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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Remembering the "Catastrophe"
By Abdel-Qader Yassin*
The absence of democracy in Arab countries is the cause for the series of Arab defeats since the loss of Palestine in 1948. Any strategic economic, social, political and military problems suffered by Arab countries are the consequences of the same problem: our contempt for democracy.
When the war broke out in the wake of the UN General Assembly's decision to partition Palestine on 29 November 1947, despite their modest military capabilities, ammunition supplies and training, the Palestinian freedom fighters fared well in their confrontation with the Zionist gangs, which were highly trained and armed to the teeth. The inequality was so flagrant, however, that the US representative to the Security Council presented a proposal to cancel the partition decision on 15 March 1948. But the Zionist command saw its chance to press ahead to the point of no return. The unspeakably brutal Deir Yassin massacre, executed on 9 April 1948, succeeded in planting terror in the hearts of Palestinians.
Deir Yassin was a turning point in the unfolding of the Nakba. Besides military inequality, the Palestinians suffered from a weak internal front. The Arab armies sought to disarm instead of support the freedom fighters, who knew the terrain and were burning with enthusiasm to defend their soil. Worse still, the Arabs were plagued by class struggle, conflicting orders, disparities in levels of training and weaponry, and the corruption of their regimes, which took their orders from European capitals. Only 24,000 Arab troops faced 68,000 Zionists and an equal number of trained and armed reserve forces.
Then as now, there can be no victory without a stable democratic regime and an effective ruling party. The political programme must provide tactical perspectives and conclude beneficial alliances on local, regional and international levels. Above all, to achieve victory, one must have a just cause. Democracy is the earth in which stability takes root. Without it, the edifice is bound to collapse.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a Palestinian political analyst.
