Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Arab Contribution...
...Kuwatly-Nuri plan was less spacious, more workable, stood a better chance of success. It aimed to reunite into a Greater Syria Federation four countries-Syria, the Lebanon, Palestine, Trans-Jordan-that had formed part of the old Ottoman Empire. Arab unity would be achieved in two stages: 1) the Greater Syria move under an agreed form of government; 2) a larger League of Arab States, to which the new Greater Syria and Iraq would immediately adhere. Other Arab States might come in when they wished...
Problems. No one knew better than the three men how great were the obstacles confronting any architects of Arab unity: the dynastic rivalries of the Middle East, its feudal economies, the age-old jealousy between the men of the desert (Bedouin) and of the city (effendi). And there is the ever-present prickly problem of the Jewish and Christian minorities...
...Lebanese Christians who fear engulfment in a Moslem bloc, the Greater Syria plan offers a "privileged" regime. To the 600,000 Jews of Palestine the plan promises "semi-autonomy" inside the larger Arab framework, with Jewish local government in predominantly Jewish areas (e.g., Tel-Aviv), but Arab government elsewhere...
Prospects. Great Britain, principal partner in all Arab enterprises in the Middle East, once looked favorably on the idea of Arab unity, which might have buttressed Arab loyalty to the Crown in the dark days when Rommel was at El Alamein. Now latest reports had it that the British approved only religious, cultural and economic ties, would frown on wartime political unions...