Word: arabized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Thus, two almost indistinguishable Pan-Arabist doctrines lead to diametrically opposed outcomes: Mr. Ben-Gacem's to a Saladinesque Arab utopia, and Saddam's to the wholesale destruction of Kuwait and, consequently, Iraq. In short, Pan-Arabism is a destructive political theory because it bills itself as a moral imperative without regard to the morality of its consequences...
Happily, the spectre of Pan-Arab nationalism is hardly as threatening as Mr. Ben-Gacem's article might lead us to believe. "Dear Bader," his article intones insultingly, "the Arab masses are united. Maybe if you hadn't lived in Belgium for 12 (sic--it was only three) years you would understand what I am talking about...
...look at reliable statistics, however, suggests otherwise. According to Professor Tawfic Farah's survey of 1393 students from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, the U.A.E., Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, only 36 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement that the Arab world extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf; 64 percent disagreed. Concludes Professor Farah, "This is surprising, considering the fact that this is what students are taught in school and hear repeatedly in the media. It is consistent, thought, with the students' general tendency to reject the idea of Pan-Arabism...
...demise of the Pan-Arab dream evident in these surveys is hardly a recent phenomenon. According to Professor Fouad Ajami, the victory of the more "local" Ibn Saud over the "pan-Arab" Shariff Hussein half a century ago may be regarded as the first victory of the state over transnationalism. Dr. Ajami and other experts on the region have interpreted the chronic instability of Lebanon as yet another manifestation of the erosion of Pan-Arabism...
...Gacem claims that Pan-Arabism is "only rooted in the Arab masses," and that "it is exploited by their authoritarian dictators to manipulate people for their own sake." Only the second half of his claim is believable; Saddam Hussein shamelessly exploited Pan-Arab nationalism in his quest to decimate Kuwait and the unscrupulous King Hussein of Jordan invoked the same principle to aid Saddam's brutality surreptitiously, probably in violation of U.N. sanctions against Iraq. Ironically, Pan-Arabism, or what is left of it, has thus become almost synonymous with inter-Arab rapacity...