The path to the national state

In continuation of last Sunday's article on “the struggle for the national state,” the path to it is not difficult to achieve success in the four countries: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Whether the leadership is in the hands of the Prime Minister, Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi, the Head of State, President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, President Joseph Aoun, or the President of the Yemeni Presidential Council, Dr. Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, “What makes them pass through the same stage is that the path to salvation comes from restoring national identity and the path to the national state. Both tasks focus first on weapons and the state’s ability to obtain a monopoly on the legality of weapons; Secondly, starting a comprehensive national project for development, progress and catching up with the contemporary world. The four created an Arab political movement based on the major developments that took place in the current Arab environment, in which the Arab Gulf states entered the circle of national states spread in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. And those that are still drowned and destabilized in Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and unfortunately Palestine as well.

The success of these countries will constitute a great success for the Arab and Middle Eastern region, and push it towards the peace represented by the Egyptian and Jordanian experiences with Israel, in which occupied lands were restored. On the other hand, moving on a legitimate path of construction and reconstruction that provides national interests with their nourishment in raising new generations comes in an era in which the speed of change in the direction of progress has become faster and richer than ever before. Instead of creating it based on isolation and isolation into the local self, where the past is monopolized and not the patriotism that comes with the future. The story in our region is not unique. Historically, the birth of national states came with a great rush during the nineteenth century when the French Revolution took place, and the Napoleonic Wars broke out, which exploded the sources of the national state on the shoulders of historical figures such as Bismarck in Germany (1871) and Garibaldi in Italy (1861). The Eastern European and Balkan countries' delay in building the national state paid heavy prices as a result of the delay, which they did not escape until after the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union.

It seems that the current experience of the Arab countries is the product of the current stage in the region, when the military militias affiliated with Iran in one area led to aggression against the merit of the ruling system that has been established in the country since independence. On the other hand, the enormous pressures generated by the American-Iranian war added pain to previous pressures and wars, as the result was the search for another way to overcome political and economic exhaustion. The path of the national state has become the path to what we see in the four countries, first by restricting weapons to the national state alone. Syria followed this path with determination until it surrendered all its weapons to the SDF. When the Syrian President spoke at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, it was an extensive report on the construction and urbanization that had been achieved. Secondly, it has become common in leaders’ statements to focus on “national identity” as a center for citizens without discrimination on ethnic, sectarian, or sectarian grounds. The attempt was not without mistakes, as happened in Syria towards the Latakia region, and in southern Syria, but the outcome remained positive in which the state and its agencies learned. In Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, the issue is still more difficult, and if Hezbollah shrank slightly, the Houthis began a civil war and intense aggression against the Yemeni state and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The experience of striving towards a national state despite its apparent positive trends; At the same time, it faces daunting difficulties in Sudan, Somalia, and within the Palestinian arena. It is also oscillating in Libya between reliance on oil and its high prices to maintain the industrial survival of Libya’s name, and the international movement that is content with preventing conflict. Such a situation requires the Arab countries and the Arab League to focus efforts on this front on withdrawing legitimacy from the military militias. And redoubling efforts to provide aid, training, and technical assistance to the Arab authorities that have accepted national state building as the cornerstone of state building. It is clear that the four countries with which we began the discussion have tried and are trying to benefit from the Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian and Moroccan experiences, whether related to modernity programs, identity building, penetrating the state’s territory, mobilizing national resources, and attracting youth participation.

The major problem will remain in the Palestinian situation, which still suffers from severe division geographically between Gaza and the West Bank, politically between Fatah and Hamas, and economically between those who survived the Israeli fire and those who are experiencing the Palestinian Nakba again. However, the awaited legislative elections represent an advanced national opportunity towards building the Palestinian national state by first achieving superior popular participation in the elections so that the Palestinian people are liberated and messages are given to the world and Israel that the national state will be brought by the Palestinian people to the election ballots. In other words - secondly - that the Palestinian people will also be exposed to a major electoral test when they elect those who are capable of building a state and not those who are active in building cemeteries!

Quoted from “Al-Masry Al-Youm”