Left Turn in the Middle East

THE RECENT assassination of Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt in Lebanon, deliberations of the Palestine National Council, and heated reactions on all sides to President Carter's recent pronouncements on a Middle East settlement are the latest reminders of the complexity and frustration of Middle Eastern politics. But despite the fact that the battle lines have always been complex and have become increasingly fragmented and radicalized over time, Americans still tend to regard the ongoing stalemate in the Middle East simplistically as a conflict between "the Jews" and "the Arabs."

Yet, in Israel, between various Arab regimes and--perhaps least visible--within the Arab nations themselves, there exist tense clashes of opinion and action, regarding specific internal social and political problems as well as the common dilemma of Palestine. The failure of diverse blueprints for settlement testifies to the multiplicity of demands, emotions, political platforms and ideological stances in the region--a diversity which non-Middle-Easterners have frequently tried to ignore.

In the Arab world, increasing frustration with bad social conditions and with the insensitivity of big power politics has yielded new political groupings along the entire spectrum of political thought and action. Tareq Y. Ismael asserts in The Arab Left that one contributory element to this political polarization is the United States' refusal to recognize the aims and determination of the Palestinians. This is coupled with Washington's continued support for conservative Arab regimes. The tenacity of such regimes, the festering thorn of Israeli occupation, and American policy towards the Middle East in general have all fostered the growth of Arab leftist movements which are becoming more intransigent and more hostile towards the West every day. Thus, Ismael implies that American concern for stability and peace in the area should be matched by an awareness of the genesis and development of the Arab left.

Ismael, a political science professor at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) is the author of several previous books on Middle Eastern politics. He offers a concise guide to the labyrinthine "Arab Left" and its evolution into what he identifies--unclearly until almost the end of the book--as the "New Arab Left." Ismael's study maps out the origins and development of several specific "Leftist" organizations, summarizes their ideological and organizational roots and then briefly discusses the transition to a "New Left." The author unifies separate essays on several organizations by analyzing each group's response to three common policy areas: Arab unity, the Palestine conflict, and socialism. The emerging picture is one of constant flux--groups coalescing and diverging on one issue or another, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in combat, multiplying through fusion and fission into a greater variety of political forums.

Ismael traces the evolution of leftist political organization from the Arab nationalist movement of the pre-World War II era--essentially an elitist, liberalist, Western-looking intellectual discipline--to the growth of socialist doctrine in the Arab world. He is careful to dissociate Arab "socialism" and "communism" from their terminological counterparts elsewhere. Arab socialists have often advocated private ownership (albeit regulated) as necessary for economic development; Arab communists have been wary of aligning themselves with communist states, preferring instead to regard Marxist-Leninist dogma as a malleable, practical tool for national progress and liberation rather than as an ideological ultimate in itself.

In stressing the difficulties of clearly identifying an "Arab Left" the author points out the dangers of political labels in general. First, political labels in the Arab world are not necessarily comparable to those elsewhere; second, it is difficult to define what being "leftist" actually means in Egyptian, Syrian, or Iraqi politics. After scanning the turbulent skies of this aspect of Arab politics, no matter how clearly it is presented, one begins to regret ever having used the terms "right" and "left" for any political grouping, anywhere.

The "New Left," Ismael says, emerged as a response to the failure of pro-Palestinian forces in 1967 to wage war successfully against Israel and the forces of world (mostly U.S.) imperialism which she represents to the "New Left." While the roots--and, indeed, the actual formation--of various leftist groups had become implanted in the Arab world a decade before the June 1967 War, the failure of those groups to clearly define and/or implement their ideology had generated political weakness and ideological dissatisfaction.

The sense of political impotence created a multiplicity of new formations, as organizations like the Ba'ath and the Arab Nationalist Movement, which had tried to embrace all manner of political belief under their own banners, split under the pressures of new demands, new political methods, and an increasing attention to stricter ideological definition. Thus, the "New Arab Left," which Ismael finally defines as "those new parties and/or organizations that publicly and unequivocally declare adherence to Marxism-Leninism" is the offspring of political events and older organizations which intensified dissatisfaction with the status quo, rather than quelling it.

Often lacking well-developed institutional or ideological bases, political formations in the Arab world have frequently depended on personalities. Much of recent political formation in the Arab world has been a response towards or away from the actions and words of Gamal Abdel Nasser. The chapter on Nasserism (written by Jacqueline Ismael) gives another focus to the subject. That movement exemplified the complex and often vaguely-defined nature of political alliances in the Arab world, for "while Nasser lived, Nasserism meant most directly the leadership of Nasser. As an ideology, it remained incoherent, as a movement, unorganized." The survival of such groups beyond the lifetime of their founders is, of course, a central question. However, what Nasserism means for Arab political development now is uncertain, for the post-Nasser movement is in flux.

Thorough documentation of Arabic sources and frequent quotations from the political broadsheets of each organization has enhanced Ismael's effort to communicate the shades of tone and policy among and within diverse organs of the Left. In addition, the Appendices--translations of the Ba'ath Constitution and excerpts from manifestos of other groups--are useful source material, much of it never before available in English. Ismael's book is thus both a solid source guide to the development of certain leftist political organizations in the Arab world and a concise, not too formidable, introduction to a confusing subject.

POLITICAL ANALYSIS frequently seems out of touch with events in time. But, while the business of ideological pronouncements and shifting alliances among radicalized elements in the Arab world seems by its very complexity to preoccupy its adherents, paradoxically choking effective action, Ismael would have us believe (and rightly so) that the flowering of such groups carries a message which ought to shake the Western Powers out of complacency, compelling them to reexamine their own alliances and operational stances. "In a word, if the sufferings of the Arab masses are not alleviated and if the basic aspirations of these masses are not considered, it is to be expected that the extremist violent politics, including those of the New Arab Left, will sustain, flourish, and perhaps, dominate the politics of the area."