Kramer

Martin

The Middle East, Old and New

1902, Theodor

IN

HERZL, the father

of political

Zionism,

pub

lished a Utopian novel entitled Altneuland (Old-New Land).

The story is set in Palestine in the distant future of 1923, by
which time a "New Society" has been established through the
mass

return

of

commonwealth,
or religion.

"New
the Jews. The
Society"
far beyond
nationalism.
There

church,
Jerusalem

are free to worship

"in synagogue,
or the philharmonic
concert."

Its members

guage

is a cosmopolitan
is no official
lan

in the art museum

mosque,
is dominated

a "Peace

by

Palace"

the Latin
bearing
to
is alien
me."

from Terence:
human
inscription
"Nothing
is also a showplace
of the highest
The "New
technol
Society"
and
Odorless
silent
electric
monorails
whisk
the
inhabitants
ogy.

to place; power
is generated
inclined water
by a huge
to the Dead
tunnel
takes on
Sea, which
linking the Mediterranean
the appearance
of Lake Geneva.
And although
the "New Society"
from

place

extends

across

the

and
River,
Jordan
is no conflict
between

there

even

Beirut
and
beyond
and Arabs,
and no

Damascus,
Jews
us rich," says the book's
need for armies.
"The Jews have made
one Arab character.
live with
"Why should we scorn them? They
us as brothers. Why
should we not love them?" On the title page

of his book, Herzl

it, it is no

inscribed this epigraph: "If you will

fairy tale."1
In 1993,
the then-foreign

minister

of Israel,

Shimon

Peres,

pub

lished a book entitled The New Middle East. In it, he announced

that

Martin
Studies

89

the familiar

obsessions

Kramer
is Director
of
at Tel Aviv University.

of the Middle

the Moshe

Dayan

Center

East?nationhood,

for Middle

Eastern

bor

and African

90

Martin Kramer

ders, territory, arms?had

A new age had dawned.
Borders

would

ceased

to matter

Nations

would

be opened. Water
arsenals would

shared. Massive

a single

in an era of globalization.
redefine
their identities.

and natural

resources

be dismantled.

would

The Middle

be
East

to the cooperative
zone, devoted
"I
I
to
of
feel
that
have
earned
the right
pursuit
prosperity.2
wrote
in
memoirs.
I
Peres
in
his
"So much
that
dreamed
dream,"
as fantasy
the past was
dismissed
but has now become
thriving

would

become

reality."3
From

the

"New

across

economic

to the "new Middle

dreamers
East,"
Society"
have imagined
the transformation
of the Middle

this century
into a zone of peace, prosperity,
and cooperation.
The dreams
are familiar
to the West,
of the Jews
because
been
they have
in
But similar dreams
translation.
have been written
dreamt
and

East

in Arabic,
In these visions,
and Persian.
nations
Turkish,
spoken
to the house
is retired
live in harmony,
and religion
of worship.
now neutralized,
cease to divide;
The forces of division,
the diverse
East form around
of the Middle
peoples
the
diverse
of Europe.
ing
peoples

a shared

emulat

interest,

And have not the peoples of theMiddle East usually followed

the lead of theWest? The national projects of this century were all
models.

inspired
by European
of
and
Jews
Europe,
state that would
take

its leaders

Zionism
worked

first

among
emerged
to collect
the Jews

the
in a

of
its place among
the secular nation-states
a
to
not
remake
nationalism
Europe.
only
attempted
into a secular nation-state
but sought
Muslim
recognition
society
as part and parcel of Europe. Arab nationalism
in all its
for Turkey
Turkish

drew

forms

as did

eral,
nationalisms

its inspiration
from Western
liberal
models,
Not
Iranian nationalism.
all of these Middle

gion
the European

illib

Eastern

reli
and most
incorporated
loyalties,
was
in every case, their point of departure
is now
If the new point
of departure
nation-state.

banished

in some

and

role.

old

But

the idea of Europe, is this not the next model

for theMiddle

East?

a willing
the Middle
of the region,
East, suggests
terms. An American
ness of its peoples
to be redefined
in new
wrote
his
coined
the term the same year Herzl
naval
strategist
East
it was aWestern
the
Middle
Altneuland:
invention,
defining
Even

the name

vis-?-vis

the West

graphs.4

Yet

it was

as a transit
only

zone

a matter

for
of

ships,
a few

and
railroads,
before
decades

tele
the

The Middle

the term,
of the region adopted
peoples
world
inhabited.
Could
they themselves
to
of
these
the
testimony
willingness
and

transformed,
And yet,

as the

East

resists.

integrated
twentieth

"new Middle

still an "old Middle

filled with

have

been

ism.

In some
in other

But
name
cate

of God.

91

East, Old and New

to describe

the part

there be a more

peoples
in the networks
of

of the

persuasive

to be

redefined,
the world?

of
century
closes, much
East" does exist in places,

the Middle
but

there

is

East" of tradition. The gaps between them

xenophobia,
East, secular

and

fundamental

places

dictatorship,
in the Middle

places,
There

live, die, and occasionally

people
are those in the Middle
East who

culture

flourishes.
kill

in the

communi

from

their computer
their place could be any place.
terminals;
in fervent
Others
communicate
from holy ground;
their
prayer
no
can
In
the
War
be
other
West,
place
place.
post-Cold
politics
In the
is no longer the competition
of ideologies,
but of interests.
Middle
This

is also the competition

of identities.
East, however,
politics
sometimes
obsessive
search for authenticity
does not fit the

neat models of the political scientists and has left the politics of the
Middle East difficult to understand and predict.
eco
of identities,
the prospects
for democracy,
uncertain.
Western
and
look
the
and
peace
experts
growth,
treat the region have been preoccupied
doctors
of diplomacy
who
with
economic
economic
process:
elections,
reforms,
sanctions,
In this

crisis

nomic

But time and again,

their ships run aground
peace negotiations.
currents of unsettled
amidst the swirling
identities.
French political
a model
crafted
scientists
electoral
for
ush
process
Algeria?and

ered in a ruthless civil war. The IMF and World

Turkey
East?and
Nations

the most
successful
economic
reform
now
an
has
Islamist
minister.
Turkey
prime
most
sanctions
the world's
drastic
imposed

institute

Libya?and

their

the best-laid

plans

on

Bank helped
in the Middle
The United
on

Iraq and

in defiance.

leaders
rule
peace
Norwegian
a
between
and
Israel
processors
agreement
engineered
compromise
the PLO?and
killed
Israel's
minister
and
opponents
prime
brought
seems to defy
down
its government.
If the Middle
East sometimes

for its renovation,

it is also home
this is because
to
who
seek
other
people
implement
plans?those
or
in the Bible or the Qur'an,
first revealed
in Nasser's
speeches
sermons.
Khomeini's
to determined

92

Martin Kramer
East

The Middle

will

remains,
true?and

not make

a mosaic?an

as before,
its peoples

only

one

analogy
to make many

are bound

choice.
that

The

is tired

different

region
but still
It

choices.

is composed
of four major
Israel, the Arab
lands, Turkey,
parts:
are distinguishable
and Iran. They
from one another
by a combi
nation
of differences?cultural,
linguistic,
religious,
geographic,

and political. The history of their formation can only be told at

In these few pages,
length.5
the
map
present
disposition
debate
about
itself.

is more
the purpose
in the Middle
forces

to

immediate:

of

East's

great

ISRAEL: CHOICES OF THE CHOSEN

the Old City of Jerusalem is vacated of its

InHerzl's Altneuland,

into a giant museum.

of Prime Minister
Israeli government
a small part of the Old
to transform

inhabitants
the new
sought
museum:

In September

and made

a two-thousand-year-old

it opened

the

1996,

Binyamin Netanyahu
into just such
City

Hasmonean
wall

on

tunnel,
the west
side

perimeter
alongside
long-buried
call the Haram
and Muslims
Jews call the Temple Mount
in the midst
of a stalled
The
tunnel
al-Sharif.
peace
opening,
a
Palestinian
and
Palestinian
process,
police
explosion.
ignited
running
of what

Israeli

forces

fought

pitched

battles;

there were

dozens

of casual

ties.

The
dilemmas
Zionism

in its incidental
the two
way,
epitomized
episode,
the birth of political
that face Israel a century
after
since the establishment
of the state.
and half a century

tunnel

the most

is the resistance
of Palestinian
obvious,
that Herzl, with
nationalism
literary license, could
in
either
had to confront,
but that Israel has always

The

first, and
nationalism?a

well

ignore
or in negotiations.
is contested
coveted
Jerusalem
ground,
narrow
in
its
confines
and
every
by both Israelis and Palestinians,
to
from
has
apart
digs
archaeological
explosive
potential,
change
ment
for the
of symbols
It is also
the reservoir
construction.
battle

conflict
stymied,

as a whole,
every

and when

symbol

political

in Jerusalem

are stirred or
aspirations
to political
becomes
subject

manipulation.

But beyond this, the digging of the tunnel exposed another inner
dilemma,

not between

Israelis

and Palestinians,

but between

Israe

East, Old and New

The Middle

Israelis. Some Israelis came to the tunnel as tourists,

a recovered
remnant
in surveying
of their national
came
as
the water
Jewish pilgrims:
tage." But other visitors
stone"
allowed
them to pass still closer to the "foundation
lis and

ested

where

the

Temple Mount,
the First and Second
site
This

visitor's
were

tunnel
of the

the "holy of holies"

of
sanctum,
stood two millennia
that
ago. (On
shrine of the Dome
of the Rock.)

a place
became
or
site
prayers. Heritage
holy place?
own identity. And
in their identities,
in the

point

fervent

inter
"heri

inner

Temples,
the Muslim

stands

today

93

tunnel

where

offered
many
It depended
the
upon
the tunneling
Israelis

sharply divided.
state of Israel was

founded
by a secular national movement
to
a nation
that sought
the Jews that they constituted
persuade
and not
Herzl
(Volk, wrote
Herzl)
just a religious
community.
treatise on Zionism,
in
entitled
his programmatic
first published
not
Der
State
But
"The
of
the
he
did
1896,
Jews."
Judenstaat,
The

envision that itwould be a Jewish state, governed in its policies by

the legal precepts of Jewish law. Neither did Herzl's heirs, from
Chaim

Weizmann

Ben-Gurion.6
through David
a
took
dim view of Zionism

orthodox
giously
Israel for precisely
a false
Jews was

that reason:

in their view,

of

Many
and

the

a secular

state

the reli
state

of

for the

redemption.7
in full force a religious Zionism
there emerged
1967,
that did sense the approach
In that year,
of redemption.
Israeli
arms seized the most
East
sites:
important
Jewish holy
Jerusalem,
But

after

site of theWestern
of

that

Israel's

East

Jerusalem
they made

And

This
tion"
peace
make
chosen
Party
unique

of

"return"

not

definition

(Wailing) Wall,

the Patriarchs.

Tomb

and Hebron,
Zionists

Religious
in 1967 to the biblical

location of the

convinced

themselves

and

Samaria?
a sign of God's
intent.
in
settlements
territories
these
the
Jewish
very
but of Judaism
itself.8
only of Zionism
and

the West

Judea

Bank?was

in the "restora
seeing the hand of God
of Israel to the Jews, also rejected
any
A nation
like any other nation may
compromise.

religious Zionism,
the entire Land

based

on

territorial

concessions.

land. As
put

it:

among

one

"Israel's

of

the

national

the nations?it

But

a chosen

cannot
concede
people
Israel's National
Religious
to the Land of Israel is
connection

leaders

of

is (radically

different)

from

the ties

binding the French, English, Russian and Chinese people to their

94

Martin Kramer

lands.

... For us the Land

of Israel

just an existentially
there could
1980s,

land,

not

By
distinct

the

only

legitimate

Zionist

cultures,
itmany
within

is the

land of destiny,
homeland."9

defined
be no

doubt

one

there

that

the

a chosen
two

existed

other

Each

secular,
religious.
over
are
there
subcultures;
incorporates
important
must
in
be
But
and
the
any generalization
always
laps,
qualified.
as
citizens
Zionism
the
of
broadest
Israel
the
secular
terms,
regards
arbiters

of

Israel's

fate.

The

decisions

of

their

are the only laws that obligate

governments
democratically
In contrast,
Zionism
the "House
of
the state.
regards
religious
as
is the sole legitimate
of God, who
arbiter
Israel"
the instrument
over man's
law must
take precedence
of Israel's fate. God's
law,
elected

and government

decisions

that negate

divine

law cannot

be

legiti

mate.

to paper over the inherent contradiction

possible
two Zionisms
until
the government
1993, when

It was
these

between
of

Israel

recognized the PLO and signed a "Declaration of Principles" that

an Israeli withdrawal
in the West
Bank
from territory
promised
to the settler movement
acted
Rabbis
close
and Gaza.
swiftly,
the government's
ruling rejecting
right to make
issuing a religious
any

concession

by citing

divine

law:

to the laws of the Torah,

it is forbidden to relinquish the
According
over any part
national
of
and
ownership
sovereignty
political rights
of the historic Land of Israel to another authority or people. All of
is now in our possession
the historic Land of Israel which
belongs to
the entire Jewish people, past, present and future, and therefore no
can give away that to which he [alone] does
one in any generation
to do so is null and void,
not have title. Therefore
any agreement
obligates

no one, has no moral

or legal force whatsoever.10

to the claim
that the
only one step from this position
an
had com
instrument
of secular Zionism,
of Israel,
government
a punishable
of
control
law for ceding
divine
sin against
mitted
assas
a
to
the
such
land
of
the
Just
non-Jews.
parts
logic inspired
It was

sin

of Yitzhak

the Israeli prime minister

Rabin,
the state of Israel to the agreements

of
signature
the accords,
Until
the Israeli
Arabs:
in the Tomb

of

extremists

Jewish
settler who
the Patriarchs

had

massacred
in Hebron

who
with

vented
Palestinian
(and whose

their

the
put
the PLO.
rage

on

worshippers
own tomb

The Middle East, Old and New

95

one form of
a religious
shrine for extremists)
personified
this same resistance
resistance.
But after the Israel-PLO
accords,

became
turned

in a struggle

inward,

ship of their peoplehood

That

struggle

Israelis living
be addressed

between

Israeli Jews

over

the relation

to the land.

is not over, for it is not abstract:

there are 150,000
in dozens
of settlements,
and their future has yet to
in the negotiations.
But as the Palestinian
Authority

seems unavoidable.
in reality,
The
the outcome
over
terms
its
differs
from
the
government
Netanyahu
predecessor
to accept
but has chosen
the prin
of Israel's historic
compromise
same.
of
all
the
The
Hebron
agreement,
compromise
provid
ciple
rooted

becomes

ing

for

series

of

further

Israeli

expresses

redeployments,

broad Israeli consensus behind the principle of exchanging

the

land

to be a people
for peace. Most
Israelis wish
like all peoples:
they
from their neighbors,
the same certainty
seek the same recognition
in their permanence,
and Chi
that the French, English,
Russians,
nese enjoy. If peace demands
no other
territorial
compromise?and
formula

has

to make
all of

ever worked?then

it. After
the

more

"Land

of

than
Israel"

the majority
a generation,
has vanished.

of Israelis

are willing

the dream
The

of possessing
still
peace process
has been made:
the

faces many
but the crucial decision
hurdles,
land will be partitioned.
to formulate
Once
that occurs,
Israel will
have

a new policy
or separation?
it seek integration
toward
the region. Will
The idea
a
was
of
"new Middle
East" articulated
Peres
by Shimon
greeted
means
most
If
with dour skepticism
Israelis.
allow
integration
by
more
or
the
of
of
thousands
many
entry
Palestinian,
ing
Jordanian,
other

Arab

economy,
workers"

workers
then

to fill the

Israelis

have

lower

rejected

rungs
it. Their

of

Israel's

expanding

for "guest
preference
and the Philippines
is

from Nigeria,
Rumania,
Thailand,
not at all from the Arab
established.
Israel
differs
(In
this,
firmly
oil states of the Gulf, who
also prefer non-Arab
foreign workers.)
means
If integration
closer economic
ties and opportunities,
this

has more

but limited promise.

Israel's economy
appeal,
developed
are in its high-tech
Arab
its
and
great strengths
during
boycott,
to the vast markets
of Europe,
and Asia. As a
exports
America,
now
at $15,000,
has
gross domestic
result, per capita
product,
in
absolute
GDP
Israel's
of
all
exceeds
that
terms,
grown
rapidly;
its next-door

neighbors

combined?Egypt,

Jordan,

Syria,

Leba

Martin Kramer

96

and

Even if the entire Arab market

the Palestinian
Authority.
to open
to Israel, it is no larger than a combination
of the
and Belgium.
Netherlands
The Arab market
is unlikely,
certainly
to offer
in the short
the opportunities
Israel has found
term,
non,
were

elsewhere.
are slim. Perhaps
the prospects
for integration
half
are Jews from Arab
or their
and Muslim
countries
But their cultural
the region grows more
affinity with
rein
The
with
each passing
other
year.
half, recently

Culturally,
of all Israelis
descendents.
attenuated
forced

Russian
Jewish
large-scale
and the ties to American

by

the West,
as America.

It is not

West

Shimon
almost
region
The
of

ing
debate.
has

the

is culturally
define
effectively

of

immigration,
Jewry

then,
surprising,
of a "new Middle

the

the exit

that with

of

East"

Peres,
slogan
disappeared
from Israeli political
Israel's place in the
discourse.
entirely
is now much
less debated
than the nature of Israel itself.
of Palestine
emergence
the borders
between
Since

favored

alongside
them?is

Israel?and

the

fix

final

that

already
intensifying
its inception,
Israel has been a state for the Jews.
in the law of return, guaranteeing
Jews, most
notably

It

immediate citizenship to any Jewish immigrant (although the defi

nition of a Jew is the subject of continuing controversy). Might
this change? Today,
one
while
Zionist,
Zionist.

Will

peace

should

longer
Arab?

a state
"There

democracy,"

part of
of every

the Jewish Left defines

itself
is an Arab?and
five Israelis

as post
a non

to persuade
that Israel at
the majority
they manage
a
state?no
denationalized
become
fully secular and
the Jews but a state of its citizens,
and
Jewish
as
no
is no Jewish democracy,
is
there
Islamic
just
a Jewish
veteran
"A state with
writes
of the Left.
of

if not racist laws, like the 'who is a Jew' law, or the

discriminatory
serious
law defining
the
still?a
law of return, or?more
present
a
not
state
state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people
of
(and
a
as in any normal
not
is
democratic
state."11
its citizens,
state),
so far has been

Post-Zionism
but

in a state

limited

to marginal

its appeal
of peace,
from
also be exerted

could

circles

of intellec

widen.

tuals,
for
the opposite
But pressure will
direction,
a
state:
its public
Israel is a state of the Jews, it is not
while
Jewish
an alliance
are secular. Will
of religious
law and state institutions
have the
believers
traditional
Zionists,
Jews, and ultra-Orthodox
political

clout

to Judaize

the

institutions

of

the

state?

The

same

East, Old and New

The Middle
rabbis who
warn

once warned

the PLO also

with
compromise
against
a secular
to
create
aims
that
trend
present
East'?a
into a 'new Middle
trend
is to blend

"the

against
here which

culture
which

will

cal borders,
could well

97

lead to assimilation."12
will

which
enhance

The
Israel

separate

of Israel's

definition
clearly

of more

the appeal

politi
its neighbors,
defined
cultural

from

strongly
the centuries.
by Judaism
through
saw an increase
in the support
for
Israel's May
choice.
this
just
advocating
parties
It still relies on the strongest
Israel thus stands at a crossroads.
role

borders?a

long played
1996
elections

consensus
in the Middle
East?the
and cultural
social,
in hostile
Its
democratic
of a small people
surroundings.
are resilient,
critical press,
institutions
and its multiparty
politics,

national,
cohesion
and

it as aWestern

define

free markets

an- expanding

by
provided
tains a comparable
over
Israel's debate

edge.
its own

has been
Ballast
country.
main
and Israel's military
economy,
makes
This underlying
self-confidence
far more

identity

than the struggles

violent,
underway
are close ones, and they
the parallels
of Israeli democracy
still lie ahead.
THE ARABS: DIVIDED

distant

Binyamin
Netanyahu
June, the first since
celebrated

in neighboring
countries.
that
the
suggest
greatest

tests

events

stirred

1990.

in verse,
in Cairo:

The

summit

conference
Nizar

poet
Syrian-born
Qabbani
to the assembled
in a poem addressed

has been able to remind you of

Netanyahu
of
the
your identity,
place and date of your birth, to
restore to you your Arab nationality,
it is
how beautiful
If Binyamin

what

he has done.

If this man
Arabism,

But

the memory
of a not-so
the Arabs.
The election
of

still moved
an Arab
prompted

the event

heads-of-state

less

IN INDECISION

two
last summer,
time when Arabism

In Cairo

and much

open,

has been able to restore

and the children of stones

the Arabs to their

to their childhood,

If he has been able to remind us of our names, and the

names of our fathers, and the names of our children,

in

98

Martin Kramer
A

thousand

to his arrival.

welcomes

this is the last occasion

Gentlemen,
before you become extinct.13
was

This

not

the only

the fortieth

summer

of love open

spasm
Abdul

of Gamal

anniversary
of the Suez Canal,
there premiered

to you

of nostalgia.
On July 26,
Nasser's
nationalization
a new

in Cairo

'56.

film, Nasser

The film packed theaters in Egypt and other Arab countries. The
celluloid

followed

Arab
Nasser,
Egypt's
combined
forces of British,

saga

maneuvered

paladin,

as he out

the
and Israeli
French,
was
no
there
license:
the
film
made
too,
Here,
aggression.
literary
mention
of Nasser's
failed Arab
the
sordid
socialism,
regime's
or the later debacle
to tell a clean tale
It preferred
of 1967.
prisons,
of Arabism's

in a drama

moment

golden

that

left many

in

viewers

tears.14

Arab

Arab
steadfastness
socialism,
unity, Arab
in Arabic
these were
the slogans
that resounded
this

The

Arabs

constituted

against
through

a nation,
their division

Israel?
most

of

the Arab

century.
argued
never accept
and must
nationalists,
by foreign pow
some
I division
War
ers?the
that created
twenty
post-World
states.
Nor
should
the
alien
of
presence
separate
Israel,
they accept
or the economic
models
of the imperialist West.
The Arabs
should
draw only on authentic
that made
the same sources
them
sources,
powerful
to achieve

through history. Arab

it, the Arab peoples

ship, and war.

But the reward
each Arab
its own

privileges
a cover

became
lence

state

of Arabs

had

to preserve.
for bullying
against Arabs.
became

became

and
power,
dictator
deprivation,
promised

up with

schemes
did not work:
unity
to
interests
each regime had
defend,
In many
the
places,
slogan of unity
The

and

aggression,
Arab
socialism
more
As

legitimizing
also proved

equal with
for the war

poorer.
they
and dangerous,
and nearly
costly
in spirit and in resources.15
both

collectively
selves,
Arab

came.

its own

some Arabs

dry well:
proved

never

nationalism
put

broke

the vio
to be a

one another,
but
to break
Israel, it
the Arabs
them

the battered
of an entire genera
nationalism,
preference
to feed mouths,
But
films.
still
and
the
tion, may
inspire poetry
now
states
must
The
latest "Unified
look elsewhere.
Arab
Arab
Economic

Report"

summarizes

the problem.16

Between

1980

and

The Middle East, Old and New

99

1994, the population of the Arab countries grew by 48 percent

(from 165 million to 245 million?as
though the Arab world
added another Egypt and a half). Its gross domestic product grew
a decline
15 percent.
in the
This has meant
of 22 percent
a
in
domestic
real
from
terms,
per capita gross
$2,600
product
a
a
to
states
the Arab
have become
year
year. As
$2,000
result,
on
more
to
the
outside
world
for
and
the means
dependent
goods
now
them.
Food
is
billions
of
dollars
short
of
acquire
production
by only

consumption;
can no longer
rapid

a part of the world

that was
do so. Both oil and non-oil
of debt.

expansion

to decline?and
source

energy
lands could
For
stood

diminished
end up very

sometime

in the next

Summit.
assembled

Cairo hosted

"the New
Here,
to do business:

have

hundreds,

continues

the third Middle

Hosni

Mubarak.

East Economic

as one journalist
called
Arabs,"
them,
"The New Arabs
lined the corridors
of

the Congress Center in [the Cairo suburb of] Heliopolis

with

itself
seen

Arab
century?the
of humanity.
hour, a truth under

the Arabs,
then, it may be the eleventh
nowhere
better than in the Egypt of President

Last November,

to feed

if the centrality of oil as an

to the bottom

close

able

producers
domestic
product

If the gross

it could plummet

once

tailored

in their

ties and

suits, quiet
exceptional
over Arabic
even when
prefer English
an
themselves."17
the Egyptian
among
True,
speaking
organizers
to create more Arab-to-Arab
nounced
that the objective was
links,
and that regional
not depend
economic
on
would
cooperation
"one particular
were
Israel.
But
too,
country"?meaning
Israelis,

English.

equipped
of

Many

them

in Cairo,
and there could be no doubt
that even Arab-to
present
Arab
links now depended
Eastern peace?and
Israel.
upon Middle
Yet while Arab pragmatists
behind
is
there
put ideology
them,
a
sense
in Arab
still an unease
most
that
the
flammable
lands,
fabrics

of

could
identity
called
Islamism

variously
made
sparks
same premises

be

set ablaze.

or

Islamic

In many
is
places, what
fundamentalism
has already
lands rests upon many
of the

in Arab
fly. Islamism
as Arab nationalism:
it too claims
that a return to
sources
to strengthen
authentic
is the only way
the Muslims
and
confer power
them.
But
to
more
Islamism
authen
upon
pretends
Arab nationalism,
its anti-impe
ticity than even Arabism.
despite
rialist posture,
its idea of the nation
borrowed
from Europe:
Arabs
one
one
thus
Arabs
formed
nation.
But
Islamism
spoke
language,

100

Martin Kramer

avows

not
is the basis of identity.
The
religion,
language,
of
Muslim
believers
constitutes
the
nation
and
the
community
as
it did for the first millennium
focus of natural
of
solidarity,
that

Islam.

This

hood,

Brother
goes back to the Muslim
in Egypt between
the world wars.
Since

in Arab

idea

who

lands

first organized

Islamism has found a following

the mid-1970s,
and

countries,

the most

it has become

in most Arab
form

widespread

of dissent.

But the appeal of Islamism also has its limits. Much

a certain

to do with

to

Islamism

proposes
extermination

"The

intensify
of the Jews

of Palestine,

the people

from

divorce

Syria,

changing
the Arab

realities.

of this has

Most

notably,
Israel.
against
struggle
on
is a specific obligation
placed

Jordan,

and Lebanon,"

Egypt

says

the exiled

leader of the Saudi Islamist opposition

in a typical

statement,

"because

Islamic

from

its roots

been

translated

in the heart

they

have

their

occupied

land."

law

to "destroy the Jewish entity and annihilate

obliges Muslims

Such words

through
holy war."18
into deeds, most
strikingly
of Israel's cities in the spring

sometimes

it

have

in the Hamas
of 1996.

bombings
The words
and

there
be a
sympathizers:
long will
sense among
of
the Arabs
that Israel is the offspring
profound
and
But
the
far
fewer
Arabs
Islamist
accept
aggression
usurpation.
of God,
would
claim that a pragmatic
compromise
defy the will
war"
risk the
and most
know well
that an Islamist
would
"holy
deeds

are

destruction

of

the

have

not

without

themselves.

the Arabs
sometimes

concluded,

an Israel
alongside
some power.

peace
ceded
But

Islamism

also

erects

ruefully,
that has parted

even deeper
resistance
among
another,
between Mus
is an ideology
of difference:
men
and women.
believer
and secularist,

stirs

Islamism
many Arabs.
lim and non-Muslim,
does not simply
Islamism
it also

erect

barricades

barricades

rael;
right
it arises,
it exacerbates
Everywhere
it the potential
of civil war.
ries with
it
in one Arab country,
Sudan?and
between

Muslims

of

aside, most Arabs

to live in
it is preferable
and
from some territory

Islamists
that

the north

between

Islam

the heart

through
those differences,
Islamists
Today,

of
and

and

Is

society.
so car

hold power
torn by civil war,
is a country
of the south.
and non-Muslims

to power
in one other Arab
country,
Alge
Islamists
that too is a land ravaged by civil war, between
ria?and
to unify,
in practice
which
and secularists.
Islamism,
pretends
Islamists

came

close

East, Old and New

The Middle

that has happened,

and where
themselves,
against
in lost lives, devastated
and
been immense,
homes,
economies.
the Islamists over the past few
regimes have rallied against
societies

divides

the costs
ruined
Arab

have

is now
years, and the initiative
success
is due to the effectiveness
due

small measure

in no

too

they

chant

solution,"
concluded

that

the
Islam,

problem.19
If Islamism

now

what

are

choices
on

nevertheless
fate

follows

and

put
by
For a brief moment,
macy.
we are Arabs,
the argument
Eastern
of which
"system"
ment

of

Sudan

Arabism

left? One

with

that privileges
Israeli economic

to establish

of their

But

it is also

suppression.
of millions
of dispossessed
resist the siren call of Islamism,
and Algeria.
"Islam
Arab Muslims
enough

the same

have

is one more

by the Islamists,
down

is the

road

to failure,

Easternism"
previously
American
peace
promoted
by
diplo
the Arabs
entertained
the option. Yes,
to aMiddle
but we also belong
went,

is the "Middle

Israel

the pace of the peace

"Middle Easternism"
became

elites,
as a framework

Much

of their

but
Islamists;
as understood

Israel

offer

in their hands.

back

to the choice

people who
suffer the

and alienated
lest

101

is also

a part.

But

as disillusion
into

process
seeped
It is now
discredited.

Israel and even as a dark

hegemony

over

the Arabs.

the Arab
regarded
conspiracy
(In book

stores in Arab capitals, The New Middle East has been spotted
often alongside The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.) At best,
"Middle

specific
for a new
mula
some

For
that

is seen as a necessary
in
plane of Arab policy
a
control
and water
As
for
sharing.
no resonance.20
level of identity,
it has almost

Easternism"
areas

links

In 1938,

as arms

such

in the Arab
at some

them

the Egyptian

lands, the preferred

the West.
level with

critic

and novelist

Taha

solution
The

idea

Husayn

is an identity
is not new.
published

book entitled Mustaqbal al-Thaqafa fi Misr (The Future of Cul

ture in Egypt). Husayn argued that Egypt and the neighboring
countries
culture.

to Europe
at the deepest
level of
belonged
as
had
been
identity
Europeans
suppressed
by
the East. But the eastern Mediterranean
drew

in the Levant
Their

true

from
conquerors
as Europe:
reservoirs
the same cultural
Greek
upon
philosophy,
come
Roman
to rejoin
Christian
time
The
had
law,
morality.
the artificial division
between East and West.21
Europe and demolish

102

Martin Kramer

form of what
Sixty years later, this idea takes the much modified
some Arabs
have called their "Mediterranean
Its discus
option."
sion was
above
the
Barcelona
Conference
of
all, by
prompted,
November

the members
of the
brought
together
twelve
from
the
southern
and
"partners"
Mediterranean.
The Barcelona
Declaration
initiated

1995,
Union

European
southeastern
what

is called

the "Euro-Mediterranean
in the

promote
culture.

the partnership
loans to Arab

partnership,"

and

now

"Mediterraneanism"

has moved

In every respect,
it is less threatening
In a broad Mediterranean
framework,
partner,
giant but one more
effectively

debate.

Easternism."
an economic

to

designed

of

countries.22

idea of

the Arab

fields

economics,
security,
is the creation
of a Euro
objective
zone
In
2010.
free-trade
the meantime,
by the year
avenue
has become
the principal
for EU aid and

cooperation
Its most
ambitious

Mediterranean

The

which

and

to the fore of
than

"Middle

Israel

is not

balanced

by
also marginalizes
The "Mediterranean
the United
option"
Europe.
States and offers a flicker of hope
that some kind of great power
into
the region
and enhance
be
reintroduced
Arab
rivalry might
But
is
vis-?-vis
Israel.
when
"Mediterraneanism"
maneuverability
as

does not go far, since nearly

the discussion
at
to
is
that it cannot
be an
pains
emphasize
analyst
to Arab-Islamic
advent
Since
the
of
Islam,
identity.23
not a bridge,
and so
between
the sea has been a boundary
cultures,
it remains.

discussed

identity,

every Arab
alternative

Indeed,

for Europe,

the point
not

of

the Barcelona

process
is to provide

is to

the
integration:
Europe
with
sufficient
food, housing,
jobs, and
sea as migrants.
cross
so
not
the
its
do
that
multitudes
hope
as the tension
so exposes
the myth
of the Mediterranean
Nothing
societies
the
host
of
Arabs
and
between
filled relations
migrant
promote
southern

separation,
Mediterranean

institutions work
If the Mediterranean's
southern Europe.
emerging
as they are intended,
free-trade
the
Euro-Mediterranean
especially
over
sea
a
trade
and
aid?but
the
for
will
area, they
open
bridge
it to people.
close
Still,
middle

is now the hope

with Europe
this cooperation
shores of the Mediterranean.
classes on the Arab

by burgeoning
besieged
people,
from
of resources
the infusion

of elites

and Islamist
populations
across
the sea might make

For

and
these

threats,
a differ

The Middle
ence. All
their

are that

indications

economies
not

tions will

"Mediterranean
eventually

East, Old and New

states

the Arab

that have

the cultural

develop

dimension

it now

these

reinforced

decades

or more

lacks.

to the Arabs

as part of the post-Cold

War West,
of Arab
the parameters
still determine
life who
to
ists tried
break
that monopoly,
but their
have
it, and the men who
to rule. With
continue

imagining

it is the leaders-for

themselves

two

liberalized

are poised
and that popula
for modest
growth,
as rapidly
in the next decades.
If so, the
expand
the
and may
could
jump-start
region
option"

But if there is one abiding obstacle

violence

103

The Islam
politics.
own
indiscriminate
ruled

the Arabs

for

each

year,
passing
the populations
grow ever
grow one year older while
is little sign that the rule of one man and one party
There
are elections
to collapse
in any Arab
nowhere
country;

leaders

younger.
is likely

held that could be described as free and fair. The Gulf War
followed

the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

is evidence
which
of

of governance,
But whatever

one

thinks

of Arab

had no effect

that

on this pattern

its tenacity.
authoritarianism?and

its fail

is responsible
for one basic transformation.
It
ings are legion?it
has established
the primacy
of the state in the hierarchy
of loyalties
in Arab
lands. For now and for the foreseeable
future, no other
can compete
the separate
with
pro
identity
effectively
identity
some
are
states.
of
moted
each
Arab
these
twenty
Yes,
by
people
are
But
and
the
Muslims.
for
of
great majority
purposes
Arabs,
most
to
call
themselves
identification,
political
prefer
Egyptians
and Iraqis, Jordanians
and Moroccans,
Palestinians
and Syrians.
In Arab

lands,

the state

is stronger

practical

loyalty
choice

it displays

power,
created

guarantees
powers
ex nihilo,
the focus of
yet they have become
or
most
for
is a
of their citizens
This
subjects.

patronage,
dispenses
of these states

many

than society:
order.24 Western

to avoid

it is identity by default.
choice;
of past ideologies,
is
this resolute
pragmatism
the one option
that has not been tried and found wanting.
If it
leaves even some parts of the Arab world more productive,
peace

pragmatic
Given

the failure

ever
it will have surpassed
ful, and stable,
every populist
ideology
in modern
framed
Such an outcome
Arabic.
would
itself constitute
a new order?not
a borderless
but a place where
borders
utopia,
are finally respected, where
state
reasons
is
where
every
legitimate,

104

Martin Kramer

of state

open

it is not

room

already

TURKEY AND
The

too

IRAN: GROWING

massive

pinkish
in Istanbul was

Sofya

The

for compromise.
late.

formula

work?if

might

DOUBTS

that
building
first consecrated

is now

the museum

in 537

as a cathedral

of Aya
by its

the Byzantine
the Ottoman
Justinian.
Emperor
Following
in
of the city
the Conqueror
transformed
1453, Mehmed
conquest
into a mosque.
the church
Mustafa
Kemal
Atatiirk
ordered

builder,

made

into

a museum

in 1934.

the many
reforms
complemented
a secular nation-state
that Turkey was
But
Aya

were

in the 1990s,
voices
be
made
Sofya again

into

it

of Aya
secularizing
Sofya
meant
to proclaim
of Atatiirk,
all
The

a part of Europe.
in Turkey
demanding
a mosque.
An Islamist party,
and

raised

that
the

(Welfare) Party, had gained strength in Istanbul, capturing

Refah

in 1994.
the municipality
for Muslim
worshippers;

An

area of the museum

was

marked

to broadcast

its minarets

off

the call

began
to prayer. This was but a prelude:
in December
1995, the Islamists
ever
in
and
their strongest
made
elections,
showing
parliamentary
Necmettin
its
first
had
Islamist
the
spring, Turkey
by
prime minister,
Erbakan.
It was

a striking paradox.
in favor of secularism

had made
the most
resolute
Turkey
in
of any Muslim
country.
Beginning
to
set
aside
intellectuals
the
the nineteenth
century,
began
long
to advocate
emulation.
of conflict with
"We are
Europe
history
we
one
to Europeanize,"
wrote
like it or not,
whether
bound,
choice

influential
Arab

books

can

fill our

thinker
and
brains

"Let us leave those

the century.
the
books which
modern
passionately

at the turn of
embrace
with

the

sciences

and

Surely, we
techniques.
in the West."25
Atatiirk

but
the Arabs,
these not among
a political
and ideological
this preference
program,
declaring
state that
to be a basic principle
national
of the Turkish
secularism
from the ruins of the Ottoman
he constructed
Empire. Republican
shall

find

made

Turkey's constitution

(Article 24) forbids "even partially basing

and legal order of the

the fundamental
social, economic,
political,
on
state
class was
also
tenets."
The Turkish
political
religious
to make modern
after
of
determined
part
Turkey
Europe?and,

of

the outbreak

the Cold

War,

105

East, Old and New

The Middle
part

of

the Western

In

alliance.

1952, Turkey was admitted to NATO as a full member.

But the identity chosen by republican Turkey in the first half of
in the latter half.
has come under mounting
this century
pressure
is the part
force has been rapid population
Istanbul
growth.
in Europe;
of Turkey
it has always worn Europe's
that lies physically
most
In 1970,
Its
is telling.
transformation
comfortably.
garb
was
over
in
Istanbul's
three
five
million;
1985,
million;
population

One

and

over

today,

ten million.

in Europe,
but its new
across Anatolia,
towns
and

religion

rural

soon

It will

inhabitants
where

tradition.

have

be the most
come

populous

from

is still rooted
identity
masses
are
These mobile

city
and

villages
in Islamic
the reason

in Europe
in
refuse to entertain
the inclusion
of Turkey
why many
are quick to summon
Union?a
in
the European
fact the Islamists
in turn, should reject Europe. Another
their argument
that Turkey,
an
factor has been the rise of Kurdish
separatism,
disintegrative
reminder
violent
as a homogeneous
two
Over
the past

often
tion

eroded.

that Turkey
nation-state

has

not

achieved

of Turkish-speakers.
consensus
the Turkish

decades,

full

integra

has

been

has cushioned
the
economy
slowly
rapidly
expanding
to
in
and
the
which
has
intervened
the
impact,
past
military,
maintain
in barracks
the core principles
of the state, remains
for
now. But the uneasy power-sharing
between
Islamist and secular
ist parties has brought
the competition
of identities
into the cabi
now
out
over
it
is
in
where
battles
domestic
and
net,
played
Islamist
The
of
the
half
has
Turkish
government
foreign
policy.
its NATO
especially
angered
its American
ally by flirtations
a
bloc of Muslim
put together

to Libya,
and
partners
by overtures
Iran. Now
it is busy trying to
with
with Turkey
countries,
developing

at its core, as an alternative

to the EU?although
these countries
is minuscule.
among
Turkey
percent
parties
character

trade

has not gone Islamist. The Refah Party won

just over 21
voters
the vote;
the vast majority
of Turkish
chose
over
over
not
that divide
issues but
the secular
many
of

of the state.

to describe
knows

the present

themselves

this well,

Even
in polls

and he has

of power
by the Islamists
Turkish
and Turkey
politics,

half

shown
has
now

Party's voters prefer

Prime Minister
Erbakan

of the Refah

as "secular."
due

caution.26

But

the sharing
of
rhetoric

the
already
changed
emits mixed
signals to its neigh

106

Martin Kramer

bors

and

the world.
in the

confidence

of Turks

minority
significant
made
by Atatiirk

choices

and

has

lost

his

generation;
throw open the issue of Turkey's
for renego
they would
identity
tiation.
If Turkey's
its
secular
democracy,
parliamentary
public
are ever cast into question,
and its Western
alliances
this
order,
would
Islamism's
since Iran's revolu
represent
greatest
triumph
the Cold War,
may
irony is that the West,
having won
see
see
more
to
drift
than
towards
Islam
Turkish
Turkey
prefer
cities.
drift into Europe's
migrants
Iran's own
Another
when
irony is that this comes at a moment
tion. The

of an Islamic

identity has been cast into doubt. There are no

in Iran, the electoral
for this generalization:
menu
not
The hopefuls
does
include avowedly
secular candidates.
to run in the March
who wished
1996 parliamentary
elections
choice

reliable

barometers

were

first vetted;
them
permitting
the cause

received

the

to say, none

stamp
openly

of approval
championed

of de-Islamization.

But evasion

of Islamic

Iranians

secular

only 60 percent
to run. Needless

Los Angeles.

strictures

conduct

The

themselves

clandestine

is rampant.
Behind
as they would

secular

society
regime does

closed doors,
or
in London
re
to
is impossible

not try. While

the
can
of
enforce
authorities,
morality
police,
in the streets, they cannot
them on people's
Islamic norms
impose
a
But
still has
broad-based
minds.
The
revolution
constituency.
the most
part, the
tens of thousands
with
for

press

and,

beneath

the surface,
they value.

what
As

in Turkey,

Iranians

secularism

seem

able

has

militant

the
nationalism,
millennia
people
represented
tive Arab

are and

roots.
nineteenth-century
a
secularists
militantly
adopted
for the complete
tone, calling

and
"The existence
of philosophers
religion.
of
existence
the
rendered
unnecessary,"
prophets

a leading secularizer.
than faith, and that

lieve."27 This

they

of

disestablishment
wrote

over who

in Iran had

In many
instances,
early Iranian
and even anti-Islamic
anti-clerical
learned men

divided

is more
honor
"They say that science
to understand
it is better
than to be

secularism

went

hand-in-hand

with

Iranian

a racially-based
Iranian
idea that there existed
In this view,
Islam
of Islam.
before
the advent

of a great Iranian civilization

the corruption
by primi
at no cultural
cost.28
It
could be discarded
influences.

East, Old and New

The Middle
The

to do just that, through

secular
attempted
to those undertaken
in Turkey.
Their
comparable

Pahlavi

dynasty

izing reforms
failure may be attributed
the enduring
ernization,
the
of
gance
monarchy?but
angry

at this forced

living

traditions
and

dynasties
esteem. One
two

107

causes?a

to many

smaller

of the Muslim

authority
by the mid-1970s,

redefinition.

The

and memories,
lost civilizations,

constituted
wrote

of West
the arro

clergy,
Iranians had grown
of their
denigration

regime's
its celebration

and

Islamist

revolutionary
characteristics:

base

of forgotten
on their self

an assault
that

Iranians

displayed

or even in some instances

from "self,"
(1) alienation,
"hatred,"
from their own religion, culture, worldview,
and character; and (2)
or even boastful pretension
a deep, obsessive,
to attachment
to the
and rootless and vulgar modernism.29
West,
to restore the lost self-esteem.
As Muslims,
he
were
God's
chosen
this
earth
them, they
put upon
people,
to right the wrongs
In a swift revolution,
done by the arrogant.
an Islamic state, and its leaders told its
Iran became
that as
people

Khomeini

promised

assured

Muslims

they had
first decade

The
was
the

assumed
of

the

by a radical
Islamic state. But

dominated
ideal

the

leading

role

in human

history.
decade?
republic?Khomeini's
to
Iran in the image of
remake
attempt
even Khomeini
realized
the dangers
of

Islamic

too far, and the effort was

transformation
pursuing
revolutionary
most
reason was
abandoned
Khomeini's
heirs.
The
by
important
economic.
Iran's population
from 35 mil
probably
skyrocketed
lion in 1979 to more
was
so
than 60 million
increase
The
today.
no
Iran's
that
to
clerical
had
leaders
choice
but
rapid
encourage
birth

control,

seek foreign
had been

that

companies
neurial
expatriates

who

investment

and Western

nationalized,
had fled. Under

Ali Akbar

Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
of the state. Clerics
ing principle
Islamization
has been restricted

loans, privatize
back entrepre
impetus of President

and woo
the

has become
the guid
expediency
to rule Iran, but effective
continue
to public morality
and some as

pects of foreign policy.30

so the Islamization
And
of Iran, like the secularization
of Tur
an
uneven
success
is
mix
of
In Iran, the failures
and failures.
key,
are easier to conceal:
are more
its elections
to read, and
difficult
discontent

is not

allowed

to show

itself

too openly

in the street

or

Martin Kramer

108

soon approach
the press. But the day will
when
mature
inhabitants
will be heirs to the revolution,

most
not

of

Iran's

its makers.

45 percent
is under
of the population
the age of seven
massive
born after the revolution.
Have
the
generation,

Today,
teen?a

in terms of Islam? Are

of identity
a new
ever? Or might
they embrace
to Iran and Islam? There
of allegiances

the redefinition
young
accepted
more
West-stricken
than
they
an amalgam
nationalism,
are no questions
about

the Middle

more

East

than

speculative

these.

MIDDLE
Is there

EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO
a "new Middle

in the making,
the fact that
despite
in
of ridicule
and suspicion
con
Eastern
of the Middle
East's
every Middle
language? Many
con
flicts have subsided.
The Arab-Israeli
and Palestinian-Israeli
the term

flicts,

itself has

the Lebanese

East"

the subject

become

civil war,

the Iran-Iraq war?these

costly

struggles

largely exhausted themselves by the close of the 1980s. The end of

the Cold War

to promote
these resolutions
by removing
local equations
and establishing
the United

did much
from

great power
rivalry
States as the dominant

back

arbiter.

discovered
Kuwait,
a guarantor
of the

invading
become

and put

in isolation,

Saddam
Iraqi president
too late that the United

regional
and order

status
has

it can be said of the Middle

Today

quo.
reigned

Hussein,
States

in
had

driven
Iraq was
ever since.

East that nearly all its

states on the map

self-determination.
The
enjoy
peoples
enjoy
more
are
are
their
still
borders
clearer.
There
keen
legitimacy;
to
rivalries
and suspicions,
and some states are using the moment
rearm for the next bout. The civil wars
in
by Islamism,
engendered
run on; the Kurdish
an open
Sudan and Algeria,
remains
question
wound.

But

century.

for the most

East

the Middle
Now

are more

they must

and

in most

the peoples
of
places,
at
in
time
than
this
any
independent
if they are to com
redefine
themselves

part

pete.

is a ruthless master.
compete
they must. Globalization
was
once
a
Middle
East
rich flow of oil revenues,
irrigated by
But
and their illusions
and arms; ideologies
grew luxuriant.
And

are gone. The Middle

East strains under
must
that
be
fed, clothed,
housed,
populations

days

the weight

of

schooled,

and

The
aid,
those
large
em

109

East, Old and New

The Middle

ployed. If the Middle East is to take off, it cannot wait much

longer. At the beginning of this century, the Middle East stood
less on

or

more
America.

It has

In most

that

they must
they must

to survive.

become
at least
ancient

their
before;
successive
the

derway

under
completely
Christian
Romanization,

the

as modernization.
East

if not

submerged

of Hellenization,
It is now
Islamization.

generically
in the Middle

in this global
era,
themselves.

means,

their policies,

waves

and

ization,
marketed

ones.

East have redefined themselves

were

identities

are pragmatic

of people who will become

That

secularize

inhabitants of the Middle

The

Asia
and Latin
run a much
swifter race.

underway

East is home to millions

The Middle
who

the preparations

places,

as East

same starting
line
far behind and must

the

fallen

for two

turn

of Westernization,
has been
process

The

in fits and

centuries,

un

starts.

Its

peoples have tinkered with it in the hope that it could be made less
destructive
compromise
tion. Now
individuals

the most
part, the result has been a
or preserve
to sustain modernity
tradi
cannot
be deferred much
and
the choice
many
longer,
it.
have already made
of

latter

are

For

failed

is underway,
there are winners
and losers.
their
faith from
ideologizing
religion,
transforming
to
it
the whole
of
while
that faith
identity
reducing

the

Wherever
The

tradition.

that has

a part of their
to one unalloyed
for Jews. In each

race

"Law"

for Muslims,
the "Land"
it will
the
secular
choice:
setting,
they challenge
do too little for too few of us; better to run a different
race, from
we
a
create
us
cannot
rich society,
the inside track. If
let
establish
a just one, for we have a blueprint
in the Qur'an;
if other peoples
refuse

element?the

to love us,

let us love the land,

weakness

of

for we

have

a title deed

in the

Bible.
One
cannot
violent
ment

is that those who make

it
of appeal
the region's
cultural boundaries.
Any two
and a Jewish fundamentalist
may comple

this kind

across
cooperate
deeds by aMuslim
one another,
but

their

authors

cannot

coordinate

their

ef

forts, because they are divided by the deepest of all hatreds. This
so for their opponents.
the region,
strung out across
is not

fer, debate,
erate. They,
cannot

They
linked

disagree,
exchange
too, are not above

be defined

only

inhabit

by whirring

information,
nationality
and

by nationality

a kind

of archipelago,
con
They

faxes.

communicate,
coop
and religion,
but they
and they now
religion,

110

Mart?n Kramer

appear

to have

theMiddle
But

that

constant

in the debate

edge

over

the future

course

of

East.
debate
will

antagonists
the Middle

a slight

East

if it can be won
at all. The
over,
local victories
here or there. But
has always
been a zone of unsettled
of
identities,
new religions
that once produced
and that now
is far from

be able

to claim

quests
new
resurgences.
if it is to expand,

to be sub
is not
archipelago
must
more
its denizens
merged,
produce
growth,
more
and more
In
than
their
rivals.
the
timeless
progress,
hope
a
race
Middle
that
will
time.
be
East,
against
produce

If the

ENDNOTES
Theodor
lishing

Old-New
Herzl,
and Herzl
Press,

Land,

trans.

1960).

For

the time, see Amos Elon, Herzl

Lotta

Levensohn

Bloch
Pub
(New York:
at
in its context,
and the reactions

the book

(New York: Holt, Reinhart andWinston,

1975),

347-351.

2Shimon Peres with Aryeh Naor, The New Middle East (New York: Henry Holt,
1993).
3Shimon Peres, Battling
Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
4On

for Peace: Memoirs,

1995), 355.

ed. David

London
of the term, see Roger
Adelson,
history
East: Money,
1902-1922
and War,
Power,
22-26.
Press,
1995),
University

the early
the Middle

Yale

Landau
and
(New

(London:

the Invention
Haven,

of

Conn.:

5For an ideal telling, see Bernard Lewis, The Middle East: 2000 Years of History
from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day (London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson,
1995); for the last two centuries, Bernard Lewis, The Shaping of the
Modern Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
6On the different strands of Zionism,
(Hanover,

N.H.:

University

Press

see Gideon

of New

England

Shimoni, The Zionist

for Brandeis

Ideology
Press,

University

1995).
7On

this view

in the pre-1967

period,

see Emile

Marmorstein,

Heaven

at Bay:

The

in theHoly Land (London: Oxford University Press, 1969).

Jewish Kulturkampf
8On the post-1967 period, see Ehud Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel's Radical
Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). Another convenient point of
entry to the subject is the five collected volumes produced by The Fundamental
ism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and published by the
University

of Chicago

Press

under

the

editorship

of Martin

E. Marty

and

R.

Scott Appleby.
9Hanan Porath, writing in 1986, quoted by Ian Lustick, For the Land and the Lord:
in Israel (New York: Council on Foreign Relations,
Jewish Fundamentalism
84.
1988),

111

The Middle East, Old and New

10Ruling by the Union of Rabbis for the People and Land of Israel, 11 November
1993, quoted by Samuel C. Heilman, "Guides of the Faithful: Contemporary
Religious Zionist Rabbis," in Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist
Leaders of theMiddle East, ed. R. Scott Appleby (Chicago, 111.:University of
Chicago Press, 1997), 350-351.
nYosef

"A Painful

Ben-Tal,

the Consensus,"

from

Separation

Ha'aretz

(Tel Aviv),

10 January 1997.
"Guides of the Faithful," 351.

12Quoted by Heilman,

13NizarQabbani, poem in Al-Hayat

(Washington), 15 July 1996.
14For a report
15For a fuller

on

the film,

see The Washington

of the crisis

discussion

Nationalism: Mistaken

(London), translated in The New Republic

of Arab

1996.

28 August

Post,

see Martin

nationalism,

"Arab

Kramer,

122 (3) (Summer 1993): 171-206.

Identity," Dcedalus

16The report is analyzed by Rami G. Khouri, "The Arab Nation: Trends, Assets,
Directions," Jordan Times (Amman), 2 April 1996.
17EhudYa'ari, "The New Arabs," The Jerusalem Report, 12 December
18Dr.Muhammad al-Mas'ari in Al-Huquq
don), 22 June 1996.
19For an

of

interpretation

Islamism,

1996.

(London), quoted in The Times

see Martin

Arab

Kramer,

(Lon
and

Awakening

Is

lamic Revival: The Politics of Ideas in theMiddle East (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction
tant

Dcedalus

141-159.

1996),

Publishers,
see Gilles

settings,

recent

For
versus

"Islamists

Kepel,

developments
in Egypt
the State

in two impor
and Algeria,"

124 (3) (Summer 1995): 109-127. The literature on the subject is vast;

a convenient

point

of

entry,

is the

of

see
the debate,
al-wahid?

again,

of The

volumes

Fundamentalism

Project.
20For

current

the

state

Hal

Awsatiyya:

hiya

Salama

The Future
21Taha Husayn,
D.C.:
American
Council

of Culture
of Learned

Ahmad

Salama,

(Cairo: Markaz

al-khiyar

trans.

in Egypt,
Societies,

al-Ahram,

ed.,

Al-Sharq
1996).

Sidney Glazer
(Washington,
For the many
Egyptian

1954).

criticisms of the book, see Israel Gershoni and James P. Jankowski, Defining the
Egyptian Nation 1930-1945
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995),
51-52.
22For the
"The

state

of

the Barcelona

"process"

Euro-Mediterranean

an EU point

from

in Anders

Partnership,"

see Juan
of view,
and J?rgen

Prat,
Bask

Jerichow

Simonson, eds., Islam in a Changing World: Europe and theMiddle East (Rich
mond,
23See

the

Surrey:
"file"

Curzon,
of

157-163.

1997),
on

articles

in Al-Siyasa

"Mediterraneanism"

al-Duwaliyya

(Cairo) (124) (April 1996): 70-137.

24The argument

that

the Arab

Ayubi, Over-Stating
(London:
seated,

but

I. B. Tauris,
can
neither

state

is not

"strong"

but

"hard"

the Arab State: Politics and Society

1995).
they

True,
transform

argues
society.

Ayubi,

the

ismade

by Nazih

in the Middle

regimes

cannot

N.

East
be

un

112

Martin Kramer

25H?sayin Cahit, quoted by Niyazi Berkes, The Development

key (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1964), 299.
26For

two

interim

see

assessments,

Sabri

Sayari,

"Turkey's

of Secularism inTur
Islamist

Challenge,"

East Quarterly 3 (3) (September 1996): 35-43; and Alan Makovsky,

"Assessing the Intentions of Turkey's Refah Party," Muslim Politics Report 10

Middle

1996):

(November-December

1-2,

5.

27Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, quoted by Mangol Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent:
Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University
Press, 1982), 158.
28On

the

attempt

to

justify

this

nationalism

Vaziri, Iran as Imagined Nation:

York: Paragon House, 1993).

through

The Construction

see Mostafa

historiography,

of National

Identity (New

29Ali Shari'ati, quoted by Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent: The Ideological

Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York: New York University
Press, 1993), 122.
30On

the revolution's

compromises,

see Ervand

Abrahamian,

Khomeinism:

Essays

on the Islamic Republic (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1993),

132-143; and Anoushiravan Ehteshami, After Khomeini: The Iranian Second
Republic (London: Routledge, 1995).