal analyses the stances of the various Arab regimes vis-à-vis the Palestinian question and the creation of Israel. He shows how the Egyptian monarch, Farouk, along with most Arab rulers, did not want a military confrontation, and how these leaders were forced to change their minds and enter a war for which they were ill-prepared by the mood on the Arab streets.
In the second part, he documents the performance of the Arab armies during the war, letting his sources speak for themselves, in particular the official war diary kept by the general commander of the Egyptian Army.
This section, which is much longer than the first, is indeed a treasure trove for the researcher. For this reason alone, the book is necessary reading for all students of Arab-Israeli relations.
