-Analysis-
BEIRUT — In 1990, Egyptian political scientist Fawzi Mansour wrote a book titled The Exodus of Arabs from History, chronicling the internal deterioration and deepening political irrelevancy of Arab societies.
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More than three decades later, the Arab world appears ever more fragile, harsh and humiliated. The efforts, resources, and sacrifices expended have been largely wasted or consumed, never translated into political, social, economic, and cultural achievements.
We are in a long state of regression, and indeed outside history in every sense of the word. There is no moment in the past century of Arab history worse than the current one, intensifying the disintegration of any consensus and the shattering of our living conditions. And yet, what we must also realize is that we are not in an isolated or unique moment.
The current moment is an extension of what we have experienced previously in terms of setbacks, in the failure of what was called the “Great Arab Revolt” at the beginning of the 20th century, and the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, with the establishment of Israel and the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem. And there is also the failure stemming from the second Nakba (1967) which was denied or downplayed by calling it “the Setback.”
History is repeated today by the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, leading to Israel's carrying out genocidal operations in Palestine and Lebanon. And of course it goes back through the decades. There was also the catastrophe of Saddam Hussein’s regime invading Kuwait (1990), then the Second Gulf War, and the imposition of a siege on the people of Iraq.
Tragedies have exposed our helplessness and backwardness.
Then came the Third Gulf War, which destroyed Iraq as a state and as a society (2003) and handed it over to Iran, through its armed sectarian militias. We also witnessed the Israeli wars on Lebanon (2006) and on Gaza several times.
We also cannot forget the horrors of the Syrian catastrophe, which resulted in the displacement of millions of Syrians and the destruction of Syrian cities by the regime and its allies. Over the past decade, the conflict turned the country into a haven for militias and the armies of competing regional powers that have no connection to the interests of the Syrian people.
We have seen the Nakba’s chapters, tragedies and horrors before as if the had come to shape our lives and our history, and exposed our helplessness and backwardness, and our disconnection from our reality — and from the world.
The only difference is that the current Nakba has taken the form of a genocide, waged by Israel with utmost brutality. It is also an openly declared Nakba, being watched by the entire world, including the Arab and Islamic nations. Facing this reality, there has been no real effort by the regimes to change or mitigate the horror of that tragedy that the Palestinians have been living for 14 months, and which has now included Lebanon, and perhaps Syria later.
This situation can only be explained by a clear and bold admission that we are facing a general state of failure that includes regimes, societies, and political parties, as well as armed militias, national liberation and resistance movements.
The idea here is that the prevailing regimes bear most of the responsibility for the deterioration of our conditions, including the rise of this type of failed political parties, movements and militias, which appeared as regressive, pathological and negative phenomena.
"The Exodus of Arabs from History" by Dr. Fawzy Mansour book cover
The fact is that these regimes acted as an authority that encroached on the state and society, as they overthrew the state, or prevented its empowerment, and overthrew society, or marginalized it.
Internal factors are ultimately the key driver in the public failure in Arab countries.
The above does not cancel or mitigate the role of external factors in the backwardness and deterioration in the Arab world, whether citing Western powers or Israel. However, similar factors have existed in other parts of the world without preventing their rise.
The point is that the internal factors are ultimately the key driver in the public failure in Arab countries. This factor represents authoritarian regimes, the state of traditional society, which is ossified at the borders of sects, ethnicities, and pre-political identities, and the non-state political forces.
Elsewhere in the press • Gilbert Achcar, professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, wrote an article in the latest issue of the periodical magazine of the Institute for Palestine Studies. Achcar, who is Lebanese, described the Arab world’s reaction to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza as a sign of “the degeneration of the current Arab system.”
Achcar says the Arab response to the war in Gaza has been minimal and largely symbolic. Jordan and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Israel without severing ties, while Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE avoided even these measures. This muted reaction contrasts sharply with actions by countries like Bolivia, which cut ties with Israel, and others in Latin America that recalled ambassadors. Despite their economic leverage, oil-rich Arab states have avoided using the "oil weapon" to pressure Western supporters of Israel, opting instead for symbolic gestures such as a proposed UN appeal for a ceasefire. These actions fall far short of addressing the devastating toll of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
The restrained Arab stance reflects geopolitical considerations, including close ties with the U.S., the desire to preserve normalization agreements with Israel, and a reluctance to bolster Hamas politically. Instead, these states align with efforts to reframe the conflict under the Oslo Accords framework, aiming to weaken Hamas while maintaining regional stability. Iran’s response has also been restrained, limited to rhetoric and localized skirmishes, reflecting its strategic caution. This overall inaction has facilitated Israel’s campaign in Gaza, leaving Palestinians to bear the brunt of the ongoing violence without meaningful regional intervention.— Elias Kassem and Hagar Farouk(read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
There are two phenomena at play that feed off of each other. The first is that Israel by waging a war of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon — under the government of the extreme nationalist and religious right — heralds the return of fascism and the tendency to attack the values of modernity and democratic liberalism, which have elevated the status of humanist values of freedom, dignity and equality.
The second is that we, as Arabs, are facing the collapse of an idea or axiom, or the illusion of the Arab world or the Arab system. There is nothing of that system, if we exclude language, emotion and the spirit of rhetoric, as an indication of an Arab world or an Arab system or an Arab nation, let alone an Islamic nation?
I do not know how to confront these two simultaneous phenomena, but the first step is looking clearly at the problem, understand how we arrived at this point — and ultimately how might overcome it and reenter our own history. .