الحرب العربية الباردة و الكيان الفلسطيني 1958-1967

Other Title(s)

The Arab cold war and the Palestinian entity 1958-1967

Dissertant

أبو شخيدم، أشرف رشاد

Thesis advisor

باومغارتن، هلغى

Comitee Members

النمر، سونيا
مسيس، نديم

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Department

International Studies

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2003

English Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the foundation of the PLO and thus the establishment of a Palestinian entity as the basis for a future Palestinian State, which took place in the context of the Arab regional system.

One central question deals with the problem of creating a new state within an established regional system existing of a fixed number of states which in turn do not look favorably on the creation of a new state in their midst.

Their attitude to this potential new state is derived from their attempt to preserve the national interests of each single state (measured by its political, economic and social power and power position within the regional system) as a component of the regional system.

The two major organizations constituting the Palestinian National Movement at the time, Fateh and Harakat al-Qaumiyyin al-'Arab, moved within the confines of this regional system, and developed, based on their historical and ideological background, two different political trajectories.

Fateh proposed a trajectory contained within the slogan "liberation is the road to unity", while harakat al-qaumiyyin al-'Arab proposed a slogan directly opposed to the one of Fateh, i.e.

"unity is the road to liberation".

Between 1958 and 1967 both Palestinians and Arab States began to focus more and more on the problem of Palestine, its future and the idea of a Palestinian entity.

All this happened in the context of a focus on Arab nationalism as led by the Egyptian President Jamal Abdel Nasser.

The starting point for this period was the creation of the United Arab Republic based on the unity between Egypt and Syria.

The period ended with the 1967 war, the catastrophic Arab defeat, which constituted a major defeat for Arab nationalism.

All this had without doubt a deep impact on the future development of the Palestinian question.

The thesis is based on the working hypothesis that the struggle for the establishment of a Palestinian entity, as lead by the two major organizations within the Palestinian National Movement, had to be led within the context of the Arab regional system.

This meant not only that most of the Arab states, political movements and parties as well as political leaders influenced these Palestinian aspirations.

Also, the Palestinian struggle for an entity and, in the final resort, for a state, was directly impacted by the conflicting interests of Arab states as represented by the different Arab leaders.

Without doubt all these intervening factors led to a delay in the creation of a Palestinian entity.

The major players in the conflict revolving about a future Palestinian entity were on the one hand Egyptian President Jamal Abdel Nasser as the leader of the revolutionary bloc, on the other hand the Saudi King Saud Bin Abdel-Aziz, the leader of the conservative or reactionary bloc.

Both blocs are separated also by their respective shared ideologies.

So we have on the one hand republican states with a radical Arab nationalist ideology and a clear anti-Western political outlook like Syria, Iraq and Egypt.

On the other hand, we find monarchies or kingdoms with a very pro-western outlook and a basically conservative ideology such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The approaches and theories applied in this thesis are the regional-system approach, as developed by Ali Eddin Hilal and Jamil Matar, as well as realist theory, which when taken together propose that the behavior of states, their decision making and their policies in general have to be interpreted and analyzed base on the strive for power, the implementation of national interests, as well as the maintenance of the balance of power within the regional system.

All Arab states, irrespective of their ideological background, instrumentalized the Palestinian question for the furthering of their own interests.

They made use of the Palestinians' quest for an entity in order to reinforce their own power and to maintain the existing balance of power within the regional system.

Main Subjects

Political Sciences

No. of Pages

173

Table of Contents

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Language

Arabic

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-680458