We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Upheaval and the Return of Pan-Arabism

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya from Voltaire

I'm not sure how useful his categories of Arab states are, but this article provides a very useful and succinct report on the current state of unrest in the various countries of the region. It also illustrates the favorite strategy of the US-European-Israeli axis, like all hegemonies, to maintain their rule in the region: divide and conquer. He suggests that a new pan-Arabism is forming to counter this.
The interests of the U.S. government, Brussels, and Israel are to keep the Arabs in a feeble state and divided. There is, however, a new dynamic that is emerging in the Arab World. It is this new dynamic that is emerging from these upheavals and protests that will challenge the Yinon Approach that is continuously being implemented against the Arab peoples. Pan-Arabism is this new dynamic and it has made its return as a potent force. The trend of decades of divisions can eventually be reversed. Nor will the issue of Palestine be left in the hands of outside powers for much longer.