LIMITED MONARCHIES, INC.
THE merger of Jordan with Iraq should not be I regarded as the culmination of the historic Hashemite dream—the 'fertile crescent' from the Persian Gulf to the Bay of Haifa, which Hussein's and Feisal's great-grandfather dreamt of, plotted for, and would have fought for had be dared. So would his sons after him; certainly King Abdullah cherished the dream until his death. In the end, however, the union that was once so ardently desired has been forced on the two young kings. Hussein had to achieve some form of union with Iraq or succumb to his people's yearning for union with Egypt and Syria.
Jordan's affinity with Syria is close and under- standable; indeed the frontier dividing the two States is arbitrary and illogical. Not only the same sort of people live to the north and south of it but often people from the same family. T. E. Lawrence considered Jerusalem to be a Syrian city and marked as Syria's southern border the town of Ma'an, now far to the south in Jordan. If this be true, then all Jordan today should lie within Syria. The eflendis of Es Salt, Nablus, Irbid and Damascus are all of a type—passionate, politically minded, clever and shallow. They have little in common with the bird-witted nomads of the desert or with the slow-witted fellahin of Iraq.
It is only when the throne and army come into it that the connection between Jordan and Iraq becomes clear. Hussein and Feisal are first cousins; even more importantly, Jordan's beauti- ful and clever Queen Mother, Zeine, is sister to Abdul'illah, Crown Prince of Iraq as well as one of its eldest statesmen. The Sharif Nasir, Hussein's Court Chamberlain and a man of great influence, was an officer in the Iraq Army before he joined the Arab Legion. The ruling families of Jordan and Iraq are joined as closely as aristocrats are anywhere, be they Bourbons or Hashemites.
The two armies are linked partly by their com- mon tradition, which stems from British instruc- tors in the past, and partly because they fought side by side against the Jews in 1948, when the Iraqis were the only troops among their allies for whom the Arab Legion had a good word to say. There was, even so, an occasion when an under- strength Arab Legion battalion had to attack to rescue the Iraqi brigade. . . . But the Iraqis did fight, which is more than the Syrians and Egyp- tians did. Moreover, Glubb Pasha first came to Jordan from Iraq and the first recruits to his Desert Patrol were Iraqi Bedouin who had fol- lowed him across the desert—men of the Dhafir and Shammar who later rose to be the first Bedouin lieutenant-colonels in the Arab Legion. Not surprisingly they were the first to be sacked by Ali abu Nuwar when his star was in the ascen- dant. They must be congratulating themselves now.
It remains to be seen whether this union of two thrones and two armies is going to be strong enough to withstand popular feeling. There is a passionate desire for union in Arabia today. It would be folly to underrate this feeling simply because the Arabs often seem to make a mess of everything. We are far too apt to judge them by Western standards and these are not necessarily the right standards; what fits fine in Manchester looks ludicrous in Mosul. Every Arab, literate and illiterate, yearns passionately for Arab unity and the image of that unity is Colonel Nasser in his Western suit (double-breasted Italian style), flash- ing his gold-toothed 'you like to see my pictures?' smile. Nasser's very origins—his flamboyance— the way he rose to power—all appeal to the ordin- ary Arab who finds him a much more human and appealing figure than the young kings with their hidebound courts, fast cars and affection for night clubs. Who ever heard of Gamal Nasser taking a holiday in Switzerland or Paris?
We tend to praise the things we like and damn the things we don't. It is natural, therefore, to welcome Jordan's union with Iraq and look askance at Egypt's union with Syria. Yet if we think that the former is a less artificial creation than the latter we are mistaken. Neither union rests on any more secure a basis than common religion, language and interest. The most natural union of all would have been between Syria and Jordan, but that was damned from the start by the Sykes-Picot agreement, and its time is not yet. The success or failure of the two Arab Unions will depend in the long run on the Head of the State- Feisal & Hussein, Limited Monarchies, Incorpor- ated; or Nasser, 'the sky's the limit' man. There must be a good many people in Beirut at this moment watching the state of the course and pre- paring to plank down their money the moment the winner is certain.
Previous page
