Pan-Arab passion and anti-Western hatred have never translated into unified political action

Evidence

Another myth that is being reluctantly relinquished concerns the strength and effectiveness of pan-Arabism or, as it is sometimes expressed, of the Arab world. No one could dispute the passionate belief of the Arabs in their common cultural identity; few would question the hatred for the West that still dominates much of their public life. Yet neither the passion nor the hatred has provided a usable political force. Time and time again the pundits have warned that this or that action or policy would raise the whole Arab world in arms against us— but it did not happen. Even such events as the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to expel the PLO in 1982 raised barely a ripple in Arab countries, where for the most part they were received with almost total indifference. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1724

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the reader’s pattern of attention to managed ethnicity and identity politics across the library — the gap between cultural identity and political agency resembles themes in The Namesake. — connects to: Reports of pan-Arabism’s death are recurrent but so far premature — Youssef Cherif, Neo-pan-Arabism: a renewed contract of…, 37