Rethinking Nasserism


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Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser greets a little girl. From Al-Musawwar, Cairo, 1959.











Rethinking

Nasserism

Revolution and Historical Memory in Modern Egypt






edited by Elie Podeh and OnnWinckler


















University Press of Florida
Gainesville - Tallahassee - Tampa - Boca Raton
Pensacola - Orlando - Miami - Jacksonville - Ft. Myers



















Copyright 2004 by Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rethinking Nasserism : revolution and historical memory
in modern Egypt / edited by Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8130-2704-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Egypt-History-Revolution, 1952. 2. Nasser, Gamal
Abdel, 1918-1970. 3. Egypt-Politics and government-
1952-1970. 4. Arab nationalism-Egypt.
I. Podeh, Elie. II. Winckler, Onn.
DT107.83.R45 2004
962.05'2-dc22     2003070525

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Contents


List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Foreword by Gabriel Ben-Dor ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xvii

Introduction: Nasserism as a Form of Populism 1
   Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler

Part I. Images of Nasserism

1. Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser: Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology 45
   Leonard Binder
2. Demonizing the Other: Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism 72
   Elie Podeh
3. History, Politics, and Collective Memory: The Nasserist Legacy in
   Mubarak's Egypt 100
   Meir Hatina

Part II. Political and Social Aspects of Nasserism

4. Nasserism's Legal Legacy: Accessibility, Accountability, and
   Authoritarianism 127
   Nathan J. Brown
5. Sports, Society, and Revolution: Egypt in the Early Nasserite Period 144
   Yoav Di-Capua
6. Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites in an Official Biographical
   Lexicon 163
   Uri M. Kupferschmidt

Part III. Nasser's Foreign Policy

7. 'Abd al-Nasser's Regional Politics: A Reassessment 179
   Avraham Sela







8. 'Abd al-Nasser and the United States: Enemy or Friend? 205
    David W. Lesch
9. Nasser and the Soviets: A Reassessment 230
    Rami Ginat

Part IV. Nasser's Socioeconomic Policies and Achievements

10. An Assessment of Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 253
    M. Riad El-Ghonemy
11. Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea: A Comparison of Their Economic
    Achievements 264
    Paul Rivlin
12. Nasser's Family Planning Policy in Perspective 282
    Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler

Part V. Cultural Aspects of Nasserism

13. The Nightingale and the Ra'is: 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist
    Longings 307
    Joel Gordon
14. Nasser and Nasserism as Perceived in Modern Egyptian Literature
    through Allusions to Songs 324
    Gabriel M. Rosenbaum

Selected Bibliography 343
List of Contributors 355
Index 359











Tables


10.1. Shares of Consumption, Savings, and Investment in GDP, 1950
      and 1970 258
10.2. Investment, GDP Growth, Inequality, and Poverty Estimates in
      Agriculture, 1952-1970 260
11.1. Population, Total GDP, and GDP per Capita in Egypt and South
      Korea, 1960-1998 (current prices) 265
11.2. Primary Educational Enrollment Ratio in Egypt and South Korea,
      1960-1997 267
11.3. Literacy Rates in Egypt and South Korea, 1960-1997 268
12.1. Egypt's Rates of Natural Increase, 1907-1998 283
12.2. Demographic Variables for Egypt and Several Middle Eastern,
      Asian, and Latin American Countries, 1960-1998 288
12.3. Selected Socioeconomic Data for Egypt and Tunisia, 1960 and
      1998 295










Figures



11.1. Total Population and GDP per Capita in Egypt and South Korea,
      1960-1998 265
12.1. Egypt's Crude Birth and Death Rates, 1907-1998 284











Foreword


Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser appears to some pundits as a towering giant but to
others as a leader who may have been a good manipulator and a successful
demagogue and nothing more. These conflicting assessments are the result
of the difficulty entailed in adopting a proper perspective on the study of
political leaders just a few decades after they have passed from the scene.
This foreword attempts to present a balanced review of Nasser's achieve-
ments and failures. An analysis of these leads to some tentative conclusions,
indicating that Nasser should indeed be credited with great accomplish-
ments that can be understood only in the context of his own time. His fail-
ures, though, are also characteristic of the legacy he left. Nasser, therefore,
has been a towering figure, and it is difficult to think of anyone else to
compete with his stature and impact. Hence a study of his politics and socio-
economic policies yields useful insights toward a better understanding of
Arab and Middle Eastern political issues and systems. Looking back upon
the age and deeds of Nasser, even in retrospect of three decades, evokes very
strong emotions. It was impossible to be indifferent toward Nasser. One
either loved him or hated him. Nasser belongs to the category of distin-
guished names and figures. He tried to do great things for his country and
the Arab world, and his successes were as resounding as his failures.
   Nasser strove to bring about massive change in both domestic politics
and international relations. This unity of his actions came late, ultimately
resulting from his practical experience in the rough and tumble of the politi-
cal arena. Nasser was not, by nature, an ideologue, despite his rhetoric,
which often seemed to indicate otherwise. Rather, he was a true pragmatist
who believed in trial and error and who changed ideologies not exactly
rapidly or easily but without too many strong attachments or qualms. In
this, he may be representative of a broad spectrum of leaders who seemed
ideological but who came to ideology late in their careers, mixing and
changing all the while. However, he was not great in building political insti-
tutions, which was one reason for his difficulties in forging a viable political
party. He did not enjoy the kinds of political activities in which party ap-
paratchiks excel.
   At the same time, by way of contrast-great leaders are often men of great





x I Foreword


contrasts!-Nasser was an eloquent speaker and a supreme charmer as well.
In fact, theoreticians quote him as a prototype of charismatic leadership not
only for his generation but in a broader sense as well. Even now, it is hard to
pin down what made him so "charismatic." But clearly it was a combination
of general personality, phenomenal rhetorical ability, physical appearance,
and sensitivity to the nature and needs of the constituency. While this list
may be only partial in its explanatory power, in any case we do not really
know what makes a charismatic leader "charismatic." In fact, it does not
even make much sense to speak of charisma as if it were a personal attribute
of the leader in question. Rather, it is better to speak of a charismatic rela-
tionship between leaders and followers.
   It is no coincidence that so many of us speak of the age of Nasser, of the
generation of Nasser and so on, including Nasserism and Nasserist ways of
thinking and approaches to politics. Nasser did dominate and define the
politics of an entire generation. He was able to evoke their enthusiasm, their
loyalty, and their obsessive devotion. He managed to speak to the masses of
Arabs in other countries, even going over the heads of their own leaders.
This is something that no other Arab leader has been able to accomplish on
any considerable scale. Since everything that Nasser did was so very per-
sonal, it was just as difficult, if not outright impossible, to imitate him. What
this means is that while Nasser left behind him an impressive legacy, it is not
one that can be coherently transferred as a system. It had to do with the man
at the center of it all, and once that man was gone, the entire "system" no
longer made sense and therefore had to change drastically. Because so much
of what Nasser did was really a matter of political psychology, many of his
achievements were precisely in this realm. To name a few: the restoration of
pride in being Egyptians; the immense increase in the status of Arabism and
Arabs throughout the region and the world; the confrontation with imperi-
alism and the West, while building pride and confidence in doing so success-
fully; the mobilization of the masses in the political process as participants,
at least in demonstrations, elections, and other forms of involvement; the
creation of a sense of optimism about the future by building on the symbols
of the Revolution and its slogans.
   This is no mean feat. Even practical steps taken along these lines were
successful and partially enduring, among them the development of a more or
less universal Arabic language, at a level somewhere between the lofty liter-
ary Arabic and the local dialects of the spoken Arabic in the various coun-
tries around the Arab world. Some of the other steps made a big difference
not only psychologically but also socially and economically, yet they failed
to resolve the problems that they were intended to tackle. For instance, the
famous Agrarian Reform or the building of the Aswan High Dam were of





                                                             Foreword I xi

enormous importance, and they have left lasting marks. Nevertheless, they
have not resolved the basic structural problems of the Egyptian society,
economy, or even agriculture.
   Here are some additional thoughts about trying to assess the role of
Nasser in Egyptian and Arab politics with the hindsight of three decades.
First, there are many dangers and pitfalls on the way to thinking clearly and
coherently about such passionate political issues. The distance of time is not
that great, and passions still run high in this part of the world. The dangers
and pitfalls are many and varied. At times, they represent the two sides of the
same coin. There is the danger of nostalgia, of looking back at the past with
a measure of romantic longing, with a yearning to be young again or to
remember the good things, inasmuch as the present looks so bad. This hap-
pens often, but so does the opposite. By this I mean that people at times, for
various reasons, choose to remember only the bad things about the past,
perhaps because they would like to believe that the present is so much better.
What is needed is a sense of balance and realism.
   In practice, this means that we need to be knowledgeable about Egypt and
the Arab world in the middle of the twentieth century, if we wish to under-
stand what Nasser was trying and able to do. Most of us are aware of the
importance of analysis, theory, and generalization as dominant modes of
modern science. But it will not suffice to engage in this process historically.
No amount of theorizing will explain the man and his work if the explana-
tion is devoid of concrete and specific historical content. Furthermore, an
exaggerated tendency toward generalization and theorizing might lead to
underestimating the role of the person in question. While political history is
not about the heroic chronicles of selected individuals, it is not justifiable to
read politics out of political science or people out of history. History and
politics are about people, and how people think and act makes a huge differ-
ence in the annals of the human race.
   Finally, there is politics, pure and simple. Opponents of Nasser might
want to make him look bad, while Nasserists of the day might want to make
Nasser look good simply because that would be a way for them to score a
few points at the expense of their putative opponents. This kind of political
polemic is all too evident in historical assessments, often conducted with
surreptitious sophistication. It means that one can overcome these dangers
and fallacies if one is aware of them. In the case of Nasser, it makes sense to
take into account his admirers as well as his critics, in which case one arrives
at a general assessment that is more or less balanced. Ultimately, the decision
to either admire Nasser or merely criticize him is upon the criteria one uses
to make an assessment, that is, what one expected of him or would have
expected of him had one lived during his time. Thus, to say that Nasser did





xii I Foreword


not deliver the goods raises the question of what goods and whose expecta-
tions.
   Today, it is possible to defend both sides of the argument. One might give
credit to Nasser for accomplishing what he tried to do, and add that his
agenda may have been wholly, or at least partially, wrong. This need not
even be considered a devastating criticism of any sort, because the argument
may stem from the assumption that what Nasser was trying to do at the time
may well have been correct in the context of that period. The opposite may
also be true. It is possible to argue that Nasser may well have been ahead of
his time and ahead of his critics. He may have had a better agenda, if there
is such a characterization, than even many of his later critics. He may have
had closer touch with political reality and with the ambitions and needs of
the people than did others, who may have been intellectually his superiors
but were less politically realistic and more detached from mass politics in the
region. I suspect that to a large extent this was indeed the case. Nasser's
acute sense of what the people wanted and needed allowed him to commu-
nicate with them better than practically anyone before him or since. This is
a rarity in political history that should be properly appreciated.

Gabriel Ben-Dor
University of Haifa











Preface and Acknowledgments


In July 2002, Egypt lavishly celebrated the "golden jubilee" of the July 1952
Revolution. In contrast to previous anniversaries, this time Nasser's person-
ality figured prominently in the public discourse, which attempted to dispas-
sionately analyze the legacy of his period. This rather sober public debate
only served to highlight the fact that Nasser, the Nasserite period, and
Nasserism are important phenomena that should be reviewed and reas-
sessed, perhaps leading to some historical revisionism.1 This book-the
product of an international conference jointly organized by the Harry S.
Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa-is the first
systematic attempt to rethink the Nasserite phenomenon.
   The aim of the conference, held in December 1999, was to reevaluate the
period of Nasser and the phenomenon closely associated with him, known
as Nasserism. Indeed, on the eve of a new millennium, it seemed evident that
Nasser had been the most important Arab leader and that Nasserism had
been one of the most influential phenomena in the Arab world in the twen-
tieth century. Surprisingly, however, the quantity and quality of research on
that subject have not adequately reflected Nasser's perceived centrality in
the annals of Middle Eastern history. Moreover, it seems that since the late
1970s, scholars have lost interest in the subject as a result of growing interest
in other contemporary issues: the rise of Islam, the Iranian revolution, the
Iraq-Iran war, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and so on.
   To be sure, the opening of Western archival material as well as the bur-
geoning of a wider historical perspective triggered the renewed interest in
Nasser and Nasserism. Significantly, the growing use of interdisciplinary
methods in Middle Eastern studies has enabled us to concentrate not only on
the historical dimension but also on various economic, demographic, social,
cultural, and psychological aspects that have hitherto been neglected in the
literature. This volume does not pretend to cover all aspects of Nasserism;
indeed, the discussions at the conference and the papers written by the par-
ticipants have raised many issues that were not dealt with in this volume-
perhaps calling for another conference and another volume.
   In contrast to many other edited works, the introduction to this book





xiv I Preface

does not offer a summary of the articles herein; instead, it offers a theoretical
framework that views Nasserism as a form of populism. This interpretation,
by all means, was not imposed on the other writers in this volume, although
most articles certainly point in this direction, as we have tried to show in
the introduction. Evidently, the Nasserite phenomenon cannot be framed
within one theory alone-be it populism, modernization, or messianism.
Based on new archival material and new insights derived from the posses-
sion of a broader historical perspective, each writer attempted to "rethink"
the Nasserite phenomenon in his own field. What has emerged is a multiplic-
ity of voices that attests to the complexity of the subject matter. Most of the
articles in this volume have been written by Western scholars; while perhaps
an Egyptian or Arab perspective is missing, its absence should be attributed
not to the negligence of the editors but rather to the preferences of these
Arab intellectuals themselves. In any case, the complaint made by Hoda
'Abdel-Nasser, a professor at Cairo University and Nasser's daughter, that
the Egyptians should not leave their history to be written by foreigners,2
evidently has yet to be redressed.
   It is only natural that throughout such a long journey, we were assisted by
many whom we would like to thank. First, we are extremely grateful to the
heads of the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish-Arab Center at the Univer-
sity of Haifa, Amnon Cohen and Amatzia Baram, respectively, for their
ceaseless support. We would like to warmly thank the Berta Von Suttner
Research Program of Germany, which provided much of the financial sup-
port for the conference and the publication of this volume. In particular, we
would like to thank Karlhienz Koppe from the institute for his personal
interest in this project. We would also like to thank Zvia Haimovitz, the
administrator of the Jewish-Arab Center, for her support throughout the
project; Sharon Woodrow, for editing the volume; and Eran Shayshon, for
collecting some necessary material for the project. We should also thank
Meir Litvak of Tel Aviv University, who was instrumental in our decision to
analyze Nasserism as a form of populism. Finally, we would like to express
our appreciation for the two anonymous referees, whose reviews helped us
to improve the quality of this volume.
   The scholars who wrote the articles in this volume either belonged to
Nasser's generation or remembered the image of him from their early child-
hood. Indeed, their personal perceptions of Nasser may have colored their
interpretation. This differs greatly from the twins Eden and Idan Podeh, who
coincidentally came into the world two days before the conference. They
and their generation will probably learn about Nasser through history
textbooks and academic studies such as this one. Undoubtedly, this joyful





Preface I xv


event made our preoccupation with a distant past more enjoyable. There-
fore, although this book is a joint venture, and not a personal one, we are
confident that all the participants will join us in dedicating this book to
them!

Elie Podeh
Onn Winckler
Jerusalem and Haifa




































Notes

   1. See, in particular, the articles in Al-Ahram, 21-24 July; Al-Ahram Weekly, July
18-24, August 1-7, 2002.
   2. "Safeguarding Nasser's Legacy," Hoda Abdel-Nasser's interview with Al-
Abram Weekly, July 18-24, 2002.












Abbreviations


   ASU    Arab Socialist Union
   AUC    American University in Cairo
 CCPE Civil Committee for Physical Education (Egypt)
   CIA    Central Intelligence Agency
   EU     European Union
   FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States
   GDP    Gross Domestic Product
GFETU     General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions
  GNP     Gross National Product
  HCPY    Higher Committee for the Patronage of Youth
  IJMES   International Journal of Middle East Studies
  IMF     International Monetary Fund
    ISA   Israeli State Archive
    KDP   Kurdish Democratic Party
    LE    Egyptian Pound
    LPA   Labor Party Archive
 MECS     Middle East Contemporary Survey
 MEDO     Middle East Defense Organization
 MEED     Middle East Economic Digest
 NDP      National Democratic Party
 NGO      Nongovernmental Organization
 NPUG     National Progressive Unionist Grouping
   NSC    National Security Council
   OAU    Organization of African Unity
 OECD     Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
 PRO      Public Record Office (London)
 RCC      Revolutionary Command Council
   SCP    Syrian Communist Party
 SCPFP    Supreme Council for Population and Family Planning
   SLP    Socialist Labor Party (Egypt)
   UAR    United Arab Republic
   UN     United Nations
 UNSC     United Nations Security Council
 USAID    United States Agency for International Development
 USNA     United States National Archive












Introduction


Nasserism as a Form of Populism


    Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler






Existing Interpretations of Nasserism

"Egypt gave Nasserism to the Arab world," wrote Fouad Ajami in his cel-
ebrated book, The Arab Predicament.1 We may surmise that Ajami, like
many other scholars, did not consider it necessary to define Nasserism, since
it has become a term commonly used in Arab and Western parlance. Admit-
tedly, several definitions have been offered in the literature, but they all
highlight the fact that the term Nasserism has been rather vaguely used and
its meaning and components have been inadequately defined.2 Thirty years
after Nasser's death, armed with a wider historical perspective, we may or-
ganize existing interpretations of Nasserism into five clusters.
   The first interpretation views Nasserism as an ideological movement.
Although Nasserism was not considered to be as consistent or comprehen-
sive as other ideologies-such as liberalism, socialism, or communism-it
was seen as a system of ideas comprising all or some of the following com-
ponents: anti-imperialism, pan-Arabism (or nationalism), and Arab social-
ism. All those adhering to these principles, so it is claimed, constituted part
of the Nasserite movement. Taking into account the central role that ideolo-
gies had played in politics after World War II, the perception of Nasserism as
an ideological movement seemed plausible. The main principles of this ide-
ology, it is argued, are included in three documents: Nasser's Philosophy of
the Revolution, published in 1953-54, the 1956 constitution, and the Na-
tional Charter (al-Mithaq al-Watani), published in May 1962; some add the
March 1968 Manifesto.3 Nasser's speeches and interviews are also consid-
ered important sources for understanding the Nasserite ideology.
   Understandably, proponents of this interpretation may argue on the level
of the rigor and cohesiveness of the ideology. Nissim Rejwan, for example,
admitted that Nasserism as an ideology "remains far from coherent, self-





2 I Introduction


complementary, methodical, or consistent." However, this does not negate
the validity of the interpretation, because ideology "is rarely a perfectly
defined, coherent, and universally accepted or approved system of values
and beliefs." Consequently, his analysis of Nasserism was guided by four
criteria: the ideas concerning its structure, internal processes, and position in
the world; the way in which a society views its history; the broad outlook on
man, society, and the world; and the values and goals of society.4
   Walid Khalidi offered a more nuanced version of this interpretation, see-
ing Nasserism as a psychological phenomenon shared by an entire Arab
generation. In his opinion, Nasserism was not an ideological movement per
se but rather an "attitude of mind" that is "eclectic, empirical, radical, and
yet conservative." The appeal of Nasserism, according to his analysis, lay in
the fact that "it has transferred, if only partially, to the Arab world itself, the
center of decisions concerning the future of that world." This development,
Khalidi concludes, gave the Arabs a feeling of confidence in themselves and
largely counterbalanced the psychological shock of the loss of Palestine.5
   The second interpretation revolves around the magnetic personality of
the Egyptian leader and his style of rule. A salient representative of this
attitude is P. J. Vatikiotis, who claimed that Nasserism, "as the term itself
implies, was Nasser himself-his vision, style, and approach to power." In
his opinion, Nasserism means an "authoritarian 'leader state' with an ad-
ministrative apparatus for the execution of decisions which, in the absence
of a clear ideology or other objective criteria, were taken by the Rayyis: in
short, a despotism on the Nile."6 According to this interpretation, shared by
several Egyptian intellectuals, Nasser's charismatic personality, autocratic
rule, direct connection with the masses, and use of rhetoric constitute the
essence of Nasserism.7
   The centrality of the giant-leader phenomenon also gave rise to several
attempts to apply the Weberian concept of charisma to Nasser.8 According
to this interpretation, Nasser was considered either a modernizing leader or
a patrimonial leader, with a personal and informal style constituting trade-
marks of his behavior. Naturally, a style of leadership that associates Nasser
with modernization signals a break with tradition, the Turkish model of
Ataturk being a convincing parallel. In contrast, a patrimonial style of lead-
ership might be regarded as a direct continuation of older Arab or Islamic
patterns of rule. Evidently, other interpretations of Nasserism did not ne-
glect this personal dimension, though they did not place it at the center of
their argument.9
   The third interpretation, prevalent among Western social scientists in the
1950s and 1960s, perceived Nasserism as a modernization movement and
Nasser as a modernizing leader. In general, modernization denotes "an ero-





Introduction | 3


sion of traditional authority based on ascription, religion, and heredity and
the rise of a new legitimacy formula based on secular assumptions."10 Egypt
was seen as a typical Third World country undergoing a process of decoloni-
zation and, under new revolutionary leadership, aspiring to national pros-
perity through modernization. Thus, Nasserism was perceived as an attempt
to transform Egyptian traditional society through the modernization of its
economy and society. Nasser was seen as a modern version of Muhammad
'Ali, who would turn Egypt into a modern nation-state in accordance with
the Western model. This approach concentrated on investigating overall
economic performance, consumption level, political mobilization, institu-
tionalization, and legitimacy-all considered important elements in the cre-
ation of a modern political community. In this connection, Nasser's use of
pan-Arabism and socialism was interpreted not as a manifestation of ideo-
logical convictions but rather as a convenient means for achieving modern-
ization.11
   The hegemony of the modernization theory was challenged by the Marx-
ist view of Nasserism, which might be regarded as an offshoot of this inter-
pretation (though some would definitely regard it as an independent inter-
pretation). According to the Marxist view, Nasserism was essentially "a
product of Egypt's national struggle against imperialism and dependency."12
In addition, it represented a class struggle between the old landowning elite
and the new middle class, represented by the army officers. This struggle led
to the overthrow of the monarchy and the old elite, resulting in a new strati-
fication of Egyptian society. Yet, owing to the petit bourgeois nature of the
leadership, it was claimed, Nasserism created an inherently unstable regime.
As such, Nasser was criticized for interrupting an inevitable process of a
proletarian revolution.13
   The fourth interpretation considers Nasserism primarily as a protest
movement against Western colonialism and imperialism, which appeared
following a significant period of crisis or disorientation. An encyclopedia of
the Middle East defined Nasserism as a "general socio-political outlook,
marked by substantial protest against the ancient Arab regimes and Western
influence in the Middle East, and Israel as a symbol of that influence."14
Leonard Binder saw Nasserism as an ideological movement, but he empha-
sized its tripartite protest nature: against the division of the Arabs into sev-
eral states; against the existing economic, social, and political structure; and
against the polarization in the international system.15 Similarly, Saad Eddin
Ibrahim emphasized Nasser's leadership qualities in the makeup of Nasser-
ism, but he subordinated this element to wider historical processes: "The
history of this area," he wrote, "is that of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mu-
hammad, the Guided Caliphs, the Saladins, the Muhammad Alis, and the





4 I Introduction


Nassers. But each of these giants emerged in a society in crisis, confronted a
challenge, had a message, and found people disposed to believe in his mes-
sage and to follow his lead in search of salvation."16
   Within the boundaries of this interpretation, Shimon Shamir offered a
more complex definition, attempting to combine various elements of Nas-
serism by placing them in wider historical and comparative perspectives.
After dismissing the modernization interpretation and discussing the signifi-
cance of Nasser's personality and Egypt's unique geopolitical conditions,
Shamir defined Nasserism as "a messianic response of the Arab-Islamic
world to 'the attack of the West,"' emanating from the psychological-cul-
tural crisis that evolved after the first generation of political independence.
According to Shamir's interpretation, Nasserism "expresses itself through a
system of beliefs, policy lines and institutions of the 'revolutionary regime,'
which shares certain characteristics with similar Third World regimes un-
dergoing processes of modernization, and decolonization."17 In this last
vaguely phrased sentence, Shamir was in fact pointing at the more general
and comparative nature of Nasserism, which later would be offered by other
scholars. Shamir also incorporated in his definition Khalidi's interpretation
of Nasserism as an "attitude of mind," stating that its strength was derived
from the movement's ability to attack the core components of the crisis-
"the insult and embarrassment" of long subjugation to foreign domina-
tion.18
   The fifth and newest interpretation attempts to equate Nasserism with
populist leaders and movements, mainly found in Latin America during
the first half of the twentieth century. Torcuato Di Tella, a leading expert
on Latin America, was the first to suggest, as early as 1965, that Nasserism
should be seen as one variant (of four) of populism, termed the "Nas-
serite" or the "Militarist Reform Parties." The Nasserist model, however,
according to Di Tella, was not found in Latin America because the eco-
nomic, social, and political conditions differed from those of the Middle
East.19 Among Middle Eastern experts, Morroe Berger was the first to
equate Nasserism with populism-perhaps the only one to apply this theory
during the Nasserite era. Yet, beyond an insightful division of Middle East-
ern regimes into prepopulist and populist, Berger did not elaborate on this
model.20
   It was only in the late 1970s that other scholars started to refer to Nas-
serism as a kind of populism. Mark Cooper, for example, spoke of "bureau-
cratic populism," which meant that ideologically the regime was defending
the individual, politically it was promoting corporatist alliances, and eco-
nomically it was furthering anticapitalist policies.21 Fouad Ajami, for his
part, suggested that Nasser's "implicit ideology" was populism, meaning





Introduction | 5


that the state "implemented programs that benefited and secured the sup-
port of large and influential segments of the Egyptian population." He
added, however, that Nasser's populism was diffuse: "In striving to appeal
to many groups (medium-sized landholders, landless laborers, bureaucrats,
industrial workers, students), the state tried to be many things to many
groups."22 Likewise, Raymond Hinnebusch, who focused on Sadat's "post-
populist" regime, attempted to show the nature of the transformation by
analyzing the Nasserite "populist" regime. Although Hinnebusch offers a
comprehensive analysis of Nasser's regime, his study does not cover all the
aspects of his populism.23
   In the mid-1990s, Nazih Ayubi offered a certain typology of Arab re-
gimes. In his opinion, the "socialist" or "revolutionary" regimes represent a
distinct combination of 6tatist and welfare policies. Since their description as
"socialist" suited the needs of domestic elites and the vocabulary of the Cold
War, Ayubi preferred the term populist-corporatist, which he applied to
Nasser's Egypt as well. In analyzing the nature of this regime, Ayubi relied
heavily on Latin American models of populism. Rather than a socialist ide-
ology inspiring institutional arrangements, he asserted, it was actually the
political quest for national independence and for state building that led
Nasser to adopt socialist programs. Moreover, Nasser adopted a tightly
planned economy, including the control of foreign trade, mainly as effective
technical devices for achieving the tasks of accelerated economic growth and
political control. Ayubi claimed that Arab populist-corporatist leaders were
opposed to the old oligarchy associated with colonialism. Beyond that, he
concluded, "their alliances and orientations were subject to a great deal of
contingent change."24
   Some scholars assert that the term Nasserism (al-Nasiriyya) is a Western
invention.25 Others suggest that Nasser's Arab adversaries coined the term.26
Arab intellectuals and politicians have been reluctant to adopt this term for
two reasons: First, the supposedly Western origins of the term caused unease
among followers of Nasserism, since it was perceived as an anti-imperialist
and anti-Western phenomenon. Second, the term seemed to overstate the
personal role of Nasser, thus unjustifiably diminishing other important
meanings of Nasserism. Gradually, however, the term al-Nasiriyya did enter
into Arab discourse, appearing in encyclopedias, books, and articles. With
the de-Nasserization process gaining momentum in Egypt and the Arab
world in the early 1970s, the term became negative and its supporters were
politically marginalized. No wonder, therefore, that the study of Nasserism
has been unpopular in the Arab world (and, consequently, in the West in
general) since that period. Skimming through articles appearing in Al-Mus-
taqbal al- Arabi, a leading academic journal known for its pan-Arab orien-





6 | Introduction


tation, clearly indicates that al-Nasiriyya has been treated as a marginal
issue.27
   Is there an Arab interpretation of Nasserism? A cursory review of Arab
literature tends to refute this hypothesis. It seems that all of the interpre-
tations described above are to be found in the Arab literature, with the
emphasis on Nasserism as an imprecisely defined ideological movement
aimed at struggling against Western imperialism and capitalism. For ex-
ample, Louis 'Awad, one of Egypt's leading intellectuals, scathingly criti-
cized al-Nasiriyya, which, in his opinion, was based on seven "pillars": the
six principles of the Free Officers declared upon assuming power in July
1952, plus the formation of the National Union (later to be replaced by the
Arab Socialist Union).28 A conference, held in 2000 by the Arab World Insti-
tute in Paris on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Nasser's death,
did not offer new insights on Nasserism.29 Evidently, the populist dimension
of Nasserism has not been entirely overlooked in the Arab literature.30
   In addition to the existence of various academic interpretations of Nas-
serism, there were also various political perceptions of it. In Israel, for ex-
ample, a monolithic image of Nasser and Nasserism emerged during the
1950s and 1960s that largely mirrored the Western image. Most of the Is-
raeli decision-making elite, as Elie Podeh shows in chapter 2, saw Nasserism
as an expansionist movement bent on conquering and dominating the Arab
world and portions of Africa. Such an enterprise entailed, of course, the
liquidation of the Jewish state. An oft-repeated analogy was made between
Nasser and Hitler and other vicious enemies in the annals of Jewish history.
As a result, incoming information was filtered through these images, consti-
tuting an important element in the decision-making process.
   Thirty years after Nasser's death and the beginning of Sadat's de-Nasser-
ization, it is possible to look at the Nasserite movement less passionately. It
is obvious that some of the interpretations offered in the past were rooted in
the current political zeitgeist and guided by Western models and theories. It
is also clear that the many failures of the Nasserist movement encouraged
scholars to abandon the subject, which had attracted so many during the
time of Nasser, when Egypt was considered to be a prototype of a modern-
izing Third World country. Consequently, only a few studies on Nasserism
have appeared since the late 1970s.3'
   This chapter attempts to offer a framework combining most, if not all, of
the elements appearing in the five interpretations suggested above, while
integrating the Egyptian case study with global historical trends. It seems
that by seeing Nasserism from a wider perspective, that is, as a form of
populism, we might generate a new, or even better, interpretation of this





Introduction | 7


phenomenon. By elaborating on this approach, we follow the path of sev-
eral scholars who have pointed in this direction but have not fully devel-
oped it.


Populism:The Theoretical Dimension

The term populism has been used by many social scientists in a variety of
ways, but its definition remains imprecise. As Torcuato Di Tella recently
observed, "This term is useful, though somewhat excessively broad in its
meaning, as many different fish can be found in that pond."32 Populism, as
a concept, may be applied to a sociopolitical movement, a kind of ideology,
a style of leadership, or some combination of these elements.33 Historically
and geographically, populism has appeared mainly in Latin America, but
various types of populist movements have also existed in the United States
and Russia, as well as in Asian and African countries. Thus Ervand Abra-
hamian, discussing Khomeini's form of populism in Iran, offers the follow-
ing definition:

   A predominantly middle-class movement that mobilizes the lower
   classes, especially the urban poor, with radical rhetoric against imperi-
   alism, foreign capitalism and the political establishment. In mobilizing
   the "common man," populist movements use charismatic figures as
   well as symbols, imagery and language that have potent value in their
   popular culture. They promise to raise drastically the standard of liv-
   ing and make their country fully independent of the West ... in attack-
   ing the status quo with radical rhetoric, they intentionally stop short of
   threatening the petty bourgeoisie and whole principle of private prop-
   erty.34

   Since most of the theoretical discussion in the literature focuses on twen-
tieth-century Latin American experience-Peronism in Argentina (1943-
55) being one such case-the analysis of Third World populism in general
and Nasserism in particular will rely on insights derived from Latin Ameri-
can models. It will become evident, however, that despite the existence of
similarities, one may discern important differences between Latin American
forms of populism and Nasserism. For the sake of simplicity, the discussion
will focus on the conditions for the emergence of populism and three of its
major characteristics. Bearing in mind that Nasserism appeared only after
the consolidation of a military takeover, the following analysis will not dis-
cuss the type of mass populist movements that have brought populist leaders
into power (such as the Iranian example).





8 | Introduction


Conditions Conducive to the Emergence of Populism
Populism is most likely to emerge in a society experiencing the two processes
of urbanization and industrialization-a result of rapid modernization. The
resultant influx of migrants from the rural countryside to the urban environ-
ment, which usually is accompanied by the transition from a traditional to
a more modern society, creates stressful socioeconomic conditions. Such
drastic changes, according to some sociologists, may lead to a generalized
sense of rootlessness and malaise, called "anomie." In addition to this alien-
ation, migrants feel powerlessness, resentment, and frustration due to low
wages and the absence of sufficient employment opportunities, limited ac-
cess to urban amenities and services, and exclusion from the political pro-
cess. Moreover, the semifeudal socioeconomic structure guarantees that the
status quo, which has benefited the traditional landed elite, will remain un-
changed.
   Modernization, through industrialization and urbanization, may also
lead to alienation of the urban working class and the bourgeoisie. The urban
working class becomes antagonized by the massive control of the elite over
the means of production, the deteriorating standard of living, and exclusion
from the political process. The frustration of the middle class might be even
greater, since access to higher forms of education does not guarantee the
attainment of better employment and higher income. Economically, the abil-
ity of the urban bourgeoisie to play an important role may be circumscribed
by the existence of a large foreign business community that controls the local
market. Politically, the closed nature of the elite and its domination over the
political system ensures that the educated middle class, in contrast to its
initial expectations, does not have an important impact on politics. Among
the various groups of the middle class, army officers and students may play
an active role in attempting to change the status quo. Other segments of the
middle class, as well as urban workers and rural migrants, may play a more
passive role, but they constitute available masses that can be mobilized at
any given time in their shared aim to change the status quo.35
   This complex sociopolitical situation creates a convenient hotbed for the
emergence of populist leaders, who attempt to give the new masses a sense of
belonging and direction, promising to undertake changes that would im-
prove their daily lives. Thus, the domestic tension between developed and
backward parts of the same society, such as that which existed in Latin
American countries experiencing rapid modernization during the interwar
years, constitutes fertile ground for the emergence of populist leaders prom-
ising to change the status quo. Indeed, many populist leaders and move-
ments appeared during the decolonization period, when the tension between
these developing countries and the more advanced colonizers reached its
apex.





Introduction | 9


   Therefore, it appears that a necessary condition for the emergence of
populism is "the contact with forces and ideas associated with higher levels
of development than those to be found in the society producing the re-
sponse."36 The extent to which this tension is crucial in precipitating the
appearance of populism depends on three variables: the nature of the politi-
cal association between the state and the European colonial power; the level
of economic dependency on the colonial power; and the extent of cultural
similarity between the colonial power and the local society. A major antago-
nism on all three levels is likely to cause a confrontation between the state
and the colonizer, with the subsequent emergence of populist leaders espous-
ing nationalistic platforms. Significantly, some of these variables were ab-
sent from the Latin American case, since most of these countries had been
liberated from colonialism at the beginning of the nineteenth century. More-
over, they continued their association with their previous colonial masters.
Economically and politically they were linked to the United States, while
culturally they were tied to Europe and the Iberian Peninsula.37

Charismatic Leadership and Its Link with the Masses
Socially, populist leaders-either civilians or army officers-have usually
come from the middle and upper middle classes. Evidently, all populist
leaders have possessed some measure of charisma, forming a direct link
with the masses. The Latin American experience suggests that the twenti-
eth century saw the appearance of a breed of "leaders of the people,"
modern caudillos, who came from a military background and were an-
tagonistic to the upper classes. These leaders also typically play a psycho-
logical role by transmitting a kind of "father figure" image to the masses-
an aspect that is particularly significant to rural migrants uprooted from
their traditional neighborhoods.38
   Max Weber defined charisma as "a certain quality of an individual per-
sonality by virtue of which he is set apart from the ordinary men and treated
as endowed with supernatural, super-human or at least exceptional power or
qualities."39 Based on theoretical and empirical studies, Richard Dekmejian
identified four stages in the evolution of charismatic leadership.40 The first is
the existence of a situation of acute social crisis in society and a breakdown
of the existing mechanisms of conflict resolution. This kind of social turmoil
is usually accompanied by a political crisis of legitimacy. The second stage is
the appearance of an "exemplary personage" endowed with charisma that
would initiate a charismatic process. The success of the leader depends on
three variables: performance-message, personal qualities, and opportunity
to propagate. In relation to the first variable, Dekmejian asserts that the
message has to fit the deeply felt needs and expectations of the society, as
well as coincide with its cultural ethos. He adds that the leader "may selec-





10 | Introduction


tively invoke history, myth, and past heroes to reinforce the sanctity of his
mission. To capture a mass audience, he propagates the highlights of the
message in simple and explicit terms. On the basis of these promises-rein-
forced by heroic activity-the leader establishes an initial charismatic bond
with the masses."41
   In terms of personal qualities, the charismatic leader is seen as an "out-
standing personality, endowed with great dynamism, sensitivity and re-
sourcefulness," traits that are instrumental in imparting his message to his
followers. The opportunity to propagate the leader's charisma is often ob-
tained only after achieving a position of power, which allows him to skill-
fully use the mass media. On the basis of the psychological bond formed
between the leader and the masses, the third stage involves "a significant
change in the subject's value system." The final stage in the evolution of
charismatic authority is its "routinization"-an attempt to rely on rational
means of legitimacy.

The Style of Politics and Mobilization Techniques
The special link forged between populist leaders and the masses-the edu-
cated middle class, urban workers, rural migrants, and peasants-facilitates
the political mobilization of social groups that had hitherto been largely
excluded from politics or left on the periphery. This is made possible by
another outcome of modernization-the growth in communication, espe-
cially through the press, radio, and television. By using colloquial language
and stirring emotions during their speeches, populist charismatic leaders are
able to successfully communicate with and mobilize the masses. This rheto-
ric is typically anti-elitist and anti-imperialist, making frequent references to
well-known or newly revived myths and symbols. In this way, populist lead-
ers tend to manipulate their followers in their desire to consolidate their
power and strengthen their legitimacy.
   Although populist leaders recruit from all socioeconomic strata in an
attempt to forge a classless society, they often ignore or exclude some
groups, such as the wealthy landed oligarchy that was once associated with
the old regime. This populist desire to forge a cross-class coalition is aimed
at achieving national integration while providing a wide base of support for
the regime. The popular rhetoric, therefore, is naturally focused on such
terms as the people, the nation, unity, and integration.42
   Most Latin American populist leaders have attempted to maintain the
existing democratic system in general and the electoral process in particular,
despite their largely authoritarian style of politics. Lacking a tradition of
some form of democracy, as in Latin America, populist regimes in Asia and
Africa have been highly authoritarian, with only a semblance of democratic-





Introduction | 11


type institutions. This kind of rule is deemed "appropriate" for the success
of a process of modernization held from above, which logically necessitates
or even dictates a strong kind of leadership and the imposition of tight con-
trol.43 Paul Drake, however, offers a more complex explanation:
   Both mobilization and institutionalization constituted double-edged
   swords for populists. Mobilization raised demands, followers, and
   claims to a share in political power. It provided legitimacy and a social
   base for carrying through programs once in power. However, it also
   threatened to outrun populists' capacity for control and ability to de-
   liver on promises. As mass mobilization gains momentum, it can desta-
   bilize populist governments. Institutionalization could cost the move-
   ment its protest credentials, its dynamism, and its followers.44

   Van Niekerk makes a distinction between political mobilization in Latin
American countries, where it is conducted through populist movements, and
the less developed Afro-Asian countries, where it is conducted through
mobilization parties characterized by loose coalition structures.45 The for-
mation or expansion of existing trade unions has served as another mecha-
nism for widening the popular base of a given regime, however authoritar-
ian.
   In their efforts to mobilize the masses, populist leaders raise the aware-
ness of popular culture, reviving interest in popular forms of music, folklore,
cinema, theater, literature, and other expressions associated with the "com-
mon" people. In the past, these forms of popular culture were contemptu-
ously rejected by the old elite, which was associated with the alien "high"
culture of the colonial regime. Populist regimes also tend to promote orga-
nized campaigns aimed at reviving, rediscovering, and rewriting the past by
referring to local myths and symbols. At the same time, the activation of
popular forms of sports (such as football), once scorned by the old elite as
well, has been encouraged by populist regimes. This revival of popular forms
of culture and sports, coupled with the self-discovery process, facilitate a
synthesis between the basic values of the traditional culture and a desire for
modernization.46

The Eclectic Use of Ideology
Scholars agree that populism is not a coherent ideology but rather an eclectic
amalgam of ideas combined with the aim of attaining independence and
national integration. According to Van Niekerk, ideology is not of great
importance. Leaders are familiar with current ideologies, which allow them
to concoct their own blend. In some cases, it constitutes the real mainspring
for political action, but more typically it represents "a pseudo ideology ex-





12 | Introduction


post-facto." In short, ideology is "flexible, opportunist and continually sub-
ject to changes in political strategy."47 It has been argued that given their
multiclass composition, populist movements and leaders could not be any-
thing but eclectic in order to satisfy different, even conflicting, constituen-
cies. This is why the most common term for these programs derives from
adding ism (or ismo in Spanish) to their leaders' names (e.g., Peronism,
Kemalism, Nasserism, Khomeinism, etc.). 48
   Politically, populism is nationalistic, seeking an end to foreign rule in the
form of direct colonialism, military bases, formal treaties, or defense organi-
zations. Patriotic sentiments, in Van Niekerk's view, "are easily extended
[beyond the borders] to Latinismo and continental nationalism."49 In cer-
tain cases, populism may include elements of ethnicity or religious funda-
mentalism.50 Studies on populism have emphasized that populist leaders
tend to conceive international and domestic politics through the prism of
"conspiracies." Van Niekerk went so far as to claim, "Populism possesses
only a thought diagram that does not extend beyond the conspirational
theory of power." According to this view, the "innocent" masses are victims
of certain malicious forces, such as imperialism, capitalism, and other reac-
tionary influences. Thus, populism is largely characterized by its negativism:
anti-imperialist, anticapitalist, anti-Semitic, and anti-status quo.
   Economically, populism entails "a reformist set of policies tailored to
promote development without explosive class conflict. Eschewing unbridled
capitalism or socialism, these programs seek national integration." Often
enough, populist leaders devise a diluted version of socialism or some kind
of a welfare policy, with an eye toward the urban working class, the peas-
ants, and some elements of the middle class. Naturally, this kind of policy
necessitates 6tatism. While in Latin American populism the state is regarded
more as "a protector and an employer, than as the principal promoter of
economic development," in Asian and African countries the state is "the
principal agent in the development process, relying heavily on government
intervention in economic life." The outcome of this policy has been the
emergence of a "Third Way" between capitalism and communism. By opt-
ing for industrialization, populist leaders aim at reducing dependence on the
world economy in general and the former colonial power in particular. In
parallel, by carrying out various socialist measures, they aim at creating a
more egalitarian society, thus broadening the social base of the regime and,
consequently, its legitimacy.


Nasserism as a Form of Populism

Several scholars have already noted the similarity between Nasserism and
other forms of populism, but none have offered a systematic analysis of





Introduction | 13


Nasserism as a form of populism.51 This failure is all the more surprising
because the terms people (sha'ab) and of the people or popular (sha'abi)
were frequently used by Nasser, as well as by Egyptian intellectuals, and thus
may give some indication of the regime's popular nature. The number of
times these terms appeared, for example, in the National Charter convinc-
ingly illustrates the centrality of the populist dimension in Nasserism.52
   What follows is an attempt to show the relevancy of the populist theory
to Nasserism, using, inter alia, the various articles in this volume. Without
discounting the validity of other possible explanations for the rise and en-
durance of Nasserism, the main argument presented here is that the political
and economic crisis Egypt had been undergoing, both internally and exter-
nally, since the end of World War II facilitated the rise of a populist leader-
ship. Embodied in the charismatic personality of Nasser, this leadership as-
tutely employed various techniques of control as well as mechanisms of
persuasion and mobilization typifying populist regimes in Latin America
and elsewhere. In essence, Nasser's goals did not differ from other develop-
ing countries: independence, modernization, and national integration. Still,
Nasserism, as a form of populism, had its own unique features resulting
from the particular historical and cultural characteristics of Egypt and its
place in the Arab-Islamic world.

Roots of Nasserite Populism
The July 1952 Revolution, wrote Hinnebusch, "was a classic case of a
Third World movement against imperialism and the delayed dependent
development which resulted from it."53 Politically, Egypt had long been
controlled by the Ottomans (since 1517) and the British (formally since
1882). A narrow-based, non-Egyptian, Turco-Ciracassian elite often served
Ottoman and British interests. In addition, Egypt, more than any other Arab
territory, was exposed to the uneven cultural confrontation between a domi-
neering West and an insecure Arab-Islamic world, which had commenced
with Bonaparte's occupation (1798-1801). Based on religious and ethnic
differences, this antagonism served to magnify the acuteness of what has
been termed "cultural imperialism" and traumatize the Middle East.54
   Egypt formally received independence and was admitted to the League of
Nations in 1936, but Britain's involvement in Egyptian domestic and foreign
affairs remained paramount. In Egyptian eyes, the monarchy and the nation-
alist Wafd Party have gradually become associated, if somewhat unwar-
rantedly, with British imperialism, a process that led to their delegitimization
and eventual fall. Thus, the coup was not only a rebellion against the
regime's Western orientation, its instability, and its inability to avoid the
1942 humiliation (with the British) or the 1948 debacle (with Israel). It was
also an attempt to free Egypt from all traces of imperialism. Moreover, it was





14 | Introduction


a reaction, albeit somewhat unconscious, against the feelings of inferiority,
insult, and embarrassment prevalent among Egyptians following a long pe-
riod of subjugation and confrontation with Western domination. Generally,
many Arabs in other neighboring countries shared these anti-Western feel-
ings and therefore were amenable to populist policies. For many Egyptians,
however, gaining complete independence and changing the foreign orienta-
tion was not enough. There was a need to change the political superstructure
as well as the socioeconomic infrastructure.55
   Prior to the revolution, the Palace and a small, wealthy landowning elite
dominated the political system. This elite had consistently blocked the en-
trance of the ever-growing educated middle class, which could challenge its
privileged position. This class, termed effendiyya, comprised students, pro-
fessionals, teachers, civil servants, and businessmen-in short, the bulk of
the urban middle class.56 The frustration of the middle class stemmed not
only from its inability to climb the social ladder and gain greater access to
politics but also from the long-standing control by non-Egyptian minorities
over many jobs in the private sector. All of these factors contributed to the
increasingly violent atmosphere engulfing Egyptian society since the mid-
1930s, as well as the gradual spread of pan-Arabism among members of the
effendiyya.57 Most army officers participating in the July Revolution came
from this class. Understandably, the coup raised hopes for political and eco-
nomic changes in favor of the middle class; similar hopes were raised among
other deprived sectors of society as well.58
   Economically, Egypt had been subjected to British colonial rule, which
meant direct dependence on the world economy. Until 1952, according to
John Waterbury, "Egypt had been a classic example of an export-dependent
country whose foreign exchange earnings rose and fell with the sale of raw
cotton on international markets."59 This situation had significant social and
economic ramifications, as Hinnebusch described:
   Western imperialism shaped Egypt to suit its own needs, turning the
   country into a plantation for Western industry and its landed upper
   class into corpradors with a stake in the extroverted economy. Egypt's
   agriculture developed but her peasants did not, and land concentration
   and population growth produced a growing and impoverished land-
   less class. Industrial development was stunted and delayed while busi-
   ness and finance fell into the hands of foreigners.60

   Predictably, British colonialism encouraged the pace of modernization,
resulting in growing urbanization. Between 1937 and 1947, there was mas-
sive migration of fellahin from the rural areas to the cities, especially to
Cairo and Alexandria. According to official Egyptian statistics, this process





Introduction | 15


continued with almost 1 million migrants arriving in Cairo between 1947
and 1960, and another 700,000 arriving between 1960 and 1970. More
than half of these migrants came from rural areas.61 Janet Abu-Lughod esti-
mated that by 1960 the number of rural migrants was 7 million, or 23
percent of the total Egyptian population.62 The first impetus for this rural-
to-urban migration, in her opinion, was a selective process that "skims the
qualitative cream from the countryside and sends it to the city." The second,
and more important numerically, impetus was a nonselective migration,
primarily stemming from rapid population growth, which "created a back-
log of agriculturalists who were neither needed on the land nor capable of
being supported by it."63 In addition to these "push" factors, the much bet-
ter chances for acquiring employment and education, particularly at the
tertiary level, combined with high subsidies for basic foodstuffs and services,
pulled large numbers of peasants into the cities.64
   Uprooted, however, from their natural surroundings, migrants often
felt culturally and socially alienated. It was hardly surprising, therefore,
that these newly arrived masses constituted fertile ground for populist lead-
ers. In a period characterized by a high level of social dislocation, a char-
ismatic, populist leader could project a "father" image, thus replacing the
patrimonial and religious links that were lost or eroded during the transfer
from the village to the city.65 Indeed, it is a common knowledge that one of
Nasser's nicknames, especially among the younger generation, was baba
(father).
   It is reasonable to assume, as Abu-Lughod suggests, that migrants be-
come "politicized" in direct proportion to their urbanization. In other
words, as they become more integrated into the city, migrants tend to be-
come more involved in politics.66 By the mid-1950s, when Nasser emerged
as a charismatic leader, many migrants flocking into the major cities were
psychologically prepared for the appearance of such a leader. Although their
actual political contribution would be rather limited, these migrants would
play an active role in demonstrations and other mass political activities.
   In sum, the conditions for the emergence of populism in Nasser's Egypt
were ripe, given the country's political crisis, coupled with rising socioeco-
nomic discontent.67 In many ways, the Egyptian scene was even riper than
in Latin American countries, which have been independent since the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. In addition, the cultural similarities be-
tween Latin America and the West in general somewhat softened the acute-
ness of the Western challenge there. In contrast, the Western challenge of
the Arab-Islamic identity reached a peak in the 1950s, serving as a re-
minder to the average citizen of the inferiority of the Arab Middle East vis-
a-vis the West.





16 | Introduction


Nasser's Charismatic Leadership and the Masses
Although scholars differ on what actually accounts for charisma, all agree
that Nasser was a charismatic leader who managed to form a special link
with the Arab masses. Saad Eddin Ibrahim equated Nasser's ability to
reach people with the famous Egyptian singer, Umm Kulthum. Indeed, the
crowded funerals that the two received attested to their enormous popular-
ity and charisma.68 He was, in the words of the common people, "habib al-
malayin" (beloved of the masses). Thus, Nasser may be regarded as a typi-
cal populist leader.
   Hinnebusch asserts that Nasser "seemed to be the right man at the right
time."69 Indeed, taking into account Egypt's multifaceted problems in the
political and economic spheres, his appearance was analogous to the descent
from heaven of a deus ex machina in a tragic drama. As other charismatic
leaders, he "emerged in a society in crisis, confronted the challenge, had a
message, and found people disposed to believe in his message and to follow
his lead in search of salvation in this world or in the hereafter."70 Nasser's
humble origins (the son of a postmaster) made him an authentic native
leader, the first in many centuries to rule Egypt. Thus his unique connection
with the masses rested not only on his charisma but also on the fact that he
represented an entire Arab generation. As noted in the foreword by Gabriel
Ben-Dor, Nasser's "acute sense of what the people wanted and needed al-
lowed him to communicate with them better than practically anyone before
him or since." The Arab sociologist 'Iyad Bin-'Ashur described this peculiar
bond between the leader and the masses:
     The relationship between the ra'is and the people is a direct one:
   immediate, emotional, marvelous, almost "bodily." It forms the back-
   bone of the political system, in a situation where political organiza-
   tions are no more than tools for mobilization and recruitment for the
   sake of a plebiscite, populist democracy. The discourse in this democ-
   racy is addressed to the "people," in the sense of the needy, the badly-
   off in terms of money or culture. It is a political discourse full of
   wishes, promises, and appeals to the joy of life, to progress and equal-
   ity.71

   Like other charismatic leaders, Nasser made use of several symbolic man-
ifestations of populism. First, he glorified the values and ways of life of the
common man, while lashing out against the previous privileged class. Sec-
ond, his speeches were delivered in "medial" or colloquial language and
punctuated by folksy humor. By addressing the masses in their own lan-
guage, Nasser succeeded in creating an image of "one of us." In the past, the
common people were not accustomed to meeting the king "face to face" and





Introduction | 17


hearing him in their own language. Nasser's messages promised to solve
the political and social crisis, or they were interpreted as such. In order to
attract all social classes, these messages were broadly and simply phrased,
encapsulated in slogans such as "freedom," "social justice," "independence,"
"anti-imperialism," "anti-Zionism," and "pan-Arabism." By emphasizing
the issue of "restoring national dignity" in his discourse, Nasser made a
psychological appeal to the emotions of Egyptians and Arabs from all walks
of life. The fact that his charismatic leadership coincided with the spread of
transistor radios helped Nasser to reach remote places that had hitherto
been excluded from the political scene. In his study of an Egyptian village,
Harik poetically describes the impact of Nasser's speeches on the villagers:

   Nasser's speeches contained no fiery rhetoric; they were monotonous,
   flowing slowly and incessantly like the great Nile. His words were
   pronounced with deliberation; his pauses and repetitions were fre-
   quent. His style was not ornate; rather, he spoke in a colloquial, con-
   versational manner. The villagers sat listening as if at a seance. Nasser
   took them into his confidence, or seemed to do so, by explaining af-
   fairs of state in uncomplicated language.... He congratulated himself
   for what he had done for them, called on their patience for hardships
   that had to be endured, and lectured them on socialism. The villagers
   were entertained, moderately enlightened, and above all, flattered.72

   Third, like other populist leaders, Nasser pointed a finger at the "enemies
of the people," be they reactionaries, imperialists, or pro-Zionists. By "dis-
covering" plots allegedly carried out by these agents against the "people," a
semblance of unity between all social classes was evoked.73 Fourth, Nasser
used the clever technique of self-criticism in his speeches and interviews, thus
"taking the wind out of the sails of the opposition."74 Fifth, Nasser invoked
the memory of historical heroes, such as Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, Ahmad
'Urabi, Mustafa Kamel, and Sa'd Zaghlul, who also had undergone a pro-
cess of "Arabization." Such historical analogies were used to form an "inevi-
table" link in the chain of endless confrontations between East and West.
The use of these "cultural unifiers," to use Saad Eddin Ibrahim's phrase,75
also served to create a link, even if artificial, between the Arab-Islamic tradi-
tion and modernity. Sixth, Nasser created new revolutionary symbols, while
destroying other symbols associated with the colonial past. Thus, long be-
fore it was officially opened in July 1970, the Aswan Hign Dam had already
been displayed as a monument built for the benefit of the people, represent-
ing a national and economic triumph over the West.76 On the other hand, the
statue of Ferdinand De Lespes, the French builder of the Suez Canal, was
removed due to its association with Western imperialism.





18 | Introduction


   Nasser's popularity, legitimacy, and mythology grew dramatically during
the second half of the 1950s. In chapter 1, Leonard Binder acknowledges
that the heroic image of Nasser was based on the popular response to several
bold moves taken between 1955 and 1961. He emphasizes the impact of the
British evacuation, the opposition to the Baghdad Pact, the Czech arms deal,
the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, the seizure of foreign prop-
erties, the rejection of the Eisenhower Doctrine, the establishment of the
UAR, and the adoption of socialist policies. These successes served to so-
lidify Nasser's link with the masses, reinforcing their Arab identity and el-
evating their self-respect.77 Moreover, these acts were instrumental in "lay-
ing the preliminary groundwork on which future charismatic legitimacy
would rest."78 But since charismatic authority rests on heroic performances,
there was a constant need for success. Nasser's foreign adventures can be
attributed to this need.
   Interestingly, however, all the foreign disasters that followed (e.g., the
breakup of the UAR, the involvement in Yemen, the June 1967 War, and the
War of Attrition) did not substantially erode Nasser's charisma and legiti-
macy. When he resigned after the devastating defeat of June 1967, the
masses roamed the streets demanding his return, thus demonstrating once
again the existence of a remarkable bond with the ra'is.79

Nasserism Style of Politics and Mobilization Techniques
Like other populist regimes, Nasser's Egypt was an authoritarian-bureau-
cratic state, relying on three pillars: the presidency, the army, and the party.
Consequently, as Ayubi maintains, a three-layer state was created: a boss-
state, a security state (dawlat al-mukhabarat), and a party state that domi-
nated most associations in society, while the civil bureaucracy was directed
and controlled by all three. The mobilization of the people within the sys-
tem, Ayubi contends, "was partly charismatic (via the boss), partly ideologi-
cal/political (via the party) and partly organizational (via the bureaucracy
and sometimes the army)."80 Overall, Nasser's political system, as Nathan
Brown observes in chapter 4, promised greater accessibility and account-
ability, but in fact delivered-in quite a heavy-handed fashion-authoritar-
ianism.
   Soon after seizing power, the Free Officers abolished the monarchy and
the multiparty system. Instead, Nasser attempted to form a single mass orga-
nization (the term party was to be avoided because it signaled partisanship)
that would become a vehicle for mobilizing, activating, and eventually con-
trolling the masses. The aim of the organization was "melting" (tadhwib) all
class differences on the road to a classless society. The Liberation Rally
(1953) and the National Union (1957) were two unsuccessful attempts to





Introduction | 19


form such a front. The most serious effort was associated with the Arab
Socialist Union (1962), which was meant to represent the "national alliance
of working forces" consisting of workers, peasants, intellectuals, national
capitalists, and soldiers. "While the five parts of the alliance were far more
a rhetorical device than an organizational reality," wrote Waterbury, "they
served to focus attention on social categories that cut vertically across strata
of income and privilege."81 Concomitantly, the Nasserist regime initiated a
propaganda campaign directed at these groups, in order to strengthen their
sense of belonging to the Egyptian community as well as to emphasize their
important role in the creation of a new socialist society.
   The National Charter stipulated that at least 50 percent of all elected
seats, at whatever level of political, union, or cooperative activity, be re-
served for workers and peasants. This step represented Nasser's determina-
tion to mobilize constituencies that had previously remained on the margins
of politics and could now be expected to support the regime in its drive for
socialist reforms. In reality, however, the Charter did not adequately define
these corps, and since they had hardly exhibited any corporate activity prior
to 1961, the identity given to them from above had proven to be largely
fictitious.82 Henry Clement Moore claimed that none of the five groups suc-
ceeded in acquiring sufficient corporate power to demand autonomy or to
attain a bargaining position that would allow influence in decision mak-
ing.83 It would seem, however, that this was exactly what Nasser had in
mind: to mobilize the support of the common people by adopting corporat-
ist organizational principles without encouraging a concomitant increase in
their political power. Nazih Ayubi described this duality thus:
   Because Egypt's experimentation with corporatism has coincided with
   a populist phase (and often with the leader's charisma), the organiza-
   tional sophistication of their corporatist arrangements could not ex-
   ceed a certain prescribed level without upsetting the populist character
   of the regime and threatening to unravel its coalition. The populist
   coalition was basically "distributive," and it had therefore mainly in-
   corporated its component classes and groups economically while ex-
   cluding them politically.84

   The authoritarian nature of the regime was also reflected in its attitude
toward the media in general and the press in particular. The nationalization
law of the press in 1960 abolished the relatively liberal system that existed
under the monarchy, transforming it into a "mobilization press." This "re-
organization" of the Egyptian press turned it, in the words of a shrewd
observer, "into a government agency exercising the only freedom available
to it-the freedom to justify, support and flatter."85 Thus, while the regime





20 | Introduction


was investing great efforts in mobilizing the five components of the "alli-
ance," it simultaneously acted to curb the activity of independent organs of
public opinion that could threaten the regime's control.
   In its attempt to mobilize the workers, the regime substantially improved
their standard of living, offering them attractive legal guarantees concerning
job security, social security, promotions, retirement benefits, wage increases,
and subsidies on basic foodstuffs. In addition, an organized campaign aimed
at improving the hitherto negative image of the workers had been launched.
Moreover, they were given the opportunity to organize; by 1970, fourteen
syndicates (including various professional trade unions, such as journalists
and engineers) were in existence and their membership was steadily grow-
ing. In 1957, the regime allowed the formation of the General Federation of
Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU). In return, union leaders had to acquiesce
to the regime's prohibitions against declaring strikes, inciting class antago-
nism, organizing work stoppages, trying to overthrow the political system,
or using force to recruit union members.86 These strict terms reflected the
authoritarian-populist nature of the regime. In short, as Joel Beinin asserted,
the loyalty of union leaders was ensured through "a combination of repres-
sion, reform, and appeals to national unity."87
   Such modes of action became especially relevant during periods of crisis,
which necessitated the support of the workers. More generally, the syndi-
cates were highly instrumental in strengthening the regime's legitimacy and
widening its popular base. Robert Springborg claimed that the significance
of the syndicates did not lie "in their role as organizations articulating de-
mands and recruiting political leaders, but rather in their role as vehicles
through which the regime attempts to control the behavior, and in some
instances mobilize the support, of the professionals."88 This policy reflected
the state's commitment to provide goods and services for the benefit of the
people in return for political docility. According to Waterbury, "there was
no call to sacrifice for future generations, no austerity measures other than
those dictated by military defeat. Egyptians were promised the fruits of the
revolution in their time."89
   Nasser's instrumental attitude toward the economy made Egypt a classic
example of a "soft state," as Gilbar and Winckler claim.90 Paul Rivlin states
in chapter 11 that in contrast to the leadership in South Korea and elsewhere
in East Asia, Nasser's regime "failed to give economic issues an absolute
priority.... This is not to say that Nasser and others in the leadership did not
want the best for their people; indeed, their concern for the citizenry was
demonstrated in their unwillingness to impose burdens. They managed to
maintain basic consumption levels, and this was enough to keep them in
power." Another aspect of Nasser's "soft state" was Egypt's family planning





Introduction | 21


policy, which, in contrast to the Tunisian family planning policy, was based
on the voluntary response of the population to a governmental policy that
did not entail economic and social restrictions deemed crucial for fertility
reduction (see chapter 12). The combination of Nasser's "soft state" with
huge security expenditures, particularly since the intervention in the Yemen
Civil War in late 1962, and the immense negative economic consequences of
the defeat in the June 1967 War, created a severe economic recession in
Egypt during the late 1960s-the most severe of the second half of the twen-
tieth century.
   The regime also acted in different ways to mobilize the rural middle class
and the peasants. Binder claimed that the Free Officers formed an alliance
with the second stratum-the rural class of locally influential landowners
of moderate means (owners of ten to fifty feddans), who were mobilized
through the medium of the Arab Socialist Union.91 Indeed, the September
1952 Agrarian Reform, supplemented by the reform laws of 1961 and 1969,
stripped the wealthy landlords of their economic privileges and political
power. Instead, an expanded group of rural small landlords emerged, be-
coming the link between the regime and the villagers. Since the successive
land reforms largely did not affect these medium-sized landowners economi-
cally, insofar as they retained their share of the cultivated land, the change
was more reflected in the social and political spheres, which had been previ-
ously dominated by the big landlords. This new position of the rural middle
class enabled the regime to use it as an instrument of political and social
control in the countryside.92
   The great beneficiaries of land reform, however, were the poor peasants,
owners of less than five feddans, who increased their holdings from 35.4
percent of the total area in 1952 to 54.8 percent in 1964. While the struc-
tural change in landownership was indeed impressive, still many peasants
remained landless.93 Overall, however, the common villagers not only per-
ceived Nasser's policies and reforms in the countryside as "positive proof of
his concern for the fellahin" but also "identified with him and accepted his
innovations."94
   The other three corps constituting the "national alliance of working
forces"-intellectuals, national capitalists, and soldiers-belonged to the
urban middle class. It was from these groups that the new elite, composed of
former officers and educated bureaucrats, was recruited. Nasser's regime
acted in a variety of ways to expand its base of support among the educated
middle class, targeting the students in particular. In fact, the students had
constituted the most restive sector in society, playing a major role in the
organization of riots and demonstrations during the monarchy period. By
declaring that all secondary school graduates would be admitted to univer-





22 | Introduction


sities (1962), and by decreeing that the state would be obliged to offer em-
ployment to any university graduate in the civil service and public sector
(1964), Nasser transformed the students into his most ardent supporters.
Indeed, during Nasser's era, the increase in the number of students was
higher than ever before or after. Whereas in 1950 the total number of univer-
sity students in Egypt was 33,595, their number reached 233,304 in 1970,
representing an increase of sevenfold in only two decades.95 Although in the
long run this populist decision produced a glut of graduates who became a
burden on the bureaucratic apparatus and the economic system, in the short
run the students refrained from taking part in activities against the regime.
In February 1968, when the students went to the streets, Nasser responded
with the March Manifesto, which attempted to address their grievances.96
   In the effort to reach hitherto excluded segments of society, Nasser's re-
gime also acted to acquire the support of women.97 True, the regime did not
have any feminist agenda, and women in general were expected to fulfill
their traditional role in the family, but the social and political status of
women was considerably improved. The 1956 Constitution provided suf-
frage rights to women, declared that all Egyptians are equal before the law,
and endorsed the equal treatment of all employees in terms of work hours,
wages, insurance benefits, and vacations. Although in reality employers
often ignored these rights in regard to women, still it was an important
turning point in the status of women in Egyptian society. No less important
was the fact that female enrollment rose dramatically in primary and sec-
ondary education as well as at the university level. One of the major results
of the widespread education among women in the Nasserite era, particu-
larly higher education, was the increasing percentage of women in the Egyp-
tian elite thereafter. This is clear evidence from Uri Kupferschmidt's study on
the National Encyclopedia of Prominent Egyptian Personalities, in which
women represented 8 percent of the total entries. In this regard, Kupfer-
schmidt noted, "This may not be an impressive proportion in Western terms,
but it is nevertheless remarkable in Egypt" (see chapter 6). It would seem,
however, that Nasser's interest in promoting women's rights had a populist
dimension. As Mervat Hatem concluded, Nasser appropriated a "state femi-
nism" whereby economic independence was granted to women, who in re-
turn "supported the state, embraced its ideology, participated in the mod-
ernization plans, and accepted their generally unreformed status in the
family."98
   In his attempt to reach all previously neglected groups in society, Nasser
also took some conspicuous measures with respect to children. Since the
early 1960s, Child's Day (or Childhood Day, 'Id al-Tufula), has been cel-
ebrated on January 15-not incidentally Nasser's birthday. The regime de-





Introduction | 23


picted children as the human raw material of the future, for both the Egyp-
tian people and mankind.99 Emphasis was put on education, with the 1953
law providing for free education between ages six and twelve. At the same
time, the new school curricula accentuated Egyptian and Arab national edu-
cation, including speeches by the president.100
   A primary mobilization technique of the Nasserite populist regime was
the arousal of a new cultural awareness among the masses. "The search for
a popular culture," wrote Michael Conniff, "answered an existential need to
define the 'people' whose role in national life was expanding, and in whose
name the populists campaigned."101 In contrast to the colonial powers,
which projected the ideals of an ordered Western civilization, populism re-
vived interest in native cultures. Yet the confrontation between moderniza-
tion and the maintenance of traditional culture often led to the emergence
of a synthetic approach.102 According to Jack Crabbs, the revolution "has
mounted a frontal attack on all aspects of the ancient regime and has delib-
erately altered the historical and cultural self-image of society." This had
been carried out through a "constantly changing mixture of elements of
coercion, persuasion, and patronage."103 In reality, however, the cultural
transformation was based on a reinterpretation of Egypt's past rather than a
disengagement from it. Elements of Pharaonic, Islamic, Egyptian, and Arab
cultural "unifiers" were eclectically woven into this popular culture.104
   In January 1956, in accordance with the new constitution, the Higher
Council of Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences was set up to coordinate be-
tween governmental and nongovernmental agencies. The institution was
aimed at directing and supervising artistic activities along the desired goals
of the revolution, as well as "accentuating the national character in Egypt's
intellectual production."105 In time, the Council became part of the Ministry
of Culture, which was formed in 1957 with the aim of promoting programs
in music, cinema, theater, dance, and other forms of popular art. Both the
Council and the Ministry invested great efforts in reaching the rural periph-
ery. Most of the sponsored activity was organized for the masses, aiming at
popularizing the revolution and Nasser as well as glorifying the common
people.
   The link between Nasserism and popular culture was nowhere as salient
as in the field of music. Gabriel Rosenbaum shows how Umm Kulthum,
'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, and Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab, all of whom were
personally acquainted with Nasser, influenced an entire generation of Egyp-
tians through their patriotic songs (wataniyyat).106 Of the three, 'Abd al-
Halim was particularly considered "the voice of the revolution." Rosen-
baum further asserts that although new generations of Egyptians may not be
familiar with Nasserite ideology, "they know 'Abd al-Halim's songs, which





24 | Introduction


convey elements of this ideology" (see chapter 14). Likewise, Joel Gordon
shows how the younger generation of filmmakers utilized the "Dark Night-
ingale" ('Abd al-Halim Hafiz) as a symbol of the long-lost Nasser era (see
chapter 13). According to the minister of culture, Nasser was personally
involved in encouraging these cultural activities:
   He was keen on supporting cultural projects, believing that cultural
   revival would bring into the intellectual sphere what heavy industrial-
   ization brings in the sphere of industry. He was passionately endeavor-
   ing to show that the word has a mission in strengthening the forces of
   the nation no less than the mission of the gun in safeguarding the
   borders of the homeland.107

   In the field of literature, the Ministry of National Guidance was respon-
sible for formulating a common collective memory by publishing inexpen-
sive popular booklets that propagated national history, as well as works of
a cultural-educational character.108 The regime attempted-usually unsuc-
cessfully-to harness leading intellectuals to this campaign. Moreover, a
school of writing devoted largely to the poor was founded in the mid-1950s,
according to Abdel Rahman El-Abnoudi, considered the "most famous liv-
ing poet of the sixties generation." In his view, "those of us who belonged to
the disinherited classes had no choice but to belong to that literary school
that endorsed the poor-the classes whose interests the revolution would
serve."109
   The regime's promotion of popular culture was also manifested in the
realm of sports, where popular forms of sports were encouraged at the ex-
pense of other "elitist" forms associated with Egypt's colonial past, such as
golf and polo. In his analysis of the sports revival, Yoav Di-Capua asserts
that "sports were perceived as an important tool for the organization and
conscription of citizens behind the national movement" (see chapter 5). The
most popular form was football, with personal involvement by leading poli-
ticians, including Nasser and his minister of war, 'Abd al-Hakim 'Amer, in
the competition between al-Ahli and al-Zamalik, the two rival teams from
Cairo. The extent to which this issue transcended the playing field was re-
flected in a statement by the Lebanese journalist Salim al-Lazwi and the
Egyptian writer Yusuf Idris to the effect that these two teams were "the only
parties in the Arab world."110 Not incidentally, "sports parties" also domi-
nated the university campuses.111

The Eclectic Use of Ideology
Although one school of thought sees Nasserism as a kind of ideology, it was,
on balance, an eclectic amalgam of ideas. In this respect, the assertion of





Introduction | 25


John Waterbury that "there was an enormous amount of 'ad hocism' in the
Egyptian experiment"112 truly reflects Nasser's haphazard nature of policy
and ideology. Upon seizing power, the Free Officers had only vaguely de-
fined their goals, focusing on three negative aspects-struggling against
imperialism, feudalism, and exploitative capitalism-and three positive as-
pects-attaining social justice, building a strong army, and establishing a
healthy democracy.113 More concretely, Nasserite ideas can be classified
around three clusters and roughly divided into three distinct periods: Egyp-
tian nationalism (1952-54), pan-Arabism (1954-61), and Arab socialism
(1961-67).11
   The nationalist aspect of Nasserism was paramount in the early revolu-
tionary years, when the Free Officers focused on the evacuation of British
forces. This was achieved with the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty in
October 1954, signaling an end to foreign occupation and complete inde-
pendence.115 In fact, this move was a source of great pride for many Egyp-
tians. "Lift up your head, brother, the age of subjugation is over" was
Nasser's oft-quoted slogan. The completion of British withdrawal allowed
Nasser, who had by then emerged as the sole leader of the revolution, to
adopt pan-Arabism, a doctrine he had never before espoused. From then
until the collapse of the UAR in September 1961, pan-Arabism dominated
Nasser's discourse and policy.116
   Although the exact role of pan-Arabism in Nasser's thought and conduct
is still a subject for debate, it seems that he perceived this doctrine mainly as
an instrument enabling Egypt to achieve a dominant position in the Arab
world. Indeed, Avraham Sela reaches the conclusion that "even after the
establishment of the UAR, Nasser's adherence to Arab unity was a matter of
pragmatism rather than an ideological commitment" (see chapter 7). In-
deed, some of Nasser's boldest moves in the Arab world and in the Arab-
Israeli conflict were taken as a reaction to external and internal challenges
and not necessarily out of ideological conviction.
   In comparison to Latin American models of populism, Egypt's drive for
regional leadership based on pan-Arabism constituted a unique feature of
Nasser's populism. The concept of Arab identity infiltrated Egyptian intel-
lectual discourse in the early 1930s, slowly becoming an influential politi-
cal force domestically. This ideology was more attractive to the educated
effendiyya because Egyptian territorial nationalism had been promoted by
the wealthy elite and associated with Western models of community. For a
generation imbued with anti-Western sentiment, the espousal of an identity
based on Arab-Islamic indigenous culture was seen as a kind of defense
mechanism against Western cultural domination. Moreover, its legitimacy
was derived from the authenticity of the alternative, with a potential for





26 | Introduction


elevating the effendiyya's low self-esteem. As Israel Gershoni and James Jan-
kowski asserted, "Even if Supra-Egyptian nationalism was an invented tra-
dition, at least it was a home-made invention."117
   This process, occurring in tandem with British withdrawal, considerably
improved Egypt's maneuverability in Arab politics. For those perceiving the
Arab world as Egypt's natural lebensraum, a golden opportunity now pre-
sented itself. Undoubtedly, Nasser, in his quest for regional preeminence,
was aware of these political-strategic considerations, with his claim resting
on the existence of a shared Arab identity not devoid of Islamic undertones.
Thus, as Sela concludes, "Nasser's years in power were marked by a con-
stant drive for all-Arab hegemony," but he was in fact "halfhearted in his
self-aggrandizement" (see chapter 7).
   Nasser's espousal of pan-Arabism was an essential part of his populism.
He made use of his charismatic appeal by communicating his message
through the mass media and by speaking directly to the Arab masses. All of
these attributes were skillfully used for achieving an age-old Egyptian aim-
namely, Egyptian hegemony-disguised in a new garb called Arab unity.118
Essentially, Nasser repeated on the Arab stage what he had done in Egypt. If
he could succeed in spreading the pan-Arab message among Egyptian villag-
ers,119 who for centuries had been Egyptian-centered in terms of their iden-
tity, then it was hardly surprising that Arabs outside Egypt would be at-
tracted to his doctrine as well. The success of his populist style of leadership
on the Arab stage can thus be primarily attributed to the similarity of histori-
cal processes that Egypt and other Arab countries were undergoing. In many
respects, Nasser represented an entire Arab generation mesmerized by simi-
lar problems, and this is precisely what made Nasserism such a powerful
force in the Arab region.120
   With respect to international politics, populist leaders may search for a
middle path between East and West, thus opting for neutralism or nonalign-
ment. This kind of approach characterized Nasser's policy: In his attempt to
gain maximum benefits from the superpowers, he fluctuated between them
regardless of ideological considerations. Both David Lesch and Rami Ginat,
the first in his analysis of Nasser-U.S. relations and the second in his review
of Nasser-Soviet relations, show how Nasser's policy exploited the Cold
War to his own advantage. Thus Lesch concludes: "Washington could never
quite figure out whether Nasser was an asset or a detriment to U.S. interests
in the Middle East.... To the end, Nasser was something of an enigma to
Washington" (see chapter 8). At the same time, Ginat concludes that Nas-
ser's neutralism was intended to manipulate both the United States and the
Soviet Union in order to further Egypt's foreign policy. Ginat emphasizes,
however, that Nasser's neutralism was not balanced and that his speeches





Introduction | 27


and interviews were characterized more by their anti-Western tone and less
by their anticommunist content (see chapter 9).
   The third period of Nasserist "ideology" was characterized by socialism
or 6tatism, which was fully developed during the years 1961-67 with the
decline of pan-Arabism. Hinnebusch claimed that "the Nasserist modern-
ization strategy was essentially a populist form of 6tatism."121 This meant
that the state emerged as the major source of economic activity and employ-
ment, while allowing some measure of private enterprise. In order to justify
his socialist policy, Nasser described Egypt's social structure before the revo-
lution as "the half percent society," one in which only half a percent of the
Egyptian population controlled both the economy and the political sys-
tem.122 This situation was particularly visible in the field of landownership,
"where some 2,000 individuals representing an even smaller number of
families owned almost 20 percent of the cultivated area."123 In other sectors
of the economy, one can find the same income gaps.
   Consequently, an expanded public sector emerged, largely responsible
for planning, stimulating, and directing development. This kind of policy
was connected with populism insofar as a powerful, interventionist state
apparatus was needed in order "to change Egyptian society, to promote
mass literacy, to shift the country to an industrial footing, and to achieve
the rates of growth required to bring about broad-based prosperity."124 In
fact, a somewhat similar kind of 6tatism has also characterized several
other types of populist regimes in the Middle East, such as Kemalism,
Khomeinism, Ba'thism, and Bourguibism.125
   Ayubi questions the applicability of the term socialist for the Egyptian
revolutionary regime, preferring to use the term tatist. He claims that
Nasser used socialist slogans, applied social policies, and adopted institu-
tional arrangements reminiscent of Soviet-style European regimes, but that
it would be "misleading" to call his regime "socialist." In his opinion, "so-
cialism" was partly adopted as an extension of nationalist concerns into
economic spheres. In other words, national independence, state building,
mass mobilization, and political control were the primary aims of the re-
gime, while the socialist components were formulated eclectically, often as a
response to external or internal challenges.126 A similar conclusion was
reached by Riad El-Ghonemy, contending that the several measures for so-
cial justice which were actually implemented did not warrant the exagger-
ated title of "socialism" (see chapter 10). In this sense, both pan-Arabism
and Arab socialism served the same means.
   On May 21, 1962, in front of 1,750 delegates to the National Congress of
the Popular Forces, Nasser presented the National Charter, the most impor-
tant document to be published during his era. This statement could be re-





28 | Introduction


garded as a logical consummation of Egypt's drift toward socialism.127 How-
ever, it was equally possible that this move was precipitated by the breakup
of the UAR and that Nasser responded to internal and external challenges by
attempting to broaden the social base of his regime and thereby strengthen
his legitimacy.
   A textual analysis of the Charter reveals its eclectic nature, with long
statements on socialism, democracy, Arab unity, foreign policy, and Islam,
as well as an expose of the revolution's "official" historical narrative. As a
major symbol of Nasserism, the Charter undoubtedly reflected the popu-
list nature of the regime, which is strikingly evident in its rhetoric. More-
over, the Charter indicates that the state did aspire "to be many things to
many groups," offering disparate promises to workers, peasants, and vari-
ous groups of the effendiyya.128


Conclusions

Historians of the Middle East accentuate the influential role of the unique
Arab-Islamic culture in shaping contemporary history. Without discounting
the force of this argument, a comparative analysis may enrich our under-
standing of Middle Eastern phenomena. By viewing Nasserism as a form of
populism that has certain parallels with Latin American forms of populism,
one can see the peculiarities as well as the comparative aspects of Nasserism.
Such an analysis reveals that populism is more likely to emerge in certain
places (Di Tella calls it the "periphery") and at certain times. Arguably, when
certain historical and socioeconomic processes coalesce-such as modern-
ization, rapid urbanization, and sometimes decolonization-society and its
individuals might be more prone to the appearance of populist leaders.
Thus, an analysis of the historical conditions underlying the emergence of
Nasserism, which focuses on its regional dimensions, might lead to the con-
clusion, as has been suggested by Shamir and others, that it constituted an
Arab-Islamic protest movement against the West. Though such an interpre-
tation may be sound, it must be understood as reductionist. On the other
hand, a comparative analysis, which sees Nasserism as a form of populism,
places it as part of a worldwide-or at least a Third World-phenomenon.
   Nasserism shares certain features with Latin American populism: the cen-
tral role of the charismatic leader and the special bond with the masses; the
authoritarian nature of the regime, with its various techniques of mobiliza-
tion among broad stratums; and the regime's eclectic use of ideology. Yet
Nasserism differs from Latin American models in three important ways that
are somehow connected. First, while populist regimes appeared in Latin
America long after nations achieved their independence, Nasserism emerged
as an anticolonial movement, aiming to eliminate all traces of Western im-





Introduction | 29


perialism. Second, while Latin American elites and societies are culturally
tied to their previous Western (Hispanic) colonizers, the Arab-Islamic iden-
tity of Nasserism turned it a priori into an anti-Western movement. Raised
during what was considered British "occupation," Nasser and his genera-
tion viewed with suspicion any association with the West. The adoption of
neutralism in world politics was, therefore, a natural choice for this genera-
tion.
   The same logic, though more complex, motivated Nasser in pursuing
pan-Arabism. The adoption of this doctrine could offer several advantages:
a counteridentity, a "shield" against Western imperialism, a symbol of inde-
pendence, a means to achieve Egypt's hegemony over the Arab world, and
perhaps an economic opportunity to transfer some of the huge oil revenues
of the Gulf states to the benefit of the Egyptian people. It is indeed ironic, as
Sela concludes in this article, that Nasserism, "often conceived as the great
priest of pan-Arab unity, was in effect a powerful catalyst in the process of
state formation" (see chapter 7). But the very instrumental use of pan-Arab-
ism to promote Egypt's leading role in the Arab world constitutes, in fact, the
third difference between Nasserism and Latin American populism. Peronism
and other forms of populism in Latin America have not radiated beyond
state borders in the attempt to assume a leading regional role. In contrast,
the regional dimension of Nasserism, one of its major components, stemmed
from the existence of an imagined collective Arab identity among societies
and individuals all over the Arab world. Similar historical conditions and
Egypt's age-old interest in what was perceived as its own natural sphere of
influence combined to form this unique feature of Nasser's populism.
   Populism does not only offer an explanation for the emergence of Nas-
serism and its particular characteristics; it can also offer some insight into its
spectacular failure. Most scholars are unanimous in their negative apprais-
als of Nasserism, while indicating some positive elements of it.129 Instead of
repeating these largely accepted assessments, we will highlight several points
in regard to its failure as a populist movement.
   First, as Samuel Huntington and Joan Nelson have noted, populism can
generate its own "vicious circle." The initial gains that lead to the expansion
of a regime's support base can become a drain on the economy "as more
groups become participants and attempt to share in a stagnant or slowly
growing economic pie. "130 In the case of Egypt, so long as the economy grew
at a pace of around 6 percent during the First Five-Year Development Plan
(1960-65), it was somehow possible to respond to the grievances of the
various sectors that Nasserism was aspiring to mobilize. These included
urban workers, the urban middle class (including students), peasants, city
emigrants, and others. Generally, Egyptian populism made substantial gains
among the lower and middle stratums, including increased opportunities in





30 | Introduction


the bureaucracy and an expanded educational system, redistribution of
surplus land expropriated from large landholders, and business possibilities
opened up by the departure of the "local foreigners."
   In addition, there was a substantial infusion of aid generated by Nasser's
successful diplomacy in playing off East against West, which eventually led
to receiving aid from both.131 In the long run, however, Nasser's attempt to
maintain a nationalist-populist coalition, as Hinnebusch explained, led to
mounting imbalance between resources and commitments, supply and de-
mand. These commitments included an ambitious development program, a
large army, a bureaucratized elite, and a substantial welfare state. These
imbalances were further aggravated in the mid-1960s as a result of several
developments. First was the problem of rapid population growth, which was
not met by a proper governmental response. Second was an overall decrease
in foreign assistance, which included a cutoff of U.S. food aid in the spring
of 1965.132 Finally, there were the disastrous effects of the foreign adven-
tures, first the Yemen Civil War (1962-67) and then the June 1967 War.133
Thus, by 1965, when the burden of debt had grown so heavy that interna-
tional banks were no longer prepared to provide new loans, the Second Five-
Year Development Plan (1965-70) crumbled.14
   In Hinnebusch's opinion, the ultimate factor undermining Nasserism was
the widening contradiction between Nasser's radical populist policies and
the dominant bourgeois segments of the regime's social base. As he stated,
"The official ideology was socialist, collectivist, and anti-imperialist, but the
'state bourgeoisie' kept a covert 'counter-ideology,' liberal, pro-Western,
and consumption-oriented, alive at the very heart of the state." Even the
Free Officers were gradually "embourgeoised."135 In addition, Nasserism
suffered from institutional weakness insofar as large segments of the masses
supported and benefited from Nasserism, but remained politically passive
because there was no viable party to represent them.136 Finally, like other
populist Latin American regimes, Nasser's internal need to demonstrate con-
stant success pushed him into the Yemen affair and the June 1967 War-two
episodes that signaled the death knell of Nasserism. Thus, populism offers
important insights into the reasons for the decline and eventual fall of Nas-
serism.
   Perhaps the most striking phenomenon was the gap between what Nas-
ser's populism promised and what it actually accomplished for the people it
aspired to represent. As one Egyptian intellectual aptly described this phe-
nomenon in retrospect:

   The past had two aspects: that of the facade, and that of the reality.
   The facade was splendid: it included the abolition of capitalism, of
   feudalism, of exploitation and of factionalism, along with the struggle





Introduction | 31


   against imperialism, the strengthening of the military, a fair deal for
   peasants and workers, the realization of social justice, industrializa-
   tion of the country and unification of the Arab nation from the Ocean
   to the Gulf. This splendid facade dazzled us at first, as it dazzled the
   entire Arab nation.... The Arabs believed in this aspect of the past, a
   belief that had almost become an ideology. The master of past became
   a demigod: to honor him, statues were erected and sacrifices were
   made; institutions and organizations were created hailing his name
   and fostering his ideology. This was the facade. As to reality, matters
   were utterly different.137

   In 1933, when the great Egyptian novelist Tawfiq al-Hakim published his
acclaimed Return of the Spirit (cAwdat al-Ruh), he was, to a large extent,
voicing the people's yearning for the appearance of a leader who would give
expression to their feelings and validate their rights to freedom and life.138
Seeing Nasserism from this perspective, one may wonder if this movement
was not more successful than has commonly been accorded. When Nasser
died on September 28, 1970, his biographer, Robert Stephens, tells us, "it
was the day of the Egyptian people, the humble millions, who had come to
say farewell to the man they regarded as 'the father of the nation."'139
   His death, however, was followed by an organized campaign of de-
Nasserization masterminded by Sadat, which served to obliterate almost all
traces of Nasserism. Moreover, Nasser-or rather his successors-have not
left any impressive and lasting physical incarnation to bear his name. But the
surprising popular reception of Nasser 56, forty years after the nationaliza-
tion of the Suez Canal Company,"O may indicate that populism is not yet
dead. Indeed, after reviewing the intellectual discourse of the Sadat and
Mubarak regimes, Meir Hatina comes to the conclusion that the Nasserist
legacy "has survived in the public memory" (see chapter 3). The lively public
discourse over the Nasserite legacy, which took place during the July 2002
Jubilee celebrations, indeed validates this assertion. Thus, under the shadow
of a harsh reality, the Egyptian people, we may contemplate, are just await-
ing another hero-leader. Until then, the spirit of Nasser-or rather what is
left of his mythical image-may be resurrected time and again.


Notes

   1. Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice
since 1967 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 18. Ajami, however, did
provide a sketchy blueprint of Nasserism elsewhere that will be followed below.
   2. All the following sources used the term Nasserism (sometimes even extensively)
without defining its meaning: Shimon Shamir, ed., From Monarchy to Republic: A





32 | Introduction


Reassessment of Revolution and Change (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995); Paul Sa-
lem, Bitter Legacy: Ideology and Politics in the Arab World (Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 1994); James Jankowski, "Arab Nationalism in 'Nasserism' and
Egyptian State Policy, 1952-1958," in James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni, eds.,
Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1997), 150-67; Kirk J. Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years: Ideology,
Politics, and Civil Society (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994); Joel Gordon, Nasser's
Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1992); Leonard Binder, In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political
Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1978); Tareq Y. Ismael, The Arab Left (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1976);
Gabriel R. Warburg and Uri M. Kupferschmidt, eds., Islam, Nationalism, and Rad-
icalism in Egypt and the Sudan (New York: Praeger, 1983); George Lenczowski,
"The Objects and Methods of Nasserism," in Jack H. Thompson and Robert D.
Reischauer, eds., Modernization of the Arab World (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand,
1966), 197-211. See also Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, and Richard W. Bulliet,
eds., Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, vol. 3 (New York: Macmillan Refer-
ence, 1996), where there is an entry on Nasser (1313-15) but not on Nasserism.
   3. Kemal Karpat, ed., Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle
East (New York: Praeger, 1982), 158-61; Hrair Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir: A
Study in Political Dynamics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971),
chaps. 5, 8, 9; Majid Khadduri, Arab Contemporaries: The Role of Personalities in
Politics (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), 43-63. According to
Khadduri, Nasser was a prototype of "the ideological school." See also Israel
Gershoni, "Rethinking the Formation of Arab Nationalism in the Middle East,
1920-1945: Old and New Narratives," in Jankowski and Gershoni, eds., Rethink-
ing Nationalism in the Arab Middle East, 4; "Nasserism," in Cassell Dictionary of
Modern Politics (London: Cassell, 1994), 200; "Nasserism," in Dilip Hiro, Dictio-
nary of the Middle East (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), 216.
   4. Nissim Rejwan, Nasserist Ideology: Its Exponents and Critics (New York:
Wiley, 1974), 1, 6-7, 176.
   5. Walid Khalidi, "Political Trends in the Fertile Crescent," in Walter Z. Laqueur,
ed., The Middle East in Transition (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1958), 125. Similarly,
Hisham Sharabi claims that Nasserism is "an emotional trend rather than a regi-
mented and coordinated movement." See his Nationalism and Revolution in the
Arab World (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1966), 97.
   6. P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (New York: Croom Helm, 1978),
297-98, 322.
   7. Ibid., 195, 269, 297-98, 342. See also the interpretation of the Egyptian intel-
lectual Fuad Zakariyya (quoted in ibid., 335-36); James A. Bill and Carl Leiden, The
Middle East: Politics and Power (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1974), 149-55; Jean
Lacouture, The Demigods: Charismatic Leadership in the Third World, trans.
Patricia Wolf (New York: Knopf, 1970), 13-31, 81-136.
   8. See, e.g., Leland Bowie, "Charisma, Weber, and Nasir," Middle East Journal
30, no. 2 (1976): 141-57.





Introduction | 33


   9. See, e.g., Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, chaps. 4, 10; Sharabi, Nationalism
and Revolution in the Arab World, 97.
   10. Cyril E. Black and L. Carl Brown, eds., Modernization in the Middle East: The
Ottoman Empire and Its Afro-Asian Successors (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1992),
204.
   11. Most of the sources that analyzed Nasserism from this perspective did not use
the term Nasserism when describing Nasser's attempts at modernization. See in this
regard Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle
East (London: Free Press, 1958), 214-63; Manfred Halpern, The Politics of Social
Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1963); James B. Mayfield, Rural Politics in Nasser's Egypt: A Quest for Legitimacy
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971); Maxime Rodinson, "The Political Sys-
tem," in P. J. Vatikiotis, ed., Egypt since the Revolution (New York: F. A. Praeger,
1968), 87-113; Bill and Leiden, The Middle East: Politics and Power, 145-55. See
also various articles in Benjamin Rivlin and Joseph S. Szyliowicz, eds., The Contem-
porary Middle East: Tradition and Innovation (New York: Random House, 1965);
Thompson and Reischauer, Modernization of the Arab World. For a summary of the
modernization school, see Shimon Shamir, "The Decline of Nasserist Messianism,"
in Shamir, ed., The Decline of Nasserism, 1965-1970: The Waning of a Messianic
Movement (Tel Aviv: Mif'alim Universitayim, 1978), 4-6 (Hebrew). On the signifi-
cance of the modernization theory in Middle Eastern political science in the 1950s
and 1960s, see Lisa Anderson, "Policy Making and Theory Building: American Po-
litical Science and the Islamic Middle East," in Hisham Sharabi, ed., Theory, Politics,
and the Arab World: Critical Responses (New York: Routledge, 1990), 55-60.
   12. Raymond A. Hinnebusch Jr., Egyptian Politics under Sadat: The Post-Popu-
list Development of an Authoritarian-Modernizing State (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985), 3.
   13. See in particular Anouar Abdel-Malek, Egypt Military Society: The Army
Regime, the Left, and Social Change under Nasser, trans. Charles Lam Markmann
(New York: Random House, 1968); Mahmoud Abdel Fadil, The Political Economy
of Nasserism: A Study in Employment and Income Distribution Policies in Urban
Egypt, 1952-1972 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); Mahmoud
Hussein, Class Conflict in Egypt, 1945-1970 (New York: Monthly Review Press,
1973). For a reference to this school, see Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat,
3; Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm of pan-Arab Leadership: The
Case of Nasser," in Fuad I. Khuri, ed., Leadership and Development in Arab Society
(Beirut: Center for Arab and Middle East Studies, American University of Beirut,
1981), 35; Shamir, "The Decline of Nasserist Messianism," 5.
   14. Avraham Sela, ed., Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East (New York:
Continuum, 1998), 546.
   15. Leonard Binder, "Nasserism: The Protest Movement in the Middle East," in
Binder, ed., The Ideological Revolution in the Middle East (New York: John Wiley,
1964), 198-99.
   16. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm of Pan-Arab Leadership,"
39.





34 | Introduction


   17. Shamir, "The Decline of Nasserist Messianism," 16 (our translation). See also
a similar interpretation in "Nasserism," in Joel Krieger, ed., The Oxford Companion
to Politics of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 613.
   18. Shamir, "The Decline of Nasserist Messianism," 10.
   19. Torcuato S. Di Tella, "Populism and Reform in Latin America," in Claudio
Veliz, ed., Obstacles to Change in Latin America (London: Oxford University Press,
1965), 67.
   20. Morroe Berger, The Arab World Today (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday,
1962), 418-23.
   21. Mark Neal Cooper, "The Transformation of Egypt: State and State Capital-
ism in Crisis, 1967-77" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1979), 41-42.
   22. Ajami quoted in the introduction to Gouda Abdel-Khalek and Robert Tignor,
eds., The Political Economy of Income Distribution in Egypt (New York: Holmes
and Meier, 1982), 8-9. For the article, see Fouad Ajami, "The Open-Door Economy:
Its Roots and Welfare Consequences," 469-516. See also Robert Tignor's article,
"Equity in Egypt's Recent Past, 1945-1952," where he observed populist policies in
the pre-Nasser regime in Egypt (50).
   23. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 11-29.
   24. Nazih N. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the
Middle East (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995), 197-201. It would be only fair to mention
that Marsha Pripstein Posusney recently stated that "Nasirism resembled Latin
American populism," but she did not elaborate on this statement. See Labor and the
State in Egypt: Workers, Unions, and Economic Reconstructing (New York: Colum-
bia University Press, 1997), 24.
   25. This argument appears in Binder, "Nasserism," 199; Shamir, "The Decline of
Nasserist Messianism," 1.
   26. Sharabi, Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World, 97.
   27. For some exceptions, see 'Ismat Sayf al-Dawla, "Tatawwur Mafhum al-
Dimuqratya min al-Thawra ila Abd al-Nasir ila al-Nasiriyya," Al-Mustaqbal al-
'Arabi, no. 56 (October 1983): 49-79; 'Abd al-Illah Bilqaziz, "Al-Nasiriyya wa-al-
Awda' al-'Arabiyya al-Rahina," Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi, no. 96 (February 1987):
78-99; Burhan Zurayq, "Hawla Nazariyya 'Amma Taqaddumiyya lil-Din: Qira'a fi
al-Fiqr al-Nasiri," Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi, no. 210 (August 1996): 60-80. See also
a report on a conference on Nasserism in December 2000, Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi,
no. 262 (December 2000): 79-111.
   28. Louis 'Awad, Aqni'at al-Nasiriyya al-Sab'a (Beirut: Dar al-Qadaya, 1975),
61-62. The Translation-"the Seven Masks of Nasserism"-stands for the seven
"pillars."
   29. Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi, no. 262 (December 2000): 79-111.
   30. Amin al-Mahdi called Nasser's regime "the July Populism" (sha'abawiyyat
yulyu); see Al-Sira' al-' Arabi-al-Isra 'ili: Azmat al-Dimukratiya wal-Salam (Cairo: al-
Dar al-'Arabiyya lil-Nashr, 1999), 163. See also Kamal Rif'at, Nasiriyyun? Na'am
(Cairo: al-Kahira lil-Thaqafa al-'Arabiyya, 1976), 7-9; Salah Zaki Ahmad, Qamus
al-Nasiriyya (Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1985), 13-18; Magdi Riad, Hiwar
Shamil m'aa Jamal al-Atasi can al-Nasiriyya wal-Nasiriyyin (Cairo: Markaz al-
Khadara al-'Arabiyya lil-I'lam wal-Nashr, 1992), 153-57.





Introduction | 35


   31. The latest serious analysis was by John Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and
Sadat: The Political Economy of Two Regimes (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1983). The author, however, did not use the term Nasserism in his book.
   32. Torcuato Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism in Latin America," 2.
We would like to thank Prof. Di Tella for allowing us to quote from this unpublished
paper, written in December 2000.
   33. For possible definitions, see Margaret Canovan, "Populism," in Adam Kuper
and Jessica Kuper, eds., The Social Science Encyclopedia, 2d ed. (London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1996), 646-47; Torcuato Di Tella, "Populism," in William Outh-
waite and Tom Bottomore, eds., A Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century So-
cial Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 494; Di Tella, "Populism and Reform in
Latin America," 47.
   34. Ervand Abrahamian, "Khomeini: Fundamentalist or Populist?" New Left
Review, no. 186 (1991). See also his "Fundamentalism or Populism?" in Abraham-
ian, ed., Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (London: I. B. Tauris, 1993),
13-38.
   35. For various sources that shortly deal with the historical setting from a com-
parative perspective, see Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism," 3-5; John D.
Wirth's foreword to Michael L. Conniff, ed., Latin American Populism in Compara-
tive Perspective (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), x; Paul W.
Drake, "Requiem for Populism?" in ibid., 218, 223, 238; A. E. Van Niekerk, Popu-
lism and Political Development in Latin America (Rotterdam: Universitaire Pers
Rotterdam, 1974), 24; Val Moghadam, "Islamic Populism, Class, and Gender in
Postrevolutionary Iran," in John Foran, ed., A Century of Revolution (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 194; Peter Worsley, "The Concept of Popu-
lism," in Ghita Ionescu and Ernest Gellner, eds., Populism: Its Meanings and Na-
tional Characteristics (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), 239; Michael L.
Conniff's introduction to his Populism in Latin America (Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama Press, 1999), 8-9; Raanan Rein, Populism and Charisma: Peronist Argen-
tina, 1943-1955 (Tel Aviv: Modan, 1998), 99-100 (Hebrew).
   36. Angus Stewart, "The Social Roots," in Ionescu and Gellner, eds., Populism,
181.
   37. Ibid., 182. See also Van Niekerk, Populism and Political Development, 18-
19; Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism," 10.
   38. Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism," 2-3. On the Latin American
experience and connection with the masses, see Conniff, "Toward a Comparative
Definition of Populism," in Latin American Populism, 21; Drake, "Requiem for Pop-
ulism?" in ibid., 218, 221-22; Rein, Populism and Charisma, 102; Nicos Mouzelis,
"On the Concept of Populism: Populist Modes and Clientelist Modes of Incorpora-
tion in Semiperipheral Politics," Politics and Society 14 (1985): 334.
   39. Max Weber, On Charisma and Institution Building, ed. S. N. Eisenstadt (Chi-
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 48.
   40. The following section is based on Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 4-9. His
conceptualization is based on Weber and other sociologists; see his sources, 312.
   41. Ibid., 5. See also Ann Ruth Willner, The Spellbinders: Charismatic Political
Leadership (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 61.





36 | Introduction


   42. Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism," 5; Conniff, "Toward a Com-
parative Definition of Populism," 15-16; Drake, "Requiem for Populism," 221-23;
Rein, Populism and Charisma, 100; Di Tella, "Populism and Reform in Latin Amer-
ica," 53; Canovan, Populism, 297; Conniff, introduction to his Populism in Latin
America, 7; Moghadam, "Islamic Populism," 197.
   43. See Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 4.
   44. Drake, "A Requiem for Populism?" 225.
   45. Van Niekerk, Populism and Political Development, 19, 40.
   46. Ibid., 20; Rein, Populism and Charisma, 102; Moghadam, "Islamic Popu-
lism," 195; Stewart, "The Social Roots," 187, 192; Wirth, "Foreword," xi.
   47. Van Niekerk, Populism and Political Development, 34.
   48. Conniff, "Toward a Comparative Definition of Populism," 232; Conniff,
introduction to Populism in Latin America, 5. Kenneth Minogue claims that in con-
trast with European ideologies, "these [populist] beliefs have the look of umbrellas
hoisted according to the exigencies of the moment but disposable without regret as
circumstances change." See Kenneth Minogue, "Populism as a Political Movement,"
in Ionescu and Gellner, eds., Populism, 209; Peter Wiles, "A Syndrome, Not a Doc-
trine: Some Elementary Theses on Populism," in ibid., 166-71; Rein, Populism and
Charisma, 101. On populism as an ideology, see Ernesto Laclau, Politics and Ideol-
ogy in Marxist Theory: Capitalism, Fascism, Populism (London: NLB, 1977), 147;
Donald MacRae, "Populism as an Ideology," in Ionescu and Gellner, eds., Populism,
153-65.
   49. Van Niekerk, Populism and Political Development, 35.
   50. Di Tella, "The Transformation of Populism," 3.
   51. See, e.g., Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, 198, 342, 349, 352-55;
Lacouture, Nasser, 387; Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 10, 313; Mo-
ghadam, "Islamic Populism," 194. For works which analyzed Nasserism as a form of
populism in a more thorough way, see Di Tella, "Populism and Reform in Latin
America," 65-67; Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 196-208; Hinnebusch, Egyp-
tian Politics under Sadat, 11-29; Ajami, "The Open-Door Economy," 472-75; Coo-
per, The Transformation of Egypt, 39-60. Youssef Choueiri has recently concluded
that "Nasserism was essentially a populist movement linked to a charismatic leader
and a set of policies." See his Arab Nationalism: A History-Nation and State in the
Arab World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), 196.
   52. For the text of the National Charter, see Rejwan, Nasserist Ideology, 193-
266. In the introduction of the document alone, these terms appeared fifty-six times
(195-201). Ayubi asserts that the terms sha'ab and sha'abi have connotations similar
to the Latin American el pueblo and lo popular, which are not captured by the
English words people and popular. He also adds that the term sha'ab has no singular
form and always has to be a collective noun. In contrast, the term populism in Arabic
(sha abawiyya) was hardly used. See Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 204. For
the use of this term in Arabic, see Amin al-Mahdi, Al-Sira' al-' Arabi-al-Isra'ili, 163.
   53. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 11.
   54. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm of Pan-Arab Leadership,"
42.





Introduction | 37


   55. Ibid.; Shamir, "The Decline of the Nasserist Messianism," 9-11; Hinnebusch,
Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 11-12.
   56. On the meaning and composition of the effendiyya, see Israel Gershoni and
James P. Jankowski, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930-1945 (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1995), 7-14. For more on the middle class, see Hinnebusch,
Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 12.
   57. Gershoni and Jankowski, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 14.
   58. On the political scene in the pre-July 1952 period, see P. J. Vatikiotis, The
Egyptian Army in Politics: Pattern for New Nations? (Bloomington: Indiana Univer-
sity Press, 1961), 21-43.
   59. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 29.
   60. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 11.
   61. Onn Winckler, "The Challenge of Internal Migration in Egypt: Tendencies in
Urban and Village Development, 1974-1990" (M.A. thesis, University of Haifa,
1992), 10 (Hebrew).
   62. Janet Abu-Lughod, "Rural Migrations and Politics in Egypt," in Richard
Antoun and Iliya Harik, eds., Rural Politics and Social Change in the Middle East
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), 316.
   63. Ibid., 318-19. It should be noted that Iliya Harik's conclusions were different.
After concluding his research in a Delta village called Shubra, he asserted that "one
of the basic observations in this study is that modernization under mobilizational
and welfare-oriented regimes has had positive rather than disruptive effects on rural
communities." See his Political Mobilization of Peasants: A Study of an Egyptian
Community (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974), 21-22.
   64. Abu Lughod, "Rural Migration and Politics in Egypt," 317-20. See also a
more general analysis of this phenomenon: Saad E. M. Ibrahim, "Over-Urbanization
and Under-Urbanism: The Case of the Arab World," IJMES 6 (1975): 29-45.
   65. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 11-12; Research Team, "Distress
among the Popular Classes," in Shamir, ed., Decline of Nasserism, 84-86 (Hebrew);
Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 6. A different view, however, is presented
by Abu-Lughod, who claims that the migrants do not necessarily suffer from anomie,
as they receive moral support from their compatriots and create a variety of institu-
tions whose function is to protect migrants from the shock of anomie. See Janet Abu-
Lughod, "Migrant Adjustment to City Life: The Egyptian Case," American Journal
of Sociology 67 (1961): 22-32.
   66. Abu-Lughod, "Rural Migration and Politics," 323.
   67. For a similar description of the crisis in Egypt, see Gad Silbermann, "National
Identity in Nasserist Ideology," Asian and African Studies 8, no. 1 (1972): 74-76.
   68. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm of Pan-Arab Leadership,"
30; Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 302; Michael C. Hudson, Arab Politics: The
Search for Legitimacy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 242.
   69. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 13.
   70. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm of Pan-Arab Leadership,"
39.
   71. Quoted in Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 204. Such an appraisal of the





38 | Introduction


function of the masses stands in contrast to Malcolm Kerr, who underestimated the
role of the huge crowds: "they are not political forces of any kind," he said, "but
simply noisy, helpless spectators." In his opinion, Nasser speaks to a limited group of
at most 1.5 million Egyptians (out of 29 million) who have enough education to form
political opinions. See his "Egypt," in James S. Coleman, ed., Education and Political
Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), 179.
   72. Harik, The Political Mobilization of Peasants, 141. For similar conclusions
on the effect of the media (especially the radio) on the peasants, see Ibrahim Abu-
Lughod, "The Mass Media and Egyptian Village Life," Social Forces 42 (1963): 97-
104.
   73. For more on these symbolic manifestations of populism, see Ayubi, Over-
Stating the Arab State, 208; Hudson, Arab Politics, 243-44; Sharabi, Nationalism
and Revolution, 90-91, 94. For a comparison with Khomeini, see Abrahamian,
"Khomeini: Fundamentalist or Populist?" 37-3 8. For the role of conspiracies in
populist rhetoric in general, see Ionescu and Gellner, eds., Populism, 3; Stewart, "The
Social Roots," 192.
   74. Eliezer Be'eri, Army Officers in Arab Politics and Society (Jerusalem: Israel
Universities Press, 1969), 390.
   75. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "A Socio-Cultural Paradigm," 58.
   76. Yoram Meital, "The Aswan High Dam and Revolutionary Symbolism in
Egypt," in Haggai Erlich and Israel Gershoni, eds., The Nile: Histories, Cultures,
Myths (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000), 219-26.
   77. See Elie Podeh, The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United
Arab Republic (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999).
   78. Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 43.
   79. See Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 13-14; Dekmejian, Egypt
under Nasir, 39-47, 302; Hudson, Arab Politics, 243.
   80. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 203. See also Hinnebusch, Egyptian Poli-
tics under Sadat, 15-18. Clement Henry Moore offers the following definition for an
authoritarian regime: "Technically, what most distinguishes an authoritarian from a
pluralist or totalitarian regime is the relative autonomy of the state. In a totalitarian
regime the party controls the state, while in pluralist system groups working through
the political institutions are expected to control the bureaucracy. In the authoritarian
system the state-in the sense of leader or junta plus bureaucracy-is relatively au-
tonomous." See "Authoritarian Politics in Unincorporated Society," Comparative
Politics 6 (1974): 196. See also the discussion in P. J. Vatikiotis, "Authoritarianism
and Autocracy in the Middle East," in P. J. Vatikiotis, ed., Arab and Regional Politics
in the Middle East (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 148-51.
   81. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 315. On the Arab Socialist Union,
see ibid., 313-14. On the National Union, Waterbury wrote that Nasser "had no
clear model in mind, but snippets of approaches of Peron, Salazar, Tito and Ataturk
were loosely blended together to produce the National Union" (313). See also
Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 19-20. On the special importance at-
tached to the workers, peasants and students, see Tignor, "Equity in Egypt's Recent
Past," 33-37.





Introduction | 39


   82. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 325.
   83. Moore, "Authoritarian Politics in Unincorporated Society," 207.
   84. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 208.
   85. Fauzi M. Najjar, "The Egyptian Press under Nasser and al-Sadat," in George
N. Atiyeh and Ibrahim M. Oweiss, eds., Arab Civilization: Challenges and Re-
sponses (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), 335. On the law and its
ramifications, see also Sonia Dabous, "Nasser and the Egyptian Press," in Charles
Tripp, ed., Contemporary Egypt: Through Egyptian Eyes. Essays in Honour of Pro-
fessor P. J. Vatikiotis (London: Routledge, 1993), 100-121.
   86. For more information on the syndicates, see Robert Springborg, "Professional
Syndicates in Egyptian Politics, 1952-1970," IJMES 9 (1978): 275-95; Robert
Bianchi, "The Corporatization of the Egyptian Labor Movement," Middle East
Journal 40 (1986): 429-44; Joel Beinin, "Labor, Capital, and the State in Nasserist
Egypt, 1952-1961," IJMES 21 (1989): 71-90. See also Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab
State, 207.
   87. Beinin, "Labor, Capital and the State," 88.
   88. Springborg, "Professional Syndicates," 279. For the same conclusion, see
Beinin, "Labor, Capital, and the State," 85.
   89. John Waterbury, "The 'Soft State' and the Open Door: Egypt Experience with
Economic Liberalization, 1974-1984," Comparative Politics 18 (October 1985):
69.
   90. A "soft state," a term initiated by Gunner Myrdal, refers to countries in which
"policies decided on are often not enforced, if they are enforced at all, and in that
the authorities, even when framing policies, are reluctant to place obligations on
people." Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, vol. 1 (New York:
Pantheon, Random House, 1968), 66.
   91. Binder, In a Moment of Enthusiasm, 36. See also Hamied Ansari, Egypt: The
Stalled Society (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986), 6; Harik, The
Political Mobilization of Peasants, 99.
   92. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 277. See also Binder, In a Moment
of Enthusiasm, 376. Binder, however, also claimed-an assertion that Waterbury
rejects-that the second stratum does not rule but is "the stratum without which the
rulers cannot rule" (Moment, 26). On the land reforms and their implications, see
Waterbury, Egypt, 263-81; Robert Mabro, The Egyptian Economy, 1952-1972
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), 56-82; Harik, The Political Mobilization of Peas-
ants, 35-38; M. Riad El-Ghonemy, Affluence and Poverty in the Middle East (New
York: Routledge, 1998), 159-61.
   93. Harik, The Political Mobilization of Peasants, 36-37.
   94. Mayfield, Rural Politics in Nasser's Egypt, 7, 12. See also Harik, The Political
Mobilization of Peasants, 140-41, 146.
   95. UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, various issues (Paris). For details on the im-
pressive increase in the number of students in Nasser's era (a process that continued
during Sadat's and Mubarak's eras), see Gad G. Gilbar, "The Expansion of Higher
Education," in his book The Middle East Oil Decade and Beyond: Essays in Political
Economy (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 79, table 5.1.





40 | Introduction


   96. Haggai Erlich, Students and University in Twentieth-Century Egyptian Poli-
tics (London: Frank Cass, 1989), 171-93; Kerr, "Egypt," in Coleman, ed., Education
and Political Development, 189-90; Ajami, The Arab Predicament, 103.
   97. The following section relies mainly on Selma Botman, "Women and the State
during the Nasir Years," in Selma Botman, ed., Engendering Citizenship in Egypt
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 50-74.
   98. Quoted in ibid., 64.
   99. See, e.g., Al-Jumhuriyya, January 15, 1965; Al-Akhbar, January 14, 1967.
The newspapers usually did not make any connection between the two events, but
apparently such a connection existed; see Al-Idha'a wal-Telefisyon, January 16, 1971,
8-11. The Arab League decided to celebrate this occasion in all Arab countries on
that date. We would like to thank Doron Saqqal for providing us with this informa-
tion.
   100. An extensive study of Egyptian education during the Nasserite period has yet
to be written. See Daniel Josef, "Changes in the Egyptian Education System since
1952" (M.A. thesis, Tel Aviv University, 1976), 23 (Hebrew); Michael Winter, "The
Balance of the Education System under Nasser's Regime," in Shamir, ed., The De-
cline of Nasserism, 114-21 (Hebrew).
   101. Conniff, "Toward a Comparative Definition of Populism," 20.
   102. Stewart, "The Social Roots," 187.
   103. Jack Crabbs Jr. "Politics, History, and Culture in Nasser's Egypt," IJMES 6
(1975): 412.
   104. Yoram Meital, "Revolutionizing the Past: Historical Representation during
Egypt's Revolutionary Experience, 1952-62," Mediterranean Historical Review 12
(1997): 69-72. Take, for example, the erection of the statue of "Egypt's Awakening"
(Nahdat Misr) outside Cairo University. It showed a peasant woman lifting her veil,
standing behind the sphinx. See Joel Gordon, "Secular and Religious Memory in
Egypt," Muslim World 87 (1997): 96.
   105. See the memoirs of the first minister of culture, Tharwat 'Ukasha (November
1957-September 1962), Mudhakkirati fi al-Siyasa wal-Thaqafa, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1987),
472-73. See also Vatikiotis, Egyptian Army in Politics, 126-27.
   106. See also Meital, "Revolutionizing the Past," 69-72; Crabbs, "Politics, His-
tory, and Culture," 405-6; Louis 'Awad, "Cultural and Intellectual Developments in
Egypt since 1952," in Vatikiotis, ed., Egypt since the Revolution, 157-60; Harik,
The Political Mobilization of Peasants, 129-30.
   107.' Ukasha, Mudhakkirati, 474-75.
   108. Menachem Klein, "Ikhtarna Laka (We Have Selected for You): A Critique of
Egypt's Revolutionary Culture," Orient 38, no. 4 (1997): 677-91.
   109. El-Abnoudi's interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, 18-24 July 2002.
   110. Quoted in Gabriel M. Rosenbaum, "Football, Popular Culture, and Litera-
ture in Egypt: The Rivalry between al-Ahli and al-Zamalik," Proceedings of the First
International Conference on Middle Eastern Popular Culture (September 2000,
forthcoming).
   111. In 1966, Prof. Fuad Zakariyya lamented that "sports parties" in general, and
football in particular, dominate the campuses. Quoted in Erlich, Students and Uni-
vers ity, 181.





Introduction | 41


   112. John Waterbury, "Reflections on the Extent of Egypt's Revolution: Socio-
economic Indicators," in Shamir, ed., Egypt from Monarchy to Revolution, 65. For
the same argument, see his book The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 48; Be'eri, Army
Officers, 374, 389. Some scholars attribute the failure of Nasserism to the lack of
ideology (as well as to other reasons). See, e.g., Raymond William Baker, Egypt's
Uncertain Revolution under Nasser and Sadat (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1978), 13.
   113. Shamir, "The Decline of the Nasserist Messianism," 3.
   114. This mixture was suggested by Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, 195,
and Silbermann, "National Identity in Nasserist Ideology, 1952-1970."
   115. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 14.
   116. Silbermann, "National Identity in Nasserist Ideology, 1952-1970," 57-68.
   117. Gershoni and Jankowski, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 15. See also
Ralph M. Coury, The Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist: The Early Years of
Azzam Pasha, 1893-1936 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998), 278, 327, 418-19.
   118. On Egypt's aims and perceived leadership role in the Arab world, see Elie
Podeh, The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World: The Struggle over the Baghdad
Pact (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), chap. 1; Elie Podeh, The Decline of Arab Unity, 27-
30; Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 105-8. For the same, but more comprehensive,
argument, see Carl Brown, International Politics and the Middle East (London: I. B.
Tauris, 1984), 162-79.
   119. See the interesting report of Harik in his study of an Egyptian village, The
Political Mobilization of Peasants, 178-79.
   120. Though phrased somewhat differently, this is the main thesis of Vatikiotis,
Nasser and His Generation.
   121. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 14.
   122. See Galal A. Amin, Egypt's Economic Predicament: A Study in the Interac-
tion of External Pressure, Political Folly, and Social Tension in Egypt, 1960-1990
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), 130-31.
   123. Robert Mabro, The Egyptian Economy, 216.
   124. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 260.
   125. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 197; Moghadam, "Islamic Populism";
Abrahamian, "Khomeini: Fundamentalist or Populist?"; Suna Kili, Kemalism (Istan-
bul: School of Business Administration and Economics, Robert College, 1969). On
Bourguibism, see a recent article by Carl Brown, "Bourgiba and Bourgubism Revis-
ited: Reflections and Interpretations," Middle East Journal 55, no. 1 (winter 2001):
43-57.
   126. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State, 197-98. A similar view was offered by
Waterbury: "There is little evidence that Nasser ... gave much thought to economics
before coming to power and some would say decidedly insufficient thought thereaf-
ter" (Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 49). He believes, however, that Nasser had the will
and the capacity to "push Egypt much further toward socialism," and he does not
believe that Nasser was a "closet capitalist of petty bourgeois origins whose radical
rhetoric was only skin-deep" (20). For a different view of Nasser's socialism, see
Rami Ginat, Egypt's Incomplete Revolution: Lutfi al-Khuli and Nasser's Socialism in
the 1960s (London: Frank Cass, 1997).





42 | Introduction


   127. Ginat, Egypt's Incomplete Revolution, 9-34.
   128. For the text of the Charter, see Rejwan, Nasserist Ideology, 195-265. For
this argument, see Fouad Ajami, "The Open-Door Economy," in Abdel-Khalek and
Tignor, eds., Political Economy of Income Distribution, 9.
   129. For a few examples of such assessment, see Shamir, "The Decline of Nas-
serist Messianism," 16-38; Baker, Egypt's Uncertain Revolution, 235-39; Vatikiotis,
Nasser and His Generation, 267-69, 298-99, 315-17, 325-31, 335-68; Lacouture,
Nasser, 391-94; Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 423-33; Gad G. Gilbar,
"Nasser's Soft Revolution," in Population Dilemmas in the Middle East: Essays in
Political Demography and Economy (London: Frank Cass, 1996), 92-93.
   130. Samuel Huntington and Joan Nelson, No Easy Choice: Political Participa-
tion in Developing Countries (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 23-24.
   131. See, e.g., Ajami, "Sadat's Open-Door Policy," 474.
   132. See William J. Burns, Economic Aid and American Policy toward Egypt,
1955-1981 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), chap. 6, 149-73.
   133. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 34-36. See also Ajami, in ibid.,
474-75. See the sources mentioned in note 125.
   134. Gilbar, "Nasser's Soft Revolution," 89-90.
   135. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 29-31.
   136. Ibid., 33. The failure to institutionalize Nasserism was emphasized by sev-
eral scholars. See the sources mentioned in note 129.
   137. Salih Jawdat, Al-Musawwar, March 15, 1974. Quoted from the English
translation in Shimon Shamir, "Nasser and Sadat, 1967-1973: Two Approaches to
a National Crisis," in Itamar Rabinovich and Haim Shaked, eds., From June to
October: The Middle East between 1967 and 1973 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transac-
tion Books, 1978), 205.
   138. Tawfiq al-Hakim, Return of the Spirit, trans. William M. Hutchins (Wash-
ington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1990), 273.
   139. Robert Stephens, Nasser: A Political Biography (London: Penguin, 1971),
557 (quoted from Al-Ahram, October 16, 1970).
   140. See Joel Gordon, "Film, Fame, and Public Memory: Egyptian Biopics from
Mustafa Kamil to Nasser 56," IJMES 31 (1999): 61-79. Within this popular and
intellectual revival, we should also mention the Arab conference on Nasserism (see
note 29), and the decision of the Center for the Study of Arab Unity (Markaz Dirasat
al-Wahda al-'Arabiyya) in Beirut to establish an award on behalf of Nasser (ja'izat
Abd al-Nasir) in 1998. The first award was given to Haykal. Not incidentally, the
ceremony took place on July 26, 1999, the anniversary of Nasser's decision to na-
tionalize the Suez Canal Company. See Al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, no. 247 (September
1999): 72-95.











Images of Nasserism
















Gamal CAbd al-Nasser


Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology


    Leonard Binder





Introduction

Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser emerged early as the dominant personage in the
Egyptian Revolution of July 1952. For many Egyptians and many foreign
observers, Nasser appeared to be larger than life-a symbol representing
Egypt itself, a new class, an awakening, Arab authenticity, or even the resur-
gence of the Third World. Despite much solid evidence to the contrary,
Nasser was portrayed at first as a charismatic leader, capable of breaking
with tradition and of unleashing huge pent-up powers-a danger to the
West, a blessing for Egypt and the Arab masses, and a double-edged sword
for the Soviets.
   This heroic image of Nasser developed throughout the years up to 1961,
based on the popular response to Nasser's successes in ending the British
occupation of Egypt, defiance of the western monopoly on arms sales to the
Middle East, opposition to the Baghdad Pact, the nationalization of the Suez
Canal Company, political victory in the brief Suez War of 1956, the seizure
of foreign properties and business enterprises, the rejection of the Eisen-
hower Doctrine, the union of Egypt and Syria, and the adoption of doctri-
naire socialist policies in 1961. The conclusion drawn from these events was
that Nasser had produced a new strategic model for the achievement of
modernization and development-a strategic conception which could avoid
dependency while exploiting the Cold War.
   After the secession of Syria from the United Arab Republic in 1961, as
representatives of the Syrian Ba'th sought a reconciliation with Egypt, Nas-
serism came to be represented as an alternative ideology.1 While this usage





46 | Leonard Binder


was developed primarily for polemical (anti-Ba'thi) purposes, it was also
employed by Egyptian leftists during and after Anwar al-Sadat's presidency
and by various Sunni groups in Lebanon during the Civil War.
   But after Egypt's defeat in the June 1967 War, Nasser's image was remade
by the events of June 9-10, 1967, when he announced that he would resign
as a consequence of his responsibility for the disaster. Despite the emotional
popular response on that day, and despite the great affection felt for Nasser
among the Egyptian masses, his image suffered a marked decline during the
long months that he was unable to regain any of the territory occupied by
Israeli forces in the Sinai. The 'Abd al-Hakim 'Amr affair, ending in the
death of Nasser's closest colleague, and the conciliatory gesture of the Bayan
proclamation of March 30, 1968, further diminished the Nasser image. The
initiation of the War of Attrition along the Suez Canal raised hopes, but
these were disappointed when it became clear that Nasser could not push his
Soviet allies any further and that Soviet medicine could not cure his illness.
The huge public funeral that followed his sudden death on September 28,
1970, reinforced the tragic image shaped by the defeat of June 1967 but,
nevertheless, reaffirmed the deeply emotional bond of identity between
Nasser and the Egyptian masses that was not shared with other Arab com-
munities.
   After his death, the "licensed" Egyptian Left, though at odds with Nasser
since the mid-1960s, embraced the role of interpreters of the Nasserist
legacy in an effort to weaken Sadat and facilitate the seizure of power by a
pro-Soviet faction. With Sadat's success in preempting such a coup on May
15, 1971, a "de-Nasserization" program was begun which permitted the
publication of books, articles, and movies, depicting the brutal suppression
of civil rights under Nasser. These publications painted Nasser as a vicious
autocrat whose behavior was antithetical to the warm and empathetic char-
acter of Egyptian popular culture. Tawfiq al-Hakim's 'Awdat al-Wa'y (Res-
toration of consciousness) and Nagib Mahfuz's Al-Karnak (also a movie)
were the most influential statements of the harm done to Egypt's civic cul-
ture by Nasser. These voices were strengthened by the belated complaints of
"the Silent Ones," members of the original Revolutionary Command Coun-
cil (RCC) who had been relegated to secondary and largely honorary posi-
tions because of their liberal or religious inclinations. There were some vig-
orous rebuttals, from Hasanayn Haykal, of course, but also from the Haditu
(Marxist) intellectuals. The critics were joined by the increasingly embold-
ened Islamic fundamentalists who excoriated Nasser for what they called
"the slaughter" of the Muslim Brothers-a policy of suppression that was
initiated after an aborted assassination attempt against Nasser in the fall of
1954.
   After Sadat's assassination in October 1981, the ideological significance





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 47


of Nasser as an anti-Sadat and anti-Western icon declined. That reading of
Nasser was challenged by the rise of the seemingly more radical anti-West-
ern, anti-Israel, and anti-Sadat force of the Islamic resurgence, relegating
Nasserism to the limited ideological potential of serving the secularist Sunni
Arab minority in Lebanon. The falling market for Nasserism, as either image
or ideology, was related to the alleged decline of pan-Arab nationalism, but
the parochialism of would-be heirs such as Asad, Qaddafi, and Saddam
Husayn (not to mention 'Arafat) has transformed imitation into parody,
accelerating that decline. Outside of Egypt, the Nasserist political model
remains the dominant statist pattern except for the monarchies, but Nasser
himself, as a symbol of a powerful and persuasive transnational ethnic and
cultural force, is increasingly irrelevant to the domestic and foreign chal-
lenges facing Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, and even Egypt
itself.
   In the Arab world, it appears that the debate over Nasser's legacy has
diminished in its intensity and significance without settling the questions of
whether Nasser's achievements were squandered by his successors or even
by Arab leaders in general, whether his talents simply exceeded his re-
sources, whether his successes were the consequence of bipolarity rather
than strategic wisdom, whether his ultimate failure was due to the bank-
ruptcy of the statist, or bureaucratic-authoritarian, model, or whether Egypt
would have been better off sticking with the old parties and the nascent
capitalism and internationalism that prevailed in 1952.
   The polemical tendency to exploit the Nasser image has distorted and
exaggerated Nasser's achievements and failures. These distortions impede a
balanced assessment and confound the effort to distill a single authentic
characterization of Nasser out of the wealth of information available to us.
Moreover, the public affairs and scholarly literature on Nasser and Nasser-
ism is quite large. Leaving aside newspaper, magazine, and journal articles,
I found some 255 book titles devoted to our subject in the UCLA catalog
alone. Obviously, a complete survey of this literature as a means of con-
structing a retrospective appraisal of the man and his legacy is hopelessly
beyond the scope of this article. Instead, the present effort has been limited
to demarcating the most promising regions to be further explored. We shall
find that partisan reports have given us many Nassers, possibly casting
greater light on the period after his death than on his life. In this essay, the
most important of these Nassers will be briefly identified.


Nasser as a Charismatic Leader at Home and Abroad

A full-page photo of a handsome, thoughtful, dreamy, young, uniformed
Nasser appears in a volume entitled Icons of the Twentieth Century.2 If





48 | Leonard Binder


memory serves, he is the only Arab leader selected for this dubious honor,
but it is clear that he did make a difference. A similar photograph graces the
cover of Peter Woodward's 1992 political biography of Nasser.3 Both pic-
tures are examples of the then popular matinee idol or Valentino image. In
the 1950s, most western observers saw him as that dashing, handsome of-
ficer who was transforming an ancient society by the sheer force of his per-
sonality, his daring, and his informal but earnest rhetoric. His influence over
the masses, not only of Egypt but of the Arab and Islamic world, was aston-
ishing and more than a little frightening. Anthony Eden went so far as to
compare him to Adolph Hitler, but that bit of political hyperbole cost Eden
his reputation for probity and damaged Britain's effort to win the support of
its allies in its contest with Egypt.
   Nasser conjured up the image of a psychological force that might tran-
scend the limits of normal interest-based political power. For example, Peter
Mansfield, writing in the 1960s, opens Nasser's Egypt with this statement:
"The Egyptians are a docile and humorous people." And in nearly the last
words in the book Mansfield writes, "But it is essentially Nasser who has
forced the world to reassess Egypt and not the Egyptians themselves. ...
[H]e has succeeded in hauling the Egyptian people on to the world stage by
the scruff of their necks to play the role. Most of them still suffer from stage
fright."4
   Indeed, the young Nasser seemed to fit the definition of a charismatic
leader offered by Max Weber-and sometimes applied to the vexed question
of how to initiate the process of modernization in the absence of both capi-
talism and the Protestant ethic.5 Contemplating the enigma of why the Egyp-
tian masses believed Nasser represented their will despite the fact that no
valid means of representation existed, P. J. Vatikiotis wrote: "One is left with
the impression that a charismatic leader is more important in Arab politics
than the mechanisms, checks and balances that loom large in Western politi-
cal theory, because the type of leadership has always been more important in
Arab societies than the type of political institutions. . . . The tradition of
centralized authority in Egypt especially breeds charismatic qualities in the
ruler, whoever he may be."6
   The ambivalence of Vatikiotis is suggested by his discussion of charisma
as a component of Egyptian political culture rather than as an attribute of
the man himself-transcending the prevailing political culture. Besides,
Vatikiotis argued that the central phenomenon to be explained was the suc-
cessful seizure of power by the military rather than Nasser's popularity. In
the subtitle of his excellent early work, he asked whether the intervention of
the Egyptian army in politics was a "pattern for new nations." And, of
course, it was.





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 49


   It is also surprising to see how many authors describe Nasser as having
been indecisive in the early years of the revolution. But Miles Copeland saw
him as an intelligent and skilled Machiavellian who took risks.7 Copeland
noted Nasser's willingness to act the demagogue. He actually reserved the
term charismatic for Nagib, and it is clear from several discussions of the
crisis of 1954 that Nagib was far more popular than Nasser (114). Copeland
believed that Nasser's brinksmanship was a rational strategy based on weak-
ness, but his ego prevented him from knowing when to quit. Much later,
reporting on a meeting with Nasser after the June 1967 War, Copeland
wrote:
   I would say that his mental faculties ... are about what they always
   were.... [H]owever, I would have to assume that what happens sooner
   or later to all Nasser-type leaders happened to Nasser himself: what-
   ever the endurance of his personality under the assault of sycophancy,
   blind adulation, uncritical loyalty, and ordinary fear, the barriers be-
   tween him and the outside world have grown so thick that all but the
   information that attests to his infallibility, indispensability, and im-
   mortality has been filtered out. (92)

   Copeland writes that even some highly placed Egyptian officials consid-
ered the possibility of moving Nasser up "to the chairman of the board level.
... Knowing Nasser, however, it is no surprise to me that it did not get
anywhere. When Nasser goes out it will not be with a whimper but a bang-
Gbtterdammerung, even" (279). Copeland's prediction of the exit line was
obviously wrong.
   A similar view of the psychological hazards of charismatic leadership was
expressed by Jean Lacouture.8 Lacouture's work celebrated the multifaceted
role of virtually deified dictatorial leaders of newly independent nations that
had emerged to sovereignty in the accommodating context of the Cold
War. Although he became increasingly critical of these maximal leaders,
Lacouture did not seek to demystify the legitimacy they enjoyed. Rather, he
presented a confusing and untidy conception of charismatic leadership,
drawing on sundry patterns in their profusion and diversity as extravagant
variations on a single theme. Nor could he decide whether the charismatic
leader would make something out of nothing (20, 23). But, above all, his
account of postcolonial charismatic leadership failed to show what the in-
digenous peoples were thinking in supporting such governments. There is
little evidence adduced to support the view that the masses thought of their
leaders as demigods, and less that the educated classes did so.
   Citing the work of Richard Dekmejian as a prime example, 'Ali al-Din al-
Hilal al-Desouki, the eminent Egyptian political scientist, wrote that the





50 | Leonard Binder


exceptionally personal nature of the power wielded by President Nasser was
so great that some scholars considered charismatic authority to be the most
important characteristic of the system, and they studied Egyptian politics
from that point of view.9 Desouki seemed to believe that Nasserism was
more authoritarian than charismatic-and he was not convinced that Nas-
ser's charisma had anything to do with modernization. Desouki wrote that
after the transition period that lasted from 1953 to 1956, the proclamation
of the constitution in January 1956 introduced the Nasserist stage. He calls
it the Nasserist stage not merely because Nasser was the effective ruler but
also because the institutional structures employed and policies followed
throughout the period reflected the thinking and the opinions of Nasser.
   The transitional period had been one of collective leadership where
Nasser had been the first among equals, but after 1956 Nasser became the
uncontested leader (29). Moreover, the regime gained a good deal of its
legitimacy from its association with the personality of Nasser and his direct
contact with the people of Egypt and of other Arab states, as demonstrated
in the Suez War of 1956, the dispute over the nationalization of the Suez
Canal Company, the following tripartite aggression, the unification with
Syria in February 1958, and the establishment of the UAR (30).
   But the Nasserist stage was also characterized by an elaborate form of
authoritarianism, limitation of participation, concentration of power, and
the restriction of freedom of expression. Desouki goes on to argue that the
most important of the reasons why things turned out so badly in the long run
is precisely because of the charismatic or "historical" nature of Nasser's
personality and his ability to address the masses directly without the media-
tion of institutions (39). This charismatic/historical style and the willingness
of a privileged elite to exploit its opportunities explains but does not excuse
the failure of the revolution to construct a viable and stable political system
in Egypt. It is not a question of how mistakes were made. The failure is due
to the absence of a political will to establish a powerful and active political
organization (40).
   Thus does Desouki place the blame for the weakness of Egypt's democ-
racy directly on the political style and predilections of Nasser. His greatest
strength was the source of Egypt's greatest weakness. I believe that Desouki
is not alone among Egyptian liberal democrats in holding such a negative
opinion of the Nasser legacy.
   But a limited democratic breakthrough occurred during the early years of
Sadat's presidency, resulting in the licensing of several political parties, and
Desouki asked which political events were conducive to such a development.
He answered that the most important event was the postcharisma syndrome
caused by Nasser's sudden absence from the political stage. This absence





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 51


produced a gap which no individual or group could fill because Nasser's
personality had been the major source of legitimacy for the regime and his
presence had allowed Egypt to overcome a series of disastrous events and
failures (48). Desouki concludes that Sadat's experiments with democracy
faced virtually insuperable obstacles, and he blames Nasser for Sadat's fail-
ure to democratize post-Nasserist Egypt.

The Posthumous Socialist Reconstruction of Nasser

Over twenty years ago, in In a Moment of Enthusiasm, I wrote at length
about the edgy relationship between Nasser and a group of Egyptian Marx-
ists who, at the bidding of the Soviets, disbanded their organization and
joined the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), becoming members of the elite cadre
organization set up under the National Charter (al-Mithaq al-Watani) of
May 1962 and called al-Tanzim al-Siyasi or al-Tanzim al-Tali'i.lo It is likely
that both sides went into this marriage of convenience with some awareness
of their respective-prospective costs and benefits. Nasser wanted to create a
cadre organization that would help him to mobilize Egypt's human re-
sources without truly sharing power and without creating an organization
that might be able to seize power either before or after his death.
   In 1970, immediately after Nasser's death, while only too well aware of
the legitimate but potentially challengeable succession of Sadat, Egyptian
Marxists hoped and planned for a de facto takeover of the Egyptian state
and a return to what were for them the hopeful days of the swing to the left
as manifested in the passage of the Socialist Laws of 1961, the May 1962
Congress of Popular Forces which produced the National Charter of the
ASU, the integration of the Haditu faction of the Communist Party of Egypt
into the newly organized ASU, and the creation of a secret cadre apparatus
within the ASU. The highpoint of Marxist influence had been reached in late
1966. The disastrous war of 1967 weakened the regime to the point that a
Marxist takeover (with Soviet support) became a real threat. Popular dem-
onstrations early in 1968 led to the proclamation of the Bayan of March 30,
which committed the regime to a policy of democratization and reform as
soon as the effects of the war were remedied. Thus Nasser decisively turned
away from the (ambiguous) socialist commitments of the early and mid-
1960s.
   After Nasser's death, the Tali'a group chose to forget his moves to control
the Marxists from 1965 to 1970, and instead portrayed Nasser as steadfast
in his commitment to socialism, class struggle, and opposition to Arab reac-
tionaries. Their eulogy of Nasser, published in a special issue of their organ
in November 1970, was devoted to reaffirming this anachronistic view."





52 | Leonard Binder


   Among the interesting aspects of this special issue was the diversity of the
images of Nasser to be found in its pages. Most fascinating was the depiction
of Nasser as an ideological naif whose development into a practical socialist
was the product of the transformation of his consciousness through the first
ten years of the revolution by the bitter experiences of the tripartite aggres-
sion of 1956, the failure of the National Union, the Syrian secession, the
hostility of world capitalism, etc. But Nasser was also depicted as an Egyp-
tian Lenin, a convinced democrat, and a visionary builder of political orga-
nizations and institutions.
   Nasser was portrayed as one who shared the popular sentiments and
experience of the toiling masses of workers and peasants and who was ca-
pable, in all sincerity, of arguing that the ultimate justification of the social
revolution he was leading was the same social justice (al-'adala) that is the
goal of the Islamic Shari'a.12
   The longest of the dozen articles in the memorial volume of Al-Tali 'a was
written by Hilmi Yasin and 'Adil Sayf al-Nasir, and it focuses on the question
of the most suitable political apparatus for realizing the goals of the July
Revolution. The background is, of course, the many changes in political
organization which took place over those eighteen years: The prerevolu-
tionary political parties were banned and replaced by the Liberation Rally,
followed by the National Union, dissolved by the Preparatory Committee
paving the way for the Conference of Popular Forces to adopt the National
Charter defining the goals and structure of the ASU, which itself underwent
constant reorganization until the goals of the revolution and the methods of
political action were redefined by the Bayan of March 30, 1968, culminating
in the total reconstitution of the ASU later that year.
   One might well ask why this constant change of organization? Was
Nasser lurching from one palliative device to another, fending off challenges
from the Left, the Right, and the army, or did he have a long-term goal which
had to be approached by a winding tactical road? Was he maintaining his
popular leadership by keeping out in front of the masses, or was he simply
drawing on the power of mass support while skillfully avoiding sharing real
power? The answer given by the two authors is that Nasser's genius lay in his
capacity to understand the nature of each changing situation and then adapt
his organizational defense to that stage of the conflict:
   The ASU and its Vanguard Political Apparatus are examples of the
   most notable teachings of the leader [qa'id] Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser...
   The ASU and the Vanguard Political Apparatus bear a continuing
   responsibility to arm the [revolutionary] combatants and the masses
   with the revolutionary teachings of Gamal' Abd al-Nasser and to care-
   fully protect [those teachings] from corruption and distortion. . ..





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 53


   [T]he responsibility for mobilizing the toiling social forces that believe
   truly in the teaching of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser has been placed on their
   shoulders. (25)

   William Sulayman Qallada took a somewhat different approach to the
same organizational theme. While Yasin and Sayf al-Nasir thought that the
socialist cadre structures in the ASU ought to be preserved, Sulayman sought
to build new representative structures based on the Bayan. His article was
entitled "Nasser's Legacy: The Preservation of the Political and Constitu-
tional Institutions" (36-40). Sulayman wrote that Nasser always saw him-
self as a representative of the people and as a leader whose heart beat as one
with the heart of the Egyptian masses. But he also insisted that the revolu-
tionary will of the people should not depend upon any one person, regard-
less of how close he was to the people. The people's will ought to be ex-
pressed by the people themselves through fixed and stable institutions. This
was the reason why Nasser put such effort into constructing both represen-
tative and constitutional institutions. Now, after Nasser's death, more than
ever, the Egyptian people have to consider how to perpetuate the Nasserist
legacy.
   The legendary farewell funeral in which the masses participated was a
kind of referendum of popular support for Nasser and his ideas, but from
now on, that support and the expression of the people's will must take place
through stable, permanent institutions. It is therefore gratifying, wrote
Sulayman, to see how the succession was managed in a legal and constitu-
tional manner, thus demonstrating the maturity of the Egyptian people.
   Mustafa Tayba contributed a brief article on "Gamal' Abd al-Nasser and
the Intellectuals," in which he described how Nasser skillfully transformed
a liberal and fractious intelligentsia into a disciplined state bureaucracy (50-
54). Hence Tayba, more than any of the other contributors to this memorial
volume, points to Nasser's greatest and perhaps worst achievement and his
most lasting legacy: the creation of the Nasserist state.


Liberal Remorse: Nasser Revisited by Tawfiq al-Hakim

In the mid-1970s, as Sadat gained more confidence, the political, economic,
and cultural de-Nasserization of Egypt was increasingly encouraged.13 In
this atmosphere, the publication of a number of books and articles revealing
the extent of political repression that had prevailed under Nasser had a
considerably negative effect on Nasser's image.14 Another group of articles
and books and even a couple of movies focused on the political hypocrisy of
which the intellectuals of both the Marxist Left and the moderate liberals
had been guilty. In several cases, most notably in the case of Tawfiq al-





54 | Leonard Binder


Hakim, debunking the self-serving rhetoric of the Nasser period took the
form of a mea culpa, acknowledging that he had supported and believed in
the revolution and in Nasser's leadership and had remained silent in the face
of obvious and quite horrendous abuses of power. But the defeat in the June
1967 War so shocked al-Hakim that he began a rethinking process that
culminated in the publication of a small book completed on the twentieth
anniversary of the July Revolution.
   That book, 'Awdat al-Wa'y, is a devastating condemnation of the revo-
lution and especially of Nasserism. Al-Hakim made an effort to separate
Nasser from Nasserism, but the message was that the revolution came to an
end when Nasser assumed absolute autocratic authority and deprived all
Egyptians of any degree of freedom and self-determination. He then called
for a reappraisal of the achievements of the revolution, finding them mostly
rhetorical, theatrical, or musical.
   In his estimation, land reform produced no improvement in agriculture,
socialist reforms produced no increase in economic well-being, the drive for
Arab unity alienated other Arab states, and the political institutions de-
prived Egyptians of freedom of any kind. But worst of all, argued al-Hakim,
was that Egyptians gradually assumed a kind of false identity, a conscious-
ness produced by the propaganda machine of the state in place of the au-
thentic consciousness of the historical Egyptian people. What was needed
was an assessment of the revolution and restoration of the consciousness of
the people. What was needed was an examination of the "dossier [milaff] of
Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser."15
   In the introduction to the second edition of his booklet, al-Hakim noted
that the Nasserists in and out of Egypt had been angered by its publication.
"They roiled and boiled as though Nasserism were a holy religion that must
not be touched" (3). And among those thus aroused was Hasanayn Haykal,
who accused Nasser's critics of cowardice for speaking up only after his
death. Haykal (as cited by Hakim) went on to describe Nasser as
   the natural product and true expression of twentieth-century Arab
   nationalism. Nasserism will remain a method of developing the Arab
   nation, susceptible of change-it is not rigid. Nor can I see a future for
   the Arab world, and the whole of the developing world, without Nas-
   serism as a totality of ideas, and the Nasserist achievements and stra-
   tegic judgments [ijtihadat] which must be the basis for anything they
   undertake.... 'Abd al-Nasser will remain the expression of Egypt and
   the Arabs at a certain historical stage to the same extent that Napoleon
   remains the expression of France (99-100).

But unlike Napoleon, who abandoned the revolution, 'Abd al-Nasser's at-
tention





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 55


   from the first day to the very last day was directed at change, the
   future, and history.... When 'Abd al-Nasser was present, his power
   and the force of his intensity and his dignity prevented any real discus-
   sion of his ideas.... 'Abd al-Nasser embodied the idea of the possibil-
   ity of change-an idea that presented itself so forcefully that it swept
   aside a great many things. I believe that, in the end, we will come to be
   convinced that everything that 'Abd al-Nasser called for, whether prin-
   ciples or ideas, is correct (101).

   In addition to Haykal, the editorial staff of Al-Tali 'a objected to al-
Hakim's critique of Nasserism, but they took up his call for a serious discus-
sion of what had been achieved over the twenty years of the revolution. They
invited al-Hakim, in the politest manner, to participate in a series of semi-
nars that would extend over many months, and he accepted. But the corre-
spondence between Lutfi al-Khuli and al-Hakim that led up to that agree-
ment demarcated the implicit ground rules for the seminars. Both sides
agreed that they respected and admired Nasser as a person. Both agreed that
Nasser had made great contributions to Egypt and the Arab nation. Both
agreed that Egypt must follow the path of socialism. Both agreed that Nasser
had failed to guide Egypt to true socialism. The purpose of the seminars was,
therefore, to clarify what went wrong under Nasser and to determine how
best to proceed in the post-Nasser period to achieve socialism and democ-
racy. 16


The Socialist Critique of Nasser's Good Intentions

It appears that the rhetorical goals of al-Tali'a were to call al-Hakim back to
his early, somewhat romantic socialist roots, to blunt the idea that Nasser's
failings were caused by his lust for power, to refute the notion that his fail-
ures were due to his commitment to socialism, and to assert that Nasser
failed because he did not carry his socialist program far enough. If public
opinion were to be turned against Nasser, they did not want the socialist
baby thrown out with the Nasserist bathwater. The consistent theme of
those who called themselves the "Egyptian Left" was that Nasser failed
because he engaged in halfway measures.
   Khalid Muhi al-Din insisted that Nasser's power was not based on mili-
tary force or on "brainwashing" those around him. It was based on his
popularity and his achievements, which were so great that no one could
challenge him. Nasser was a patriot devoted to the masses, but he also re-
fused to be bound by any institutional or consultative arrangement in mak-
ing decisions. Hence the reason things turned out badly in the June 1967
War and in other matters was because of the absence of efficient structures





56 | Leonard Binder


of planning and decision making. Nevertheless, Nasser's greatest contribu-
tion was to demonstrate that the only way in which developing nations
could both develop and maintain their independence in a capitalist world
was to choose the socialist path (64-72).
   In the fourth session, Lutfi al-Khuli steered the discussion toward the key
documents of Nasserist thought: The Philosophy of the Revolution, the
1962 National Charter, the Bayan of 1968, and the special program for
"National Action." Murad Wahba led off with an analysis of the Philosophy
of the Revolution, stating that Nasser believed that the task of the revolution
was to achieve both political and social freedom for the Egyptian people.
Nasser knew that the achievement of these twin freedoms required change,
and he had a good grasp of the logic of revolution, which can help identify
contradictions. But Nasser had little understanding of revolutionary theory,
which is necessary for finding solutions that will resolve contradictions.
   It follows that Nasser could never come up with the right solution be-
cause of his theoretical deficiencies, and it further follows that Nasser
could succeed in his efforts only with the aid of those adept at socialist
theory. Nasser's theoretical inadequacies were in part due to his dichoto-
mous perception of class conflict. Nasser believed incorrectly that some
social conflicts could be resolved within the ASU rather than by means of
class struggle.
   The fifth session was devoted to the negative aspects of the Nasserist
experience, and the most important (and longest) statement was made by
Khalid Muhi al-Din concerning the imposition of the Socialist Laws of 1961:
"One of Nasser's characteristics was that he paid a lot of attention to the
domestic conflict and its dangers. And whenever matters came to a head,
Nasser would always choose the progressive solution. I would not say the
complete progressive solution, no" (243). "Nasser was not convinced that it
was possible to separate experience, or the sociopolitical order, from theory
-and that's why he always remained afraid of a complete openness to So-
cialist thought" (244).
   At this point al-Hakim tried to suggest that the reason why Nasser kept
theory rooted in political practice was because he preferred to avoid the
implementation of the democratic provisions of the various constitutions,
charters, and the like. Al-Hakim even quoted Muhammad Sayyid Ahmad as
saying that Nasser wanted to avoid a revolution from below (245). But
Muhi al-Din steadfastly avoided that issue, arguing that Nasser was essen-
tially a revolutionary pragmatist who refused to set rigid theoretical limits to
the evolution of the July Revolution.
   Muhi al-Din developed this idea further, asserting that Nasser could
never rid himself of the fatally mistaken view that there might be a third
way between the capitalist and socialist paths. It was this worst of all of





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 57


Nasser's theoretical errors which led him to take halfway measures at criti-
cal times when theoretical sophistication would have indicated the correct
strategy. Nasser wanted to avoid making the indispensable sacrifices that
were needed to accumulate the necessary capital to achieve development in
the shortest time without relying on the imperialist powers and without
compromising with the Egyptian bourgeoisie. Nasser thought he could find
sufficient resources through foreign grants and loans, through land reform,
and through the nationalization of foreign firms, and he refused to take the
only possible path of self-reliance, which required squeezing the middle class
for at least ten years.
   Nasser took halfway measures in setting up a Committee to Liquidate
Feudalism instead of invoking peasant action. The allocation of 50 percent
of all representative positions to authentic workers and peasants had little
effect because so many members of the middle class misrepresented them-
selves. The integration of "nonexploitative" national capital into the Coali-
tion of Popular Working Forces set up under the Charter and the ASU was
a failure because, as everyone knows, there is no such thing as "nonexploita-
tive capitalism." Nasser also brought the agrarian revolution to a screeching
halt in 1969.
   Khalid Muhi al-Din concluded that Nasser's tendency was revolutionary,
including hostility to imperialism and capitalism, in general, and a bias in
favor of the poorer classes. But he had no idea of how a new society might
be structured and was completely mistaken about the possibility of multiple
paths to socialism (245-57). He was, however, far more progressive than
other members of his social class (264).

Abandoned Allies: Nasser and the Silent Ones

After the October 1973 War, the political atmosphere in Egypt encouraged
more outspoken attacks on Nasser, and one of the most widely read was the
book The Silent Ones Speak Out, written by Sami Gawhar.17 The sixth
printing, 1976, included a new chapter entitled '"Abd al-Nasser and the
Slaughter of the Ikhwan." Gawhar does not identify himself in this book,
but he offers fulsome praise of Sadat for freeing Egyptian history from the
prison in which it had been held from 1954 to 1970. Gawhar tells us that he
relied on notes taken by Rishwan Fahmy throughout the Nasser years.
Fahmy had served as dean of the doctors' syndicate three times, and he was
an intimate of several members of the RCC before the revolution and met all
of them afterwards (8). Fahmy died before he had a chance to publish his
notes, which were then passed on to Gawhar. Gawhar was able to interview
many of the principals and confirm and amplify the story told in the notes,
primarily by 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Kamal al-Din Husayn, and Hasan





58 | Leonard Binder


Ibrahim-all of whom had been members of the RCC in 1952 and were later
marginalized or worse because of their opposition to Nasser.
   Gawhar describes Nasser as a dictator, a phony hero, a murderer, and a
liar who distorted the facts and persecuted the true Egyptian patriots. In
relating the story of the conflict between Nasser and Nagib as told to him by
the not so silent ones, Gawhar tells us that Nasser hypocritically accused
Nagib of dictatorial ambitions, but it was Nasser who hungered to exercise
power as the sole leader (14). Gawhar quotes Kamal al-Din Husayn as re-
porting that Nasser, along with other members of the Free Officers, took the
oath of membership in the clandestine military organization of the Muslim
Brothers. Nasser committed himself, reaffirmed that commitment on vari-
ous occasions, including the very eve of July 23, 1952, and then betrayed
the organization and its leaders, despite the crucial support they gave him
during the revolution, ultimately condemning to death many of those who
trusted him (40). After the revolution, Nasser surrounded himself with a
number of officers of bad morals who were only out for their own gain and
who used drugs and alcohol, while distancing himself from those who were
close to the Ikhwan (33).
   Nasser tried but failed to induce the Ikhwan to join his cabinet and then
to merge with the Liberation Rally, dissolving their own organization. But
whenever Nasser heard the word no, it would send him into a rage (44). He
called his Ikhwan interlocutors "traitors" and berated them for calling for
free elections, demanding to know whether they wanted the return of the
Wafd (45). At the same meeting, apparently frustrated by the resistance of
the Ikhwan representatives, Nasser burst out, "Listen, ya Farid, I'll tell you
what is on my mind, and that's it. I have this idea that has possessed me, and
I don't know whether it is mistaken or sound. I just want, within two or
three years, to arrive at a point where I can press a button and the country
will move as I want it to, and when I press another button, it will stop."
   Farid answered that the Ikhwan had been working for twenty-seven years
to get their members to understand the teachings of Islam, and they could
not count on them to dissolve the organization on command. Clearly Nasser
was thinking like a military officer, but social change can only come through
freedom and democracy. Farid related that he and his colleagues laughed at
Nasser's desire to press buttons, but in the end, he was able to realize his pipe
dream. Nasser then trumped up charges of treason against them, framing
them by planting weapons on the farm of Hasan 'Ashmawi (37).
   Gawhar goes on to question whether the attempted assassination of
Nasser on October 26, 1954, was a put-up job. Regardless of whether it
was organized by the Ikhwan, by Nasser himself, or by a lone assassin,
Nasser exploited the incident to achieve three goals: to build up popular





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 59


support for his own leadership, to get rid of Nagib once and for all, "and
to destroy the Muslim Brothers who had helped him at the beginning of the
revolution" (57).
   As in the case of cAwdat al-Wa'y, the Samitun inspired a number of rebut-
tals and replies. One of the sharpest rejoinders came from Hasanayn Karum,
who tried to establish his objectivity by showing that he had actually been a
beneficiary of Sadat and had suffered from discriminatory treatment under
the Nasser regime. In his book The Silent Ones Lie, Karum mounts a vigor-
ous counterattack against the Silent Ones, the Muslim Brothers, and other
critics of Nasser.18 The Silent Ones were bitter because they lost a simple
struggle for power. They preferred an oligarchy to an autocracy, and they
were poor losers (28). As for the Ikhwan, they themselves decided that they
were God's representatives on earth, and they proceeded arbitrarily to ac-
cuse anyone who defied their authority of kufr (47-51).
   Gamal Salim makes a more affirmative case in his book The Silent Ones
in the Balance: For the Truth ... Confidence ... and History.19 Salim writes
that the Silent Ones-'Abd al-Latif, Kamal al-Din, and Hasan Ibrahim-all
played secondary roles in the revolution while Nasser was the "maestro"
who called the tune and directed the orchestra. His fellow officers followed
him because they knew that he spoke the language of the people, and that is
the most powerful instrument. The Free Officers were not the leadership.
They were the base, and Nasser was the leader who organized them, brought
them together, and harmonized their heartbeat and pulse with his own (3-5).
   Toward the end of his book, Salim took up the theme of the June 1967
War:

   The Silent Ones said that the popular demonstrations that occurred on
   June 9 and 10, 1967, were staged like a play [masrahiyya], but they did
   not explain what they meant by that. Did they mean that the whole
   Arab people were the audience and that Nasser acted out the only role
   in the masrahiyya while the audience applauded because the only thing
   they could do was applaud? If that is true, then Nasser was the best and
   most gifted actor who ever lived. But the truth of the matter is that he
   was not the greatest actor. Unfortunately, he lacked that gift which was
   enjoyed by those who spoke after having remained silent. The only
   thing of that sort in which Nasser was gifted was amiability and socia-
   bility-in simple terms, not showing what one is feeling or hiding it
   from people. Nasser was a sort of expert [ustadh] in this gift. He would
   smile, even though pain would be ripping at his heart, and he would
   appear to be in good health, lively and active, though illness was
   squeezing out all his strength. (16)





60 | Leonard Binder


   No. Unfortunately, Nasser would not have had that gift of acting had
   he lived a hundred years . . . though he shook all the various hands
   stretched out to him, and was pleasant and cheerful [hash wa-bash] to
   all the frowning faces of the crowds around him. Unfortunately, he
   was bereft of the gift of acting. But as for them [the Silent Ones] they
   were experts. . . . They excelled at playing their roles. When Nasser
   was alive, they played the role of revolutionaries during the July Revo-
   lution, and the role of enthusiastic supporters during the March [1954]
   crisis, and the role of fighters during the aggression of 1956, and the
   role of proponents during the union in 1958, then they played the role
   of provocateurs advocating a strike against Syria to compel it into the
   bounds of the union by military force. Then the end came at the Presi-
   dency Council when the curtain descended on their "masrahiyya."
   (417-18)
   The deceitful "actors" included not only the Silent Ones but also 'Ali
Sabri. Salim blames Sabri for abusing his position as "bashkatib," namely,
chief of the presidential staff. Using that key position, and his post as head
of the ASU, Sabri was able to wield a great deal of power which he used to
transform the revolutionary system into a highly bureaucratized and inflex-
ible system. According to Salim, Sabri was in league with the Silent Ones and
with 'Abd al-Hakim 'Amr in trying to exploit the defeat in the June 1967
War to get rid of Nasser and seize power.
   Finally, Salim insists that Nasser was following the requirements of the
Egyptian constitution to the letter when he announced on the night of June
9, 1967, that Zakariyya Muhi al-Din would succeed him as temporary
president when he resigned the next day. Salim vigorously denied that Nas-
ser's choice was based on any strategic or political plan. Nasser did not
plan scenarios of that kind. His decisions were based solely on what would
best serve the interests of the Arab people-not just the Egyptian people
(418-31).

CAbd al-Nasser and the Muslim Brothers and Islam
Writing in 1960, Nadav Safran concluded his classic work on Egyptian ide-
ology with a cautious approval of Nasser's suppression of the Muslim Broth-
ers, noting that "the dangerous drift toward the emotional Muslim orienta-
tion has been decisively stopped, apparently by government fiat, ever since
the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood."20 Since 1955, little new work
has appeared exalting the perfection of allegedly Islamic political, social,
and ethical principles and contrasting them with Western-imported ideas
and values or implying that the application of Islam to Egyptian life would
solve all problems.





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 61


   Safran thought this was a "favorable development." He also noted with
satisfaction that the "revolution eliminated the obstructive power of the
religious leaders by submitting all religious institutions to the strict control
of the state and canceling the bargaining position which the 'ulama had
enjoyed under the previous regime owing to the multiplicity of the centers of
power" (255).
   Safran believed that the leaders of the revolution had opened new ideo-
logical possibilities by breaking "the association of nationalism with the
Western-modeled Liberal constitutional regimes by abolishing the old po-
litical order," and it fought the Muslim Brothers' hold on the symbols of
Islamic reform "by destroying and then defaming that movement" (255).
"The final product seems to be a new nationalism, which though it feeds
on Muslim emotion, is, nevertheless, intolerant of Muslim tradition when-
ever that tradition seems to conflict with the course of the desired modern-
ization" (256). In spite of Safran's cautious optimism regarding Nasser's
commitment to modernization, he did express some doubts as to "whether
the leaders would be able to control the religious impulse that moves the
masses" (257).
   The suppression of the Muslim Brothers, which took place in 1954-55,
was part of the postrevolutionary struggle for power among the several
groups and factions that favored the overthrow of the monarchy. The fact
that the major religious group-not a part of the clerical institution-lost
out may be compared to the alternative outcome in Iran. The Nasser regime
did proceed to assert its control over the religious establishment that usually
goes by the general name of al-Azhar, by the use of both some fat carrots and
a few relatively flexible sticks. The Muslim Brothers organization was not
actually destroyed, however. It was gravely weakened, but the word was still
preached, books were published, adherents met informally or clandestinely,
and evidently a lively intellectual debate was pursued among those impris-
oned. In 1965, the various remaining factions of the Muslim Brothers were
accused of plotting to overthrow the regime, and trials and executions en-
sued, including that of Sayyid Qutb. Consequently, and obviously, the ad-
herents of the Muslim Brothers and, to an even greater extent, of the extrem-
ist Jama'at see Nasser as a terrorist and a murderer. They accuse Nasser of
burning Cairo in January 1952, falsely accusing and framing them, and
betraying their trust. They accuse Nasser of despotism, arrogance, and un-
belief, and they charge his government with tyranny, oppression, and de-
monolatry.
   According to one of Nasser's defenders, 'Abdallah Imam, the Ikhwan
claimed that Nasser had concocted the whole episode of the attempted as-
sassination in 1954. They claim that Nasser even persuaded the would-be
assassin to sacrifice his life rather than reveal that Nasser put him up to it.





62 | Leonard Binder


The Muslim Brothers deny everything, but their claims are obviously pre-
posterous. Thus they say
   that they [the Muslim Brothers] did not blow up families-children,
   women, and men in the cinemas, or in the Jewish Quarter, or the Shar-
   qiyya Advertising Company, or the Cicurel Department Store, or else-
   where. They never fire[d the] bullets that would lodge in the chest of an
   innocent judge who had decided against them. They are not the mur-
   derers of Counselor Khaznadar in front of his home in Helwan, and
   they did not blow up the courthouse before or after. Not one of them
   put on a police uniform and slipped into the Ministry of the Interior in
   order to kill Nuqrashi, the Prime Minister. And the Society [of Muslim
   Brothers] did not organize the murder of Prime Minister Ibrahim'Abd
   al-Hadi; nor fire the bullets that struck his car and those in it-the
   driver, and the Speaker of Parliament.21

   After reviewing the familiar history of the conflict between the Nasser
regime and the Muslim Brothers and its offshoots, Imam sums up Nasser's
attitude toward Islam in his concluding chapter. He claims that it is not
true that Nasser's Egypt was either hostile or indifferent to religion. In fact
strenuous efforts and a lot of money were put into strengthening Islam,
Islamic institutions, and the Islamic faith under Nasser. Most of these ef-
forts, as we know, were made through the increasingly state-controlled al-
Azhar or through various devices intended to establish Egypt's primacy in
the sphere of international Islamic affairs.
   Imam's purpose is not only to refute the factual claims of the Ikhwan but
also to refute their characterization of Nasser as a person and a Muslim.
Imam starts out by asserting that Nasser was not a Marxist or communist,
and the erstwhile close relations between Egypt and the Soviet Union did not
extend to ideology (151). Imam makes an important point of the fact that
Nasser did not delegate control over media, information, and propaganda to
Marxists or communists. Although he lists many names, he does not men-
tion Lutfi al-Khuli and 'Ali Sabri or Al-Tali 'a and Al-Katib, and he makes
light of others like Khalid Muhi al-Din, Mahmud Amin al-'Alim, and Kamal
Rif'at.
   Imam wonders why some observers thought that Nasser was antireli-
gious, and he opines that their mistake may be due to the fact they misunder-
stand the nature of his hostility toward the Ikhwan. That hostility was based
on politics alone. Nasser had no quarrel with their religious beliefs and their
religious practices. But the Ikhwan believe that there can be no separation
between religion and the state, the Qur'an and the sword. Their methods
included conspiracy and armed violence. It was a question of legitimate
authority versus illegitimate authority.





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 63


   Imam argues that Nasser's most important quality was his understanding
of the mentality of the Egyptian people and his ability to communicate with
them. He was able to do this because he was one of them in the sense that he
shared their culture and sentiments. The people of Egypt are religious. Their
culture and values are based on Islam. He describes Nasser's belief and man-
ner as pure and clean, modest, ascetic, and simple in habits of dress, eating,
and drinking. Hence Nasser, as one of the people, was also religious and
motivated by the same sentiments. It is the Ikhwan who are alien and who
want to denature Egypt.
   To establish this argument, Imam presents anecdotes of Nasser spend-
ing time talking with religious specialists and ordinary people, praying at
mosques, lecturing students at al-Azhar, leaving meetings with Soviet leaders
to join his staff in prayers-in Moscow, and visiting Sayyida Zainab mosque
at night. He tells of a meeting in Bandung with Shaykh al-Baquri, minister of
Awqaf, during Ramadan. Nasser had been fasting, and al-Baquri reminded
him that he was exempt from fasting because he was on a trip. Nasser replied
that he preferred to fast because to do otherwise might leave a bad impres-
sion with so many of the political leaders he was meeting at that gathering of
Third World statesmen. Imam quotes al-Baquri further:

   In two little words, 'Abd al-Nasser is a man of Egypt for Egypt [rajul
   Misr li-Misr] and a man of the Arabs for the Arabs [rajul al-'Arab lil-
   'Arab]. And I swear to Allah, than whom there is no other but Him,
   that I do not exaggerate in that statement that Nasser is Egypt. For
   Egypt before Nasser was not Egypt. It was a plantation for exploiters
   and the most vicious bloodsuckers and gamblers who used to steal the
   blood of the peasants to take it to summer resorts in Europe and
   gamble it away at Monte Carlo.... No Egyptian had any say in Egypt
   until Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser came along with his righteous brothers.
   (157)

   At the very end of the last chapter Imam takes up the delicate issue of
Nasser's intellectual conception of Islam. If the Ikhwan did not separate
Islam from politics, neither did Nasser. Nasser declared that there was no
conflict between Islam and socialism. Islam and all the revealed religions
oppose exploitation of man by man, and that is what socialism is all about.
Imam quotes the National Charter rather than Nasser: "The essence of
religion is to guarantee that all human beings have the right to life and
freedom" (163). Quoting Nasser: "It is the religion of justice and equal-
ity." "The relations between religion and nationalism are strong and solid.
... In truth, in the call for freedom, the one comes from the light of Allah,
and the other comes from the reflection of that light on the conscience of
humanity. . .. In Nasser's thought Islam is a progressive revolution against





64 | Leonard Binder


imperialism" (164). And, most clearly spoken by Nasser in colloquial Egyp-
tian:
   As far as we are concerned, our socialism is scientific ['ilmiyya], based
   on knowledge ['ilm]. Our socialism is scientific and not based on dis-
   ordered thought [al-fawda]. We didn't say that we're for socialist ma-
   terialism; and we didn't say that we're for Marxism; and we didn't say
   that we're abandoning religion. Rather we said that our religion is a
   socialist religion and that in the Middle Ages, Islam realized the first
   socialist experiment in world history. (166)

   In these last passages, it is clear that Imam has departed from the senti-
mental, touchy-feely cultural characterization of Nasser and has embraced a
quite different image of an in-your-face, tell-it-like-it-is ideologue. Religious
orthopraxis may remain untouched, but the historically defined political
aspirations of the Egyptian military elite-regime stability, development,
modernization, independence, nationalism, state socialism, social mobiliza-
tion, and Arab unity-define Islam politically. Islam will serve the Egyptian
state, and the Egyptian state will, in turn, see to it that the Islamic establish-
ment prospers.


Nasserist Iconography: From Valentino to Brezhnev

To this point we have been dealing with verbal iconology presented in the
idiom of political discourse. In this section we will deal briefly with the
relatively unstudied subject of the graphic iconology of Nasser, and in the
next section we will recall some of the best-known literary and film contri-
butions to our subject.
   Iconography is commonly referred to as the traditional or conventional
representation of saintly personalities and biblical events as imagined by
ordinary Eastern Christian believers. The icon is an anthropomorphic rep-
resentation of theopathic experience that is often purported to transcend
speech and reason. The representation, when it is understood and when it
works, goes straight to the emotions or the consciousness and may have a
powerfully persuasive effect. The images may represent a convoluted and
recondite doctrine, but their simplicity and their evocation of the familiar
dispense with the need for tiresome explication.
   Political iconography aims at a similar bond of solidarity between the
leaders and the masses, but its success turns on whether or not it is possible
to represent an ideology as a personality or whether the idealized person is
simply a king or a tyrant. Victoria Bonnell describes, for example, how
Soviet revolutionary iconography slipped away from the idealization of the





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 65


proletariat to the deification of Stalin.22 Moreover, the logic of traditional
iconography depends upon the recognition that the person portrayed is a
sacred person, while political iconography may seek to beatify the profane.
In some cases, the method of portrayal may defeat the purpose of inspiring
the selfless love of subjects, as in the court iconography of the Qajar Shahs
emphasizing despotic power in huge paintings of ornately dressed shahs
seated on great thrones, or as in the case of modern Iraq, where the gro-
tesque, gigantesque representations of Saddam Husayn inspired fear more
than love.
   But the modern understanding of the term icon often turns the traditional
notion on its head. Instead of inspiring a targeted emotion by invoking a
conventional and cathected symbol, the term is often applied to a striking
and unusual photograph or painting that comes to represent a new phenom-
enon, a new generation, a new cultural development, or a new era. For
examples of this second type of icon, we can suggest the picture of a grimac-
ing Yitzhak Rabin shaking 'Arafat's hand, or Andy Warhol's painting of
Marilyn Monroe, or the picture of the astronauts on the moon.
   It seems to me that the Nasserist iconography falls into neither category.
Most Western observers, obsessed with what they saw as Nasser's charisma,
were inclined to ignore what appears to be the plain meaning of most of the
Nasser photos. Their most outstanding feature is their ordinariness-cer-
tainly after the first few years. Rather than portraying Nasser as a saint or a
knight in shining armor (a modern Salah al-Din), Nasser's standard photos
have come to represent an era during which Egypt came of age politically
and learned the limits of its capabilities. Rather than leading Egypt out of the
wilderness, Nasser reaffirmed Egypt's quotidian destiny.
   Lacouture starts out by linking "the cult of the leader" with the search for
a collective identity (48). The people "identify spontaneously and enthusias-
tically with a visible and prestigious human being, who in turn infuses each
of them with his glamour and his glory" (49). The leader personifies the
nation's power, its destiny, and its independence. He invokes theatrical im-
ages such as "vigorous and radiant image," a "purifying portrait," "bold
power, blindingly displayed," and "savior." But even Lacouture's infatua-
tion falters when he considers the inevitable failure to maintain the suspen-
sion of disbelief. It appears that Lacouture thinks that the initial seizure of
power is virtually imposed on the hero by the people and that the role of
acting as both symbol and savior is defined by mass adulation or intoxica-
tion. But then the performance becomes routine-a mere memory or parody
of the great moments of the past. And, referring specifically to Nasser,
Lacouture laments in The Demigods, "Thus the eloquence that was a source
of power begins to wither, and the speaker hears only the sound of his own





66 | Leonard Binder


voice.... Going to hear the za'im speak is like attending the performance of
a great tenor in his most famous role. With every voice shouting the same
slogans, doesn't it mean that they are all behind him still?" (65-72).
   The iconology of the Egyptian revolution, though it exploited the image
of the Egyptian peasant for a while, moved rather quickly to the cult of the
personality of Nasser. There was not much that was ideological about the
campaign, as opposed to the identitive and representative aspects. The cen-
trality and persistence of the Nasserist iconology was a constant if subtle
reminder that both Arab nationalism and Arab socialism were secondary to
Egyptian identity and the Egyptian national interest. The images of Nasser
diffused throughout the Arab world and beyond had one set of meanings in
Egypt and another set elsewhere.
   In spite of the highly political character of the Nasserist iconology, Nasser
was rarely portrayed as the embodiment of a political ideology or the holder
of the highest office. The implicit frame within which his image was manipu-
lated was a biographical and developmental one rather than an ideological
or historical one. In perusing collections of photographs, leaving aside, per-
haps, the ubiquitous head shots that were hung in every government office,
one cannot avoid the feeling of looking at someone's family album. For the
most part, Nasser was usually presented in a relatively simple and straight-
forward manner. Even when he was portrayed in twenty-foot-high hand-
painted posters, the drawings were often sloppy and not very flattering or
fear inspiring. In the early years, Nasser was photographed in uniform,
riding in an open jeep, sitting at a desk, poring over a chessboard, seated on
a carpet in prayer. But later he appeared in a double-breasted suit that exag-
gerated his portliness and made him look like a Soviet commissar or an
Egyptian insurance salesman.
   During the Nasser years, his photographs were everywhere. Every gov-
ernment office, store, schoolroom, and business was likely to have one.
Newspapers usually published pictures of Nasser every day in the usual sorts
of ceremonial activity, standing around in his striped blue double-breasted
costume. The general feeling that these photos provided was one of familiar-
ity rather than fear or hero worship. To be sure, at least before 1967, Nasser
was supposed to represent courage, dignity, independence, strength, wis-
dom, patience, honesty, modesty, piety, and discipline. Toward the end,
Nasser appeared stolid, distant, a wounded lion, more parry than thrust.
   But it appears to me that the one consistent theme to be found in the
public presentation of Nasser and in the response of the Egyptian masses to
him was his ability to represent Egyptian authenticity, whether in triumph or
defeat, in retrospect or in anticipation of a brighter future. Early on, he was
described as representing what Egyptian authenticity ought to be, but at the





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 67


end, on June 9, 1967, and at the funeral, there seemed to be little gap be-
tween him and the grieving masses. Whatever the lingering sentiments of the
masses, the Egyptian intellectuals gradually turned away in disinterest.


Literature and Movies:The Collective Memory

I think that this rejection by the educated classes may well be the theme of
the enigmatic novella Al-Karnak, written by Nagib Mahfuz.23 As I read it,
Mahfuz strikes only a glancing and subtle blow against Nasser in his iconic
capacity as an emblem of Egyptian authenticity. It is true that in this book,
as opposed to Tharthara Fawq al-Nil and Miramar, Mahfuz attacks the
regime directly rather than describing the effect that the failed revolutionary
regime has on middle-class Egyptians.24 But in Al-Karnak, written in 1971
or even earlier, there is no direct criticism of Nasser as is to be found in
Amam al-'Arsh, written in 1983.25
   Literary critics seem to agree that the existentialist alienation and moral
bankruptcy that pervades both Tharthara Fawq al-Nil and Miramar and
leads, in both cases, to the abuse of peasant icons by middle-class stereotypes
are to be attributed to the effect of the authoritarian regime. But the causal
nexus is never made clear because of Mahfuz's well warranted caution.26 It
isn't clear whether the peasant icons are supposed to represent simple inno-
cence or Egyptian authenticity-bearing in mind that the peasants, who
were so much the focus of revolutionary attention, were not central to
Mahfuz's aesthetic sensibility.27
   In Al-Karnak, all the action takes place in a small, tidy coffee shop on a
central Cairo sidestreet. The story is told by a narrator who learns of the
events from conversations with some of the coffee shop's regulars. The cafe
itself is, however, outside of time and in a place where little action occurs.28
In fact, the narrator stumbles onto the cafe while "killing time" waiting for
his watch to be repaired. He is drawn back to the cafe again and again by a
compelling nostalgia-personified by the proprietress, a striking woman,
now past her prime, who was once a famous baladi dancer in the days before
the revolution.
   The narrator tells us the story of how three idealistic and ambitious Egyp-
tian students, members of the first generation of the revolution, are "de-
voured"-betrayed, humiliated, tortured, exploited, and psychologically
destroyed. Two of the students are lovers, and the third is having an affair of
sorts with the proprietress. The agent of the revolution responsible for this
destruction is a Mukhabbarat interrogator called Khalid Safwan. Mahfuz
emphasizes the emotional and psychological impact upon the personalities
of the two chaste but betrothed lovers, who are manipulated into denounc-





68 | Leonard Binder


ing one another to the Mukhabbarat in a sequence evoking 0. Henry's story
"The Christmas Gift."
   The three students are arrested and interrogated thrice, after which Safwan
is himself arrested, tortured, and imprisoned for three years in some sort of
purge. The two locales are conjoined when an ailing Safwan suddenly turns
up at the cafe, killing time, waiting for the pharmacy to prepare his prescrip-
tion medicines. We are not told exactly what his ailments are, but we assume
they are illnesses of the soul.
   In contrast to the cafe regulars, Safwan is frank, outspoken, cynical, intel-
ligent, and critical. The regulars and a few new patrons are somewhat taken
with his observations on the failures of the revolution and the disillusion
which has followed the military defeat of 1967. Safwan is virtually wel-
comed into the group-no hard feelings-all are victims of the same imper-
sonal phenomenon.29 The prescriptions are delivered. Safwan gets ready to
leave and delivers a striking exit speech in which he condemns the hypocrisy
of the Nasser regime, insisting that honesty, freedom, and democracy should
never be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. In fact, Safwan
emerges as the most articulate and rational character in the novel.
   Safwan says nothing about Nasser. In fact, Nasser is mentioned only
once in the book, when the narrator asks the now morally and emotionally
catatonic couple whether they still support the ideals of the revolution.
They answer in a strong affirmative, telling him that they both went out
into the streets on the night of June 9, 1967, to protest Nasser's intent to
resign and to implore him to stay on. The reader, I believe, is expected to
find this sentiment to be self-destructive and even illogical, especially in
contrast to Safwan's frank and unalloyed condemnation of the Nasser re-
gime. The reader may even look for some reassurance or consolation from
the disconcertingly unmoved and even passive author-narrator. But all we
get is a brief conversation that the narrator has with a new student patron
of the cafe, Munir Ahmad. The narrator expresses hope in the new genera-
tion and asks Munir about his ideological position. Munir refuses to be
categorized, but admits that he respects both religion and the Left. Munir
insists that he wants to be himself and that neither the turath nor west-
ernization represent the individualism and the authenticity that he seeks.
Where, then, will he find this asala, asks the narrator. "Here," says Munir,
pointing to his heart.
   The younger generation would seek its own authenticity within, rather
than accept the alterity of a distant political icon that is emblematic of a
collective identity. And if the younger generation succeeds in discovering its
own authenticity, will it be able to reconnect with the Egypt that existed
before the revolution? Well, it seems that the proprietress (symbolizing the





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 69


charms of prerevolutionary Egypt?) has an eye for Munir, and the feeling
may be mutual.
   Menahem Milson has provided us with a very helpful summary analysis
and translation of key passages from Amam al-'Arsh.30 In that novel, Mahfuz
puts Nasser on trial before the mythical and historic heroic rulers of Egypt,
and he compares Nasser's achievements with those of Sadat as well. Nasser
is praised for his outstanding accomplishments, but he is harshly criticized
for squandering every opportunity for consolidating those gains. All the
good that he did is undone by the evil that was the consequence of his pride,
his ambition, his unwillingness to compromise, and his tyranny. The empha-
sis is on Nasser's personality and not on the system he constructed and
bequeathed to his successors.
   Amam al-'Arsh is about policy and strategy whereas Al-Karnak is about
consciousness and authenticity. In 1983, Mahfuz is defending both Sadat's
peace policy and his economic policy as adopted by the still shaky Mubarak
regime. In 1971, if that is indeed the date of the composition of the earlier
book, Mahfuz was arguing that the revolution, or at least the methods
adopted to achieve the goals of the revolution, had succeeded only in alien-
ating Egyptians from their own authenticity. Mahfuz rejected the idea that
revolutionary change required a break with history and tradition. On the
contrary, and despite exaggerated claims such as al-Baquri's equating of
Nasser and Egypt, the Nasser regime did not overcome the alienation wrought
by imperialism and latifundism. In fact, Nasserist authoritarianism greatly
expanded the petite bourgeoisie and, in Mahfuz's opinion, profoundly alien-
ated that class by subalternating it rather than empowering it. Nevertheless,
in Al-Karnak Mahfuz seems to be echoing the views of Desouki and of
Tawfiq al-Hakim in separating the man from the consequences of his poli-
cies, leaving room for the preservation of the heroic image, carefully limited
in time-as suggested by the film Nasser 56.31
   Donald Malcolm Reid concludes an excellent review of this movie with
the following paragraph:

   By its careful selection of theme and time frame, the movie avoids
   confronting divisive issues of Nasser's legacy-the repression of the
   Muslim Brothers and other political opponents, the abuses by the se-
   cret police, the failures of the United Arab Republic and Arab social-
   ism, and the catastrophic defeat at Israel's hands in 1967. To both the
   diminishing number of Egyptians old enough to recall the events of
   1956 and to the majority who were not yet born when Nasser died in
   1970, this film will have a powerful impact on the way he is remem-
   bered.32





70 | Leonard Binder


Notes

   1. Malcolm Kerr, The Arab Cold War, 1958-1964: A Study of Ideology in Politics
(London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 80f.
   2. Barbara Cady and Jean-Jaques Naudet, eds., Icons of the Twentieth Century:
Two Hundred Men and Women Who Have Made a Difference (Woodstock, N.Y.:
Overlook Press, 1998), 260-61.
   3. Peter Woodward, Nasser: Profiles in Power (London: Longman, 1992).
   4. Peter Mansfield, Nasser's Egypt (London: Methuen Educational, 1965, rev.,
1969), 1, 246.
   5. See Raymond A. Hinnebusch Jr., Egyptian Politics under Sadat: The Post-
Populist Development of an Authoritarian-Modernizing State (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1985), 289f.
   6. P. J. Vatikiotis, The Egyptian Army in Politics: Pattern for New Nations?
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961), 229.
   7. Miles Copeland, The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1969). Page numbers are cited in the text.
   8. Jean Lacouture, The Demigods: Charismatic Leadership in the Third World,
trans. Patricia Wolf (New York: Knopf, 1970), 70. This work is described as a trans-
lation of a doctoral dissertation supervised by Jacques Berque at the College de
France. Page numbers are cited in the text.
   9. 'Ali al-Din al-Hilal al-Desouki et al., "Al-Mushkila al-Siyasiyya fi Misr wal-
Tahawwul ila Ta'addud al-Ihzab," Tajribat al-Dimuqratiyya fi Misr: 1980-1981, Al-
Qadaya al-Siyasiyya, no. 2 (Cairo, 1982), 30. Subsequent page numbers are cited in
the text.
   10. Leonard Binder, In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second
Stratum in Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), esp. 4f. and 330f.
   11. "Turath Abd al-Nasser fi Rihab al-Taharrur Wal-Taqaddum," a special issue
of Al-Tali'a: Tariq al-Munadhilin ila al-Fikr al-Thawri al-Mu'asir, Gamal Abd al-
Nasir . . . Fikrihi wa-Nidalihi, 6 (November 1970) 6.
   12. "Gamal'Abd al-Nasir-and the Revolution," ibid., 9; "Who Are 'the People'
in the Thought of Gamal Abd al-Nasser," ibid., 12.
   13. See Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 61f.
   14. For a list of relevant titles and dates, see John Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser
and Sadat: The Political Economy of Two Regimes (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1983), 338, 339 n. 4.
   15. Tawfiq al-Hakim, 'Awdat al-Wa'y, 2d ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1975), 3, 4,
75-91. Subsequent page numbers are cited in the text.
   16. The proceedings of those seminars were published in a book called Milaff
Abd al-Nasir (Beirut, 1975?). Page numbers are cited in the text.
   17. Sami Gawhar, Al-Samitun Yatakalamun, 6th printing (Alexandria: al-Maktab
al-Misri al-Hadith, 1976). Page numbers are cited in the text.
   18. Hasanayn Karum, Al-Samitun Yakdhabun: al-Radd 'ala Kitab "al-Samitun
Yatakalamun" (Cairo, 1976).





Iconology, Ideology, and Demonology | 71


   19. Gamal Salim, Al-Samitun fi al-Mizan: min ajl-il-Haqiqa . . wal-Imana . . wal-
Ta'rikh (Cairo: Dar al-Qahira lil-Thaqafa al-'Arabiyya, 1976).
   20. Nadav Safran, Egypt in Search of Political Community: An Analysis of the
Intellectual and Political Evolution of Egypt, 1804-1952 (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1961), 253.
   21. 'Abdallah Imam, Abd al-Nasir wal-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Cairo: Dar al-
Qahira lil-Thaqafa al-'Arabiyya, 1981), 3-4.
   22. Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under
Lenin and Stalin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
   23. El-Enany writes: "Following the military debacle of 1967 and Nasser's death
in 1970, Mahfuz's onslaught on the revolution rose to a crescendo in The Karnak
(1974), a bitter condemnation of the repressive techniques of the Police state and
their destructive effect on the dignity of the individual and hence the nation as a
whole." Rasheed el-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz: The Pursuit of Meaning (London:
Routledge, 1993), 26.
   24. Ibid., 110-14.
   25. Ibid., 44.
   26. Menahem Milson, Najib Mahfuz: The Novelist-Philosopher of Cairo (New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), 154.
   27. El-Enany tells us that Mahfuz intended to portray Zahra as a symbol of Egypt
(Naguib Mahfouz, 115 n. 48).
   28. Some critics have, however, attempted to identify both the actual cafe on
which al-Karnak was modeled and the events and dates framing the conversations
taking place in the fictional cafe.
   29. See the interesting treatment of this scene by Trevor Le Gassick, "Mahfouz's
al-Karnak: The Quiet Conscience of Nasir's Egypt Revealed," in Le Gassick, ed.,
Critical Perspectives on Naguib Mahfouz (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents
Press, 1991), 158.
   30. Milson, Najib Mahfuz, 144-55. See also el-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz, 44.
   31. See el-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz, 26: "The evident affection is, however, proof
of the ambivalence in Mahfuz's attitude towards the rule of Nasser: consistently he
has shown himself to be equally aware of both the positive and negative sides of the
experiment."
   32. Donald Malcolm Reid, review of Nasser 56, MESA Bulletin 32, no. 1 (sum-
mer 1998): 133-34.











2


Demonizing the Other

Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism


    Elie Podeh


    History in general, and diplomatic history in particular, are the story of
    human aspirations, achievement, adaptation, and survival. But they are also
    the tale of human error and fallibility. A common element in many failures
    is that they did not stem from a dearth of information but rather from
    incorrect judgment and evaluation of available information.
    Yaakov Y. I. Vertzberger, The World in Their Minds




Introduction

This illuminating passage refers to a familiar human phenomenon. Studies
show that a possible reason for incorrect judgment and evaluation of infor-
mation is that the decision-making elite develop subjective perceptions of
"the other." Each leader holds a belief system that includes a set of images
formed on the basis of individual values, personality, political style, intellect,
and past experience.1 Decisions are made not on the basis of an objective
reality but on the basis of a perceived reality that emerges as a result of
entrenched images. Relations among nations, therefore, are shaped, inter
alia, by the way in which leaders, or elites, view each other.2
   The term image has acquired various definitions in political psychology.
Herbert Kelman defined it simply as "organized representation of an ob-
ject in the individual's cognitive system."3 Images play an important role in
information processing, serving as "screens for the selective reception of
new messages" and controlling "the perception of interpretation of those
messages that are not completely ignored, rejected, or repressed."4 In ana-
lyzing how people process information, Alexander George posited a series
of assumptions that will serve as a basis for this study: (1) Individuals





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 73


orient themselves to their surroundings by acquiring, storing, appraising,
and utilizing information about their physical and social environment. (2)
Everyone acquires beliefs and images about the environment, which pro-
vide him/her with a relatively coherent way of organizing and making
sense of confusing signals. (3) Since information processing is selective,
beliefs and images may be biased and stereotyped. (4) Beliefs and images
are usually stable, but individuals may change them in light of discrepant
information.5
   In structuring a coherent belief system, decision makers tend to refer to
analogies, categories, and labels. According to the schema theory, "because
people are limited in what information they can process, they must resort to
stored knowledge or cognitive schemas to make sense of the world around
them." Moreover, according to Deborah Larson, a person "searches until he
has found a schema that summarizes and categorizes one or more similar
stimulus configurations in the past."6 A familiar analogy in world politics is
the 1938 Munich script, which stands as a symbol of appeasement and sur-
render.7
   Images are particularly associated with the idea of the enemy. Two famil-
iar misconceptions regarding the "enemy" are noteworthy. The first is the
tendency of the decision maker to "see other states, particularly adversaries
or competitors, as more hostile than they are."8 The second misconception
is "black-and-white" thinking-positing a clear distinction between the good
"we" and the bad "they."9 Such misconceptions may lead to the emergence
of diabolism, "the tendency to see another person or group as more diaboli-
cal than the facts warrant."10 These misconceptions were highly relevant to
the way the United States and the Soviet Union depicted each other during
the Cold War era. The Americans perceived the behavior of the Soviet Union
as motivated by aggressive ideological and military considerations reflecting
a desire to achieve worldwide hegemony through expansionism. They saw
Soviet domestic behavior as dictatorial, exploitive, and delusive." As a re-
sult, American leaders adopted a "Cold War terminology," dismissed signals
for mutual agreement as propaganda, and considered any search for com-
promise as appeasement. Predictably, the Soviets felt the same way about the
Americans.12
   Several studies dealing with the effect of American and Soviet images on
their respective foreign policies have suggested that the role of images is
highly relevant to the Arab-Israeli conflict as well.13 Surprisingly, however,
little research has been devoted to the molding of images and their role in
perpetuating this conflict. Moreover, none of the few extant studies are
based on the historical method.
   In a series of interviews conducted during the 1970s, Daniel Heradstviet





74 | Elie Podeh


found deeply biased Israeli and Arab perceptions of one another.14 Michael
Brecher published a comprehensive study of the link between the psycho-
logical environment in general and elite images in particular and its foreign
policy decisions in the early 1970s. Based on speeches and interviews, he
analyzed the belief system and images of such Israeli leaders as David Ben-
Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol, Moshe Dayan, and Shimon
Peres and their impact on the decision-making process.15 Brecher argued
that Israel's achievements during its first twenty years were not matched in
the realm of foreign policy. Arab intransigence and Soviet policy, he wrote,
constituted a main obstacle to Israel's supreme goal of peace, but in part "the
failure lies in the basic foreign policy decisions, which Israel made in re-
sponse to her leaders' perceptions of their environment. The qualitative
jump in the psychological environment," he concluded, "remains an historic
task unfulfilled."16
   Based on the historical method, this article analyzes images of the enemy
held by the Israeli elite during the Nasserite period. More specifically, it
explores the way Israeli images of Egyptian president Gamal'Abd al-Nasser
and Nasserism-the movement that represented his ideas and followers-
evolved and were sustained, as well as the possible impact of these images on
the decision-making process. Inasmuch as the 1950s and the 1960s repre-
sented a significant period in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Nasser was con-
sidered Israel's most powerful and vicious enemy, the analysis sheds light on
the role of perceived images in the formulation of Israeli foreign policy. The
article also supports-though with no attempt to substantiate-Daniel Bar-
Tal's assertion that the images and perceptions of the elite reflected widely
held attitudes in society.17 This linkage is particularly plausible because of
the existence in Israel of a strong, even charismatic, and to a large extent
cohesive leadership that was able to transmit its views effectively through
various channels of communication.
   The major thesis of this chapter is that the Israeli leadership filtered in-
coming information regarding the enemy through the lens of Jewish history,
life experiences, and current events. Major episodes in the Jewish collective
memory were the pogroms in Eastern Europe, the vivid and traumatic
memory of the Holocaust, the sense of the few against the many during the
1948 war, and the presence of a siege mentality, especially after 1948.18
These and other memories-shared or remembered-served as screens, fil-
tering incoming information in a way consistent with the negative image
already formed of the enemy. Since the aims of this article are modest, the
link made in this article between images and decision making is suggestive
rather than conclusive.





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 75


Origins of the Nasserist Image

The results of the 1948 war presented a paradox to the political leadership:
on the one hand, a sense of contempt and derision for the Arab states, their
corrupt regimes, and the indolent leaders who had led their people to such a
crushing defeat at the hands of the Jews in a war of "the few against the
many," and on the other hand, the fear of a second round against the Arabs,
whose goal would be the annihilation of the Jews and the obliteration of the
shame of defeat. An alteration in the first part of the equation could have
transformed the Arab threat from an abstraction to reality, for example, had
an Arab leader of stature emerged to unite the Arabs politically, advance
them economically and socially, and ultimately unify their efforts to destroy
the state of Israel. Not surprisingly, as early as January 1949, Ben-Gurion
noted this in his diary.19 Three months later, he reiterated his fear of a unified
Arab world that would act against the Jews, using the historic comparison
with the Crusaders. He was especially fearful of the emergence of a leader
of the same caliber as the Prophet Muhammad; founder of the puritanical
Wahhabiyyah movement in the Arabian Peninsula Muhammad 'Abd ibn
al-Wahhab; or the secular Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk).20 It was
the last who particularly haunted Ben-Gurion. In his diary, he confessed that
the fear of "the possibility of our annihilation" still gnawed at him in view
of the "existence of sixty or seventy million Arabs-and it is possible that a
Mustafa Kemal will rise up among them."21 Ben-Gurion admired the leader
who was able to introduce such revolutionary changes in Turkey.22
   Ben-Gurion's profound knowledge of history taught him that the emer-
gence of a charismatic leader is a necessary precondition for attaining unity
and spiritual rejuvenation. Bismarck in Germany, Mazzini and Cavour in
Italy, and Mustafa Kemal in Turkey were only a few prominent examples.
Drawing an analogy to the Arab world from his experience and his erudi-
tion, Ben-Gurion viewed Arab unity as a natural process. Indeed, with
Nasser's rise to power during the 1950s, it appeared that Ben-Gurion's fears
were about to be realized.
   The July 1952 Free Officers' Revolution in Egypt, led by Muhammad
Nagib and Nasser, was initially welcomed by Israel. The impression was that
the group of young officers from the middle and lower middle class would
better represent Egypt than the wealthy, illegitimate elite, leading Egypt to a
new era of modernization and social justice. Israel also hoped that this re-
gime would be less vulnerable to nationalist rhetoric, which had character-
ized the old regime, thereby establishing a congenial basis for direct dia-
logue. Thus, on August 18, 1952, Ben-Gurion, speaking to the Knesset,





76 | Elie Podeh


welcomed the new regime.23 Moreover, Ben-Gurion and Sharett initiated
secret contacts between Israel and Nasser in February 1953; although they
did not produce any tangible results, they signaled that Egypt did not desire
war.24
   Once Nagib was removed from power in November 1954, Israeli atten-
tion focused on his successor, Nasser. To become acquainted with his world-
view, his booklet, The Philosophy of the Revolution (written by Muhammad
Hasanayn Haykal), was translated by Israeli Military Intelligence in No-
vember 1954 and released to the press in December. In this booklet, it was
Nasser's conceptualization of Egypt's leadership role in three circles-the
Arab, the African, and the Islamic-that became the focus of interest. The
simplistic interpretation in Israel (and in the West generally) was that Egypt
was bent on attaining hegemony in these spheres. It was believed that the
evacuation of British forces from Suez in the wake of the signing of the
Anglo-Egyptian Agreement in July 1954 would allow Egypt greater room
for maneuver to realize its ambitions. In addition, it was believed that Israel
constituted the stumbling block to Egypt's aspirations.
   Ben-Gurion read the booklet-he referred to it as a "notebook"-during
1955, as evidenced by his frequent references to it in his diary thereafter.
Years later, in an interview after Nasser's death in 1970, Ben-Gurion empha-
sized that he had read the booklet many times. "In order to better under-
stand the intentions [of Nasser]," he said, "I made sure that I always kept the
book with me. "25 Attributing great importance to the written word, Ben-
Gurion assumed that Philosophy truly reflected Nasser's worldview, consti-
tuting an operative political program as well.
   A typical reference to Philosophy was made by Ben-Gurion at the Knesset
in January 1956. He noted that the Egyptian "dictator" published a pam-
phlet that revealed his ambitions openly: to lead the Arab nation, to become
the leader of the Islamic nations, and to be the spokesman of the African
continent. During the ensuing discussion, Ben-Gurion quoted the passages
in the booklet in which Nasser describes his experience in the 1948 war and
the connection of Palestine with the Arab world. Ben-Gurion's conclusion
was that "the ambition to destroy Israel is planted deep in Nasser's heart and
is a cornerstone of his nationalist viewpoint."26 A careful reading of Philoso-
phy would substantiate that this assertion was derived not from the actual
text but from Ben-Gurion's interpretation of it.
   Meanwhile, in 1954, secret contacts were held between Israel and Egypt
focusing on two points: the release of an Israeli ship, detained by Egypt while
trying to pass through the Suez Canal in September 1954, and the preven-
tion of death sentences for a group of Egyptian Jews found guilty of spying
for Israel in an incident in July 1954 (an affair known as the "Mishap").





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 77


These requests were delivered to Nasser in a secret letter, which was phrased
in a highly moderate tone by Prime Minister Sharett.27 In response, Nasser
promised to release the ship's crew and ensure a fair trial for the defendants.
With this, the Western mediators who met with Nasser were of the opinion
that the Egyptian regime would prevent the handing down of death sen-
tences.28
   A turning point in the Israeli position toward the Egyptian ruler occurred
in the wake of the trial. News was received on January 27, 1955, that two of
the defendants had been sentenced to death and others to long prison terms,
eliciting shock and disappointment in Israel. Gideon Rafael, the Foreign
Ministry official in charge of efforts to save the defendants, believed that
Nasser had purposely deceived all the mediators. Sharett's reaction, how-
ever, was more restrained.29 Although Sharett continued his dialogue with
Nasser throughout his term as prime minister, in June 1955 he wrote in his
diary: "We have lost our faith in him as a result of the hangings."30
   A further hardening of Israel's stance toward Nasser occurred during the
first half of 1955 in the wake of infiltration from the Egyptian border, acts
of sabotage and murder. The Israeli assumption was that the Egyptian au-
thorities could prevent such acts if they so desired. Israeli retaliation, and
especially the Gaza operation of February 28, 1955, which resulted in the
death of thirty-seven Egyptians, was aimed at deterring Egypt from encour-
aging such infiltration. In practice, Israeli policy caused the deterioration of
the military situation and the perpetuation of a vicious circle in which each
side in the conflict viewed with suspicion the other side's protestations of
peace, conveyed through the secret contacts between the two states until
1954. The Gaza operation appears to have drastically altered Nasser's per-
ception of the possibility of solving the conflict with Israel.31 Sharett, too,
thought, at least retrospectively, that the Gaza operation damaged the pos-
sibility of concrete talks with Nasser.32
   In contrast to Sharett's moderation, Ben-Gurion and Chief of Staff Moshe
Dayan were markedly suspicious, advocating an activist policy against the
Egyptian ruler. In a debate on the necessity for a retaliatory move, Ben-
Gurion pointed to Nasser's "crimes": "He must be taught a lesson again and
again-either he does what is imposed on him or he is brought down. He can
certainly be toppled and it would be a mitzva [good deed] to do so. Who is
he, anyhow, this Nasser Shmasser?"33 Sharett, in contrast, had a different
interpretation: He thought that Israel's retaliatory acts damaged the Egyp-
tian self-image, weakened the regime internally, and hurt its attempt to ac-
quire a leadership position in the Arab world. Nasser's moves, in short, were
a reaction to the steps taken by Israel rather than aggression against it.34
   The negative image of Nasser in Israel (and in the West generally) was





78 | Elie Podeh


further reinforced during the first half of 1955 by his neutral stance in the
Cold War, which was interpreted as a pro-Soviet position. For example, his
vigorous opposition to the pro-West Baghdad Pact was depicted as an anti-
Western step, although in actuality it stemmed from inter-Arab rivalries.35
Two other steps that strengthened Nasser's anti-Western image were his
participation in the nonaligned conference in Bandung (April 1955) and
Egypt's recognition of the People's Republic of China (May 1955). The fact
that Israel was not invited to take part in the Bandung conference, as against
Nasser's prominent role in it, constituted further evidence, in Israel's percep-
tion, of his true nature.36
   Yet the event that fixed Nasser's negative image in Israel and in the West
was Egypt's Czech arms deal in September 1955. Israel was alarmed by the
deal, which totally altered the regional balance of power while also giving
the USSR a significant foothold in the Middle East. Gideon Rafael, in an
immediate response to Foreign Minister Sharett, wrote: "The Arab world
must be taught the lesson that anyone who enters into an alliance with the
devil is destined to end up in hell. If this act deters Nasser, well and good; if
he is toppled-no matter. Nasser has proven himself as someone who col-
lects advances without producing the promised goods."37 This message sug-
gests a patronizing attitude toward a rebellious child who violates his mas-
ter. For Rafael, who had lost faith in Nasser in the wake of the trial in Cairo,
the arms deal further reinforced his aggressive and untrustworthy image.
   Israel's fear was clearly reflected in the intensive debates carried on in the
Knesset, the government, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Commit-
tee, and the public generally. Ben-Gurion, Dayan, Mosad head Isser Harel,
and many other figures in both the coalition and the opposition began pre-
paring the public for the possibility of a preventive war or a more limited
military campaign against Egypt. Some even thought that the elimination of
Nasser was necessary.38 The fear engendered by the arms deal led to the
invoking of images and analogies from recent Jewish history. Introducing
the new government in the Knesset in November 1955, Ben-Gurion said:
   I cannot pass over in silence the serious and potentially dangerous
   thing that the Czechoslovakian government calls a "business transac-
   tion." ... The rulers of Egypt are buying these arms with one goal only:
   to uproot the State of Israel and its people.... The head of the ruling
   military faction in Cairo has announced that its war is aimed not only
   against Israel but against world Jewry and against Jewish finance
   which rules the United States. This kind of talk is known to us from
   Hitler's day [my emphasis], and it is highly mystifying that the Czecho-
   slovakian government in particular is ignoring the Nazi dogma that is
   being sounded anew on the banks of the Nile. . .. There is a duty to





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 79


   inform all the aggressors of the world. .. [that] the Jewish people in its
   land will not be as sheep to the slaughter.... Not many nations fight
   for their freedom and their existence. What Hitler did to six million
   helpless Jews in Europe will not be done by any enemy of Israel to the
   free Jews rooted in their homeland.39

   Similar images and analogies were invoked by spokesmen of various po-
litical factions in extensive political debates in the Knesset during the first
week of January 1956.40 Sharett, however, offered a different interpretation.
He claimed that the deal aimed to cover up Nasser's military defeats in the
Israeli operations, enhance his bargaining position with the Western powers,
and stabilize his seniority in the Arab world. Personally, Sharett argued,
Nasser could not be called a dictator, as his dictatorship could not be com-
pared to that of Stalin, Hitler, or Mussolini.4' Although Sharett acknowl-
edged that the deal was a new "trouble," he emphasized that the quest for
peace must not be stopped. But Sharett's faith in Nasser, too, was waning.42
   The worsening of Israeli-Egyptian relations prompted the United States
to embark on a secret mediation initiative through envoy Robert Anderson,
which lasted from December 1955 to March 1956. In preparation for these
talks, Israel's Foreign Ministry drew up several documents about Nasser's
personality and the history of Israeli-Egyptian contacts between 1949 and
1955. Gideon Rafael, who was in charge of these contacts, outlined a profile
of Nasser, his objectives, and his methods:

   Nasser's character is marked by a strong conspiratorial streak, formed
   over the long period of his political underground activity. His political
   stature grew considerably after his first appearance on the interna-
   tional stage at the Bandung conference, where he acquired foreign
   experience and acquired personal esteem. His success reached a high
   mark with the Czech arms deal, which raised his prestige in the Arab
   countries and established him as an international figure to be reckoned
   with. Nasser's political tactics are intricate and flexible. He switches
   from moderation to extremism by cool, unemotional calculation. In
   his struggle with Britain and his fight against Israel, he uses alternately
   moderation and extremism, violence and appeasement in accordance
   with the tactical needs of the hour. The amount of force he is ready to
   use is adjusted to his immediate objective. He tries to avoid tests of
   strength for which he is not yet prepared. His method is to demand an
   advance for any action he is asked to undertake, carefully avoiding to
   commit himself explicitly to defray the payment. He generally formu-
   lates his assurances in a noncommittal way: "If you will cease to do so
   and so and if you grant me this and that, I will be in a better position





80 | Elie Podeh


   to do what you expect from me." He displays an astonishing talent for
   inventing pretexts when asked to fulfill his undertakings. His system of
   dodging obligations is remarkably cunning. The right way to deal with
   Nasser is to put his promises, big or small, to the test of performance.43

   Rafael's description seems to be tainted by the negative image he had of
the Egyptian leader in the wake of the trial in Cairo and the Czech arms
deal. This document is important because it provided some background on
Nasser for the decision makers.
   Ben-Gurion, in talks with Anderson, reiterated his fear that Egypt would
initiate a war against Israel as soon as it attained sufficient capability. In such
a situation, he claimed, little Israel would face the entire Arab world (40
million), aided by the Soviet Union. During these talks, Ben-Gurion empha-
sized that "the facts are not consistent with a desire for peace" on Nasser's
part. Trying to step into the Egyptian's shoes, Ben-Gurion said, leads him to
"doubt Nasser's real desire for peace because he could come to the conclu-
sion that annihilating Israel is possible." The recurring motif in all Ben-
Gurion's talks with Anderson about Nasser is mistrust. Sharett, too, did not
believe in Nasser's good faith, believing that Egypt was capable of starting a
war or staging a provocation that would ultimately result in the outbreak of
war.44 Channels of communication thus closed down, with little chance for
information that conflicted with the existing images to filter through. Ap-
parently, Anderson's mission reinforced the negative images that had coa-
lesced beforehand and even blurred the differences between Ben-Gurion
and Sharett regarding the Egyptian regime. Sharett's resignation from the
government in June 1956, therefore, did not signify the disappearance of
an important viewpoint in Israeli policy; that viewpoint simply no longer
existed. Golda Meir, whose worldview and images largely resembled Ben-
Gurion's, replaced Sharett.45
   The negative image of Nasser was reflected, too, in somber descriptions
of the Egyptian regime. It was presented no longer as progressive or revolu-
tionary but as a corrupt dictatorship. The new ruling elite was often de-
scribed as a gang (knufiyya), and Nasser was labeled a dictator (rodan)-a
term that became idiomatic for Israeli statesmen and the media in emphasiz-
ing the superiority of Israeli democracy over the Egyptian dictatorship. In
addition, Nasser's military rank during the revolution-colonel-was used
extensively with the aim of deriding his status and emphasizing the illegiti-
mate nature of the regime, which came to power by coup and not by demo-
cratic means. A typical depiction of Israel's perception of the Egyptian re-
gime appears in a speech by Ben-Gurion in early 1956:

   A revolt took place in Egypt.... Several military figures took control
   of the regime. Their intent at first might have been perceived as chang-





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 81


   ing the condition of the Egyptian people. There is no nation in the
   world where illness and ignorance are so shocking as in Egypt.... Yet
   this man announced publicly that his intention was that Egypt shall
   head all the Arab nations, lead the Muslim world, and hold hegemony
   over the entire African continent. If so, there are two ways to accom-
   plish this: the long and difficult way, by correcting the wretched situa-
   tion in Egypt ... or a second way, by external conquests and war with
   those whom the Arab nations hate-a war with Israel. The rulers of
   Egypt have chosen the second way.46

   Nasser's decision in July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal Company
provided the final reinforcement of his negative image in Israel; it served as
the ultimate "proof" of his aggressive ambitions. In the Israeli perception
(which largely mirrored the Western perception), taking control of the Suez
Canal was part of Egypt's broader plan to take control of the oil fields,
whose importance was highlighted in The Philosophy of the Revolution.
Nasser's nationalization move, in this perception, would aid him in achiev-
ing hegemony in the Arab and Islamic circles.47 The press, too, as an unoffi-
cial arm of the government, reflected the prevailing opinion of Nasser. The
seizure of the canal was interpreted as an attempt to conquer a "living
space" stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. If he suc-
ceeded, the press warned, he would "continue to weave his expansionist
designs toward Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, which will facilitate the encirclement
of Israel. And no force will then be able to prevent him from executing the
rest of his plan to create the Egyptian Empire. "48
   This description implicitly suggests a comparison to Nazi ideology (living
space = lebensraum). This analogy is not surprising in light of the frequent
use by statesmen in Israel and the West of analogies to Mussolini and Hitler
in describing Nasser's behavior.49 For Ben-Gurion and other leaders who had
experienced the events of World War II, this comparison was immediate and
self-evident. The use of these terms engendered a delegitimation and dehu-
manization of the enemy, thereby laying the groundwork for the use of force
against the Egyptian ruler. Israel had long wanted to overthrow and perhaps
even eliminate him. The nationalization of the Suez Canal Company simply
provided a convenient pretext for Ben-Gurion and his supporters to route
him.50
   While the 1956 Suez War ended with substantial gains for Israel, Nasser's
regime survived. His political victory turned him into the recognized leader
of the Arab world, with Pan-Arabism becoming the most prominent ideol-
ogy. These developments symbolized the transition of the Israel-Arab con-
flict into a more radical phase, at least on the rhetorical level. The conflict
had three aspects: a personal rivalry between Nasser and Be-uin5 an





82 | Elie Podeh


ideological struggle between Egypt's anti-West and Israel's pro-West percep-
tions and between Egypt's Pan-Arabism and Israel's fear of remained "be-
sieged" in an Arab "sea," and a political struggle between Egypt's quest for
hegemony in the Arab world and Israel's quest for recognition as a player in
the Middle Eastern arena. Each side's image of the other in all three aspects
played an important role in the exacerbation of the conflict.
   The nationalization and the war fixed Nasser's image in Israel. Particu-
larly instructive was the reflection of this image in a document drawn up
by Ben-Gurion outlining Israel's propaganda campaign. He emphasized
the danger of a Soviet takeover of the Middle East through the Egyptian
"dictator" and the Syrian president. If this takeover were not stopped soon
by the overthrow of both rulers, Ben-Gurion wrote, "the entire African con-
tinent [would] fall into the hands of the Soviets in the near future." The
Egyptian regime was described as "a fascist military dictatorship, which
oppresses and impoverishes the Egyptian people in order to establish an
inflated military force." The regime "inflames Muslim religious and Arab
racist instincts in order to carry out expansionist ambitions to control the
entire Muslim world," as described in The Philosophy of the Revolution.
This booklet, Ben-Gurion asserted, "constitutes a kind of Mein Kampf of the
Egyptian dictator." Inasmuch as the Egyptian regime cooperated with the
Soviet Union, "any pretense of friendship toward the West is nothing but a
deception." The last point of the document stated that while forces opposed
to Nasser exist in the Arab world, "they need active assistance from the free
world in order to get rid of these two malignant persons."52 The document
can be viewed as a formal expression of the diabolical and threatening image
of Nasser in the eyes of the decision-making elite in Israel, an image that was
not to change significantly until the day he died.


The Heyday of Nasserism

In early 1957 a perception emerged of Nasser as representing a broader phe-
nomenon, dubbed "Nasserism," which constituted a threat to the Western
countries and Israel and therefore should be eliminated.53 The use of the
term Nasserism, widely adopted in the West, was not surprising, for Nasser's
persona played the central role in this movement. So prominent was this
persona that events unrelated to him were mistakenly attributed to him.
Moreover, Nasserism and communism, from Israel's point of view, comple-
mented one another.
   A major event that reinforced the aggressive image of the Egyptian leader
was the formation of the United Arab Republic-the unification of Egypt
and Syria-on February 1, 1958. The Foreign Ministry viewed the unifica-
tion as "the beginning of the fulfillment of Nasser's vision of an Arab empire





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 83


signifying one nation, one government, and one leader-Nasser.... We view
this as grave . . . due to the reinforcement it gives Nasser militarily and the
tension it creates in the region as a consequence of the pressure that will
emerge against the pro-Arab governments."54 Ben-Gurion and Foreign Min-
ister Golda Meir at the Knesset and the Labor Party meeting presented the
same approach. Their mistrust of the Soviet Union and of Nasser was so
deep that they were convinced that the unification was the product of an
Egyptian-Soviet scheme.55 With the formation of the UAR, the fear that a
charismatic leader of the caliber of Bismarck or Ataturk would unify the
Arabs appeared to be coming true in the form of Nasser.
   The "aggressive" perception of the unification was echoed in the Israeli
press and in the Western press translated into Hebrew. The UAR was seen as
the realization of Nasser's vision of an Arab empire, as outlined in The
Philosophy of the Revolution, the parallel version by the Egyptian dictator
of Hitler's Mein Kampf. The press made frequent use of the term Anschluss,
identified in the Western collective memory with the annexation of Austria
by Hitler, in order to describe Egypt's domination over Syria.56 Moreover, an
editorial in the respected Ha'aretz viewed the unification as a first step on
the road to the capture of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the other major
oil states under the leadership of Nasser.57 This position clearly reflected the
thinking of the Foreign Ministry and the decision-making elite.58
   Five months later, the military coup in Iraq came as a shock to Israeli
decision makers; they were convinced that Nasser was behind it. The "fall"
of Iraq was perceived as especially menacing because it was regarded as a
major bastion of the West. Moreover, the Hashemite dynasty and Prime
Minister Nuri al-Sa'id were perceived as natural allies of the West vis-a-vis
Nasser's Pan-Arab trend. The fact that a large and strong country like Iraq
had ostensibly "fallen" into Nasserist hands must serve as a warning to the
weaker Arab states-Jordan and Lebanon. The threat was especially grave
in light of the perception of Jordan as an artificial state, unstable and based
to a large extent on King Husayn, while Lebanon was caught up, since May,
in a civil war that threatened to alter the political structure and its Western
orientation.
   "At 7 a.m.," wrote Ben-Gurion in his diary, "a thunderbolt struck via the
radio: a coup in Iraq." That evening, he summoned the heads of the secu-
rity establishment in order to discuss the implications for Israel. The head
of the military intelligence believed that the speed of the act "proved the
existence of a well-organized link with the UAR." In his view, the restoration
of the previous regime was impossible, and the coup, therefore, was liable to
influence all the Arab countries. He concluded that "the UAR now controls
not only the transport of oil but its sources as well. The emirates on the
Persian shore will certainly be among the vanquished." A decision was made





84 | Elie Podeh


to take diplomatic steps, clarifying to the United States that "in light of the
danger of the conquest of the entire Middle East, including Sudan, Saudi
Arabia, and Libya, and the penetration of the Soviets, Persia and Turkey
must be activated to suppress the revolutionaries in Iraq." At the same time,
supreme efforts would be made to obtain heavy armaments, aircraft, and
submarines.59 At a Knesset committee Ben-Gurion viewed the coup as "the
gravest development [in the region] since World War II." His analysis was
especially pessimistic and without illusions, for "all the Arab states will be in
Nasser's hands soon." Ben-Gurion viewed the developments in the Arab
East as a clear parallel to Hitler:
   What happened with Nasser happened with Hitler.. .. No one paid
   attention that Hitler had already stated what he wanted. It was all in
   his book, the methods too. Hitler told the truth. No one believed him
   when he said it. The same is true for Nasser. Nasser put his cards on the
   table. He clearly stated what he wants in his booklet The Philosophy of
   the Revolution. He wants three things: He wants to be the ruler of the
   Arab nations, to be the head of Islam, and to be the dictator of the
   African continent. And he goes about this step by step. All that I have
   heard about him shows that he is not a fool, he is cunning as a snake.
   He knows how to speak to each person in his own language. If a paci-
   fist, then Nasser becomes a total pacifist in his discussion with him. If
   he speaks with someone from the East, he will be a man of the East. If
   he speaks with a neutralist, he will be a neutralist.60
   Foreign Minister Meir viewed the coup in Iraq as a scheme carefully and
skillfully planned by the Egyptians. Her mistrust of Nasser was total: "In
no way do I believe that Nasser is prepared to let us stay alive."61 Using the
same analogies used by Ben-Gurion, Meir emphasized that as Hitler was
not satisfied after getting Austria and Czechoslovakia, so Nasser would
not be satisfied with Iraq and Lebanon: "Nasser's ambitions are broader,
and he won't stop attempting additional conquests until he gets everything
he wants."62
   The American and British decision to dispatch military forces both to
Lebanon and Jordan naturally evoked satisfaction in Israel, which tried to
extract political and military gains from granting air passage to planes
bound for Jordan. Capitalizing on these events, Israel launched a propa-
ganda campaign, which compared Nasserism and Hitler's nationalism. In
order to illuminate this link, information was disseminated comparing the
aspirations and methods of Nasserism with "Hitlerism."63 Though this
analogy served propaganda purposes, it genuinely reflected a sincere Is-
raeli fear of encirclement. In a closed session of the ruling Mapai Party,
Ben-Gurion said:





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 85


   At this moment, there is a focus for the natural and justified, as well as
   for the unjustified (expansion and repression) national aspirations [of
   the Arabs], and that is Nasser. He has already succeeded in unifying
   two countries.... But not only has he united two states, he has become
   the hope for the unity in the entire Arab world. And one of its deter-
   mined goals is the annihilation of Israel. There is no more committed
   or profound enemy of the existence of Israel in the entire Arab world
   than Nasser.... What he says is not very different from what Musso-
   lini said and not entirely different even from what Hitler said, at least
   in relation to Israel and the Jews. . . . Not only this, but our security
   situation has become graver.... It is not outside the realm of possibility
   that Nasser will take control not only of Iraq but also of Jordan, Saudi
   Arabia, and perhaps Lebanon, so that we are liable to find ourselves
   surrounded not only by a number of enemies, as we have been all these
   years ... but by a single enemy headed by a military dictatorship whose
   aim is to establish a large empire that will control the entire Arab
   world, the entire Muslim world, and the entire African continent, and
   toward this end-in time-annihilate Israel.64

   An examination of Ben-Gurion's diary during this period shows that his
negative perception of Nasser and the Arabs was ingrained and unshak-
able, as reflected in three meetings he held with Western diplomats who
attempted to mediate between him and the Egyptian president. Their claims
that Nasser was a moderate Arab leader, capable of negotiating with Israel,
was quickly brushed aside by Ben-Gurion since he thought that Nasser was
untrustworthy and unreliable.65
   The Israeli perception of Nasser and Nasserism was shaped also by The
Philosophy of the Revolution, which was widely circulated beginning in
1958. Particularly important was the attached postscript written by Ben-
jamin Eliav, reflecting a common Israeli perception of Nasser and Nasser-
ism. Eliav emphasized the role of Egypt in the Arab circle, which he called "a
special, Nasser-style imperialism" that stemmed from the high rate of natu-
ral increase in Egypt, impelling "migration to the barren expanses of the
other Arab countries or a takeover of the sources of oil." In his analysis,
Egypt favored attaining its lebensraum through conquest, a product of the
"hollow pride of a Levantine-style professional officers' corps, hatred of
strangers and unbelievers, unacknowledged feelings of inferiority toward
the West and the Christian world, and perhaps also the defeat in Palestine,
which called for revenge." Eliav claimed that the idea of lebensraum "was
fashioned by the Nazi German advisors who were based in Cairo before the
coup and who also sought a release for [their] hatred of the West and hatred
for Israel." In any event, he wrote, Nasser's ideological program and propa-





86 | Elie Podeh


ganda techniques highly resembled Nazi Germany. Nasser's goal was de-
scribed as the conquest of the three spheres by means of Soviet aid. The UAR
was perceived as the nucleus of Arab unity from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Arab Gulf, which aimed to erase Lebanon, Israel, and Somalia. According to
Eliav's interpretation, Israel was a "geographic wedge that must be elimi-
nated physically as a condition for Egypt's takeover of the oil states and the
barren expanses of the Arab states in Asia." In his view, Nasser was trying to
play the role that Prussia played in unifying Germany, but he more re-
sembled Peron, for the Arab world, like Latin America, was a conglomerate
of varied and separate peoples. In actuality, however, due to geographic and
demographic factors, Nasser resembled Hitler most of all. In summary, Eliav
wrote, Israeli cooperation with the Arab world was conceivable, yet "not
[with] the Nasserist [world], which pursue[d] a vain imperialist dream."66

The Decline of Nasserism

The dismantling of the UAR in September 1961 and Egyptian involvement
in Yemen in September 1962 signaled the beginning of the decline of Nasser-
ism. Still, even when the Nasserist threat was ostensibly reduced, the Israeli
decision makers continued to evaluate reality in terms of the old images. The
reaction to the Tripartite Federation is a case in point. In February 1963, a
group of Iraqi army officers who supported the Ba'th Party, under the lead-
ership of 'Abd al-Salam 'Arif, took over the regime. A month later, a similar
coup took place in Syria, bringing the Ba'th Party into power in Syria for the
first time. The ascendance of two Ba'th regimes, both of which supported
Arab unity ideologically and lacked legitimacy, revived the idea of unifying
with Egypt. Intensive contacts between the three countries culminated in the
Cairo Declaration of April 17, 1963, announcing the intention to establish
a tripartite federation at the end of a twenty-month transition period. The
contacts between the three, however, soon foundered due to lack of trust
between Nasser and the Syrian Ba'th. Israel, however, continued to perceive
reality in the context of its old images of Nasser and Nasserism, which were
entrenched further during the period of the efforts to form the federation.
Israel laid particular emphasis on the explicitly stated intention in the Cairo
Declaration of liberating the Arab homeland from the Zionist danger.67
   In early May, as the federation project seemed deadlocked, Israel's fears
remained as potent as ever. Ben-Gurion, in an unusual step, decided to send
a series of personal letters to "all the heads of state in the world" maintain-
ing diplomatic relations with Israel so as to alert them to the danger facing
the country. The letter emphasized that "this is the first time in our genera-
tion that a constitutional document by three states designates the annihila-
tion of Israel as one of the primary, and perhaps the primary goal of the





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 87


unification of Arab armies." It highlighted that in contrast to Israel's quest
for peace, as stated in its Proclamation of Independence, "the aspiration to
annihilate Israel has been harbored by the Arab rulers ever since the reestab-
lishment of the State of Israel." Emphasizing the force of the Arab threat,
Ben-Gurion made use of the familiar analogy of the Holocaust:

   Forty years ago, the Nazi ruler of Germany, Adolf Hitler, declared that
   one of the goals of his National-Socialist movement was to wipe out all
   the Jewish people in the world. The civilized world received this state-
   ment with equanimity and indifference perhaps because it was consid-
   ered a demagogic posture. In World War II, when Hitler temporarily
   conquered most of Europe, he exterminated 6 million Jews. The rulers
   of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq perhaps do not know that the [Jewish] people
   in Israel do not stand in the same desperate and helpless situation that
   millions of Jews were in [in] the Nazi-occupied lands. The "liberation
   of Palestine" means, therefore, a horrific bloody war that could spread
   inestimably.68

   At the same time, addressing the Knesset on the occasion of Israel's elev-
enth anniversary on May 6, Ben-Gurion repeated, almost verbatim, all of
the arguments appearing in the letter. Moreover, the English version of the
speech was sent to all Israeli foreign legations for propaganda (hasbara)
purposes.69 A month later, members of the ruling Mapai Party heard from
Ben-Gurion a similar expose. But he was not alone. In the main address
delivered by Foreign Minister Meir, she said of Nasser:

   We are [only] one state with a little more than two million people.
   Against us, and I'm talking only of the Arab world, there are many
   states and tens of millions of people.... In my opinion, one of the most
   serious problems that we face is the question of how we assess Nasser.
   ... He has imperialist ambitions even if this is called "unification."
   This [the federation] is in fact an attempt to dominate Syria and Iraq.
   ... We hear threats against Israel day after day, every hour, and they
   have become a major theme in what will be the constitution of the
   Arab federation. . . . It has been said that unification is a necessary
   revolution, but for what? ... It is a necessary revolution for a very
   "sacred" mission called "the liberation of Palestine," that is, throwing
   Israel into the sea. Seemingly, every friend and any person should be
   shocked. How can things like this be said in public? There is an ele-
   ment of escapism when we are told: "These are mere words. What do
   you care? He has said many times before that he wants to destroy you,
   so why get excited? Even if it is a serious and formal document [the 17
   April declaration], you know that it is not important and not serious."





88 | Elie Podeh


   We must not cease explaining the naked truth: Nasser has a dispute not
   only with Israel.... No Arab state can sleep calmly, and none is free of
   the shadow of Nasser and his aspirations for domination hovering
   over it.70
   On 16 June, Ben-Gurion suddenly decided to resign. Eight days later, Levi
Eshkol presented a new government that was essentially a continuation of
the previous one. In essence, Eshkol's nomination as prime minister did not
bring any noteworthy change in the Israeli image of Nasser and Nasserism.
True, Eshkol tended to express a more balanced and moderate position re-
garding the conflict. But like Ben-Gurion, he viewed the Arabs through the
prism of the Second Aliyah: He believed that the Jews would rescue the
Arabs from their backwardness; saw the Arabs as a united world; lacked
knowledge about their culture; and feared an eventual total destruction at
their hands. Eshkol's personal memories of the pogroms in Russia and the
Holocaust served as the main screens through which reality was filtered. He
viewed the work of German missile scientists in Egypt, the attempts to divert
the Jordan River, the Arab summits' anti-Israeli resolutions, and the Pales-
tinian guerilla infiltration as attempts to annihilate Israel. Nasser was seen as
a Hitler-type ruler bent on putting the Arab world under Egyptian hege-
mony. Eshkol interpreted the fact that the years 1964-66 were relatively
calm in military terms as justification for a quiet and massive preparation on
the part of the Arabs for the final showdown against Israel. Thus, in spite of
his known political moderation, no major differences existed between his
and Ben-Gurion's images of Nasser.71 The fact that many figures who sur-
rounded Ben-Gurion remained in Eshkol's government meant that the gen-
eral negative perception of Nasser and Nasserism hardly changed.72
   Nasser's image of an untrustworthy leader discouraged Eshkol from re-
sponding favorably to the peaceful feelers transmitted to him by a high
Egyptian official through Meir Amit, head of the Israeli Mossad, in February
1966. Although Eshkol was not initially averse to the offer, he was per-
suaded by Isser Harel, the previous head of the Mossad, and other politi-
cians to treat it with skepticism and suspicion because of Nasser's known
duplicity.73
   In late 1966, Nasser's stature declined significantly. Eshkol told party
members, "I think it is possible to say that the Nasser of today is not the
same Nasser of the previous years in the Arab as well as in the world eyes.
... If we compare between Nasser's statements published in his notebook
[Philosophy]-to be the leader of the African world, Asia [sic], and the Ar-
abs-and his current position, we will have a true picture of the Egyptian
ruler's position today."74 This thinking, however, did not lead to a change in
the Israeli assessment that Nasser and the Arab world were still basically





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 89


aligned to annihilate Israel.75 Unsurprisingly, therefore, the May-June crisis
in 1967 was interpreted in this context, igniting old images. When, on May
26, Nasser called for "the destruction of Israel," the Foreign Ministry in-
structed its legations to make use of his speech and to emphasize the follow-
ing points: "1. His [Nasser's] announcement of his intention to destroy a
people constitutes additional testimony to Nasser as a disciple of Hitler; 2.
To denounce the Nasser-Soviet Union collusion-the reincarnation of the
Hitler-Stalin pact. Like Hitler, Nasser reconfigures socialism. Then, Stalin
accused England and France of aggression against Hitler, just as today they
sully Israel as aggressive."76
   With the intensification of the Egyptian threats, the Foreign Ministry
continued instructing its representatives to maintain an aggressive line:
"Nasser's image [should be portrayed] as the Hitler of the Nile who has
always sought hegemony in the Middle East. To fulfill this goal: 1. He was
prepared to make use of the experience of Nazis and to be aided by war
criminals; 2. He disseminated Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders
of Zion in Arabic translation, as well as varied anti-Jewish literature; 3. He
openly announces his intention to annihilate Israel."77
   Similar ideas appeared in Foreign Ministry guidelines regarding the pub-
lishing of articles in the Western press. These instructions included:

   1. If the United States does not stand behind its word, we will face a
   new Munich. The only difference between Hitler and Nasser is that
   the former claimed, after each victory, that he has no further claims,
   while Nasser says explicitly that his goal is the annihilation of Israel.
   The events of the past two weeks have proven without a doubt that
   Nasser's declarations should be treated with the utmost seriousness
   and must not be dismissed as mere words, as was done at the time
   regarding Hitler. 2. The attempts to find compromises are nothing but
   illusions whose outcome is liable to resemble Memel, Danzig, Czecho-
   slovakia, Austria, etc. 3. Israel, it should be strongly emphasized, does
   not and will not agree to be Czechoslovakia, even if the Western pow-
   ers lean once again, as they have in the past, toward compromise.78

   Moreover, a message sent by Eshkol to President Johnson on the first day
of the war similarly emphasized the question of the annihilation of Israel and
invoked the memory of the Holocaust.79 All these communications must be
viewed as an additional tool in Israel's political warfare against Egypt at a
fateful moment, reflecting genuine fears of a besieged society. Yet the use of
such terminology and historical analogies attests to the existence of en-
trenched stereotypical images of the Egyptian leader within the Israeli deci-
sion-making elite.





90 I Elie Podeh


   In essence, the war did not alter the image of Nasser in Israel. What did
change was Israel's self-image in terms of its ability to face the Nasserist
threat. It was now clear that even if his goals did not change, their realization
would be postponed indefinitely. With Eshkol's death in March 1969, Golda
Meir was elected prime minister. Although she came to Israel in the Third
Aliyah (1921), she belonged to the Second Aliyah in terms of her worldview.
Like Ben-Gurion and other leaders from the same generation, Meir viewed
Nasser as Israel's most dangerous enemy. In her long career as foreign min-
ister, as we have seen above, she frequently expressed negative views of
Nasser-a reflection of her overall negative image of the Arabs.80 Thus, it
could hardly be expected that a radical change in her perception of Nasser
would be forthcoming during her premiership.
   On September 28, 1970, Nasser died of a heart attack. On that occasion,
the retired Ben-Gurion told a French correspondent that Nasser was "a very
talented person, very alert, . .. the best Arab statesman whom I met or whom
I faced." In his opinion, Nasser's greatest fault was that "he did not know
the boundary between reality and imagination. If he thought that something
was necessary, he did not hesitate to lie. He lied to his people, and that is the
gravest thing of all." The interview substantiated that Ben-Gurion's image of
Nasser as an Arab Ataturk guided by The Philosophy of the Revolution had
remained fixed in his mind until the very end of his life.81


Conclusions

Although the Israeli-Arab conflict has been extensively researched, the study
of images of the enemy in the decision-making process has largely been
neglected. Since images are formed on the basis of a subjective perception of
reality, the historian should not only seek facts and interpret them; he should
also investigate how these facts are perceived cognitively by the decision
makers. Although it is difficult to assess the exact impact of perceptions and
images on the decision-making process, it is generally accepted that they are
influential. This article concentrates on the analysis of images of the Arab
enemy as perceived by the Israeli decision-making elite, focusing on the im-
age of Nasser and Nasserism at the height of the Israeli-Arab conflict (1952-
70).
   Rethinking Nasserism in the Israeli context shows that beyond the "ob-
jective" academic attempts at interpreting this phenomenon, there exist sub-
jective interpretations that are a product of societal perceptions and images.
Although the hegemonic Israeli perception of Nasser and Nasserism had
emerged in a specific historical context, this perception was based not nec-
essarily on historical facts but on the way these facts were perceived and





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 91


interpreted by decision makers and bureaucrats and later transmitted to the
public through various state socialization agencies. Several conclusions
emerge from this study with regard to the way Israelis perceived Nasser and
Nasserism.
   First, the political elite's image of Nasser was nearly uniform. No signifi-
cant differences existed between the perceptions of the Right and the Left.
Although it may be claimed that the Right consistently presented a more
extreme stereotype of Nasser, it did share a common terminology with the
labor parties of the Left. Nasser's diabolical image within the Israeli elite
(and, as a result, within society at large) remained hegemonic throughout the
period under review. Only the radical left-a marginal group in Israeli poli-
tics and society-challenged the validity of these perceptions. This group of
intellectuals and politicians was organized around the monthly New Out-
look, but its impact upon the decision makers and the public was negli-
gible.82
   Within the Israeli political elite, Ben-Gurion contributed decisively to the
emergence of Nasser's diabolical image. The rise of Nasser as the spokesman
of the Pan-Arab movement at this particular juncture in history (the mid-
1950s) coincided with Ben-Gurion's deep-seated fears of the emergence of
an Arab Ataturk or Bismarck who would unite the Arabs. In an age in which
ideologies transformed societies and states, Ben-Gurion believed that a char-
ismatic leader might resurrect the Arab nation. Although theoretically he
could foresee the inevitability of this process, he feared that such a develop-
ment would have dire consequences for young Israel. With the escalation of
the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1950s, Ben-Gurion's image of Nasser hard-
ened and closed. Eventually, their mutual rivalry also assumed a personal
character, tinged by a sense of distrust.
   Nasser's negative image in Israel, however, was not acquired at the start
of his political career. Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, and to a certain
extent Ben-Gurion, viewed the rise to power of a young generation in Egypt
positively, hoping to find the army officers more moderate toward Israel
than the previous regime, which faced severe problems of legitimacy. How-
ever, the execution of two convicted Jews who were involved in the Mishap
and the Czech arms deal (both in 1955) entrenched the negative image of
Nasser in the Israeli decision-making elite. Even Sharett's moderation was
shaken in the aftermath of these events. Still, with his resignation in the
summer of 1956, the only politician capable of challenging this monolithic
perception disappeared from the political map.
   Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Foreign Minister Golda Meir were more
(Meir) or less (Eshkol) typical representatives of the Ben-Gurion school,
which tended to demonize Nasser and Nasserism. Not incidentally, the





92 | Elie Podeh


heads of the army, security, and intelligence apparatuses shared this rather
monolithic view of Nasser. Understandably, in a state mentally and physi-
cally under Arab siege, the heads of these institutions played an important
part in the decision-making process.
   Second, the decision-making elite's negative image of Nasser was trans-
ferred to the public through various agents of socialization, including the
press, radio, and the education system. Conceivably, this process led to the
creation of a largely uniform image of Nasser in Jewish society. The elite
succeeded in transmitting its worldview as a result of three factors. First, the
resemblance in the positions of the Right and the Left, in contrast to most
other political issues, delivered an unequivocal message to the public regard-
ing the "correct" stance about Nasser. Second, the media-which felt as a
legitimate tool of the elite-transmitted the elites' views. Third, the existence
of a deep sense of being isolated and under siege that accompanied the small
Jewish society ever since the establishment of the state of Israel magnified the
image of the enemy, which was menacing enough due to its vehement rheto-
ric and its military activities against Israel.83
   Third, the image of Nasser and Nasserism incorporated the use of sev-
eral historical analogies: Nasser was generally compared to Hitler, with
Mussolini, the Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni, and the biblical Amalek con-
stituting other important analogies. Nasser's Philosophy of the Revolution
was posited as paralleling Hitler's Mein Kampf, while the conciliatory policy
of the West toward Nasser was compared to the appeasement by Chamber-
lain before World War II. Wide use was made of "Munich 1938," signify-
ing Western appeasement; the use of this analogy was intended to signal
that the adoption of a conciliatory approach to Nasser's aggressive policy
would lead to a similar capitulation. In addition, frequent use was made of
the memory of the Holocaust. Since Hitler was perceived as the most ter-
rible enemy of all in the history of the Jewish people, and the Holocaust
was perceived as the greatest Jewish tragedy, the comparison with the Egyp-
tian ruler was intended to delegitimize and dehumanize him. The purpose of
this analogy, which would also be used in the future (e.g., for depicting
Yasser 'Arafat in the 1982 Lebanon War and Saddam Husayn during the
1990-91 Gulf War), was twofold: First, it lay the groundwork for the use
of force should this become necessary. Second, it entrenched the conviction
that the Jews in this conflict-just as in many other conflicts in the past-
were the victims of unjustified aggression. The use of these analogies was
not surprising because they were cognitively immediate: These episodes
took place only a decade or two before Nasser's era, with Israel's decision-
making generation having experienced that period personally, whether in
the concentration camps themselves or following the events helplessly from





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 93


outside. Similarly, Arab declarations of their intention to destroy Israel-
even if they constituted rhetoric only-were reminiscent of the declara-
tions of the Nazis.
   Fourth, this diabolical image of Nasser also affected the way in which
his regime was assessed. Within a short time, Nasser's image turned from
that of a progressive leader of young officers, bent on revolutionizing his
feudal society, to that of a dictator who was busy exploiting his people
while his social and economic reforms were serving the elite rather than the
masses. Moreover, his Arab policy was seen as part of Egypt's inevitable
drive for attaining its "living space" (lebensraum). Even developments tak-
ing place on the periphery of the Arab world were often mistakenly related
to Nasser.84
   Finally, this study substantiates the assumption that images do not often
change and that the receipt of new, contradictory information does not nec-
essarily alter them. New information received in Israel about Nasser, his
personality, and his actions-generally from a third party-did not lead
Israeli leaders to change their view of him. Aiming at reducing their cognitive
dissonance, they interpreted Nasser's statements and deeds in a way that
tended to confirm preexisting beliefs. Messages that could be interpreted
differently were often rejected or misinterpreted. In other words, the percep-
tion of Nasser by key decision makers was to a large extent "closed." As a
result, a largely uniform perception of Nasser emerged within the Israeli
political elite: aggressive, expansionist, despotic, and bent on destroying
Israel. This static perception of the enemy-termed "cognitive freezing"-
placed a barrier between Israel and Egypt that jeopardized chances for a
successful dialogue.85
   It is reasonable to assume that such images influenced the decision-mak-
ing process, although to what extent is difficult to assess, as many variables
affect this process. The historical narrative, however, seems to support the
assumption that the decision makers' images of Nasser and Nasserism influ-
enced their perception of reality, which, in turn, influenced how they arrived
at their decisions. With this, such a conclusion must be supported by further
research, both theoretical and empirical.
   The demonization of Nasser by the Israeli decision-making elite was not
necessarily a result of deliberate malice or folly. Rather, it stemmed from the
leaders' worldview and was strengthened by the harsh reality besetting Is-
rael. In this belligerent climate, which engulfed Israeli society during the
Nasserite period, it was hardly conceivable that other interpretations chal-
lenging the hegemonic perception would prevail. We may surmise-though
this should be substantiated by further academic research-that a similar
process of demonization occurred on the Egyptian side of the conflict. Thus,





94 I Elie Podeh


the "war of images" has probably been no less significant and real than the
actual "hot" war.


Notes

   1. For a definition of belief system, see Ole R. Holsti, "Cognitive Dynamics and
Images of the Enemy," in John C. Farrell and Asa P. Smith, eds., Image and Reality
in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 18.
   2. For definitions, see Michael Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of Israel: Set-
ting, Images, Process (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 1-12. See esp. his
research design on 4, fig. 2. See also Bruce Russett and Harvey Starr, World Politics:
A Menu for Choice, 5th ed. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1996), 246, 249; Robert R.
Holt and Brett Silverstein, "On the Psychology of Enemy Images: Introduction and
Overview," Journal of Social Issues 45, no. 2 (1989): 2; Alexander L. George, Presi-
dential Decisionmaking in Foreign Policy: The Effective Use of Information and
Advice (Boulder: Westview Press, 1980), chap. 3.
   3. Herbert C. Kelman, "Social-Psychological Approaches to the Study of Interna-
tional Relations," in Kelman, ed., International Behavior: A Social-Psychological
Analysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), 24. See also Karl W.
Deutsch and Richard L. Merritt, "Effects of Events on National and International
Images," in ibid., 133. Their definition is based on Kenneth Boulding's classic study,
The Image (Ann Arbor: University Press of Michigan, 1956), 5-6.
   4. Deutsch and Merritt, "Effects of Events," 134. Michael Brecher used the terms
image and perception interchangeably; see Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of
Israel, 252.
   5. George, Presidential Decisionmaking, 56-57. On "closed" and "open" im-
ages, see Milton Rokeach, The Open and Closed Mind: Investigations into the Na-
ture of Belief Systems and Personality Systems (New York: Basic Books, 1966), chap.
2; Russett and Starr, World Politics, 49; Holsti, "Cognitive Dynamics and Images of
the Enemy," 21.
   6. Deborah Larson, Origins of Containment: A Psychological Explanation (Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 51-52. For more on this theory, see Yaakov
Y. I. Vertzberger, The World in Their Minds: Information Processing, Cognition, and
Perception in Foreign Policy Decisionmaking (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1990), 157; Susan T. Fiske, "Schema-Based versus Piecemeal Politics: A Patchwork
Quilt, but Not a Blanket, of Evidence," in Richard R. Lau and David O. Sears, eds.,
Political Cognition (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1986), 41-65; Susan T. Fiske and P. W.
Linville, "What Does the Schema Concept Buy Us?" Personality and Social Psychol-
ogy Bulletin 6 (1980): 543-57; Deborah Larson, "The Role of Belief Systems and
Schemas in Foreign Policy Decision-Making," Political Psychology 15, no. 1 (1994):
17-33.
   7. Larson, Origins of Containment, 54. For more on analogies in world politics,
see Robert Beck, "Munich's Lessons Reconsidered," International Security 14, no. 2
(1989): 161-91; Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 95


Phu, and the Vietnam Decision of 1965 (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1992), 33-34.
   8. Russett and Starr, World Politics, 252. See also Brett Silverstein, "Enemy Im-
ages: The Psychology of U.S. Attitudes and Cognitions Regarding the Soviet Union,"
American Psychologist 44, no. 6 (June 1989): 903. For a theory of enemy images, see
Brett Silverstein and Catherine Flamenbaum, "Biases in the Perceptions and Cogni-
tions of the Actions of Enemies," Journal of Social Issues 45, no. 2 (1989): 53-54.
   9. See, e.g., Ralph K. White, "Images in the Context of International Conflict:
Soviet Perceptions of the U.S. and the USSR," in Kelman, ed., International Behavior,
255.
   10. Ralph K. White, Nobody Wanted War: Misperception in Vietnam and Other
Wars (New York: Doubleday, 1968), 267. Harumi Bafu cited two examples of
diabolism: the Western (and Israeli) perception of Nasser as a "megalomaniac"
leader of the Arabs with delusions of grandeur, and the Arab perception of Israel's
aggressive designs against the Arab world. See his "Demonizing the 'Other,"' in
Robert S. Wistrich, ed., Demonizing the Other: Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Xeno-
phobia (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1999), 26.
   11. See Richard K. Herrmann, "American Perceptions of Soviet Foreign Policy:
Reconsidering Three Competing Perspectives," Political Psychology 6, no. 3 (1985):
377-81.
   12. Frederich C. Barghoorn, The Soviet Image of the United States: A Study in
Distortion (New York: Harcourt, 1950); Urie Bronfenbrenner, "The Mirror Image in
Soviet-American Relations: A Social Psychologist's Report," Journal of Social Issues
17, no. 3 (1961): 45-56; Sewerym Bialer, "The Psychology of U.S.-Soviet Rela-
tions," Political Psychology 6, no. 3 (1985): 263-74; Cheichiro Yatani and Dana
Bramel, "Trends and Patterns in Americans' Attitudes toward the Soviet Union,"
Journal of Social Issues 45, no. 2 (1989): 13-32.
   13. See, e.g., Silverstein, "Enemy Images," 910; Ralph K. White, Fearful War-
riors: A Psychological Profile of U.S.-Soviet Relations (New York: Free Press, 1984),
115, 129, 152-53. See esp. Ralph K. White, "Misperception in the Arab-Israeli Con-
flict," Journal of Social Issues 33, no. 1 (1977): 190-221. He attempted to apply
certain universal psychological patterns of conflicts to the Arab-Israeli conflict, such
as the diabolical-enemy image, the moral self-image, absence of empathy, and non-
perception of situational factors influencing the enemy's behavior. Since White's re-
search is limited in scope, some of his generalizations do not rest on solid ground.
Moreover, his attempt to judge the validity of Arab and Israeli positions by differen-
tiating between "what seems more true and what seems less true in the perceptions
on each side" (213) is bound to raise doubts about his capability as an impartial
observer.
   14. Daniel Heradstveit, Arab and Israeli Elite Perceptions (Oslo: Universitets-
forlaget, 1974), 22-23, 51-67, 102-4. See also Heradstveit, The Arab-Israeli Con-
flict: Psychological Obstacles to Peace (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1979), 62.
   15. Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of Israel, 552.
   16. Ibid., 565.
   17. Based on the early works of Karl Jung, Gustav Le Bon, and Sigmund Freud,





96 I Elie Podeh


Bar-Tal argued that individuals who live in groups hold common beliefs that define
their reality, not only as individuals but also as group members. Such reality becomes
especially important when group members become aware that they share it. See
Daniel Bar-Tal, "American Convictions about Conflictive USA-USSR Relations: A
Case of Group Beliefs," in Stephen Worchel and Jeffry A. Simpson, eds., Conflict
between People and Groups: Causes, Processes, and Resolutions (Chicago: Nelson-
Hall, 1993), 194. See also Bar-Tal's more comprehensive analysis, Group Beliefs: A
Conception for Analyzing Group Structure, Processes, and Behavior (New York:
Springer, 1990), 36, and chap. 2 on the development of a historical perspective on
shared beliefs.
   18. For several studies that deal with these ideas, see Daniel Bar-Tal and Dikla
Antebi, "Siege Mentality in Israel," International Journal of Intercultural Relations
16, no. 3 (1992): 251-76; Daniel Bar-Tal, "The Rocky Road toward Peace: Beliefs on
Conflict in Israeli Textbooks," Journal of Peace Research 35, no. 6 (1998): 723-42;
Raymond Cohen, Culture and Conflict in Egyptian-Israeli Relations: A Dialogue of
the Deaf (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 37-40; Brecher, The For-
eign Policy of Israel, 549-54; Nurit Gertz, "The Few against the Many," Jerusalem
Quarterly, no. 30 (1984), 94-104; Herbert C. Kelman, "Israelis and Palestinians:
Psychological Prerequisites for Mutual Acceptance," International Organization 3
(1978): 172-73. See also Heradstveit, Arab and Israeli Elite Perceptions, 66, 107.
   19. David Ben-Gurion Diary (BGD), 29 January 1949.
   20. Ibid., April 27, 1949.
   21. Ibid., October 23, 1950.
   22. Zaki Shalom, David Ben-Gurion, the State of Israel, and the Arab World,
1949-1956 (Sdeh Boker: Center for Ben-Gurion Heritage, 1995), 39 (Hebrew).
   23. Quoted by Mordechai Bar-On, The Gates of Gaza: Israel's Defense and For-
eign Policy, 1955-1957 (Tel Aviv: 'Am Oved, 1992), 36 (Hebrew).
   24. On these contacts, see Gabriel Sheffer, Moshe Sharett: Biography of a Politi-
cal Moderate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 654, 667-68, 758; Michael
Oren, "Secret Egypt-Israel Peace Initiatives prior to the Suez Campaign," Middle
Eastern Studies 26, no. 3 (1990): 353.
   25. Interview with L'Actualite, reprinted in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv),
October 12, 1970.
   26. Quoted from Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 36-37. For the source, see Gamal Abd
al-Nasser, The Philosophy of the Revolution (Tel Aviv: Ma'archot, 1959), 54, 57, 59,
61 (Hebrew).
   27. Gideon Rafael, Destination Peace: Three Decades of Israeli Foreign Policy
(New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981), 38. See also Sheffer, Moshe Sharett,
760-61.
   28. Rafael, Destination Peace, 39; Moshe Sharett, Personal Diary (Tel Aviv:
Macariv, 1978), 689-90 (Hebrew), January 27, 1955; Sheffer, Moshe Sharett, 760-
62; ISA (Israeli State Archive), FASC (Foreign Affairs and Security Committee),
7564/9, December 28, 1954.
   29. Sharett, Personal Diary, 690, January 27, 1955. See also Sheffer, Moshe





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 97


Sharett, 776-77. Rafael wrote that "the reply was typical of Nasser's delaying tactics
which he perfected over the years into an art." See Rafael, Destination Peace, 39.
   30. Sharett, Personal Diary, 1056, June 13, 1955.
   31. Sheffer, Moshe Sharett, 789, 811, 816.
   32. Sharett, Personal Diary, 1518-19, June 28, 1955. See also ISA, FASC, 7564/
12, September 6, 1955.
   33. Sharett, Personal Diary, 1001, May 17, 1955; Sheffer, Moshe Sharett, 803.
   34. ISA, FASC, 7564/12, September 6, 1955.
   35. On the Baghdad Pact, see Elie Podeh, The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab
World: The Struggle over the Baghdad Pact (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995).
   36. See, e.g., Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 112-13.
   37. ISA, Foreign Ministry files (hereafter FM) 2384/21, Rafael to Sharett, Septem-
ber 29, 1955.
   38. Shimon Peres, The Next Phase (Tel Aviv: 'Am HaSefer, 1965), 23, 37 (He-
brew); Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 13-27; ISA, FASC, 7564/13, October 5, October 24,
1955. See also Ben-Gurion's view, 7564/13, 9 November 1955; 7564/14, November
30, 1955.
   39. Divrei HaKnesset (Knesset Record) 19 (1955): 232-33 (Hebrew).
   40. Ibid., 686-741. See also the discussions in ISA, FASC, 7564/14, November
30, 1955.
   41. ISA, FASC, 7564/13, October 5, 1955; Sheffer, Moshe Sharett, 851.
   42. Divrei HaKnesset 19 (1956): 680-81.
   43. Quoted from Rafael, Destination Peace, 49. Notably, Rafael chose to high-
light only the negative aspects of Nasser. The original document contained this pas-
sage as well: "The impression of the great majority of the people with whom Nasser
meets is that he is honest, open, peace-loving, and devoted to the good of the people.
A strong personality, solid in character. Arab or Asian personalities sometimes cite
Nasser's cunning, but the general impression of his interlocutors is that he wins
people over by his direct, matter-of-fact, and moderate approach to the problems
presented to him. His knowledge of world problems is on the whole lacking and his
education is limited." See ISA, FM 2454/2, "Nasser's Arguments and Tactics in For-
eign Policy," January 10, 1956.
   44. On Anderson's talks, see Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter
FRUS), 1955-57, vol. 15 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1989),
12-13,16-19,51-56,58-60,63-66,68-70,72-74,122-24,333-36.
   45. On Meir's worldview and images, see Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of
Israel, 302-11.
   46. Quoted in Shalom, David Ben-Gurion, 23. For another example, see ibid., 22.
   47. See, e.g., Golda Meir's comparison of Nasser with Hitler, ISA, FASC, 7565/4,
September 11, 1956.
   48. Ma'ariv (Tel Aviv), August 10, 1956.
   49. BGD, July 29, 1956.
   50. Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 377; BGD, November 25, 1956.
   51. See, e.g., an aside by Sharett in his diary: "I suddenly thought of Ben-Gurion's





98 I Elie Podeh


urge to compete with Nasser in greatness-apparently it vexes him that he [Nasser]
is thought of as great-he [Ben-Gurion] is always indignant about him." See Per-
sonal Diary, 1326, January 4, 1956.
   52. BGD, November 10, 1956. See also Peres, The Next Phase, 40.
   53. See, e.g., ISA, FM 3112/1, Eliav (Jerusalem) to Washington, March 27, 1957.
   54. ISA, FM 3111/44, Foreign Ministry to all legations, January 31, 1958.
   55. ISA, FASC, 7566/2, February 4, 1958. See also the session on February 19,
1958. See also Labor Party Archive (hereafter LPA), Mapai Foreign Affairs Commit-
tee, February 17, 1958.
   56. New York Times, February 4, 1958. For this and other Western reports, see
ISA, FM 3111/44.
   57. Ha'aretz, February 2, 1958. See also ibid., February 4, 7, 9; March 14, 1958.
   58. ISA, FM 3111/44, briefing by Yosef Nachmias, deputy director of the Minis-
try, February 18, 1958; 3752/9, a paper by the information department, February
26, 1958.
   59. BGD, July 14, 17, 1958. It was later revealed that Ben-Gurion proposed to
Dulles the entry of Persian and Turkish troops into Iraq. See ISA, FM 3294/19,
Herzog to Harman, February 8, 1961.
   60. ISA, FASC, 7566/3, July 16, 1958.
   61. Ibid., July 22, 1958.
   62. Ibid., August 27, 1958.
   63. ISA, FM, 3744/11, Foreign Ministry to all legations, July 21, 1958.
   64. Labor Party Archive (LPA), Mapai Foreign and Security Committee, file 2-23-
1958-74, September 11, 1958. See also BGD, September 13, 1958.
   65. On these meetings, see ibid., September 13, 18, 30, 1958.
   66. Binyameen Eliav, "Epilogue," in Nasser, The Philosophy of the Revolution,
73-110. Eliav was a former revisionist who had shifted to labor positions in the
1940s, so that to a large extent he represented the center trend in Jewish society.
Between 1957 and 1960 he served as a political commentator with "Kol Israel" (The
voice of Israel). His broadcasts reflected a similar approach to Nasser as that of his
commentary in the book. I am grateful to his daughter, Prof. Miriam Eliav-Faldun,
for allowing me to read the transcripts of these broadcasts.
   67. The exact wording was "Unification is a revolution because it is closely tied to
the question of Palestine and the national obligation to liberate it." See Radio Cairo,
BBC/World British Broadcasts/Middle East, no. 1226, April 18, 1963, 7. On this
episode, see Elie Podeh, "To Unite or Not to Unite; That Is Not the Question: The
1963 Tripartite Unity Talks Reassessed," Middle Eastern Studies. 39, no. 1 (2003):
150-85.
   68. ISA, FM 4315/5, May 9, 1963; FM 2454/17, 9 May 1963.
   69. ISA, FM 2454/17, 6 May 1963.
   70. LPA, Central Committee files, 6 June 1963, 2-23-1963-84.
   71. Eshkol did not frequently refer to the Arabs in his speeches and interviews. He
usually dealt with immigration, settlement, and economic issues. For some of his
statements regarding the conflict, see Levi Eshkol, Bema'aleh Haderekh (Tel Aviv:
Ayanot, 1965), 269-318 (Hebrew). See also Harman to Bitan, January 30, 1965;





Israeli Perceptions of Nasser and Nasserism | 99


April 20, 1965, ISA, FM 4317/9. For a brief analysis of his images, see Brecher, The
Foreign Policy System of Israel, 291-302.
   72. Eshkol himself stated that "the new government is a government of continu-
ity," quoted in Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of Israel, 296. For an assessment
of Eshkol's governments, see Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 220-25. One exception was Abba Eban, who
replaced Golda Meir as foreign minister in November 1965. See ibid., 224.
   73. On this episode, see Meir Amit, Head On (Tel Aviv: Hed Artzi, 1999), 204-
28 (Hebrew); Zaki Shalom, "A Missed Opportunity? The Attempt to Form Direct
Contacts between Israel and Egypt prior to the Six Day War," Hatzionut 22 (2001):
321-53 (Hebrew).
   74. LPA, Central Committee Files, 22 December 1966, 2-23-1966-91.
   75. See the discussion at Amit's house with representatives from the Mossad,
army intelligence, Foreign Ministry, and academia, 27 November 1967, Shalom, "A
Missed Opportunity?" 332-53.
   76. ISA, FM 6444/5, Ilan to legations, May 28, 1967.
   77. ISA, FM 6444/5, May 31, 1967.
   78. ISA, FM 6444/6, June 2, 1967.
   79. ISA, FM 4091/23, Eshkol to Johnson, June 5, 1967.
   80. Brecher, The Foreign Policy System of Israel, 302. For more on her worldview,
see 302-11; Golda Meir, My Life (London: Steimatzky, 1977), chaps. 10 and 12.
   81. Interview with Philippe Ganier-Raymond as it appeared in L'Actualite, Octo-
ber 6, 1970. Published in Hebrew in Ha'aretz, October 12, 1970.
   82. The New Outlook was first published in July 1957. Its articles were devoid of
any negative or stereotypical images of the enemy in general (and of Nasser in par-
ticular), usually portraying current events in a factual manner. For a critical voice on
the "objective" nature of the monthly, see Y. Zofeh, "Nasser-Aggressor or Peace-
Lover?" New Outlook 3, no. 9 (September 1960): 31-34; and the reply, Ze'ev Katz,
"Whose Disservice to Peace?" ibid., 35-39.
   83. The way in which Nasser and Nasserism were depicted in the media, for
example, should be the basis for further systematic study. A cursory reading of the
leading Israeli newspapers, Ha'aretz, Yedicot Ahronot, and Ma'ariv, substantiates
this argument.
   84. See esp. Eliav's epilogue in Nasser, The Philosophy of the Revolution, 73-
110. This kind of flawed assessment even pervaded academic research. See the
references in Joel Beinin, "Knowing Your Enemy, Knowing Your Ally: The Arabists
of Hashomer Hatzair (Mapam)," Social Text 28 (1991): 100-121.
   85. For the use of the term cognitive freezing, see Nadim N. Rouhana and Daniel
Bar-Tal, "Psychological Dynamics of Intractable Ethonational Conflicts: The Israeli-
Palestinian Case," American Psychologist 53, no. 7 (1998): 766.











3


History, Politics, and Collective Memory

The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt


    Meir Hatina





Introduction

Under Mubarak, the Nasserist legacy in Egypt has become simply another
chapter in its national history. Having enjoyed the status of an official ideol-
ogy in the mid-twentieth century, Nasserism has been reduced to a dissident
ideology, battling for a place of honor in the Egyptian collective memory at
the end of the century.1 For half of Egypt's population (67.9 million by mid-
2000)2-that is, anyone below the age of twenty-the July 1952 Revolution
is a distant episode. Its main spokesman, the Nasserist Party, which joined
the legal opposition in 1992, has little influence in national politics.
   Nasserism has lost much of its glamour over the years, due not least to
Nasser's two successors, Anwar al-Sadat and Husni Mubarak, both of
whom turned their backs on the revolutionary legacy. Sadat initiated eco-
nomic and political openness, reinforced the status of Islam, linked Egypt's
future to the West, and signed a peace treaty with Israel.3 These processes
were entrenched by Mubarak, who, in addition, positioned himself as "god-
father" in the peace process between Israel and its neighbors.4 The shift from
confrontation to coexistence with Israel meant rechanneling the thrust of the
Egyptian polity and constructing a new domestic agenda. Although official
and symbolic linkage to the revolution was preserved, state policies in fact
reflected a continuous process of de-Nasserization.5
   Nonetheless, the legacy has survived in the collective memory, which con-
stitutes the pool of the social and cultural experiences and often serves as a
political device in promoting competing interpretations and interests.6 Col-
lective memory, according to the historian John Bodnar, provides perspec-





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 101


tive and authenticity to views articulated in the present about fundamental
issues affecting society.7 In the Egyptian context, Nasserism offers a histori-
cal prism for interpreting the country's present experience. Like any myth
appropriated from its archaic time frame, it makes its presence felt in rela-
tion to abiding concerns which the political structure was unable to resolve.8
   Due to its comprehensive character, Nasserism embraces an endless reser-
voir of heroic episodes side by side with gloomy defeats, and achievements
together with failures. This diverse pool of experiences allows all who deal
with the revolutionary legacy-whether as opponents or advocates-to con-
struct different narratives in support of their particular political agendas.
Most of these writers wear two hats, intellectual and political, as commen-
tators and party members, a symbiosis which blurs the boundaries between
analysis and politics. Some belong to the younger generation, who drifted
into political channels of dissent in order to express their hopes and desires.
In this sense, the Nasserist debate is not over history alone but mainly over
the struggle to mold national behavior.9 This struggle is conducted mainly,
but not exclusively, in the print media, in books and articles, as well as in
photographs and cartoons. Cartoons constitute a central element of political
commentary in the Arab press. Usually humorous in tone, cartoons are a
supplementary device to the written text in presenting counterinterpreta-
tions of reality.10 The contested discourse of Nasserism is also waged in
television, in plays, and in films. These visual media function as effective
transmitters of ideas and symbols to the less educated strata, who form a
vital constituency for political mobilization."
   The contest over shaping Egyptian national history is typically conducted
through polemics and often by mutual mudslinging, generating lively public
interest that comes to a head on the annual commemorative day of the
revolution, July 23. Public debate at that time becomes intense, demonstrat-
ing the diversity and divisions in Egypt's political culture. In examining the
public debate on Nasserism and identifying its key players during the 1980s
and 1990s, this article reveals the abiding link between history and politics,
between past and present.


The Anti-Nasserist Narrative: Revolution on Trial

The anti-Nasserist narrative was characterized by the delegitimization and
demonization of the July Revolution. Its standard-bearers belonged to the
liberal wing of Egypt's ideological spectrum,12 which returned to the public
arena during the 1970s after having been divested of its political and cultural
influence during the revolution. Many of these spokespersons were prerev-
olutionary veterans, but others were younger activists whose disdain for





102 | Meir Hatina


Nasserism was shaped in the era of economic and political openness initi-
ated by Sadat and Mubarak and by interaction with the West.
   The main political sponsors of the anti-Nasserist narrative were the Lib-
eral Party (al-Ahrar), established in 1976, and, even more so, the New Wafd
Party, established in 1978. The latter saw itself as the successor to the old
Wafd and thus as an authentic representative of the quest for parliamentary
democracy. The composition of the New Wafd Party consisted of a coalition
of professionals and landowners. Lawyers were a prominent group, many of
whom were born in the agrarian provinces and successfully transplanted to
the urban westernized Cairene environment. Ideological and historical con-
tinuity with the old Wafd was provided by veteran party leaders headed by
Fu'ad Saraj al-Din, 'Abd al-Fatah Hasan, and Ibrahim Faraj, who had played
a major role in national politics in the prerevolutionary period.13 The iden-
tification with the historic Wafd involved protecting its legacy from distor-
tion along with renewing its claim to political leadership. Primary strategies
employed included exposing the darker aspects of the revolutionary regime
and defaming Mubarak's reign by linking it to the defects of Nasserism.
   The anti-Nasserist narrative brimmed with resentment against the revo-
lution, which, it held, had not only eliminated constitutional government
and suppressed pluralistic civic culture, but had systematically tarnished the
image of the Wafd contribution to Egypt in the collective memory. This
derogation, the Nasserist critics claimed, distorted the depiction of all as-
pects of life in the old regime. The revolution had portrayed Egypt as a
poverty-stricken nation afflicted with anarchy and exploitation. Its political
parties, interested only in their own survival, were perceived as clearly un-
able to promote the national struggle for freedom. National resources were
controlled by a small group. Parliamentary life was devoid of real content,
and none of the elected parliaments completed its constitutional term in
office.14
   The anti-Nasserist writers posited a counterhistory, offering an alterna-
tive portrait of the political and social order to the established one. They
argued that Egypt on the eve of the revolution was in no way a lifeless entity.
It had never surrendered to the tyranny of the Crown and had constantly
pursued independence from the British ever since the 1919 Revolt. The pe-
riod led by the Wafd, Nasserist critics claimed, was one of democracy, free-
dom of thought, and confidence in the capacity of the Egyptian people for
regeneration. These achievements were squandered by the revolution, which
revoked the constitution and dismantled the political parties.15 The revolu-
tion indeed gained wide public support, but only in its initial phase. The
Egyptians believed that it was designed to solve a problematic situation
rather than revoke essential attributes of democracy, such as parliamentary
representation and freedom of the press. However, instead of returning to





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 103


their military camps and devoting themselves to the task of protecting na-
tional security, the Free Officers appropriated the people's right to select
their own leaders and established a government that appeared to be demo-
cratic but was in fact tyrannical.16
   Nasserist critics blamed most of the defects of Egyptian society on this
tyrannical rule, evident until the present day. The defects included discour-
aging the people from involvement in the political process, growing power
of the Islamist opposition, deepening sectarian gulfs, rising crime, and the
collapse of social morality.17 The revolutionary regime's ill-conceived agenda
also produced unfortunate results. Its 1952 Agrarian Reform and nation-
alization laws destroyed any chance for the revival of Egyptian agriculture
and industry. It deterred capital investment by the private sector and trans-
formed the public sector into a governmental stronghold controlled by po-
litical rather than economic considerations.18 Pan-Arabism replaced Nile
Valley unity with a fictitious Arab unity, which eroded national resources.
The illusion of Arab unity began to disintegrate when Syria left the United
Arab Republic (UAR) in September 1961, and it collapsed completely in the
June 1967 War.19 Ultimately, the revolution proved to be a deception led by
a dictator who sought personal prestige in the national pantheon at the
expense of the interests of the Egyptian people.20 Wafdist journalist Muh-
mud 'Abd al-Mun'im Murad noted cynically that Nasser's funeral proces-
sion in 1970 symbolized the burial of the homeland after suffering under a
megalomaniac defeated conqueror.21 Nagib Mahfuz observed that the course
of Egyptian history could have changed for the better if only Nasser and the
revolution had joined the Wafd Party instead of suppressing it.22
   In addition to depicting the July Revolution as tyrannical and impotent,
the anti-Nasserist narrative either appropriated or tarnished Nasserist myths.
For example, critics of Nasserism displayed the British withdrawal from
Egypt, agrarian reform, social justice, assertive nonalignment, and Egypt's
relationship with the Soviet Union as achievements of the prerevolutionary
Wafd. Other myths were tarnished, specifically Nasser's decision to nation-
alize the Suez Canal Company in 1956. Both strategies were designed to
rehabilitate and enhance the heritage of the Wafd, while downplaying that
of Nasserism in modern Egyptian history.
   Various writers, including Jamal Badawi, Salah 'Aqqad, Mahmud 'Abd
al-Mun'im Murad, and 'Abd al-'Azim Ramadan, challenged the entrenched
claim that the revolution was responsible for the end of the British occupa-
tion. In their historical version, British involvement in Egyptian affairs had
ended a number of years prior to the revolution. Its last manifestation was in
the events of February 1942, where a compliant government was put in
power under British pressure. After the end of World War II, British influ-
ence in the Middle East declined. The role of the British ambassador was no





104 | Meir Hatina


greater than that of any other ambassador in Cairo. Moreover, the British
withdrew their troops from the streets of Cairo and other cities in 1947,
under the Nuqrashi Wafdist government, having learned their lesson during
the rioting that broke out under the Sidqy government in 1946. Renewed
rioting in 1951 in the Suez cities after the abolition of the 1936 Anglo-
Egyptian treaty also hastened the British withdrawal. In fact, were it not
for the revolution, the entire occupation would have ended in 1956, the
Nasserist critics argued.23
   On the subject of the 1952 Agrarian Reform, the anti-Nasserist discourse
noted that this plan had been introduced in 1946 at a large economic confer-
ence in Cairo with the aim of redistributing landownership and shifting state
resources to industrialization. The reform was included in the Wafd's plat-
form in September 1952, two months after the revolution. The depiction of
the Wafd as opposed to agrarian reform, therefore, was merely a device to
justify the breakup of the party because it constituted a threat to the revolu-
tionary regime.24
   The anti-Nasserist historiography cultivated by the neo-Wafdists also
positioned the Wafd's record in the area of social justice as having preceded
that of the revolutionary regime. Ever since its establishment in 1919, ac-
cording to this account, the Wafd had two primary bases of support: the
laborers and the fellahin. The establishment of unions and government hos-
pitals in the cities and villages, as well as the promotion of welfare and labor
legislation, were prominent components of the Wafd's national agenda dur-
ing the 1940s. Free and compulsory education was introduced in a two-stage
legislative program: elementary education under the government of 1942-
44 and high school education under the government of 1951-52.25 Two
additional achievements were attributed to the Wafd in this account: asser-
tive nonalignment, implemented by the last Wafd government during the
Korean War, in advance even of India, and relations with the USSR, initiated
by Prime Minister Mustafa Nahhas as early as 1943. The Czech-Egyptian
arms deal of September 1955 was also portrayed as the product of the
Wafd's earlier efforts to obtain arms from the Eastern Bloc.26
   While this strategy of historical expropriation subverted the revolution-
ary record by crediting the Wafd with originating positive innovations, it
also pointed to the Nasserist regime as primarily responsible for the poor
implementation of them. One example is the issue of the Agrarian Reform,
whose inflexible and hasty enforcement led to a reduction in land cultiva-
tion and the subsequent migration of fellahin to the cities. Another ex-
ample is the relationship with the USSR, which deteriorated into a one-
sided dependency.27
   Yet another strategy used by Nasserist critics was the tarnishing of exist-
ing revolutionary myths, especially the nationalization of the Suez Canal





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 105


Company in 1956. This issue rose to the forefront of public discourse in
1996, with the release of the film Nasser 56, describing the events leading up
to the nationalization of the Suez Canal.28 As large crowds, including many
young people, thronged to the cinemas to see it, the Egyptian public was
swept off its feet by nostalgia for a heroic past. The film quickly turned into
a vehicle for political dispute and became another element in the struggle
over molding Egypt's national history. Pro-Nasserists sought to reinforce the
association between the cinematographic account and historic reality, while
anti-Nasserists relegated the significance of the film to the domain of art,
depicting it as a fictionalized account far removed from truth. An especially
vocal exponent of the latter group was the prominent historian and com-
mentator 'Abd al-'Azim Ramadan.29 In a series of articles published in Al-
Wafd, subsequently compiled in a book published in 2000, Ramadan criti-
cized the Nasser cult, recommending that the public view its heroes as erring,
imperfect human beings, not as saints. The events leading up to the nation-
alization of the Suez Canal Company, as other events during Nasser's rule,
Ramadan wrote, showed Nasser to be far from a rational, responsible
leader. He was a dictator who removed his rivals by every means at his
disposal and systematically harassed the opposition. His decision to nation-
alize the Suez Canal was his alone, made without political or military con-
sultation.30
   Admittedly, nationalization was a goal of supreme significance and was
featured in Egypt's declaration of independence, yet the decision was based
on misconceptions, Ramadan argued. Nasser ruled out any possibility that
the Western powers would use force or declare war in opposition to it.
France, he was convinced, would refrain from military action against Egypt
because it was preoccupied with Algiers; likewise so with Britain because of
its desire to maintain good relations with the Arab world. He also believed
that Britain and the United States would restrain Israel from using force.
Even after Israel launched its attack against Egypt in the Sinai, and despite
warnings by France and Britain to withdraw Egyptian troops from the Canal
area, Nasser remained captive to his misconceptions. He realized his mistake
only when British and French planes actually appeared in the skies of Sinai
and Cairo.31
   The source of all this evil, Ramadan noted, was Nasser's inclination to
solitary decision making-a mode of operation that had faded from world
politics during the late nineteenth century, yet was retained in the Arab
world. Although Nasser sought justice, he behaved rashly and endangered
Egypt's independence by inviting the possible return of the British occupa-
tion. Comparing him with a current leader, Saddam Husayn, Ramadan
pointed out that even though justice was not one of the Iraqi leader's consid-
erations in invading Kuwait in 1990, the syndrome was similar: solitary





106 | Meir Hatina


decision making whose price was paid by the people in the form of human,
military, and economic losses.32
   Nasser's rash decision in 1956, Ramadan concluded, cost Egypt a mili-
tary defeat and loss of lives, while providing the small state of Israel with an
opportunity to conquer significant areas of the Sinai. In return for Israel's
withdrawal of its troops, it was granted permission to traverse the Straits of
Tiran, which contributed to its aggrandizement.33 The quality of a govern-
ment may be measured by how it learns its lessons, Ramadan observed.
However, the revolutionary regime led by the same individual-Nasser-
repeated its mistakes when it decided to expel the international peacekeep-
ing force from the Sinai Peninsula and close the Straits of Tiran in 1967. Both
decisions led to a state of war with Israel, despite the lack of military pre-
paredness. Consequently, at Nasser's death in September 1970, all of Sinai,
the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights were in Israeli hands.
Nasser's mistakes of 1956 and 1967 reversed the expectation that the era of
national independence would bear all the anticipated fruit.34 Nevertheless,
Ramadan acknowledged, the power of the written word in disclosing his-
toric truths is inferior in comparison to that of the cinematographic image.
Thus, despite his rash decisions, Nasser would continue to be acclaimed as
a hero and a revolutionary.35
   Two other anti-Nasserists, Anis Mansur and Nagib Mahfuz, both of
whom experienced the revolutionary period personally, shared Ramadan's
frustration.36 Both discussed the unbalanced attitude of the Egyptian people
toward Nasser as compared with his successor, Sadat. On the one hand,
Nasser, who had lost homeland territories to Israel and had offended the
honor of Egypt and the Arabs, was still perceived as a hero in Egyptian eyes.
On the other hand, Sadat, who had reclaimed lands, honor, and prestige,
remained a traitor.37 Offering a psychological explanation for this uneven
perception, Mansur noted that people tend to adulate leaders who are simi-
lar to themselves, both in their strengths and weaknesses. Nasser's failures
evoke compassion and empathy, whereas Sadat is judged more harshly pre-
cisely because of his numerous successes. The cult of Nasser, clearly reflected
in the public response to Nasser 56, may thus be evidence of a flawed will-
ingness among the Egyptian people to follow their leaders blindly.38
   Another possible explanation for the cult of Nasser, not mentioned by
these writers, may have to do with the dreary reality of Egyptian society and
its unresolved socioeconomic problems. Nasserism, as a myth of national
liberation and social justice, bruised as it may be, did manage to evoke pride
and confidence. Conceivably, this myth might have accounted for the lip
service paid to the revolutionary legacy by the Sadat and Mubarak govern-
ments, despite their adoption of other policies in practice.
   While Ramadan, Mansur, and Mahfuz expressed reservations about sev-


























                           ~Lai
"Indeed, sir, the pictures are life-size!" (Al-Ahrar, July 17, 1994). The intent is to
protest the diminishment of Sadat's importance. He is shown as almost nothing next
to Nasser.


i t:


Cover illustration of Anis Mansur's book 'Abd al-Nasir (4th ed., Cairo: al-Maktab
al-Misri al-Hadith, 1994). The cartoon illustrates the Nasser worship in Egypt despite
his repressive policies.





108 | Meir Hatina


eral of Sadat's and Mubarak's policies-such as their muted response to the
granting of political freedom and their ambivalence regarding the Islamic
phenomenon-these writers carefully refrained from identifying the two
regimes with the ills of the revolution.39 In this they represented a minority
position in the anti-Nasserist narrative. The leaders of this camp, including
such Wafdist writers as Lam'i al-Muti'i, Muhammad 'Asfur, and 'Izzat Saqir,
emphasized the continuity between Nasser and his successors in an effort to
undermine Sadat's and Mubarak's political credibility. Extrapolating events
from the past, these writers tailored their analysis of historic events to cur-
rent political ends. The extremists among them claimed that the existing
political order was "the same forum in a different garb," its essentially au-
thoritarian nature unchanged.4"
   Less critical writers acknowledged that Mubarak had ended the single-
party system and abolished constraints on freedom of speech, yet stressed
that authentic democracy was still a distant goal. They pointed to the need
to conduct free and honest elections, to ensure equality in resource alloca-
tion and state funding of parties, and to revoke the constitutional provision,
retained from the Nasserist era, of assigning half the parliamentary seats to
laborers and fellahin. Progress on the road to democracy would dissociate
Mubarak's government from the Nasserist legacy of failures; a diversion
from this path would only tarnish Mubarak's rule by the inevitability of
conspiracies, torture, and corruption." This sharp criticism of Mubarak's
rule ever since his advent to power in October 1981 has further demon-
strated the relatively high quality of public discourse in Egypt, especially as
compared with other Arab states. While freedom of political action was
restricted, freedom of expression was extensive, providing a safe device for
venting popular dissatisfaction. The display of tolerance toward opposition
critics in a more pluralistic and cosmopolitan society thus became an essen-
tial component of the legitimacy of the regime.
   Mubarak's policy, which turned its back on the Nasserist legacy in almost
every area, served to facilitate the anti-Nasserist cause. Mubarak introduced
structural economic reforms, privatized public corporations, and legislated
incentives for local and foreign capital investments.42 Even the grand ethos
of the July Revolution-the September 1952 Agrarian Reform-was set
aside in a new Land Act (Act 96, 1992), which canceled the stringent
supervision over land-lease fees that Nasser had set up. The act allowed
landowners to determine leasing fees according to market prices. Although
the government conceived this law as a breakthrough to stimulate eco-
nomic development, fellahin associations and left-wing parties perceived it
as a means to dislodge the fellahin from their land in the interests of wealthy
landowners.43 Overall, the government's economic policy was described by
Nasserist adversaries as an admission by the state of the defects of the revo-





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 109


lution,44 and as such provided added stimulus to the efforts of the anti-
Nasserists to promote their own political agenda.


The Nasserist Narrative:A Political Culture on the Defensive

The focused anti-Nasserist campaign and Mubarak's de facto dissociation
from the revolutionary heritage put Nasserism's adherents on the defensive.
Most were identified with the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party or with the
National Progressive Unionist Grouping (NPUG), both of which were in the
parliamentary opposition. The Nasserist Party emerged unofficially in early
1987 and was legalized by court rule in 1992. Its members were drawn from
the Nasserists' second rank, led by Farid 'Abd al-Karim and later by Diya'
al-Din Da'ud. The NPUG, legalized in 1986, drew its membership from the
middle-class intelligentsia, which included Nasserist elements, leftist stu-
dents, and workers. The party leader was Khalid Muhi al-Din, one of the
original Free Officers who held Marxist views.45
   The neo-Nasserists used every medium open to the opposition in the
Mubarak era to promote their political philosophy, most notably their
weekly organs, Al-'Arabi and Al-Ahali.46 Still, they found themselves in an
inferior position in the struggle over the Egyptian collective memory. A re-
view of their major arguments reveals a deep ideological conviction in the
revolution side by side with a considerable apologetic element. Their strat-
egy was a mirror image of that of their rivals: They delegitimized the pre-
revolutionary period, attacked the wholesale dismissal of Nasserism, and
praised its achievements as an antithesis to the existing order. Their proudest
banner was the revolution's achievements in the realm of social justice; their
Achilles' heel was its suppression of democracy.
   The most outstanding exponent of the Nasserist narrative was Muham-
mad Hasanayn Haykal, who also embodied the revolutionary heritage per-
sonally as Nasser's closest aid and the editor in chief of the state-sponsored
dailies Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram.47 Haykal branded as a priori false any
attempt to identify the Nasserist era with exploitation and corruption. He
contended that such efforts weakened the foundations of every succeeding
government. In his view, sweeping condemnations leave no one free of
blame, especially in light of the steps taken by Nasser's successors, Sadat and
Mubarak, to modify, clarify, and supplement the revolutionary experiment
without canceling its essence. Any attempt to represent the post-Nasser era
as a new or separate revolution appropriates Sadat and Mubarak's greatest
assets: agrarian reform, the struggle against imperialism, the advancement
of industrialization, the completion of the Aswan High Dam, and the pro-
motion of Arab unity.48 By emphasizing historic continuity, Haykal cau-
tioned, those who renounce the revolution deny a fundamental element of





110 | Meir Hatina


their own legitimacy. Haykal acknowledged that Nasser had erred in various
fields, noting that he had admitted, for example, his responsibility for the
military defeat in the June 1967 War. However, on balance, Haykal held,
despite the internal strife and international conspiracies, the good achieved
in the Nasserist era outweighed the bad.49
   In his published work, Haykal laid out the parameters of the defense of
the Nasserist narrative, which were followed by other writers, such as Jalal
'Arif, 'Abd al-Halim Qandil, Muhammad Shuman, Lutfi Wakid, and Mu-
hammad Sayyid Ahmad. They emphasized that the revolution continued to
nurture the hopes of millions of Egyptians for freedom, justice, and honor.
Although the path was arduous, painful, and paved with war and defeat,
this was a direct consequence of the elevated goals that the revolution set for
itself, including the struggle for national independence, social equality, and
Arab unity. However, the achievements of the revolution in these areas,
Nasserist advocates asserted, were eroded after Nasser's death and disap-
peared completely under Mubarak.50 During Mubarak's tenure, Egypt had
fallen hostage to international financial institutions and had retreated in the
face of American and Israeli dictates. This resulted in the neglect of society's
deprived strata, a rise in unemployment, and the sale of Egypt's public sector
to foreign corporations, thereby further widening socioeconomic gaps. Arab
unity, too, had been reduced to a phrase devoid of content due to the dis-
putes and divisions that reached a climax in the Gulf crisis of 1990-91.51
   Although the Nasserists acknowledged Mubarak's achievements in pro-
moting national projects, they held that he lacked a defined and decisive
policy that would lead the country from one stage of progress to the next.
This, they said, was the main difference between Nasser's revolutionary
strategy and Mubarak's quest for stability. Revolution aims to reshape soci-
ety and achieve the impossible; stability cools national fervor and promotes
social stagnation.52
   In harnessing the revolutionary legacy to condemn the existing order, the
Nasserists focused on economic and social issues, namely, the welfare and
quality of life of the people, rather than political issues, specifically democ-
racy. Their appeal for democratic governance, which had been suppressed
by the revolution, lacked conviction, and their defense of the revolution on
this issue was apologetic in nature. Nasser, they said, believed in political
freedom, yet made it contingent on the attainment of social equity. He held
that the establishment of social justice and the removal of divisions between
rich and poor were essential before popular democracy could be achieved.
Agrarian reform, nationalization, public education, and equal opportunity
in employment were crucial to the creation of a new social fabric that would
act as a catalyst in bringing about political freedom.53
   However, the Nasserists had difficulty in explaining the fact that even

















M))


"Your revolution happened a long time ago. Now it is our revolution!" (Al-Ahali, July
22, 1992). The speaker represents the corrupt business class that emerged in the wake
of the economic openness introduced by Sadat and Mubarak.


Two ordinary Egyptians put up headstones for the public sector and for agrarian
reform at Nasser's burial plot, symbolizing the nullification of these two main policies
of the revolution (Al-Ahali, July 26, 1995).





112 | Meir Hatina


though these steps had been implemented early in the revolution, the central-
istic government remained in place for two decades. This played into the
hands of liberal critics who unequivocally opposed a separation between
social and political liberties. The collapse of the communist experiment in
Eastern Europe in the mid-1980s, they argued, proved that the one could not
be achieved at the expense of the other.54 Despite these differences in per-
spective, liberals and Nasserists were united in their defiance of the existing
order and in their commitment to democratization. Beyond these goals,
however, they were in direct confrontation. For the anti-Nasserists, the con-
sequences of the revolution proved to be a mirage. For the Nasserists, it
remained the ultimate vision of a brighter future.
   Some writers, by contrast, presented a less dichotomous and more bal-
anced account of Nasserism. They included Salah 'Isa, Hasanayn Kurum,
Yunan Labib Rizq, and Abu al-'Ala Madi, who represented a broad spec-
trum of ideologues, from liberals and leftists to Nasserists and Islamists.
Their less contentious approach lent their claims a more authentic and con-
structive dimension. Averse to degrading the symbols of Egypt's history, they
rejected both the Wafd's perception of the revolution as a black episode that
should be blotted out from memory and the Nasserists' idealization of the
revolution as the factor that liberated Egypt from imperialism and corrup-
tion.
   These moderate commentators viewed the mutual invalidation of both
narratives as bordering on an obliteration of Egypt's national memory and
engendering cultural disorientation.55 Rather, tolerance was necessary, based
on acknowledged historic truths that cannot be denied. The Nasserists were
called upon to recognize that the prerevolutionary Wafd was not responsible
for all the upheavals in the 1930s and 1940s, given that most of the time it
was not at the helm. Moreover, the Wafd had attained social and political
achievements and its leaders were popularly elected.
   The Nasserists were also required to face up to the considerable injustice
done to the Muslim Brothers, many of whom had been harassed and tor-
tured without justification. The Brothers, for their part, were called upon to
cease attributing the 1954 assassination attempt on Nasser's life to a scheme
fomented by Nasser himself and to stop depicting the trials of Islamists in
1965 as fictitious show trials. The Muslim Brothers needed to admit that
some in their ranks sought to undermine Nasser's government. As for the
Wafdists, they were called upon to acknowledge Nasser's achievements as
following up on the Wafd initiatives of the prerevolutionary period and as
putting its ideals into practice.56
   Two writers in this vein were Salah 'Isa, a prominent member of the
NPUG, and Hasanayn Kurum of the Liberal Party. They posited the revolu-





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 113


tion as a link in the history of Egypt's nationalist struggle, which began as far
back as the popular opposition to the French occupation (1798-1801). In
their opinion, the nationalist leadership had always been divided between
moderates and hawks (the latter included Nasser), yet the common goal of
all was the attainment of independence and progress for Egypt.57 By advo-
cating historic continuity, 'Isa and Kurum attempted to broaden the legiti-
macy of the revolution and to incorporate it more integrally into Egypt's
national heritage. In this endeavor, they gained the support of another
writer, Faraj Fuda, a former member of the New Wafd Party, who stated that
"the revolutionary regime is no more than a single chapter in a long history,
neither its beginning nor its end." Fuda noted that the adverse aspects of
Nasserism, such as repressive rule and the undermining of Nile Valley unity
by recognizing Sudan's right to independence, must not obscure its positive
aspects, which included social justice and the separation of religion and
state. An objective assessment of the revolution, he pointed out, would also
provide direction and hope for the younger generation.58
   Fuda was known as an avid supporter of the separation of religion and
politics and a sharp critic of the Islamist groups, whom he viewed as enemies
of progress and democracy. He praised the civil character of the revolution-
ary regime and the strong-arm campaigns it conducted against its Islamist
rivals.59 In the same vein, Yunan Labib Rizq and Milad Hanna, left-wing
Copts, lauded the revolution's egalitarian attitude toward religious minori-
ties, which put an end to the practice of mobilizing religion for political
purposes, as carried out by the Wafd and the king. They credited Nasser with
molding a state determined to treat its citizens with justice and equality. The
Arab unity he promoted was largely secular and was directed primarily to
the countries of the Fertile Crescent, where minorities were protected and
respected.60 In emphasizing the revolution's civic political culture and its
staunch resistance to the Islamist challenge, Fuda, Rizq, and Hanna were
translating history into current terms. Their aim was to warn Mubarak that
the politicization of religion and a stance of moderation toward the Islamist
opposition would only erode the authority of the state and reinforce sectar-
ian divisions.61
   This relatively balanced account of Nasserism made use of history to spur
the present government to take action on problematic existential issues in
Egypt: the Islamist threat, the status of the Copts, and democracy. Such
moderate thinking was rejected by supporters of both established narra-
tives-the Nasserist and the anti-Nasserist-who questioned the govern-
ment's fundamental legitimacy. The anti-Nasserists claimed that Mubarak
was an heir to Nasser, while the Nasserists insisted that Mubarak had turned
his back on Nasser's legacy. The ongoing aggressive dispute between the





114 | Meir Hatina


advocates of these two narratives over their role in the national memory
relegated the appeal for constructive criticism and unprejudiced judgment to
the realm of intellectual exercise. Tariq Hijji, a prominent young writer,
pointed to the reflection of this regrettable outcome in the deterioration of
dialogue and the surge in contentious writing. In his view, the principle of
acceptance of the "other," deriving from the diverse and complex nature of
society, was the only way to initiate an era of progress. Without it, he
warned, Egypt and the Arab world would remain in the backyard of the
community of enlightened nations.62


The Official Narrative: Between Myth and Reality

Mubarak's administration was the object of criticism by both proponents
and opponents of Nasserism. It found itself caught between a mythologized
heritage and the constraints of the present; between the desire to nurture
historical continuity and the impulse to highlight the unique aspects of
Mubarak's contribution. The government's overall strategy was to pay lip
service to the revolution without imbuing this allegiance with content. This
approach was reflected in official accounts of Nasserism, especially in the
state media on the anniversary of the revolution and in the defined param-
eters of Mubarak's speeches. Mubarak carefully avoided taking an active
part in the public debate over Nasserism, although he allowed himself to
direct barbs at the revolution's antagonists and its blind followers, both of
whom were also his own political rivals.
   Mubarak praised the revolution for liberating Egypt from political anar-
chy, ending the social exploitation, and disseminating liberty, yet he also
stressed the dynamic orientation of history toward progress and renewal.
No human experience takes place in a vacuum; rather, it interacts with its
circumstances. Likewise, the quality of any revolution is contingent upon its
adaptive capacity, based on practical experience and lessons drawn from
outcomes. Mubarak called for the reassessment of certain revolutionary
achievements, including centralization of the economy and nationalization,
which had generated a cumbersome public sector and stifled the private
initiative so essential to economic development. The vision of Arab unity, he
pointed out, had also been promoted with undue haste, and sometimes with
excessive forcefulness, disregarding the complexity of Arab reality that was
better suited to long-term, gradual preparation involving coordination. The
revolution, Mubarak concluded, heralded neither the beginning nor the
end of history. Its dynamic nature enabled the adaptation of its platform to
the spirit of the times.63 These emphases, which demonstrated continuity
through a new reading of the past, defined the official parameters of the
debate.





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 115


   Expressing loyalty to the Nasserist heritage, the official narrative stressed
the economic and social changes brought about by the revolution in a coun-
try whose national resources had been controlled by 0.5 percent of the popu-
lation.64 The narrative linked this historical argument to present politics,
charging that those who cherish the prerevolutionary reality, that is, the
Wafdists, lack any real political or moral justification for their stand.65 In
contrast to other revolutions in the history of mankind, the official account
claimed, the July Revolution proved that important changes could be ef-
fected in the lives of nations without bloodshed. The revolution thus came to
symbolize the protection of liberty, justice, and national honor.66
   However, like other revolutions, the July Revolution had also deviated
and erred, most importantly in failing to institute democracy. This led to an
exaggeration of the role of the leader and his confidants, and an underesti-
mation of the collective structure, without which a government lacks genu-
ine public legitimacy. In this Nasser had repeated the mistake made a century
earlier by Muhammad 'Ali, who denied his primary source of power-the
diverse streams of the popular national movement-and established a one-
man rule. Sometimes, Mubarak's supporters noted, extenuating circum-
stances justify the absence of democracy in a revolutionary era, for example,
the imperative to restructure the balance of power in society or overcome
external challenges. However, this cannot change the fact that the establish-
ment of a democratic government was relegated to the bottom of the Free
Officers' agenda.67
   The emphasis in this account on the revolution's failure in the area of
democracy sought to highlight the democratic character of Mubarak's re-
gime and deflect criticism by the political opposition. Mubarak was repre-
sented as the harbinger of the third phase of the revolution. Its two earlier
phases, under Nasser and Sadat, had witnessed shocks and radical changes.
Under Mubarak, the revolution achieved stability and returned to its proper
track. This was accomplished despite the difficult circumstances of the col-
lapse of the political and security structures following Sadat's assassination,
a deteriorating economic situation, and regional isolation in the wake of the
peace treaty with Israel. The official narrative identified Mubarak as the
figure responsible for completing the final transformation from revolution
to democracy.
   The shift from revolutionary to constitutional legitimacy was marked by
the encouragement of political participation through the establishment of
new parties and a free press, as well as the reinforcement of the legislative
and judicial authorities.68 One writer noted in Al-Akhbar that by so doing,
Mubarak stood as an antithesis to the destruction wrought by both his pre-
decessors, especially Nasser, and as such was worthy of the title "Egypt's
rebuilder."69 In differentiating Mubarak from his predecessors, the official





116 | Meir Hatina


narrative provided a platform for prominent writers, such as Nagib Mahfuz,
who was critical of Nasserism and praised Mubarak's achievements.70
   Besides criticizing Nasserist authoritative rule, the official narrative also
attempted to obscure the link between the revolution and Nasser personally.
The revolution was represented as that of the Egyptian people, with the
army serving to implement the people's will and to end an era of corruption
and tyranny.71 Although Nasser was depicted as an important leader, he was
portrayed as one of several leaders who had raised the banner of national
struggle, including 'Umar Makram, Mustafa Kamel, Muhammad Farid,
Sa'd Zaghlul, Mustafa Nahhas, and Muhammad Nagib.72 The official dis-
course thereby aimed to remove Mubarak from the shadow of Nasser's char-
ismatic leadership-a standard that was difficult for any successor to meet.
Mubarak, who lacked the pretension to be a hero, projected more of an
image of a technocrat.
   The official diminution of Nasser's personality was also accompanied by
an emphasis on the relativity of his era, that is, a chapter in history that had
come to an end. By relegating Nasserism to a specific time frame, the official
narrative aimed at achieving two goals: first, divesting the Nasserist ideol-
ogy of its hallowed and timeless nature and, second, dispelling public anxi-
ety over radical change so as to reinforce the existing social order and insti-
tutions. According to Mubarak's adherents, the circumstances under which
Nasser operated differed from those of the present, and any appeal for re-
constructing the past contradicted historical logic and the forward thrust of
life itself. Moreover, the revolutionary regime had lacked a coherent ideol-
ogy and a clear-cut platform. Although the revolution left behind principles
worthy of further development, including national liberation and social jus-
tice, new thinking and a new strategy were required.73 In practical terms, the
official expression of loyalty to the spirit of the revolution negated Nas-
serism as a normative code for contemporary governmental behavior.
   While the official narrative, in contrast to the oppositionist ones, was
state-sponsored, its hegemonic status in the Egyptian public was doubtful.
Clearly, the laborers and the fellahin, the two primary, yet poorest, sectors in
society, had difficulty in accepting the privatization of public corporations,
the downsizing of the public sector, and the partial reclamation of landown-
ers' rights, which had been revoked by the revolution. While this open-door
policy did not return Egypt to the days of the pashas, as leftists charged, it
certainly engendered public grievances.74 In this sense, the ethos of social
justice nurtured by Nasserism cast a threatening shadow over Mubarak's
regime. It became the litmus test for the government's commitment to bridg-
ing social gaps and promoting a more equitable distribution of wealth. It
also prevented the government from straying too far into the pasture of
economic liberalization.





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 117


Conclusions

The historiographic discourse over the Nasserist heritage in Egypt consti-
tutes an essential component of the struggle to shape Egyptian collective
memory. The issue is closely related to the political debate over the national
agenda of Mubarak's government. The ideological and party affiliations of
the interlocutors-the Wafd, the Muslim Brothers, the Nasserist Party, and
the Left-largely dictate their attitude toward the revolution. These political
groups, most of which are in the opposition, bitterly disagree over the
country's revolutionary heritage, yet find themselves on the same front in
calling for greater political freedom under Mubarak. Legacies of the past,
alongside frustration with the existing political order due to the inability of
the opposition to block, let alone replace, governmental policies, have been
absorbed into the judgmental assessment of the revolution. In reality, the
emotional confrontation with the past has turned into a political contest in
the present, providing contemporary actors with a sense of group identity,
solidarity, and representation in the ideological marketplace.75
   A minority of writers less preoccupied with current political rivalries have
also made their voices heard. Their discourse about the Nasserist past has
been more constructive, aimed at encouraging the government to take more
decisive steps to handle the grave challenges facing Egyptian society. They
perceive in Nasserism the sense of civic and secular community that they
seek to reestablish in the face of the Islamist threat and the sectarian strife
between Muslims and Copts.
   Mubarak's regime has not been indifferent to the turbulent debate over
Nasserism. In fact, it plays an active role in this debate, viewing it as one of
the arenas for the government's contest with its political rivals over the
proper image of the Egyptian polity. The official memory criticizes the
wholesale denigration of the revolution, yet also opposes its excessive ideali-
zation. It seeks to mold a dynamic revolutionary heritage, responsive to the
constraints of the times. This two-edged strategy aims to emphasize histori-
cal continuity with the revolution so as to reinforce the legitimacy of the
current regime and to justify deviations from the revolutionary path at the
same time. For Mubarak, who essentially grew up in the military establish-
ment and was politically unaffiliated during the 1950s and 1960s, Nas-
serism is a burden of the past rather than a political asset for the present. The
anniversary of the revolution, firmly anchored in the national calendar, is
marked by ceremonial speeches by the president, but it is marginalized in
public life during the rest of the year.76
   The political and ideological pluralism initiated by Sadat and reinforced
by Mubarak has nurtured numerous narratives competing for hegemony,
both politically and culturally. The diverse nature of the Nasserist experi-





118 | Meir Hatina


ence provided an almost endless repertoire of concepts and events that could
be used by various protagonists to support their cause. Wafdists blamed the
revolution for Egypt's economic evils and incomplete democracy. The Nas-
serists depicted it as a lever for promoting social justice, progress, and Arab
unity. The Muslim Brothers condemned the revolution's secular policy, at-
tributing rising religious extremism to it. Many leftists, in contrast, per-
ceived the revolution as an exemplary model for the separation of religion
and state.77
   Almost all of the opposition groups praised Nasser's stand against Is-
rael, despite his military defeats, thereby defying the bilateral peace treaty
made a decade after his death. The government, for its part, viewed the
revolution as one of various stages in the history of the Arab-Israeli con-
flict. The official account emphasized that the peace strategies adopted by
Sadat and Mubarak were responsible for the return of the lands lost in the
June 1967 War,78 an argument reinforced by the official celebration of
Sinai Liberation Day (April 23).
   In this context of multiple narratives, which reveals the multifaceted na-
ture of Egypt's political culture, Nasserist historiography finds itself in a
position of dissent, in contrast to its dominant position in the revolutionary
era. The marginalization of this narrative helps to explain its harsh rejection
of postrevolutionary policy.
   Ultimately, Nasserism during Sadat's rule, and even more so during Mu-
barak's tenure, evolved into a bruised yet compelling myth, lacking a genu-
ine hold on the national agenda but still casting a shadow on the Egyptian
scene. Its survival is the result of the continued contention with the un-
solved problems of the Egyptian polity and the longing for their resolution
by a sweeping and decisive leadership. The pragmatic and cautious policies
adopted by Mubarak are perceived in public discourse as an effective means
for stability and continued improvement, rather than as a catalyst for pro-
found structural change, especially in the economic and social realms. These
areas constitute the government's Achilles' heel, guaranteeing that Nas-
serism will not be marginalized as merely an episode in the distant past.
Social justice, national honor, Arab unity, and a firm stand against Israel
and the West were the cornerstones of the revolution. Although their po-
tency was eroded toward the end of Nasser's reign, they continued to rep-
resent high ideals that were not to be easily obliterated.79 They evolved into
cultural myths laden with historic significance and emotional conviction,
thereby preserving the place of Nasserism in the Egyptian national pan-
theon.80





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 119


Notes

   1. See, e.g., Joel Gordon, "Secular and Religious Memory in Egypt: Recalling
Nasserist Civics," Muslim World 87, no. 2 (April 1997): 97-98, 102-3.
   2. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Popula-
tion Prospects: The 2000 Revision (New York: United Nations, 2001), 24, table 1.
(http://www.un.org/esa/population/wpp2000at.pdf).
   3. On the Sadat era, see, e.g., Shimon Shamir, Egypt under Sadat: The Search for
a New Orientation (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1978, Hebrew); Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Egyp-
tian Politics under Sadat, 2d ed. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1988); Michael Winter,
"Islam in the State: Pragmatism and Growing Commitment," in Shimon Shamir, ed.,
Egypt from Monarchy to Republic (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), 50-53.
   4. On Mubarak's regime, policies, and challenges, see Gudrun Krsmer, Agypten
unter Mubarak (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1986); Robert Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt
(Boulder: Westview Press, 1989); Charles Tripp and Roger Owen, eds., Egypt un-
der Mubarak (London: Routledge, 1989); Moheb Zaki, Civil Society and Democ-
ratization in Egypt, 1981-1994 (Cairo: Ibn Khaldun Center, 1995); Meir Hatina,
Islam in Modern Egypt (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000), 36-45 (Hebrew);
Paul Rivlin, Economic Policy and Performance in the Arab World (Boulder: Lynne
Rienner, 2001), 101-12.
   5. Sadat, upon acceding to power in 1970, turned against the Nasserist elite as
a preliminary step to establishing his "corrective revolution" (thawrat al-tashih).
Mubarak, recognizing the managerial skills of the Nasserists and eager to counteract
the bourgeoisie and growing Islamist activism that emerged as powerful forces under
Sadat, recruited Nasserists into his service but took care to curtail any broad-based
Nasserist upsurge. See Shamir, Egypt under Sadat, 24-30, 140-60; Hinnebusch,
Egyptian Politics under Sadat, 40-69; Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt, 20-21, 37-38.
   6. Samuel N. Eisenstadt, Tradition, Change, and Modernity (New York: John
Wiley, 1973), 119-21. See also Edward Shils, The Intellectuals and the Powers and
Other Essays (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 35-36; John Bodnar,
Remaking America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 13-15; Gordon,
"Secular and Religious Memory in Egypt," 106-7.
   7. Bodnar, Remaking America, 14-15. See also Maurice Halbwachs, On Collec-
tive Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 25-26.
   8. See, e.g., Edward H. Carr, What Is History? (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1961), 20-30; Eric Hobsbawm, "Introduction: Inventing Traditions," in Eric Hobs-
bawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1983), 1-11. On myths and their political and social func-
tions, see Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality (New York: Harper and Row, 1963),
5-7; Emmanuel Sivan, Arab Political Myths, 2d ed. (Tel Aviv: 'Am Oved, 1997), 9-
12 (Hebrew); Haggay Ram, Myth and Mobilization in Revolutionary Iran (Wash-
ington, D.C.: American University Press, 1994), 6-10.
   9. A similar interplay between politics and history can be found in the 'Urabi
Revolt episode. See Thomas Mayer, The Changing Past: Egyptian Historiography of
the Urabi Revolt, 1882-1983 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1988).





120 | Meir Hatina


   10. See, e.g., Fatma Mige G69ek, "Political Cartoons as a Site of Representation
and Resistence in the Middle East," Princeton Papers 6 (spring 1997): 2-3.
   11. See, e.g., Sivan, Arab Political Myths, 11. See also Susan Ossman, Picturing
Casablanca: Portraits of Power in a Modern City (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1994), 19, 183-84.
   12. An additional element in the tarnishing of the Nasserist legacy was the Islam-
ist trend, embodied mainly in the Muslim Brothers, which was violently suppressed
by the revolution and continued to be marginalized by the existing order. The Islam-
ist narrative is beyond the scope of this article, inter alia, because its spokesmen
nullified not only the Nasserist historical record but also the perceived Western po-
litical culture that had developed in Egypt from the early nineteenth century onward.
Instead, the Islamists posited a counterculture based on the call to establish an
Islamic order as the sole solution to societal ills. On the Muslim Brothers' stance
regarding the revolution and its political implications for the present, see, e.g.,
Liwa' al-Islam (July/August 1986), 30-32; (June 1987), 12-19; (July 1988), 7-8;
Muhammad Muru, Al-Haraka al-Islamiyya fi Misr (Nicosia: al-Dar al-Misriyya,
1994); Hasanayn Tawfiq Ibrahim, Al-Nizam al-Siyasi wal-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi
Misr (Beirut: Dar al-Tali'a, 1998).
   13. On the social composition and political platform of the Liberal Party and the
New Wafd, see Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt, 202-7; Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics
under Sadat, 208-20; Krumer, Agypten unter Mubarak, 77-90.
   14. Jamal Badawi in Al-Wafd, July 28, 1994; July 24, 1995.
   15. Al-Wafd, July 22, 1995; Sharif Kamil in Al-Ahrar, July 13, 1992; Muhammad
Isma'il 'Ali in Al-Wafd, July 23, 1992; Abd al-'Azim Ramadan in Al-Wafd, July 29,
August 14, 1996;'Abd al-'Azim Ramadan, Awraq min Ta'rikh Misr (Cairo: al-Hay'a
al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1995), 295-96. See also Najib Mahfuz, Hawla al-
Taharrur wal-Taqaddum (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya al-Lubnaniyya, 1996), 97-98;
Raja' al-Naqqash, Najib Mahfuz Safahat min Mudhakkiratihi (Cairo: Markaz al-
Ahram lil-Tarjama wal-Nashr, 1998), 191-95.
   16. Wahid Ghazi in Al-Ahrar, July 30, 1990; Lam'i al-Muti'i in Al-Wafd, July 15,
1990; Salah al-Aswani in Al-Wafd, July 26, 1993; Badawi in Al-Wafd, July 24, 1994;
Ramadan in Al-Wafd, August 20, 1996.
   17. Ghazi in Al-Ahrar, July 29, 1991; Badawi in Al-Wafd, July 24, 1994.
   18. Salah 'Aqqad in Al-Wafd, July 16, 1992; Muhammad 'Awda in Al-Wafd, July
22, 1992; 'Izzat Saqir in Al-Wafd, July 24, 1994; 'Abbas al-Tarabili in Al-Wafd,
August 24, 1996.
   19. Al-Wa fd, July 22, 1992; Mahmud Abd al-Mun'im Murad in Al-Wa fd, July
23, 1993; Anis Mansur, Abd al-Nasir al-Mu ftara 'Alyhi wal-Muftari 'Alayna, 4th
ed. (Cairo: al-Maktab al-Misri al-Hadith, 1994), 172-73.
   20. Murad in Al-Wa fd, July 23, 1993; Mahfuz, Hawla al-Taharrur wal-Taqaddum,
21-22, 25-26, 31-32.
   21. Murad in Al-Wa fd, July 23, 1993.
   22. Al-Naqqash, Najib Mahfuz, 194.
   23. Badawi in Al-Wa fd, July 24, 1994; Ramadan in Al-Wa fd, July 29, 1996.





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 121


   24. Ramadan in Al-Wafd, July 29, 1996; Ramadan, Awraq min Ta'rikh Misr,
296-301.
   25. 'Aqqad in Al-Wa fd, July 23, 1992; Badawi in Al-Wa fd, July 24, 1995.
   26. Ramadan in Al-Wa fd, July 29, 1996.
   27. Mustafa Abd al-Raziq in Al-Wa fd, July 15, 1992; Saqir in Al-Wa fd, July 24,
1994; Sa'id 'Ukasha in Al-Wa fd, July 27, 1994; Ramadan in Al-Wa fd, July 29, 1996.
   28. See chapter 13 of this volume, "The Nightingale and the Ra'is," by Joel Gordon.
   29. On Ramadan's biography, see David Sagiv, Fundamentalism and Intellectuals
in Egypt, 1973-1993 (London: Frank Cass, 1995), 79-80.
   30.' Abd al-'Azim Ramadan, Al-Haqiqa al-Ta'rikhiyya Hawla Ta'mim Sharikat
Qanat al-Suways (Cairo: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 2000), 21-25.
   31. Ibid., 21-25, 27-31.
   32. Ibid., 29-31, 51, 81-85.
   33. Ibid., 99-104, 107, 125-35. See also al-Naqqash, Najib Mahfuz, 195-96.
   34. Ramadan, Al-Haqiqa al-Ta'rikhiyya, 51-63, 72-73, 125-35; Ramadan in Al-
Wafd, July 18, 25, 1994; Ramadan, Awraq min Ta'rikh Misr, 212-13.
   35. Ramadan, Al-Haqiqa al-Ta'rikhiyya, 43.
   36. Mansur was dismissed from his post in Al-Ahram during the revolution on
Nasser's orders after publishing a critical article, while Mahfuz was exposed to vari-
ous types of harassment due to critical essays that angered several prominent offi-
cials. Mahfuz, however, stated in his memoirs that Nasser was convinced of the
sincerity of his writings, which were aimed at the country's welfare and not at incite-
ment. See Mansur, Abd al-Nasir, 6; Sagiv, Fundamentalism and Intellectuals in
Egypt, 78; al-Naqqash, Najib Mahfuz, 127-36.
   37. Najib Mahfuz in Al-Ahram, July 23, 1992; Najib Mahfuz, Amam al-'Arsh
(Cairo: Maktabat Misr, 1983); Mansur, 'Abd al-Nasir, 6-8, 179-83, 189-93, 215,
291-93. See also al-Naqqash, Najib Mahfuz, 224-25; Rif'at al-Sa'id, Ta'mmalat fi
al-Nasiriyya, 3d ed. (Cairo: al-Mada, 2000), 8-11; Tariq Hijji, Naqd al-'Aql al-
'Arabi (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1998), 155-59.
   38. Mansur, 'Abd al-Nasir, 189-93, 313-14.
   39. Ibid., 179-83; Mahfuz in Al-Ahram, July 23, 1992; al-Naqqash, Najib Mah-
fuz, 228, 231-33; Ramadan, Al-Haqiqa al-Ta'rikhiyya, 8-10.
   40. See, e.g., al-Muti'i in Al-Wa fd, July 15, 1990; Muhammad 'Asfur in Al-Wa fd,
July 26, 1990; Saqir in Al-Wa fd, July 21, 1991.
   41. 'Aqqad in Al-Wa fd, July 16, 1992; Midhat al-Harmil in Al-Wa fd, August 19,
1996.
   42. On Egypt's economic reforms, see Sa'id al-Najjar, Tajdid al-Nizam al-Iqtisadi
wal-Siyasi fi Misr (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1997); Economist Intelligence Unit, Coun-
try Profile, Egypt 1997-98 (London: EIU, 1998), 13-24; Robert Springborg, Politi-
cal Structural Adjustment in Egypt: A Precondition for Rapid Economic Growth?
(San Domenico: European University Institute, June 1999), 22-26; Rivlin, Economic
Policy and Performance in the Arab World, 101-12: Ahmad Sayyid al-Najjar, ed.,
Al-Itijahat al-Iqtisadiyya al-Istratijiyya-2000 (Cairo: al-Ahram Center for Political
and Strategic Studies, January 2001), 225-54.





122 | Meir Hatina


   43. The new Land Act of 1992 was implemented in 1997 at the close of a five-year
grace period. See Hatina, "Egypt," MECS 21 (1997): 321-22.
   44. See, e.g., 'Ukasha in Al-Wafd, July 27, 1994.
   45. Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt, 37-38, 198-99, 208-9; Krsmer, Agypten
unter Mubarak, 62-68; Ami Ayalon, "Egypt," MECS 16 (1992): 375-76.
   46. Another Nasserist weekly, Sawt al-'Arab, began publication in August 1986,
but was closed two years later because of an article defaming the Saudi royal family,
which was described by the authorities as damaging to Egypt's vital interests. The
paper resumed publication in London in 1989. See Al-Shira '(Beirut), August 21,
1989.
   47. On Haykal and the revolution, see Munir K. Nasser, Press, Politics, and
Power: Egypt's Heikal and al-Abram (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1979);
Sonia Dabous, "Nasser and the Egyptian Press," in Charles Tripp, ed., Contempo-
rary Egypt (London: Routledge, 1993), 110-19. See also Sagiv, Fundamentalism and
Intellectuals in Egypt, 74. Haykal's close identification with the revolution earned
him the Nasser Prize, awarded by the Lebanese Institute for Arab Unity Studies in
July 1999. The institute has initiated several projects to perpetuate the Nasser legacy,
including publishing his speeches and interviews, granting student scholarships, and
financing the construction of lecture halls in several campuses throughout the Arab
world. Al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, September 1999, 72-79.
   48. Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, Li-Misr la 1i-'Abd al-Nasir (Cairo: Markaz
al-Ahram lil-Tarjama wal-Nashr, 1987), 20-21, 41-45. See also Al-Mustaqbal al-
'Arabi (September 1999), 82-84, 93.
   49. Haykal, Li-Misr la li 'Abd al-Nasir, 46-47, 53.
   50. Sa'd al-Din Ibrahim in Al-Ahali, August 1, 1990; Jalal 'Arif in Al-' Arabi, July
25, 1994; Abd al-Halim Qandil and Muhammad Shuman in Al-' Arabi, July 25,
1994; Qasim 'Abduh Qasim in Al-' Arabi, August 26, 1996. See also Amin Huwaydi
in Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi (December 2000), 83-89.
   51. Lutfi Waqid in Al-Ahali, July 24, 1991; Muhammad Sayyid Ahmad in Al-
Ahali, July 22, 1992; Shuman in Al-' Arabi, July 25, 1994; Diya' al-Din Da'ud in Al-
'Arabi, July 18, 1994.
   52. Mahmud al-Jiyar in Al-Ahali, July 25, 1990; Mahmud al-Maraghi in Al-
'Arabi, July 24, 31, 1995.
   53. Haykal, Li-Misr la li 'Abd al-Nasir, 61, 85; Khalil Hasan Khalil in Al-Ahali,
July 25, 1990; July 20, 1994; Sami Sharaf in Al-' Arabi, July 25, 1994; al-Maraghi in
Al- 'Arabi, July 31, 1995.
   54. Muhammad 'Asfur, quoted in Al-Wa fd, July 22, 1992; Najib Mahfuz, Hawla
al-Din wal-Dimuqratiyya (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya al-Lubnaniyya, 1990), 125-26;
Najib Mahfuz, Hawla al-Taharrur wal-Taqaddum, 31-32.
   55. Yunan Labib Rizq in Al-Musawwar, June 26, 1992; Al-Ahali, July 21, 1993;
Salah 'Isa in Al-' Arabi, August 3, 1998; Abu al-'Ala Madi in Al-Hayat, May 19,
1999. See also Rif'at Sayyid Ahmad, Thawrat al-Jinaral (Cairo: Dar al-Huda, 1993).
   56. Hasanayn Kurum in Al-Ahrar, July 23, 27, 1994; Salah 'Isa in Al-' Arabi,
August 3, 1998; Abu al-'Ala Madi in Al-Hayat, May 19, 1999. Madi was the
founder of the Wasat (Center) Party, established in 1996 as a splinter of the Muslim





The Nasserist Legacy in Mubarak's Egypt | 123


Brothers. The party claimed to represent a different sort of Islam moderate, with no
monopoly on the truth and supportive of a pluralistic political system. Its platform
included respect for the constitution, defense of freedom of belief, condemnation of
terror, and an appeal for constructive dialogue between the state and the Islamists.
Such declarations, however, did not help the Wasat Party to obtain a legal license
from the government, which suspected that the party was a branch of the Muslim
Brothers formed to promote their revolutionary ideas under the guise of democracy.
On the Wasat Party, see Ami Ayalon, "Egypt," MECS 20 (1996): 266-67; Hatina,
"Egypt," MECS 21 (1997): 309-11. See also Tal'at Rahim, Al-Wasat wal-Ikhwan
(Cairo: Markaz Yafa lil-Dirasat wal-Abhath, 1997).
   57. 'Isa in Al-' Arabi, August 3, 1998; Kurum in Al-Ahrar, July 28, 1994.
   58. Faraj Fuda, Al-Wafd wal-Mustaqbal (Cairo: n.p., 1983), 63. On Fuda's politi-
cal biography, see Hatina, Islam in Modern Egypt, 48-71.
   59. Meir Hatina, "On the Margins of Consensus: The Call to Separate Religion
and State in Modern Egypt," Middle Eastern Studies 36, no. 1 (2000): 55-60; Fuda
in Al-Ahrar, May 13, 1991, and Mayu, August 12, 1991. See also his Al-Nadhir
(Cairo: Dar Misr al-Jadida, 1989), 31-34. Fuda's amity toward political Islam and
his renouncement of the Shari'a's relevance to modern times resulted in his murder by
Islamist radicals in 1992.
   60. Yunan Labib Rizq and Abu Sayf Yusuf, Al-Ahali, July 22, 1992; Milad
Hanna, Qubul al-Akhar (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1998), 153-56. Other writers put
forward different accounts of Nasser's policy toward Islam. Amin al-Mahdi, for
example, argued that the revolution gave rise to the emergence of the religious trend.
In clashing with the Muslim Brothers, Nasser reinforced the status of al-Azhar as a
source of legitimization for his regime. As a result, al-Azhar gained state facilities and
a free hand in prosecuting advocates of civil and secular liberties. In al-Mahdi's
phrase, "al-Azhar became an Islamic Vatican." Some of its members also established
militant groups after the revolution. Amin al-Mahdi, Al-Sira'al-' Arabi al-Isra'ili:
Azmat al-Dimuqratiyya wal-Salam (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1999), 89-118. Other
writers claimed that the militaristic character of Nasser's rule, in which the norm was
blind obedience and an immutable conviction in the ultimate truth of the regime's
policies, inspired the thinking of radical Muslims. Fu'ad Zakariya, Al-Haqiqa wal-
Waham fi al-Haraka al-Islamiyya al-Mu'asira, 3d ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr, 1988),
111-12. See also Sayyid al-Qimani, Al-Fashiyun wal-Watan (Cairo: al-Markaz al-
Misri li-Buhuth al-Hadara, 1999), 59-64. A more equivocal evaluation was pre-
sented by Hasan Hanafi in Al-Ahrar, July 24, 1995; Al-Ahali, July 26, 1995.
   61. On government-Islamist opposition relations, see Barry Rubin, Islamic Fun-
damentalism in Egyptian Politics (London: Macmillan, 1990), 19-27, 150-55;
Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt, 215-31, 240-45; Hatina, Islam in Modern Egypt,
32-45. See also Ami Ayalon, Egypt's Quest for Cultural Orientation (Tel Aviv:
Moshe Dayan Center, 1999), 19-26, 30-40; Fouad Ajami, The Dream Palace of
the Arabs (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), 203-21. On Muslim-Copt relations,
see Ami Ayalon, "Egypt's Coptic Pandora's Box," in Ofra Bangio and Gabriel Ben-
Dor, eds., Minorities and the State in the Arab World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner,
1999), 53-71.





124 | Meir Hatina


   62. Tariq Hijji, Al-Thaqafa Awalan wa-Akhiran (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 2000),
31-32, 54-57.
   63. See, e.g., Mubarak, quoted in Al-Ahram, July 23, 1995; Al-Akhbar, July 24,
1997.
   64. On this, see also the introduction to this volume.
   65. 'Ali al-Dali in Mayu, September 5, 1983.
   66. Rajab al-Banna, Al-Ahram, July 28, 1991; Salah al-Din Hafiz in Al-Ahram,
July 31, 1991, July 23, 1993; Mursi 'Atallah in Al-Ahram, July 20, 1995; Ihsan Bakr
in Al-Ahram, July 22, 1995.
   67. Ahmad Faris Abd al-Mun'im, Al-Ahram, July 30, 1992; July 23, 1993; cAtif
al-Ghamri in Al-Ahram, July 27, 1994.
   68. Hafiz in Al-Ahram, July 24, 1991; Abd al-Mun'im in Al-Ahram, July 30,
1992.
   69. Jalal Dawaydar in Al-Akhbar, July 23, 1996.
   70. See, e.g., Najib Mafuz in Al-Ahram, July 23, 1992.
   71. Bakr and Jamal Hammad in Al-Ahram, July 22, 1995.
   72. Bakr in Al-Ahram, July 23, 1993; July 22, 1995.
   73. al-Banna in Al-Ahram, July 26, 1992; Munna Hilmi in Al-Ahram, July 26,
1994; cAtallah in Al-Ahram, July 20, 1995.
   74. See, e.g., Kurum in Al-Ahrar, July 27, 1995; Muhammad Abd al-Quddus in
Al-Sha'b, October 21, 1996. See also Hatina, "Egypt," MECS 21 (1997): 321-22;
Al-Ahram Weekly, May 3, 2001.
   75. See also Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic
Books, 1973), 204-5.
   76. The official celebration of another anniversary day that originated in the
revolutionary era, Evacuation Day (Yawm al-Jala') of the British troops from Egypt,
was abolished by Mubarak on the grounds that taking a day off would interrupt vital
national productivity. Other anniversary days, such as Police Day (January 25) and
Workers' Day (May 1), were retained because of their political significance. See Al-
Wafd, July 23, 1991; Sivan, Arabic Political Myths, 135-36.
   77. Within the leftist camp, only the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), an offspring of
the prerevolutionary Young Egypt movement, displayed a positive attitude toward
reinforcing the status of Islam in the state. This was mainly the result of the alliance
between the SLP and the Muslim Brothers established during the 1987 elections. The
alliance, however, provoked opposition within the SLP and exposed it to frequent
harassment by the government. See Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt, 201-2; Krsmer,
Agypten unter Mubarak, 68-73.
   78. Shuman in Al-'Arabi July 25, 1994; 'Isam cAmir in Al-Ahrar, July 25, 1994;
cAdil Husayn in Al-Sha'b, July 25, 1997; cAtallah in Al-Ahram, July 20, 1995. See
also Mubarak, quoted in Al-Ahram, July 24, 1997.
   79. See also Gordon, "Secular and Religious Memory in Egypt," 104-5.
   80. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 210-11.











Political and Social Aspects
of Nasserism












4


Nasserism's Legal Legacy

Accessibility, Accountability, and Authoritarianism


    Nathan J. Brown





Introduction

Liberal ideas of the rule of law have moved to the center of Arab political
discourse. To be sure, the Arab world continues to be known for autocratic
and arbitrary government. Nevertheless, rulers increasingly cite the rule of
law as a basis of governance and legitimacy, and their opponents increas-
ingly attempt to hold them to the liberal standards that the rulers themselves
articulate.
   Different political ideas have dominated Arab political debates. In the
1950s and 1960s, nationalist issues were paramount, and those regimes
suspicious of rising nationalist sentiments found themselves very much on
the defensive. In the 1960s, socialism joined nationalism as the prevailing
ideology in many Arab countries. Only a few regimes (chiefly the monar-
chies in the Arabian peninsula) eschewed the socialist label altogether. These
ideas have since receded, though they have not disappeared altogether. In
recent years, a new stress on legality and accountability, in its more liberal
forms, has emerged. Arab regimes increasingly justify their own existence in
terms of such ideas, and opposition political parties cast their critique of the
prevailing order by seeking to show that these regimes do not meet the
standards that they themselves set.
   There is a considerable range in the ideological elevation of the rule of
law, with several Islamic and liberal variants. Yet it is still striking how most
Arab societies have recently turned to the rule of law in their debates over the
proper political order. For instance, immediately after taking the throne, the
new kings of Morocco and Jordan both spoke of the necessity to uphold the





128 | Nathan J. Brown


rule of law. The Palestinian political leaders elected in 1996 took office with
an oath, which they themselves approved, to uphold a constitution that had
not yet been written. Several Arab governments have accepted offers from
international donors-including the European Union, the United States
Agency for International Development, and the World Bank-to provide
financial and technical support for building the rule of law. Many who re-
jected liberal principles in the past, often on the Marxist and non-Marxist
Left, have created human rights and other organizations based on liberal
legal principles.1 Even the Islamist opposition increasingly refers to liberal
legal principles and adopts the "rule of law" as a slogan.2
   The ideological reign of the rule of law may be short of hegemonic, but it
never fails in coloring recollections of the past. In other words, many Arab
leaders and intellectuals use such ideas not only to understand the present
but also to interpret the past. And the past (especially the 1950s and 1960s)
does not appear in a positive light from this new perspective. Arab socialism
stands out particularly poorly as an ideology that subverted the strength,
integrity, and autonomy of legal processes and institutions in service of au-
thoritarian goals. It must be emphasized that there is some truth in this
understanding of the past but some distortion as well.
   The liberal and legal critique of Arab socialism can be quite devastating in
its analysis of what was actually accomplished during the period, but it is
often misleading in presenting what Arab socialism promised. It is true that
liberal legal institutions were undermined, but only by way of attempting to
increase accountability. That is, Arab socialism did not simply repudiate
liberalism; rather, it often promised to meet liberal goals more effectively.
As such, an accurate portrayal of what Nasser's government promised and
what it delivered may help us to understand why some of the changes made
in the name of Arab socialism have been far more difficult to repudiate than
others.
   In this chapter, I will argue that prevailing liberal ideas have led to the
inaccurate image of Nasserism as an ill-advised social contract between the
ruler and the ruled. I will further argue that Nasserism presented itself at the
time as offering no such bargain. Indeed, far from undermining mechanisms
of accountability, Nasserism was to devise more effective ones. Thus, pre-
vailing interpretations of Nasserism in the Arab world (and in current schol-
arship) misstate the Nasserist project.
   The first section of this chapter will focus on current interpretations of
Nasserism. The second part will correct these interpretations by analyzing
Nasserism as it presented itself at the time. This more accurate understand-
ing of the ideology will help to explain the institutional changes that actually
took place and those that have since remained. In the third section, I will
thus move beyond the level of ideology to examine actual institutional





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 129


changes, focusing on ways in which Nasserism changed the prevailing legal
culture. In the final section, I will seek to show which elements of the Nas-
serist legal program have survived and why, as well as how Nasserism of-
fered a different sort of accountability and legality. The Nasserist vision was
not fully realized (nor even fully pursued), but it has left important institu-
tional traces that have inhibited some efforts to move to a fully liberal vision
of the rule of law.


The Nasserist Bargain Remembered

The Nasserist era is currently remembered-both inside and outside Egypt
-primarily for its authoritarianism and socialism. Both aspects of Nas-
serism have left a heavy burden on Egyptians today. Authoritarianism may
have diminished in its extent, but most of the political forms introduced in
the Nasserist period continue, including unchecked presidential authority,
abusive security services, limitations on political organization, and stultify-
ing bureaucracy. Similarly, socialism may no longer prevail as the official
ideology, but few political or economic analyses of Egypt are written with-
out reference to the bloated public sector, inefficient industry, unsustainable
welfare commitments, and limitations on private initiative and foreign in-
vestment.
   The two aspects of Nasserist governance are now generally seen as closely
related, insofar as authoritarianism and socialism are both aspects of unac-
countable state authority. Indeed, the relationship between authoritarianism
and socialism is seen to go still deeper, with prevailing views now casting
Nasserism as an implicit bargain between the ruler and the ruled. Egyptians
are held to have traded (or been compelled to trade) their political rights for
welfare gains during the Nasserist period, with talk of a "social contract"
widespread in many circles. Egyptians were guaranteed jobs, cheap food,
free education and medical care, and low rents (both in urban housing and
rural farming), for which they forfeited their political voice.
   The portrait of Nasserist politics as an exchange of freedom for bread
underlines much of the recent social science scholarship on the period. The
idea of the "allocation state" or the "no representation without taxation"
argument, for instance, is based on the assumption of an inverse relationship
between democratic governance and the provision of welfare services (or the
absence of material demands by the state).3 Social scientists have claimed
that when a state demands little materially from its citizens, or when it
becomes a primary source of welfare benefits, the sorts of links between state
and society necessary for liberal and democratic politics atrophy or fail to
develop. In other words, when the state taxes little but distributes a lot,
citizens look to their government not for a voice but only for material ben-





130 | Nathan J. Brown


efits. An innovative twist on this view casts material consumption itself as a
form of political participation: In a Nasserist (and post-Nasserist) environ-
ment, accepting state benefits becomes the principal form of political partici-
pation.4
   It should be noted that it was not social scientists who coined the term
social contract to refer to the supposed Nasserist bargain. Instead, it was
Egyptian intellectuals who sought to force their rulers to concede a measure
of political liberalization to accompany the economic liberalization that
began in the 1970s. By the 1980s, calls for a revised social contract were a
staple of Egyptian intellectual life.5 The Egyptian regime, in seeking to jetti-
son some of its welfare commitments from the Nasserist period, was por-
trayed as seeking to repudiate, or at least revise, the social contract. In return
for concessions on subsidies, employment, and housing, Egyptians would be
given a real voice in the country's governance.
   Egyptian intellectuals argued that the regime, which no longer provided
the sorts of services that citizens had come to expect, would have to offer
something else in return. If Egypt's leaders were forced to raise commodity
prices, unfreeze rents, and decrease welfare benefits, the only way that citi-
zens could accept such changes was to be brought into the decision-making
process. Thus, political reform was a necessary price that leaders would have
to pay if they wished to pursue economic reform.
   By casting Nasserism in this way, Egyptian intellectuals were setting up an
argument for political liberalization and even democratization. Thus, since
the mid-1970s, when Egypt embarked, albeit uncertainly, on economic lib-
eralization (al-in fitah al-iqtisadi), some intellectuals have insisted that such
measures be taken only if the citizenry could become more involved in the
process of governance. Only then would the short-term economic sacrifices
associated with liberalization be tolerable. Calls for a new social contract
were met with a limited official response: Political freedoms increased but
were kept circumscribed, and mechanisms of democratic accountability re-
mained embryonic at best. But the calls were not unheard. After being re-
elected to a fourth term in 1999, President Husni Mubarak picked up the
vocabulary, speaking extensively (though vaguely) of a new social contract
in Egypt. Therefore, the understanding of the Nasserist "social contract"
has a strong contemporary as well as historical focus.
   Did the Nasserist social contract actually exist? At a minimum, it con-
tains a degree of exaggeration, and its extreme identification with Nasser is
overdrawn. Many of the welfare commitments of the Nasserist period can
easily be traced back before 1952, generally to the period during and imme-
diately after World War II. Rent and price controls were imposed during the
war. Education was expanded throughout the twentieth century, and higher
education began to expand and become accessible to the middle class under





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 131


postwar governments. Social reform was a frequent theme of intellectual
writings beginning in the mid-1930s. Nationalist economic policies were not
an invention of the Free Officers; rather, they were made possible by Egypt's
legal independence. In the 1937 Montreux conference, Egypt's prerevolu-
tionary regime secured the abolition of the capitulations, which had barred
the country's government from jurisdiction over non-Egyptian citizens and
thus made it very difficult to implement any laws related to the economy. In
the fifteen years between the Montreux conference and the July 1952 coup,
Egyptian governments took advantage of the new freedom to enact some
restrictions on foreign investment and landownership.
   Even the authoritarian aspects of the Nasserist period-though quite real
-generally worked by modifying pre-July 1952 political structures rather
than repudiating them. There were some exceptions: The monarchy and the
pluralist party system were abolished outright. But many other institutional
changes-especially in the legal arena-involved less revolutionary changes,
as will be seen. Most legal and judicial structures continued to operate,
though there were periodic efforts to bring them under greater executive
domination. Most Egyptian institutions and structures were bent to serve
new ends.
   The image of Nasserism as a bargain of welfare gains in exchange for
political silence is thus perhaps less than accurate. Prerevolutionary govern-
ments laid the groundwork for the new welfare policies and some of the
authoritarian tools later developed more fully under Nasser. But the real
objection to the idea of the Nasserist social contract is more fundamental,
namely, that there simply was no such bargain, either explicit or implicit in
the Nasserist program. Rather than promising an end to accountability,
Nasserism promised a new and far more effective set of mechanisms to make
those who wielded authority accountable to the population.


Nasserism's True Promise

Nasserism repudiated liberal structures and ideologies. Yet it did so not by
repudiating liberal goals of accessibility and accountability but by promising
to meet those goals more effectively. The political and economic leadership
of the country was supposed to be made more responsive to popular inter-
ests and desires. Egypt was to become not a classless society but rather a
society in which no class could dominate another. Rather than losing their
voice, the people of Egypt were gaining new ways by which to express and
effect their desires.
   Socialism certainly meant an increase in state power, but this was pre-
sented as a means and not as an end. Arab socialism was not an ideology that
claimed to enhance the authority of the rulers; instead, it was purported to





132 | Nathan J. Brown


enhance the responsiveness of institutions to the people. Existing Egyptian
institutions and practices were portrayed as serving the elite or foreign inter-
ests. Parliamentary democracy was denounced not because of what it stood
for-popular accountability-but because it failed to provide that account-
ability in any meaningful way. The prerevolutionary order was denounced
because it forced lower-class Egyptians into positions of subservience. The
reorientation of Egyptian society promised by the July 1952 Revolution was
not simply institutional in nature; indeed, cultural changes went far deeper.
As other contributions in this volume demonstrate, Egyptian cultural life
became increasingly populist.
   A radical shift in the officially propagated images of peasants and work-
ers illustrates this most dramatically. Throughout the first half of the twen-
tieth century, the most common word used to describe Egyptian peasants
was ignorant.6 Urban workers generally fared little better. The root of offi-
cial and intellectual disdain for lower-class Egyptians was a strong cultural
estrangement. In the 1930s and 1940s, the prevailing language began to
change: Peasants were still deemed victims of ignorance, but this provoked
reform efforts, albeit limited and often paternalistic, rather than contempt.
   In the 1950s, and especially in the 1960s, Egypt enthusiastically adopted
a nationalist "myth of the peasant"-a more radical version of the populist
glorification of the peasantry current in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-
century European nationalist movements. Peasants were transformed from
the embodiment of ignorance to a symbol of authenticity. And peasants were
not alone in acquiring new symbolic power. Urban workers joined in the
nationalist favor, too. The Egyptian revolution was now a social revolution
that enabled the downtrodden-workers and peasants alike-to stand with
pride rather than subservience alongside their erstwhile social superiors. The
abolition of titles was a first symbolic step in this direction, but by the 1960s
the new populism was far more widespread. Nationalist art adopted the
gallabiyya-clad peasant as the symbol of the nation, celebrated as well in
songs and films.
   The new populism extended beyond symbolism to state institutions,
though this reorientation took more time. Despite the Free Officers' first
fateful decision to ruthlessly crush a strike in Kafr al-Dawwar, by the end of
the 1950s the regime had shifted to co-optation, and labor unions had be-
come a pillar of the regime.7 The 1952 Land Reform was the first concrete
step taken by the regime to demonstrate its commitment to Egypt's rural
majority. While the land redistribution was the most prominent act, the
revolutionary government accompanied this measure by other far-reaching
steps, such as rent control and the formation of agricultural cooperatives. By
the time the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) was formed in the next decade, the





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 133


regime had moved beyond claiming to act for workers and peasants. It now
promised to represent them in a more active sense. Half of the seats in par-
liament were reserved for workers and peasants, who formed two of the
most critical "working forces of the nation."
   Thus, even as the old structures of the parliamentary monarchy were
being dismantled or brought to a standstill, new structures and practices
were emerging that promised to represent and serve all the people of Egypt.
Egypt's multiparty system and its monarchy had proved incapable of work-
ing for the people's interests, according to the new regime. It was claimed
that Egypt's leaders before July 1952 had represented only themselves or
petty and partisan interests. The central creed of the revolution, then, was
not simply that it would act in the people's interest but that it would speak
with their voice. Socially and politically dominant elites could no longer rule
for their own benefit; they had to account for their actions to the people.
   The Nasserist promise of accountability clashed most severely with lib-
eral conceptions in the area of law. For the Nasserist regime, the law was to
hold authorities accountable not so much by constitutional mechanisms as
by anticipating and serving popular needs. This can be seen most clearly in
the attempt to bring about a new Nasserist vision of law in the form of a new
socialist legality. Although this vision was never fully implemented, it was
much discussed.8
   Prior to July 1952, Egypt's legal elite had been largely liberal and nation-
alist in outlook. The bar association was a bastion of nationalist sentiments.
Its struggle for national independence had concentrated on securing the
abolition of the capitulations. Many members of the country's pre-July
1952 political elite had legal training as well. With a few exceptions, most
of these made the transition to the post-July 1952 regime fairly easily. While
there were some clashes between the legal elite and the regime during the
1950s, the conflict was generally muted. The first few years of the regime
saw the construction of a series of special courts and show trials to move
against adversaries and old-regime political leaders. The legal community
withheld public criticism of these measures. In 1954 and 1955, Nasser si-
lenced the country's previously bold administrative court structure and
again encountered little opposition. In 1956, the regime finally issued a new
constitution that concentrated authority in the hands of the president. De-
spite such measures, however, the bulk of Egypt's legal system remained
unchanged. Not until later did the regime begin to articulate an alternative
legal vision.
   Beginning in the mid-1960s, a group of leading political and legal figures
called for a transformation of Egypt's legal culture. Some limited their ap-
peals to the area of legislative change, specifically for laws supportive of





134 | Nathan J. Brown


socialist transformation.9 Others pushed even further for an entirely new
socialist legal orientation, arguing that fundamental changes were needed as
part of the effort to build a socialist society.
   On an ideological level, the new socialist legality was to repudiate liberal
ideas about law. The separation of powers was denounced as a capitalist
ruse. Much of Egyptian legislation was condemned because it was written
before July 1952, making Egypt's laws the alleged products of imperialism,
feudalism, and capitalism. Of course, new laws could be written, but that
process would take time. In the meantime, judges were urged to value
socialist principles over the letter of the prerevolutionary law. This new
orientation was advocated by those who claimed that it would serve the
people and their interests far more faithfully than a literal emphasis on the
law. Law was held to be the tool of the people and, as such, should advance
rather than inhibit the realization of their desires. Furthermore, judges
should not attempt to insulate themselves from popular pressures; instead,
they should seek to serve the people. The old emphasis on judicial indepen-
dence was criticized as merely creating a judicial ruling class that was
isolated from the people. In short, this new socialist legality was to make
the legal system much more accountable to the people than the old liberal,
elitist order.
   The fullest articulation of the call for a new socialist jurisprudence and
legal structure appeared in a series of editorials by 'Ali Sabri in Al-Jumhuriyya
in March 1967. The institutionalization of the new socialist legality en-
tailed a series of structural changes, according to 'Ali Sabri and other fel-
low advocates. 'Ali Sabri himself focused on the inclusion of the judiciary
in the ASU, and this topic drew the most attention in public discussions
(and probably in private deliberations of the political leadership of the
country). Yet, while attention was devoted to the idea, proposals remained
fairly vague. Other proposals were made, such as unifying Egypt's judi-
ciary under a single supreme court that would be responsible for striking
down inappropriate, prerevolutionary laws and recommending changes in
legislation. Popular participation in the judiciary was discussed, some-
times with the idea of electing judges or appointing prominent public per-
sonalities to serve on the bench; most frequently, some sort of jury system
was advocated.
   It is quite easy to be cynical about these ideas in hindsight. Indeed, in view
of the authoritarian measures taken in the name of the socialist legality, as
well as the broader failures of Nasserism, it is difficult to avoid harsh judg-
ments of the regime. Yet, before moving to survey what the regime did, it is
necessary to understand what it promised (and quite probably sought) to do.
Egypt's leaders did not ask residents to accept authoritarianism; on the con-
trary, it offered them more meaningful participation.10





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 135


Nasserism's Legality in Practice: Delivery on the Promise?

As harshly as Nasserism is remembered by its critics, and as hard-pressed as
its apologists are to defend its record in the legal arena, the situation was far
different during the Nasserist heyday of the 1960s. Then it was the liberals
who struggled to justify their resistance to the new socialist legality without
repudiating it totally. Rather than the liberals, the harshest contemporary
critics of the Nasserist legal record were those who claimed that it did not go
far enough. Most direct criticism while Nasser was still alive focused not on
rejecting the Nasserist offer of greater accountability but rather on claiming
that more radical action was necessary to meet it.
   The ambitious proposals floated in the 1960s, at the height of Nasserist
ideologies, were never fully implemented. Indeed, the period saw institu-
tional changes that, though significant, constituted far less than the legal
revolution called for by the Nasserists. Only at the end of Nasser's presi-
dency did the regime move wholeheartedly in the direction of the new social-
ist legality, and then only for a limited time. For most of the 1950s, and even
for much of the 1960s, the regime successfully avoided the legal system by
constructing a series of exceptional courts and removing issues deemed criti-
cal from the purview of the courts.
   Throughout the Nasserist period, concrete changes in the legal system
itself were largely limited to two areas: first, there was a marked decrease in
the independence of the judiciary, justified in terms of popular needs and
desires; and second, the courts were made more accessible.

Judicial Independence
Despite the regime's reputation for contempt of the judiciary, there were
only two periods during which an effort was made to subjugate the judiciary.
The first was an outcome of the March 1954 crisis involving a confrontation
between the supporters and opponents of a return to constitutional life. The
Free Officers-led by Nasser himself-who opposed the return to the bar-
racks saw 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri (the country's leading jurist) and the
State Council he headed as a clear obstacle." While the State Council had
provided a key legal rationale for the Free Officers when they deposed the
king and later abolished the monarchy, it was becoming less helpful over
time. Al-Sanhuri had helped draft a post-July 1952 constitution, which the
regime regarded as premature and far too liberal and democratic. The State
Council clearly would have had no choice but to support an application of
the existing legal order for which the Free Officers had little respect. Conse-
quently, the regime sponsored a violent demonstration at al-Sanhuri's office,
which degenerated into a physical assault on one of the most influential legal
figures of Arab history.





136 | Nathan J. Brown


   Shortly thereafter, al-Sanhuri was dismissed on the pretext that he had
served as a minister before the July 1952 coup and was thus tainted by the
old order. The following year, a new law reorganizing the State Council was
decreed, and all existing members of the body were dismissed. While most
were immediately reappointed, about twenty were retired or assigned to
nonjudicial positions. Dismissing al-Sanhuri allowed the regime to scuttle
his draft constitution as well-or at least to introduce substantial changes.
Al-Sanhuri's committee had envisaged the replacement of Egypt's monarchi-
cal regime with a parliamentary one. The regime opted instead for a presi-
dential system. The resulting document, promulgated in 1956 and followed
by a series of revisions, allowed in practice for almost unlimited presidential
power; it made Nasser a far more dominant figure than the kings who had
preceded him.
   In 1969, a more systematic effort was undertaken to subjugate the rest of
the judicial system. Oddly, the move came more than two years after the
series of editorials by 'Ali Sabri referred to above. The judiciary itself consti-
tuted an obstacle. The Judges' Club-hitherto a social rather than a political
body-sensed the possibility of change and issued a call in 1968 for the
regime to engage in some liberalizing reforms. Weakened after the June 1967
War and facing rising domestic opposition, Egypt's rulers did not immedi-
ately respond. When action was finally taken in the summer of 1969, only
some of the steps advocated by the socialist critics of the legal system were
adopted.
   The most notorious measure-the "massacre of the judiciary"-resembled
the 1955 move against the State Council. In the name of judicial reorganiza-
tion, all existing judicial personnel were dismissed, subject to reappoint-
ment. Most were reappointed, but the more politically troublesome judges
were retired or given other assignments. This time, however, the regime did
not stop with a change in personnel. An effort was made to build a new
institutional structure for the judiciary. The measures were explicitly justi-
fied in terms borrowed from the call for a new socialist legality. A new
Supreme Court was created to stand above the entire judicial apparatus,
ruling not simply on the basis of legislated texts but also according to the
needs and desires of the people. The explanatory memorandum to the de-
cree-law establishing the court argued as follows:
   While the state has dealt with many of the most apparent inadequacies
   of legislation, the task of the judiciary in interpreting and applying is
   what sets into motion stagnant texts. The legislator depends on, or is
   hindered by, his task according to what is handed down in the way of
   interpretation of texts, especially because legislation is not always able
   to follow the changes that occur in a society with the necessary speed.





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 137


   This makes the task of the judge in the stage of transition to socialism
   of the utmost importance and ensures his vanguard role and his re-
   sponsibility to preserve the values of the society and its principles as an
   element completing his independence. The independence of the judge
   is not a characteristic the society bestows on him; rather, it is estab-
   lished in the interests of justice and the people.12

   In addition to the Supreme Court, a new organization for judicial ap-
pointment and promotion-the Supreme Council of Judicial Organizations
-replaced the older Supreme Judicial Council. The cumbersome change in
name obscured a fundamental political shift. The older body allowed for a
considerable amount of judicial independence by placing most matters relat-
ing to the judiciary in the hands of a body composed only of judges. The new
body not only had a longer name; it also was placed under the chairmanship
of the president of the republic (and effectively under the watchful eye of his
minister of justice). This was designed to ensure that the judiciary would no
longer stand aloof from the people but would now be held accountable to
popular will.
   While the measures of 1969 were far-reaching, they did not resolve all the
matters raised by the socialist critics of the legal order. First, the reforms
were issued by presidential decree, giving them a fairly precarious legal ba-
sis. Any permanent changes would eventually require changes in legislation
and even the constitutional text. The new structures did represent a far
stronger measure of executive control of the judiciary, but there was no
guarantee that the result would be a positive move toward developing social-
ist jurisprudence. Judges were not brought into the ASU, as many had pro-
posed, and the ideological bent of the new structures, such as the Supreme
Court, would depend on presidential appointment. Adoption of some of the
other measures suggested, such as popular participation in the judiciary, was
postponed.
   Only in 1971 were the changes of 1969 given a constitutional basis and,
to some extent, even furthered. Egypt's "permanent constitution" of 1971
gave the new socialist legality a stronger basis by enshrining the new insti-
tutions-the Supreme Court and the Supreme Council of Judicial Organi-
zations-in its text. Indeed, the 1971 constitution went even further by
mandating some popular role in the judicial process, though it fell short of
specifying what this would mean in practice. Moreover, an entirely new
office was created: the Socialist Public Prosecutor, responsible for "taking
procedures to secure the rights of the people, the safety of the society and its
political system, and commitment to socialist behavior."" The post was to
be filled by presidential appointment and was to assume responsibility,
along with a new Court of Sequestration (Mahkamat al-Hirasa), for im-





138 | Nathan J. Brown


pounding the assets of political and economic adversaries of the prevailing
order.

Accessibility
The second effect of Nasserism was to make courts far more accessible to
most Egyptians. This was accomplished through three sorts of measures,
two of them intentional. First, legislative changes of the Nasserist period
gave workers and tenants greater rights than they had previously enjoyed,
with evictions, confiscations, and dismissals becoming more subject to re-
view by the courts. In a sense, the effect of Nasserist reforms was to recon-
figure property rights in some fundamental ways. This was often done by
converting previous emergency measures (such as rent control on urban
housing) to permanent status. Sometimes, as with land reform, Nasserism
exceeded similar previous measures. The result was to render ownership of
farmland or urban real estate restricted to only two privileges. First, the
landlord was entitled to collect rent only in accordance with the amount
fixed by the state. Second, the landlord could reclaim a property only if all
members of the tenant's family had vacated it. However, even these limited
rights were difficult to enforce because the courts were clogged by a tremen-
dous amount of litigation involving just such matters. A landlord wishing to
evict a tenant had few legal rights and even fewer tools to use.14
   Indeed, this was the second measure adopted in the Nasserist period:
Specific steps were taken, or not taken, as the case may be, to make it easier
for Egyptians to go to court. Workers filing labor cases were forgiven court
fees; other court fees (fixed by law in the 1930s) were never adjusted to keep
face with inflation, which effectively reduced them greatly. In some ways,
courts were more accessible to working-class litigants than to their wealthier
counterparts. In some commercial cases, where fees are determined by the
value of the case, a significant commercial dispute can carry with it very high
litigation costs.
   Third, the Nasserist period saw law schools open to enormous numbers
of students and thus lose considerable prestige. Many Egyptian legal figures,
very proud of the country's strong legal traditions, regarded this phenom-
enon with horror. Having the unintentional effect of flooding the country
with lawyers, the move did not allow most graduates to enter full-time legal
practice. However, the result was to bring legal counsel within the financial
capacities of large numbers of Egyptians.
   Whereas in many countries the complaint is often heard that justice goes
to the wealthy, in Nasser's Egypt justice went to the patient. Litigation often
did not cost much money, but it absorbed tremendous amounts of time. Like
the universities, the courts changed. Now filled with lower- and middle-class
Egyptians seeking justice, the courtrooms were no longer austere, distant,





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 139


and forbidding; instead, they had become places where the country's elite
felt increasingly uncomfortable.
   Older Egyptians often speak of the changes wrought by Nasserism in
Egypt's urban geography. Before the revolution, poorer Egyptians were not
welcome in certain sections of Cairo. Garden City, parts of the Nile bank,
and Qasr al-Nil Street were for pashas and professionals. Those wearing
gallabiyyas were welcome only as servants, doormen, and laborers. This is
often held to have changed after the revolution. Members of the old elite
decry the resulting deterioration, as formerly quiet and fashionable areas
have become crowded, noisy, and dilapidated. Other Egyptians wax nostal-
gic not for prerevolutionary Cairo but for the revolutionary period that
brought the collapse of the elitist era.
   In a sense, the courts are no different. Nasserism is held responsible-for
good or ill-for opening Egyptian courts to all comers. The charge is largely
accurate. The imposing structure built to house the Mixed Courts (which
had jurisdiction over cases involving foreign interests until they were abol-
ished in 1949) was transformed into the seat of the Court of Cassation (the
supreme appellate court for the regular judiciary) and other high judicial
bodies; it now stands as an overcrowded, decaying monument to Nasserist
legal reform.


Lingering Nasserist Legacy

In the 1970s, Nasserist ideology was gradually abandoned. The transforma-
tion initially took the form of correction rather than open repudiation. The
regime promised not to draw up a new social contract but to meet the
Nasserist promise of accountability and welfare more effectively. The initia-
tives of the late 1960s, especially in the legal realm, were criticized for not
meeting these goals. Rather than make the political and economic authori-
ties more accountable, they had built up unaccountable "centers of power."
Welfare commitments were either maintained or expanded for most of the
1970s.
   The first area of "correction" centered on various legal institutions. The
judges dismissed in Nasser's 1969 "massacre of the judiciary" were rein-
stated, and Anwar al-Sadat apologized to them. The position of socialist
public prosecutor was maintained, but with a greatly reduced role that was
completely removed from socialism. The legal changes of the late 1960s and
early 1970s gave the regime many tools for remolding the judiciary. Sadat
used few of these tools and gradually discarded most of them totally. The
Supreme Court was changed to a Supreme Constitutional Court in 1979;
now given an unprecedented degree of independence, the court turned from
its former mission of promoting socialism to a new mission of enforcing the





140 | Nathan J. Brown


liberal freedoms vaguely promised by the 1971 constitution.15 The Supreme
Council of Judicial Organizations, while maintained, had most of its author-
ity taken away, and the older, exclusively judicial organs (including the Su-
preme Judicial Council) were revived. The State Council regained its au-
tonomy.16 By the early 1980s, the effects of the Nasserist legal revolution on
the judiciary had been completely erased.
   Yet the post-Nasserist regime had far more difficulty jettisoning its com-
mitment to increased accessibility. The changes of the Nasserist era in this
regard were approached gingerly if at all. Legislative changes in favor of
workers, urban renters, and rural tenants were left alone for two decades,
and only in the 1990s were some legislative changes made. Thus, the law
continued to give significant protection to large numbers of Egyptians, who
turned to the courts in increasing numbers. Furthermore, post-Nasserist
governments have made no move to change the various procedural ways in
which courts have become user-friendly to poorer litigants (such as low
court fees). Instead, the emphasis has been on finding ways to cope with the
large number of cases rather than on decreasing the burden. For instance,
the government has moved to create a system in which judicial personnel are
assigned to prepare a civil case in order to ensure that it is actually ready for
trial. Egyptian courtrooms remain noisy, crowded, and inefficient places.
Like other public services opened up to the middle class and sometimes the
working class during the Nasserist period (such as public transportation),
the effect has been to emphasize quantity rather than quality.
   Indeed, it is notable in this regard that Egypt's rulers have maintained
significant trappings of Nasserist socialism to this day. The 1971 constitu-
tion, written as Nasserism was only just beginning to recede, contains strong
welfare commitments, extensive references to socialism, a requirement for
the representation of workers and peasants in parliament, and a recognition
of the leading role of the public sector. Over the three decades since its
adoption, the regime moved to modify this language only once (in 1979),
and then only in the most limited way. Some of the constitution's provisions
have been gutted (so that a peasant has become virtually anyone who works
in, or has studied, agriculture). Other elements of the constitution (such as
those related to the public sector) have met with little enforcement. But the
regime remains unwilling to consider constitutional reform, as often as the
idea comes up. It is not merely increased liberalization that is feared; it is also
public repudiation of the Nasserist legacy and commitments.
   In short, Egypt's rulers have had a far easier time in increasing the inde-
pendence of the judiciary than they have had in diminishing the accessibility
of the courts. Nasserism continues to color Egyptian law-not by making it
answer immediately to rulers but by making it accessible to the people. Pre-
cisely for that reason, however, the lingering effects of the Nasserist promise





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 141


harm economic liberalization. The problem is that the courts are seen not as
overly politicized but as inefficient and overburdened with petty problems of
estranged wives, tenacious tenants, and dismissed workers.
   Liberally minded economists and business leaders regard the Egyptian
legal system with horror. Cases take years to decide, petty cases clog the
courts, and judges are expected to rule in hundreds of cases without being
given the necessary administrative support to make rulings, much less imple-
ment them. Rather than reform the system, business leaders seek to opt out
of it by developing their own arbitration mechanisms. In 1994, a new
arbitration law greatly expanded the legal support for arbitration in Egypt.
Egyptians who can afford to avoid the legal system generally seek to do so;
many have abandoned Egypt's courts in the same way that they have de-
serted some of the older wealthy neighborhoods.


Conclusion

In 1991, one of the most prominent judges in Egypt told me: "Give us two
more years and we will destroy everything Nasser did to this country." His
prediction was inaccurate; an entire decade since then has yet to erase
Nasserism's effects. Some elements of the Nasserist legal revolution have
been extremely difficult to remove. Indeed, the lingering effects of the Nas-
serist legality actually extend far beyond the country's borders. After all,
Nasserism not only represented a specific kind of socialism; it also contained
a strong commitment to pan-Arabism. And Egyptian legal influence in the
Arab world probably reached its height during the Nasserist period. Legal
officials in the Arabian Gulf still talk of "Egyptian imperialism."
   Arab countries gaining their independence have generally turned to Egypt
for assistance in drafting their constitutions and law codes, staffing their law
schools, and serving as judges and even as lawyers. While the Nasserist
regime was suspicious of the country's old legal elite, it generally greeted this
turn to the Egyptian model quite warmly. While Nasser did prevent his
nemesis al-Sanhuri from traveling abroad to help some countries write their
law codes and constitutions, hundreds of other Egyptians managed to go
(and al-Sanhuri contributed as well, though he was forced to do so by mail).
The Kuwaiti constitution was drafted by one of al-Sanhuri's students; the
Iraqi law code was drafted by al-Sanhuri himself.
   The export of Egyptian law has not ceased. Egyptian judges and law
professors continue to travel to give legal advice, adjudicate disputes, and
teach students. Egyptian lawyers continue to dominate law faculties in the
Gulf. Egyptian law books are studied in law schools throughout the Arab
world, and Egyptian court decisions are studied not simply by students but
by judges as well.17 The most recent effort in the Arab world at legal con-





142 | Nathan J. Brown


struction-the Palestinian Authority-has already turned heavily to Egyp-
tian models, texts, and expertise.
   Thus, wherever one goes in the Arab world, one encounters Egyptian
laws, constitutional provisions, judges, and textbooks. And one hears that
the courts are clogged and inefficient. To be sure, some of these flaws stem
not from Nasserism but from the much earlier Egyptian adaptation of a civil
law system. Nevertheless, with housing and labor law in the Arab world
often dominated by Egyptian language and written by Egyptian-trained law-
yers, it is difficult to deny that Nasserist Egypt exported not only its texts
and personnel but also its problems.
   The Nasserist promise amounted to greater accountability and accessibil-
ity through Arab socialism. In reality, this promise was only partially ful-
filled. On the one hand, Nasserism delivered authoritarianism rather than
accountability. On the other hand, increased accessibility was given and
even appears to be permanent, at least in part. In Egypt today, the regime
eschews vague socialism for vague liberalism. The rule of law has replaced
the rule of the people. Once again, accountability is promised while author-
itarianism is delivered-though generally in a less heavy-handed manner
than existed under Nasser. Yet, despite the abandonment of socialism, the
increased accessibility to legal institutions promised by Nasser is a burden
that the current regime cannot find a way to repudiate.


Notes

   1. For an example of an Egyptian Marxist adopting a liberal, rule-of-law critique
of the Egyptian revolution, see Salah 'Isa, "Huquq al-Insan fi Dasatir al-Batrirkiyya
al-Thawriyya bayna al-Jumhuriyya al-Ri'asiyya wal-Jumhuriyya al-Barlamaniyya"
(Human rights in the constitutions of revolutionary patriarchalism between presi-
dential republicanism and parliamentary republicanism), Al-Yasar (January 2000):
15-30.
   2. See, e.g., the statements of various Hamas leaders in "Role of the Opposition:
Dialogue," Shu'un Tanmawiyya 7 (autumn 1998): 18-28. I have argued elsewhere
that Islamist conceptions of the rule of law show evidence of growing-though still
not unlimited-hospitality to liberal conceptions. See Constitutions in a Noncon-
stitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and the Prospects for Accountable Government
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), chap. 6.
   3. See, e.g., Giacomo Luciani, ed., The Arab State (Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1990); Lisa Anderson, "Absolutism and the Resilience of Monarchy in the
Middle East," Political Science Quarterly 106, no. 1 (1991): 1.
   4. Diane Singerman, Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in
Urban Quarters of Cairo (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
   5. The leading journal, Al-Ahram al-Iqtisadi, carried regular articles on the "new
social contract."





Nasserism's Legal Legacy | 143


   6. I have written of the "ignorance" of Egyptian peasants elsewhere; see Peasant
Politics in Modern Egypt: The Struggle against the State (New Haven: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1990), chap. 3.
   7. See Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Nationalism,
Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954 (Princeton: Prince-
ton University Press, 1987).
   8. The discussion of socialist legality in the next several paragraphs draws on my
earlier work, The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Gulf
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Readers wishing a more detailed
treatment of the proposed socialist legality should consult chapter 4 of that book.
   9. See, e.g., "Changing of the Laws," Al-Akhbar, August 28, 1966; the editorial,
"The Legal Revolution," Al-Jumhuriyya, August 28, 1966; Jamal al-'Utayfi, "On
the Road to Socialist Legality," Al-Ahram, October 20, 1967.
   10. It is interesting in this regard that while Sadat moved uncertainly in a more
liberal direction, he could present himself as far more explicitly authoritarian in his
paternalistic self-portrait as the head of the Egyptian family. In the 1950s and 1960s,
such rhetoric was eschewed; the president was portrayed as being one with the
people, not their father.
   11. The State Council served both as an advisory body to the executive on legal
matters and as the country's administrative court structure, adjudicating in disputes
wherein a state organ was a party.
   12. The text is printed in 'Abdallah Imam, Madhbahat al-Qada (Cairo: Maktabat
Madbuli, 1976), 136-37.
   13. Article 179, Permanent Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
   14. In doing research on litigation in Egypt in the early 1990s-when the Nas-
serist legal changes still prevailed in housing matters-I came across far more cases
of landlords using indirect measures (such as allowing housing to fall into disrepair
or keeping a small herd of water buffalo on the roof) than going to the courts. Even
in the rare instance in which the landlord had the law on his side, tenants could use
a variety of methods to drag litigation out over several years.
   15. See Nathan J. Brown, "Judicial Review in the Arab World," Journal of De-
mocracy 9 (October 1998): 85-99.
   16. James H. Rosberg, "Roads to the Rule of Law: The Emergence of an Indepen-
dent Judiciary in Contemporary Egypt," Ph.D. thesis, Department of Political Sci-
ence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995.
   17. In giving lectures to audiences in several Arab countries, I have generally
found that Egyptian legal authorities and structures (and even important court deci-
sions) need little explanation because they are already familiar.











5



Sports, Society, and Revolution

Egypt in the Early Nasserite Period


    Yoav Di-Capua


    Sports create a collective spirit . . . and we are in need of such a spirit,
    since individualism ruined the basis of our power.
    Muhammad Nagib, Al-Ahram, July 27, 1953

    The history of societies is more widely reflected in the way they spend
    their leisure than in their work or politics
    Herold Perkin, sports historian, quoted in Neil Tranter, Sport, Economy,
    and Society in Britain, 1750-1914, 94



Introduction

In the aftermath of World War II, Egyptian public life was turbulent and
characterized by a deep sense of dissatisfaction. The apparent failure of
Egypt's liberal experiment worried the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Like-
wise, the failure to transform Egypt's agrarian structure into a more egali-
tarian one weighed heavily on the shoulders of Egypt's rural inhabitants. A
profound stasis in economic life concerned both workers and the middle class.
And ultimately, Egypt's failure to free itself from the yoke of British imperial-
ism affected Egyptian society as a whole. Students, intellectuals, urban work-
ers, peasants, and the petit-bourgeoisie were all disillusioned by the failure
to secure Egypt's independence. It was a pessimistic and disillusioned period.
   Trying to deal with this gloomy atmosphere, the Free Officers strove to
reshape all aspects of Egypt's public life. Political institutions were abol-
ished, the king was deported, economic life took a new direction, and social
and agrarian reforms were launched. These transformations were by no
means limited to the political and social arenas. A cultural revolution was





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 145


silently taking place as well. Honorific titles (pasha) were abolished; a new
dress code was introduced to include the "safari suit" and the abolition of
the tarbush. In addition, the regime introduced new experimental revolu-
tionary art, new symbolic language, revisionist historiography, and inspiring
revolutionary myths.1 Changes in public architecture and public iconogra-
phy were compatible with this trend. In short, a new revolutionary culture
was gradually taking shape.
   This is the departure point for our inquiry. The aim of this chapter is to
discuss and analyze the role and importance of sports in Egypt's revolution-
ary regime. In particular, I will focus on a specific trend, namely, the "sports
revival" movement launched by President Muhammad Nagib, which domi-
nated Egyptian sports until the mid-1950s. In the late 1950s, this movement
seemed to disintegrate, with Nasser directing sports in a slightly different
way, one which remained dominant well into the 1970s. This second stage in
the evolution of sports under the revolution will be briefly discussed here as
well.
   A close look at the history of Egyptian sports before and after the July
1952 Revolution reveals a break in the way in which sports were conceived,
practiced, and organized. Of course, in some long-term respects (especially
those related to the famous football clubs) there was also continuity, but in
the years under discussion the overall picture is one of swift change. This
change requires an explanation that views sports in the wider context of
Egypt's political community, morals, common values, aspirations, and so-
cial bonds. In other words, sports can offer a sensitive and insightful way of
looking at the changing identities and political preferences of peoples and
regimes.
   In the following pages, I will depict the change that occurred in the field
of sports. I will argue that the way in which sports were perceived and
practiced reveals a great deal about the challenges and goals that faced the
new regime, as well as about its populist style. In particular, sports revealed
the need of the regime to modernize Egypt. Thus the main suppositions of
modernization, such as a binary perception of center and periphery, were
accepted and reflected through sports. In order to understand the realities
that the revolution aspired to change and the patterns by which its continu-
ity was sustained, we now turn to discuss the role of sports in the first half
of the twentieth century.

Sports under the Monarchy

At the risk of oversimplification, it is possible to say that in the period
preceding the revolution, sports were evident in two major and conflicting
forms: the colonial, elite sports clubs and the Egyptian indigenous sports





146 | Yoav Di-Capua


unions. These frameworks rendered services to different communities (both
of which were marginal in terms of population percentages) and therefore
belonged to different social, national, and cultural environments. However,
they were not unknown to each other. The Egyptian sports unions were a
later development of the colonial clubs and can be read as a nationalist
response to them.
   Generally speaking, modern sports were introduced to Egyptian society
by the British colonizer.2 The first sports clubs that were established, or
appropriated, by the British favored the Indian model. This implies that
sports clubs combined sports with sociocultural activity.3 The members of
the urban sports clubs (mainly in Cairo and Alexandria) belonged to the
upper class. Magda Baraka, a social historian of Egypt, attempts to charac-
terize this group in social and economic terms, and suggests identifying it by
three sociocultural parameters: wealth, descent and kinship, and education
and behavior.4 By adopting these parameters, she highlights the cultural cri-
terion of lifestyle, crucial for an understanding of sports clubs within their
social milieu.
   Notwithstanding the difficulty of definition, a word is in order regarding
the formulation of clubs in terms of the members' national and ethnic iden-
tity. The Gazira club in central Cairo serves as an example for member
profiles in the colonial clubs. Up to 80 percent of members were either Brit-
ish officials and their families or Anglo-Egyptians (i.e., British citizens who
resided permanently in Egypt).5 Whether they were administrators, teachers,
businessmen, or army officers, they were all functionaries in the colonial
apparatus.6 The rest were "foreigners."' Unlike the British, who for the most
part had arrived in Egypt as a result of the 1882 occupation, the "foreign-
ers" had lived in Egypt for a longer period. By far the smallest and most
insignificant class of members was that of the aristocratic Egyptian families.
Originally from the countryside, these families left the village and immi-
grated to the city in order to create a dual economic and political power
base. This pattern set in motion a modernization process (modern educa-
tion, vocational training, involvement in politics, etc.), which included
sports activities as well.8 In a wider context, all three classes constituted only
a small portion of the population as a whole. Most Egyptians living in rural
areas had a different lifestyle altogether and hence did not practice modern
sports activities or any other form of modern leisure.9
   Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim's work on the Alexandria club demonstrates
the kind of cultural atmosphere that prevailed in the sports clubs.10 The
mentality of the British elite and upper class was dominant. The lingua
franca in the clubs was either English or French. The use of Arabic was not
looked upon with favor among these classes." Moreover, since the cultural
background of the members was mainly European, Egyptian customs hardly





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 147


infiltrated the clubs. This widespread acceptance of European lifestyle was
also reflected by the members' preferences in food and dress.
   A brief look at the types of sports activities practiced in the clubs reveals
an elitist taste as well. Golf, polo, horse riding, shooting, archery, hunting,
yacht sailing, and swimming were integral parts of British upper-class cul-
ture. Needless to say, this culture was inaccessible and alien to the average
Egyptian citizen. Popular sports, such as football, boxing, wrestling, and
weightlifting, which were practiced by the British working classes, were slow-
ly introduced to the urban Egyptian middle class. The limited types of sports
activities that required cooperation and teamwork suggests that colonial
sports in Egypt stressed individualism and distinctiveness as favored values.
These types of sports were compatible with the image of the aristocratic
sportsman. The genuine aristocrat was presented as someone who was so-
cialized from a very early stage in life to appreciate various sports. As op-
posed to the nouveau riche, who concentrated on the consumption of goods,
the aristocrat made it clear that it was not so much about luxury as it was
about hierarchy and differentiation.
   Sports clubs were planned in advance in order to serve as social clubs,
accessible only to those familiar with the British and colonial cultural codes.12
It was in these places that the well-to-do families could intermingle and
socialize. Intermarriage and business relations among club members were
common. One should also bear in mind that in the absence of sophisticated
forms of organization (municipalities, town councils, and civil organiza-
tions), the clubs served as a place in which decisions were informally made
regarding communal matters.13
   It follows that the sociocultural reality in the Egyptian clubs was derived
from the way in which sports functioned and were perceived in Britain itself.
British sports historian Neil Tranter has argued that "for most of the social
elite sport was an opportunity for differentiation not conciliation. And was
used to restrict rather than expand contact with social inferiors."14 This
tendency was appropriated by the British colonizer and put into practice in
India as well as in Egypt.
   Recent criticism of colonial rule suggests that colonial systems, while
propagating the colonizer's culture under the guise of accessibility and
equality, denied the indigenous people true participation in practice. As put
forward by one of the most prominent critics of colonialism, "[T]he premise
of its power was a rule of colonial difference, namely, the preservation of the
alienation of the ruling group."15 Current postcolonial debate defines colo-
nial sports as either "cultural imperialism" or "cultural hegemony."16 Both
definitions, although different from each other, seem to suit the Egyptian
reality.
   The fact that for the colonizers the clubs meant structured leisure in a





148 | Yoav Di-Capua


controlled and protected environment, while for the colonized they meant
humiliation and ostracism, caused some Egyptians to consider an organized
response. This response was intimately connected with the advance of na-
tionalist sentiment among Egyptians, resulting in the rise of the pre-1919
Ahali (indigenous) spirit. Ahali activities involved mostly private enter-
prises, such as magazines, private salons, social clubs, and even political
parties.17 In 1907, a group of Egyptians who were excluded from the British
clubs decided to establish their own club: al-Ahali.18 Although al-Ahali was
modeled on the British precedent and, ironically enough, its first president
was British (1907-8), it sought to provide the urban upper and upper middle
classes with the benefits of participation in sports from within their own
familiar environment. In 1908, Ahmad Zaghlul became its president, and
the club was turned into the stronghold of the growing secular and liberal
indigenous elite. In 1947, the monarchic millionaire Ahmad 'Abbud Pasha
became its third president, serving until he was deposed by Nasser in late
1961.19
   A second influential club was Qasr al-Nil bil-Jazira. Established in 1910,
it followed a similar pattern of organization. A short time after its inaugura-
tion, its name was changed to al-Mukhtalat club (so named because its
members belonged to many ethnic and national groups). Like the al-Ahali
club, it came to be identified with "bashawat, politicians, and business-
man. "20
   Following the 1919 revolution against British occupation, sports were
put forward as a means for national revival. In 1921, the first football union
was formed, soon to be joined by the establishment of other unions.21 These
developments marked the transference of sports from a limited and local
practice to a national, and even an international, arena. As opposed to the
pre-1919 period, now the state and the monarch found much interest in the
organization of sports. This interest culminated in King Fu'ad's decision to
establish the Civil Committee for Physical Education in 1924. The aim of the
committee was to propose ways to organize sports, modeled on the Euro-
pean example.22 As part of the new interest of the monarchy in sports, al-
Mukhtalat football club changed its name for the third time, to the Faruq
club 23
   'Abbas Ibrahim Halim, a prince and a combat pilot who spent most of his
adult life in Europe, is an example of rather futile efforts to promote sports
among the masses. For more than a decade, Halim had been involved with
the organization of the workers, believing that these two efforts were com-
patible. However, most of Halim's efforts in the field of sports were limited
to the already existing aristocratic forms of sports and, therefore, in the end
had little to do with the masses.24





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 149


   After World War II, organizational developments, as well as growing
awareness on the side of the nationalists, brought to the surface an urgent
need to "Egyptianize Sports" (Tamsir al-Riyada). British sports clubs were
now understood not only as elitist but also as antinationalist institutions in
need of reform. This tendency was intensified after the revolution. As in
other places in which nationalist revival occurred, sports were perceived as
an important tool for the organization and conscription of citizens behind
the national movement.25 Writing in 1940, Faraj al-Sayyid, an ardent sports
advocate, claimed that a physically healthy individual was a precondition
for national revival and progress.26 This idea, though originally European,
marks an important trend that was later to be appropriated and put to work
by the revolutionary regime.27
   Of similar importance was the conception of sports as a means to dissemi-
nate values. As it was put by one of the members of the monarchy: "Sports
could teach the Falah obedience, love of order, and tolerance. "28 Although
this notion was not successfully implemented, it reveals a deep awareness
and understanding of what needed to be done in order to educate the masses
and transform them into disciplined and modern citizens. However, while
the importance of physical education for the young generation was indeed
acknowledged, it failed to acquire the dimensions of a popular cultural
movement. The existing forms of sports remained primarily "elitist" and
required expensive infrastructure and services.29 Nationalist clubs and unions
were limited in number and were in constant need of financial support.
Some of this support came from the indigenous monarchic elite, identified
with certain clubs, such as al-Ahali and Faruq, even as late as the 1960s.
However, since the commercialization of sports did not occur, sports organi-
zations were left dependent on the limited financial resources of the state.
Thus, the significance of this period in relation to sports lies in the introduc-
tion of ideas and ideals rather than in their successful implementation.


Sports and Revolution

As already mentioned, sports in the postrevolutionary era came to be closely
associated with the political and ideological structure of the state. It is
widely recognized that "the state plays a very different role in general, and
in relation to culture and sport specifically, in liberal-democratic, capitalist
societies, in fascist dictatorships, and in state socialist societies."30 As such,
a word is in order about the nature of the Egyptian revolutionary regime,
which was distinctly populist. The characteristics of this populism may be
summarized as follows: urban in nature and origin, a multiclass orientation,
extravagant exhibitionism, and a constant need for public demonstration of





150 | Yoav Di-Capua


achievements, charismatic authority, and militaristic appearance.31 All of
these characteristics were evident in the regime's involvement in sports.
   The history of sports under the revolution can be roughly divided into
two periods. The popular movement of the "sports revival," of which Nagib
was an ardent supporter, characterized the first period. Enhancing the grip
of the regime over some of the private clubs, as well as backing off from mass
participation in sports, marked the second period. Nasser, 'Abd al-Hakim
'Amr, and their proteges were the main figures behind this trend. The differ-
ences between the two stages are subtle, and in general there is a great deal
of continuity within the revolutionary period. Although my concern here is
mainly with the first period, answers to the following questions will not
differ greatly if they are to be asked regarding the later period as well:

   1. Who controlled the way sports were organized?
   2. How were sports represented and interpreted?
   3. Who participated and in what form?

   In less than two years, the revolutionary regime managed to gain control
over all aspects of public life associated with sports. This effort was not
directed in particular toward sports but was part of a larger effort to create
a new state-culture through the bureaucratization and reorganization of
public life.32 In a relatively short time, the state apparatus established special
committees to organize and institutionalize sports and leisure. Since in 1952
sports were still not part of a wide popular movement, equipped with its
own infrastructure (i.e., teams, self-supporting financial systems, fan clubs,
etc.), the task of the regime to penetrate and manipulate sports activities was
relatively easy. Thus the private Faruq club was forced to change its name,
now for the fourth time, to al-Zamaleq. Along with the al-Ahali club, al-
Zamaleq was to popularize football to an unprecedented degree.
   At the same time, under the supervision of Ahmad al-Tuwani, a veteran
sports activist, hundreds of state sports clubs were established all over the
country, and sports became a fundamental component of school and univer-
sity curricula.33 The organization of nationwide competitions and sports
festivals followed these developments. This cultural change was soon to be
dubbed "the revival of sports" (al-nahda al-riyadiyya), a trend covered by
the newly published sports magazines.34
   This "revival of sports" had three origins: the conviction that society at
large should be modernized, the advent of a nationalist mode of thinking,
and a pressing political need to create firm bonds with the populace at large.
As already mentioned, nationalists targeted colonial sports clubs as being
outposts of imperialism. Under the revolution, this tendency turned into a
state policy. At the beginning, only unfavorable articles appeared in the





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 151


press, depicting the colonial clubs, in contrast to the revolutionary sports
clubs, as rich, snobbish, and aristocratic frameworks financed by public
funds.35 In a later stage, the colonial clubs were nationalized and, ironically,
turned into the fortresses of the new revolutionary elite.36
   As part of the introduction of revolutionary state culture, the very mean-
ing of sports was altered. Before the revolution sports were regarded as a
physical activity performed by individuals or groups mainly for their own
benefit; now every form of mass participation for the benefit of the collective
was defined as sports. Hence, sports became an affair of the "state appara-
tus" to an unprecedented degree. As part of the Free Officers' gambit to
reorganize public life, by the mid-1950s the state had become the main spon-
sor and promoter of most cultural activities.37 Sports, under the new inclu-
sive definition, were to play an important role in the new cultural agenda. As
early as January 1953, the organization of leisure in the public sector had
already been accomplished, primarily in the form of state sports clubs.38
This process in Egypt's public sector was encouraged not only to create a
"community spirit" but also to improve production.39 Mass organization
of sports was intended to teach workers that, with relatively little effort, they
could improve their physical condition, build up their resistance to diseases,
and thus improve their productivity. This pattern of organization resembles
the Italian model of Dopolavoro (after-work) compulsory culture, in which
sports accounted for an important component.40
   The attempt to organize mass leisure had several goals. First, it served as
a means to control the urban Egyptian middle class. Second, it was aimed at
disseminating values, such as unity, equality, cooperation, and discipline,
which were important to the regime and reflected its belief in modernization.
These beliefs and other intellectual components that fueled the "revival of
sports" are evident in a letter sent by Nagib to the editor of the new sports
magazine Al-A btal: "I hope that the magazine will fulfill its task by creating
a physically strong and healthy generation vigorous in its beliefs, mentality,
and spirit for the purpose of creating a strong internal united and organized
front. A front that is capable of coping with all aspects of life in times of
peace and war. "41
   Following this same line, the editor claimed that sports are the basis for a
sound and correct nationalism. Both views highlight the notion that sports
should prepare Egyptians for national struggle.42
   The importance of sports, for the fitness of the individual as well as for
the monopoly of the nation over its human resources, was already a well-
known concept. Added to a blend of other intellectual traditions, such as
"social Darwinism," the result was a firm belief in the right of the nation and
its revolutionary representatives to train its citizens. The underlying assump-





152 | Yoav Di-Capua


tion was that, as was the case for individuals, the nation's ability to survive
depended on its physical potency and strength.43 Hence the nation was in
constant need of strong, healthy individuals. Under the revolution, the frag-
ments of already existing ideas came into focus and were formulated into
official state policy. These notions were represented as desired values and
idealized national goals, by far the most important of which were the "uni-
tary national state" and "national unity."
   The setting in which sports was implemented as a means for the dissemi-
nation of values was that of the "revolutionary festival." In 1953-54, the
regime organized several festivals in which Egyptian citizens participated.44
Since most of the festivals took place in the city, transportation was orga-
nized for the countryside peasants. Festivals have a unique psychological
importance as a meeting point between the individual and the collective.
Using the term effervescence, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim cap-
tured the nature of this individual-collective atmosphere. An atmosphere of
effervescence causes individuals to perceive themselves as an integral part of
a greater collectivity. In such situations, "men see more and differently than
in normal times. Changes are not merely of shades and degrees; men become
different."45 It follows that the experience of the festival breaks down the
mental, moral, and physical barriers between the individual and the collec-
tive. It is an activity in which one feels rather than thinks. Under the influ-
ence of these forces, individuals might be more flexible to reconsider, and
perhaps even to change, their social, political, and moral beliefs.
   Another aspect of effervescence has to do with the immediate physical
and temporal environment of the festival. Mona Ozouf, who worked on
French revolutionary festivals, argues that the festival serves as a powerful
tool for the dissemination of values by changing the dimensions of time and
space. The festival creates a new agenda, which is different from the normal
routine of the individual. Most Egyptian festivals lasted four or five days,
which were consecrated for sports and mass rallies and were therefore de-
clared holidays from work. The activities were scheduled around the clock
in such a way that one could spend the whole week in the streets.46 In the
words of Ozouf, "Separated from daily rhythms, men relinquish the serious
use of their time, and their ties with ordinary moral and social values become
undone. The festival gives bounds to an autonomous activity: there is, then,
between the festival and men's daily life an insurmountable antagonism."47
   In addition, sports festivals were characterized by their simultaneity. The
open space created a simultaneous experience of peoples and minds. Collec-
tive physical activities, some of them repetitive in nature (such as marches),
only intensified the collective atmosphere and the sense of togetherness.
Social, political, and other differences were abolished, and the common de-





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 153


nominator shared by all was highlighted. This was one of the methods by
which the concept of unity and social harmony was practically experienced
and internalized.
   The state-sponsored conveyance of rural peasants to major cities in order
to participate in sports competitions was adopted in order to narrow the
gaps between "center and periphery." This created a common meeting ground
and enabled an active interaction between people who formerly had only
rare opportunities to socialize. For the first time, numerous amateur popular
sports teams, all organized by the regime, competed on an equal basis.48
These games provided not only a unique setting for citizens to meet their
peers but also an opportunity for the army to compete against civilians. This
was encouraged in order to reinforce the idea of the "people's army."49 For
a country which had historically suffered under the yoke of distant kings or
elitist colonizers, the competition between civilians and army officers as
equals, subject to the same rules of the game, was indeed revolutionary.
   Since the biggest football clubs, al-Ahali and al-Zamaleq, were still in the
hands of the old monarchic elite, the Free Officers could not spare any effort
to push their initiative forward. Members of the Revolutionary Command
Council (RCC), including the president himself, were often present at sports
festivals and other national sports events, even if these took place in a remote
province. For provincials who paid taxes for years without ever seeing their
kings and sultans, this too was a revolutionary development. It was perhaps
the first time in modern Egyptian history that millions of inhabitants could
feel that they were "seen" by the regime, although few actively participated
in sports competitions.50
   Popular competitions between youth took place in the public squares of
Cairo, which were specifically redesigned for such occasions. Other parts of
the city were rebuilt as well in order to create enough space for mass festi-
vals.51 As a whole, it seems that most of the new revolutionary urban proj-
ects were "mass oriented," reflecting the unique way in which changes in
public architecture and space go hand in hand with sports as a political
agenda.
   Standing as a symbol for all of this, and in particular advocating the
concept of "national unity," was the torch race. The opening ceremony of
the July 1954 Four Days Festival was held at night. A runner bearing a
torch made his way from the provinces to Republic Square (Maydan al-
Jumhuriyya) in the capital, thus symbolizing by his physical trajectory the
political bond between center and periphery. The effect was dramatic as the
runner approached the main stage and set fire to twenty-four torches, each
symbolizing a province.52 At about the same time, similar ceremonies were
held in all major towns around the country. These symbolic events marked





154 | Yoav Di-Capua


the commitment of the regime to equality and the consolidation of the coun-
try as one homogeneous national unit. This represented a revolutionary
change from the historical approach whereby the provinces were regarded
by the regime as merely a place for the conscription of soldiers, employment
of laborers, and collection of taxes.
   In 1954, as part of the "sports revival," live radio broadcasts of popular
sports events increased. In addition, special radio magazines, exclusively
dealing with sports, were initiated.53 These measures were of great impor-
tance, since radio was one of the means used to unite the population. Con-
currently, sports news no longer appeared in the back pages of the daily
newspapers but, rather, on front pages. Sports events could now reach al-
most every citizen in the country. As students of nationalism have demon-
strated, the rationale behind such steps is here as elsewhere, that if one
cannot participate physically, one can at least imagine oneself to be part of
a greater collective.
   As part of the attempt to introduce sports to more traditional sectors,
sports bureaucrats and national leaders stressed the bond between Islam and
sports. Accordingly, the daily prayer was portrayed as a healthy sports exer-
cise. The late Eighth Caliph Harun al-Rashid was noted to be a superb polo
player who favored physical training. And Nagib himself touted the advice
of the Prophet Muhammad to practice sports, such as swimming and ar-
chery.54
   The concept of "national unity" was also closely associated with "up-
ward social mobility" and equal opportunity for all. To prove that these
were not mere slogans but social realities, the mass media accentuated the
extraordinary achievements of amateur sportsmen, who became popular
heroes almost overnight. Unlike the aristocratic hero who was educated in a
fancy sports club, the revolutionary heroes were outstanding athletes of
humble origin. They usually had no professional training, and no one knew
them or their families. Precisely because they were just another face in the
crowd, common people could identify with them and feel as if they them-
selves could be the subject of such praise and glory. When their pictures were
published in the newspapers, showing them receiving awards from the presi-
dent or another high-ranking officer, everyone could identify with them.55
As was the case in Argentina under Peron, the message of the regime was
clear: In the revolutionary era, talent, rather than social position, deter-
mined one's standing. Equal opportunities were open to all.56
   Two institutes for professional sports training were established in Cairo
and Alexandria, offering intensive professional training to a limited number
of young, talented sportsmen. Those who were accepted were glorified,
praised, and perceived as leaders of a new revolutionary generation. Other





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 155


professional sportsmen were offered easy admission to institutions of higher
education.57 Like other nations, Egypt was in need of real professional
sportsmen to demonstrate its national potency in the international arena, as
well as in the Pan-Arab games.58
   The veneration of young sportsmen was part of a larger phenomenon of
a cult of youth. Anticipation of a nationalist and revolutionary young gen-
eration, which would fulfill Egypt's national aspirations, was not a novelty
in Egypt's public life.59 Egypt's new revolutionary regime not only acknowl-
edged the importance of the young generation but, with characteristic en-
thusiasm, did everything at its disposal to actively conscript youth for its
cause. The measures taken by the regime revealed two interesting points.
The first was the unprecedented equal treatment of young men and women,
and the second was the adoption of a very broad interpretation of sports to
include all kinds of organized youth movements. Such an interpretation pre-
pared the ground for the conscription of youth to paramilitary organiza-
tions. From that point onwards, sports, as a fun activity, and militarism, as
a national imperative, were perceived as identical forms of commitment.
   In order to integrate all of these factors, the regime established a special
apparatus for the organization of youth. Under the management of 'Adl
Tahir, a retired army officer, the Higher Committee for the Patronage of
Youth (HCPY, al-Majlis al-A'la li-Ri'ayat al-Shabab) sought to propagate
physical education in organized forms.60 Since they carried a clear moral
message, the tasks of the HCPY were far from being merely recreation: "The
purpose is to create a sound, mentally, physically, and morally capable Arab
citizen. One who believes in God and the nation, and who is willing to
sacrifice for the sake of the society."61
   The projects carried on by the HCPY varied. The regime sought to in-
clude citizens from all classes throughout Egypt. The main organizational
project was the establishment of special Youth Clubs throughout the country,
with much attention directed toward the countryside. The clubs provided
the youth with sports facilities as well as social activities. The social envi-
ronment in the clubs offered "unguarded" interaction of men and women,
which went against traditional gender divisions.62
   A large variety of activities, among them "youth holidays," "labor bri-
gades," sports festivals, and summer camps, created exceptional opportuni-
ties for young men and women to meet and cooperate in a well organized
environment. Although this kind of interaction was more prevalent in the
big cities, in peripheral areas it was indeed regarded as an innovation. These
activities brought Egyptian youth together to physically experience "unity."
On these occasions, special workshops for the clarification of national tasks
were held. Thus, from a very early stage in life, youth were expected to be





156 | Yoav Di-Capua


truly committed to a "national" cause. The workshops stressed the impor-
tance of youth leadership for the future of the nation. In fact, one of the
declared missions of the HCPY was to "manufacture" such leaders for the
benefit of society.63
   The gender historian Allen Warren stressed the appeal that military-
style activities held for some young men, particularly in regard to work
brigades.64 The Egyptian work brigades had a silent militaristic and mascu-
line nature. The fact that until the early months of 1957 British forces had
occupied Egyptian territory is significant in this respect. As long as the active
national struggle for independence continued, youth were regarded as po-
tential soldiers. The conscription of youth (men and women) was more than
a symbolic matter of uniforms and marching, since it resulted in the actual
use of firearms.65 When the British occupation ceased, youth were con-
scripted as "soldiers in the army of modernization and progress."
   In contrast to other institutions of sports that changed or disappeared
altogether in the late 1950s, youth organizations were taken very seriously
by Nasser, who regarded them as outposts of immediate support for his
politics. Indeed, when Anwar al-Sadat started his own political project in
May 1971, one of the first things he did was to arrest the heads of the youth
organizations that supported the Nasserist line.66
   Having dealt with the "sports revival," as it was manifested until the late
1950s, a word is in order regarding trends in sports organization in the
subsequent period. Politically, two events assisted in the rise of Nasser to a
position of undisputed leader: the 1956 Suez War and the unification of
Egypt with Syria (the United Arab Republic) in February 1958. After this
period, one can discern a different policy toward sports, one with a clear
Nasserist imprint. Since by 1958 the state had already managed to infiltrate
the popular arena, it only remained to establish its authority over the foot-
ball clubs, still governed by supporters of the old monarchy.
   In 1958, Nasser appointed his chief of staff, 'Abd al-Hakim 'Amer, to
head Egypt's Football Association. Two years later, in the wake of a large
"nationalization" enterprise, which broke the financial power of football
sponsors, such as 'Abbud Pasha, 'Amr managed to secure the appointment
of his brother Hassan as president of al-Zamaleq. In 1965, Amer persuaded
Nasser to appoint 'Abd al-Muhsin, the former commander of the Egyptian
troops stationed in Yemen, to head al-Ahali.67 These developments comple-
mented the need felt by Nasser himself to establish a popular football club
that would be exclusively identified with the revolution. For that purpose, he
appointed his bureau chief, Sami Sharaf, to head the newly established al-
Shams club, which was to be the largest of its kind in the Middle East.
Admission was denied to "collaborators," "feudalists," and supporters of
capitalism.





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 157


   After 1958, and in particular after the "socialist turn," Nasser seemed to
be personally involved in planning and implementing a national sports
policy.68 By this time, popular interest in football is estimated to have en-
gaged an unprecedented 70 percent of the population. In an interview he
gave in 1997, Sami Sharaf contended that the philosophy of the revolution
in regard to sports was to create leisure and proper education in a social,
economic, and revolutionary context and to accentuate the role of youth in
it.69 Although most of the thousands of rural sports clubs established in the
previous period were on the brink of collapse, Sharaf's words suggest conti-
nuity from the philosophy of earlier days.
   However, the difference between the two periods is still evident. While
until 1958 there was a state effort to ensure mass participation in sports
events, in the second period Nasser directed sports activities on a more rep-
resentational level. Thus, the masses were no longer expected to practice
sports on an individual basis, and Nasser seems to have developed more
efficient mechanisms to unite citizens and mobilize them in the achievement
of collective goals.
   In sum, sports under the revolution were subjected to an energetic state
apparatus, which promised that the regime's message would be seen, heard,
sensed, memorized, and physically practiced daily.70 The intensity of the
message was such that its internalization was inevitable. In short, the "sports
revival" sought to create and mobilize a new brand of political public. In-
deed, the success of the Egyptian government motivated the Sudanese gov-
ernment to employ exactly the same methods and rhetoric.71


Conclusions

Apart from what has been said thus far regarding sports under the revolu-
tion, the way in which sports were defined, practiced, and discussed reveals
the regime's fascination with the idea of modernization. Almost all of the
assumptions and premises of modernization were to be found in sports:
secularism, equality, bureaucratization, specialization, rationalization, and
the obsession with records.72 Through sports, the regime strove to narrow
the gaps between center and periphery; improve productivity; promote self-
control, order, and discipline; and improve health and hygiene. Passive fatal-
ism, a passive role for women, and other traditional characteristics were
categorically rejected. The new revolutionary man or woman was expected
to embody these virtues and encourage others to do so as well. The history
of sports in the period under discussion clearly reveals the desired goals of
the Free Officers and some of the means with which they could be achieved.
   However coercive was the introduction of the modernist vision, it was
effective and, at least initially, attracted citizens to participate. The first years





158 | Yoav Di-Capua


were indeed characterized by a great enthusiasm, but that enthusiasm gradu-
ally waned. Viclav Havel's critique of a similar state culture in his country
seems to capture the atmosphere which brought the "sports revival" to an
end:

   Instead of events, we are offered nonevents; we live from anniversary
   to anniversary, from celebration to celebration, from parade to parade,
   from a unanimous congress to unanimous elections and back again;
   from a Press Day to an Artillery Day, and vice versa. It is no coinci-
   dence that, thanks to the substitution for history, we are able to review
   everything that is happening in society past and future, by simply
   glancing at the calendar. And the notoriously familiar character of the
   recurrent rituals makes such information quite as adequate as if we
   had been present at the events themselves.73

   The history of sports under the revolution uncovers the scope of the
"revolutionary imagination" and its ill-fated dream of powerful and inclu-
sive revolutionary culture. Hence, this chapter tells us more about the pre-
vailing temper, actions, pathos, experiments, visions, hopes, and revolution-
ary dreams than about sports per se.


Notes

I would like to thank Russell Hopley and Stephennie Mulder for their time, effort,
and good advice.
   1. Joel Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the Revo-
lution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 3-39. See also Al-Ahram, Janu-
ary 23, 1953; Lilian Karnouk, Contemporary Egyptian Art (Cairo: American Uni-
versity in Cairo Press, 1995), 5-31.
   2. Some sports clubs, such as that of Alexandria, were established by the foreign
European community before the British occupation of 1882. Gradually, they all
became British in essence.
   3. Ibrahim M. Hilmi and Askar F. Nahed, "Ideology, Politics, and Sports in
Egypt," Leisure Studies 3, no. 1 (1984): 97-99.
   4. Magda Baraka, The Egyptian Upper Class between Two Revolutions, 1919-
1952 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998), 45.
   5. Al-A btal, February 1953, 26.
   6. Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim, "Twilight of a Colonial Ethos: The Alexandria
Sporting Club, 1890-1956," Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1991, 113-60.
   7. In order to differentiate this class from the "real Egyptians," Egyptian nation-
alists used the term foreigners to call attention to their European origins.
   8. Al-A btal, February 1953, 26. Baraka, who had access to the Jazira club files
and records, claims that only in 1950 did the club become legally accessible to native





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 159


upper-class Egyptians, since until then it had been primarily a British enclave. See
Baraka, The Egyptian Upper Class, 192-93.
   9. In fact, the concept of leisure itself is an urban and modern one. Hilmi and
Nahed, "Ideology, Politics, and Sports in Egypt," 97-99.
   10. It is, however, less beneficial for understanding sports in a larger context, since
Oppenheim's research does not use Arabic sources. Oppenheim, Twilight of a Colo-
nial Ethos, 1-13.
   11. Most of the members hardly knew Arabic at all.
   12. The Ma'adi sports club in Cairo is a good example, since it served the diplo-
matic community, and most of its members were European in culture. See Samir W.
Raafat, Ma'adi, 1904-1962: Society and History in a Cairo Suburb (Cairo: Palm
Press, 1995), 33-46, 67-73.
   13. Oppenheim, Twilight of a Colonial Ethos, 140-60.
   14. Neil Tranter, Sport, Economy, and Society in Britain, 1750-1914 (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 41.
   15. Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post Colonial
Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 10, 14-34.
   16. Allen Guttmann, Games and Empires: Modern Sport and Cultural Imperial-
ism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 171-88.
   17. Baraka, The Egyptian Upper Class, 67.
   18. Faraj al-Sayyid, Al-Riyada fi Biladina (Cairo: Mtba'at al-Ma'arif, 1940), 50-
51.
   19. Abu al-Ma'ati Zaki, Lu'abat al-Riyada wal-Siyasa (Cairo: al-I'lamiyya, 1997),
41-44.
   20. Ibid., 63-64.
   21. Al-Sayyid, Al-Riyada fi Biladina, 16-17.
   22. Egypt was one of the first countries in the world to join the world Olympic
games. Since 1912, Egypt has participated in all Olympic games. See Faraj al-Sayyid,
Ruwad al-Riyada fi Misr (Cairo: Markaz al-Aharam lil-Tarjama wal-Nashr, 1988),
12-16.
   23. Zaki, Lucabat al-Riyada wal-Siyasa, 63.
   24. Halim was among the founders of the Royal Automobile Club. Joel Beinin
and Zachary Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and
the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954 (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1987), 195-99.
   25. Inspired by Egypt, the Arabs of Palestine witnessed the same national de-
velopment with respect to sports as a means for national revival. Tamir Sorek,
"Leumiyut Palastinit beMedina haMandatorit: Mador Hasport Kesokhen Zehut"
(Palestinian nationalism in the mandatory state: The sports column as an agent of
identity), Zmanim 18 (spring 2000): 15-25 (Hebrew).
   26. Al-Sayyid, Al-Riyada fi Biladina, 11-12.
   27. In late-nineteenth-century Europe, active participation in sports was widely
regarded as a requirement for the high standard of physical, mental, and moral well-
being. Tranter, Sport, Economy, and Society in Britain, 57.





160 | Yoav Di-Capua


   28. Ibid., 39.
   29. Members of the monarchy and the Egyptian elite were engaged in "British"
types of sports as well. King Faruq himself established a hunting club. Ibid., 52-54.
   30. John Hargreaves, "Sport, Culture, and Ideology," in Jennifer Hargreaves, ed.,
Sport, Culture, and Ideology (London: Routledge, 1982), 46.
   31. Michael Conniff, "Introduction: Towards a Comparative Definition of Popu-
lism," in Conniff, ed., Latin American Populism in Comparative Perspectives (Albu-
querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), 13-27.
   32. See Revolutionary Command Council resolutions regarding public life after
six months in power: Al-Ahram, January 23, 1953.
   33. Ahmad al-Tuwani, The Egyptian Revolution in Three Years (Cairo: Informa-
tion Administration, 1955), 103-8.
   34. Al-Ahram, July 23, 1953; Al-Jumhuriyya, July 23, 28, 30, 1954; Al-Thawra
wal-Riyada (Cairo: al-Dar Nashar al-Thaqafa, 1966); Al-A btal, February 1953, 44.
Two new sports magazines appeared in the early 1950s: Al-A btal (Heroes) and Al-
Riyada wa-Awqat al-Faragh (Sports and leisure). The first was published by the RCC
and appeared for the first time in January 1953, whereas the second was a private
journal that was first published in May 1954.
   35. Al-Thawra (Damascus), August 5, 1954; Al-A btal, February 1953, 26.
   36. Oppenheim, Twilight of a Colonial Ethos, 198-99.
   37. Writing about a similar phenomenon in fascist Italy, Victoria De Grazia de-
fined the attempts at organization and the creation of "state apparatus" culture as
the "culture of consent." De Grazia, The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of
Leisure in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 1-24.
   38. Other enterprises included the establishment of "popular theaters," which
performed in workplaces and in urban public spaces free of charge. See the theater's
schedule for January 1953 in the center of Cairo: Al-Ahram, January 22, 1953.
   39. Al-A btal, January 1953, 26; Al-Ahram, January 23, 1953; Hasan 'Imad, Al-
Riyada wal-Shabab fi 'Ashr Sanawat (Cairo: Kutub Qawmiyya, 1962), 29-32.
   40. I was not able to verify to what degree workers were forced to participate. The
overall impression is that workers and other state employees felt obliged to partici-
pate as a result of an "atmosphere" or a vague commitment to the "system."
   41. Al-A btal, January 1953, 1.
   42. Ibid., 2. A similar perception of sports also prevailed under Peron in Argen-
tina, where it focused on the potential of sports for inspiring fraternity, cooperation,
social solidarity, national identity, discipline, and loyalty. See Raanan Rein, "El
Primer Despotista": The Political Use and Abuse of Sport in Peronist Argentina,"
International Journal of History of the Sport 15, no. 2 (1998): 58.
   43. For the origins of these perceptions, see R. Holt, "Contrasting Nationalisms:
Sport, Militarism, and Unitary State in Britain and France before 1914," History of
Sport 12 (1995): 39-54.
   44. In 1953 alone, festivals took place in January, March, April, and July. Al-
Ahram, January 23, July 23, 1953; Al-A btal, February 1953, 28.
   45. Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: Mac-





Sports, Society, and Revolution | 161


millan, 1965), 240-41. Although Durkheim dealt with religious ceremonies, he ar-
gued that such an atmosphere is also evident in revolutionary situations.
   46. See the schedules of some sports festivals, as published by the daily press: Al-
Abram, January 21, 22, 24, 1953; Al-Balagh, January 20, 22, 1953.
   47. Mona Ozouf, "Space and Time in the Festivals of the French Revolution,"
Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, no. 3 (1975): 372.
   48. Al-A btal, January 1953, 26; April 1953, 22-23; Al-Ahram, January 23, 25,
1951.
   49. Al-Ahram, January 22, 1953. The army, which was responsible for the revo-
lution, claimed that it was acting on behalf of the people. Hence it called itself the
"people's army." Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement, 39-57.
   50. Sports were not the only means by which the regime directed its attention to
the periphery. Such efforts were also evidenced by the ceremonies in which RCC
members distributed confiscated land to poor peasants. Al-Akhbar (Cairo), July 17,
1954. See also Nasser's speech from May 2, 1954, in which the values of unity and
equality were stressed. See Ahmad Yusuf Ahmad, ed., Al-Majmu'a al-Kamila li-
Khitab wa-Ahadith wa-Tasrihat Gamal Abd al-Nasir (Beirut: Markaz al-Dirasat al-
Wahda al-'Arabiyya, 1995), 193.
   51. Al-A btal, April 1953, 22-23. The most famous reorganized square was the
Isma'iliyya Square. During the January 1953 festival, the square's name was changed
to Liberation Square. Other changes in public space resulted in the construction of
Cairo's stadium. See plan in Riyada wa-Awqat al-Faragh (May 1954): 59-61.
   52. Al-Ahram, July 23, 1954; Al-Jumhuriyya, July 23, 1954.
   53. Farhad Ammar, "Al-Idha'a wa-Risalatuha al-Riyadiyya," in Al-Thawra wal-
Riyada, 29-36.
   54. Al-A btal, February 1952, 5; May 1953, 22. Nagib's speech: Al-Ahram, July
27, 1953.
   55. See, e.g., Al-Abtal, January 1953, 14-15; March 1953 21; Al-Jumburiyya,
July 30, 1954.
   56. Rein, "El Primer Despotista," 56.
   57.' Imad, Al-Riyada wal-Shabab fi 'Ashr Sanawat, 13, 57-60.
   58. The first Pan-Arab games took place in Alexandria in July 1953. See al-
Sayyid, Ruwad al-Riyada fi Misr, 24.
   59. For the history of students, youth, and politics in Egypt, see Haggai Erlich,
Students and University in Twentieth-Century Egyptian Politics (London: Frank
Cass, 1989), 95-132.
   60. Al-Riyada wa-Awqat al-Faragh, November 1954, 41;' Imad, Al-Riyada wal-
Shabab fi 'Ashr Sanawat, 10-12.
   61.' Imad, Al-Riyada wal-Shabab fi 'Ashr Sanawat, 21.
   62. Ibid., 10-21, 57-60.
   63. Ibid., 57.
   64. Allen Warren, "Sports, Youth, and Gender in Britain, 1880-1940," in Clyde
Binfield and John Stevenson, eds., Sport, Culture, and Politics (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1993), 61.





162 I Yoav Di-Capua

   65. Al-A btal, April 1953, 10.
   66. Zaki, Lu'abat al-Riyada wal-Siyasa, 8-9; Al-Hayat al-Ahaliyya li-Ri'ayat al-
Shabab wal-Riyada (Cairo: al-Haya al-'Amma, 1976).
   67. Zaki, Lu'abat al-Riyada wal-Siyasa, 49-50, 78-85.
   68. He had an office in the al-Shams club, although apparently he rarely used it.
Ibid., 115.
   69. Ibid., 85, 97-118.
   70. See a speech by Nagib accentuating the proper values manifested through
sports: Al-Ahram, July 27, 1953; Al-A btal, March 1953, 46; Al-Balagh, January 25,
1953; 'Imad, Al-Riyada wal-Shabab fi 'Ashr Sanawat, 21.
   71. Hasan 'Umar, Al-Riyada fi Ahd al-Thawra (Khartoum: State Press, 1963).
   72. Guttmann, Games and Empires, 2-3.
   73. Viclav Havel, Open Letters: Selected Prose, 1965-1990 (London: Faber
and Faber, 1991), 74. See an open letter of complaints about the status of sports in
Egyptian society during that period: Al-Riyada wa-Awqat al-Faghar, November
1962, 3-21. For a more contemporary view, see Hasan al-Mustakawi, "Al-Ahali
wa-al-Zamaliq," Wujhat Nazar 5 (July 2003): 52-57.










6


Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites in an Official
Biographical Lexicon

    Uri M. Kupferschmidt







Introduction

This chapter presents a review of the Mawsu'a al-Qawmiyya lil-Shakhsiyyat
al-Misriyya al-Bariza, a two-volume biographical dictionary listing over
4,300 Egyptians. The Mawsu'a was published in 1992 by the State Informa-
tion Service, which, as an official agency, is a typical formation of the Nas-
serist regime and era.1 The dictionary is meant as a "historic national proj-
ect" aiming to build a progressive Egypt. Hence the term qawmiyya, an
ideological label typical of the period following the revolution, figuring in
the title of the work. The introduction to this biographical lexicon declares
that it includes the "highest and noblest" achievements of the elite (for which
the terms safwa or nukhba are used). Typically, the semimilitary or semi-
socialist term kadir (cadre) is also used.
   We speak here about the second edition, which replaced a heavily criti-
cized first edition published in 1989. Although 14,000 Egyptians were origi-
nally supposed to be included, the first edition contained only 1,525 names,
and many prominent people were offended by not being listed. Names and
data were collected in a heavy-handed way, it seems, from the various em-
ployers-state ministries and agencies, higher councils, universities, and
public sector companies-rather than from the personalities themselves.
   At first sight, this is a type of biographical lexicon of the format com-
monly called Who's Who, the first of which was published in the United
States in 1899 and which has been widely emulated elsewhere as well.2 Not
a few of these have been published for such diverse countries and continents





164 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


as Japan, China, Russia, and Latin America, albeit often in the West and for
Western reference purposes. For the Arab world, we have at our disposal
several types of serialized Who's Who, which are only partly helpful as to
Egypt.3 This Mawsu'a undoubtedly intends to fill a gap and has its merits as
such, but one has to be aware that its approach is closer to a nomenclatura
list than to a more subjective selection on the basis of meritocratic criteria.
One could therefore argue that the Mawsu'a's contents represent the "state"
more than "society," even though, for practical purposes, the two can hardly
ever be fully separated.4 In any case, this source reflects the social changes,
both planned and spontaneous, which came with the Nasserist revolution.
   The Nasserist era, indeed, saw important social changes. Not only were
the exponents of the ancien regime ousted from power but the result was a
process of restratification (the depth or permanence of which is arguable).
The former landowning elites (and foreign residents) were politically and
economically neutralized, or they left Egypt altogether, and new opportuni-
ties were created for army officers. The lower strata of society gained easier
access to secondary and higher education (with many new high schools and
universities being founded); fellahin and workers, at least in theory, received
more rights and benefits; and a few women saw professional careers opening
up. A so-called new middle class was emerging at the time, alongside reform
projects, such as the Agrarian Reform and family planning. Many of these
changes appear to be ambiguous or debatable when analyzed in retrospect
today, but in a compendium published by a state agency they are quite con-
spicuous.
   Although conceived as a reference work, this type of primary source in
general also tends to hold a certain attraction for the historian who is inter-
ested in society and social change, in particular because it facilitates system-
atic quantitative or prosopographic research. Yet the historian must be pain-
fully aware that collective biographies of all sorts, however tempting, also
tend to have serious pitfalls, as Lawrence Stone has shown.5
   One built-in bias of this type of source, relevant here, is that it can hardly
claim to be comprehensive, as it inevitably tilts toward the higher echelons
of government and society. Such compendia may contain information on the
lower social strata (fellahin, artisans, workers, etc.) only insofar as the latter
achieve unequivocal upward meritocratic mobility. Biographees are gener-
ally chosen for their positions of responsibility, their noteworthy activities,
or-more problematically from the point of view of "objectivity"-their
creative achievements. Hence large majorities, in particular the lower and
middle strata of society, remain invisible.
   Moreover, the systematic study of political or social elites and, all the
more so, mere samples taken from among these elites, let alone their public





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 165


images, often raise more questions than they yield answers or conclusions.
As far as the Middle East is concerned, this field focusing on (various, but
especially power) elites may-for the time being-have passed its academic
heyday in the 1970s.6 Thus, although we are inclined to question the Mawsua's
value as a source for a comprehensive, broad, or objective study of contem-
porary Egyptian elites (political, military, and economic as well as cultural
elites coexisting but not necessarily interacting), it is nevertheless worth-
while to draw a few less ambitious conclusions.
   Indeed, in addition to the mass of invaluable biographical information
supplied, which cannot easily be ignored, the Mawsu'a symbolizes a land-
mark in the changing political culture of Egypt. In the first place, it clearly
breaks with the cosmopolitan elite under the monarchy, moving on from
the era of the revolution to its aftermath under Anwar al-Sadat and Husni
Mubarak. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first comprehensive post-
revolution Who's Who. The appearance of such a compendium was long
overdue. It was possibly delayed by the still ongoing crystallization of a new
postrevolutionary elite itself or otherwise held up by ideological or practical
hesitations. Some prominent Egyptians whom I questioned about the rea-
sons for this lack of useful reference works generally felt that the time had
not been ripe. Whatever the case, the decision to compile the Mawsu'a oc-
curred in the fall of 1985, well after Mubarak's ascendancy.
   In the monarchical period, there had been a French-cum-English annual,
called Le Mondain Egyptien or Who's Who, the last of which had appeared
in 1956. As a private publishing venture, it catered mainly to the upper class
and thus still applied to a starkly different-a very mixed, elitist, and cosmo-
politan-Egypt. One may interpret a cryptic remark in the Mawsu'az's intro-
duction to the effect that this work is "made in Egypt" as an allusion to the
predecessors mentioned. There have been several subsequent efforts to pub-
lish biographical dictionaries, but these generally-probably deliberately
-were of a historical nature and could not substitute for contemporary
reference works.7 Even so, in contemporary Egypt, elementary information
-readily available in democracies-remains, or remained until recently,
difficult to come by. This refers to the lack of even telephone directories until
the 1990s and the need for a governmental or parliamentary almanac, sys-
tematically summing up their members' full biographical, professional, and
educational backgrounds.8
   In many respects, one is inclined to designate the Mawsu'a as a Nasserist
document, a Nasserist lieu de mdmoire. This, of course, does not mean that
biographees fit into one ideological mold or that there is one agreed-upon
definition of Nasserism.9 Rather, the work reflects the practice of a certain
political culture. Moreover, all those mentioned in it were born before 1950.





166 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


This means that the upstarts who received their higher education and career
opportunities after the Nasserist period are still limited in this compendium.
   Published under Mubarak (the Mawsu'a opens with extensive biogra-
phies of the president and his wife), it may be said to be reminiscent of
Nasserist discourse while representing a post-Nasserist tendency toward a
relatively greater openness and transparency of government. One may ques-
tion whether such a compendium would have been released to the larger
public before the present era. This is the regime's Hall of Fame, a "Legion
d'Honneur," one could say, a visiting card of the regime, but for that reason
all the more interesting (in addition to being useful). The Mawsu'a embraces
much more than the usual "power elite" studied, even including "cultural
icons" (famous writers, singers, movie stars, athletes, etc.).
   We cannot make any definite statement as to the ratio between quantity
and quality or between inclusion and exclusion. Not all those persons de-
scribed are linked to the Nasserist regime or owe their careers in an immedi-
ate sense to a certain ideological conviction; on the contrary, the lexicon also
contains known figures of the opposition (e.g., Ma'mun al-Hudaybi and
other figures of the Muslim Brothers). However, one can say that most of
their careers were influenced by the new opportunities and social changes of
the Nasserist era.


Methodological Problems

The material is arranged according to the classical alphabetical Arabic sys-
tem of first names rather than family names (thus we have 827 Muham-
mads, 176 Mahmuds, and 89 Mustafas). True, this may be the easier way of
listing them in a society without stabilized "modern" family names yet. For
the researcher-certainly for this historian-it is a more awkward system.
Even where we imagine that some of the family names are related to politi-
cians or other notables prominent before the July 1952 coup, we are unable
to say so with certainty.
   Nearly all biographical entries contain information on dates and places of
birth, marital status and children, education, professions, membership in
professional associations in Egypt and abroad, awards, decorations, honors,
etc. The mention of any books and articles written, however scantily, turns
this Mawsu'a into an invaluable instrument. A typical aspect relates to mem-
bership in the important specialized advisory High Councils of State, which
in themselves are a Nasserist phenomenon. Lacking, on the other hand, are
private addresses. In accordance with official practice in Egypt, the compen-
dium does not mention religion, but Copts and other Christians may some-
times be identified by their names.





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 167


   A number of keys or indices, such as those relating to official posts, occu-
pations, expertise, or honors, open up the possibility of systematic research.
The breakdown according to occupations, on which this chapter is based,
may raise reservations. Like the Mawsu'a itself, it may not be a high point of
accuracy, but it must be accepted as the basic conceptual division of its
makers."


Occupational Structure

In the modern technocratically oriented society that Egypt has aspired to
build since the July 1952 Revolution, it should not come as a surprise that
engineers form the largest professional group (513 names), followed by sci-
entists (489), physicians (432), and agronomists (364). It should not come as
a surprise that law studies lost their preeminence to engineering, medicine,
and other scientific fields. Professional rather than political ambitions began
to determine the careers of the youth." There are 34 such professional ru-
brics, some more arbitrary or less systematic than others, closing with small
professional groups such as nurses (12, a female professional preserve), phi-
losophers (19), geographers (22), dentists (32), pharmacists (78), and even
historians (66). In addition, 102 of "our experts abroad" are described.


Educational Background

Undeniably, the Mawsu'a proves the gradual spread of free higher education
institutions over Egypt-in other words, the proportional loss of domi-
nance in the position held by Cairo University. Still, this venerable institu-
tion, founded in 1908 as the Egyptian University and then evolving into
Fuad I University, served as the alma mater of 48 percent of the engineers
and 44 percent of the journalists. In regard to other groups, it retains its
formative predominance as well, at least among this generation of promi-
nent persons. The University of Alexandria, founded in 1942, turned out
only 13 percent of the engineers and 6 percent of the journalists. 'Ayn
Shams, which opened its gates in 1950, trained 9 percent and 6 percent of
these professionals, respectively. These proportions have no doubt increased
over the past decades. On the other hand, the Azhar's impact appears here to
be marginal, even after its nationalization and expansion as a full-fledged
university in the 1960s, except with respect to religious offices, and the
American University in Cairo cannot be considered a central factor.
   Worth noting is the growing impact of the later universities, such as
Hilwan University (founded in 1955) and the universities of Asyut (1957),
Mansura (1957), Suez Canal (1961), Minuf (1965), and Zaqaziq (1978).





168 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


Their impact on the elites may not yet be impressive from a numerical point
of view or in terms of a national professional contribution, such as that of
Cairo University; however, these newer institutions are quite visible in the
Mawsu'a, especially when it comes to the staffing of new faculties. One can
often see how they have trained their own personnel or even sent them
abroad for that purpose.12 The way in which basic information for the biog-
raphies was gathered probably also explains the relative prominence of at
least two prestigious research institutes, the National Research Center and
the Nuclear Research Center.


Some Profiles of Professional Groups

Let us say a few words about select professional groups that interest us more
than others against the background of some assumed changes since the be-
ginning of the Nasserist era.
   1. Armed forces: Under the heading "Armed Forces," we found 184 en-
tries, of which 18 are Free Officers or others who were explicitly involved in
the July 1952 coup d'etat. Often, the biographies specifically mention par-
ticipation in past wars, from 1948 in Palestine to Yemen (1962-67), as well
as from October 1973 to the Gulf War of 1991. Some are not only military
men proper but also medical specialists with high positions at army hospi-
tals-Ma'adi, for example-or even the personal physicians of 'Abd al-
Nasser, Anwar al-Sadat, and Husni Mubarak.
   Most of these individuals graduated from military academies or special-
ized university programs. Not unexpectedly, approximately 20 percent of
them underwent training in the Soviet Union or in Czechoslovakia (3 per-
cent). Although one sees a few cases of training in Britain or in the United
States, they hardly assume statistical importance. Of the professional groups
surveyed here, those in the military appear to be slightly older than the rest,
none of them being born after 1941-an aspect probably related to the
inclusion of their army ranks. What is fascinating in this group is the possi-
bility to follow up on how careers develop with the gradual embourgeoise-
ment of the regime.13 We find here those army officers who went on to
become managers of military industries and-not unlike the case of Israel-
those who moved on to civilian posts, such as governorships, ambassador-
ships, public companies, and even some in sports organizations, a few hav-
ing become members of the Majlis or the Shura.
   2. Engineers and agronomists: Obviously, we meet here only a very select
top of 512 engineers (including 9 women) of an estimated total of 180,000
engineers in Egypt in the 1980s. As has been argued, most of the engineers
in the country fall into the ranks of the lower technocrats and bureaucrats,





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 169


which puts them in a different status bracket, excluded here, from this
Mawsu'a population.14 The bias here may already be clear from the fact that
58 percent of this superior bracket enjoyed (partial) higher academic train-
ing abroad, many supposedly with government endorsement. Most received
their training in Britain, the United States, West Germany, Canada, and the
like, but also-still in the 1950s and 1960s-some in the USSR or Czecho-
slovakia, though maybe less than expected. Thus their training was spread
around to quite a few countries, with France and Switzerland representing
the more frequent cases of smaller engineering powers.
   This top group of engineers is found to be primarily employed by the
public sector, with very rare cases of employment by private or foreign com-
panies. As such, the activities of this group highlight Egypt's prestige projects
of the Nasserist era, for example, the Aswan High Dam, the takeover of the
Suez Canal in 1956, massive electrification projects, and expansion of the
petroleum industry and other heavy industries.15 In a few sporadic cases,
engineers entered huge contracting firms, such as the Muqawilun al-'Arab,
or worked temporarily elsewhere in the Arab world.
   One would expect the large group of 364 agronomists to have rural
rather than urban roots, with all the surrounding social implications. In-
deed, it turns out that a higher percentage of the agronomists, as compared
to the engineers, were born in the countryside and also tend to have a higher
than average number of children (see below).
   3. Mass media: Journalists constitute an equally interesting group, with
18 of the 196 entries belonging to women.16 Furthermore, although one
expects to see the statistical impact of the formidable expansion of radio
services and the emergence of television broadcasting, which had received
much of the state's attention under the Nasserist regime, this does not appear
to be the case. Strangely enough, only nine biographees are included in this
field, whose number equals more or less that of the engineers with employ-
ment connected to the electronic media. Indeed, the emphasis here falls on
the written press, a veteran professional field in Egypt, but one virtually
nationalized in the 1950s. It is fascinating to follow the apparently uncom-
plicated rotation of journalists between the various big newspapers, both
old and new-from Al-Akhbar, Akhbar al-Yawm, and Ruz al-Yusuf to Al-
Ahram and Al-Jumhuriyya-which seems to be a result of this homogeni-
zation. Later opposition newspapers are mentioned as well. Clearly, Al-
Ahram, as a sort of media empire, with its Center for Strategic Studies,
emerges as the coveted apex of a journalistic career, with the other large
publishing organizations, such as Dar al-Hilal and Dar al-Ma'arif, carrying
only slightly less prestige.
   Another interesting aspect of this group is its academic formation: 35





170 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


journalists studied law, 33 studied literature (a career choice clearly pre-
ferred by women), and 22 studied journalism proper (although regular
courses in journalism at Cairo (Fuad I) University and the American Uni-
versity in Cairo had already started in the 1930s). The juridical training of
relatively many journalists is intriguing, though its exact meaning or con-
sequence-even if we seem to be aware of frequent legal battles over the
profession-remains moot. The legal profession itself has been in decline,
to some extent owing to the discreditation of many ancien regime notables
who had studied law; we may speculate that journalism offered an honor-
able alternative. There is an additional aspect that deserves our attention:
Only a minority of 289-and generally not those in the print media-
received academic training abroad (with France as the leading destination,
followed by the United States and Britain). The journalistic profession
therefore remained very much within the fold of the Arabic language and
culture.
   4. Religious establishment: A final example consists of the 113 personali-
ties mentioned in the index under the simple heading al-din, namely, reli-
gion. Their al-Azhar formation stands out, and possibly this was the main
criterion to include them here. Most of them apparently remain there teach-
ing after graduation, but others become muftis or waqf managers. There are
a few interesting cases of Muslim clergy who have been sent abroad to serve
as emissaries at various Islamic centers. Altogether, the impression here-
even more so than in other professional categories-is that the material has
been thoroughly screened and limited.17 On the other hand, this is the only
category in the Mawsu'a-apart from the mere incidence of Coptic private
or family names-where Copts (and a few members of other denomina-
tions) are specifically mentioned as such (21). These are mainly higher
clergy, in some cases with an academic theological background, but in a
few conspicuous cases also with secular university training in, for example,
medicine.


Rural and Urban Descent

It seems that of the 4,300 personalities in the encyclopedia, an overwhelm-
ing majority of those in essentially urban occupations were born in rural
localities-in the Delta provinces rather than in (more sparsely populated)
Upper Egypt. This confirms that basic patterns of migration have essentially
not changed since the end of the nineteenth century. The term rural, how-
ever, offers a challenge because such localities as Tanta, Mansura, Daman-
hur, and many others that are less known, have gradually evolved from
villages into towns. Due to the Egyptian registration system, only the "gov-





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 171


ernorate" of Cairo can unequivocally be considered "urban," while even
Alexandria is, properly speaking, a "district" (and not a few of those born
there may therefore, in theory, be of village origin).
   One may argue whether there is a big difference in professional aspira-
tions and outlook between an Egyptian professional with an urban back-
ground and one with a rural background. There are many possible grada-
tions and variations, but most people will change their habits and desiderata
when moving to an urban environment. What is interesting here is the differ-
ence between the various careers: 45 percent of the engineers were born in
Cairo or in the district of Alexandria, as against only 38 percent of the armed
forces and 35 percent of the journalists. It turns out that 86 of the 364
agronomists (24 percent) were born in Cairo or Giza, with another 6 (prob-
ably) born in Alexandria proper; this somewhat surprising urban back-
ground thus amounts to no less than a quarter. The biggest divide, however,
is formed by the dismal percentage of those in the religious establishments
born in Cairo or Alexandria (0.7 percent), which confirms the persistence of
patterns known from previous centuries.18


Number of Children

In compiling the data on the average number of children of parents in the
above professional careers, a number of thought-provoking points emerge.
First, although most personalities are listed as "married," some appear with-
out their family composition, or with the mere addition "with children"
(lahu abna'-rather than lahu awlad), or with the designation wa-ya'ul
(meaning "supports a family," 'a'ila).
   We cannot know whether such omissions deliberately conceal a bias to-
ward larger families, but one gets the distinct impression that the number of
children among the elites included in the Mawsu'a is smaller than the aver-
age for the Egyptian population at large (fertility differentials for urban and
rural locations in the 1970s ranged between 6.32 and 5.87, while a decade
later they were 4.40 and 6.44, respectively).19 According to the present data,
49 percent of the engineers, 48 percent of the military personnel, 45 percent
of the journalists, and 42 percent of the agronomists have no more than two
children. The percentages for those having three children in these profes-
sional categories are, respectively, 27, 28, 27, and 37 percent, while larger
families are conspicuously less frequent. Again, among the religious estab-
lishment as a whole, and in particular among the Muslims, families with
three, four, and more children are much more common.
   These data thus tend to prove that family planning was an established fact
among these elites for decades before it spread to the lower strata in the late





172 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


1960s. Historically, one factor which for a long time may have substantially
slowed down the effect of the government's efforts to lower the birth rates
was a big social and psychological gap between the upper and lower strata.
The populations surveyed here, however, most probably developed an ear-
lier awareness of the need to plan their families.20 It is of interest to mention
the frequent use of the designation wa-lahu ibn wa-binta, one son and one
daughter (all professional groups surveyed here fall into the range of 21-29
percent, with engineers, interestingly, holding the record for this "one plus
one" formula). While this pattern conforms to more Western, or perhaps
more generally modern, ideals and patterns, it can also be associated with
the slogans and posters of the Egyptian family planning campaigns (always
depicting two children, an older boy and a younger girl).21


Women

The Mawsu'a altogether contains the names of 371 women (about 8 percent
of the total). This may not be an impressive proportion in Western terms, but
it is remarkable in Egypt. Although the tendency toward women's emanci-
pation has been unmistakably present for decades, the editors may have
made a special effort in this respect in conformity with the spirit and achieve-
ments starting in the Nasserist period. Indeed, this is a major difference from
all earlier biographical compendia for Egypt.
   A partial compilation of data on this group enables us to add something
to the available studies on women in the more restricted spheres of political
and public life. Indeed, here too we find ten women as members of the
majlis, and four of the shura. However, the scope of female activities in the
Mawsu'a is much wider. First, 49 percent of them were born in the two big
cities, representing a much higher percentage than the proportion for males.
This shows that an urban environment can serve as a tremendous asset for
women embarking on a professional career-not discarding, of course, the
other half of the women, who did come from a variety of rural places! Sec-
ond, the percentage of women having only two children is also significantly
higher than for the overall professional groups surveyed above: 70 percent
of the women have one or two children, and 25 percent have three, while the
remaining 5 percent have four or more.
   The most popular choice of academic training is in languages and litera-
ture, but medicine comes in as a strong second (and jointly with dentistry
and pharmacy, it even overtakes the first). Then follow pure science and
agriculture, as well as a host of other academic topics. Separate mention can
be made of the nursing profession (the only one in the Mawsu'a that is a
female preserve), as well as careers in music (17 cases) and physical educa-





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 173


tion (10 cases). Female professional careers appear to evolve somewhat dif-
ferently from their male counterparts: The predominant employment of the
women in the Mawsu'a is as university staff (106), many with the rank of
professor, with a few in the existing separate girls' colleges (of al-Azhar, for
example). With an additional 36 women working at higher research insti-
tutes, this amounts to more than a third. Of course, this figure reflects an-
other bias of the source for the present data.22 There are, naturally, also
prominent women in the cinema industry and in the theater, as well as in the
relatively popular career of journalism, as already mentioned.

Conclusions

The Mawsu'a was published under Mubarak, but its conception still reflects
the Nasserist era.
   The appearance of the Mawsu'a may be considered a landmark in the
political culture of Egypt. Of course, even a more rigorous perusal of such a
compendium cannot substitute for a full-fledged inquiry into social changes.
This chapter has tried to follow up how the Nasserist regime and its succes-
sors accorded new priorities and emphases to their own society and the
transformations therein. A cross-tabulation of all data in the Mawsu'a
(such as using date of birth, first enrollment at university, or date of first
employment) was beyond the purpose intended here. Rather, the present
approach was to remain on a simpler statistical level, sometimes even an
impressionist level. If such a project were to be undertaken, its results
would perhaps enable us to see more clearly at what point in time (or politi-
cal era) there were new departures in the careers of the various professional
groups.
   Career options are known to change due to the opening up of new politi-
cal or economic opportunities in society or due to shifts in ideological orien-
tations, such as (re)autocratization or (de)liberalization. Biographical lexi-
cons, especially official ones, may change accordingly, in particular in the
selection of the elites from which they draw their biographees. We are al-
ready curious to see the next edition of this official Mawsu'a-a post-Infitah
one.23

Notes

   1. Originally founded in 1954 as the Information Department, it has borne its
present name since 1967. See http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/about/htlml/aboutsis.htm.
   2. See Who's Who in America, 54th ed. (Chicago: Marquis, 2000). While its
present edition contains 120,000 names, the first edition mentioned 8,602 persons
(one for every 10,000 Americans at the time, see vi). Thus the present Mawsu' a still





174 | Uri M. Kupferschmidt


falls short even of that proportion (4,300 biographies for a population of about 60
million, which is approximately 1 for 14,000).
   3. Who's Who in the Arab World, 1999-2000 (Munich and New Providence: K.
G. Saur and Publitec, 1998), with 6,000 biographies in nineteen countries, the first
edition of which was published in Beirut in 1966. Cf. the same editor's Who's Who
in Lebanon, 1999-2000 (Beirut, 1999). See also The International Who's Who in
the Arab World, 2d ed. (London, 1984). In addition, there are some locally pro-
duced biographical lexicons, e.g., Hani Hurani et al., Who's Who in the Jordanian
Parliament (Amman: al-Urdun al-Jadid Research Center, 1997), and others in Ara-
bic.
   4. Several of the persons listed have died since the date of publication; on the other
hand, many have been included in a small appendix in later additions. For our discus-
sion of the different professional categories, both have been disregarded.
   5. Lawrence Stone, The Past and the Present Revisited (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1987), 45-73.
   6. Typical elite studies of the 1970s, focusing on recruitment, circulation, net-
works, modernization, etc., with contributions on Egypt are found in George Len-
czowsky, ed., Political Elites in the Middle East (Washington: American Enterprise
Institute, 1975); Frank Tachau, ed., Political Elites and Political Development in the
Middle East (Cambridge, Mass: Shenkman, 1975); and I. William Zartman, ed., The
Study of Elites in the Middle East (New York: Praeger, 1980). Focusing on the min-
isterial level is Maysa al-Jamal, Al-Nukhba al-Siyasiyya fi Misr, Dirasat Hala lil-
Nuhkba al-Wizariyya (Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-'Arabiyya, 1993). To
this one may add, among others, Nazih Ayubi, Bureaucracy and Politics in Contem-
porary Egypt (London: Ithaca Press, 1980), and parts from Raymond W. Baker,
Egypt's Uncertain Revolution under Nasser and Sadat (Cambridge: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1978); Mark N. Cooper, The Transformation of Egypt (London: Croom
Helm, 1982); R. Hrair Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir: A Study in Political Dynamics
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971); Raymond A. Hinnebusch,
Egyptian Politics under Sadat (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Rob-
ert Springborg, Family, Power, and Politics in Egypt (Philadelphia: University of
Philadelphia Press, 1982); and Robert Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt: Fragmentation
of the Political Order (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989).
   7. Muhyi al-Din al-Ta'ami, Mu'jam Bashawat Misr (Cairo: Madbuli, [1992?]),
which is a mere reprint from prerevolutionary directories. Slightly more useful is
Lam 'i al-Mati'i, Mawsucat Hadhihi al-Rijal min Misr (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1997),
which contains some ninety-five names of personalities, most of whom are deceased.
A most welcome addition of Western origin is Arthur Goldschmidt, Biographical
Dictionary of Modern Egypt (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1999), which also contains
useful bibliographical notes.
   8. Even the Internet site of the Majlis al-Sha'b (http://www. parliament.gov.eg/
cgi-win/apapo.exe/exe/1) states little more than names, tickets of election, and status
in parliament (with thanks to Eran Arighi for drawing my attention to this site).
   9. On the various definitions of "Nasserism," see the introduction to this volume.





Nasserist and Post-Nasserist Elites | 175


   10. See the irregular count of engineers.
   11. Donald M. Reid, "Educational and Career Choices of Egyptian Students,
1882-1922," IJMES 8 (1977): 349-78; cf. Hadi Abu Akeel and Clement H. Moore,
"The Class Origins of Egyptian Engineer-Technocrats," in C. A. O. van Nieuwen-
huyze, ed., Commoners, Climbers, and Notables (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977), 279-92.
   12. Being sent abroad on a government scholarship is an interesting aspect itself.
   13. For comparison, see Mark N. Cooper, "The Demilitarization of the Egyptian
Cabinet," IJMES 14 (1982): 203-25.
   14. Clement H. Moore, Images of Development: Egyptian Engineers in Search of
Industry, 2d ed. (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1994), esp. 109-30.
   15. There is also a businessmen section in the Mawsu'a, but it lists a majority of
managers in the public sector. Of the forty-four mentioned under this heading, only
a very few were or are in the service of private companies. Of course, their number
may be on the increase, but the process is still without momentum in this Mawsu'a.
See Eric Gobe, "Les Hommes d'Affaires et l'ltat dans le Capitalisme de l'Infitah
(1974-1994), Monde Arabe, Maghreb-Machrek 156 (1997): 49-59.
   16. Preceded by engineers, scientists, physicians, and agronomists.
   17. Consider also membership of the Higher Islamic Council and the (Coptic)
majlis milli.
   18. For comparison, see A. Chris Eccel, Egypt, Islam, and Social Change (Berlin:
Klaus Schwarz, 1984), 290-94.
   19. Gad G. Gilbar, Population Dilemmas in the Middle East (Portland: Frank
Cass, 1997), 115; Janet Abu-Lughod estimated "a typical Cairene family" at 4.7
persons in Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1971).
   20. See John Waterbury, Burdens of the Past, Options for the Future (Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 49-66, for elite perceptions during the rel-
evant period.
   21. Posters and billboards propagating family planning represented at least three
versions of dress and milieu, depicting an urban, a fallahi, and a Nubian family of
parents with two children. On demographic trends and the rate of increase, which
indeed is recently declining, see the different interpretations by Ami Ayalon, "De-
mography, Politics, and Tradition in Mubarak's Egypt," in Ami Ayalon and Gad G.
Gilbar, eds., Demography and Politics in the Arab States (Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Ha-
meuhad, 1995), 49 (Hebrew); Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "State, Women, and Civil Soci-
ety: An Evaluation of Egypt's Population Policy," in Makhlouf Obermeyer, ed., Fam-
ily, Gender, and Population in the Middle East: Policies in Context (Cairo: American
University in Cairo Press, 1995), 57-79; and Philippe Fargues, "State Policies and
the Birth Rate in Egypt: From Socialism to Liberalism," Population and Develop-
ment Review 23, no. 1 (1997): 115-38. On Egypt's family planning policy since the
Nasser era, see chapter 12 of this volume.
   22. This does not preclude the mention of many in women's organizations (Huda
al-Sha'rawi), children's councils, family planning boards, the Red Crescent, etc.
   23. On the post-Infitah period, see Samiya Sa'id Imam, Man Yamlik Misr?!





176 I Uri M. Kupferschmidt

Dirasa Tahliliyya lil-Usul al-Ijtima'iyya li-Nukhbat al-Infitah al-Iqtisadi fi al-
Mujtama'cal-Misri (Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1986); Ahmad Anwar, Al-
Infitah wa-Taghayyur al-Qiyam fi Misr (Cairo: Misr al-'Arabiyya lil-Nashr wal-
Tawzi', 1993). However, we also see signs of deliberalization. See Eberhard Kienle,
A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egypt (London: Tauris,
2001).







III.

Nasser's Foreign Policy












7


Abd al-Nasser's Regional Politics

A Reassessment

    Avraham Sela





Introduction

Thirty years after Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser's death, his legacy seems to have
been rejuvenated among both Egyptians and non-Egyptians, a phenomenon
which might tell us more about the perceptions and state of mind among
Arab nationalists at the close of the century than the "real" impact of Nasser's
achievements and failures.1
   Indeed, Nasser scored a striking success in shaking the political order
both in and among Arab states, especially in the Fertile Crescent, by releas-
ing powerful social forces that had been in a process of revolutionary tran-
sition. In hindsight, however, while he may have helped boost those forces,
it is doubtful whether his own aims had been served by the popular upsurge.
He became a hero of the masses, but had he ever possessed control of those
masses? Even when Nasser succeeded in "exporting the revolution," to what
extent did it serve his declared pan-Arab goals, be it Arab solidarity, unity, or
conformed foreign policy? And to what extent were those revolutionized
regimes willing to back Egypt?
   Nasser's fateful mistakes and failures in conducting his Arab and regional
policies are not entirely ignored, even by his ideological followers, though
they are glossed over rather than keenly discussed. The legacy of Nasser in
an Arab national perspective assumes an unmistakably apologetic and de-
fensive tone marked by empathy and longing. Nasser is portrayed as an
authentic and faithful delegate of his generation: irrevocably committed to
his imperative mission but defeated by strong hostile powers-including
Arabs-who conspired against him. In retrospect, the preciousness of the
Nasserist legacy looms larger and clears him of overall responsibility for the





180 | Avraham Sela


disasters that his decisions and policies brought to Egypt and the Arab world
as a whole. Hence, staunch Nasserists lament the abandonment of the values
and principles that underlay Nasser's daring leadership and reiterate the
need to revive and carry on his legacy. In their view, this legacy is especially
valid and necessary in view of the continued erosion of the Arab nation's free
will since Nasser, caused primarily by a systematic attack by historically
hostile external forces.2
   The post-Sadat years, and especially the 1990s, saw a renewed longing for
Nasserism. Even some of his current critics and political adversaries, among
them Egyptian Marxists, kept celebrating Nasser's birthday, with only the
Muslim Brothers and their offshoots maintaining their bitter enmity to Nas-
ser's practical and ideological legacy.3 It is noteworthy that recent academic
and military studies have been fairly critical of his pre-1967 legacy, especially
in regard to the military's condition and unrealistic regional politics.4
   The Arab retrospective discussion of Nasser's regional policies shows no
substantive self-searching or earnest effort to critically review Nasser's spe-
cific decision making and policies, nor does it explain the consequences of
his charismatic appeal to the masses. What is more salient is the lack of any
attempt to question or review basic assumptions and beliefs that under-
pinned Nasser's messianic brand of pan-Arabism. Indeed, this live image of
Nasser among Arab nationalists might serve as a convenient point of depar-
ture for a critical review of his legacy. However, this chapter by no means
aims to counter that image or affect the views of committed Arab nationalist
readers on that legacy.
   Students of Nasser's legacy have been puzzled by his inconsistent political
behavior and insufficiently explained political aims and major decisions.5
Indeed, was Nasser's focus on the regional Arab arena a reflection of his
"captivity" by the excited-at times, even ecstatic-response of the Arab
masses, especially in the Fertile Crescent countries?6 Or was it a result of
Nasser's own intentions and needs? These questions are of primary impor-
tance particularly because of Nasser's immense charismatic appeal among
the masses throughout the Arab world, which he fully utilized by approach-
ing and inciting them directly above the heads of, and often against, their
rulers.
   From a Nasserist viewpoint, Nasser's championship of pan-Arabism and
the Palestine issue has been explained in quite different ways. Nasser himself
kept explaining that his pan-Arab vision and commitment to the eradication
of colonialism were a defensive response to Israeli and imperialist aggression
toward Egypt, as epitomized by the 1956 Suez War.7 On the other hand, 'Ali
Sabri, a former prime minister and central member of the Free Officers,
explained the foreign policies of the regime in terms of establishing an inter-
national stature and influence. According to Sabri, such stature was a pre-





Nasser's Regional Politics | 181


requisite for making Egypt attractive for the United States and the USSR to
provide with military as well as economic aid so necessary for its social and
economic development.8
   Edward Carr observed that relations between the individual and society
also apply to the leader who is a product and reflection of his own social
environment.9 His critique of the "great-man theory in history" is of particu-
lar relevance to Nasser, whose remarkable ability to forge myths and employ
them for mass mobilization was evident in his self-made image of the hero-
savior of the Arab nation at large. Already in his Philosophy of the Revolu-
tion, published in 1954, Nasser spoke of the "role in search of a hero,"
which, in the course of the years, he interpreted as his own unchallenged all-
Arab chieftainship and played to the end in conjunction with dramatic for-
eign policy actions."
   In a historical perspective, the Nasserist revolution had no sound socio-
political organization or ideology, hence the development of its domestic
and foreign policies took a course determined by "trial and error" and "strate-
gies of survival,"" in accordance with fluctuating circumstances, opportuni-
ties, and constraints. Nonetheless, by the mid-1950s the Free Officers' re-
gime had become increasingly identified with unequivocal opposition to
foreign domination and a strong quest for rallying all Arab states behind this
approach, namely, behind Egypt's regional leadership. The initial success of
this policy obviously encouraged the regime's growing adoption of, and
commitment to, ideas of pan-Arab nationalism, which were much more
prevalent in the Fertile Crescent than in Egypt itself.
   Notwithstanding the debate on the origins and development of Nasser's
revolutionary "philosophy" before he attained power,12 his regime was
strongly driven by a quest for radical social and political changes in both
domestic and regional contexts. Indeed, much of Nasser's international con-
duct, particularly at the regional level, can be explained in terms of the
system of values, symbols, and interpretation of history which this regime
adopted to shape Egypt's post-1952 identity and role.13 It is in this context
that Nasser's Arab policies, best expressed in his capricious, self-interest
interpretation of Arab unity, can be explained. His ultimate aim was to
establish his unchallenged championship of the Arab world, which he appar-
ently perceived as vital for Egypt's national security and which in fact repre-
sented continuity rather than change in the regional policies conducted by
the preceding monarchic regime.14
   The components of Nasser's role conception were reflected in his ideol-
ogy and policies:15

     a. An uncompromising struggle for national liberation from West-
   ern domination-of which Israel was perceived as an indivisible part-





182 | Avraham Sela


   and humiliation as well as from those social groups identified politi-
   cally and economically with the foreigners, hence the definition of an
   imagined triangular enemy-Imperialism, Israel (and Zionism), and
   the (Arab) Reaction-which became instrumental in defining the Nas-
   ser regime's own identity and duties.
     b. Building an independent state with strong army and advanced
   economy, modernizing the society, giving it a new birth, and preparing
   it to play a new international role.
     c. Promoting Arab national unity as a historical imperative and
   existential necessity to all the Arabs vis-a-vis the unity of imperialism
   and its regional allies. This goal, so it was alleged, was not only attain-
   able but most reasonable in view of the immense gains from unifying
   all the Arab human and material resources: a prerequisite for the res-
   toration of Arab self-respect and dignity ('izza wa-karama).
     d. Attaining worldwide stature as a leading force of decolonization
   and support for national liberation movements, turning Cairo into a
   Mecca for Third World liberation movements.
     In this context, the presentation of Nasser's goals as a continuum
   along which he moved in search of-or rather, in defining-his objec-
   tives, ranging from a minimum of Arab solidarity to a maximum of
   Arab unity,16 is hardly consistent with Nasser's behavior. Indeed, he
   manifested adaptability to the changing conditions, but only partly. If
   anything, the changes were in tactics and style as well as in the means
   used to secure his objective, which was nothing but a recognized re-
   gional hegemony, whether attained through "solidarity," "unity," fear,
   or subversion. His adoption of a conciliatory policy-the "summitry"
   -toward regional Arab rivals in early 1964 was an attempt to rescue
   his plunging posture at a cost he could not sustain for long. Adversely,
   his aggressive policies toward his Arab rivals (in 1962-63 and again in
   1966-67), in response to major failures and battered prestige, indicate
   anything but adaptability.

   Whatever policies were conducted to attain the above aims, however, the
boundaries between vision and immediate to medium-term goals were often
vague or nonexistent, representing the absence of clear priorities. When such
boundaries were finally drawn, it was under intolerable conditions and at a
staggering cost. This was clearly represented by the definition of the political
community in the name of which Nasser's political message was propagated
and socialized. Nasser's vacillation between Egyptian and pan-Arab identi-
ties represented an unmistakable dialectic between the two roles, performed
on both political and ideological levels. At times, this dialectic resembled a
"zero sum game," in which the rise of one brought the other down. How-





Nasser's Regional Politics | 183


ever, there were also intervals of balance and coexistence between the two
roles. A reflection of the regime's perceived needs and alternative options,
the movement between Egyptian and pan-Arab nationalisms received clear
political and ideological expression, primarily in Nasser's own speeches and
the officially constructed public discourse.17
   The following discussion aims to focus on the roles undertaken by Nasser
as a key explanation for his performance, particularly in the sphere of re-
gional politics. More specifically, I wish to underline the overburdened and
incongruent nature of the roles of an authoritative ruler of Egypt and a
symbol of pan-Arab nationalism. These two roles not only had to address
different political entities-the state of Egypt and the Arab nation at large
(al-umma al-'arabiyya), respectively-but necessitated different types of ra-
tionale, discourse, and practice: raison d'etat vs. raison de la nation. While
the first was to be strictly based on Egypt's definite capabilities and calcu-
lated costs, the other was inevitably visionary, saturated with symbolism
and romanticism, addressing "the masses," a notion of no clear boundaries.
Above all, the pan-Arab trajectory entailed inescapable confrontation with
regional actors, and not only Israel, as well as with their international allies.
Embodied in one system of power, this duality of roles and conceptions
entangled him in a disastrous contradiction, which sentenced Egypt to long
years of futile and costly collisions with regional and international powers
that exhausted its resources and culminated in the grand fiasco of June
1967.

Nasser's Regional Politics: Continuity or Change?

As convincingly shown by P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasser's political thought and
praxis, like many others of his generation, had their origins in Egypt's politi-
cal reality of the 1930s. This trend was dominated primarily by the struggle
for national liberation, the crisis of identity, and the unbridgeable socioeco-
nomic and value cleavage between the elite and the rest of society. At that
time, the Society of Muslim Brothers and the Young Egypt Party-especially
from the early 1940s-strongly advocated Egyptian involvement in re-
gional Arab-Muslim affairs, primarily the Palestine conflict. While the latter
propagated its vision of Egypt's regional Arab and Muslim leadership, it was
the Muslim Brothers who played a key role in linking Egypt to the Arab
Fertile Crescent through their growing involvement in the Palestine conflict.
In 1948, they formed the largest force of volunteers in the Palestine War,
including some army officers who would later be involved in the July 1952
Revolution.18
   Nasser's pan-Arabism may well be reminiscent of his pre-July 1952 po-
litical upbringing. Yet his adoption of this idea as an official policy repre-





184 | Avraham Sela


sented continuity-a fact most studies on Nasserism tend to ignore. In fact,
the search for regional Arab leadership had been a central theme of Egyptian
foreign policy since the late 1930s. Nor was the idea of Egypt as an indivis-
ible part of the Arab world new to leading Egyptian figures and institutions
closely linked to the court, personified by the Arab League secretary-general
'Abd al-Rahman 'Azzam.19 It was the growing agitation of radical popular
movements for the sake of Palestine that led to the increasing attraction of
King Faruq and political movements to the idea of pan-Arabism, culminat-
ing in the military invasion of Palestine, together with other Arab states.
Like Faruq, Nasser employed the Palestine card to promote his pan-Arab
leadership.
   What enabled Nasser to inject new life and unprecedented magnitude
into the idea of pan-Arabism was a combination of power, historical oppor-
tunity, and the marketing capabilities of militant and populist anti-imperial-
ist speech. There is little disagreement that Nasser's initial breakthrough into
the political consciousness of the Arab masses in the Fertile Crescent coun-
tries took place during the course of 1955. That year provided Nasser with
a series of opportunities, which he masterfully seized and exploited. Such
face lifting was essential after the ill-received agreement he had signed with
Britain in October 1954,20 the attempt on his life by a member of the Muslim
Brothers, and his all-out clamping down on the movement.
   The advent of Nasserism in the mid-1950s, as a movement of protest and
defiance of Western influence, revived the traditional Egyptian-Iraqi compe-
tition for regional hegemony, now assuming an unprecedented ideological
fervor. Although both regimes sought to protect their narrow individual
state interests, the confrontation over the Baghdad Pact was also a struggle
between two generations, represented by Nuri al-Sa'id and Nasser, over re-
shaping the region's political orientation in the postcolonial era.21 Indeed,
for "Nuri's political school," Nasser's Arab neutralism was a revolutionary
concept.22
   Beginning with Nasser's aggressive campaign against the Baghdad Pact
and his participation at the historic meeting at Bandung, through the Czech
arms deal, the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, and the end of
the Anglo-French-Israeli joint offensive from which Nasser came out as a
hero-victor, all signaled defiance of the foreigner-whether Western imperi-
alism, Zionism, or Israel-rather than embracement of the pan-Arab idea.
That the regime accompanied its new foreign policy with an effort to recon-
struct Egypt's identity as an indivisible part of the Arab nation left the regime
on shaky ground, relying primarily on Nasser's charisma.23
   Nasser's success in mobilizing the Arab masses, however, needed more
than the invention or creation of myths. In 1955, when the Free Officers'





Nasser's Regional Politics | 185


regime shifted its focus to regional foreign policy, it had succeeded in stabi-
lizing the domestic arena and securing its grip on the reins of power. Hence-
forth, Nasser could launch his foreign affairs from a position of relative
strength and security, which none of the ruling elites in the Fertile Crescent
could claim. By adopting the Ba'thi idea of pan-Arabism (qawmiyya) and
turning it into Egypt's official message, Nasser struck an irresistible chord
with an emotionally saturated and effectively delivered myth. This, com-
bined with his political and bureaucratic resources, as well as his own char-
ismatic personality and his antagonistic incitement against the Western pow-
ers and Arab rulers alike, proved extremely effective in penetrating the Arab
masses and mobilizing them to action. The success scored by Nasser in this
respect, however, also reflected the weak and shaky Arab regimes that he
was targeting. So successful was this formula that it became Nasser's major
source of legitimacy and influence across the Arab world. Yet this approach
exposed him to critical risks as a result of external setbacks.24
   Most studies on Nasser's Arab policy tend to focus on his image, person-
ality, and political action, while ignoring the social and political realities in
the targeted Arab states. In fact, many of the underlying social and political
causes that gave rise to the Free Officers' coup-and later, revolution-also
prevailed in the Fertile Crescent countries and may help to explain the mete-
oric rise of Nasser to the position of idol of the masses. Nasser's seizure of
the pan-Arab myth was met with tremendous acceptance there mainly
because these societies had also been in the midst of social and political
turbulence due to long-standing processes of structural changes from be-
low. Moreover, unlike Egypt, which had just begun its involvement in the
Palestine conflict, by the late 1930s the doctrine of Arab nationalism had
become the dominant public discourse in the Fertile Crescent countries, es-
pecially for the urban middle class.
   The advent of the Free Officers' Revolution was preceded by years of
growing domestic turmoil and decline of the constitutional, parliamentary,
and relatively liberal ancient regimes in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent states.
In a way, they represented a Middle Eastern version of the Weimar Republic.
Indeed, the late 1940s and early 1950s brought unprecedented challenges,
both domestic and regional, to bear on the ruling elites, unmasking their
institutional weakness, questionable legitimacy, and overall inefficacy, espe-
cially in mobilizing their respective societies' loyalties and resources. These
traditional ruling elites, consisting primarily of landowners, were accused of
failing to provide a proper ideological prescription, let alone cure, for the
society's illnesses and growing needs. Their class-based rigidity and incom-
petence, underlying a continuous state of social and political immobilism
throughout the interwar years, resulted in growing criticism and alienation





186 | Avraham Sela


among the burgeoning middle class. This domestic instability was a reflec-
tion of potent new social and political forces on the verge of revolution.
Rapid population growth, urbanization, the spread of education, and the
growing working class-all became increasingly evident in the interwar
years, though without corresponding political and institutional reforms.25
   Soon enough, groups of the newly emerging urban professionals, mer-
chants, clerks, teachers, and students came to fill the intellectual and orga-
nizational vacuum left by the historic national movements that remained
exclusively interested in the struggle for independence.26 This new urban
middle class led the politicization and nationalization of the masses, dissemi-
nating chauvinist, nationalist, and Islamic discourses against foreign domi-
nation. At the same time, they also represented an outcry for social, eco-
nomic, and political reforms whose frustration led to a growing alienation
from and hostility toward the ruling upper class, which was identified both
culturally and economically with the hated foreign power.27
   The shift toward full independence in the Fertile Crescent countries in the
late 1940s further aggravated the socioeconomic and political difficulties of
the "new states." Moreover, they were increasingly burdened by competing
loyalties: to primordial, ethnic, and religious communities, on the one hand,
and to suprastate abstract entities-regional as well as Arab nationalisms
and Islam-on the other. Interstate mutual agitation and rivalries over the
leadership of regional Arab unity constituted another source of regime insta-
bility, which forced the ruling elites to adopt the pan-Arab nationalist dis-
course on both domestic and regional levels as a means to achieve legitimacy
and political survival.
   Even more significant, Arab rulers were compelled to adopt policies
against their best judgments and perceived state interests, which culminated
in their military intervention in the 1948 Palestine War. Indeed, nowhere
was this pattern of pressure "from below" on decision makers more salient
than in the case of the Arab growing involvement in the Question of Pales-
tine. The long struggle for national liberation and the humiliating defeat in
the Palestine War further eroded the legitimacy of the traditional elites and
heralded their imminent collapse. The Arab League, which had sponsored
the Arab collective action on Palestine, was held responsible for the shame-
ful defeat and turned out to be a broken promise of Arab unity.
   The immediate post-1948 years were thus saturated with a salient and
hardly separable drive for social and political revisionism on both domestic
and regional Arab levels. As much as these years demonstrated the old re-
gimes' ineptitude, corruption, and distance from their own societies' needs
and expectations, they also deepened the traditional hostility toward the
West. Already before Nasser came to the political scene, radical Arab move-





Nasser's Regional Politics | 187


ments spanning the entire political spectrum had been constantly fomenting
this hostility and increasingly employing it against the direct or indirect
presence of imperialism on any Arab land. Indeed, if there was a single most
significant meaning to Arab nationalism in Arab societies before or after
Nasser's advent, it was this deep hostility toward any manifestation of for-
eign presence in the region. Clearly, this trend gathered tremendous momen-
tum in the aftermath of the Palestine War, closely linked to the growing
popular pressure for a "second round" against Israel.28
   Nasser's Arab politics assumed diverse forms, strategies, aims, and ideo-
logical definitions over time. Any attempt to analyze one of them in separation
from the others might miss a spectrum of subtle nuances and approaches
that Nasser adopted in conjunction with the fluctuation of circumstances and
his perception of reality at any given time. For the sake of clarity and avoid-
ance of a dichotomy between the two basic roles ascribed to Nasser, the
following discussion is divided thematically and chronologically. While each
of them refers to a specific "role" and approach, the discussion in each of
them critically examines a range of motives, as well as the immediate and
long-term results of those roles.


Nasser's Pan-Arabism:A Self-Defeating Vision

The prevalence and magnitude of Arab nationalism in the political life of the
Fertile Crescent societies from the interwar period through the early 1960s
reflected a profound longing for the lost regional unity under a hegemonic
political center, which traditionally combined Islamic religion and state (din
wa-dawla). The shaping of the previously Ottoman Arab territories in the
form of new states and the discrepancies in power and resources among
them denied any single actor sufficient capabilities to attain regional hege-
mony or to seriously endanger the regional status quo.29 From the late 1930s
onward, Egypt's primacy in the region had been increasingly recognized by
public circles in the Fertile Crescent countries, due to its political, economic,
and cultural weight as a center of Islamic and secular higher education, huge
human resources, strong statehood, and geostrategic significance.30 This
primacy officially materialized in the leading role that Egypt came to assume
with the establishment of the Arab League in 1945.
   Egypt's role, however, was to balance inter-Arab relations rather than
dominate them and to keep at bay the revisionist schemes for regional uni-
fication woven by the Hashemite Iraqi and Jordanian monarchs. Indeed,
Nasser's deviation from this role, in his attempts to promote Egypt's regional
status to hegemony, proved capable of thoroughly destabilizing the inter-
Arab status quo and paralyzing the Arab League, its primary institutional





188 | Avraham Sela


expression, by challenging its rules and norms. Yet, even at the apex of
Nasser's regional impact, Egypt lacked sufficient means and capabilities to
coerce other Arab actors or to assume effective regional hegemony.31
   Whether or not Nasser genuinely sought to attain Arab unity, in hindsight
it seems more relevant to ask how did he interpret-or rather, employ-this
idea, under changing circumstances and needs, within the context of his
regime's overall foreign relations and political goals. Clearly, in the union
with Syria, Nasser exhaustively manipulated the idea of Arab unity by con-
tinually reinterpreting it in accordance with his own interests. Moreover,
hidden in Nasser's political conduct and messianic discourse toward the
Arab world was a core claim on monopolizing the interpretation of common
Arab national values and visions. Nowhere was this claim more visible than
in Nasser's erratic shifts of slogans and definitions of Arab unity, which
indeed reflected his own changing needs and aims.
   In campaigning against the Baghdad Pact, Nasser claimed unequivocal
conformity of all Arab states with Egypt's opposition to the Western schemes
of defense alliances in the Arab region. During the United Arab Republic
(UAR) episode, the leading slogan was "Unity of Rank" (wahdat al-saff),
denoting inter-Arab coexistence regardless of ideological differences. Fol-
lowing its breakup, Nasser shifted to his most militant slogan of social revo-
lution ever, "Unity of Purpose" (wahdat al-hadaf). Within a year, however,
this policy bankrupted, forcing him to adopt a slogan with a rather egalitar-
ian hue-"Unity of Action" (wahdat al-'amal)-which, for about two years,
underpinned the atmosphere of relative inter-Arab cooperation epitomized
by the summit conferences.
   In the spring of 1966, Nasser revived the "Unity of Purpose" battle cry,
which expressed his frustrated expectations from the conciliatory policy
that he had conducted in the Arab arena, as well as the continued deteriora-
tion of his relations with the United States. Implicit in the new guiding prin-
ciple was Nasser's true purpose: to besiege his Arab adversaries by inciting
their peoples against them, bringing internal pressures to bear on them.32
This return to a militant regional policy was sustained until the beginning of
the May 1967 Arab-Israeli crisis and was apparently a major underlying
cause of Nasser's conscious slide into war.
   Except for short intervals, Nasser himself was halfhearted in his self-
aggrandizement. With hindsight, Nasser's years in power were marked by a
constant drive for pan-Arab hegemony-especially in the Palestine-centered
"core" area-rather than for a merger with other Arab states. Pan-Arab
ideology was a useful myth, rather than an operative agenda, in Nasser's
striving for unchallenged Arab leadership. Apparently, pan-Arabism re-
mained more appealing to the masses in the Fertile Crescent than in Egypt





Nasser's Regional Politics | 189


itself, despite the efforts invested by the Nasserist regime to socialize this
doctrine to his own constituency.
   What remains unexplained is the repeated manifestation of vulnerabil-
ity and insecurity, often about images rather than realities, implied in Nas-
ser's impulsive political conduct in the Arab arena. Paradoxically, Nasser
was willing to cooperate with monarchist and Western-oriented Arab re-
gimes, which were less of an ideological challenge to him, against revolu-
tionaries when it suited him.33 Iraq's revolutionary regime in particular posed
a serious challenge to Nasser's unionist concept and aspirations for regional
hegemony because it employed a similar "revolutionary" discourse, turn-
ing against the West and becoming a recipient of Soviet arms. No wonder
Egypt's worst conflict was with Iraq. In March 1959, Nasser severed diplo-
matic relations with Iraq, which remained in force until Qassem's demise
four years later. Conversely, Nasser's inter-Arab policy became marked by
revolutionary pan-Arabism when Egypt's stature in the region or his own
regime's security had been challenged. Indeed, the fluctuations in Nasser's
inter-Arab policy can best be explained by the ups and downs in his domes-
tic and regional stature. Hence Fouad Ajami's description of Nasser's pan-
Arabism as a "fusion of idea and policy" is an impressionist observation
rather than a reality supported by historic evidence.34
   The unification with Syria was the exception. Nasser was initially reluc-
tant to enter into this venture, and when he finally succumbed to the Syrians'
pressure, he flatly dictated his own draconian terms. Syria's secession from
the UAR, much as a result of his ruling of Syria as a subjugated province
rather than as an equal partner, was the first critical crisis in his regional
Arab politics. Nothing attested more to the gap between Egypt's limited
capabilities and Nasser's far-reaching ambitions than his avoidance of mili-
tary intervention in Syria to quell the secessionist rebellion, primarily be-
cause of the lack of territorial contiguity. Paradoxically, what made the
union possible was the lack of territorial contiguity between Egypt and
Syria. Hence, the merger with Egypt could not wipe out Syria's boundaries
or stop Syria from seceding.35 The union's breakdown was to consolidate
still further the political forces within Arab states determined to preserve
their independence.36
   Nasser's response to the breakup-represented by the slogan "unity of
purpose"-was clearly meant to recover his battered prestige and tighten his
grip on power in Egypt by adopting more radical social and economic re-
forms. The new policy ostensibly set a higher, more demanding standard as
the minimal prerequisite for Arab unity. In practice, however, it was tanta-
mount to a declaration of indiscriminate war against his Arab rivals, "reac-
tionaries" and "revolutionaries" alike. The new slogan was synonymous





190 | Avraham Sela


with social revolution in the name of which Nasser now claimed the right to
interfere with domestic Arab affairs. As such, it reflected his wounded pride
and threatened regional leadership but could hardly contribute to the ad-
vancement of inter-Arab solidarity or cooperation.37
   Even after the establishment of the UAR, Nasser's adherence to Arab
unity was a matter of pragmatism rather than ideological commitment. This
was demonstrated by his support for the emergence of new Arab entities,
which went against the very rationale of melting those entities into one Arab
unit. In the summer of 1961, a few months before Syria's secession from the
UAR, Nasser recognized Kuwait's independence and led a collective peace-
keeping Arab effort to protect the new Arab state from possible Iraqi inva-
sion, followed by supporting its acceptance as an Arab League member.
Obviously, Nasser's motivation was to contain Iraq's irredentist claim on
Kuwait, for which he needed the support of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Yet
this policy facilitated the creation of another Arab state by British imperial-
ism, which Nasser frequently blamed for the fragmentation of the Arab
world.38 Similarly, Nasser did not object to the resumption of secessionist
Syria's membership in the Arab League, though he symbolically preserved
the UAR as Egypt's name. Above all, Nasser advanced an all-Arab recogni-
tion of an institutionalized "Palestinian entity" in the form of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), which, in principle, contradicted the aim of
Arab unity.39
   Not only was Nasser at best ambivalent toward putting Arab unity into
practice but his antagonistic approach to other Arab regimes in fact made
them all the more sustainable in defiance of his pressures. The shift of inter-
est to regional Arab politics in early 1955 introduced Egypt as an intrusive
power in interstate relations in the Fertile Crescent, with a magnitude that
superseded its previous balancing role of the Arab system. Ambitious states
saw Egypt as a competitor, while weaker ones feared the threat it constituted
to their political independence.
   More significantly, Egypt became increasingly involved in the domestic
affairs of the Mashriq states, confusing the relations between ruler and
ruled. The advent of this policy heralded the collapse of the Westphalian
order struck by the foundation of the Arab League in 1945, whose most
important principle was the commitment of the members to mutually re-
spect each other's sovereignty. Whereas the Arab League was essentially
meant to preserve the regional status quo and prevent any one member from
attaining hegemony, Nasser's Arab policies injected frenzy and instability
into inter-Arab relations, blurring the separating lines between state, people,
and nation.
   Nasser's practice of directly calling upon the Arab masses' allegiance and





Nasser's Regional Politics | 191


mobilization for action constituted a threat to the sovereign rulers of these
states. Its most conspicuous manifestation was the rise of "Nasserist"
groups in several Arab states, which served as Egypt's political agents.
Cairo's "Voice of the Arabs" was one of various means of subversion used
by the Nasserist regime to interfere with other Arab states' domestic affairs.
These tactics demonstrated the shaky nature of these Arab regimes, the per-
meability of their national boundaries, and their exposure to competing
external authority. These and other Arab regimes were thus obliged to fol-
low Nasser's line because they lacked the power to repress the opposition
forces in their own societies. The success of this policy was most evident in
Jordan, thanks to a large and embittered Palestinian population whose poli-
ticians were first to embrace Nasser as their hero and redeemer of Pales-
tine.4"
   Under Nasserist pressure, Jordan-as well as Syria-were forced to re-
frain from joining the Baghdad Pact. Jordan was also forced to get rid of the
British command of the Arab Legion; to join the Egypt/Saudi Arabia/Syria
Pact; and to replace the British annual subsidy with an Arab one. In retro-
spect, however, Nasser's pressures kept Arab regimes alert and instigated
constant tightening of their control over society by restricting political
freedoms and eliminating or containing opposition and nonstate actors,
such as the Nasserist groups. Arab rulers were thus temporarily forced to
comply with domestic demands affected by Egyptian agitation. This, how-
ever, proved to be a far cry from successful coercion by Egypt, as these
rulers never lost their ability to reverse such actions at the first opportu-
nity.41 Moreover, the Nasserist threat drove Arab regimes to call upon West-
ern allies to interfere on their behalf, demonstrated by the landing of British
and American troops in Jordan and Lebanon, respectively, in summer 1958.
   The charismatic authority exercised by Nasser represented a temporary
alliance with popular Arab nationalist movements-Ba'thists, Nasserists, or
Arab Nationalists-in the Fertile Crescent countries. It was a convergence of
interests in which the latter expected to benefit from Nasser's material re-
sources and legitimacy, as well as from his methods of interference in inter-
nal affairs of their respective countries. It was this cross-national alignment
that blurred state boundaries and exposed the permeability and vulnerabil-
ity of the targeted Arab states. Yet, even as Nasser was an invaluable asset to
those movements, their willingness to accept his patronage was bound to
end once they seized power, such as in the case of the Ba'th rise to power in
both Syria and Iraq. Even the Arab Nationalists, the most ardent supporters
of Nasserism, had defected from his orbit by the mid-1960s and had joined
his critics on ideological grounds.42
   Nasser's regional policy attested to the intolerable burden of being a





192 | Avraham Sela


champion and living symbol of pan-Arabism and, at the same time, a head
of state who was unable to realize his vision by coercion, despite his regional
centrality. He had to brandish the sword against Israel and yet preach re-
straint; to collaborate with the Arab monarchs while still threatening them
with resumption of his revolutionary policy. This ambivalence enabled Syria
to hoist the banner of war against Israel and to question Nasser's legitimacy
and claim for pan-Arab leadership, which eventually forced him to adopt
this as his own regional policy. Nasser's failure to maintain strict control of
the joint Arab plan through inter-Arab financial and political trade-offs re-
sulted from the turbulent nature of domestic and inter-Arab politics in the
Mashriq's countries.
   The entrenchment in a revolutionary brand of pan-Arabism after the
breakup of the UAR deepened Nasser's isolation in the Arab arena and
rendered compromise with his rivals inconceivable. The repercussions of
this policy turned out to be disastrous to the fragile improvement scored in
U.S.-Egypt relations thanks to Kennedy's efforts, the main result of which
were significant American food aid shipments to Egypt. Yet, just as the
Cairo-Washington rapprochement had culminated in an agreement on three
years of food aid to Egypt in October 1962, Nasser's intervention in Yemen
that month and his later entanglement in hostilities against Saudi Arabia
undermined the relations between Washington and Cairo.43 In the latter
case, Nasser continued to conduct his regional-based interests even at the
high risk of provoking American concerns for their oil interests in Saudi
Arabia-a scenario that Nasser could hardly overlook.44 Likewise, the Yemen
Civil War overburdened Egypt's economy and foreign relations with the
United States. Moreover, it posed his continued inaction against Israel in
sharp contrast to his massive military involvement in Yemen and provided
his Arab critics with an effective weapon in their efforts to divert his policy
to their own ends.


Nasser and the Palestine Conflict

The inconsistencies between Nasser's roles as a ruler of Egypt, on the one
hand, and a champion of the Arab nation at large, on the other, were clearly
reflected in his views and actions regarding the conflict with Israel. Since the
1930s, the Question of Palestine had been closely and inseparably interwo-
ven in the doctrine of Arab nationalism and turned into its most powerful
"core issue." This meant that whoever adopted the pan-Arab discourse or
sought to mobilize external Arab recognition and support had to place the
cause of Palestine at the top of his agenda. Nonetheless, the first decade of
Nasser's regional policy represented continuity of the prerevolutionary re-





Nasser's Regional Politics | 193


gime, which can be defined as "short of war hostility." This included politi-
cal and economic boycott, strategic maritime blockade, and sporadic guer-
rilla raids by Palestinians. In 1954-55, Nasser conducted a secret diplo-
matic exchange with Israeli prime minister Moshe Sharet, which ended at
an impasse.45 Nasser's preference for Arab-oriented foreign policy in early
1955 was bound to lead him to confrontation, rather than coexistence,
with Israel. This trajectory was also underlined by Israeli military actions,
including attacks on Egyptian targets along their mutual border, in retali-
ation for violent attacks launched mostly from the Gaza Strip. As of 1955,
Nasser embarked on massive arms procurement, mounted guerrilla activi-
ties against Israel, and closed the Straits of Tiran, all of which accounted for
Israel's participation in the tripartite Sinai operation.
   The post-Sinai security provisions along the Israel-Egypt border and the
Straits of Tiran forced Nasser to avoid taking action against Israel from his
own border. His soaring prestige following the withdrawal of British,
French, and Israeli troops from Egyptian territory helped him to shape a new
Arab agenda that would benefit his quest for pan-Arab hegemony without
immediately committing himself to war with Israel. The new agenda set
Arab unity as the primary aim, the attainment of which was portrayed as a
prerequisite to the liberation of Palestine. Indeed, until 1964, Arab strategy
in the conflict with Israel was marked by uncertainty, lack of a defined po-
litical or military plan, and a vast discrepancy between vision and reality.
   With Israel considered an illegitimate entity, the Arab objective in the
conflict could only be defined in terms of elimination of the state of Israel,
entirely precluding diplomacy and peaceful resolution. However, no clear
Arab program of action-whether political or military-had been worked
out to accomplish this objective. Arab strategic and political thought fo-
cused on justifying the objective and explaining its feasibility regardless of
practical constraints, postulating that the disappearance of Israel was his-
torically inevitable. Indeed, the Arab objective in the conflict with Israel was
a utopian goal that fitted into the messianic doctrine of Arab nationalism.46
   The absence of a specific program of action reflected Nasser's awareness
of the impracticability of the Arabs' objective in the conflict-vague and
undefined as it was-in view of their limited military capabilities, their po-
litical weakness and internal divisions, and the wide international support
for Israel's legitimate existence. Thus, until 1964, the Arab policy on the
Palestinian conflict remained confined to diplomatic activity in the UN and
repetition of resolutions reiterating the right of the Palestinian refugees to
return to their homes. The Palestinian problem was not a priority in Nasser's
political agenda, as evidenced by the 1962 National Charter, which made no
reference to Palestine.





194 | Avraham Sela


   Under Nasser's leadership, the absence of a clear Arab strategy in the
conflict with Israel was thus officially admitted and legitimized. Yet as the
realization of the goal was presented as more distant, Nasser's hostile atti-
tude toward Israel became more absolute and decisively expressed, reiterat-
ing his commitment to the objective of elimination. However, until May
1967, Nasser repeatedly argued that the option of war against Israel should
not be taken, giving priority to the establishment of regional hegemony in
the name of Arab unity. He advocated an indefinite postponement of war
against Israel to give the Arabs time to prepare for the decisive, all-out show-
down, which he portrayed as a comprehensive Arab effort-military, eco-
nomic, and industrial-to build an immense Arab capability, not only to
fight Israel but also to deter "those behind Israel." Clearly, the total war
envisioned by Nasser was little more than an instrument to enhance and
legitimize his regional policies.47
   This indefinite and evasive strategy and continued procrastination of
the war against Israel turned Nasser's antagonistic speech and subversive
policies toward Arab rivals into a self-made trap. The discrepancy between
vision and praxis exposed him to embarrassing charges that questioned his
commitment to the issue of Palestine and, indirectly, the legitimacy of his
claim for pan-Arab leadership. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was
mainly Qassem of Iraq whose criticism of Nasser's military inaction against
Israel brought the latter to advocate the establishment of a "Palestinian
Entity." Clearly, Nasser wished to demonstrate his political action for this
cause and to lessen the pressures on him to lead an all-out war against
Israel. The ascendancy of the Ba'th Party to power in Syria in March 1963
further aggravated Nasser's predicament. Deriving from the guerrilla ex-
perience of current national liberation movements, the new Syrian regime
confronted Nasser with a contradictory strategy, strongly supported by the
emerging Movement for National Liberation of Palestine (Fatah) to wage
a popular war for the liberation of Palestine as a necessary step toward
Arab unity.
   Late 1963 demonstrated the deadlock that Nasser's efforts in the Arab
arena had reached. The cumulative effect of consecutive failures-the
breakup of the UAR, the entanglement in the Yemen quagmire, and hostile
relations with monarchist and revolutionary regimes alike-had eroded
Nasser's posture in the Arab world. Most important, Israel's imminent op-
eration of its National Water Carrier Project lent power to the Syrian pres-
sures to launch an immediate war against Israel, for which he had been
neither prepared nor willing to sustain a serious blow to his pan-Arab lead-
ership. Nasser responded by calling his Arab colleagues to a summit under
the banner of Palestine, the ultimate source of legitimacy and most powerful
rallying force in Middle East politics.





Nasser's Regional Politics | 195


   Nasser's initiative for a summit was a major-though not irreversible, as
it turned out by 1966-shift in the form and substance of inter-Arab politics
from that starting in the mid-1950s. Nasser's new slogan of "Unity of Ac-
tion" (for the sake of Palestine, or against Israel) can be defined as "prevent-
ing war by controlled escalation," reflecting his narrowing options for secur-
ing regional stature. The joint Arab action consisted of a three-pronged
agenda pertaining to the issue of Palestine-diversion of the Jordan River's
tributaries; promoting Arab preparation for war against Israel under a joint
Arab command; and developing the newly established PLO. The new rally-
ing theme was meant to preserve Nasser's regional leadership and legiti-
macy, while preventing an untimely war with Israel.
   Shifting the Arab-Israeli conflict to a national liberation war indeed con-
stituted a radical change in the Arab concept of war against Israel. Yet, until
1967, Nasser's policy concerning the "Palestinian Entity" clearly mani-
fested an intention to confine the struggle for Palestinian national libera-
tion to the political sphere, thereby limiting Egypt's active role in the lib-
eration of Palestine. Nasser's new concept drew on the rapid process of
decolonization in Asia and Africa; Moscow's official endorsement of na-
tional liberation movements in early 1961; and Nasser's efforts to establish
himself as a primary leader in the Third World.48


Nasser and the Shaping of Regional Order

Although Nasser's intrusive Arab policy was a major cause for regional in-
stability, it was, above all, geared to secure regional Arab conformity under
Egyptian hegemony, not to radically alter the regional order itself. Thus, in
late 1963, when his aggressive inter-Arab policy reached a deadlock, with
Syria threatening to entangle Egypt in an undesirable war against Israel,
Nasser opted to return to the "Westphalian" Arab regional order envisioned
by the Arab League's founders.49 To support the shift, apart from bringing
the Arab League back in, Nasser reinvented the forum of all Arab heads of
state as an overall authority entrusted with supervising the new Arab re-
gional order. Yet a shift from imposed conformity to state sovereignty ne-
cessitated a parallel process of "normalization" of the conflict with Israel,
which had become subject to collective Arab strategy on the Palestinian
issue. That Egypt led this trend is explained by both the impasse reached by
Nasser's Arab policies and the high stakes of a military confrontation with
Israel at a time when significant Egyptian forces had been bogged down in
the Yemen Civil War. That Nasser could abruptly account for such a shift
and receive an all-Arab approval reflected recognition not only of Egypt's
regional primacy and Nasser's personal prestige but also a quest for relax-
ation and stabilization of inter-Arab relations.





196 | Avraham Sela


   Beginning in January 1964, Arab summitry heralded a new era in re-
gional Arab politics. A growing inter-Arab dialogue conducted on a state-to-
state level replaced Nasser's intrusion in the name of revolutionary pan-
Arabism. The shifting nature of inter-Arab relations from politics of symbols
and absolute truths to "negotiated order" reflected a recognition of the det-
rimental gulf between revisionist visions and political realities, and the need
to control this contradiction. The transformation-albeit fragile and revers-
ible at its start-was determined by the state system's obligation to face its
limited resources and capabilities.
   The prestigious forum of all heads of Arab states inherited the Arab
League's primary role as an institutional expression of the regional states'
system in which every member was equal regardless of its capabilities or
political philosophy. The single most important factor that led to the institu-
tionalization of summitry after 1964 was the steady pressure from the core
Arab states-primarily Egypt-to support their policies in the conflict with
Israel. The impact of the new Arab regional order had been apparent in Arab
intellectuals' interpretation of pan-Arab nationalism in terms of solidarity
and cooperation rather than of political unity.50
   The summit conference served as a mechanism of collective moral author-
ity assigned to bridge the contradictions between pan-Arab nationalism and
realpolitik through reinterpretation of raison de la nation and adjustment to
raison d'etat. In the absence of an overall Arab authority, policy making on
all-Arab core issues deviating from Islamic and pan-Arab national commit-
ments needed legitimization by a supranational forum representing the en-
tire Arab national community, that is, all Arab states. Arab summits indeed
followed the Arab League's rule that only unanimous decisions committed
the member states.51
   By virtue of representing the collective Arab will, the summit became a
useful instrument for legitimizing deviation from hitherto established core
Arab norms and values, such as officially shelving war against Israel to an
indefinite future. No less important, the advent of the Arab summit pro-
vided a normative mechanism that narrowed the options for individual
regimes or nonstate actors to take on contradictory policies or call for an
alternative all-Arab conformity. Indeed, this forum was repeatedly called
to legitimize the post-1967 efforts of the confrontation states to retrieve
their occupied territories through diplomatic means. Arab summits thus
played an essential role in the process of state building by legitimizing the
gradual departure of individual Arab regimes from suprastate commit-
ments. That the Arab summit conducted this process in its handling of the
Palestine conflict-the core issue of Arab-Muslim collectivism-lent it cred-
ibility and moral legitimacy.





Nasser's Regional Politics | 197


Epilogue: Post-1967 Primacy of Egypt

The devastating results of the June 1967 War forced Nasser to revise his
overall regional strategy in the context of both inter-Arab relations and the
conflict with Israel. Egypt's interests and constraints shaped the terms of the
change, and Nasser, his shaken regime notwithstanding, remained pivotal to
collective Arab action, which was reconstructed in the Khartoum summit in
September 1967.
   In addition to the mass destruction of arms and combat units, the loss of
the main sources of revenues in foreign currency-the Suez Canal, Sinai oil,
and tourism-was particularly devastating for Egypt's economy, which
would hardly grow until the October 1973 War.52 Militarily defeated and
besieged by domestic challenges to his regime, Nasser had little choice but to
secure his position at home and gain time for full military recovery, keeping
all options open to reclaim the lost territories. The concept he adopted thus
combined the acceptance of international diplomatic efforts and a decision
to maintain the military option, which, given his limited capabilities, could
only assume the form of a limited war. Nasser's new political realism was
accompanied by strong determination to rebuild his regime as well as his
regional stature.
   This strategy, however, had to be consistent with Arab national premises
and goals from which Nasser could not have easily departed and without
which he would have lost further legitimacy and Arab material support.
Already in his resignation speech following the defeat in the June 1967 War,
Nasser stated that "what was taken by force will be returned by force,"
calling for a unified Arab effort and the use of Arab oil to realize this goal.
Indeed, a political settlement with Israel was entirely precluded by Nasser,
who insisted on unconditional Israeli withdrawal to the prewar borders,
along the perimeters of the latter's 1957 withdrawal from Sinai. Thus he
rejected Israel's official proposals, submitted less than two weeks after the
war ended, for direct talks on permanent peace in return for its full with-
drawal to the international border-save modifications needed for secu-
rity.53
   Nasser perceived war as a prominent and necessary means to recover
Sinai from Israel, hence the priority he gave to rebuilding the Egyptian
armed forces. It reflected a realistic conclusion that no matter what the
prospects of recovering the lost territories by diplomatic means, the mini-
mum requirements would oblige a restoration of Egypt's military capabil-
ity and unabated armed pressure on Israel. Resumption of the military
option would also strengthen his bargaining position toward Israel and pro-
mote his legitimacy on both domestic and regional levels. To realize this end,





198 | Avraham Sela


Nasser was willing to turn fully toward the Soviets, offering Moscow mili-
tary and naval facilities even at the expense of eroding the hitherto sacro-
sanct value of absolute Egyptian sovereignty.
   Recovering the lost territories was given priority over the Palestine issue,
although without spelling this out explicitly. This was defined by Nasser's
phrase "elimination of the traces of aggression and restoration of the rights
of the Palestinian people." This ambiguous formula was meant to demon-
strate pragmatism to the international community by stressing the quest for
Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. At the same time, it was necessary to
reassure the Arab militants-represented by the PLO, Syria, and Algeria-
that Egypt was still committed to the liberation of Palestine. In effect, it was
this priority which determined Egypt's strategic war goal, as defined by the
Egyptian General Command and approved by the government in November
1967 "on the basis of the Khartoum summit resolutions." It was phrased as
the "liberation of the occupied land of Sinai . . . until the Egypt-Palestine
border, and political use [emphasis added] of the success for restoration of
the Palestinian people's rights."54
   Notwithstanding its infamous three no's on possible change of attitude
toward Israel, a careful reading into the Khartoum resolutions and behind-
the-scene debates reveals the beginning of a shift of Arab perception of the
conflict with Israel from one revolving around Israel's legitimacy to one
focusing on territories and boundaries.55 Clearly, Nasser was the main actor
behind this shift. This was underlined by his immediate acceptance of UN
Security Council resolution 242 (November 22, 1967), which was to be-
come the cornerstone for future peacemaking efforts in the Arab-Israeli
conflict. The summit was also the first step in legitimizing diplomacy as a
major means in the conflict with Israel. The opposition that this underly-
ing premise triggered was to become the main fault line of inter-Arab rela-
tions in the years to come.
   Ironically, Nasser-with King Husayn-triggered a renewed debate
around the concept of phased struggle based on realism and persistence,
originally brought up by Bourguiba in 1965.56 Their antagonists reasonably
argued that the combination of limited war and diplomacy would compro-
mise the Arab strategic goal of eliminating Israel, hence they demanded
continued military struggle. Nasser's own approach was apparently still
marked by intrinsic inconsistency between the incremental process and the
absoluteness of the objective.57
   The Khartoum summit also signaled a turning point in inter-Arab rela-
tions. Nasser's abandonment of his revolutionary slogans and assertive in-
ter-Arab policies and his acceptance of a "political action" in the conflict
with Israel soured relations with Syria and seriously weakened the revolu-





Nasser's Regional Politics | 199


tionary camp. The distinction between "revolutionary" and "conservative"
regimes became essentially outmoded, especially in view of Nasser's need for
urgent financial aid, which could only be met by the oil producers. The new
inter-Arab alignment underpinned Egypt's total withdrawal from Yemen,
indicating the end of its interventionist policy out of its national borders.
   Nasser's death in September 1970, symbolically coinciding with the crush
of the Palestinian guerrilla organizations by the Jordanian army (Black Sep-
tember), signaled the end of the revolutionary era in Arab politics. The de-
parture from revolution was reinforced when, two months later, Hafiz al-
Asad seized power in Syria. Thus the ascendancy of new regimes in two
central Arab states paved the way for an era of pragmatic inter-Arab align-
ment away from Nasser's overshadowing image. It was this alignment which
enabled full adoption of the strategy of phases in the conflict with Israel,
which Nasser had apparently endorsed but only halfheartedly followed.


Conclusions

Nasser's inter-Arab policy was marked by a deep sense of national insecurity
and righteous grandeur. Its frustration resulted primarily from Egypt's insuf-
ficient resources and capabilities and other limits put on it by regional and
nonregional actors alike who contested Nasser's quest for regional hege-
mony. Personifying Egypt's quest for regional hegemony, Nasser played the
role of the rebuking prophet, a standard-bearer whose choices and interpre-
tations were beyond debate. His claim for legitimate interference in other
Arab states' domestic affairs in the name of pan-Arabism was bound to
collide with the sovereign state's prerogatives and praxis.
   It is here where Nasser's failure was most conspicuous. Once and again
he let his imagined role-nurtured by his immense popularity among the
masses-take priority over and defeat rational calculations, especially in
terms of Egypt's military and economic capabilities. Yet it is doubtful
whether Nasser himself would have accepted such a dichotomy between his
regional pan-Arab role and that of the ruler of Egypt, which he apparently
perceived as inseparable. Had he been able to distinguish between these
"roles," he could have otherwise tackled the hasty unification with Syria, the
disastrous military intervention in Yemen, and most of all, the drift to war
with Israel in May and June 1967-to mention only the most salient and
costly decisions he made.
   Whatever rhetoric or action was deployed by the Nasserist regime in the
sphere of inter-Arab relations or the conflict with Israel, its mainstay was the
consolidation of its own capabilities, power, and sovereignty. The thrust of
Nasser for regional hegemony in the name of pan-Arabism forced others to





200 | Avraham Sela


develop counteralliances, sometimes with nonregional powers, as a means
to deter regional Arab threats and enhance national security. It is indeed
ironic that Nasserism, often conceived as the epitome of pan-Arabism, was
in effect a powerful catalyst in the process of state formation and self-
defeating in its perceived efforts to melt the Arab states' differences into
one political unit or even a collective action. On the whole, the fierce inter-
Arab struggle for power-although by far more violent than Malcolm Kerr's
term "Arab Cold War" denotes-was crucial to state formation and defini-
tion of state sovereignty and boundaries versus an abstract supranational
Arab entity.
   Until 1967, Nasser's conduct of his relations with other Arab states was
marked by self-convicted unilateral dictation, with no willingness whatso-
ever to negotiate or accept compromises. Even in the 1964-65 summitry
period, when he ostensibly proved capable of coming to terms with his Arab
rivals, in fact he was only playing for time. Adamant not to surrender any of
his regional assets or aims, he opted for a dangerous strategy that was in-
tended to rescue his image and prevent war with Israel, but was bound to
actually escalate the chances of war. That Egypt could achieve much more
in terms of regional leadership and cooperation with other Arab states by
avoiding aggressive policies became evident only under Sadat.
   Following the June 1967 defeat, Nasser himself showed realism and more
flexibility in his search for the recovery of the occupied territories from Israel
by adopting a combined strategy of power and diplomacy. His acceptance of
resolution 242 was meant to win him time for domestic and military recov-
ery as prerequisites for the liberation of Sinai by force rather than by keenly
relying on the international efforts to bring about an Israeli withdrawal from
the territories occupied in June 1967. Yet the shift toward Egypt's particular
needs and departure from the previous antagonistic approach toward other
Arab regimes could hardly wipe out Nasser's threatening image from the
latter's memory. The result was a measured Arab financial aid to Egypt and
little willingness on the part of the confrontation states to share with Egypt
the burden of the war of attrition against Israel.

Notes
   1. "Thalathuna 'Aama 'ala Wafat Jamal Abd al-Nasir" (a panel), Al-Mustaqbal
al- 'Arabi 23 (December 2000): 79-111; Basim al-Jisr, "'Abd al-Nasir wal-Haraka al-
Qawmiyya al-'Arabiyya," ibid., 94.
   2. See Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal's presentation, "Ja'izat Jamal Abd al-
Nasir," Al-Mustaqbal al-' Arabi 22 (September 1999): esp. 82-92; 'Abdallah Imam,
'Ali Sabri Yatadhakkar: Bi-Saraha can al-Sadat (Cairo: Dar al-Khayal, 1997), 98-
101; Husam 'Issa, "Misr ... Ila Ayn?" Al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi 21 (November 1998):
34-35.





Nasser's Regional Politics | 201


   3. Joel Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July
Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 198; Emanuel Sivan, Radi-
cal Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1985).
   4. See, e.g., Abd al-Mun'im Sa'id, "Al-Taghayyur fi al-Siyasa al-Kharijiyya ba'd
al-Hazima," in Lutfi al-Khuli, ed., Harb Yunyu 1967 Ba'da 30 Sana (Cairo: Markaz
al-Ahram, 1997), 161, 171-73. See also Taha al-Majdoub, "Al-Jaish al-Misri Ba'da
Yunyu 67," ibid., 118-20.
   5. P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (London: Croom Helm, 1978), 17.
   6. See, e.g., al-Jisr, "'Abd al-Nasir," 91-92; Peter Woodward, Nasser: Profiles in
Power (London: Longman, 1992), 81.
   7. Salwa al-'Amad, "Al-'Uruba wa-Filastin fi Siyasat Abd al-Nasir wa-Dawru-
huma fi Sun' Jadhibiyyatih al-Siyasiyya," Shu'un Filastiniyya, no. 244-45 (August
1993): 39-43.
   8. Imam, 'Ali Sabri, 98-99.
   9. Edward H. Carr, What Is History? (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1964),
44-55.
   10. Ibid., 53; Gamal Abdel Nasser, The Philosophy of the Revolution (Buffalo:
Smith, Keynes and Marshall, 1959), 59-62; John S. Badeau, "The Role in Search of
a Hero: A Brief Study of the Egyptian Revolution," Middle East Journal 9, no. 1 (fall
1955): 373-84.
   11. Imam, 'Ali Sabri, 100-101. For a leftist Ba'thi perspective of Nasser's devel-
oping revolution, see Muhammad 'Umran, Tajribati fi al-Thawra (Damascus: n.p.,
1970), 114-15.
   12. R. Hrair Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir: A Study in Political Dynamics (Al-
bany: State University of New York Press, 1971), 50-51; Gordon, Nasser's Blessed
Movement, 3-6; Israel Gershoni, "An Intellectual Source for the Revolution: Tawfiq
al-Hakim's Influence on Nasser and His Generation," in Shimon Shamir, ed., Egypt
from Monarchy to Republic: A Reassessment of Revolution and Change (Boulder:
Westview Press, 1995), 213-19; Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, 15-16 and
more thoroughly in chaps. 1-4, tracing the pre-1952 roots of Nasser's political per-
ceptions.
   13. On the Nasserist images and values, see Adeed I. Dawisha, Egypt in the Arab
World: The Elements of Foreign Policy (New York: John Wiley, 1976), 123-39.
   14. For an explanation of Egypt's quest for regional leadership and its boundaries
of national security, see Imam, 'Ali Sabri, 97-100; Sa'id, "Al-Taghayyur," 162-64.
See also Dawisha, Egypt, 5; Yehoshua Porath, In Search of Arab Unity (London:
Frank Cass, 1980); Ali E. H. Dessouki, "Egypt and the Peace Process," International
Journal 4, no. 3 (1990): 57-58.
   15. On the concept of role, see Kalevi J. Holsti, International Politics: A Frame-
work for Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977), chap. 5; Lisbeth
Aggestam, "Role Conceptions and the Politics of Identity in Foreign Policy,"
ARENA, Working Papers Series, 1999; Michael Barnett, "Institutions, Roles, and
Disorder," International Studies Quarterly 37 (1993): 271-96. For a discussion of
this aspect in the case of Nasser, see Dawisha, Egypt, 123-25.





202 | Avraham Sela


   16. Dawisha, Egypt, 140-53.
   17. Gad Gilbar, "Between Arabism and Egyptianism," in Shimon Shmair, ed., The
Decline of Nasserism, 1965-1970: The Waning of a Messianic Movement (Tel Aviv:
Mif'alim Universitayim, 1978), 208-17 (Hebrew).
   18. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, esp. chaps. 1-4.; James P. Jankowski,
"Egyptian Responses to the Palestine Problem in the Interwar Period," IJMES 12
(1980): 1-38; Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, 72-78, 85-97. It is noteworthy
that some 150 volunteers of "Young Egypt" also took part in the war.
   19. 'Awatif Abd al-Rahman, Misr wa-Filastin (Kuwait: al-Majlis al-Watani lil-
Thaqafa wal-Funun wal-Adab, 1980), 85ff.; James P. Jankowski, "The Govern-
ment of Egypt and the Palestine Question, 1936-1939," Middle Eastern Studies 17
(1981): 427-53; Thomas Mayer, Egypt and the Palestine Question, 1936-1945 (Ber-
lin: K. Schwarz, 1983); P. J. Vatikiotis, The Modern History of Egypt (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), 343-45, 352-53. See also Ralph M. Coury, The
Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist: The Early Years of Azzam Pasha, 1893-
1936 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998); Elie Podeh, "The Emergence of the Arab State
System Reconsidered," Diplomacy and Statecraft 9, no. 3 (1998): 68-71.
   20. Bashir Da'ouk, Nidal al-Ba'th fi Sabil al-Wahda wal-Huriyya wal-Ishtira-
kiyya, vol. 3 (Beirut: Dar al-Tali'a, 1964), 9, 22-23; Naji 'Allush, Al-Thawra wal-
Jamahir (Beirut: Dar al-Tali'a, 1973), 175-76; Walid Kazziha, Revolutionary Trans-
formation in the Arab World (London: Groom Helm, 1975), 58.
   21. Leonard Binder, The Ideological Revolution of the Middle East (New York:
John Wiley, 1964), 198-229; Shimon Shamir, "The Decline of the Nasserist Messi-
anic," in Shamir, ed., Decline of Nasserism, 1-38 (Hebrew); Elie Podeh, The Quest
for Hegemony in the Arab World: The Struggle over the Baghdad Pact (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1995), 2-3.
   22. William R. Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951 (Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 244-53, 331-44; Mahmud Riyad, Mudhak-
kirat Mahmud Riyad, 1948-1978 (Beirut: al-Mu'assassa al-'Arabiyya lil-Dirasat
wal-Nashr, 1985), 63-73; Mohamed H. Heikal, Cutting the Lion's Tail: Suez
through Egyptian Eyes (New York: Arbor House, 1987), 52-59.
   23. Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 54.
   24. Ibid., 50-53.
   25. On this regard, see the introduction to this volume.
   26. Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir, 18-20; Kazziha, Revolutionary Transforma-
tion, 1-16.
   27. Michael Eppel, "The Elite, the Effendiyya, and the Growth of Nationalism
and Pan-Arabism in Hashemite Iraq, 1921-1958," IJMES 30, no. 2 (May 1998):
227-50.
   28. Kazziha, Revolutionary Transformation, 21-31.
   29. Paul Noble, "The Arab System," in Bahgat Korany and Ali E. H. Dessouki,
eds., The Foreign Policies of Arab States (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984), 48; Mu-
hammad Hasanayn Haykal, Kharif al-Ghadab (Beirut: Sharikat al-Matbu'at, 1983),
148.
   30. Yehoshua Porath, In Search of Arab Unity, 1930-1945 (London: Frank Cass,
1986); Podeh, Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World, chap. 1.





Nasser's Regional Politics | 203


   31. Jamil Matar and A. D. Hilal [Dessouki], Al-Nizam al-Iqlimi al-'Arabi (Beirut:
Markaz al-Dirasat al-Wahda al-'Arabiyya, 1983), 113; Malcolm Kerr, Regional
Arab Politics and the Conflict with Israel (Santa Monica: Rand, 1969), 11; Fouad
Ajami, "Geopolitical Illusions," in Steven L. Spiegel, ed., The Middle East and the
Western Alliance (London: Allen and Unwin, 1982), 155-58.
   32. Avraham Sela, The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics
and the Quest for a Regional Order (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1998), chaps. 3-5.
   33. Hasan Abu Talib, "Mu'tamarat al-Qimma wa-Tahaddiyat al-'Amal al-
Mushtarak," Al-Siyasa al-Dawliyya, no. 80 (April 1985): 9-13; Malcolm Kerr, The
Arab Cold War: Gamal Abd al-Nasir and His Rivals, 1958-1970 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1971), 14.
   34. Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice
since 1967 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 128. On Nasser's
fluctuating inter-Arab policy, see Anouar Abdel-Malek, Egypt: Military Society,
the Army Regime, the Left, and Social Change under Nasser (New York: Vintage
Books, 1968), 125-29, 157-66; Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under
Sadat: The Post-Populist Development of an Authoritarian-Modernizing State
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 21-29; John Waterbury, The Egypt
of Nasser and Sadat: The Political Economy of Two Regimes (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1983), 94-100; Kerr, Arab Cold War, 28-30.
   35. Patrick Seale, The Struggle for Syria: A Study of Post-War Arab Politics,
1945-1958 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965), 308-26; Kerr, Arab Cold War,
7-16; Patrick Seale, Regional Arab Politics, 19-20; Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal,
Sanawat al-Ghalayan (Cairo: Markaz al-Ahram, 1988), 271-8 1; Dawisha, Egypt in
the Arab World, 29-31. For a recent study of the UAR, see Elie Podeh, The Decline
of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic (Brighton: Sussex
Academic Press 1999).
   36. Haykal, Sanawat al-Ghalayan, 275-76; Cecil Hourani, "In Search of a Valid
Myth," Middle East Forum 47 (1971): 40.
   37. Kerr, Arab Cold War, 28-30; Dawisha, Egypt in the Arab World, 34-35; Al-
Ahram, February 23, December 22, 1962; Al-Mithaq al-Watani (Cairo, August
1964).
   38. Indeed, the Arab Nationalist Movement (Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-'Arab),
supported an Iraqi-Kuwaiti union, but later changed its view in accordance with its
support of Nasser. See Kazziha, Revolutionary Transformation, 34-35.
   39. Abd al-Hamid Muwafi, Misr fi Jami'at al-Duwal al-' Arabiyya (Cairo: al-
Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1983), 202; Abdel-Malek, Egypt, 256, 260.
   40. Podeh, Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World, 149-95.
   41. This, for example, was evident in King Husayn's clamping down on the oppo-
sition from 1957 to the mid-1960s. See Avraham Sela, The Palestinian Ba'th (Jerusa-
lem: Magnes Press, 1982), chaps. 2 and 3 (Hebrew).
   42. The Nasserist regime maintained its financial support to the Arab Nationalist
Movement until 1967. Kazziha, Revolutionary Transformation, 79.
   43.AWilliam J. Burns, Economic Aid and American Policy toward Egypt, 1955-
1981 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 126.





204 | Avraham Sela


   44. Muhammad Hafiz Isma'il, Amn Misr al-Qawmi fi 'Asr al-Tahaddiyat (Cairo:
Markaz al-Ahram, 1987), 97; Muhammad Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, 1967-
1970 (Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1986), 22-26; Haykal, Sanawat al-Gha-
layan, 626-28; Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, Al-Infijar 1967 (Cairo: Markaz al-
Ahram, 1990), 63, 222.
   45. Michael B. Oren, The Origins of the Second Arab-Israeli War (London: Frank
Cass, 1992), 95-128.
   46. Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitude to Israel (Jerusalem: Israel Universities
Press, 1971), 1-49; Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Strategies and Israel's Response (New
York: Free Press, 1979), 3-16; Kerr, Regional Arab Politics, 33-40; Fawzi, Harb al-
Thalath Sanawat, 49.
   47. Labib Shuqair, ed., Hadith al-Batal al-Za'im Jamal Abd al-Nasir Ila al-
Umma 4 (Cairo: Dar al-Tahrir, 1965): 314, 338; Al-Ahram, February 23, 1964;
Haykal, Al-Infijar 1967, 208; Harkabi, Arab Strategies and Israel's Response, 8-12.
   48. Yehoshafat Harkabi, Palestinians and Israel (Jerusalem: Keter, 1974), 35
(Hebrew).
   49. On the principles of the Westphalian system and its dynamics, see Lynn Miller,
Global Order: Values and Power in International Politics (Boulder: Westview Press,
1990), 20-29. On the Arab League's principles, see Sela, Decline of the Arab-Israeli
Conflict, 38.
   50. Hassan Nafaa, "Arab Nationalism: A Response to Ajami's Thesis on the "End
of Pan-Arabism," Journal of Arab Affairs 2, no. 2 (1983): 181-82.
   51. With one exception (Cairo, 1990), and two summit breakdowns (Rabat,
1969; Fez, 1981), all Arab summits closed with statements emphasizing united posi-
tion. Sela, Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 21.
   52. Eliezer Sheffer, "The Egyptian Economy between the Two Wars," in Itamar
Rabinovich and Haim Shaked, eds., From June to October: The Middle East be-
tween 1967 and 1973 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1978), 140-42.
   53. East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip were not included in the proposal.
   54. Quoted by Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, 193-96, 199; Dawisha, Egypt in
the Arab World, 51.
   55. Yoram Meital, "The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the
1967 War: A Reexamination," Middle East Journal 54, no. 1 (winter 2000): 64-82.
   56. Bourguiba defied the common Arab attitude toward the Palestine issue by
suggesting recognition of Israel in its 1947 UN Partition Plan borders. This was
meant to be the first step, if accepted, in cutting Israel down to size, to be followed by
further steps to defeat the Jewish state. In case Israel refused to accept the Arab offer,
it would weaken its international legitimacy. Sela, Decline of the Arab-Israeli Con-
flict, 80-81.
   57. Harkabi, Arab Strategies, 22; Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, 188.











8


CAbd al-Nasser and the United States

Enemy or Friend?


    David W. Lesch






The relationship between the United States and Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser's
Egypt fluctuated, it seemed, from American administration to administra-
tion. Washington could never quite figure out whether Nasser was an asset
or a detriment to U.S. interests in the Middle East. From initial optimism
that he was the leader of a new type of regime in Egypt that could be the
centerpiece of American Cold War strategic designs and economic modern-
ization theories in the region, he was soon thereafter seen as a willing and
unwilling Soviet puppet through whom the Kremlin would advance its own
interests in the Middle East. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly
during the Kennedy administration, Nasser (or more to the point, Nasser-
ism) was again seen from the White House as possibly a valuable strategic
partner in the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, only to be relegated
again to a position characterized as obstreperous, obfuscating, and obstruc-
tionist-someone who was beyond the pale of reasonable diplomacy, who
sanctioned Soviet encroachment, and who was too deeply embedded in the
Arab-Israeli dispute. To the end, Nasser was something of an enigma to
Washington.
   There were consistent splits in the policy-making apparatus, ever since
the July 1952 Revolution, between those who felt Nasser could be a friend
of the United States and those who believed he was the enemy. These distinct
positions were reflected in the roller-coaster policy formulations emanating
from various administrations, which ran the gamut from cooperation to
confrontation and seemed to be inversely proportional to Nasser's relation-
ship with the USSR. It also reflected a typically reactionary U.S. foreign
policy that bounced up against Nasser's own policy swings, which were





206 | David W. Lesch


ultimately based upon the need to stay in power and the pursuit of nation-
alist and regionalist interests.

Friend to Foe

Act I
In the new Cold War environment following World War II, the United States,
as articulated through the Truman administration, began to develop inter-
ests and thus policies toward the Middle East.1 Its main concern was that
instability in the area would only create opportunities for the USSR, en-
abling it to establish a foothold in the Middle East by means of an associa-
tion with the growing leftist movements that had been identifying them-
selves with an anti-Zionist and anti-West platform. This approach fell in line
with the administration's overall global policy approach of containment of
communism, as articulated in National Security Council (NSC) resolution
68 of April 1950. From Washington's point of view, of course, this stability
in the Middle East was defined in terms of a regime aligning itself with the
West and not with the Soviet bloc. It also meant a willingness on the part of
various Arab regimes and Israel to settle their differences, which would pre-
vent the festering Arab-Israeli dispute from becoming a disruptive factor
that could impede safe access to and easy transport of Middle East oil and
open up areas of ingress for the USSR.
   Truman's Point Four technical assistance program and the Mutual Secu-
rity Program were designed to foster a more stable and pro-West political
environment through the carrots of military and economic aid. Ultimately,
however, with the exigencies of the Cold War bearing down on policy mak-
ers and the perception that there was insufficient time to develop a stable
politico-economic environment conducive to liberal democratic capitalism
in any sort of evolutionary fashion, simply having someone or some junta in
power who looked to the West and not to the East came to be the best recipe
for securing stable, pro-West regimes-whether indigenously or artificially
fomented.2
   In this regard, the July 1952 Revolution brought the Revolutionary Com-
mand Council (RCC) to power. Ostensibly led by the popular General Mu-
hammad Nagib but secretly orchestrated by Nasser, the RCC seemed to fit
the bill on several fronts. This was a group of mostly junior officers who had
entered the military academy in the 1930s following the lifting of certain
restrictions on entry. Until then, the academy had closed off a military career
to all but the rich and landed; this created a military that was anything but
professional. These junior officers were pragmatic military men, not ideo-
logues, who would understand such things as the need for arms, the con-





Nasser and the United States | 207


struction of military alliances, and the reality of the Soviet and communist
threat. The Free Officers railed against corruption, which had so character-
ized King Faruq's monarchy and the feudalist-controlled party structure
embodied by the Wafd Party.
   The new Egyptian leaders were intent on implementing the type of reform
that the United States felt was necessary in order to redirect capital away
from landed interests and toward more productive utilization in the indus-
trial and commercial sectors, thereby engendering market-oriented eco-
nomic growth and stability. Washington believed that the dilapidated nature
of the King Faruq regime, especially after the humiliating loss to the nascent
state of Israel in 1948, was more of a threat to Egyptian stability (and thus
regional stability) in the long run. Better to consign this inept regime to
history now than to wait for further internal implosion and possible regional
conflagration that could be taken advantage of by both internal and external
communist forces. In this sense, the United States was not at all displeased
with the events of July 1952, and depending upon which source one might
consult, Washington may have played a role in at least encouraging, if not
sanctioning, the Free Officers' putsch.3
   The change of regime, it was thought, might also allow for a fresh start in
Anglo-Egyptian negotiations, which under Faruq had drawn to a standstill.
In any event, for the sake of regional stability, the United States was more
than willing to put up with a military dictatorship, or what has been called
a transitional authoritarian regime, until conditions evolved whereby the
installation of democratic institutions could be attempted. Indeed, this was
the rationalization of the Free Officers themselves for not immediately rein-
stituting a parliamentary system-Egypt simply was not ready for it, and
any premature return could jeopardize the revolution itself.4
   With political and economic stability, long-term objectives could be
achieved: removing the British from Egyptian soil, reducing the power of
and/or eliminating detrimental foreign interests and mutamasriyyun ele-
ments, and attaining sufficient regional stature. To help the transitional au-
thoritarian regime in this regard, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as-
sisted in establishing Egyptian intelligence (the GIA) so that the RCC could
ward off any oppositional, particularly communist, movements. A working
relationship with the new regime, especially with Nasser, seemed to have
been established.5 In November 1954, the U.S. ambassador to Cairo, Jef-
ferson Caffery, concluded that the new regime "had done more for Egypt in
two years than all their predecessors put together before them."6
   An additional carrot for American interests regarding the socioeconomic
constitution of the revolutionaries was the fact that they were not of the
effendi class, which had become so dependent upon the British. In this way,





208 | David W. Lesch


the Free Officers were not only avowed anticommunists, apparently willing
to work with the United States in the development of its Cold War strategic
designs for the region; they were also not beholden to London. Therefore,
Washington, despite overall cooperation with the British regarding contain-
ment of the USSR, could again nudge their European ally aside and fill
another emerging vacuum of power, as had already happened in Iran in
1946, in Israel in 1948, and, in the case of the Truman Doctrine, in Greece
and Turkey in 1947.
   The British were quite disturbed about discussions in 1952 in policy
circles in Washington, particularly in the State Department and among the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, advocating military assistance to the RCC that would,
although in modest amounts at first, help the new Egyptian regime stabilize
itself as well as possibly draw it closer to participation in Western defense
plans for the region.7 Not only was London suspicious of American inten-
tions in Egypt at British expense; it also feared that these arms might find
their way into the hands of anti-British guerilla organizations, who would
use them against British soldiers and facilities in the Suez Canal base.
   Regardless, President Truman nixed any formal military aid to Egypt,
succumbing to growing pro-Israeli domestic pressures and to those who
feared the onset of an arms race in the region by shattering the 1950 Tri-
partite Declaration. Although Truman granted Egypt a $10 million sub-
sidy for the purchase of wheat surpluses, Nasser was certainly disillusioned
and disappointed by Truman's refusal to sanction military assistance.8 It
would be a harbinger of things to come and a consistent dilemma faced by
succeeding administrations regarding military aid to Arab states still at war
with Israel.
   Egypt's strategic value to the West had been amply displayed during
World War II as the headquarters for Allied Forces in North Africa and as
the location for the immensely important Middle East Supply Center. With
the emergence of the Cold War, Egypt's position was no less important,
especially as the Berlin blockade, Soviet activities in Eastern Europe, and
the onset of the Korean War in 1950 made it imperative to the United
States and Great Britain that the West maintain base rights in Egypt along
the Suez Canal. Toward this end, Egypt became a linchpin in various at-
tempts by Washington and London to organize a pro-West regional defense
system designed to contain communist expansion by linking up NATO with
SEATO, thereby filling the gap in the West's strategic plan to encircle the
communist behemoths, the USSR and the People's Republic of China. The
details and complexities of the negotiations and attempts by British, Ameri-
can, and Egyptian officials to create a pan-Arab defense scheme, centered
around Cairo and linked to the West (the so-called Middle East Command





Nasser and the United States | 209


and Middle East Defense Organization), have been amply examined else-
where.9 Suffice it to say that the nationalist aspirations of Egypt did not
correspond with the British and American objective of maintaining strategic
access in Egypt by weaving such an agreement into Egyptian participation in
a pro-West regional defense scheme.
   When the Eisenhower administration came to power in January 1953,
there existed much optimism in the Arab world that American policies might
become more favorably disposed toward the Arabs. This was based on the
known disposition of Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster
Dulles, to direct foreign policy in the Middle East on a more evenhanded
basis.10 The new administration recognized the increasing importance of the
Middle East oil reserves and oil transport routes and the region's strategic
position on the southeast flank of NATO bordering the south-central re-
gions of the USSR. And with the exigencies of the New Look foreign policy
guiding the American approach, the need for the construction of a regional
defense system in the Middle East gained immediate urgency."
   In order to better assess the complex Middle East situation and, in par-
ticular, the feasibility of a regional defense pact, Eisenhower sent Dulles on
what was essentially a fact-finding tour of Middle East and South Asian
capitals in May 1953.12 From his trip Dulles concluded that Arab inclusion,
particularly Egypt's, in a pro-West regional defense pact was not a feasible
objective at the time.13 Not only was there tremendous domestic opposition
in the Arab world to adherence to any type of organization that included
Great Britain and/or France, but there was also the complicating factor of
the Arab-Israeli conflict, which compelled the United States to detach its
defense schemes as much as possible from a dispute that raised the ire and
opposition of pro-Israeli groups at home and made it impossible to straddle
both sides of the fence in the region. This simply could not be done before an
Anglo-Egyptian agreement as well as an Arab-Israeli settlement. With this in
mind, Eisenhower and Dulles concentrated on forming a regional pact based
on the non-Arab northern tier countries of the Middle East, focusing on
Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, and thus remaining aloof from the Arab-Israeli
dispute and inter-Arab rivalries. A series of bilateral agreements in 1954
produced the foundation of what came to be known as the Baghdad Pact,
signed in February 1955.14
   The United States did not formally join the Baghdad Pact, preferring an
observer status.15 Although there are differing views on the extent of Ameri-
can knowledge of the announcement and signing of the Baghdad Pact, it
seems to me that the Eisenhower administration ultimately acquiesced to it,
believing that this could be the beginning of launching Iraq into the role that
Washington had hoped Nasser's Egypt would play: a prominent Arab state





210 | David W. Lesch


as the centerpiece of an anticommunist regional defense pact, possibly lead-
ing other Arab states into joining it and, in doing so, creating a more favor-
able environment for an Arab-Israeli settlement.16 Indeed, this would be the
beginning of an "if not Egypt then Iraq" approach by the United States in its
seemingly never-ending search for a regional ally that would help protect
Washington's strategic interests while leading a moderate Arab consensus
into peace with Israel. This policy would continue long after Nasser had left
the scene.
   The shift in the focus of the Western defense schemes from an Arab-led
pact to that of the northern tier actually worried the Egyptians to a certain
degree, insofar as they were fearful that they had lost any leverage, particu-
larly American pressure, that might force the British to make the necessary
concessions regarding withdrawal from the Suez Canal base. Attempted
rapprochement with Turkey, futile arms requests to the United States, as well
as inter-Arab political machinations were all utilized by Nasser in order to
prevent Egypt's isolation in the region, which would, from his point of view,
result in either coerced concessions to Western demands or possibly his own
overthrow by distraught elements in the country (or even within his own
regime).
   In actuality, the switch to the northern tier approach reduced Egypt's
strategic importance as a partner in Western defense schemes and thus
opened the door for an agreement with London, which finally came to frui-
tion in October 1954. The agreement arranged for the evacuation of British
troops from the Suez Canal base, but it also included clauses allowing for a
British return under certain war-induced conditions, something for which
Nasser was heavily criticized by elements of Egyptian opposition groups,
particularly the Muslim Brothers.
   All of these various strands came together in the first few months of 1955.
The Israelis, full of trepidation over the formation of the Baghdad Pact and
continued Fidayyun raids, lashed out at Egypt in February 1955 (only a few
days after the announcement of the Baghdad Pact) in its infamous Gaza raid,
killing scores of Egyptian soldiers in the process. Nasser was absolutely
humiliated and embarrassed, for his regime had come to power in large part
based on the premise that the corruption of the previous regime, which had
so hampered the Arab war effort in the 1947-49 Arab-Israeli War, had
ended. These were purported to be professional military men in power, who
would, at the very least, reorganize the military into an efficient fighting
force. With the Gaza raid, it seemed on the surface that very little, if any,
progress had been made. Egypt was still a whipping boy to the Israelis-and
no less suspicious of American complicity.
   The sequence of events that followed the Gaza raid and the formation of





Nasser and the United States | 211


the Baghdad Pact is well known. During this panoply of events between
1954 and 1956, Nasser had, in the eyes of Washington, gone from a poten-
tial friend to an outright foe of the West. Despite the Eisenhower admin-
istration's pressure on the tripartite invaders in 1956, which, in effect, saved
Egypt and allowed Nasser to survive much more than intact, the Egyptian
president's anti-Baghdad Pact, anti-Israeli, and neutralist position had
soured the relationship with the United States. Ultimately, the strategic inter-
ests of the United States vis-a-vis the Cold War could not be reconciled with
Egyptian nationalist interests and Nasser's own regional objectives.
   An Anglo-Egyptian accord was delayed until after the regional defense
plan had already shifted its focus away from Egypt, and U.S. attempts (John-
ston and Alpha plans) to broker negotiations between Cairo and Jerusalem,
to settle the Palestinian refugee problem, and to clear the way for Egyptian
participation in a regional defense pact with an overall Arab-Israeli peace
had failed due to both Egyptian and Israeli intransigence.17 With the USSR's
termination of diplomatic relations with Israel in February 1953 and Ameri-
can efforts in the UN Security Council in early 1954 to ensure free passage
through the Straits of Tiran (which the Soviets vetoed and which drew in-
tense Egyptian criticism), the Cold War lines were beginning to be drawn in
the Middle East. Nasser had become the strong, stable leader that many in
Washington had hoped for, but, unfortunately for American interests, he
had the gall to pursue his own interests.18
   The fruition of the transformation from friend to foe was the Eisenhower
Doctrine, announced by the president in January 1957. Ostensibly, the doc-
trine offered military and economic aid to any state in the Middle East that
requested it in order to fend off the advances of "international commu-
nism." The stated objective was to fill the vacuum of power created by the
British and French humiliation at Suez before the Soviets could exploit the
situation to their own advantage. The doctrine's regional interpretation was
to "rollback" Nasserism, this growing anti-Western force which was seen at
the time as a willing dupe of the Kremlin, and attempts were made by the
White House to build up other leaders in the Arab world who might possibly
rival the Egyptian president and become the long sought-after strategic part-
ner of the United States.19 The United States began realizing what the British
had long feared: that Nasser's policies, whether generated by regional objec-
tives or not, were at least indirectly aimed at undermining Western interests
in the area to the benefit of the Soviets. Washington thus felt compelled to
assume the role of the British and the French in fending off this threat. Since
Nasser had shown that he was a skilled strategic diplomatic player and that
he embodied a vibrant anti-Western ideologically based movement, he was
a dangerous enemy-but he would not stay so for very long.





212 | David W. Lesch


Act II
Perhaps the first overt realization by the Eisenhower administration that the
Middle East was not simply a passive recipient of East-West ingress occurred
during the latter stages of the American-Syrian crisis of 1957.20 This event
also marked a change in Washington's attitude and approach toward Nasser
as it began to see him (or maybe more appropriately, Nasserism) as a pos-
sible ally in its efforts to contain the USSR in the Middle East. After all, the
United States was now dealing with an entire movement rather than an
individual leader.21
   The crisis itself began in August 1957 when Syrian authorities uncovered
a covert plot, sponsored by the United States, to overthrow what Washing-
ton thought was a regime that was becoming too closely tied to the USSR.
Rather than act as if it were caught red-handed, the Eisenhower administra-
tion saw this development as further proof of Syria's leap toward the USSR.
From Washington's point of view, the crisis created an opportunity to rally
pro-West Arab allies to precipitate action against the leftist regime in Dam-
ascus. The problem was that Washington's Arab friends were not particu-
larly interested in aggressive action against their Arab brethren. So soon
after Suez and with Nasser at the height of his popularity, such pro-West
countries as Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia could only instigate virtually
worthless diplomatic initiatives, lest they be accused of kowtowing to the
United States. Nasser had long set the tone of pan-Arab nationalism, and
any regime perceived to be doing the bidding of the West would indeed be on
shaky ground domestically.
   Bereft of its Arab allies, Washington looked to its fellow NATO member
on Syria's northern border, Turkey, which had been nervously eyeing events
in Damascus. With the USSR bordering it to the north, Ankara was all too
eager to exert pressure on Syria in order to prevent it from becoming a Soviet
satellite in the heart of the Middle East. When Turkey started mobilizing its
troops on the Syrian border, the USSR directly entered the game by threaten-
ing Ankara if the latter engaged in military action against Syria. Suddenly,
what had been confined to a regional crisis was turning into an international
one, with the Soviets and Americans facing off against each other in the Cold
War battleground of the Third World.
   Nasser, however, took advantage of the superpower standoff to match
words with deeds by sending what was really only a symbolic number of
troops to Syria to ostensibly help his Arab brethren fight off the Turks. In
short order, Nasser had won the day by fending off any Arab pretenders to
his mantle of leadership, and he had "saved" the Syrian regime from subser-
vience to Moscow. Nasser had worked long and hard to keep Syria from
joining the Baghdad Pact and building up pro-Nasserist assets within the





Nasser and the United States | 213


country, and he was not about to lose this level of influence to the Soviets or
Syrian communists.
   Taking stock of these developments was the Eisenhower administration,
which had essentially failed at the domestic, regional, and international lev-
els to correct the situation in Syria. Therefore, why not entrust the job to
Nasser, the only man who could prevent the Soviets from gobbling up Syria?
He had kept the Soviets at arm's length in Egypt, despite his reliance on
Moscow for military arms, and he had repressed communist movements
within his own country. Maybe he could do the same in Syria. It certainly
was seen in Washington as the lesser evil of all the alternatives. Indeed, there
had been budding cooperation between U.S. and Egyptian officials, recog-
nizing the shared interests vis-a-vis Syria, at the United Nations in October
and November 1957 during the latter stages of the crisis. Washington's
knowledge of and acquiescence to Cairo's actions in Syria, and ultimately
even the merger of Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic (UAR) in
February 1958, reduced the danger of misinterpreting events that could spin
out of control and coated the crisis with a more sanguine veneer.
   To wit, a close confidant of Nasser, Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, in-
formed American officials on December 11, 1957, that the Egyptian presi-
dent

   had investigated recent information we [United States] had given him
   relative to the communist connections of [Syrian military chief of staff
   'Afif al-] Bizri and is now convinced Bizri [is] a communist and that
   something must be done about it.... He [Nasser] asks of us only that
   we keep hands off Syria for a maximum period of three months and
   particularly that we do not do nothing [sic] which could have uninten-
   tional effect of making heroes out of Bizri, [communist parliamentary
   deputy Khalid] Bakdash, and [wealthy and influential pro-Soviet offi-
   cial] Khalid al-'Azm.22

   In this same telegram, Haykal suggested that there were "several ways of
attacking the Syrian problem" but that the "only country with the capability
[to] succeed, and which can do so with minimal repercussions is Egypt. Of
[the] countries primarily concerned with [the] Syrian situation, the United
States and Egypt have the greatest interest in ensuring that country [has] a
stable, anti-communist government. "23 Nasser only needed two months, as
the UAR was formed in February. The regional solution Eisenhower and
Dulles had so desperately wanted had emerged, albeit from an unexpected
source.
   In fact, the Eisenhower administration had come full circle. At the begin-
ning of the year, with the introduction of the Eisenhower Doctrine, Nasser





214 | David W. Lesch


was the enemy. By the end of the year, the administration was tacitly work-
ing with Nasser in a budding relationship that helped pave the way for the
formation of the UAR.24 In other words, considering the failures of U.S.
policy to contain Soviet influence in the Middle East to date, it finally
dawned on pertinent policy makers that maybe Arab nationalism in the
form of Nasserism could be something of an ally in the area against Soviet
expansionism. This new line of thinking would be formalized in 1958 and
carried out in earnest under the Kennedy administration, but its seeds were
already sown at the end of the American-Syrian crisis.
   NSC resolution 5820 of October 1958 (signed by Eisenhower on Novem-
ber 4, 1958), while adhering to the same objectives that had been delineated
in previous policy dictates, outlined the new approach to Arab national-
ism.25 Of course, it was the Iraqi Revolution in July 1958 that helped to
nudge things in this direction. The new regime in Baghdad seemed to wel-
come, and even embrace, communists into the government-a development
that, not unlike the situation in Syria in late 1957, brought about a conver-
gence of interests between Cairo and Washington. The NSC planning board
now believed that working with Nasserist pan-Arabism was an "essential
element in the prevention of the extension of Soviet influence in the area."26
Although there was some disagreement within the administration over how
close the United States should associate itself with Nasser, it was clear that
Washington would improve relations with him in at least the short term. As
such, the United States would try to work with, rather than against, non-
aligned nations. This new policy emphasized the economic aspects of the
relationship much more than in the recent past, which heretofore had gener-
ally relied more on strategic and political relations relative to the Cold War.27
   Nasser also desired a better working relationship with the United States.
Iraq, ironically, was as much, or even more, of a threat to his stature in the
region now than it had been before the revolution. As the Iraqi president,
'Abd al-Karim Qassem, drew closer to the communists within his country,
and as Moscow subsequently grew closer to Baghdad, clearly relieved to find
someone in the Arab world who wholeheartedly welcomed communist par-
ticipation in government, Nasser began to distance Egypt from the USSR. In
terms of the Cold War, this move, which became clearly noticeable by De-
cember 1958, automatically triggered an improvement in relations with the
other superpower. Thus, the stage was now set for a dramatic reversal in
relations between Egypt and the United States, since Arab nationalism was
coming to be seen in Washington as capable of "mustering ideological weap-
ons far more powerful than anything the United States or its allies could
bring to bear."28
   In order to safeguard oil supplies, which really meant protecting Saudi





Nasser and the United States | 215


Arabia, and to curtail Soviet influence, Washington would work with Nas-
ser. It was hoped that this might relieve some of the pressure of the Arab
radical states on the conservative oil-rich monarchy in Riyadh while taking
advantage of the apparent split between communists and nationalists in the
Arab world. However, with Dulles's death in May 1959, a lame-duck presi-
dency, and the sobering experience of the Middle East in recent years, the
Eisenhower administration adopted a low-key approach toward the region
for the remainder of its tenure in office. Since there seemed to be no pressing
issues, and since the Arab states were content to bicker amongst themselves,
the White House was all too happy to remain on the sidelines.
   While other issues (Berlin, Cuba, and Vietnam, for instance) were cer-
tainly higher on the foreign policy priority list during the abbreviated Ken-
nedy administration, the Middle East did receive some serious attention.
Kennedy brought a whole new ideological conception of the Third World to
the White House. Especially coming on the heels of Khrushchev's speech in
January 1961, promoting wars of liberation in the Third World, Kennedy
also saw these areas as opportunities to combat the USSR and expand U.S.
influence. Popular nationalists were not to be feared but embraced, and in
the Middle East this meant only one person: Nasser. As such, Kennedy
viewed Nasser in the same league as great leaders of the nonaligned move-
ment, such as Sukarno, Nkrumah, and Ben-Bella. In addition, after the Syr-
ian secession from the UAR in September 1961, Nasser was seen in Wash-
ington to be in a weakened position, and therefore less able to stir up trouble
in the region, while being more amenable to American demarches.29 Of
course, an alternative point of view might say that free of constraints, Nasser
could use this honeymoon with Washington to build up his position in the
region, which would inevitably pit him against the United States and the
interests of its pro-West allies in the region-again!
   Even before coming to office, Kennedy had given some indication that he
would be evenhanded toward Arabs and Israelis, despite the sense of his
being beholden to the Jewish vote for helping him to win his razor-thin
presidential victory in 1960. While a member of Congress, he had criticized
the Eisenhower administration for supporting France in its attempt to sup-
press the Algerian rebels. During his presidential campaign, he expressed
strong support for Israel. But some Jewish leaders noted that while his run-
ning mate, Lyndon Johnson, had shown his support through action over the
years, Kennedy had really only paid lip service thus far.
   In addition, soon after taking office (and foreshadowing a later policy
initiative), Kennedy circulated a letter to five Arab leaders promising his
support for the UN Conciliation Commission to resolve the Palestinian refu-
gee problem on the basis of repatriation and compensation for lost prop-





216 | David W. Lesch


erty.30 The United States had also voted against Israel in the UN regarding a
resolution condemning Jerusalem for a retaliatory raid against Syria. Finally,
as a clear indication of Kennedy's desire to improve relations with Nasser, he
appointed John Badeau as the new U.S. ambassador to Egypt. Badeau was a
known and respected Arabist and former president of the American Univer-
sity of Cairo.
   Recognizing the shifting winds in Washington, Nasser also sent out posi-
tive signals. After his visit to Cairo, Chester Bowles, Kennedy's ambassador-
at-large to the Third World (itself an indication of the new policy direction),
commented that "the leaders of the UAR are pragmatists searching for tech-
niques that will enable them to expand their economy rapidly and to main-
tain their political grip. . . . If Nasser can gradually be led to forsake the
microphone for the bulldozer, he may assume a key role in bringing the
Middle East peacefully into our modern world."" The Kennedy team was
made up of policy makers convinced that state-to-state relations could be
scientifically managed (even though Kennedy's actual relationship with
Nasser was carried out through the highly personal diplomacy of letters
exchanged between them). They believed that the relatively quiescent state
of the Middle East could be used to their advantage to sway Egypt, and
possibly others, onto the path of socioeconomic development and modern-
ization. After all, had they not turned Iran's potential "red" revolution into
a "white" one?
   As such, the Arab-Israeli conflict could indeed be, as the Egyptians put it,
placed in the "icebox" in order to allow time for the new relationship (and
policy) to develop. Under these favorable regional conditions, uncompli-
cated by a multitude of forces as they had been in the 1950s (and would even
be more so in the not-too-distant future), it was believed that an Arab-Israeli
peace might be possible, without its conclusion having to first await a crisis
situation. As a result, Kennedy approved increased grain shipments to Egypt
under the already existing PL-480 program. A total of $432 million in PL-
480 assistance was allocated to Egypt in October 1961 over a three-year
span, which would ultimately constitute over 30 percent of Egypt's supply of
wheat during this period.32 Indeed, Nasser adeptly played the superpowers
off against one another, extracting huge amounts of aid from each side that
contributed significantly to Egypt's impressive economic growth in the early
1960s.33
   The policy seemed to work and, on the whole, was able to withstand
small bumps in the road. Nasser appreciated Washington's cautiousness fol-
lowing the embarrassing and politically damaging breakup of the UAR (af-
ter initial accusations that the CIA had a prominent role in causing it). It
weathered Nasser's severe criticism of the United States for its policies in





Nasser and the United States | 217


such areas as the Congo and Cuba. It also withstood Egypt's military inter-
vention in Kuwait in the summer of 1961 upon the latter's formal inde-
pendence from Great Britain, in order to protect the Shaykhdom from an
irredentist Iraq. This development, which Washington actually welcomed,
placed Nasser in the same camp as the U.S. conservative friends in the re-
gion, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
   Despite sporadic clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian guerrillas
in late 1961 and skirmishes on the Israeli-Syrian border in early 1962, the
Middle East seemed to be free of an impending major crisis for the time
being. Seeing that this relative calm was an opportune moment to begin
building bridges between Israel and Arab states on substantive issues, Ken-
nedy pushed forward a new plan in mid-1962, making good on an earlier
promise to Arab leaders to deal directly with the Palestinian refugee prob-
lem. During this process, it was hoped that a new dialogue could be estab-
lished between Israel and Egypt that might possibly lead to a settlement of
the Arab-Israeli conflict. So much for keeping the Palestinian issue in the
"icebox"! It was called the Johnson Plan, named after Dr. Joseph Johnson,
who was head of the Carnegie Endowment. Essentially, the plan allowed
Palestinian refugees the choice of returning to Israel or resettling in neigh-
boring Arab states, with compensation for lost properties and relocation
costs. While Johnson was convinced that only a small portion of the refugees
(fewer than 10 percent of the 1.2 million) would actually choose to return
to Israeli territory, the Israeli leadership determined that even 10 percent
would, in their view, amount to an unacceptable fifth column inside the
country. The most Israel would be willing to accept was 20,000 refugees, a
number that was likewise unacceptable to many Arab leaders.
   Seeing the reluctance of the Israeli government for the plan, the Kennedy
administration began to link military aid as an additional enticement to
sweeten the pot. Particularly in demand by the Israelis were the Hawk sur-
face-to-air missiles, for which the sale was approved in September 1962.
Kennedy administration officials also saw the military aid as a way to influ-
ence Israeli policy and to curtail the development of any Israeli nuclear op-
tion. Little did Kennedy officials know that they were setting up a paradigm
for peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt that would be carried out
more rigorously in the 1970s, namely, military and economic aid to relieve
mutual anxieties along with American involvement as a guarantor of any
agreements.
   Administration officials believed that both sides indicated a willingness to
make concessions, and they engaged in relatively intense diplomatic negotia-
tions during the summer of 1962. Israeli opposition to the Johnson Plan was
more real than Washington realized, however, and along with an increas-





218 | David W. Lesch


ingly negative stance from domestic Jewish groups, Kennedy's advisors
began to recommend his disengagement from the plan as quickly as pos-
sible.34 Also dismembering the plan was the fact that news of the impend-
ing sale of Hawks to Israel had begun to leak out to the Arabs, who were
not at all pleased.35 Kennedy had obviously misjudged his position, whereby
he thought that he could play both sides of the fence. Apparently, all this
did was raise the ire of each (especially Israel) to a point that was counter-
productive.
   Whatever hope the plan had was finally dashed in September 1962, when
a republican coup d'etat in Yemen overthrew the monarchy of Imam Mu-
hammad al-Badr. The event divided the Arab world in such a way that
placed the United States in a very difficult position between Egypt and the
conservative Arab Gulf monarchies. While Nasser felt compelled to assist
the "progressive" forces on the republican side, in part to rebuild the status
that had been so diminished with the Syrian secession from the UAR, the
Saudi and Jordanian regimes were obliged to support countercoup attempts
by the royalist forces regrouping along the Saudi-Yemeni border. The situa-
tion created a dilemma for Kennedy. On the one hand, he had to support
Riyadh in order to maintain the important U.S.-Saudi relationship, espe-
cially when Egypt launched aerial forays into Saudi territory in an attempt to
strike at royalist forces. On the other hand, in doing so he risked alienating
Nasser, someone with whom the president had established a level of confi-
dence and trust.36
   The Saudis even claimed that Washington's new relationship with Nasser
actually had the effect of encouraging him to intervene in Yemen and to raise
the volume of pressure against the conservative regimes. In order not to
alienate Nasser, and as something of a fait accompli based on the conclusion
that the Yemeni people would be better off without the inept monarchy
anyway, the United States recognized the new Yemen Arab Republic in De-
cember 1962. By way of explaining this action, Kennedy stated that "we
must keep our ties to Nasser and the other neutralists even if we do not like
many things they do, because if we lose them the balance of power could
swing against us."37
   The depth of the dilemma for Kennedy had become apparent by early
1963, when the Saudis stepped up their support for the royalist forces amid
rampant rumors of pro-Nasserist coup attempts in Riyadh. Kennedy, want-
ing to stem the downward slide in U.S.-Saudi relations, and responding to
pleas by oil lobbyists, authorized a token level of American military forces to
the Kingdom (Operation Hard Surface). Although purely symbolic and in-
tended as a way to shore up relations with Riyadh, the move angered Nasser
and pushed Egypt and the United States farther apart. It was a no-win situ-





Nasser and the United States | 219


ation, and the longer the conflict continued the deeper the wedge that was
driven between Washington and Cairo.
   By the end of Kennedy's time in office, the policy focus relative to the
Middle East surrounded the question of a security guarantee and increased
military aid to Israel. Washington was no longer interested in the Johnson
Plan or the fate of the Palestinian refugees. If the Yemen Civil War had been
resolved in a relatively short time, then Kennedy's Middle East balancing act
might have been preserved. But the conflagration continued on into the June
1967 War, costing Egypt about $1 million per day, and persistently weaken-
ing Nasser's position from another angle, which eventually influenced his
fateful decisions leading up to the war.
   In any event, the situation would soon be overtaken with the assassina-
tion of Kennedy in November 1963, as well as the heightening of tensions in
the inter-Arab and Arab-Israeli arenas due to the planned completion by
Israel of its diversion of the Jordan River headwaters. The Kennedy balanc-
ing act was destined to fail. Lyndon Johnson's support for Israel and antipa-
thy toward Nasser were well known, and increasing pressure was being
exerted on Nasser to respond to Israeli actions.38 Similar to the U.S.-Saudi
relationship in early 1957, when the Eisenhower administration attempted
to befriend and build up King Sa'ud as a strategic partner, events outside of
the relationship ultimately forced Sa'ud, and now Nasser, to adopt positions
inimical to American interests.
   Johnson's foreign policy lacked the subtle distinctions between commu-
nists and nationalists that Kennedy had made. His policy toward the Middle
East seemed to be something of a throwback to the early Eisenhower years.
It was a globalist foreign policy, one that saw the USSR lurking behind every
trouble spot, seeking to enhance its power and influence with nationalist
leaders who were either willing or unwilling dupes to Kremlin designs. Yet,
whereas Eisenhower and Dulles tended to see Israel as something of an ob-
stacle to their objectives in the region, Johnson was sympathetic and even
empathetic toward the Jewish state. Egypt's continuing presence in Yemen,
its backing of the Congo rebels, the warming of relations with the USSR, the
entrenchment of socialist policies, the burning of the USIA library in Cairo
in November 1964, and the shooting down of an American plane owned by
one of Johnson's friends-all tended to confirm for Johnson that Kennedy's
wooing of Nasser had been ill-conceived.
   The Johnson administration increased U.S. support for the conservative
Arab regimes threatened by radical Nasserism and built upon Kennedy's
military aid commitments to Israel.39 As such, food aid to Egypt ended in
1965, and although there was a brief renewal later in the year, this was
revoked in June 1966, probably not uncoincidentally when Zakariyya Muhi





220 | David W. Lesch


al-Din, one of Nasser's pro-American confidants, was removed as prime
minister.40 It seemed as though the Johnson administration was taking care-
ful measure of Egyptian actions and would punish Egypt in an almost Pav-
lovian fashion when, in the eyes of Washington, it stepped out of line.41
Reflecting the change in approach of the Johnson administration, Nasser's
view is summed up well by Kirk Beattie:
   Egyptians saw this turn of events in the context of U.S. efforts to unseat
   prosocialist Third World leaders: Patrice Lumumba's assassination in
   the Congo in 1961; intervention in Vietnam in 1963; the overthrow of
   Joao Goulart's regime in Brazil in 1964; the successful coup against
   Kwame Nkrumah in 1965; and the overthrow of Sukarno [in Indone-
   sia] in 1966. Nasser thought he was next in line. Egypt's leaders sus-
   pected the Saudis and the CIA were behind the reactivation of domes-
   tic opponents (the Muslim Brothers and Wafdists) and had a hand in
   the 1965 Brotherhood conspiracy. All told, they were convinced that
   Johnson had declared a silent war on Egypt.42

   But the Middle East under Johnson, at least until the June 1967 War, took
a backseat to his Great Society programs and the deepening involvement in
Vietnam. If the Kennedy administration took advantage of the relative calm
in the Middle East as an opportunity to take steps toward a settlement of the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the Johnson administration savored it as one less dis-
traction to deal with so that it could concentrate its energies elsewhere. A
clear indication of this was the revolving door filling the position of the
assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs at the State Department;
in early 1967 of all times, the position was actually left vacant for several
months. Likewise, in late 1966 through early 1967, the State Department
Policy Planning Council did not have anyone assigned to the Middle East. To
the extent that there was any attention paid to the Middle East prior to the
June 1967 War, it consisted of trying to persuade Nasser to limit his arms
acquisitions from Moscow, provide military aid to the conservative Arab
states threatened by Nasserism, and increase military assistance to Israel in
order to allay its fears of Nasser's military buildup and the arms headed for
the Arab monarchies.43
   The first objective seemed to be inconsistent with the latter two; indeed,
they appeared to be inversely proportional. As Steven Spiegal states, "Once
the United States sought to balance the mounting Russian arms aid to Cairo,
Damascus, and Baghdad by supplying arms to the conservative Arabs, in-
creased military assistance to Israel was inevitable despite official hesita-
tions." By 1968, arms aid to Israel had risen to $995.3 million from $44.2
million at the end of the Kennedy administration. The "special relationship"





Nasser and the United States | 221


had indeed become quite special, and Nasser was increasingly viewed as an
obstacle to U.S. interests in the region. He had again become a foe of the
United States.44
   It is not the purpose of this chapter to analyze American policy as it
directly related to the seminal June 1967 War-this has been accomplished
elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the Johnson administration, focused on
events in Southeast Asia, did not see the looming crisis developing in late
1966 through much of the first half of 1967 until it was actually overtaken
by the well-known events in May and June that precipitated the Israeli pre-
emptive strike. The Israeli unorthodox military response resulted in the de-
feat of its Arab combatants and the acquisition of the Sinai Peninsula and
Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jor-
dan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. It is the purpose of this chapter,
however, to examine the repercussions of the war in terms of U.S. policy
toward Egypt.
   The June 1967 War changed the modern face of the Middle East in several
important ways:

   (a) With the occupied territories, a new situation was created.
   (b) The land-for-peace framework was established with NSC resolu-
      tion 242 (passed in November 1967) as a direct result of the war;
      that is, a bargaining situation was formulated, albeit an asymmetri-
      cal one because Israel held all the land acquired in the war.
   (c) The war sounded the death knell to Nasserism and, in effect, Arab
      nationalism.
   (d) In the latter's wake, Islamism was resuscitated as an effective alter-
      native to secular pan-Arabism.
   (e) Divisions in Israel began to manifest themselves over the question
      of how much, if any, land to return to the Arabs in exchange for
      peace and recognition.
   (f) The war perforce caused the superpowers to become more inti-
      mately involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with all the associated
      dangers of a possible direct superpower confrontation or possibili-
      ties of peace brought about by superpower cooperation in the mu-
      tual interest of avoiding direct confrontation.

   In order to avoid the possibility of events in the region leading to a super-
power confrontation, the Johnson administration (and the Kremlin to a cer-
tain degree as well) initially engaged in steps that might defuse the crisis and
create parameters for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Arab-Israeli hos-
tilities were still acute, and Johnson did not want a second barrier erected to
the "woman he really loved," namely, the Great Society programs. In gen-





222 | David W. Lesch


eral, there was a great deal of resentment in the Arab world toward the
United States for aiding and abetting Israel's overwhelming victory.45 While
this viewpoint confused intent with the Johnson administration's relative
passivity during the June crisis and aloofness before the war, it would still be
a difficult obstacle to overcome for Washington to establish itself as an even-
handed broker. The problem now, however, was that the war, if anything,
greatly complicated the Arab-Israeli situation. Johnson himself doubted
Israel's willingness to return the occupied lands for peace, and the Arab
states, as indicated from the Arab League Summit Conference, held at
Khartoum in August 1967, were in no mood to negotiate from such a clear
position of weakness.46
   In contrast with the antipathy with which the Arabs viewed the United
States, Israel's popularity in the country soared to new heights after its spec-
tacular victory, making it that much harder for Johnson, even if he were
predisposed to do so, to pressure Israel into making concessions. After the
Egyptian sinking of the Israeli destroyer Elath in October 1967, along with
the Israeli response against Egyptian refineries in Suez City, it became clear
to administration officials that, in fact, hostilities had not been satisfactorily
put to rest. An international forum, the UN, should take the lead in address-
ing the issue. (It is a matter of debate whether this was a case of passing the
buck or recognizing that international attention to the problem might bring
pressure to bear on all parties to make the necessary concessions.) However,
one thing is definite: By involving the USSR in the process and collecting its
vote for a peaceful resolution on record in the Security Council, the Johnson
administration believed that it had again insulated the conflict from direct
superpower confrontation, which simplified the issue of pursuing detente
with Moscow in direct relation to the U.S. position in Vietnam. The result
was the ambiguous UN Security Council resolution 242, which established
the land-for-peace framework but did not specifically delineate how much
land Israel would exchange for peace and for secure and recognized borders.
   The United States was not willing and possibly not even able to insert
itself in the mix, and the actors in the region were not, at least on the surface,
predisposed to negotiate a settlement. Israel felt invincible, and the Arab
states, particularly Nasser, wanted to improve their bargaining positions
before entering into any negotiations; ultimately this was the rationale for
the War of Attrition in 1969-70. However, despite outward pretensions,
both sides had shown a measure of flexibility and willingness to discuss the
issues in the months after the war, though the Johnson administration lost
much of its interest in the region, especially after passage of UN resolution
242.47
   Rather than seeing the UN resolution as an initial salvo toward a settle-





Nasser and the United States | 223


ment, it seemed to be satisfied that it had put the Arab-Israeli issue back in
the "icebox." Following the war, the Middle East did migrate to the front
burner for a short time, but only in relation to attempts to place it back as
much as possible into an insulated condition. In any event, with the Tet
offensive in Vietnam in early 1968 and the subsequent decision by Johnson
not to run for reelection, the Middle East lost its brief moment of salience.
Without sustained interest from the United States, there would be no prog-
ress toward a negotiated settlement. There would be no more concerted
efforts from a lame-duck administration primarily interested in leaving as
soon as it could with as little damage as possible. Nasser, perforce, re-
trenched following the war, patching up his relations with the Arab monar-
chies in order to obtain much-needed financial aid, finally getting out of the
Yemeni quagmire, and generally speaking, toning down his "revolutionary"
rhetoric and "radical" policies. A stalemate thus ensued, which had to await
a War of Attrition and an all-out war from his successor, Anwar al-Sadat, to
reactivate the diplomatic process.
   David Ben-Gurion reportedly stated on one occasion that there were
three Nassers: First, there was the moderate who came to power in 1952,
with whom both the Americans and Israelis had positive intimations for two
years or so; then there was the antagonist to Israel, who lasted from about
1954 until after the June 1967 War; finally, there was the one who, having
been chastened by the June 1967 War, tacked back in a moderate direction
and was possibly ready to make a deal.48 If this was in fact the case, and it
seems logical, Nasser's relationship with the United States may have been an
unfinished play. The questions remains, however, whether or not Act III
would have been similar to the first two acts, or whether Nasser would have
continued on the road toward alignment with the United States a la Sadat.


Conclusion

When asked shortly after the July Revolution whether he was a "leftist" or
a "rightist," Nasser reportedly responded, "I'm a conspirator."49 Nasser was
also reportedly quoted with the following statement, again in the early years
of the Free Officers' regime: "I'll tell you what's inside me and then I'll shut
up. I have an idea which has overtaken me and I don't know if it's wrong or
right; however, I want during the next two to three years to arrive at the
point where I can push a button and the country moves like I want it to-I
push a button again and it stops."so
   Nasser was clearly committed to his version of Arab nationalism, anti-
imperialism (particularly removing the British from Egypt), and establishing
social justice. But he was a pragmatist in doing so, and, ultimately, staying in





224 | David W. Lesch


power was the primary objective in what became a Bonapartist regime. As it
happens to many authoritarian leaders, Nasser soon believed that only his
staying in power could save the country from social, economic, and political
ruin. Accordingly, Nasser's relations with the United States were based on a
pragmatism that dictated shifting foreign policies when necessary in order to
maintain and build up his position in Egypt, as well as in the Arab world. He
saw himself in the same vein as Tito, an independent force in the nonaligned
movement with enough maneuvering room to go back and forth between
the superpowers; indeed, it is probably not a coincidence that he met with
Tito more than with any other leader (twenty-two times between 1955 and
1970).51
   Although the thrust of this chapter deals with the question of whether the
United States considered Nasser a friend or an enemy, the title could very
well refer to whether Nasser regarded Washington as friend or foe. Ulti-
mately, Nasser did not entirely fit into a Manichaean mold-he was neither
a friend nor an enemy of the United States. He simply led a strategically
important country in a strategically important region that happened to fall
within Washington's Cold War defense schemata. To Nasser, the United
States was simply one great power to be played off against other great pow-
ers, and his methodology reflected that which he employed at the domestic
level in order to secure and enhance his internal power position. The United
States was a country to be allied with when necessary and to be criticized and
opposed when circumstances dictated it-and certainly shifting priorities
and stylistic changes from U.S. administration to administration during Nas-
ser's tenure in power were not conducive to any sort of consistent and stable
relationship.
   American policy toward Egypt, as it typically has been elsewhere, was
reactionary, especially since the Middle East as a whole was never at or near
the top of the foreign policy priority list for any significant length of time
during the Nasserist period. The combination of these fluid elements on
both sides of the equation destined the relationship to run the gamut from
cooperation to confrontation. The predisposition of succeeding American
administrations to react to events in the region seemed to portray Nasser as
the protagonist in the Middle East drama, when he was more often than not
pursuing policies at the domestic and regional levels that had little direct
relevance to the relationship between the United States and Egypt.
   In the end, American Cold War objectives vis-a-vis the USSR and the
protection of oil resources, as well as its special relationship with Israel,
could never be entirely reconciled with Nasser's agenda. The United States
had portrayed Nasser at various times as a military dictator or as a Third
World socialist revolutionary, but after all was said and done, he was, as he





Nasser and the United States | 225


himself stated in 1952, simply a "conspirator." Often in U.S. foreign policy,
particularly with the expansion of media coverage since World War II, for-
eign leaders are personalized, and sometimes demonized, in order to garner
public support for this or that policy. Therefore, the subjective sobriquets of
"friend" or "enemy" and the like are often invoked to describe someone like
Nasser, when, in fact, he was neither one nor the other.


Notes

   1. Policy statement, June 26, 1950, 611.83/6-2650, Record Group (hereafter
RG) 59, National Archives (hereafter NA), Washington, D.C.
   2. Kermit Roosevelt, Arabs, Oil, and History (New York: Harper, 1949), 92. And
as Kirk Beattie points out, articles written by the noted commentator Joseph Alsop in
February and March 1952, calling for the removal of the corrupt Faruq regime and
replacement by a benevolent military dictatorship, could not help but be noticed by
the Free Officers. Kirk J. Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years: Ideology, Politics,
and Civil Society (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994), 58.
   3. On this question of the extent of U.S. prior knowledge of the coup, see Miles
Copeland, The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1969); Wilbur Crane Eveland, Ropes of Sand: America's Failure
in the Middle East (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980). Both Copeland and Eveland
were CIA officers in the Middle East during this period and had intimate knowledge
of a number of American-sponsored covert activities, although they disagree on the
extent of U.S. knowledge of or involvement in the 1952 Free Officers' coup. It seems
logical, however, as Copeland argues, that at the very least, elements of Nasser's
cabal were in touch with American embassy officials in Cairo to gauge the U.S.
response and to help make sure that the British, who had 80,000 troops at the Suez
Canal base, did not intervene militarily to restore the monarchy. The failure of the
'Urabi revolt in the 188 Os at the hands of British intervention weighed heavily on the
minds of the Free Officers. In fact, the Soviets believed that the coup was orches-
trated by the United States and initially adopted a very negative view toward the new
regime. See chapter 9 in this volume.
   4. Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years, 70, 79.
   5. In fact, in Nasser's internal power struggle with the front man of the RCC,
Nagib, apparently the United States supported Nasser against him and, according to
some, even encouraged Nasser to remove Nagib.
   6. Quoted in Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years, 102.
   7. Peter Hahn, The United States, Great Britain, and Egypt, 1945-1956 (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 149-51.
   8. Ibid., 152.
   9. See ibid. and John C. Campbell, Defense of the Middle East: Problems of
American Policy (New York: Praeger, 1960); William Roger Louis, The British
Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and
Postwar Imperialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984); Elie Podeh, The Quest for





226 | David W. Lesch


Hegemony in the Arab World: The Struggle over the Baghdad Pact (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1995), chap. 2.
   10. On the Eisenhower administration's policy toward the Middle East, see David
W. Lesch, Syria and the United States: Eisenhower's Cold War in the Middle East
(Boulder: Westview Press, 1992).
   11. This revolved around the concept of massive retaliation, which required "the
availability of advantageously located bases from which to launch an attack on the
centers of Soviet power, as well as an increased dependence on local forces to deal
with local aggression on the Communist periphery and to protect these bases." See
"The Problem of Regional Security," State Department post files, Cairo embassy,
May 8, 1954, RG 54, NA, and Records Administration (RA), Suitland, Md.
   12. "Conclusions on Trip," n.d., John Foster Dulles Papers, box 73, John Foster
Dulles Collection, Seeley G. Mudd Library, Princeton University. U.S. aid to Israel
between 1945 and 1953 amounted to approximately $250 million, while U.S. aid to
all the Arab and African countries during the same period amounted to about $108
million. Harry Byrode, "The Development of United States Policy in the Near East,
South Asia, and Africa during 1953," Department of State Bulletin 30 (March 8,
1954): 367. Dulles's findings were essentially crystallized into policy in NSC resolu-
tion 155/1, approved by the president on July 11, 1953.
   13. Haykal reported that Dulles told Nasser, "The question of selling arms to
Egypt would be easier if Egypt could come to an agreement with Britain, especially
if this agreement was within a system of collective defense of the Middle East."
Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, Nahnu wa-Amrika (Cairo: Dar al-'Asr al-Hadith,
1965), 77.
   14. On the Baghdad Pact, see Podeh, The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World.
   15. On American policy toward the Baghdad Pact, see Elie Podeh, "The Perils of
Ambiguity: The United States and the Baghdad Pact," in The Middle East and the
United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment, 3d ed., ed. David Lesch
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2003), 100-120.
   16. See Lesch, Syria and the United States, 50-53. A typical comment along these
lines was outlined in a State Department report in May 1954: "For if Iraq takes the
plunge, it seems likely that with some encouragement from the United States, Leba-
non and Syria would shortly follow. The pressure on Egypt to come to terms on the
Suez would mount steadily. Recalcitrance would seem a less attractive policy to the
Saudis. In short, the prospects would seem good for moving a major part of the Near
East into overt alignment with the free world, thereby delivering a telling blow to
Asian-African neutralism, and effecting a really significant shift in the global balance
of power. In such a context, even the Arab-Israeli problem might not prove so utterly
intractable as it has been these several years." See "The Problem of Regional Secu-
rity," State Department post files, Cairo embassy, May 8, 1954, RG 84, NA, and RA.
   17. For more on the Johnston and Alpha plans, see Hahn, The United States,
Great Britain, and Egypt, 94-109, 132-39.
   18. Nasser's growing exasperation with the United States at this time is evident in
the following statement of April 1954: "The American insistence on creating a pact
in the Middle East is going to wreck the Arab world and stand in the way of its unity.





Nasser and the United States | 227


There is duplicity in American policies in this area. They say one thing and do an-
other. . . . It seems clear that the United States is walking with the wheel of imperial-
ism so far. The United States should hasten in welcoming the Arab hand of friendship
which has long been extended toward her; otherwise, she will miss the boat. We
began our relations with the United States full of hope for just solutions of the
problems in the area, but this hope has now vanished or is on the verge of vanishing."
Al-Ahram, April 16, 1954, quoted in Gail E. Meyer, Egypt and the United States: The
Formative Years (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1980),
112-13.
   19. The Eisenhower administration attempted to build up the inept King Sa'ud of
Saudi Arabia as this potential rival to Nasser, an ill-conceived plan that, for the most
part, backfired by the summer of 1957. See David W. Lesch, "The Role of Saudi
Arabia in the 1957 American-Syrian Crisis," Middle East Policy 1, no. 3 (1992): 33-
48.
   20. On the American-Syrian crisis of 1957, see Lesch, Syria and the United States,
138-209.
   21. On Nasser's role in the American-Syrian crisis, see David W. Lesch, "Gamal
Abd al-Nasser and an Example of Diplomatic Acumen," Middle Eastern Studies 31,
no. 2 (1995): 362-74.
   22. Telegram from the Cairo embassy to the State Department, December 11,
1957, Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter FR US) 8:744-46.
   23. For more information on the contacts between the United States and Nasser
regarding Syria, see Elie Podeh, The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the
United Arab Republic (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), 39-42.
   24. On the formation of the UAR in February 1958, see ibid., 25-48.
   25. There was not a direct evolutionary line, however, between the American-
Egyptian rapprochement during the American-Syrian crisis and this new approach
indicated in the NSC report. For instance, an NSC report in January 1958 generally
viewed the Middle East in very much the same manner that had been prevalent
during most of the Eisenhower years, i.e., preoccupation with the USSR, which acted
in concert with Arab nationalist movements (NSC 5801/1, January 1958). It seems
as though bureaucratic inertia had not caught up with the subtle shift in attitude
toward Nasser evident during the American-Syrian crisis.
   26. Operations Coordinating Board, U.S. Policy toward the Near East, NSC
5820, FR US, 1958-1960, vol. 11, October 30, 1958, 3.
   27. Fawaz A. Gerges, The Superpowers and the Middle East: Regional and Inter-
national Politics, 1955-1967 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994), 130.
   28. Operations Coordinating Board, Report on the Near East, NSC 5820/1,
FR US, 1958-1960, vol. 11, February 3, 1960, 5-6.
   29. The traditional U.S. concern about the Hashimite monarchies in Jordan and
Iraq gaining the upper hand and pressuring the Saudis was no longer much of a
concern after the Iraqi Revolution. Keeping Nasser close to the United States was
seen as an efficient way to protect Saudi Arabia, which would otherwise have been a
natural target for Nasser's progressive Arab nationalism (as it had been in the past
and as it would be in the near future).





228 | David W. Lesch


   30. Burton I. Kaufman, The Arab Middle East and the United States: Inter-Arab
Rivalry and Superpower Diplomacy (New York: Twayne, 1996), 32.
   31. Quoted in Douglas Little, "From Even-Handed to Empty-Handed: Seeking
Order in the Middle East," in Thomas G. Paterson, ed., Kennedy's Quest for Victory:
American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989),
162.
   32. Kaufman, The Arab Middle East and the United States, 32.
   33. The United States contributed $1.124 billion ($949 million in food aid) be-
tween 1959 and 1966, and the USSR contributed $842 million during the same
period, with the Eastern bloc countries adding another $273 million. Beattie, Egypt
during the Nasser Years, 193.
   34. Little, "From Even-Handed to Empty-Handed," 166.
   35. Nasser was notified of the Hawk sale ahead of time by U.S. officials, and he
reportedly appreciated being so informed, but once news spread across the Arab
world, Nasser was compelled to at least adopt a prima facie negative posture.
   36. The relationship between Washington and Riyadh had cooled noticeably
since early 1961, when Crown Prince Faisal refused to renew the U.S. lease on the
airbase at Dhahran, possibly, in part, due to Kennedy's new approach to Nasser,
which had always been viewed by the Saudi regime with derision. Countering the
Kennedy view, which contended that improving the relationship with Nasser actu-
ally helped to protect Saudi Arabia, the Saudis believed that such an approach only
gave Nasser the wherewithal and perceived flexibility to cause more problems in the
area.
   37. Quoted in Little, "From Even-Handed to Empty-Handed," 170.
   38. The pro-Nasser Ba'thist coups in both Syria and Iraq in early 1963, along with
the subsequent negotiations for union with Egypt, added to the pressure on Nasser to
engage in anti-Israeli actions and rhetoric that damaged his relationship with the
United States. It has also been suggested that the coups lessened the enthusiasm in
Washington for Nasser, even during the last months of the Kennedy administration,
by bringing Arab nationalists to power who, at least in Iraq, cracked down on com-
munists. The new regimes in Damascus and Baghdad, true to the precepts of NSC
5820, were ideal vehicles through which U.S. interests could be advanced, and they
would probably be less troublesome than Cairo. See Malik Mufti, "The United States
and Nasserist Pan-Arabism," in The Middle East and the United States: A Historical
and Political Reassessment, 2d ed., ed. David W. Lesch (Boulder: Westview Press,
1999), 168-87.
   39. Kennedy's policy implied a link between military aid and concessions on the
refugee resettlement plan, whereas Johnson's military assistance was based more on
affinity and domestic politics than on any overall strategic design.
   40. Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years, 196-97.
   41. Reacting to this paternal U.S. approach, Nasser publicly stated on December
23, 1964, that "the American ambassador says that our behavior is not acceptable.
Well, let us tell them that those who do not accept our behavior can go and drink
from the sea. . . . We will cut the tongues of anybody who talks badly about us."





Nasser and the United States | 229


Quoted in William J. Burns, Economic Aid and American Policy toward Egypt,
1955-1981 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 159.
   42. Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years, 197. See also Muhammad Hasanayn
Haykal, The Cairo Documents: The Inside Story of Nasser and His Relationship
with World Leaders, Rebels, and Statesmen (New York: Doubleday, 1973), 205-49.
   43. Steven L. Spiegel, The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict: Making America's Middle
East Policy from Truman to Reagan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985),
120, 130-31.
   44. Ibid., 134, 135.
   45. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, and Sudan all broke diplomatic relations
with the United States shortly after the war, while traditionally pro-U.S. Arab states
maintained their distance from Washington.
   46. As Johnson stated at an NSC meeting on June 7, 1967, "By the time we get
through with all the festering problems, we are going to wish the war had not hap-
pened." Quoted in Kaufman, The Arab Middle East and the United States, 60.
   47. Moshe Ma'oz, "From Conflict to Peace? Israel's Relations with Syria and the
Palestinians," Middle East Journal 53, no. 2 (summer 1999): 399.
   48. Statement by a member of the audience who reportedly knew David Ben-
Gurion, at the conference "Nasserism in Historical Perspective," held in December
1999 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa. Whether or
not the statement is true, I believe the thrust of it to be so.
   49. Quoted in Beattie, Egypt during the Nasser Years, 68.
   50. Quoted in ibid., 83.
   51. Ibid., 119.











9


Nasser and the Soviets

A Reassessment


    Rami Ginat





Introduction

Soviet-Egyptian relations under 'Abd al-Nasser have been the subject of
many studies. Some have dealt with it comprehensively, and some peripher-
ally. Broadly speaking, the evolution of the research that deals with the
Soviet Union and the Middle East can be characterized by three phases of
works.
   The first group, the so-called contemporary research, consists of works
that were written from the 1950s until the late 1980s. These works were
mainly based on Soviet and Arabic press, memoirs of Arab and Soviet lead-
ers, official statements and publications, and interviews with incumbent and
former leaders. The studies were largely written to reflect precise historical
occurrences and lacked deep historical perspective.1
   The second group includes works written in the 1980s and early 1990s,
with a focus on the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s.2 Here the researchers
extensively used the above sources, but they also utilized British, American,
and Israeli archives, as well as other sources, that were not available to the
first group. These works, which examine Soviet policy in the Middle East,
were written from a deeper historical perspective and led to a breakthrough
in our understanding of the process that led to the Soviet involvement in
Middle Eastern affairs. Nevertheless, there are some problems with these
works. Most of them give us a clear picture of the political processes as
implemented by and seen through the eyes of higher-level policy makers, yet
do not always provide us with the small details that reveal policy making at
its lower level. Moreover, these works did not use Soviet archives due to the





Nasser and the Soviets | 231


fact that they were not accessible at the time. Both the advantages and disad-
vantages of British and American archives lay in the respective interests of
the two countries in the Middle East at the time, which were inextricably
bound to the Cold War context. Their fear of Soviet penetration into the
Middle East made the task of their diplomats in the area-to get informa-
tion, both official and clandestine, concerning the Soviet moves in the re-
gion-all the more complex. Most of this information is now available in
Western archives and should be consulted very carefully.
   The third group refers to pioneering works written in the late 1990s,
mainly articles and more comprehensive works that have not yet been com-
pleted.3 The short scholarly experiment of using Soviet archives (including
personal experience) teaches us that access to the Soviet documents is very
selective.4 The researcher has to inform the archivist of the topic of research
in advance, and the latter decides what sort of documents will be made
available to the researcher. It often happens that one scholar, for unknown
reasons, is allowed to consult certain documents that others are prevented
from seeing. The real fear, under the current circumstances, is that scholars
will base their accounts totally on selective Soviet source material drawn
from various Soviet archives, without consulting Western archives and other
sources, both new and old, under the misguided belief that they have now
managed to produce the ultimate historical work. In other words, we need
both Soviet and Western archives; otherwise, the historical picture may be
distorted entirely. The use of these archives will contribute significantly to
the quality of our research; however, we also need to utilize Arab state ar-
chives. Unfortunately, since these are not accessible at the present time, one
can only look forward to the day when Arab states will open their archives
to scholars and the public.
   This article can be placed in the aforementioned second group. It is note-
worthy that much of the Soviet source material concerning this subject is not
yet available from the former Soviet archives.


Soviet-Egyptian Relations in the Pre-Nasserite Era

Until recently, the prevailing belief in both Soviet and Middle Eastern re-
search maintained that Soviet interest and political activity in the Middle
East under Stalin were marginal. It was also suggested that a full-fledged
Middle Eastern policy crystallized only after Stalin's death in 1953, with the
change attributed to Khrushchev's ascendancy.5 In contrast to the above
belief, I maintain that the nature and quality of Soviet-Egyptian relations
were not necessarily influenced by structural changes within the Soviet rul-
ing elite but were mainly determined by political, social, and ideological





232 I Rami Ginat

developments in Egypt. That is, Egyptian governments decided whether or
not to tighten relations with the Soviets, basing their decisions purely on
beneficiary considerations and utilitarian purposes. Such an example can be
found while examining the establishment of diplomatic relations between
Egypt (led by the Wafd of Mustafa al-Nahhas, 1942-44) and the USSR (led
by Stalin), which was then emerging as one of the two superpowers.6 The
Soviets, to a large extent, responded positively to these initiatives. Since the
dismissal in October 1944 of the Nahhas government by King Faruq, who
objected to diplomatic relations with the Soviets, relations between the two
countries had been practically at a standstill until 1947-48, when Mahmud
Fahmi al-Nuqrashi, a former Wafdist, took power.
   In August 1947, the new prime minister managed to persuade the Sovi-
ets to support Egypt's demand in the UN Security Council, calling for the
immediate withdrawal of British troops from Egyptian land. This Soviet
move led Nuqrashi to declare that Egypt "would consider the possibility of
neutrality in the international arena and that Egypt would seek the support
of other powers in its struggle against Britain."7 In February 1948, he sent
a military mission to purchase arms in Prague, and in March his govern-
ment concluded a great commercial barter agreement with the Soviets.8
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Muhammad Khashaba explained why
his government did so, saying that Britain and the United States were con-
ducting an anti-Arab policy. The two powers, he declared, "made many
mistakes, and continually alienated the Arabs, mainly by the American
attitude to the Palestine question and the British policy regarding Egypt
and Iraq."9
   However, the turning point in relations between the two countries took
place a couple of years later, when a Wafdist government led by Nahhas took
power in January 1950. Egypt's policy of neutralism under that government
was shaped and implemented by Muhammad Salah al-Din, the foreign min-
ister.10 He resolutely rejected Western proposals for establishing a Middle
East Command, and he was the motivating force behind his government's
decision in October 1951 to abrogate the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty. Just
a short while before this decision was made, Egypt and the USSR were nego-
tiating the conclusion of a nonaggression pact. During these talks, the Sovi-
ets made it obvious that a prerequisite to positive conclusion was the termi-
nation of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty.11
   As a result of Egypt's policy of neutralism, its relations with the Soviets
significantly improved. The Soviets were prepared to furnish arms to Egypt
by way of new barter agreements, and many commercial agreements be-
tween the two countries were concluded. Moreover, a high level of mutual
understanding and cooperation found expression in the UN. In order to





Nasser and the Soviets | 233


eliminate the influence of the Western powers in Egypt, the Soviets were
willing to cooperate with every group that acted against Western domina-
tion. That is, the Soviets and Egyptians had a common interest: the termina-
tion of Western hegemony in the Middle East. This was the formula that
brought the two countries closer together soon after the July 1952 Revolu-
tion, and one might say that the roots of the later Soviet-Egyptian honey-
moon originated in this period (1950-52).12
   The downfall of the Wafd in January 1952 inaugurated a period of
mutual suspicion and distrust in Soviet-Egyptian relations. The July Revo-
lution was understood by the Soviets to be another attempt by the West to
bring to power in Egypt a government that would serve Western interests.
This development, they concluded, had been facilitated by "the interests of
foreign imperialists," as well as by the rivalry between the Americans and
the British for domination in the Middle East. They believed that there was
a link between the United States and the Free Officers-a matter which
would strengthen American influence and thus would increase the pros-
pect of Egypt's inclusion in a Western military alliance."


The Reestablishment of Soviet-Egyptian Relations, 1953-1958

The negative Soviet approach toward Egypt's military regime arose from
understandable considerations. It seems that the Soviets knew of the close
relations between the American embassy and the Free Officers, both before
and after the coup. Indeed, soon after the coup, American influence in Egypt
increased significantly.14 The new Egyptian leaders did not hide their sympa-
thy toward the United States.15 In fact, as they were opposed to communism,
and both distrusted and disliked the British, the United States became their
favored alternative. Soon after the coup, they declared publicly their inten-
tions to be affiliated with the West, albeit on certain conditions. On Septem-
ber 18, 1952, Muhammad Nagib delivered a message to Jefferson Caffery,
the American ambassador to Cairo, conveying the new regime's complete
support for the United States and unalterable opposition to communism. On
September 19, Secretary of State Dean Acheson reported to President Tru-
man that Caffery had developed considerable influence and might be able to
get Egypt into the Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO). He assumed
that the creation of a vacuum in Egypt following the complete collapse of
British influence could be filled by the United States. The military officers
wished to create favorable conditions for "selling the United States to the
Egyptian public," but this development could only come about if the United
States would supply arms and support Egypt financially.16
   However, the American-Egyptian honeymoon was ephemeral. The Free





234 I Rami Ginat

Officers' efforts to persuade the United States to prove its good intentions by
supplying Egypt with military and economic aid did not meet with success.
Truman explained his refusal, saying that selling military equipment to
Egypt would create pressure from Israel and other Arab countries for similar
assistance. At the same time, Britain's refusal to evacuate its troops and to
buy Egyptian cotton led Egypt's rulers to seek other sources of supply and
export. 17
   Late in 1953, owing to the Free Officers' inability to implement their
political credo-that is, the liberation of Egypt-it would appear that Nas-
ser adopted Salah al-Din's policy of neutralism in order to manipulate both
American and Soviet interests, which he would then use to his own advan-
tage in furthering Egypt's foreign policy. This policy was translated into
practice in December 1953, when Nasser sent Deputy War Minister Hasan
Rajab on a tentative tour of the Soviet bloc countries, in order to bring the
West to heel. The tour had two goals: first, to widen economic relations with
the Eastern bloc and, second, to seek alternative sources of arms. Nasser
calculated that the dialogue with the Soviets would expedite British evacua-
tion, enabling broader ties with the West, which Nasser declared was his
preferred partner in trade, aid, and arms supplies. However, Nasser's Janus-
faced policy was too subtle for U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to
appreciate, especially in light of his covert flirtation with the Soviets in the
winter of 1953-54, which paved the way for arms deals with the Soviet
bloc.18
   Despite the American-Egyptian row over the Baghdad Pact of February
1955, Nasser contacted Dulles in April 1955, once more with the intention
of concluding a major arms deal.19 Yet Nasser had contracted to purchase
Czech arms only two months earlier, in February 1955, and discussion was
also well under way for a major arms deal with the Soviets. This deal, which
was concluded in July and announced on September 20, 1955, upset the
entire Middle East military balance.20 One month earlier, in August 1955,
Dulles had approved the Egyptian request, only to be rebuffed by Nasser.
His negotiations with the Soviets, which had begun as a tactical ploy, had
netted him a much better deal, based on an easy repayment package, a large
quantity and high quality of weapons, and a "no-strings" concession or
compulsory membership in a military alliance-terms that the West was
unwilling to offer. Dulles, reacting in a letter to Nasser, seemed more non-
plussed than angered: "We have placed full confidence in your repeated
assurances regarding Egypt's identification with the West. . . . [O]ur eco-
nomic assistance programs, . . . approval of arms purchases, and my state-
ment on August 26 on the Arab-Israel situation are all based on that same
general thought. "21 Clearly, Nasser did not allow his early Western orienta-





Nasser and the Soviets | 235


tion to influence his military or economic considerations, an example of the
irrelevance of ideology to the regime in its first years.
   The plan to construct the Aswan High Dam was another example of
Nasser's policy of playing the United States off against the USSR and vice
versa. In their efforts to fill the economic void created in Egypt's relations
with the West, the Soviets had already made an attractive offer to the Rajab
delegation, while visiting Moscow in the winter of 1953-54, to assist in
constructing the dam.22 The Soviets made another tempting offer in June
1955, this time offering to supply equipment for the project together with
financial assistance and engineering services. They offered a thirty-year loan
of an unspecified amount at 2 percent interest, repayable in Egyptian cotton
and rice.23 But nothing came of the Soviet offers of 1955. In December, the
United States offered to help finance the project together with the British
government and the World Bank. However, on July 19, 1956, Dulles an-
nounced that the United States was withdrawing its offer owing to disagree-
ments with Nasser. Thereafter, the ball returned to the Soviet court, and
Nasser decided to conclude the deal with the USSR.
   In fact, since late 1953 Nasser had arrived at the conclusion that Egypt
should be independent of both blocs. He believed that support from either of
the two rival blocs signified Egyptian inferiority and dependency, and that in
its struggle against domination, Egypt must search for new sources of politi-
cal and diplomatic support. Prior to the Bandung Conference,24 Nasser had
held several meetings with the chief proponents of neutralism-Pandit Ja-
waharlal Nehru and Josef Tito, the Indian and Yugoslav leaders, respec-
tively. They had convinced him then of the soundness of their "third way" of
nonalignment.25
   He now made it clear that Egypt would adopt an independent policy to
serve its interests: "All we want today is to create for ourselves an indepen-
dent personality which will be strong and independent, which will be free
to direct its domestic policy the way it wants and direct its foreign policy
in a way which serves its interests." Nasser went further to explain the
logic and motives behind his policy of neutralism, stressing that "commu-
nism has been considered a danger, but I still believe that imperialism or
our being dominated by the other side [the West] represents another dan-
ger. "26
   Nevertheless, this approach was not as balanced as it may have ap-
peared. Since the formation of the Turco-Iraqi Pact of Mutual Cooperation
(February 1955), Nasser's public speeches and interviews were character-
ized more by their anti-Western tone and less by their anticommunist con-
tent. Even before the outbreak of the Suez crisis, Nasser's interbloc policy
clearly displayed intensive distrust of the West. An accurate analysis of the





236 I Rami Ginat

motives behind Egypt's anti-Western policy at the time was provided by Sir
Humphrey Trevelyan, the British ambassador to Cairo, in April 1956.
   He [Nasser] thinks that we [the West] want to isolate Egypt and thus
   regain our old influence over Egyptian policy. He wishes to destroy our
   political influence in the Arab world based on special positions, since
   they run counter to his ambitions to make Egypt into the dominant
   Arab state. He distrusts the Soviet government because he knows that
   ultimately they are against him and want to make the Middle Eastern
   states into communist satellites. However, they [the Soviets] are at the
   moment useful to him and he will cooperate with them whenever they
   are prepared to help him to achieve his political and economic aims.
   He thinks that he can use them and remain independent of them, but
   he is clearly in danger of becoming dependent on them.

   Trevelyan concludes this dispatch with an acknowledgment that this state
of affairs regarding Egypt's troubled relations with the West could still be
cured, and that as far as the East-West battle for influence over Egypt was
concerned, the West could gain the advantage should it employ the right
means in the economic field.27
   Western officials continued to maintain that the Egyptian case was not
totally lost even after the Suez crisis, although they acknowledged that So-
viet influence in Egypt was on the rise, particularly as a result of the Soviet
pro-Egypt policy during the Suez crisis. In accordance with this policy, the
Soviets supported Egypt's decision to nationalize the Canal and condemned
the Anglo-French-Israeli military actions against Egypt. The Soviets even
went a few steps further in their reaction to the tripartite attack on Egypt,
threatening that Soviet volunteers would, if necessary, join Egypt in its war
against the aggressors. Notwithstanding the favorable conditions for the
Soviets in Egypt, the British maintained that the West's stronghold in Egypt
could still be revived: "The United States has been careful to disassociate
herself from British and French policy and to act only under the aegis of the
UN, [a matter which] still leaves Egypt with substantially the same field for
maneuver."28 In other words, at this stage, once the Suez crisis was over, the
United States could offer Egypt economic aid and thus keep Egypt out of the
Soviet camp.
   Overall, it is noteworthy that during the formative phase in Soviet-Egyp-
tian relations (1953-58), both countries, motivated by their own interests,
learned to distinguish between ideology and politics. Nasser continued his
harsh campaign against internal communism, while the USSR closed its eyes
and declared no intentions of interfering in Egypt's internal affairs. For ex-
ample, Nasser's antipathy toward communism was revealed after he ac-





Nasser and the Soviets | 237


cepted an invitation in August 1955 to visit the USSR for the first time; he
announced frankly that "our anti-communist principles" would not be
dimmed by the trip and emphasized his intention to continue to "arrest the
communists and put them on trial."29 While telling the Sunday Times in June
1962 his own version of the July 1952 Revolution, Nasser explained the
motives behind his adverse approach to communism:

   [In my early] formative years ... I was approached on several occa-
   sions to join the Communist Party, but although I studied Marxist
   doctrine and the works of Lenin with sympathy, I encountered two
   basic obstacles, ones that I knew could never be overcome. First, com-
   munism is in its essence atheistic; I have always been a sincere Muslim,
   with an unshakable belief in an outside force that we call God, who
   watches over all our destinies. It is quite impossible to be a good Mus-
   lim and a good communist. Second, I realized that communism neces-
   sitated certain control from Moscow and the central communist par-
   ties, and this, too, I could never accept. . . . I do not intend, while it lies
   in my power, to allow my country ever again to come under the power
   or control of any other country or bloc, whether in the East or the
   West.30

   In 1956, Khrushchev was equally blunt in expressing the cynical real-
politik relations between the two countries: The USSR supported Nasser, he
said, although Nasser "even put communists in jail."31 Likewise, Dimitri
Shepilov, the Soviet foreign minister, in his official visit to Cairo in June
1956, made it clear that the USSR was not going to protest against Nasser's
anticommunist policy insofar as the relations between the two countries
were based on "principles of equality in rights, mutual respect for sover-
eignty and noninterference in internal affairs."32 This Soviet-Egyptian modus
vivendi remained relevant until the late 1950s.


The Khrushchev-Nasser Ideological Warfare, 1958-1961

Following the formation of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in February
1958, Nasser's battle against communism intensified, given the relative
strength of communism in Syria at the time of unification.33 Furthermore,
Syrian communists opposed the very idea of Arab unity other than proletar-
ian solidarity among the Arabs and association with international commu-
nism. One of Nasser's conditions for union with Syria was the dissolution of
all Syrian political parties-a condition which met with the approval of the
Syrian authorities and which consequently led to the abolition of the influ-
ential Syrian Communist Party (SCP). This development created friction





238 I Rami Ginat

between Nasser and the Soviets, who opposed Nasser's moves in Syria. The
fact that Moscow's first response to the formation of the UAR was delayed
and cool left no doubts of their reservations.
   Khalid Bakdash, the SCP leader who left Syria on February 5, 1958,
attacked the dissolution of all Syrian parties. While wandering from one
Eastern bloc country to another, he expressed fierce criticism of the UAR's
internal policies, with full backing by the Soviets for his activities and
views. A U.S. State Department intelligence report noted that for the Sovi-
ets, Bakdash was the "pre-eminent communist leader in the Middle East
and was thus useful to Moscow not only for what he could achieve in Syria
but also as a factor in the development of other communist parties in the
area." The Soviets, therefore, even allowed Bakdash to publish an anti-
UAR article in the first issue of a new communist international journal,
Problems of Peace and Socialism. The article criticized Nasser's 1958 agrar-
ian reform in Syria, stating that the UAR government was "incapable of
solving this problem." Bakdash also accused the UAR of using Soviet bloc
aid "as a bargaining tool with the West." He concluded by declaring: "We
shall never give up our communist party." Several months after the forma-
tion of the UAR, Nasser remonstrated strongly to the Soviets against the
activities of the Soviet embassy in Syria during the pre-plebiscite period, as
well as against attempts by Syrian communists to prevent the union be-
tween Egypt and Syria. In response, Khrushchev promised that such activi-
ties would be halted.34
   A few months after the establishment of the UAR, Nasser was invited to
visit the USSR, a tour which was supposed to mark the pinnacle of Soviet-
Egyptian relations. However, despite the efforts by both hosts and guests to
create an atmosphere of cordiality and understanding, certain signs of dis-
cord were evident during Nasser's visit (April 29-May 16, 1958). It was
apparent that the Soviets were disappointed by Egypt's declared policy of
neutralism. The Soviets expected Nasser to take a more radical anti-Western
stand and were concerned over prospects for improved UAR-U.S. relations.
Furthermore, they expressed indignation over Nasser's friendly relations
with Tito. Khrushchev was displeased with Nasser's forthcoming visit to
Yugoslavia and severely attacked Tito's policies.35 Nevertheless, Nasser
showed himself, throughout the visit, to be a self-confident and seasoned
leader. Despite his gratitude for Soviet military, economic, and diplomatic
support, he displayed no obsequiousness and made it clear that he was not
only Egypt's leader but also the leader of an Arab nationalist movement as
well as a practicing representative of Islam.36
   Nasser's visit to Yugoslavia in July 1958 shed more light on Soviet-Egyp-
tian frictions. According to Yugoslav sources, Nasser told Tito that the





Nasser and the Soviets | 239


USSR "was pressing hard for 'independent apparatuses' in Syria in both the
military and political fields, including special privileges for the Soviet mili-
tary personnel there and special liaison arrangements between the Soviet
embassy and the SCP."37
   Qassem's coup of July 1958, which raised expectations that Iraq would
soon join the UAR, soon led to bitter disappointment inside the UAR.38
Qassem's alliance with the Iraqi communists and his rapprochement with
the USSR changed Nasser's approach to communism. He now blamed inter-
national communism for interference in Arab domestic affairs and thus cre-
ated tension in relations with the Soviets and, subsequently, the mutual con-
duct of ideological warfare.
   The Kurdish question was another source of contention in Soviet-UAR
relations. Following Qassem's takeover, the Soviets altered their traditional
approach regarding the Kurds-from firmly backing the "long-standing
Kurdish aspiration for an independent Kurdistan" to fully supporting Qas-
sem's efforts to play down Kurdish separatism and to secure Iraqi indepen-
dence outside the UAR. Nasser's position toward the Kurds also wavered.
Several weeks before Qassem's coup, Egyptian propaganda broadcasts
called for Kurdish independence, possibly in response to the Iraqi alliance
with the West.
   In September 1958, in an attempt to win Iraqi support and especially to
encourage those pro-UAR elements within the new Iraqi regime, Nasser
accused the USSR of "continuing support of Kurdish separatism." Nasser
was obviously angry with the Soviets because two influential pro-Soviet
political factions in Iraq-the communists and the Kurdish Democratic
Party (KDP)-supported the anti-UAR group within the Iraqi ruling elite,
led by Qassem. Both the communists and the KDP agreed on September 6 to
support the Iraqi Republic if Iraq preserved its independent identity, that is,
refused to join the UAR, and if the Iraqi Kurds were recognized as a nation
linked to Arab Iraq-a condition which was provided for by the new Iraqi
constitution. Having been given the green light to act by Qassem, the Iraqi
communists stepped up their activities, directing their attacks at Nasser and
the UAR. Qassem, who opposed union with the UAR, found the commu-
nists to be temporarily reliable partners.39
   In an effort to ease tensions and disagreements, the Soviet leadership sent
Nureddin Mukhitdinov, a member of the Presidium of the USSR Communist
Party, to Cairo for an extended visit (September 17-26, 1958). In the course
of Mukhitdinov's meetings, Nasser complained, "Communists in the Arab
world were receiving liberal financing from the Soviet embassy in Baghdad.
In Syria the local communists were cooperating with conservative elements
in obstructing the implementation of Syrian-Egyptian unification." In reply





240 I Rami Ginat

to Nasser's accusations, Mukhitdinov denied the "existence of any link be-
tween the USSR and national communist movements." He went even fur-
ther, saying that Soviet support of the Syrian communists was impossible, as
such a move "would be contrary to Khrushchev's policy of helping Nasser
wherever possible. "40
   However, in spite of Mukhitdinov's words, Bakdash continued with his
harsh criticism of the UAR, while enjoying the hospitality of Eastern bloc
countries, which gave him free rein to direct his anti-Nasser campaign. On
March 17, 1959, while delivering a speech to the Polish United Workers
Party Congress, he accused the UAR of making imperialist attacks on Iraq.
Moreover, he charged: "The attempts of the imperialists to break up the
friendly relations between the Arab countries and Russia coincided with
the position taken by certain Arab circles." Bakdash's general reference to
"Arab circles" did not remain obscure. He clearly pointed to "certain deter-
mined circles in the UAR," that is, Nasser and his inner circle. They, stated
Bakdash, were utterly responsible for the current tension in UAR-Soviet
relations. Bakdash quoted Khrushchev's indirect advice to Nasser not "to
trust false friends" and fall into the American trap of "hypocritical smiles,"
and to remember that the USSR was the Arabs' tried and true friend. Bak-
dash concluded his attack by slandering Nasser's slogan of Arab unity, de-
scribing him as a representative of the Egyptian bourgeoisie who "aspired to
achieve unity in conformity with their own class interests." In contrast, the
"Arab liberation movement," of which Bakdash saw himself a part, sought
to unify the "Arab world in the struggle against imperialism."41
   It would seem that both the Soviets and Nasser were playing a power
game, aimed at testing each other's limits while knowing that they were not
willing to break the rules of the game at that stage. For his part, Nasser
estimated that the Soviets were not likely to threaten him, nor would they
withdraw economic, military, or any other types of aid to the UAR. From the
Soviet viewpoint, there was nothing to be gained by doing so because, as
they were well aware, an open rift with Nasser could have negative implica-
tions on their relations with other Afro-Asian states that followed Nasser's
policy of nonalignment. As Patrick Reilly, the British ambassador to Mos-
cow, suggested correctly, the Soviet government "would probably prefer to
bide their time until the situation in Iraq has become clearer and they have
a better idea of future possibilities there and in Syria." Taking into consider-
ation the leaders' personal characteristics, Reilly concluded that "Nasser's
propensity for speech-making, and Khrushchev's unwillingness to leave at-
tacks unanswered, may make this difficult, and the Soviet aim will probably
be to 'keep Nasser in play' with continued aid spiced with vague threats."42
   The Soviet-Egyptian ideological disagreements culminated during a two-
week tour of the USSR in April-May 1961 by a UAR parliamentary delega-





Nasser and the Soviets | 241


tion, led by Anwar al-Sadat. When the delegation met Khrushchev on May
3, he seized the opportunity to rail against the UAR's socialist ideology and
domestic measures:

   [Y]ou say you want Arab nationalism and also socialism. We have
   different views on many issues.. .. [W]e are communists and you are
   not connected with this word. But history will teach you. . . . If our
   people live better than you under the communist banner, then how can
   you declare yourselves adverse to communism? The people will tell
   you to go out.... Communism consists of ideas and ideas cannot be
   buried in prisons.... You [Arabs] say that you seek socialism. But you
   do not know much about the socialism which leads to communism. As
   a scientific phenomenon, socialism is the first step to communism. You
   are still in the first stage of your thinking, if you want to build up
   socialism.43

   Sadat responded to Khrushchev's attacks only after he returned to Egypt
and consulted with Nasser. While emphasizing in his reply to Khrushchev
the basic differences between Soviet communism and Arab socialism, Sadat
said:
   The socialism we believe in is based ... on the liberation and freedom
   of the individual. We aim at the destruction of exploitation and work
   for the elimination of class differences.... [W]e believe that the bloody
   character of the inter-class struggle can be avoided and that the im-
   perative elimination of social anomalies can be accomplished within
   the framework of national unity. We also believe that there are a num-
   ber of spiritual factors, including religion, which have their effects in
   addition to the accepted basis of material development.44

   For his part, Nasser explained the reasons for the anticommunist cam-
paign in the UAR: "We have not permitted the establishment of a communist
party in Egypt because we are sure that it cannot act in conformity with its
own will or work for the interest of the country." Communism in the UAR,
Nasser concluded, would mean that "the country would have no will of its
own, and we would follow the line of international communism and receive
directions from it."45


Nasser's Socialism and the Upgrading of Soviet-Egyptian Relations

The ideological warfare came to an end soon after the introduction of
Nasser's Socialist Laws of July 1961. These laws marked the beginning of
Nasser's Arab socialism-an idea that constituted a basic principle in his
political credo. There are several reasons why Nasser decided to take such a





242 I Rami Ginat

step at this particular time. One of them, according to Western diplomats in
Cairo, is that Nasser was sensitive to Soviet criticism of his social policy
following the measures taken against communism-a policy that had cooled
relations between the two countries. Nasser, they suggested, was dependent
on Soviet arms supplies and financial support and therefore could not afford
such a rift. He seems to have believed, they concluded, that the introduction
of socialist measures at this particular time might appease Soviet anger over
his anticommunist campaign. However, it is noteworthy that his decision to
embark on the socialist route was actually consolidated and determined
earlier, in the late 1950s. This decision had, in fact, almost nothing to do
with either Soviet influence or pressure. In any case, the shift to socialism
was warmly received by the Soviets, albeit with certain reservations.46
   The National Charter (al-Mithaq al-Watani), which Nasser presented on
May 21, 1962, to the 1,750 members of the National Congress of the Popu-
lar Forces, was Nasser's most comprehensive and precise statement of Egyp-
tian policy and Arab socialist ideas since he seized power. This document
was indeed regarded by the Soviets as another positive step on Egypt's fitful
road to socialism. In his analysis of the intellectual structure of the National
Charter, Georgiy Mirskiy, a top Soviet Middle East expert, established that
"the influence of the world system of socialism [and] the influence of social-
ist ideology is being felt [in that document]."47
   Relations between the two countries significantly improved during
Khrushchev's final years in power (1962-64), culminating in his visit to
Egypt in May 1964 to celebrate the inauguration of the Aswan High Dam.
Prior to Khrushchev's visit, an Egyptian high-level delegation, led by Vice
President 'Abd al-Hakim 'Amr, made an extended visit (June 7-19, 1963) to
the USSR. The Soviets had made great efforts to give 'Amr exceptionally
special treatment, indicating to Nasser that they were interested in com-
mencing a new chapter in relations between the two countries. This visit led
to the conclusion of two agreements between Egypt and the USSR. The first
was an agreement for a further credit for industrial development. The sec-
ond agreement regulated "the supply of spare parts and replacements of
Soviet military material already held by the UAR, and for repayments under
existing arms agreements to be spread evenly over a number of years. "48
   Khrushchev's only lengthy visit to Egypt (May 9-25, 1964) was well pre-
pared. In his speeches, Khrushchev took pains to stress the common interests
and points of similarity between the two countries: They both believed in
peaceful coexistence and complete disarmament; they both opposed colo-
nialism in all its forms and supported the struggle to expel imperialism from
its remaining footholds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; and they both
opposed the presence of foreign bases and aggressive pacts. He placed spe-





Nasser and the Soviets | 243


cial emphasis on the significant Soviet assistance in the building of the
Aswan High Dam, stressing the unconditional nature of Soviet aid to all
countries that were "struggling to develop their resources after freeing them-
selves from the nightmare of colonialist domination." Soviet aid, in contrast
to Western aid, was an "extension of the Soviet Union's political support for
liberation movements of other peoples," whereas the latter's aid "was no
more than a new form of imperialism which was selfish and rapacious and
designed to exploit its recipients."49 Nasser, for his part, was satisfied with
Khrushchev's endorsement of his policy of neutralism and his promise of
substantial material aid to Egypt and other anti-imperialist countries. This
Soviet policy had definitely enhanced Nasser's prestige in the Afro-Asian
bloc, as he had made no political or ideological concessions while sticking to
his third road in international affairs.
   After several years of ideological and political dispute between Egypt and
the USSR, Khrushchev's visit strengthened the Soviet position in Egypt and
other Arab countries in the face of both Western and Chinese competition.
The fact that Egypt was perceptibly leaning once again toward the USSR had
already been noted several months before Khrushchev's visit, by R.A.D.
Ford, the Canadian ambassador to Cairo, who was on close terms with both
Soviet diplomats in Cairo and high-ranking Egyptian officials. Ford pro-
vided his superiors with first-rate reports and analysis on social, ideological,
and political developments and trends in Egypt. While analyzing Soviet-
Egyptian relations in November 1963, Ford noted: "During my two and
one-half years in Cairo, Soviet influence gradually declined while American
influence grew, but as I prepare to leave I detect some signs that the Soviet
position is beginning to improve once again."50
   It would seem apparent that in spite of Nasser's effort to moderate his
anti-Western policy, particularly his rapprochement with the United States
in the early 1960s, the Soviet position in Egypt was still quite secure. The
Soviets guaranteed their interests in Egypt by continuing their policy of mili-
tary aid to Cairo. This included shipments of sophisticated weapons, such as
jet bombers, MiG 21s, radar systems, rocket firing MTBS, and surface-to-air
missiles. In order to be able to handle the Soviet weapons, Egypt permitted
entry to Soviet technicians. Furthermore, the USSR supported Egypt's war
efforts in Yemen by replacing destroyed military equipment. The Soviets also
provided Egypt with direct assistance in the military operation in Yemen,
including participation of Soviet pilots and deliveries of necessary ammuni-
tion and oil supplies.51
   Ideologically, the Soviets could also be pleased with the social develop-
ments taking place within Egypt-the speeding up of the socialization pro-
cess. In addition, a slow and gradual process of releasing Egyptian commu-





244 I Rami Ginat

nists had begun in the early 1960s and reached its climax by the end of April
1964, when all communist parties and organizations had decided to dissolve
themselves. Nasser prohibited the formation of a new communist party, but
opened certain doors of his establishment, on an individual basis, to former
communists who supported his socialist revolution and were willing to par-
ticipate in "reestablishing" Egyptian society in accordance with his brand of
socialism.52
   In his effort to demonstrate that his decision to embrace socialism was
purely motivated by Egypt's own interests, Nasser declared that Egypt's
brand of socialism and its pursuit of economic development lay in nonalign-
ment. Nasser noted that Egypt's socialism placed special emphasis on the
abolition of artificial class barriers and the establishment of full liberty and
democracy, including the rights of freedom of conscience and property own-
ership. However, this ideological nonalignment of domestic policy was in
practice no more neutral than Nasser's nonalignment in foreign affairs; in
other words, it was ideologically closer to Eastern European doctrine than to
Western concepts. Nevertheless, Nasser's Arab socialism was a fusion of
nationalist and Islamic ideas with socialism. It was a nationalist socialism in
the sense that it accommodated itself to particular Arab and Egyptian cir-
cumstances. Arab socialism rejected proletarian internationalism and em-
phasized the distinctiveness of the Arab nation.53
   Soviet theoreticians defended their largely positive evaluation of Arab
socialism by stressing its theoretical compatibility with Marxism-Leninism,
despite denials by its Arab proponents. Apparently, the Soviets calculated
that they could best advance their position in Egypt and in other Arab coun-
tries by embracing Arab socialism and bestowing their approval, albeit qual-
ified. This pragmatic Soviet approach indeed bore dividends, particularly
following the June 1967 War.
   The results of the June 1967 War were a hard blow for Nasser and the
Soviets. Nasser needed to rebuild his military power in an effort to recapture
the territories occupied by Israel, and only the Soviets were willing to pro-
vide the goods. The USSR feared a collapse of the pro-Soviet Arab regimes,
whereby it would lose its influence and strategic strongholds in the Middle
East after years of considerable investment in many fields in Egypt and other
Arab countries.54
   The ascendancy of Sadat marked the beginning of the end of a long-
standing friendship and close relations between Egypt and the USSR. In July
1972, Sadat expelled thousands of Soviet military experts and technicians
from Egypt. Sadat's leaning toward a free-market economy, his liberal social
policy which replaced Nasser's Arab socialism, his removal of left-wing and
Nasserist personnel from key positions, his reorientation toward the United





Nasser and the Soviets | 245


States and limitation of relations with the USSR-all left the Soviets with no
influence at all in the Egyptian political arena and the loss of their main ally
and stronghold in the Middle East.55


Conclusion

Soviet-Egyptian relations throughout Nasser's period had many ups and
downs. As we have seen, political and economic factors were the driving
forces in bringing the two countries closer together in the early 1950s. At the
time, both countries learned to distinguish between ideology and politics. In
other words, Nasser continued with his harsh campaign against internal
communism, while the USSR ignored it and declared no intentions of inter-
fering in Egypt's internal affairs. This was the case until the late 1950s, when
this Soviet-Egyptian modus vivendi was to change thereafter.
   The years 1958-61, in contrast, witnessed an intense ideological war-
fare for two main reasons. First, following the formation of the UAR,
Nasser stepped up his battle against communism. Second, Qassem's coup
boosted Nasser's expectations that Iraq was on its way to join the UAR,
but soon changed to bitter disappointment inside the UAR. Qassem's alli-
ance with the Iraqi communists and his rapprochement with the USSR
changed Nasser's approach to communism. He now blamed international
communism for interference in Arab domestic affairs, a matter which cre-
ated tension in relations with the Soviets and subsequently the mutual
conduct of ideological warfare.
   However, this state of affairs changed following the introduction of
Nasser's Arab socialism. The shift to socialism was warmly received by the
Soviets, and the relations between the two countries significantly improved,
thus culminating in Khrushchev's visit to Egypt in May 1964 to celebrate the
inauguration of the Aswan High Dam. The socialist revolution of the early
1960s was followed by Nasser's declaration that his brand of socialism lay
in nonalignment. However, this was not quite accurate because his socialist
doctrine was ideologically closer to East European socialism than to West-
ern socioeconomic concepts. Although domestically Nasser remained per-
sistent in his strict anticommunist measures, the shift toward socialism was
still a great ideological victory for the Soviets. By the mid-1960s, many com-
munists had joined Nasser's establishment and held key positions, mainly in
the press and ideological forums, aimed at guiding the state and nation on
their route to socialism.
   Nasser's self-confidence and sense of independence in conducting Egypt's
foreign policy affairs during the 1960s were weakened significantly in com-
parison with the situation in the mid-1950s. His firm policy of neutralism,





246 I Rami Ginat

which characterized his first years in power, increasingly turned to one of
"pro-Soviet neutralism." Good evidence to support this argument can be
seen by his decision to support the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in
1968 contrary to the position of Tito and his other allies within the camp of
the nonaligned countries.56
   The growing Soviet influence in Egypt was halted by the death of Nasser.
This dramatic development marked the demise of Nasser's socialist revolu-
tion and the termination of Soviet hegemony over Egypt. Sadat embraced
an utterly different agenda in all areas and speeded up the process of de-
Nasserization. One may say, in conclusion, that the Soviet failure in Egypt
can be seen as one of the earlier stops of the speeding Soviet train as it
headed to its final destination-that of the total disintegration of the USSR
in late 1991.

Notes

   1. See, e.g., Walter Laqueur, The Soviet Union and the Middle East (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1957); George Lenczowski, Soviet Advances in the
Middle East (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy
Research, 1971); David Dallin, Soviet Foreign Policy after Stalin (Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1961); Galia Golan, Soviet Policies in the Middle East from World War
Two to Gorbachev (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Uri Ra'anan,
The USSR Arms the Third World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969); Yaacov Ro'i, From
Encroachment to Involvement: A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle
East, 1945-1973 (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1974); and Aryeh Yodfat,
Arab Politics in the Soviet Mirror (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1973).
   2. See, e.g., Yaacov Ro'i, Soviet Decision Making in Practice (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Transaction Books, 1980); and Rami Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt,
1945-1955 (London: Frank Cass, 1993). See also Mohrez Mahmoud El-Hussini,
Soviet-Egyptian Relations, 1945-85 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1987); how-
ever, only a small part of this book was based on archival material. As a former senior
officer in the Egyptian navy, El-Hussini managed to gain access to the navy's ar-
chives, and most of the files deal with the purchase of military equipment. The parts
that deal with the social and political aspects of Soviet-Egyptian relations are mainly
based on sources belonging to the first group.
   3. See, e.g., Yaacov Ro'i, Islam in the Soviet Union: From World War II to
Perestroika (London: Hurst, 2000).
   4. See, e.g., Rami Ginat, "Soviet Policy towards the Arab World, 1945-1955,"
Middle Eastern Studies 32, no. 3 (1996): 321-35.
   5. See, e.g., Yodfat, Arab Politics in the Soviet Mirror; Muhammad Hasanayn
Haykal, Milaffat al-Suways (Cairo: Markaz al-Ahram, 1986); Haykal, Nasser: The
Cairo Documents (London: New English Library, 1972); Oles Smolansky, The So-
viet Union and the Arab East under Khrushchev (New Brunswick, N.J.: Associated
University Press, 1974); Golan, Soviet Policies in the Middle East; Aaron S. Klieman,





Nasser and the Soviets | 247


Soviet Russia and the Middle East (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1970); Harry Hanak, Soviet Foreign Policy since the Death of Stalin (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972); John M. Mackintosh, Strategy and Tactics of
Soviet Foreign Policy (London: Oxford University Press, 1962); Adam Ulan, Expan-
sion and Coexistence: The History of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917-1967 (New York:
Praeger, 1968).
   6. See Rami Ginat, "British Concoction or Bilateral Decision: Revisiting the Gen-
esis of Soviet-Egyptian Diplomatic Relations," IJMES 31, no. 1 (1999): 39-60.
   7. See Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 76.
   8. On the visit of the Egyptian military mission to Prague, see PRO, letter no. 126/
19/48 from Sir R. Campbell, British ambassador to Egypt, March 18, 1948, FO371/
69200, J2003/46/16; secret letter from FO to British embassy, Cairo, April 19, 1948,
FO371/69200, J2003/46/16; minute by R. Jones from the Egyptian Department in
the FO, May 7, 1948, FO371/69200, J3064/46/16; secret letter no. 126/33/48 from
British embassy, Cairo, May 3, 1948, ibid. On arms selling from the Eastern bloc to
Arab countries, see also the report of the CIA entitled "Probable Effects on Israel and
the Arab States of a UN Arms Embargo," August 5, 1948, President's Secretary's
Files, File Subject: Central Intelligence Reports-ORE 48-8, box 255, Truman Li-
brary; CIA report "Possible Developments from the Palestine Truce," July 27, 1948,
in U.S. Declassified Documents Reference System, 1975, 4F. On the deal and on
Soviet-Egyptian commercial relations in the period 1948-49, see Ginat, The Soviet
Union and Egypt, 103-7.
   9. Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 104.
   10. Salah al-Din was the deputy foreign minister in Nahhas's previous govern-
ment (1942-44) and was involved in the process of establishing relations with the
Soviets in 1943. The prime minister, Nahhas Pasha, also undertook the position of
foreign minister.
   11. This information was given to the American embassy in Cairo by a source
classified as highly confidential. See USNA, dispatch 325 from Caffery, Cairo, Au-
gust 10, 1951, RG 59, 661.741/8-1051. The Egyptian press had called for the
strengthening of relations with the USSR and fighting by all means to expel "British
imperialism." See Al-Sha'b al-Jadid (the weekly of the Socialist Party), May 10,
1951. The paper said that Britain should know that the Egyptian government was
not afraid to conclude a nonaggression treaty with the USSR. "If Britain itself had
such a treaty with the Soviets, why should Egypt hesitate to conclude a similar pact?"
Words in the same spirit were uttered by the Al-Musawwar, May 10, 1951. On
September 20, 1951, Al-Ahram declared: "We must not limit our national struggle to
Britain but should enlarge it to include the allies of Britain as well." The paper
suggested that Britain's argument that the USSR was attempting to create another
Korea in the Middle East was false.
   12. On the relations between the two countries under the Wafdist government
(1950-1952), see Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 107-43.
   13. See TASS report, July 24, 1952, SWB, USSR, 12; Ivanov, TASS International
Review, August 1, 1952, SWB, USSR, 3-4.
   14. On the Soviet approach see Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 157-58.





248 I Rami Ginat

   15. Papers of Matthew J. Connelly, Set I, file subject: cabinet meeting, Friday,
September 19, 1952, box 1, Truman Library. See also report by Lakeland, American
embassy, Cairo, November 5, 1952, RG 84, Cairo-Embassy-General Documents,
file subject: 320 U.S./Egypt, box 219.
   16. Telegram 730 from Caffery, September 18, 1952, FR US, vol. 9, 1952-1954,
1860-61. See also a statement made by Nagib, in reply to the first installment of
Faruq's memoirs, in which the former king accused the Free Officers of being com-
munists; in dispatch 728 from Caffery, October 20, 1952, RG 59, 774.00/10-2052.
   17. See Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 159-60.
   18. Ibid., 170-76.
   19. Muhammed Abd al-Wahab Sayed Ahmed, "Relations between Egypt and the
USA in the 1950s," in Charles Tripp, ed., Contemporary Egypt: Through Egyptian
Eyes: Essays in Honour ofP. J. Vatikiotis (London: Routledge, 1993), 92.
   20. See Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 207-19. See also Central Intelligence
report, "The Soviet Arms Offer to Egypt," in CIA Research Reports: The Middle
East, 1946-1976, reel 2, M5617, SOAS Library.
   21. Letter from Dulles to Nasser, September 27, 1955, John Foster Dulles Papers,
1951-59, File Subject: John Foster Dulles Chronological, September 1955 (1), box
12, Eisenhower Library.
   22. This information was given to the American embassy on February 11, 1954,
by an Egyptian official, described as reliable. See USNA, dispatch 902 from Caffery,
Cairo, February 12, 1954, RG 59, 661.74/2-1254.
   23. "Soviet Bloc Economic Activities in the Near East and Asia as of November
25, 1955," report, Office of Research, Statistics, and Reports, Clarence Francis Pa-
pers, Eisenhower Library. See also CIA Intelligence Memorandum, "The Communist
Economic Campaign in the Near East and South Asia," November 30, 1955, in
Declassified Documents Reference System, United States, 1986, 002516.
   24. The Asian-African conference, known as the Bandung Conference, was held
in Bandung, Indonesia, on April 18-24, 1955.
   25. See Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 191.
   26. Nasser addressed this speech to Egyptian army officers on March 28, 1955.
See the text of the speech in USNA, dispatch 1899 from Henry Byroade, British
embassy, Cairo, April 4, 1955, RG 59, 674.00/4-455.
   27. PRO, dispatch 56 from Humphrey Trevelyan, British ambassador, Cairo,
April 19, 1956, F0371/118846, JE1024/1. On Nasser's policy of neutralism, see a
broad discussion in Elie Podeh, "The Drift towards Neutrality: Egyptian Foreign
Policy during the Early Nasserist Era, 1952-1955," Middle Eastern Studies 32, no.
1 (1996): 159-78.
   28. PRO, minute by P. Dean, Foreign Office, November 16, 1956, F0371/
118853, JE10338/1.
   29. Laqueur, The Soviet Union and the Middle East, 219-20.
   30. Sunday Times, magazine section, June 17, 1962.
   31. Ro'i, From Encroachment to Involvement, 204.
   32. PRO, telegram 1054 from Trevelyan, Cairo, June 17, 1956, FO371/118 847,
JE1025/4. Shepilov visited Egypt from 16 to 22 of June 1956 to attend the celebra-





Nasser and the Soviets | 249


tion held to mark the completion of the withdrawal from Egypt of the British forces
in the Suez Canal zone. On the visit, see dispatch (S) 96 from Trevelyan, Cairo, June
28, 1956, F0371/118847, JE1025/10.
   33. On the communist factor and its role in bringing Egypt and Syria closer in late
1957 and early 1958, see Elie Podeh, The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall
of the United Arab Republic (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), 34-48; Gor-
don H. Torrey, Syrian Politics and the Military, 1945-1958 (Columbus: Ohio State
University Press, 1964), 360-81.
   34. Intelligence report 7848, State Department, October 22, 1958, in OSS/State
Department Intelligence and Research reports, 12, Middle East, 1950-1961, reel 2,
M5618, SOAS Library.
   35. On Nasser's visit, see intelligence report 7738, State Department, June 16,
1958, SOAS Library; intelligence report 7848, State Department, October 22, 1958,
SOAS Library.
   36. PRO, dispatch 105 from D. P. Reilly, British embassy, Moscow, May 24,1958,
F0371/131336, JE10338/26.
   37. Intelligence report 7848, State Department, October 22, 1958.
   38. See Podeh, The Decline of Arab Unity, 60-64.
   39. Intelligence report 7851, State Department, October 22, 1958, reel 3, SOAS
Library.
   40. See the record of conversation between Mukhitdinov and Nasser in intelli-
gence report 7848, State Department, October 22, 1958, SOAS Library.
   41. See more on Bakdash's speech in the Times (London), March 17, 1959.
   42. PRO, letter 10342/26/3 from Patrick Reilly, British embassy, Moscow, March
26, 1959, F0371/141914, VG10338/3.
   43. See quotation in Rami Ginat, Egypt's Incomplete Revolution: Lutfi al-Khuli
and Nasser's Socialism in the 1960s (London, Frank Cass, 1997), 41.
   44. Ibid.
   45. Ibid., 40-41.
   46. On Nasser's route to socialism, see Ginat, Egypt's Incomplete Revolution,
chaps. 1-3, 8-10. On the Soviet view of the July 1961 Laws, see record of conver-
sation between R. A. Ford and Vladimir Erofeev, Soviet ambassador in Cairo, in
PRO, dispatch 537 from British embassy, Cairo, August 3, 1961, F0371/158822,
VG1102/83.
   47. Georgiy Mirskiy, Arabskie Narody Prodolzhayut Bor'by (Arab peoples con-
tinue the struggle) (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniya, 1965), 51 (Russian).
   48. The details and information about the visit and its results were given to the
British ambassador to Moscow by his Egyptian counterpart. See PRO, dispatch 80
from British embassy, Moscow, June 20, 1963, F0371/172863, VG103138/9. The
Soviet signatories were respectively, I. V. Arkhipov, first deputy chairman of the State
Committee for Foreign Economic Relations attached to the Council of Ministers of
the USSR, and Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky, minister of defense of the USSR. The
Egyptian signatory was Abd al-Hakim 'Amr. See an attached translation of TASS
communique on the visit in dispatch 80.
   49. See full account of Khrushchev's visit in PRO, dispatch 24 from H. Beeley,





250 I Rami Ginat

British ambassador to Cairo, June 4, 1964, F0371/178589, VG103138/19. See
also a minute by H.F.T. Smith, Foreign Office, May 27, 1964, FO371/178589,
VG103138/18.
   50. PRO, letter 530 from R.A.D. Ford, Canadian ambassador, Cairo, November
12, 1963, in F0371/172863, VG103138/17.
   51. Ibid.
   52. See more on this subject in Ginat, Egypt's Incomplete Revolution, 26-29, 54-
59.
   53. On Nasser's Arab socialism, its ideological sources, theoretical tenets, and the
differences between socialism and Marxism/communism, see ibid., 9-29, 35-40.
   54. The literature on Soviet-Egyptian relations from the mid-1960s onward can
be placed in the "first group," the so-called contemporary research works. Works
that can be classified within the second and the third groups and cover this period
have not yet been published. The first group, however, offers a large number of
works on that subject and period. See, e.g., Walter Z. Laqueur, "The Deepening of
Dependency upon the USSR," in Shimon Shamir, ed., The Decline of Nasserism,
1965-1970: The Waning of a Messianic Movement (Tel-Aviv: Mif'alim Universi-
tayim, 1978), 297-309 (Hebrew); Ro'i, From Encroachment to Involvement, 447-
96, 528-36; Shimon Shamir and Michael Confino, eds., The USSR and the Middle
East (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1973); El-Hussini, Soviet-Egyptian Rela-
tions, 1945-85, 151-88; Mohamed Heikal, The Sphinx and the Commissar (New
York: Harper and Row, 1978), 172-214.
   55. On Soviet-Egyptian relations under Sadat, see El-Hussini, Soviet-Egyptian
Relations, 1945-85, 191-211. On Sadat decision of July 1972 and its effects on the
two countries' relations, see Yaacov Ro'i, The USSR and Egypt in the Wake of
Sadat's "July Decisions" (Tel-Aviv: Russian and East European Research Center,
1975); and Talal Nizameddin, Russia and the Middle East: Towards a New Foreign
Policy (London: Hurst, 1999), 30-33.
   56. Ro'i, From Encroachment to Involvement, 490-91.








Iv.


Nasser's Socioeconomic Policies
and Achievements












I0



An Assessment of Egypt's Development Strategy,
1952-1970

    M. Riad EI-Ghonemy





Introduction

The term development strategy refers here to the set of policies and declared
objectives expressing the approach followed to tackle Egypt's underdevelop-
ment problems between 1952 and 1970. During this period, the strategy was
characterized by two major features: One was the gradual shift toward a
central design of development, which provided the role of government (and
its public sector) with prominent supremacy over that of the market (and its
private sector). The second was a fundamental change in the institutional
framework of the economy to bring about sustained economic growth,
rapid employment expansion, and equitable distribution of income and
wealth in favor of low-income groups.
   In order to understand the process of national development, two periods
(1952-55 and 1956-70) are distinguished in terms of the initial develop-
ment objectives regarding the roles of government and the market in shaping
the structure of the economy and the distribution of income. However, there
is a possible misinterpretation of the development objectives expressed in
general terms both in Nasser's 1954 book, The Philosophy of the Revolution
(Falsafat al-Thawra), and in his May 1962 National Charter (al-Mithaq al-
Watani).
   Throughout the entire Nasserite period, historical experience suggests
that, with the exception of the September 1952 Land Reform and the post-
1957 rapid industrialization, policy choice was largely in response to both
internal and external events. A good example of this is the nationalization of
the Suez Canal in July 1956 in response to the refusal of the World Bank and
the United States to finance the construction of the Aswan High Dam upon





254 | M. Riad E1-Ghonemy


Egypt's conclusion in September 1955 of an arms purchase deal with Czech-
oslovakia and its negotiations with the Soviet Union for financial aid. An-
other example is the absence of investment provisions in the preparation of
the Five-Year Development Plan of 1959/60-1964/65, for the 1961-63
massive nationalized foreign and domestic enterprises, suggesting that na-
tionalization was not predetermined.


The Period of Private Enterprise Economy, 1952-1956

Apart from government control of irrigation, main railways, and a few im-
ports, this period featured a private property and free enterprise economy,
representing a continuation of the pre-July 1952 situation. Despite budget
and balance of payments deficits and the effects of the Korean War on cotton
prices (1950-52), this first period of Nasser's development strategy wit-
nessed a remarkable economic stability in terms of national output growth,
total investment, price levels, and low inflation rate. This stability was real-
ized through a series of regulations, including the closure of the Alexandria
cotton exchange for two years and an increase in direct government rev-
enues through higher direct taxation and increased import duties on com-
peting manufactured commodities and nonessential consumer goods. In-
creasing import tariffs was also intended to protect domestic industry.
   Furthermore, measures conducive to macroeconomic stability included
the promotion of exports by way of concluding several bilateral agreements
and the facilitation of direct foreign capital investment by granting investors
generous incentives and concessions in 1953-54, particularly in the oil in-
dustry. At the same time, multisectoral projects, covering a wide range of
activities, were prepared by the newly created National Production Council.
Examples of these projects were land development for creating new rural
communities (for example, Tahrir Province), transport, major roads, elec-
tricity, and schemes for manufacturing iron, steel, paper, and fertilizers that
later contributed toward the expansion of the public industrial sector.
   The major policy enacted to address inequality and poverty reduction
was the 1952 Land Reform. Supplemented by the reform laws of 1961 and
1969, it redistributed 13 percent of total agricultural land among small ten-
ants, in family units of two feddans,1 on average, representing only 10 per-
cent of total agricultural households. In addition to the redistribution of
land above an established maximum limit of private ownership, the reform
program confiscated the royal family estates and substantially reduced land
rental values in real terms by fixing them at seven times the already low land
tax. For the first time in Egyptian history, a maximum limit on private land-
ownership was established at 200 feddans in 1952, reduced in 1961 to 100
feddans per person, and reduced even further to 50 feddans in 1969.





Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 | 255


   Though partial in its scale of redistribution, the land reform program
introduced a fundamental change in Egypt's sociopolitical power structure,
moving away from a policymaking apparatus dominated by the landlords
and toward an equity-oriented policy intended to benefit the peasants and
landless workers. Combined with other income-raising sources, such as re-
mittances of migrant workers and subsidization of basic consumer goods,
land reform reduced inequality in distribution of both landholdings and
personal income/expenditure. It reduced absolute poverty in rural areas
from my estimate of 56.1 percent in 1950 to 27.4 percent in 1958/59. The
pre-July 1952 conditions of poverty, inequality, and overall population
pressure on the limited cultivable land justify the speedy implementation of
land reform and the urgency in the construction of the Aswan High Dam.2
Furthermore, Nasser and his fellow members of the Revolutionary Com-
mand Council (RCC) wanted to deliver tangible results at an early stage.
They maintained the traditional private property rights in land, and conse-
quently agriculture was-and still is-the major private enterprise sector of
the Egyptian economy.

Predominant State Intervention in a Mixed Economy, 1956-1970

The success of the land reform, the nationalization of the Suez Canal, and
the sequestration of British and French properties encouraged the Nasser
administration to extend government control over the whole economy. The
major features of this expanded role were tightly planned investment alloca-
tions, administered pricing, control of foreign trade, tighter control of farm-
ing, and the adoption of a welfare-oriented strategy in which private and
public ownership of assets coexist. The pattern of development gradually
shifted away from a profit-making liberal capitalist system toward a wel-
fare-oriented distribution of wealth and economic growth benefits among
the social classes, with a preference for the poorer class.
   The National Charter stressed the concept of "Arab socialism," to be
created in a "socialist, co-operative, and democratic society." This broad
concept aimed at such ambiguous ends as social solidarity, social justice, and
raising the living standard along a socialist path, permitting private enter-
prise and ownership to function under "guided capitalism" free of mo-
nopoly (ihtikar). It also emphasized the elimination of exploitation in trans-
actions (istighlal) within the domestic market through the dominance of a
large public sector and regulation of profit margins, wage rates, and con-
sumer prices, as well as through the protection of tenants and the substantial
reduction of rental values both in farming and in housing.
   The continued emphasis on "elimination of exploitation" in the develop-
ment strategy since the July 1952 Revolution seems to be more of an expres-





256 | M. Riad E1-Ghonemy


sion of the violation of Islamic moral principles in business conduct (what is
permitted, halal, and what is prohibited, haram) than of Karl Marx's con-
ception of exploited and exploiter in terms of his notion of surplus value
accumulation. In fact, I find it difficult to discern precisely, from available
sources, what the socialist aims of the 1956-70 policy were and what was
meant by "socialism." In operational terms, the "elimination of exploita-
tion" in the minds of ordinary people should be taken to mean rapid poverty
reduction, quick gains from employment expansion, and efficient bureau-
cracy.
   In retrospect, it seems that the design of development in 1956-70 and
the models used in its comprehensive planning were also influenced by the
emergence of analytical models in the 1950s and ideas of the two Nobel
Prize laureates in economics, Jan Tinbergen and Roger Frisch. Also influ-
ential were Bent Hansen's technical assistance in Egypt's planning exercise,
Oskar Lange's ideas on competitive socialism, and Albert Hirschman's 1958
model for a development strategy. This strategy gives industry an investment
priority in order to absorb wider employed manpower, accelerate capital
accumulation, and become the economy's engine of growth through its sev-
eral linkages with other sectors. Accordingly, agriculture is to be kept as a
reservoir of labor and food. Moreover, I may add that the leading role of the
state in industrialization was seemingly a response to the failure of the
1953-54 laws to induce private investment and the inflow of foreign capital
to industry.


The Character of the Reformed Economic System

The tight planning of the Egyptian economy was made possible by an appa-
ratus consisting of the National Planning Commission, the Institute of Na-
tional Planning, and the Ministry of Planning, all of which were-and still
are-well equipped with competent economists, statisticians, sociologists,
and engineers. The result was the preparation-for the first time in Egypt-
of a broad framework for a ten-year investment program, starting with the
First Five-Year Development Plan for the years 1960-65, followed by a sec-
ond plan for 1965-70.3 A close examination of major policy statements and
development plans suggests two sets of objectives: economic growth with
quantifiable targets for investment allocation and national product increase,
and unquantified social justice or social welfare ends.

Economic Growth
For the periods 1960-65 and 1965-70, the average annual growth of GDP
was planned at 7 percent to surpass the 4 percent realized during the initial





Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 | 257


period (1952-56). However, the average annual growth realized over 1960-
70 was only 4.5 percent, falling far short of the target for the following three
reasons:

   a. The collapse of the cotton crop in 1961.
   b. The diversion of resources away from commodity-producing invest-
     ment and toward armaments purchase and the defense expenditure
     needed for Egypt's involvement in the Yemen Civil War (1962-67)
     and the June 1967 War with Israel.
   c. The loss of the Suez Canal revenues during its closure in the late
     1960s.

   Nevertheless, an annual growth rate of 5.7 percent over the entire period
of 1952-70 was still higher than the population growth rate of 2.5 percent
on average. The result was a per capita annual growth of income at 3 per-
cent, on average, during this long period of 1952-70. This sustained growth
was combined with a low inflation rate of 3 percent.

Egalitarian Measures and Massive Nationalization
The socialist pattern of development strategy was expressed in the social
justice objectives of the two five-year plans between 1960 and 1970. They
include such broad aims as greater equality of opportunities and income
distribution, as well as rapid employment expansion. In a developing econ-
omy like that of Egypt, a rapid achievement of economic growth and re-
duction of income inequality requires the simultaneous institution of egali-
tarian measures, state control of major productive activities, and planned
high saving and investment rates to be directed into channels generating
vast expansion of employment.
   As noted earlier, egalitarian measures began with the redistributive land
reform of September 1952. These were later reinforced by the subsidiza-
tion of consumer goods, introduction of tax reforms, establishment of so-
cial security schemes and pension funds, reduction of house rental values,
and provision of free health care and education services. Furthermore,
employment of graduates was guaranteed by the 1964 policy action, and
substantial jobs were created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam
and related large-scale land reclamation projects. Employment opportuni-
ties were also made available through the rapid industrialization taking
place, as well as through the enormous expansion occurring in government
administration and the rest of the public sector, particularly following the
wave of nationalization in 1961-63. Government administration was en-
larged even further for the management of the 1961 sequestration of prop-
erty of nearly six hundred wealthy Egyptians, immediately after the sepa-





258 | M. Riad El-Ghonemy


ration of Syria from Egypt within the United Arab Republic in September
1961.
   Later in 1963, the state took over half the capital of nearly eighty-two
private business establishments. Through labor legislation, workers ben-
efited a great deal from the establishment of welfare funds, a raise in the
minimum daily wage, restrictions on expelling workers, representation on
company boards of directors, and guaranteed transfer of one-fourth of pub-
lic enterprise profits to employees. While these policies of the development
strategy led to almost full employment in the 1960s, the problems of over-
staffing, low productivity, and increased bureaucracy remained.

Investment Expansion and the Leading Public Sector

In addition to the employment benefits from large-scale nationalization, the
accumulation of profits for the badly needed investment expansion also had
a strategic importance, especially for financing projects planned for industri-
alization, irrigation expansion in newly developed areas, transport, and con-
struction. In a single decade, between 1952 and 1962, public investment
increased tenfold.4 As one would expect, increased investment was necessary
in such a tightly planned economy as that of Egypt. In the 1950s and early
1960s, the belief was that-given the failure of private enterprises to in-
crease post-1955 savings and investments-nationalization would contrib-
ute significantly to higher savings and government revenues. This belief was
reinforced by Egypt's high rates of public and private consumption and the
perennially very low share of savings and investment in national income, as
presented in table 10.1. In fact, by 1963, the contribution of the public
sector to national income (GDP) was quite high: industry and electricity (60
percent), transport (75 percent), and public utilities (100 percent). However,
the public sector accounted for only 6 percent in agriculture, a sector in
which private ownership of land and livestock had been maintained, even
while pricing was controlled.
   The pattern of investment allocation among the commodity-producing
sectors (agriculture and industry, including oil) and the noncommodity-


Table 10.1. Shares of Consumption, Savings, and Investment in GDP,
1950 and 1970

Structure of GDP (%)                1950         1970

Share of total consumption           88            76
Share of total savings                8            12
Share of total investment            13            18
Sourcc: Ministry of Planning, Cairo.





Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 | 259


producing sectors of the economy (transport and services) was a manifes-
tation of the priorities accorded to these activities in Egypt's development
strategy. At the start of Nasser's administration, the economy was over-
whelmingly agricultural in terms of its share in total employment (60 per-
cent), merchandise exports (85 percent), and gross national income (35
percent). Moreover, the bulk of manufacturing was in the form of process-
ing of agricultural raw products (for example, cotton, foodstuff, hides,
and skin). By the mid-1960s, this sector ranked high both in terms of
resource allocations for rapid growth and in terms of the degree of equality
in the distribution of income and wealth.
   Nasser always stressed rapid industrialization, as recalled by his saying
"To produce from the needle to the missile." In contrast to the dominant
position of agriculture in the economy in the early 1950s, industry (manu-
facturing, electricity, and mining) accounted for only 12 percent of national
income, 8 percent of the total workforce, and 9 percent of export earnings.
As in other developing countries, Egypt accorded industry with the highest
investment priority in 1952-70, as expressed in the First Industrial Develop-
ment Plan for the years 1957-61, in the First Five-Year Development Plan of
1960-65, and in the 1956 justification for the establishment of the Ministry
of Industry. For Nasser and his first minister of industry, 'Aziz Sidky, the
Ministry's leading role in the public sector's huge enterprises was a conscious
element of national development and import-substitution strategy. Yet,
despite heavy government protection and subsidization, industrial output
growth in the 1960s was low, amounting to only 5.5 percent annually or less
than half of the planned rate of 11.5 percent. Various explanations for this
poor performance may be offered, including government control of the pro-
duction structure and wage system, and investment preference for heavy
capital-intensive industry (iron, steel, aluminum, petroleum refining, pet-
rochemicals, cars, and tires) over labor-intensive manufacturing (textiles,
clothing, food products, and footwear).
   To balance national development, the strategy did not neglect the other
major commodity-producing sector-agriculture. As shown in table 10.2,
between 1952 and 1970, the sector's investment allocations fluctuated, as
did the total area of land reclaimed, increasing from 19.7 percent of total
investment in 1952-60 to 23.4 percent in 1960-65, then declining to 20.1
percent in 1966-70 after the completion of the Aswan High Dam, whose
costs reached LE (Egyptian pound) 260 million, including £E103 million in
two loans from the USSR.5 Additional costs of nearly £E62 million were for
compensation payments to Sudan and for resettlement of the displaced
Nubians in new rural areas north of Aswan, as well as for payment of inter-
est on the Soviet loan. Another sum of £E240 million was required for irri-
gation works and land reclamation.





260 | M. Riad El-Ghonemy


Table 10.2. Investment, GDP Growth, Inequality, and Poverty Estimates
in Agriculture, 1952-1970
                                     1952-1960      1960-1965    1966-1970

1. Average investment in agriculture
(% of total investment)                    19.7           23.4        20.1
2. Total land reclaimed (feddans)       116,499        558,000    272,000
3. Agriculture-GDP annual growth %          2.0            3.3         2.5
4. Degree of inequality a
    Land ownership distribution      0.61 (1951)    0.38 (1965)
    Rural income/expenditure         0.65 (1947)          0.29
5. Rural poverty estimate
(% of total rural households)        56.1 (1950)    27.4 (1959)
a Degree of inequality is measured in terms of the Gini Coefficient, ranging from an absolute
equality value of zero to a maximum value of absolute inequality of one.
Sources: M. Riad El-Ghonemy, The Political Economy of Rural Poverty: The Case for Land
Reform (London: Routledge, 1990), and "The Egyptian State and Agricultural Land Mar-
ket, 1810-1986," Journal of Agricultural Economics 43, no. 2 (May 1992).


   However, there is a consensus among researchers with respect to the high
cost per feddan and the loss of some areas of intensively cultivated land to
rapid urbanization.6 Due to a time lag of 5-8 years between the investment
in land reclamation (soil treatment, leveling, and irrigation and drainage
systems) and the realized economic benefits, average annual growth of agri-
cultural GDP over the period of 1960-70 was below expected level, esti-
mated by the World Bank at 2.9 percent.

Investing in Human Capital
A striking feature of the development strategy during the Nasserite period
was the use of economic growth benefits to raise the living standard of the
low-income population in terms of infant mortality, illiteracy, life expect-
ancy at birth, nutritional standards, and access to safe drinking water. It was
realized that these improvements must be combined with deliberate efforts
to slow down population growth through greater public spending on basic
social services and an official family planning campaign. The relationship
between these forms of human capital investment and economic growth was
suggested in the first development plan for 1960-65 and rhetorically in the
National Charter. The assumption was that greater access to education and
primary health care would result in a healthier and better educated work-
force-an investment that raises their productivity and in turn the national
income.
   Accordingly, 35-40 percent of the total planned investment in 1960-70





Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 | 261


was allocated to health care, education, safe drinking water, subsidized
transport, public utilities, construction of dwellings for low-income work-
ers, and investment in infrastructure, especially paved roads between cities
and in rural areas. The most important gain was the substantial decline in
the infant (0-1) mortality rate from 130 per 1,000 live births in 1952 to 103
in 1970, leading to increased longevity. During the same period, government
expenditure on health and education, as a percentage of the GDP, increased
nearly fourfold. The length of paved roads, as an important aspect of infra-
structure, increased fivefold, from 2,800 kilometers to 13,890 kilometers
during the same period. However, the adult illiteracy reduction in 1952-70
fell short of expectations; the national average declined from 76 percent to
65 percent, but it was much higher, at 80 percent, among adult females in
1970, despite a considerable expansion in free compulsory primary educa-
tion.
   Raising the educational level and other well-being components in a poor
developing country, whose population was growing fast, increasingly re-
quires heavy public expenditure. The concern over the links between de-
mography and the development process in general, and raising the living
standard in particular, was clearly pronounced in 1953 when the National
Population Commission was established as an integral part of the Perma-
nent Council of Public Services. In 1957, the Population Commission be-
came part of the official apparatus for national planning. In his public
speeches, Nasser stressed the seriousness of the population problem, and
after securing fatwas from al-Azhar that family planning (tanzim al-usra)
was permissible, Nasser himself launched a massive family planning cam-
paign, with active participation of nongovernmental organizations.7 Birth
control services were provided by local community development centers,
free of charge to persons voluntarily accepting contraception methods. An
important aim of these efforts was to create public awareness about families'
welfare needs and the pressing urgency of confronting the population pres-
sure problem.8


Conclusion: Rethinking Development Priorities

Under tight planning and administered pricing, the sustained economic
growth of total and per capita income, combined with effective poverty-
reducing egalitarian measures in 1952-70, represent important achieve-
ments of Nasser's administration in a historical perspective. However, the
several measures for social justice that were actually implemented to redis-
tribute income and property rights in favor of low-income groups do not
warrant the exaggerated title of "socialism."





262 | M. Riad E1-Ghonemy


   Rethinking industrialization strategy with regard to directing the tenfold
increase in public investment, labor-intensive textiles, and food manufactur-
ing should not have been neglected in favor of the capital-intensive heavy
industry shielded from competition (e.g., steel and aluminum). In their pro-
duction, the state acted as the sole entrepreneur, and they were granted do-
mestic monopolies.
   In the overpopulated and capital-scarce Egypt that has rich experience in
cotton production and manufacturing, giving top priority to the industrial
expansion of manufacturing resulted in high social opportunity costs. In
fact, during the two development plans in 1957-70, the textiles and food
industries enjoyed a domestic comparative advantage and a global competi-
tive advantage that justified preferential investment in their modernization,
industrial expansion, and export promotion. This distorted investment pri-
ority during that period represents a missed opportunity that has disadvan-
taged labor absorption in industrial development.
   Lastly, despite some unsatisfactory development consequences of massive
nationalization, the pattern of development established during the Nasser
administration has, in the 1990s, brought rewards in terms of human capital
investments. Life expectancy at birth has risen steadily, reaching sixty-five in
1999, that is, twenty-four years longer than in 1952. I believe that this is the
true meaning of development.


Notes

This chapter was an invited lecture given at the University of Haifa on December 16,
1999.
   1. One feddan equals nearly one acre or 0.42 hectare.
   2. In "The Egyptian State and Agricultural Land Market, 1810-1986," Journal of
Agricultural Economics 43, no. 2 (May 1992), I examined the implications of the
scarcity of and the increasing demands for land. Cultivable area is the amount of land
available for farming, irrespective of its intensive use. Cropped area is the area of
different crops cultivated in one feddan during the same year. Poverty estimate for
1958/59 is that of Richard H. Adams Jr., "Development and Structural Change in
Rural Egypt," World Development 13, no. 6 (1985): table 1. See details of my pov-
erty study in M. Riad El-Ghonemy, The Political Economy of Rural Poverty: The
Case for Land Reform (London: Routledge, 1990), 247 and table 6.11.
   3. Several criticisms were made of the plan preparations and its assumptions for
planned investment. See Bent Hansen and Girgis A. Marzouk, Development and
Economic Policy in the UAR (Egypt) (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1965), chap. 11;
Patrick Karl O'Brien, The Revolution in Egypt's Economic System: From Private
Enterprise to Socialism, 1952-1965 (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 156-
64; Robert Mabro, The Egyptian Economy, 1952-1972 (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1974), 120-24.





                                   Egypt's Development Strategy, 1952-1970 | 263

   4. Hansen and Marzouk, Development and Economic Policy in the UAR, 254-
56.
   5. The EE was equal to US$4.13 up until September 1949 and thereafter was
devalued to US$2.87 until 1977.
   6. See El-Ghonemy, "The Egyptian State and Agricultural Land Market"; 'Ali
Ahmad al-Jiritli, Khamsa wa- Ishruna 'Aman: Dirasa Tahliliyya lil Siyasat al-Iqtisa-
diyya fi Misr, 1952-1977 (Cairo: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1977),
26-30; and National Bank of Egypt, Economic Bulletin 19, no. 4 (1966).
   7. Al-Azhar and the Egyptian Ministry of Wakfs compiled all fatwas related to
birth control. See Arab Republic of Egypt, Ministry of Waqfs and Ministry of Infor-
mation, State Information Service, Islam's Attitude toward Family Planning (Cairo,
1994), which was issued on the occasion of the 1994 World Population Conference
in Cairo.
   8. On the family planning program in Egypt under Nasser, see chapter 12 of this
volume.















Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea

A Comparison ofTheir Economic Achievements


    Paul Rivlin





Introduction

This chapter compares the economic policies of Egypt in the 1960s with
those of South Korea, both of which were ruled by military regimes. Al-
though the two regimes had different ideologies, President Park of South
Korea, who came to power in a coup in 1961, acknowledged the influence
of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser in his work. He was said to have been a student of
Korean and world history, and he compared South Korea under his rule to
the Meiji reform in Japan, the modernization of China under Sun Yat-sen,
Kemal Atatiirk's development of Turkey, and Nasser's Egypt.1 The purpose
of the comparison is to better understand some of the options that were
available to Nasser in the economic field and the role of what might be called
"exogenous factors" in the development process. Both Egypt and South
Korea launched industrialization programs in the early 1960s. Although
these were not their first attempts to industrialize, they had certain features
in common, including the use of import-substitute industrialization.
   By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Nasser had nationalized the Suez
Canal and other foreign property, as well as major sectors of the economy. In
1960, he introduced the First Five-Year Development Plan for the entire
country, modeled on Soviet experience. Egypt was then at the height of its
Arab socialist phase (al-Ishtirakiyya al-'Arabiyya). The regime was trying to
mobilize the economy for a huge development effort and, in many respects,
to break with the past. The 1950s would seem, at first sight, to have been an
auspicious prelude to the Egyptian industrialization drive of the 1960s, but,
as will be shown, this is too superficial a view. As in South Korea, growth
rather than stability was the order of the day.






Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 265


Table 11.1. Population, Total GDP, and GDP per Capita in Egypt and
South Korea, 1960-1998 (current prices)
                         1960        1970      1980       1990


1998


South Korea
Population (millions)    24.7        32.2       38.1       42.9      46.4
Total GDP (US$ billion)   4.6         8.9        63        254        320
GDP per capita (US$)      185        276       1,643      5,921     6,842
Egypt
Population (millions)    25.9        33.3       42.1       52.7      62.0
Total GDP (US$ billion)   3.9         6.8       10.8       38.4       82.7
GDP per capita (US$)      151        205        257        729      1,304

Source: International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics Yearbook, 1987,
1995, October 1999 (Washington, D.C.).


b

O
C


8000

7000

6000

5000

4000    °

3000    .

2000

1000

0


1960       1970       1980       1990       1998


DJTotal population in Egypt
---GDP per capita in Egypt


     Total population in South Korea
-O-GDP per capita in South Korea


Fig. 11.1. Total population and GDP per capita in Egypt and South Korea, 1960-
1998.



   As shown in table 11.1, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in
South Korea in 1960 was $185, as compared with $151 in Egypt. Although
these figures should be treated with caution, they do provide a general guide.
GDP, population, and GDP per capita were at similar levels in the two coun-
tries in 1960. By 1998, South Korea's GDP was almost four times that of





266 | Paul Rivlin


Egypt, but its population was only two-thirds as large. As a result, its GDP
per capita was five times that of Egypt.


Initial Conditions for Economic Development

The initial conditions that have been identified in economic growth theory
as necessary for economic development cannot be summarized only in terms
of GDP per capita. In East Asia they included the high quality of basic edu-
cation, which meant that skilled labor was available. Another initial condi-
tion was the relative equality in income distribution. The importance of
these factors has been recognized both by the World Bank and by its critics
in the debate about growth in East Asia.2
   In terms of economic parameters, some direct comparisons between
South Korea and Egypt are possible. Around 1960, the Gini coefficient for
land distribution in South Korea was 0.39, while in Egypt it was 0.67.3 The
coefficient for income in South Korea was 0.34 and for Egypt, 0.42.4 In
Egypt, between 1952 and 1961, 14 percent of total cultivable land was
redistributed, with property rights transferred to only 10 percent of the
population. Each family received one hectare.5 Two-thirds of the tenants and
nearly all of the landless wage earners were excluded from the reforms,
although excluded tenants were given security of tenure and were charged
low, fixed rents in real terms until the liberalization of the 1990s. The ceiling
for landownership was forty-two hectares.6 In South Korea in the 1930s, 3
percent of all farm households owned two-thirds of the land. By the 1940s,
however, the land reforms had dissolved the landed aristocracy, leaving less
than 7 percent of the rural population landless.7
   The absence of large inequalities in income distribution meant that the
South Korean government did not have to deal with vested interests of the
wealthy and powerful in agriculture or industry. Policy makers were there-
fore insulated from pressures to follow the special interests of particular
sectors and were able to plan and implement policies designed to maximize
the growth of the economy as a whole. Administrative reforms were under-
taken without outside interference, and economic regulations were gener-
ated in the technocratic elite, with politicians, especially President Park in
South Korea, acting to prevent such interference. Given relatively equal in-
come distribution in South Korea, authorities were not under pressure to
redistribute income.8 They were also less concerned about the consequences
of growth on distribution than would otherwise have been the case. It
should be noted that this equality was in large part the result of action in the
United States, rather than deliberate decisions in South Korea. Between
1945 and 1953, war and revolution resulted in the redistribution of wealth.9





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 267


   During the 1960s, a transition to lower population growth took place in
South Korea and Taiwan, thereby reducing the pressure to generate employ-
ment over time. It also reduced the burden of education and health services
and permitted resources to be allocated to improving the quality of those
services, which in turn yielded further economic benefits. In 1960, the South
Korean crude birth rate was 43 per 1,000 people and the crude death rate
was 14 per 1,000. By 1970, the crude birth rate had fallen 25 percent to 30
per 1,000 and the crude death rate had dropped 36 percent to 9 per 1,000.
These trends continued in the 1970s and 1980s, and by 1991 the crude birth
rate was 16 per 1,000 and the crude death rate was 6 per 1,000.
   Egypt did not experience such a demographic transition in the 1960s, and
progress in the 1970s and early 1980s was much slower. In 1960, the coun-
try had a crude birth rate of 44 per 1,000 and a crude death rate of 19 per
1,000. In 1970, the crude birth rate declined to 40 per 1,000 and the crude
death rate to 17 per 1,000. Given these modest declines, the Egyptian popu-
lation growth rate in the 1960s and 1970s thus remained unchanged at
about 2.5 percent.10 In the 1980s, Egypt's population increased by an annual
average of over 2.4 percent." In contrast, South Korea's population grew
annually by only an average of 1.1 percent.12 Between 1992 and 1998,
Egypt's population rose by an annual average of 1.9 percent, while South
Korea's rose only 1 percent.13
   In educational terms, initial conditions were better in South Korea, where
primary school enrollment in 1960 was 94 percent, as compared with 66
percent in Egypt (see table 11.2). Between 1960 and 1997, primary school
enrollment rates improved in Egypt, and the literacy rate doubled. Despite
such progress, almost half of the Egyptian population over fifteen years of
age was still illiterate in 1995. Thus, Egyptian literacy rates were much
lower than South Korea's throughout the period examined (see table 11.3).
The main obstacle to increasing the literacy rate in Egypt was the high popu-
lation growth rate, although there was also evidence of declining effective-


Table 11.2. Primary Educational Enrollment Ratio in Egypt and South Korea,
1960-1997
               1960              1978                     1997

               Total     Male   Female Total      Male   Female  Total

Egypt           66         80     52     74         88     58     96
South Korea     94         99     89    111        112    111     92
Source: World Bank, World Development Report, various issues (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press).





268 | Paul Rivlin


Table 11.3. Literacy Rates in Egypt and South Korea, 1960-1997*
                   1960            1976                 1997

                   Total          Total            Male     Female

Egypt               26              44              65        40
South Korea         71              93              99        96
* Percentage of population over fifteen years of age.
Source: World Bank, World Development Report, various issues (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press).


ness of Egyptian education.14 Another initial condition favoring develop-
ment was strong growth in agricultural production.15 South Korean agricul-
tural production rose by an annual average of 4.5 percent in the 1960s and
by 5 percent in the period of 1970-77. By contrast, agricultural production
in Egypt rose by an annual average of 2.9 percent in the 1960s and by 3.1
percent between 1970 and 1977.16


Political and Economic Development in South Korea

Korea was ruled by the Yi dynasty from 1392 until it was overthrown by the
Japanese in 1910. The extraordinary longevity and stability of the Yi dy-
nasty was, according to J. B. Pallais, a result of the equilibrium between
different social forces in the country. This equilibrium helped to maintain
political stability, but it was not a system that could respond effectively to
the foreign challenges facing Korea in the twentieth century. The Yi in Korea
relied on the Ming dynasty and then on the Ching dynasty in China to supply
luxury goods and to help suppress peasant uprisings in 1894. In 1910, Japan
formally annexed Korea after declaring it a protectorate, and Japan's rule
continued until 1945. The Japanese abolished slavery, codified civil law, and
introduced a tax system based on cash payments rather than payments in
kind. They created an independent court system and separated the judiciary
from the executive branch of government.17 They also reformed the land-
ownership system and taxed landlords who collected rents from their ten-
ants. Although the system was highly exploitative, it introduced market re-
lations into agriculture.
   However, the Japanese legacy left Korea at the mercy of outside powers in
1945. Between the end of World War II and the outbreak of the Korean War
in 1950, Korea was polarized between right and left, with the Soviet Union
and the United States taking increasing interest in the country as the Cold
War proceeded. The United States backed the Korea Democratic Party,





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 269


which safeguarded remnants of the feudal dynasty. American forces sta-
tioned in Korea relied on the same Korean civil servants who had served the
Japanese. The United States also extended the land reforms that the Japanese
had introduced. This served to further reduce the power, influence, and
wealth of the landlords; encouraged funds to move from speculation in land
to investment in manufacturing; and increased food production. Finally, it
helped to develop the Korean army, which numbered 600,000 by 1953,
when the war ended.
   The period of the first republic, 1948-60, was one in which sales of con-
fiscated Japanese property and U.S. aid provided a gravy train of benefits for
those with political connections to the regime, including subsidized loans
and rights to import commodities that were in short supply. This did permit
industrialization and rapid economic growth, but it was not sustainable, and
in 1959 the economy went into recession. The 1950s were marked by war
and corruption under the regime of President Syngman Rhee. With only
limited emphasis on development, the South Korean economy grew in the
1950s, but the pattern of growth was less stable and the rate was slower than
in the 1960s.

South Korea in the 1960s
In April 1960, the army refused to suppress a student revolt, and Syngman
Rhee was removed from office. The party that succeeded him in the general
elections was ideologically similar. In 1961, a military coup brought General
Park Chung Hee to power. The military's main claim to power was its ability
to create a sustainable mechanism to raise national income. Whereas the
United States, South Korea's main aid donor, favored policies aimed at stabi-
lizing the economy, the military believed that only economic growth would
provide stability.18
   Park, who ruled South Korea until his assassination in 1979, placed the
need for economic growth at the center of his policy prescription.19 Within
one hundred days of assuming power, the military government announced
that it would launch a five-year development plan. The policy emphasis was
on large-scale enterprises and long-term planning, though the latter would
not be allowed to stifle creativity or private enterprise.
   The military managed to play a dominant, almost entrepreneurial, role in
the economy because of the weakness of other social classes. Workers were
small in number, and the capitalists relied on the state for monetary aid and
other forms of assistance. One month after the 1961 coup, a law against
illicit wealth accumulation was passed, and a number of profiteers were
arrested. They were threatened with the confiscation of their assets, but the
threat was not carried out. Instead, they were allowed to take a central part





270 | Paul Rivlin


in the economy by promising to invest sums in industry equal to those that
they were alleged to have gained through corruption under the previous
regime. In this way, an alliance was formed between the industrialists and
the military government, which was to form the backbone of the investment
boom that followed.20 Land reform during the period of the U.S. occupation
from 1945 to 1948 had dissolved the aristocracy, and peasants who were, or
had recently become, small holders did not form a homogeneous social class.
The military government was also influenced by a powerful student move-
ment that had played a major part in the downfall of Syngman Rhee in 1960
and was now acting as a watchdog to keep the military government honest.21
   The presence of the U.S. occupation forces pushed the Korean military
toward an activist economic policy as a means of reducing reliance on U.S.
aid, which amounted to $270 million a year and equaled 15 percent of the
GDP.22 South Korea benefited in a more general sense from its strategic
relationship with the United States. It was an ally of the United States in the
struggle against communism in Asia, and it received large amounts of eco-
nomic aid that helped it to maintain a healthy balance of payments. During
the Vietnam War (1965-75), the United States bought agricultural and in-
dustrial goods from South Korea for its war effort, and the country was used
as a rest and recreation center for U.S. troops. Moreover, South Korean
companies won large construction contracts in Vietnam. This massive, lo-
calized demand was a major factor in the expansion of industry and the
economy as a whole.

Economic Policies in South Korea
Two types of conclusions can be drawn from the experience of South Korea.
The first relates to the economic policies followed, and the second comprises
the reasons why those policies were followed. The economic policies fol-
lowed had a number of positive features. Investments in human capital and
infrastructure increased the private sector's rate of return on investment and
thus promoted economic growth. Investment in real estate was discouraged,
making more resources available for other sectors.23 Economic policy was
pragmatic and adaptable; it changed as circumstances changed and as the
economy developed. Policies were designed to complement or enhance mar-
kets rather than replace them. They neither abandoned the market (through
central planning) nor were slaves to it. The policy interventions were de-
signed to fill the gaps where there were market imperfections. Exports were
encouraged after import substitution had been successfully used to create
domestic competitive advantages.
   Why were these particular policies followed? Both the World Bank and its
critics agree on the importance of strong, effective, and inclusive leadership





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 271


by government. The state in South Korea, as well as elsewhere in Southeast
Asia, was strong and often led by virtual dictators. It used its powers to
develop the economy and had an effective bureaucracy to implement its
policies, which were intended to yield widespread benefits. Although in-
come distribution became less equal over time, it remained much more equi-
table than in many other developing countries.24 Initial conditions were built
upon; they were not considered a given or immutable external factor. In
South Korea, the state even subsidized school meals and uniforms. Between
1960 and 1989, the share of government spending devoted to education rose
from 11 percent to 20 percent.25 The importance of equality as a policy goal
was reflected in the emphasis placed on primary education.26
   Strong and effective government, however, did not mean that there was
no corruption or favoritism in South Korea. Alice H. Amsden noted that
"for all the venality. . . beginning in the 1960s, the government's favorite
pets-the big business groups that came to account for so large a share of
GNP-were outstanding performers. What with export targets-an objec-
tive, transparent criterion by which firm performance is easily judged-price
controls, restrictions on capacity expansions, limits on market entry, prohi-
bitions on capital flight, restraint on tax evasion, and a government control
over the banking system, the big business groups had to deliver."27
   Discipline in South Korea and its absence elsewhere were due to differ-
ences in state power rather than in differential abilities among policy mak-
ers.28 To this should be added the effects of the Confucian tradition with its
emphasis on discipline-something which applied elsewhere in East Asia as
well. According to the World Bank, in each of the high-performing Asian
economies, new leaders faced an urgent need to establish their political vi-
ability before economic takeoff. The Republic of Korea was threatened by
invasion from the north, Taiwan from China, and Thailand from Vietnam
and Cambodia. In Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, leaders
faced formidable communist threats. In addition, leaders in Indonesia, Ko-
rea, and Taiwan, having taken power, needed to prove their ability to gov-
ern. Others in Malaysia and Singapore had to contend with ethnic diversity
and attendant questions of political representation. Even in Japan, leaders
had to earn public confidence after the debacle of World War II. In all cases,
leaders were compelled to answer a basic question: Why should they, rather
than others, lead their countries? They hoped that rapid, widely shared im-
provement in economic welfare would bring the legitimacy they needed.29
   The traditional agrarian elite of South Korea was wiped out after World
War II, and its industrialists were, as a group, unorganized and reliant on the
state for capital. External resources (U.S. aid) were channeled to the state,
but the ideological environment forced it to rely on private capital, despite





272 | Paul Rivlin


the fact that the position of the state in U.S.-occupied Korea had been en-
hanced.30
   South Korea sought to create competitive advantages where none existed.
The South Korean steel industry was a classic example of this. In the 1960s,
a team of advisors from the World Bank suggested that the creation of an
integrated steel mill in South Korea was premature and that it was not eco-
nomically feasible. The industry was capital intensive, a resource that South
Korea lacked at the time; costs were sensitive to scale, and its domestic
market was small. Furthermore, it also lacked raw materials. Its nearest
substantial market, Japan, had an efficient industry. Finally, South Korea
lacked the skills needed to produce steel. These factors constituted a lack of
comparative advantage. Yet, by 1986, the Pohang Iron and Steel Company
(POSCO) had become one of the lowest-cost steel producers in the world,
and it had entered into a joint venture with U.S. Steel (USX) to modernize the
latter's Pittsburgh plant. POSCO supplied capital, training, and technology
for its U.S. partner. As POSCO was owned by the state, the Korean govern-
ment played a central role in its success. Among other factors, the govern-
ment subsidized the development of the infrastructure, provided POSCO
with long-term, low-interest loans in foreign currency to buy imports of
machinery, and subsidized loans for building purposes. However, subsidies
for water supply facilities, roads, and rent were not high enough to account
for all of POSCO's early profitability. Assistance was also received in the
form of capital and up-to-date technology from Japan under the latter's
reparations scheme for South Korea.31
   A more significant feature of industrial policy in South Korea involved
the private sector. The South Korean automobile industry provides an in-
teresting example of the success of industrial policy. In 1962, the first state-
owned car plant was established in cooperation with the Japanese com-
pany, Nissan. Tight controls were imposed on imports of finished vehicles,
whereas components were allowed in, duty free, and tax exemptions were
provided for local products. In 1965, the plan was transferred to the private
sector, and a new technology agreement was signed with Toyota of Japan.
The agreement provided for a minimum domestic content of 50 percent,
which was rigorously enforced.

The "Hard State" in South Korea
The concept of the "soft state" was developed by Gunnar Myrdal in the
1960s in his Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, which
dealt with the problems of development in South Asia. The "soft state" was
defined as one which demanded very little of its citizens.32 The East Asian
states have been called "hard states" because they have been effective in





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 273


carrying out their economic objectives. "Soft states" register demands by
different groups but are unable to do much more. "Hard states" not only
resist private demands but enforce their will. To use one of the favored terms
among political scientists, these are states which penetrate their societies,
regulate social relations, extract resources, and then use them effectively.33
   South Korea has experienced massive dislocation in war, has been threat-
ened from outside, and has suffered (as well as benefited) from colonization.
These factors have provided symbols for unity and incentive for the leader-
ship to succeed. The same was true for Japan in the second half of the nine-
teenth century.34 Such developments were preconditions for the creation of
strong states with a concentration of social control in the hands of the gov-
ernment. War and/or revolution swept away existing systems of social con-
trol, enabling new regimes to mobilize the country behind programs de-
signed to stimulate economic development.35
   A second factor present in the so-called "hard states" was the existence
of an independent, skilled, and effective bureaucracy.36 The bureaucracy
has also been successfully isolated from excessive politicization or associa-
tion with private-sector interest groups. These factors were, however, pres-
ent in other countries which did not experience such fast rates of economic
growth. India provides an excellent example of a merit-based, professional
civil service, with highly selective entry. Conversely, South Korea was not
immune to corruption.37 When a regime interprets its survival in terms of the
need to provide economic results, then it has motivation; when it has politi-
cal power and an effective bureaucracy to carry out its instructions, then it
has capacity. The combination of these factors constitutes the key compo-
nent of a "hard state," helping to bring about major economic achieve-
ments. The success of this formula in South Korea was measured by the fact
that between 1960 and 1985, GDP per capita rose by an annual average of
3.5 percent.38 By 1998, South Korea had a population 46 million, a GDP of
$320 billion, and a GDP per capita of $6,840.39 In 1996, the country was
admitted into the "rich man's club," the Organization for Economic Coop-
eration and Development (OECD).


Egypt's Economy under Nasser

In 1952, the new regime in Egypt, which took power in a military coup,
made it clear that the state would have to play a major role in the economy
by building the infrastructure and mobilizing capital. Industrialization would
be achieved through import substitution, but neither the private sector nor
foreign investment were to be discouraged. In agriculture, which was recog-
nized to be the backbone of the economy, a major land reform was intro-





274 | Paul Rivlin


duced during the 1950s to bring an end to the feudal ownership patterns and
also to encourage large landowners to invest in industry. Funds would come
from the forced sale of land holdings over the limit.
   In practice, as has been shown, the agricultural reforms had limited
effects in terms of redistribution. No significant investment in industry
resulted, and political tensions between the military regime and civilian
political parties increased, with negative consequences for private sector
investment. In 1953, the Parliament was disbanded, the Constitution was
suspended, and political parties were banned. In this environment, private
industrial investment declined by 25 percent, from Egyptian pounds (EE) 28
million a year in 1952/53 to £E23 million in the fiscal years of 1953/54 and
1956/57.40 In 1953 and 1954, measures were taken to encourage private
sector and foreign investment, with virtually no effect.
   The nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956 was carried out in response
to Western refusals to finance the Aswan High Dam project. This, in turn,
led to the nationalization in 1957 of other foreign assets in Egypt, including
banks, insurance companies, and foreign trade agencies. These measures
provided assets for the public sector and a stream of income that could be
used when and where the government wanted. At the same time, however,
the private sector felt even more threatened by the increase in state power
and the growth of the public sector at the expense of the private sector.
   In 1958-59, it was decided to draw up the First Five-Year Development
Plan for 1960-65. In 1958, Egypt negotiated its first twelve-year loan for
economic development from the USSR, worth $126 million.41 In 1958, the
USSR agreed to provide financing for the Aswan High Dam project, which
was designed to provide an assured water supply and an increase in electric-
ity production. However, there was a serious imbalance between the inten-
tions of the First Five-Year Plan and the politico-economic realities then
developing in Egypt.

Egypt's Economy in the 1960s
The First Five-Year Plan stated that 55 percent of locally funded investment
was to come from the private sector. This meant that private sector savings
would have to increase from £E87 million in 1959/60 to £E157 million in
1960/61 and to £E214 million in 1964/65, in constant 1959/60 prices.42 The
forecast for private sector savings was unrealistic, even in more harmonious
conditions than those prevailing in Egypt in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1959, laws were enacted that forced joint-stock companies to invest 5
percent of their net distribution to stockholders in state banks and to limit
profit distribution to 10 percent of the nominal value of company shares.
This caused a collapse of share prices on the stock market.43 In February
1960, two major Egyptian banks were nationalized. One of them, the Misr





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 275


Bank, owned much of the country's textile industry. In July 1961, a year
after the First Five-Year Plan was launched, the remaining banks were na-
tionalized, as were insurance companies, heavy and basic industries, and
shipping companies. Many firms were forced to sell 50 percent of their
shares to the public sector, and others were subject to partial sell-over to the
public sector. Public utilities, foreign trade, and the Alexandria Cotton Ex-
change were also nationalized.
   The implied marginal savings rate for households in the First Five-Year
Plan was 16 percent, as compared with an actual rate of 3 percent in 1959/
60. There was virtually no discussion in the plan of how the savings rate was
to be increased so radically.44 The failure of the private sector to mobilize its
share in investment in the first year of the plan was one of the factors that
provoked the nationalization measures of 1961.45
   The period of 1960-65 did, however, bring a number of accomplish-
ments. The consensus in the literature is that the economy grew by an aver-
age annual rate of 5.5 percent, although this figure was partly inflated by the
growth of civil service and public sector payrolls.46 A massive employment
drive led to the creation of 1 million jobs.47 A total of LE1.7 billion was
invested, of which 25-28 percent went into industry. About 94 percent of
planned investment was carried out, although industrial investment fell 10
percent below target, electricity 22 percent, and housing 20 percent. The
Achilles' heel was the balance of payments. Imports rose much faster than
had been planned, and exports grew much more slowly. Instead of falling by
6 percent between 1960/61 and 1964/65, imports rose by 80 percent, mainly
because agriculture failed to grow as planned and because imports of inter-
mediate goods for industry were much higher than expected.48 As a result,
there was a balance of payments crisis as early as 1962. On the other hand,
the 5.5 percent annual GDP growth rate was 1.5 percent lower than the
planned rate. Agricultural production increased by 3.3 percent, as compared
with a planned rate of 5.1 percent. All other sectors, with the exception of
electricity and construction, fell behind their target growth rates.49
   There were three main problems with the policies adopted under the First
Five-Year Plan:

   a. First, the main policy adopted in Egypt in the period of the plan
     was one that had been implemented there since the 1930s: import
     substitution. Its main weakness was that it reduced imports of one
     kind, only to increase those of another. The new industries devel-
     oped in the 1960s were designed to supply local markets; they
     lacked the economies of scale and the marketing expertise needed
     to export. Most significantly, they required imports, but were not
     able to finance them through exports.





276 | Paul Rivlin


   b. The second problem was the reliance on private sector investment at
     a time when private sector activity was being strongly discouraged.
     In the end, this meant that the plan was doomed. It could have been
     saved had the public sector been able to raise the funds instead, but
     there was no mechanism in place for this and no adjustments were
     made to the plan to allow for the radical changes in ownership that
     occurred. The plans and the nationalization had different origins.5o
     This was part of a more serious problem-the separation of plan-
     ning from the policy-making system. In July 1961, the finance min-
     ister was abroad when he heard, to his surprise, of Nasser's nation-
     alization announcement.51
   c. The third major problem was, ironically, a result of the achieve-
     ments. The employment drive that created 1 million jobs resulted in
     the public sector and the civil services becoming dumping grounds
     for graduates who received guarantees of employment. This had
     major negative effects on the efficiency of various enterprises, but
     managers of companies that had protected markets and a guaran-
     teed source of raw material had few incentives to protest. Nor did
     the repressive political environment encourage debate, let alone
     protest.

   Egyptian planners wanted progress on all fronts. They wanted heavy in-
dustry and an increasing supply of consumer goods. They designed import
substitution projects that were expected to increase their exports in a short
time. They planned to reach full employment and efficiency, to finance the
Aswan High Dam project, and to invest in massive horizontal expansion in
agriculture.52 The economy, however, could not meet all the demands, and
by 1964-65, it came to a standstill.

Nasser's Political Priority over Economic Development

The political leadership wanted all that the planners advocated and more.
During the 1960s, Egypt was involved in a war in Yemen (1962-67); this
increased the defense burden. Defense spending, as a share of GNP, rose
from 8 percent to 12 percent between 1963 and 1965. This was precisely the
period in which the trend should have been downward or at least stable.
That it rose was a reflection of the fact that the political leadership, much of
whose power was concentrated in the hands of Nasser, had a huge noneco-
nomic agenda. In 1965, the economy was in crisis, negotiations were going
on with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the government was
considering how to raise revenues to fund the Second Five-Year Plan for
1966-70.
   In the domestic political arena, there were allegations of plots and rival-





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 277


ries in the army, the ruling party, and the government. Internationally,
Nasser witnessed the overthrow of major international allies. U.S. wheat
supplies were suspended, while the king of Saudi Arabia announced in 1966
the formation of an Islamic Alliance with the unspoken aim of opposing
Nasser. Finally, the fighting in Yemen intensified with military, political, and
economic consequences for Egypt. In this context, Nasser had little time for
economic details, and he announced a gradual exit from what was called
"Arab socialism" toward infitah, or economic liberalization.
   In early 1965, there was a fall in imports as the means to finance them
dried up. Factories began to close. In June 1965, austerity measures were
announced. A stabilization program was worked out between the govern-
ment and the IMF, including familiar measures: devaluation, cuts in public
investment, and price and tax increases. Nasser, however, rejected the pro-
posals. Assistance was obtained from the USSR, but even Soviet leaders
called for austerity measures in Egypt.53 In April 1965, it was announced
that the Second Five-Year Plan would be extended to seven years. Neverthe-
less, the First Five-Year Plan was abandoned before it ended, and the second
was abandoned before it even started.
   As a result of the prevailing economic conditions and the tensions that
had built up between the regime and the private sector, by the early 1960s,
Nasser was fearful of potential threats to his regime. In September 1961, the
union with Syria collapsed when an army/business alliance took power
there. Nasser feared that the Syrian example might be followed in Egypt.
Therefore, the appointment of officials in the government and in the Arab
Socialist Union (ASU) and, perhaps most significantly from an economic
perspective, the selection of managers in the public sector became a matter of
political loyalty. In this regard, Nasser placed political loyalty above all else,
even efficiency. No clear distinction was drawn between the political level
and the bureaucratic one. In the end, his fear that managers in the public
sector and officials in the ASU would form an independent base overrode his
desire for efficient production and an increase in output. Managers and
workers were "contained" in a bureaucratic web that prevented further
political development.54 The leadership's consciousness of the suffering of
the masses was such that it could not and did not ask for sacrifices. Not only
this, but it pushed for the production of consumer goods as well as heavy
industrial products. This was the implication of Nasser's May 1962 Na-
tional Charter.


Conclusions

The first and uncontroversial conclusion is the importance of initial condi-
tions to the relative economic achievements of Nasser's Egypt and Park's





278 | Paul Rivlin


Korea. As has been shown, positive demographic trends during the 1960s,
high educational levels, and relatively strong agricultural performance were
present in South Korea. Income and land distribution were much more equal
in South Korea than in Egypt. The absence of these initial conditions in
Egypt, even after the implementation of the agrarian reform, in parallel to
the lack of attention accorded the demographic issue until the mid-1960s,55
may be a sufficient explanation for the failure of the economy to take off or
move into sustained growth.
   The second and more controversial set of conclusions relates to factors
identified in new growth models, which stress the link between macroeco-
nomic variables and their microeconomic foundations, namely, the institu-
tions that support them. Savings, for example, are a function of the financial
and business systems that exist in an economy. All banks in South Korea
during the 1960s and 1970s were in the public sector. The implication for
other countries is that the institutions which served growth so well in East
Asia need to be analyzed along with the performance of the economy in
macroeconomic terms.56
   The final conclusion is that the leadership in South Korea (and else-
where in East Asia) gave priority to economic growth, while that in Egypt
did not. It was more determined and, by the start of the 1960s, became
significantly disengaged from regional military struggles. Egypt increased
its defense spending during the period of the First Five-Year Plan, and its
leadership was preoccupied with noneconomic developments inside and
outside the country. The Egyptian regime failed to create an effective civil
service and failed to give economic issues an absolute priority. The first can
be seen as part of the second. The regime did not see economic success as
vital to its own survival. This is not to say that Nasser and others did not
want the best for their people; indeed, their concern for the citizenry was
demonstrated in their unwillingness to impose burdens. They managed to
maintain basic consumption levels, and this was enough to keep them in
power.
   Expectations of major economic improvements, which the regime had
promised, were apparently not taken seriously by the population; otherwise,
frustration at the failure to achieve them would have been greater. The net
effect of their policies was, therefore, to leave the country in severe difficul-
ties in the mid-1960s, even before the June 1967 War broke out.57 By the late
1960s, Egypt's economy was in stagnation and Arab socialism was being
reconsidered. South Korea was by then experiencing rapid growth, and the
gap between the two countries widened dramatically.





Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 279


Notes

   1. Alice H. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 51.
   2. World Bank, The East Asian Miracle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993);
Dani Rodrik, "King Kong Meets Godzilla: The World Bank and the East Asian
Miracle," Centre for Economic Policy Research Papers, no. 944 (London, 1994), 9-
10.
   3. The closer the Gini coefficient is to zero the greater the level of equality.
   4. Rodrik, "King Kong Meets Godzilla," 5, table 2.
   5. One hectare = 10,000 square meters.
   6. M. Riad El-Ghonemy, Affluence and Poverty in the Middle East (London:
Routledge, 1998), 160.
   7. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant, 28, 52, 203.
   8. Dani Rodrik, "Getting Interventions Right: How South Korea and Taiwan
Grew Rich," Economic Policy 10, no. 2 (April 1995): 55-107.
   9. Dwight H. Perkins, "There Are at Least Three Models of East Asian Develop-
ment," World Development 22, no. 4 (1994): 655-61.
   10. World Bank, World Development Report (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1981-82, 1993).
   11. Galal Amin, Egypt's Economic Predicament: A Study in the Interaction of
External Pressure, Political Folly, and Social Tension in Egypt, 1960-1990 (Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1995), 28.
   12. World Bank, East Asian Miracle, 40.
   13. World Bank, Country Data (www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata).
   14. Nader Fergany, "Egypt 2012 Education and Employment," Economic Re-
search Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran, and Turkey, 1995, Economic Research
Forum (www.erf.org.eg).
   15. Walt Whitman Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1960), 17-36.
   16. World Bank, World Development Report, 1979.
   17. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant, 29-32.
   18. Ibid., 49.
   19. Ibid.
   20. Ibid., 72.
   21. Ibid., 52.
   22. Ibid., 39.
   23. Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Some Lessons from the East Asian Miracle," World Bank
Research Observer 11, no. 2 (August 1992): 151-77.
   24. Robert Wade, Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of the
State in East Asian Industrialization (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990),
180; World Bank, East Asian Miracle, 43-47.
   25. World Bank, East Asian Miracle, 31, fig. 1.3.
   26. "The Evolving Role of the World Bank: The East Asian Miracle," World Bank
report (n.d.), 6.





280 | Paul Rivlin


   27. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant, 146-47.
   28. Ibid., 147.
   29. World Bank, East Asian Miracle, 157.
   30. Peter Evans, "The State as Problem and Solution," in Stephen Haggard and
Robert R. Kaufman, eds., The Politics of Economic Adjustment (Princeton: Prince-
ton University Press, 1992), 161-62; Wade, Governing the Market, 80.
   31. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant, 127.
   32. Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, vol.
2 (New York: Random House, 1968), 895-96.
   33. Joel S. Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States (Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 1988), 4.
   34. Wade, Governing the Market, 328.
   35. Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States, 262, 269-71.
   36. Wade, Governing the Market, 338-39; World Bank, East Asian Miracle,
chap. 4.
   37. Rodrik, "King Kong Meets Godzilla," 32-33.
   38. World Bank, East Asian Miracle, 2, fig. 2.
   39. In late 1997 and early 1998, there was a huge devaluation of the Korean won
against the U.S. dollar, while prices rose by an annual rate of about 8 percent. If the
devaluation had been at the same rate as inflation, then GDP would have equaled
$437 billion and GDP per capita of $9,427.
   40. John Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat: The Political Economy of
Two Regimes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 62.
   41. Ibid., 70.
   42. Patrick O'Brien, The Revolution in Egypt's Economic System (London: Ox-
ford University Press, 1966), 333.
   43. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 72.
   44. Donald Mead, Growth and Structural Change in the Egyptian Economy
(Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1967), 242.
   45. Alan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East
(Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 195.
   46. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 89.
   47. Richards and Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East, 196.
   48. Mead, Growth and Structural Change, 242-43.
   49. Mourad Wahba, The Role of the State in the Egyptian Economy, 1945-1981
(Reading: Ithaca Press, 1994), 92.
   50. Paul Rivlin, The Dynamics of Economic Policy Making in Egypt (New York:
Praeger, 1985), 40.
   51. Abd al-Mun'im Qaysuni, interviewed by the author in 1980.
   52. Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 84.
   53. Ibid., 97.
   54. Ibid., 75, 122; Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States, 230-32.
   55. See chapter 12 in this volume.
   56. Alice H. Amsden, "Why Isn't the Whole World Experimenting with the East
Asian Model to Develop? A Review of the East Asian Miracle," World Develop-





                                          Nasser's Egypt and Park's Korea | 281

ment 22, no. 4 (1994): 627-33; Joseph Stiglitz, "Comment on 'Towards a Counter-
Counterrevolution in Development Theory,' by Krugman," in Proceedings of the
World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics, 1992 (Washington
D.C.: World Bank, 1993), 39-49.
   57. These issues are discussed more fully in Paul Rivlin, Economic Policy and
Performance in the Arab World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001).













12


Nasser's Family Planning Policy in Perspective

    Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler





Introduction

During the twentieth century, Egypt's population increased almost seven-
fold, reaching 67.9 million by mid-2000.1 This rapid population growth was
an outcome of the high rates of natural increase of the Egyptian population,
which rose from less than 2 percent in 1907 to a peak of 3 percent in the mid-
1980s. The rise was the result of high fertility levels and declining death
rates. However, in the past fifteen years, crude birth rates have declined from
39.8 per 1,000 in 1985 to 27.5 in 1998. Similarly, total fertility rates have
decreased substantially from 5.2 in 1980 to 3.3 in 1998. The decline in crude
death rates during this period, in contrast to the 1960s and 1970s, was
slower: from 9.2 per 1,000 in 1986 to 6.5 in 1998. As a result of these
changes, the rates of natural increase fell from over 3 percent in 1985 to 2.1
percent in 1998 (see table 12.1).
   Egypt's long-standing demographic problem has three interrelated di-
mensions: high rates of natural increase, unbalanced spatial distribution of
the population, and low levels of income. The socioeconomic effects of
Egypt's rapid population growth and the unbalanced spatial distribution of
its population have already been extensively studied. Hence this chapter will
focus on the dimension of high rates of natural increase. Specifically, the
study aims to reevaluate 'Abd al-Nasser's family planning policy. This evalu-
ation has three aspects. The first is a comparison of Nasser's family planning
policy with that of his successors, Anwar al-Sadat and Husni Mubarak. The
second is an examination of the overall contribution of family planning
policy to the process of fertility decline. The third is a comparison of Egypt's
family planning policy with that of Tunisia, which, like Egypt, began imple-
menting a national family planning program in the mid-1960s.






Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 283


Table 12.1. Egypt's Rates of Natural Increase, 1907-1998


Crude birth rate
  (per 1,000)


Crude death rate
   (per 1,000)


Natural increase
  (per 1,000)


Year


1907 (c)
1917 (c)
1927 (c)
1937
1940
1942
1943
1944
1947
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960 (c)
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966 (c)
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976 (c)
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986 (c)


45.9
40.1
44.0
43.4
41.3
37.6
38.7
39.8
43.8
45.2
42.6
42.6
40.3
40.7
38.0
41.1
42.8
42.9
44.1
41.5
43.0
42.3
41.7
40.9
39.2
38.2
37.0
35.1
35.5
34.4
35.8
35.8
36.1
36.6
37.5
37.4
40.2
37.5
37.0
36.2
36.8
38.6
39.8
38.6


28.4
29.4
25.2
27.1
26.3
28.3
27.7
26.0
21.4
17.8
19.5
17.8
17.5
15.3
17.7
16.5
16.3
16.9
15.8
17.9
15.5
15.7
14.1
15.8
14.2
16.1
14.5
15.1
13.2
14.5
13.0
12.7
12.1
11.8
11.8
10.5
10.9
10.0
10.0
10.0
9.7
9.5
9.4
9.2


17.5
10.7
18.8
16.3
15.0
9.3
11.0
13.8
22.4
27.4
23.1
24.8
22.8
25.4
20.3
24.6
26.5
26.0
28.3
23.6
27.5
26.6
27.6
25.1
25.0
22.1
22.5
20.0
21.9
19.9
22.8
23.1
24.0
24.8
25.7
26.9
29.3
27.5
27.0
26.2
27.1
29.1
30.4
29.4


(continued)






284 I Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


Table 12.1-continued


Crude birth rate
  (per 1,000)


Crude death rate
    (per 1,000)


Natural increase
   (per 1,000)


Year


1987                      37.4                 9.1               28.3
1988                      36.6                 8.1               28.5
1989                      32.1                 7.7               24.4
1990                      30.9                 7.1               23.8
1991                      29.2                 6.9               22.3
1992                      26.2                 6.6                19.6
1993                      27.4                 6.4               21.0
1994                      27.0                 6.4               20.6
1995                      27.9                 6.7               21.2
1996 (c)                  28.3                 6.5               21.8
1997                      27.5                 6.5               21.0
1998                      27.5                 6.5               21.0

(c) = census year
Sources: Arab Republic of Egypt, Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, Sta-
tistical Yearbook, various issues (Cairo); A. M. Abdelghany, "Evaluating the Application of
the Stable Population Model of the Population of Egypt," Population Bulletin of ECWA, no.
21 (December 1981): 109, table 3; Robert Mabro, The Egyptian Economy, 1952-1972 (Ox-
ford: Clarendon Press, 1974), 29, table 2.2; James Coyle and John Parker, Urbanization and
Agricultural Policy in Egypt (Washington, D.C.: Agriculture Department, 1981), 8, table 4.


-i- -CBRS
--CDRI


so


45


40


35


30


25


20


15


10


5


0


                         1907   1927   1947    1960   1970    1986   1998
                         (c)     (c)            (c)            (c)
                                               Year
Fig. 12.1. Egypt's crude birth and death rates, 1907-1998.





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 285


Nasser's Demographic Policy

Nasser's remarks about Egypt's demographic policy in speeches and inter-
views during his early years in power indicated his awareness that the
country's rapid population growth constituted a major hindrance to rapid
economic development.2 For example, in a speech delivered to the Liberal-
ization Organization in November 1953 he stated: "The total number of
Egyptians is 22 million. Our national income is 660 million Egyptian Pounds.
This means that the annual per capita income is about 30 Egyptian Pounds.
Three hundred fifty thousand people are added annually. In fifty years the
population of Egypt will reach 44 million.... If we are earnest about raising
our standard of living we should not be forgetful of this fact."3
   In early 1953, the new regime established a parliamentary Committee for
Population Affairs, a move that reflected official recognition of the existence
of a demographic problem in Egypt. However, five years passed before any
concrete step was taken. In 1958, twenty experimental family planning clin-
ics were established.4 A voluntary family planning association, the Egyp-
tian Association for Population Studies, had been established at an earlier
stage.5
   Toward the end of the 1950s, Nasser appeared to have adopted the view
that rapid economic growth could raise Egypt's low standard of living with-
out the need for direct governmental involvement in family planning. This
approach was evident in an interview he gave to the Christian Science Moni-
tor in October 1959:

   I am not a believer in calling on people to exercise birth control by
   decrees or persuasion. . . . Instead of teaching people how to exercise
   birth control, we would do better to teach them how to increase their
   land production.... In my opinion, instead of concentrating on birth
   control, we would do better to concentrate on how to make use of our
   own resources. We live in and make use of only 4 percent of the area of
   our country. The rest is all neglected and desert. If we direct our efforts
   to expanding the area in which we live instead of concentrating on
   how to reduce the population, we will soon find the solution.6

   Apparently, a reliance on rapid economic development, combined with
a decision not to further antagonize the Muslim Brothers, led to Nasser's
"economic-oriented approach" as the proper way to confront demographic
pressures.7 Reflecting this attitude, government efforts were concentrated in
the economic arena during the late 1950s and the first half of the 1960s.
Specifically, the focus was on the construction of the Aswan High Dam, land
reclamation programs, and massive industrialization projects. Notably, other
leaders of developing countries during the 1950s, such as Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru of India and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, also shared the





286 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


belief that rapid economic development would make direct government in-
volvement in family planning unnecessary.8
   By 1965, however, it became apparent that the strenuous efforts to bring
about a major change in Egypt's path of economic growth could not be
sustained and that a different approach was needed to cope with the coun-
try's growing economic difficulties. Even earlier, at the Congress of Popular
Forces on May 21, 1962, in the midst of the implementation of the Five-Year
Development Plan (1960-65), Nasser stated that "the rapid population
growth is the most dangerous obstacle facing Egyptians in their attempts to
increase the production level in their homeland."9
   A major change in Nasser's demographic policy took place in February
1966 with the formation by presidential decree of the Higher Council for
Family Planning (al-majlis al-a'la li-tanzim al-usra), headed by Prime Minis-
ter Zakariyya Muhi al-Din. The primary aims of the council were to set up
a comprehensive family planning program, conduct and encourage demo-
graphic research, and coordinate the governmental departments dealing
with the various aspects of family planning and related issues. This new
program was based on the assumption that decreased fertility could be at-
tained by supplying low-priced contraceptives, since young couples were
interested in having smaller families but simply did not have the means to do
so. The basic approach of the program was "technical."10 The overall goal of
the program was to reduce the crude birth rate from around 42 per 1,000 to
30 per 1,000 by 1978.11
   That same year, the Egyptian General Family Planning Association, sup-
ported by the Ministry of Social Affairs, was established to coordinate all
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) dealing with family planning and
promote collaboration with the International Planned Parenthood Federa-
tion.12 The premise was that the most convenient way to expand family
planning services rapidly was by utilizing the mother-and-child clinics and
the Ministry of Social Affairs units, both of which were widespread through-
out most regions in the country, including the remote countryside. This
would enable the authorities to save both time and money, as well as benefit
from the established relationship of confidence between the community and
the health staff. These clinics, under the jurisdiction of the Executive Board
of Family Planning, generally consisted of a physician and a nurse who pro-
vided information and supplied contraceptives.13 In August 1966, a few
months after the adoption of the national family planning program, the
Egyptian authorities announced that family planning services were available
at 2,850 mother-and-child clinics throughout the country.14
   Nasser was aware that most 'ulama, and large segments of the lower
stratum were opposed to family planning from an Islamic point of view. The





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 287


authorities therefore attempted to weaken resistance to the antinatalist
policy through fatwas and newspaper articles proving that the use of con-
traceptives was not contradictory to the Shari'a. The government also in-
structed the imams employed by the Ministry of Awqaf to make the public,
and particularly the rural population, aware of these Islamic legal opinions.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, crude birth rates in Egypt declined
considerably (see table 12.1). By 1970, Egypt's crude birth rate of 35 per
1,000 was the lowest among Arab countries, as compared with 48 per 1,000
in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia and 41 per 1,000 in Tunisia (see table
12.2). In Nasser's last years (1968-70), Egypt's rates of natural increase
were the lowest since the Free Officers came to power and lower than in any
other Arab country.15
   The correlation between the decline in Egypt's fertility rate and the period
of heightened family planning activity during the late 1960s and early 1970s
cannot be taken for granted. By comparison, in the early 1940s, and again in
the mid-1950s, crude birth rates in Egypt declined substantially, apparently
due to economic hardships. Hence scholars are divided over the causes of the
sharp reduction in fertility levels in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While
some attribute the decline to the new demographic policy adopted by the
Egyptian government,16 most attribute it to the severe political and eco-
nomic crisis that paralyzed Egypt following the June 1967 War. Notably,
over a million Egyptians were in military service at that time. Thus fertility
reduction was probably "an achievement by default, and not the result of a
policy."17 An official report published in the late Sadat period by the Egyp-
tian Supreme Council for Population and Family Planning attributed the
fertility decline during the late 1960s and early 1970s to the "intensive so-
cioeconomic change which started in the early 1950s continuing till the mid-
1960s, the launching of a national program for family planning and the war
situation involving massive mobilization from 1967 to 1973."18
   Whatever the reasons for the fertility decline in the late 1960s and early
1970s, the implementation of the first family planning program then faced
many difficulties: a shortage of contraceptive supplies, inadequate services
in the family planning clinics, overconcentration on supply factors at the
expense of focusing on information and awareness, and the absence of a
well-defined target for the program.19 Moreover, even after the government
decided to adopt a formal family planning policy, it failed to direct sufficient
resources or adequate public attention to the implementation of an efficient
national family planning program. The end result was a poor public re-
sponse. With the improvement in the country's economic and political situ-
ation following the October 1973 War, fertility levels began to rise again (see
table 12.1).





288 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


Table 12.2. Demographic Variables for Egypt and Several Middle Eastern, Asian,
and Latin American Countries, 1960-1998

                                     1960                       1970

Country                      CBRa    CDRb     TFRC      CBR     CDR     TFR

Egypt                        43       17      6.1        35       15      5.2

Middle Eastern Countries
Jordan                       48       20      6.8        48       16      7.1
Syria                        48       18      7.3        48       16      7.6
Tunisia                      49       21      7.1        41       15      6.5
Morocco                      52       23      7.2        47       17      7.1
Saudi Arabia                 49       23      7.2        48       18      7.3

Asian and Latin American Countries
Turkey                       45       18      6.3        37       12      5.6
South Korea                  43       14      5.6        30       10      4.2
Brazil                       43       13      6.2        35       10      5.0
Mexico                       46       12      6.8        45       10      6.6
Pakistan                     49       24      7.5        48       19      7.1

a. Crude birth rate per 1,000 people.
b. Crude death rate per 1,000 people.
c. Total fertility rate.
Sources: Arab Republic of Egypt, Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics,
Statistical Yearbook, 1984-99, various issues (Cairo); Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, De-
partment of Statistics, Statistical Yearbook, 1970-99, various issues (Amman); Syrian Arab
Republic, Office of the Prime Minister, Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract,
1960-98, various issues (Damascus); World Bank, World Tables, 1984-95, various issues


Egypt's Family Planning Policy under Sadat and Mubarak

While Sadat's ascent to power in late 1970 did not bring about an immediate
change in Egypt's socioeconomic policies, including in the demographic
area, a slow and unstated shift away from the supply-oriented approach to
fertility reduction occurred during the early 1970s.20 Instead, new thinking
regarding family planning programs held that they should be included in
broader socioeconomic development plans, rather than concentrating on
the "unmet need" of contraceptives alone. In 1973, the Supreme Council for
Population and Family Planning (al-majlis al-a'la lil-sukan wa-tanzim al-
usra) announced a new national family planning program, namely, the "So-
cioeconomic Approach to Fertility Reduction."21 According to the new plan,
heightened demand for contraceptives would be achieved mainly through
indirect measures, namely, by developing health care services that would





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 289


          1980                       1990                    1998

  CBR     CDR      TFR        CBR     CDR    TFR       CBR    CDR    TFR

  38       10      5.2         31      7     4.3        28       7    3.3


  47       11      7.3         39      6     5.8        35       5    4.8
  46        8      7.3         44      6     6.5        30       5    4.0
  35       10      5.3         29      7     3.7        20       7    2.5
  44       12      6.9         34      9     4.5        26       7    3.0
  46       14      7.3         42      7     7.1        34       4    5.4


  32       10      4.4         28      8     3.5        22       6    2.5
  24        7      3.0         16      6     1.7        15       6    1.7
  30        9      4.1         27      8     3.3        20       7    2.3
  37        7      5.1         28      6     3.3        24       5    2.7
  44       24      6.1         44     12     6.2        36       8    5.0

(Baltimore); World Bank, World Development Report, 1978-1999/2000, various issues
(New York); United Nations, Demographic Yearbook, 1970-99, various issues (New York);
United Nations, Population and Vital Statistics Report, Statistical Papers, series A, vol. 51,
no. 2 (New York, 1999); ECWA/ESCWA, Demographic and Related Socio-Economic Data
Sheets for Countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, 1978-99,
various issues (Beirut, Baghdad, and Amman); ECWA/ESCWA, Statistical Abstract of the
ECWA/ESCWA Region, 1970-2000, various issues (New York, Baghdad, and Amman);
UNICEF, The State of the World's Children, 1984-2000, various issues (New York: Oxford
University Press).


reduce the high infant and child mortality rates;22 raising the educational
level of the entire population, particularly that of women; increasing em-
ployment opportunities for women to increase their labor force participa-
tion; and enhancing agricultural mechanization in order to diminish the
need for child labor. The new plan also called for improving family planning
services throughout the country, particularly in rural areas, where fertility
rates were much higher than in the urban centers.23
   This change in the Egyptian family planning approach during the 1970s
was in line with the concept adopted in the 1974 World Population Con-
ference held in Bucharest: "Development is the best contraceptive."24 In
other words, economic development would naturally bring about a reduc-
tion in fertility.25 Broadly, the shift from a direct to an indirect family plan-
ning approach under Sadat was the outcome of both political and economic
considerations. Politically, Sadat preferred an indirect approach mainly be-





290 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


cause of his policy of rapprochement toward the Muslim Brothers.26 Sadat
released Brothers' leaders from jail.27 He also made a point of paying greater
tribute to Islamic traditions in his public appearances.28 Economically, the
notion of solving the problem of high fertility rates through the free play of
socioeconomic factors appeared feasible, given the high growth rates achieved
by the Egyptian economy during the second half of the 1970s and the early
1980s.29
   Furthermore, the massive migration of Egyptian workers to the major
Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries following the October 1973 oil
boom led to a reduction in employment pressure in Egypt to some extent, as
the remittances transferred by these workers created a boost in the number
of new work opportunities in Egypt.30 Another new element in Sadat's de-
mographic policy was the establishment by the Egyptian authorities of new
cities in the desert (al-mudun al-jadida fil-sahra).3" The thinking that under-
lay this program was that a better geographic distribution of the urban
population would reduce many of the negative consequences of rapid urban-
ization.
   Ultimately, under Sadat, economic growth had again become the focus of
socioeconomic policy. An explicit indication of this approach was given in
1975 by Hilmi 'Abd al-Rahman, advisor to the prime minister: "The devel-
opment of the population for the next 25 years has already been determined.
... Our population will double in the next 25 years with only a 20 percent
possibility of variation.... Therefore, for the next 20 or 25 years the prob-
lem in Egypt is mainly to meet the requirements of an increase in popula-
tion."32 Rapid population growth by itself was relegated to the fringe of the
regime's priorities.33 Indeed, the issue of family planning was not even men-
tioned in the October Working Paper of 1974.34
   As in the case of Sadat, Mubarak's ascent to power, in October 1981, did
not bring about an immediate change in the government's family planning
policy.35 Presumably, Mubarak was not compelled to tackle the problem of
high fertility rates, in view of the ongoing economic growth that had begun
in the second half of the 1970s.36 However, the halt in economic growth in
1984-85, combined with a rate of natural increase that had reached a new
peak-estimated at over 3 percent in 1985-led Mubarak to change his
attitude radically regarding the demographic situation. The indirect ap-
proach to overcoming Egypt's demographic plight, he realized, was inad-
equate.
   A National Population Council, headed by Mubarak himself, was estab-
lished in January 1985,37 and a new family planning policy was announced
a year later. Although it included many elements from the previous plans, the
new policy reflected change in two critical areas: The demographic develop-





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 291


ment of the country was given top priority, and in recognition of the inad-
equacy of previous family planning perceptions, emphasis was placed on
both the supply and the demand measures simultaneously.38
   In the area of demand, the new policy aimed at changing attitudes toward
reproductive behavior. Direct appeals were made to the public by Mubarak
himself on various occasions, calling for the practice of birth control and
emphasizing the negative consequences of rapid population growth for both
the nation and the family. Fatwas, articles, and interviews were published by
leading religious authorities, both Muslim and Coptic, emphasizing that no
religious prohibitions existed regarding the use of contraceptives. Articles
written by well-known journalists stressed the negative results of rapid
population growth in the social and economic arenas. Caricatures illustrat-
ing the consequences of the population explosion appeared frequently in the
Egyptian press.39
   In the area of supply, the Ministerial Committee for Social Services de-
cided in early 1987 to establish additional family planning units so that there
would be one unit per 2,000 families in order to improve the quality of, and
access to, medical and family planning services, particularly in rural areas.40
By 1991, 4,115 family planning units operated throughout the country, 63.1
percent of them in rural areas.41 By 1996, the number of units had risen to
4,733, with 62.1 percent in rural areas.42 Following the United Nations In-
ternational Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which con-
vened in Cairo in September 1994, another element was added to the Egyp-
tian national family planning program: governmental support for NGOs
active in the area of family planning.43 Overall, between 1980 and 2000, the
contraceptive use levels have more than doubled, from 24 percent to 56
percent.44

The Contribution of the Family Planning Programs to Reduced Fertility

One of the most important questions regarding reduced fertility in develop-
ing countries worldwide, including those of the Middle East, is whether this
reduction should be attributed to the various family planning programs
implemented since the mid-1960s, or whether it is the outcome of prolonged
processes of socioeconomic and cultural change in these societies. Such
change has included the sharp decline in infant and child mortality rates;
accelerated urbanization process; changes in occupational structure, par-
ticularly the increase in the rate of participation of women in the labor force;
and, most important, the improvement in women's educational level. Simply
put, the issue centers on whether developing countries should invest their
limited resources in expensive national family planning programs or concen-





292 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


trate their efforts on improving the socioeconomic conditions of the popula-
tion, particularly of women, in the expectation that contraceptive preva-
lence rates will increase without direct governmental intervention.
   The latter, indirect approach views fertility as determined mainly by the
desire for children; the value attached to children and family; the economic
costs and benefits of children; the status of women; and other societal as-
pects of the family. Access to family planning services and the cost of contra-
ception are not considered major factors in determining fertility levels.45 The
direct approach holds that well-designed family planning programs can ef-
fectively reduce unwanted childbearing, which, in turn, can contribute sig-
nificantly to reducing fertility in developing countries.46 In this view, the
issues of availability and costs of contraceptives are considered crucial to
facilitating fertility decline.47
   Clearly, these two approaches-the direct and the indirect-are not mutu-
ally exclusive. The "economic growth approach" does not negate the "active
family planning" attitude. Quite simply, politicians in developing countries,
where societal norms rejected state intervention in the issue of reproduction,
found it convenient to promote the indirect ("economic growth") approach
as an adequate solution to demographic pressures. Indeed, a 1994 World
Bank demographic study of the various attitudes concluded, "The answer is
not 'either/or' but rather 'both' and, even better, a balance of both that is
responsive to the specific needs and conditions of different countries at
different levels of the demographic transition and socioeconomic develop-
ment. "48
   An evaluation of the impact of Egypt's family planning policies, and par-
ticularly the results of Mubarak's efforts to bring down rates of natural
increase, have become a subject of disagreement among demographic and
social historians in recent years. Analyzing Mubarak's family planning
policy (the "demand-oriented direct approach"), and based on data on
Egypt's crude birth rate and total fertility rate, Gad Gilbar reached the con-
clusion in 1993 that the sharp drop in fertility rates in the late 1980s should
indeed be regarded as a significant achievement of this policy. Moreover,
laudably, it was attained by persuasion and not by coercion.49
   Saad Eddin Ibrahim regarded Mubarak's family planning policy from
the late 1980s onward as a success, writing in 1994 that "the results [of
Egypt's population policy] of the last five years are quite impressive. "50
Mona Khalifa expressed a similar view in 1994, arguing that the decline in
fertility since the mid-1980s "would not have been possible in the absence
of active family planning."51 In a similar vein as Gilbar, Steven Wisensale
and Amany Khodair concluded, in a 1998 study, that Egypt's successful
experience in family planning "represents one model from which other





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 293


nations can learn."52 Based on anthropological research in the area of fam-
ily planning in Egypt, Kamran Ali claimed in 2002 that "family planning
programs do not just reduce the number of children and regulate reproduc-
tion. Rather, they also introduce or foster notions of individual choice and
responsibility."53
   Not all scholars, however, accept this positive evaluation of Mubarak's
policy and its implementation. Philippe Fargues, in contrast, wrote in 1996:
"No causal relationship has ever been established between the direct action
of the Egyptian state to reduce the birth rate and its actual reduction."54
Fargues claimed that the downward trend in the birth rate beginning in 1985
was a response to two social and economic developments: increased educa-
tion for women, and a deteriorating standard of living for a large proportion
of the population. Explaining the impact of the economic factor, he stressed
the cuts in government subsidies to health services and schools, leading to
the increased cost of supporting children.55
   The existence of a high correlation between the educational level of
women and fertility rates is well known and goes back to demographic
studies of the 1960s. The correlation has been demonstrated in almost all
demographic and health surveys conducted in developing countries, includ-
ing Egypt. The problem with Fargues's argument regarding the impact of
women's educational level on fertility is that he fails to show the extent, or
rate, of influence of this factor. Even according to Fargues's presentation, the
educational level of women ("mean number of years at school") increased in
certain years-in fact, during most of the 1970s-while the birth rate did
not decrease. Rather, it increased sharply. With regard to the impact of the
economic factor, an increase in the cost of raising children indeed affects a
downward trend in fertility rates. Again, however, Fargues does not show to
what extent this factor influenced Egyptian birth rates or fertility rates in the
late 1980s and early 1990s. In summary, while social and economic develop-
ments in Egypt since Nasser's time affected fertility rates, these develop-
ments by themselves do not explain the dramatic change in crude birth rates
in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The conclusion to be drawn is that
Mubarak's family planning policy (1985 onward) played a central role in the
process of fertility decline in Egypt.
   Viewed more broadly, data from other Arab countries confirm the exist-
ence of a high correlation between declining fertility and governmental fam-
ily planning programs. Moreover, a high correlation is discernible between
the extent of family planning efforts and the rate of fertility decline: the more
intensive the governmental efforts and the more organized and broad-based
the family planning program, the greater the rate of fertility decline. This
was also the conclusion of several scholars. Alan Richards and John Water-





294 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


bury wrote that "family planning programs have an independent impact on
fertility."56 Valentine M. Moghadam stated that "state policy, including
population or family planning policies, affect women's productive and re-
productive choices."57 Abdel R. Omran and Farzaneh Roudi claimed that
the fertility decline in Egypt, Turkey, and Iran in recent decades came as a
result not only of increases in the educational level of women but also of the
availability of family planning services.58
   If, as Fargues argues, the major reason for declining fertility in Egypt was
changing socioeconomic conditions, then arguably the process of fertility
reduction should have begun earlier in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, which had a
better record in both women's educational level and infant and child mortal-
ity rates than Egypt, Morocco, or even Tunisia during the 1970s and the
early 1980s.59 Conversely, throughout the second half of the twentieth cen-
tury, female enrollment ratio in the tertiary educational level (higher educa-
tion) in Egypt was higher than in any other Arab country except Kuwait.60
Hence, according to Fargues's perception, the fertility rates in Egypt should
have been considerably lower than in Tunisia and Morocco. However, this
was not the case (see table 12.2). Another comparison may be made in this
context with the capital-rich Arabian Gulf oil states, which achieved the
highest per capita income and the lowest infant and child mortality rates all
over the Middle East, along with a significant improvement in women's
educational levels, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. Fertility rates
there, however, remained high. This can only be explained by the pronatalist
policies implemented by the governments of these countries, which in the
case of Saudi Arabia included the prohibition of distributing and use of
contraceptives.61

Egypt and Tunisia: Different Approaches, Different Results

The evaluation of Egyptian family planning policies may benefit from a
comparison with other Arab countries. Space limitations compel us to con-
centrate on one country-Tunisia-for three reasons: First, Tunisia was the
only Arab country, besides Egypt, to adopt an official family planning policy
as early as the mid-1960s. Second, the two countries shared several signifi-
cant socioeconomic characteristics in the early 1960s, for example, percent-
age of urban population within total population, female illiteracy rate, and
standard of living (see table 12.3). Third, Tunisia's fertility rate was much
higher than that of Egypt in the early 1960s, yet by the end of the twentieth
century, Tunisia's total fertility rate was much lower than that of Egypt, a
difference that makes the comparison striking.
   During the late 1950s and early 1960s, in line with the prevailing socio-
economic approach of international institutions, the Tunisian authorities, as





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 295


Table 12.3. Selected Socioeconomic Data for Egypt and Tunisia, 1960 and 1998

                                                1960             1998

Socioeconomic Characteristics             Egypt    Tunisia  Egypt    Tunisia

GNP per capita (US$ market prices)         179a      215a   1,290    2,050
Percentage of manufacturing/GDP              20        9a      26       18
Urban population (% of total population)     38       36       45       64
Life expectancy (years)                      46       51       67       70
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 128    159       51       28
Population per physician                  2,550   10,030     495d    1,429e
Female illiteracy rate, age fifteen and over (%)  80b 83b  62c       47c
Female students per 100,000 people         246a       45a   1,472c   1,110c
Female labor force (% of workforce)           7        6       23       24

a. Relates to 1965
b. Relates to 1970
c. Relates to 1995
d. Relates to 1996
e. Relates to 1997
Sources: World Bank, World Tables, 3d ed., vols. 1 and 2 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press, 1984); World Bank, World Development Report-1999/2000 (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2000); UNICEF, The State of the World's Children, various issues (New
York: Oxford University Press); United Nations, Statistical Yearbook-1967 (New York,
1968); United Nations, Demographic Yearbook-1998 (New York, 2000); United Nations,
The World's Women, 1995: Trend and Statistics (New York, 1995); UNESCO, Statistical
Yearbook, various issues (Paris); World Health Organization, WHO Estimate of Health
Personnel (http://www-nt.who.int).

the Egyptians, became convinced that rapid economic development would
bring about a spontaneous fertility reduction. When the opposite occurred,
and its crude birth rate peaked at 46.2 in 1964, the Tunisian authorities
began advocating a national family planning policy. Tunisia thus became the
first Arab country to officially adopt a family planning policy on a pilot basis
in 1964. Two years later, the government began to implement this policy
nationwide on a permanent basis.62
   The direct measures of the Tunisian program included the provision of
family planning information and services within the existing network of the
mother-and-child health care clinics. In 1973, a National Office of Family
Planning and Population was established as a semiautonomous agency of
the Ministry of Health. Since then, there has been a continuous expansion of
the program. According to the Tunisian Maternal and Child Health Survey,
the percentage of women ever married (ages 15-59) between November
1994 and January 1995 who ever used contraception was 77.3 percent,63
increasing from 13.5 percent in 1976.64 Data for 1994 showed that three out





296 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


of five married women used contraceptives. This represented the highest
contraceptive prevalence rate in Arab countries.65
   From its inception, the Tunisian family planning effort was accompanied
by promoting the status of women.66 The first step in this direction was the
abolishment of polygamy in 1956 within the framework of the new Code of
Personal Status (al-majalla), which also abrogated the family law of the
Shari'a. This was followed, in 1964, by revising the legal age for marriage
from fifteen to seventeen for females and from eighteen to twenty for males.67
Of great importance was the government's decision concerning the availabil-
ity of abortion. In September 1973, a previous law that permitted abortion
at government health facilities for mothers with five children was liberalized
to apply to mothers with two children.68 This was followed, in 1988, by
reduced financial allowances to families, as an incentive for small families.
Family allowances were limited to the first three children instead of the first
four children as stipulated in the regulations dating back to 1960. Maternity
leave of two months at full pay followed by four months at half pay was also
limited to the first three offspring only.69
   Based on current forecasts, Tunisia is expected to reach the replacement-
level fertility of 2.1 children per woman in the early 2000s,70 while in Egypt
this rate will probably remain around 3.0. Viewed retrospectively, the differ-
ence in the fertility decline between the two countries is striking, especially
since Tunisia's total fertility rate in 1960 was much higher than that of
Egypt: 7.1 and 6.1, respectively. A series of factors may explain the differ-
ence between Egypt's and Tunisia's demographic positions at the end of the
twentieth century:

   1. The low priority given by the Egyptian government to family plan-
     ning before 1985, as against the high priority given to fertility re-
     duction in Tunisia. From the mid-1960s onward, the program was
     given considerable attention in Tunisia's development plans.71
   2. The "soft approach" of Egypt's family planning programs until the
     mid-1980s. This approach was part of a broader phenomenon that
     Gunner Myrdal called "the soft state."72 Instead of taking advan-
     tage of his enormous popularity and the support of the masses,
     particularly during the period between the Suez War and the June
     1967 War, to implement socioeconomic changes crucial to Egypt's
     future development, Nasser chose the "soft" approach, namely,
     gaining wide public support for his socioeconomic moves without
     imposing any economic demands. The high rates of economic growth
     achieved by Egypt during the early 1960s were the outcome of capi-
     tal import rather than domestic savings,73 and once capital imports
     declined, economic growth rates decreased accordingly. By 1965,





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 297


   when Egypt's debt burden had grown so heavy that international
   banks were no longer prepared to provide new loans, the Second
   Five-Year Plan, for the period of 1965-70, never took off.74 Egypt
   continued to be a "soft state" under Sadat as well, with rapid eco-
   nomic growth in the second half of the 1970s and the early 1980s
   resulting primarily from rental sources, mainly foreign aid, rev-
   enues from the Suez Canal, oil exports, and workers' remittances,
   rather than from increased output in the main production sectors.
   A major characteristic of the "soft approach" in the concept of
   family planning was the avoidance by the authorities of taking the
   appropriate steps against those who violated laws that discouraged
   high fertility. Although violations of state regulations concerning
   the minimum age at marriage for girls and the prohibition against
   child labor declined, they were present still in the 1990s, mainly in
   rural areas. One result of early marriage is high fertility levels at ear-
   lier ages. According to the 1995-Egypt Demographic and Health
   Survey, the age-specific fertility rate for the 15-19 age group (per
   1,000 women) in rural districts was 80,75 declining to 65, according
   to the 2000-Egypt Demographic and Health Survey. In the rural
   areas of Upper Egypt, the age-specific fertility rate for the 15-19 age
   group (per 1,000 women) remained high at 77 in 2000.76 In the area
   of child labor, according to World Bank figures, 18.3 percent of all
   Egyptian children in the 10-14 age group were working in 1980,
   and an estimated 10.8 percent in this age group still worked in
   1996.77
3. Islamic opposition. The unwillingness to confront the Muslim
   Brothers' opposition to family planning led both Nasser and Sadat
   to tackle the demographic problem mainly through indirect mea-
   sures. Notably, the inclination of these two leaders to avoid con-
   frontation with the Muslim Brothers on family planning issues was
   not unique to Egypt; it was prevalent in other Arab countries as
   well.78 In Tunisia, however, the Islamic opposition never constituted
   a real threat to the stability of the regime. Hence the Tunisian au-
   thorities, under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba, were able to
   adopt a comprehensive family planning program, under the as-
   sumption that attacks by Islamic militants would not be effective. In
   this they were correct. Muslim Brothers' opposition to the Tunisian
   antinatal policy did not gain wide public support.79 This was clearly
   illustrated from the 1983 fertility survey conducted in Tunisia by
   Roderic Beaujot and Mongi Bchir in which "only a few of our sur-
   vey respondents, usually men, expressed religious opposition in re-
   sponse to questions on the family planning program or on contra-





298 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


     ceptive experience." They noted that "there is no organized opposi-
     tion among the public [to the governmental family planning pro-
     gram]."80
   4. The position of women in society. Women's personal status, eco-
     nomic independence, educational level, and access to abortion are
     significant factors in determining fertility levels. Significantly, the
     improvement in the position of women in Tunisia since the 1960s in
     terms of all four of the above-mentioned variables has been mark-
     edly greater than in Egypt, namely, in higher enrollment rates in
     education, higher participation rates in the labor force,81 greater ac-
     cessibility to legal abortion, and other measures of personal status.
   5. Positive and negative financial incentives. These are important fac-
     tors in a couple's decision concerning desired number of children.
     The Egyptian government made only limited use of these tools. By
     contrast, the Tunisian authorities were more daring in this respect.
     Their antinatal policy included several components that were either
     totally absent in Egypt's demographic policy (e.g., differential trans-
     fer payments in line with number of children) or only loosely imple-
     mented (e.g., the prohibition of child labor).

Conclusions: Egypt's Demographic Challenge

Almost all the Arab countries have experienced fertility decline during the
past two decades, many of them without adopting family planning policies.
However, fertility fell more rapidly in those countries that implemented a
national family planning program. Indeed, the more comprehensive the pro-
gram, the faster fertility declined. A comparison of the Egyptian and the
Tunisian family planning policies supports this conclusion. The fact that a
comprehensive family planning policy was not implemented under Nasser
and Sadat, despite their awareness of both the short- and long-term conse-
quences of rapid population growth, contributed to Egypt's rapid popula-
tion growth of over threefold during the second half of the twentieth cen-
tury.
   Moreover, due to the prolonged high rates of natural increase, according
to the 1996 census, 83.4 percent of Egypt's total population was under the
age of 45.82 This means that the vast majority of Egyptians are either cur-
rently in their reproductive period or about to enter it. Such a wide-based
age pyramid has had two major impacts on the demographic profile of
Egyptian society. First, despite a decline in fertility, in absolute terms the
country's population growth in the late 1990s was similar to that which
prevailed in the mid-1980s-approximately 1.3 million annually.83 Second,
it appears that Egypt's population will continue to grow rapidly in the com-





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 299


ing decades. According to the 2000 edition of the United Nations World
Population Prospects (medium-level projection), Egypt's population will
reach 94.8 million by the year 2025 and 113.8 million by the year 2050,84 an
increase of almost 70 percent from its size in 2000. Only a more extensive
and comprehensive antinatal policy can slow down Egypt's ongoing popula-
tion growth.

Notes

   1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population
Prospects: The 2000 Revision (New York, 2001), 24, table 1. (http://www.un.org/esa/
population/wpp2000at.pdf).
   2. The section dealing with Nasser's family planning policy relies heavily on Gad
G. Gilbar, "Agypten auf dem Wege von Laisser Faire zur 'Soft Revolution,"' Orient
31, no. 1 (1990): 97-109. Also on the translation of this article in Shimon Shamir,
ed., Egypt: From Monarchy to Republic (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), 67-71;
and Gad G. Gilbar, Population Dilemmas in the Middle East (London: Frank Cass,
1997), 81-86.
   3. Cited in Saad M. Gadalla, Is There Hope? Fertility and Family Planning in a
Rural Egyptian Community (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1978), 212.
   4. J. Mayone Stycos, Hussein Abdel Aziz Sayed, Roger Avery, and Samuel Fridman,
Community Development and Family Planning: An Egyptian Experiment (Boulder:
Westview Press, 1988), 14.
   5. Khalid Ikram, Egypt: Economic Management in a Period of Transition (Balti-
more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), 110.
   6. Cited in Gadalla, Is There Hope? 212.
   7. Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, "The Population Family Planning Program in
Egypt: Structure and Performance," Population Studies (Dirasat Sukaniyya) 11, no.
70 (July-September 1984): 6-8.
   8. John W. Thomas and Merilee S. Grindle, "Political Leadership and Policy
Characteristics in Population Policy Reform," in Jason L. Finkle and C. Alison McIn-
tosh, eds., The New Politics of Population, a supplement to vol. 20 of the Population
and Development Review (New York: Population Council, 1994), 57.
   9. Al-Ahram (Cairo), May 22, 1962.
   10. Charles F. Gallagher, "Population and Development in Egypt, Part I: Birth and
Death on the Nile," American University Field Stuff Report, no. 31 (1981): 10.
   11. Steven K. Wisensale and Amany A. Khodair, "The Two-Child Family: The
Egyptian Model of Family Planning," Journal of Comparative Family Studies 29, no.
3 (autumn 1998): 505.
   12. Ikram, Egypt, 110.
   13. Sayed, "The Population Family Planning Program in Egypt," 9-12.
   14. Al-Ahram, August 6, 1966.
   15. For comparison with other developing countries worldwide, see World Bank,
World Tables, 3d ed., vol. 2, Social Data from the Data Files of the World Bank
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984).





300 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


   16. See Wisensale and Khodair, "The Two-Child Family," 505.
   17. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "State, Women, and Civil Society: An Evaluation of
Egypt's Population Policy," in Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer, ed., Family, Gender, and
Population in the Middle East (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995), 60.
   18. Supreme Council for Population and Family Planning, "National Strategy
Framework of Population, Human Resource Development, and the Family Planning
Program," Population Studies 8, no. 56 (January-March 1981): 35.
   19. Gadalla, Is There Hope? 215-19; Mahasen Mostafa Hassanin, Amany
Mousa Mohamed, and Galaa Helmy Selem, "Estimating Family Planning Target
Population of Egypt in 1997," in CDC 24th Annual Seminar on Population Issues
and the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia,
Research Monograph Series, no. 24 (Cairo: Cairo Demographic Center, 1995), 441.
   20. The discussion of Sadat's and Mubarak's family planning policies relies on
Gad G. Gilbar, "Population Growth and Family Planning in Egypt, 1985-92,"
MECS 16 (1992): 335-48, and Gilbar, Population Dilemmas, 113-36.
   21. See Allen C. Kelley, Atef M. Khalifa, and M. Nabil El-Khorazaty, Population
and Development in Rural Egypt (Durham, N.C.: Duke Press Policy Studies, Studies
in Social and Economic Development, 1982), 40-41.
   22. In 1970, the infant mortality rate in Egypt was estimated at 158 per 1,000 live
births. See World Bank, World Tables, 1989-90 ed., 226. See also United Nations,
Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, "Mortality of Children
under Age Five: World Estimates and Projections, 1950-2025," Population Studies,
no. 105 (1988).
   23. Gallagher, "Population and Development in Egypt," 11.
   24. World Bank, Population and Development: Implications for the World Bank
(Washington, D.C., 1994), 51-52.
   25. This concept gained support from several Western studies showing that in-
creased income and improved standard of living are generally accompanied by re-
duced fertility, without the need for direct governmental intervention. See Richard
Anker and Ghazi M. Farooq, "Population and Socio-Economic Development: The
New Perspective," International Labour Review 117, no. 2 (March/April 1978):
143-55; United Nations, Department of International Economic and Social Affairs,
Demographic Transition and Socio-Economic Development (New York, 1979);
Gilbar, Population Dilemmas, 119.
   26. Meir Hatina, Islam in Modern Egypt: Studies in the Writings of Faraj Fuda
(Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Hameuhad, 2000), 34 (Hebrew).
   27. On the relationship between Sadat and the Islamic movement, see Raymond
A. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics under Sadat: The Post-Populist Development of an
Authoritarian-Modernizing State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985),
206-8.
   28. Martin Kramer, "The Egyptian Religious Establishment in Crisis," in Ami
Ayalon, ed., Regime and Opposition in Egypt under Sadat (Tel Aviv: Hakibutz
Hameuhad, 1983), 94-96 (Hebrew).
   29. Between 1973 and 1984, the average annual GDP growth rate was 8.5 per-
cent, while real per capita income was almost double. See Galal A. Amin, Egypt's





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 301


Economic Predicament: A Study in the Interaction of External Pressure, Political
Folly, and Social Tension in Egypt, 1960-1990 (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 138. Accord-
ing to the World Bank figures, the per capita GNP in Egypt increased from $420 in
1974 to $540 in 1981 (in current prices). World Bank, World Tables, 1989-90 ed.,
224-25.
   30. By 1980, the number of Egyptians working abroad was estimated at over
800,000. On Egyptian labor migration during the 1970s, see Central Agency for
Public Mobilisation and Statistics, External Migration as a Demographic Phenom-
enon (Cairo, September 1994); J. S. Birks, C. A. Sinclair, and J. A. Socknat, "The
Demand for Egyptian Labor Abroad," in Alan Richards and Philip L. Martin, eds.,
Migration, Mechanization, and Agricultural Labor Markets in Egypt (Boulder:
Westview Press and Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1983), 117-34; Gil
Feiler, "The Number of Egyptian Workers in the Arab Oil Countries, 1974-1983: A
Critical Discussion," Occasional Papers, Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and Af-
rican Studies, Tel Aviv University, October 1986.
   31. On this subject, see Onn Winckler, "The Challenge of Internal Migration in
Egypt: Tendencies in Urban and Village Development, 1974-1990," M.A. thesis,
University of Haifa, March 1992, 125-76 (Hebrew).
   32. John Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat: The Political Economy of
Two Regimes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 44.
   33. Thomas Lippman described Sadat's family planning approach as follows:
"Sadat and his prime ministers hardly even gave lip service to birth control, despite
all their speeches about the demands posed by the rising population. They did not
hide their embarrassment at the dogged, outspoken support for family planning by
the only prominent figure to make that commitment-Sadat's wife, Jihan." Thomas
W. Lippman, Egypt after Nasser: Sadat, Peace, and the Mirage of Prosperity (New
York: Paragon Press, 1989), 162.
   34. Sadat presented his major concepts and policies in the October Working
Paper, issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Information in June 1974.
   35. In fact, during the first four years of his presidency, the demographic issue was
almost totally ignored. See Ami Ayalon, "Demography, Politics, and Tradition in
Mubarak's Egypt," in Ami Ayalon and Gad G. Gilbar, eds., Demography and Poli-
tics in the Arab States (Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Hameuhad, 1995), 32 (Hebrew).
   36. By the fiscal year of 1982/83, the real GDP growth rate was 7.9 percent,
meaning a net increase of more than 5 percent in per capita terms. In addition, the
current account deficit narrowed from over $2 billion in the fiscal year of 1981/82 to
around $1 billion in the fiscal year of 1983/84. Source: MEED, December 2, 1983,
10; August 10, 1984, 10.
   37. Al-Ahram, January 24, 1985. See also ESCWA, Population Situation in the
ESCWA Region, 1990 (May 1992), 96.
   38. Mona A. Khalifa, "Family Planning and Sustainable Development in Egypt,"
CDC Series on Population and Development, no. 5 (Cairo: Cairo Demographic
Center, 1994), 4-5; Gilbar, Population Dilemmas, 120.
   39. See interviews and fatwas issued by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Nuham-
mad Sayd Tantawi in Al-Ahram, February 7 and October 22, 1989; April 20, 1990.





302 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


See also Arab Republic of Egypt, Ministry of Waqfs and Ministry of Information,
State Information Service, Information, Education, and Communication Center,
Islam's Attitude toward Family Planning (Cairo, 1994).
   40. Egyptian Gazette (Cairo), February 11 and July 23, 1987.
   41. Al-Ahram al-Iqtisadi, August 26, 1991, 47.
   42. Naguib Ghita (consultant of statistics and information at the National Popu-
lation Council), "A Seminar on the Preliminary Results of the 1996 Census on Popu-
lation, Housing, and Establishments in the Light of the National Population Strat-
egy," Population Studies 16, no. 81 (January-March 1998): 103.
   43. National Population Council and Macro International, Inc. (Calverton, Md.),
Egypt Demographic and Health Survey-1995 (Cairo, September 1996), 4.
   44. Arab Republic of Egypt, Ministry of Health and Population, National Popu-
lation Council, and ORC Macro, Egypt Demographic and Health Survey-2000
(Cairo, 2001), xxi.
   45. See Lant H. Pritchett, "Desired Fertility and the Impact of Population Poli-
cies," Population and Development Review 20, no. 1 (1994): 1-55.
   46. See John Bongaarts, "The Impact of Population Policies: Comment," Popula-
tion and Development Review 20, no. 3 (1994): 616-20.
   47. See Robert J. Lapham and Parker Mauldin, "Family Planning Program Effort
and Birthrate Decline in Developing Countries," International Family Planning Per-
spectives 10, no. 4 (1984): 109-18; Susan H. Cochrane and David K. Guilkey, "The
Effects of Fertility Intensions and Access to Services on Contraceptive Use in Tuni-
sia," Economic Development and Cultural Change 43, no. 4 (1995): 779-804.
   48. World Bank, Population and Development, 2, 6.
   49. Gilbar, Population Dilemmas, 132-33.
   50. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "State, Women, and Civil Society," 77.
   51. Khalifa, "Family Planning and Sustainable Development in Egypt," 26.
   52. Wisensale and Khodair, "The Two-Child Family," 513.
   53. Kamran Asdar Ali, Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), 1.
   54. Philippe Fargues, "State Policies and the Birth Rate in Egypt: From Socialism
to Liberalism," Population and Development Review 23, no. 1 (1997): 115.
   55. Ibid., 126-27.
   56. Alan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East,
2d ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), 78.
   57. Valentine M. Moghadam, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change
in the Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993), 120.
   58. Abdel R. Omran and Farzaneh Roudi, "The Middle East Population Puzzle,"
Population Bulletin 48 (July 1993): 7.
   59. By 1980, according to World Bank figures, the infant mortality rate was 63.4
per 1,000 live births in Syria, 58.4 in Jordan, and 78.0 in Iraq, as compared with 90.0
in Tunisia and 108.0 in Egypt. See World Bank, World Tables, various issues.
   60. UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, 1965-99, various issues, (Paris); ESCWA,
Statistical Abstract of the ESCWA Region, 1984-99, various issues (New York).
   61. On the Gulf oil countries' pronatalist policies, see Onn Winckler, "Gulf Mon-





Nasser's Family Planning Policy | 303


archies as Rentier State: The Nationalization Policies of the Labor Force," in Joseph
Kostiner, ed., Middle East Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity (Boulder: Lynne
Rienner, 2000), 242-44. In an earlier article, Fargues indeed mentioned that in the
Gulf oil-exporting countries the fertility level remained high despite the sharp im-
provement in economic condition. "The lack of household taxes, the meeting of the
costs of childhood from public funds, and keeping women at home thanks to im-
ported female domestic staff have prevented any change in the birth rate." Philippe
Fargues, "Demographic Explosion or Social Upheaval?" in Ghassan Salam6, ed.,
Democracy without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World (Lon-
don: I. B. Tauris, 1994), 166. However, Fargues argued, "In all Arab countries,
female education is now the most important factor in differing birth rates" (167).
   62. International Planned Parenthood Federation-Middle East and North Af-
rica Region, "Family Planning and Population Policies in the Middle East and North
Africa," in James Allman, ed., Women's Status and Fertility in the Muslim World
(New York: Praeger, 1978), 42.
   63. League of Arab States, Pan Arab Project for Child Development, Republic of
Tunisia, Ministry of Public Health, Office National de la Famile et de la Population,
Tunisian Maternal and Child Health Survey, Summary Report (Tunis, 1997), 20.
   64. Roderic Beaujot and Mongi Bchir, Fertility in Tunisia: Traditional and Mod-
ern Contrasts (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, August 1984), 33,
table 4.
   65. Tunisian Maternal Child Health Survey Summary Report, 20-27. According
to United Nations data, the average contraceptive prevalence rate between 1990 and
1999 was 36 percent in Syria, 40 percent in Oman, 53 percent in Jordan, 55 percent
in Egypt, 57 percent in Algeria, 59 percent in Morocco, and 60 percent in Tunisia.
See UNICEF, The State of the World's Children, 2000 (New York, 2000), 108-11,
table 7.
   66. See Kelley Lee, Gill Walt, Louisiana Lush, and John Cleland, Population
Policies and Programmes: Determinants and Consequences in Eight Developing
Countries (London: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and United
Nations Population Fund, 1995), 41.
   67. Harold D. Nelson, ed., Tunisia: A Country Study (Washington, D.C.: Foreign
Area Studies, American University, 1979), 86.
   68. International Planned Parenthood Federation, Middle East and North Africa
Region, "Family Planning and Population Policies in the Middle East and North
Africa," 43.
   69. Ghazi Duwaji, Economic Development in Tunisia: The Impact and Course of
Government Planning (New York: Praeger, 1967), 167-70; United Nations, Depart-
ment of International Economic and Social Affairs, "World Population Policies,"
Population Studies no. 102, vol. III (New York, 1990), 159-60. See also Muhammad
Faour, "Fertility Policy and Family Planning in the Arab Countries," Studies in Fam-
ily Planning 20, no. 5 (September/October 1989): 260.
   70. United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision, 34, table 3.
   71. K. L. Brown, "The Campaign to Encourage Family Planning in Tunisia and
Some Responses at the Village Level," Middle Eastern Studies 17, no. 1 (1981): 73.





304 | Gad G. Gilbar and Onn Winckler


   72. Myrdal wrote, "When we characterize ... countries as 'soft states' we mean
that . . . national governments require extraordinarily little of their citizens." Asian
Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, vol. 2 (New York: Twentieth Cen-
tury Fund, 1968), 895-96. See also chapter 11 in this volume and John Waterbury,
"The 'Soft State' and the Open Door: Egypt Experience with Economic Liberaliza-
tion, 1974-1984," Comparative Politics 18, no. 1 (October 1985): 69.
   73. The Aswan High Dam, the establishment of heavy industry, and other devel-
opment projects were financed by imported capital and foreign aid.
   74. Gad G. Gilbar, "Egypt from Laissez-Faire to 'Soft Revolution': Birthrates,
Saving Patterns, and Economic Growth," in Shamir, ed., Egypt from Monarchy to
Republic, 74.
   75. Egypt Demographic and Health Survey-1995, 38, table 3.1.
   76. Egypt Demographic and Health Survey-2000, 44, table 4.1.
   77. World Bank, African Development Indicators, 1998/99 (Washington, D.C.,
1998), 284, table 11.2; Hayam El-Beblawi and Azza Mohamed Abedo, "Some As-
pects of Child Labour in Egypt," CDC Working Paper, no. 41 (1999). See also the
wide discussion on the scale and characteristics of child labor in Egypt in Mohamed
Abdel Rahman, "Socio-Demographic Aspects of Child Labour in Egypt," in Popula-
tion and Sustainable Development, Research Monograph Series, no. 5 (Cairo: Cairo
Demographic Center, 1998), 349-68.
   78. See Joseph Chamie, "Trends, Variations, and Contradictions in National
Policies to Influence Fertility," in Finkle and McIntosh, eds., The New Politics of
Population, 45; Onn Winckler, Demographic Developments and Population Policies
in Ba'thist Syria (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), 138.
   79. Brown, "The Campaign to Encourage Family Planning in Tunisia," 82;
Beaujot and Bchir, Fertility in Tunisia, 36-37. See also Kenneth J. Perkins, Tunisia:
Crossroads of the Islamic and European Worlds (Boulder: Westview Press, 1986),
118.
   80. Beaujot and Bchir, Fertility in Tunisia, 36-37.
   81. Since the early 1980s, the Tunisian women have had the highest labor force
participation rates among all Arab countries. See Moghadam, Modernizing Women,
43-53.
   82. Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, Statistical Yearbook,
1992-1998, 20, table 1.9.
   83. Ibid., 26, table 1.13.
   84. United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision, 28, table 2.







V.

Cultural Aspects of Nasserism












13



The Nightingale and the Ra'is

'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings


    Joel Gordon





Introduction

Egyptians have taken their grief into the streets three times in the past thirty
years: first for Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser ("Ra'is," September 28, 1970), then
for Umm Kulthum, Star of the East ("Kawkab al-Sharq," February 3, 1975),
and finally for 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, the Dark Nightingale ("Al-'Andalib al-
Asmar," March 30, 1977).1 The age of titans having passed, it is not likely
they will ever mourn so publicly again. Of the three, it is the Nightingale's
passing, not that of the Ra'is or the Star of the East, that is still regularly
marked. 'Abd al-Halim's persona has transcended politics, music, even star-
dom itself, to bridge a gap between political and artistic fame, to serve as a
symbol to a generation that has grown deeply nostalgic for the lost inno-
cence of Nasserism, an era of social-political dreams that are deeply en-
meshed in his music, whether love songs or socialist-nationalist anthems,
and his screen performances, whether comic or tragic, whether the fresh,
sweet face of his early films or the creased, battered features of his final
works.
   Two decades later, the anniversary of the Nightingale's death remains a
phenomenon. Tributes pour out on radio, television, and in print media,
lasting virtually an entire month. The text has changed little over time. With
the exception of recycled rumors (primarily concerning a "secret marriage"
to actress Su'ad Husni in the early 1960s), the tone is hagiographic.2 This is
the story of a poor country boy whose talent eclipsed all others but who still
needed the melodramatic lucky break, the beautiful young man who cap-
tured the affection of a nation, brought down by bilharzia, an insidious





308 | Joel Gordon


disease that devoured him as he struggled, ever the perfectionist, to perform
one more time, record one more song, film one more movie. It is an Egyptian
story.'Abd al-Halim is a son of the soil, not the progeny of the cosmopolitan
Hollywood on the Nile, and his ailment is rooted right in the rich, muddy
waters of his native Delta.
   Nostalgia for the Nasser era is not hegemonic. Thirty years since the
Ra'is's passing, Nasser's legacies remain hotly contested, and those who
claim to carry the torch find that the "Nasserist tradition, once official pub-
lic culture, has become just another vernacular tradition competing for pub-
lic memory."3 Or traditions in the plural, for as something called "Nasser-
ism" has been remembered and commemorated, it has been renarrated on
both individual and communal levels. One resilient aspect of the Nasserist
legacy is that of a forward-looking, optimistic, unified society not rent by
internecine strife. Another is the recollection by the "Nasser generation,"
those who came of age during the Nasser years, of a golden age of the cinema
and broadcast media.4 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz is not the only bridge between
Nasserist civic culture and the arts. But he is far and away the most canon-
ized. And whereas Nasserist politics or civics are barely commemorated
officially,' Abd al-Halim is the vehicle through which artists and intellectuals
(and others) may signal their own personal commemoration of a particular
era that represents to them the "good old days."5
   'Abd al-Halim Hafiz continues to personify the archetypical Nasser-era
hero. His ongoing stature as the dominant cultural icon of postwar Egypt
cannot be divorced from his chronological and ideological positioning in
Egyptian political or cultural history. That positioning has always been an
important part of the memorialization of his life and achievements, however
those in power have tried to edit or truncate his memory. Shortly after
Anwar al-Sadat's ascension (October 1981), the famed nationalist anthems
were banned from the radio. Husni Mubarak's censors, not without misgiv-
ings, allowed the anthems to be released on cassette; they have more recently
been performed on television to bolster national pride and civic purpose.6
   'Abd al-Halim has always been more than a recorded voice. It was on the
silver screen where he sang his most popular love songs and where he fash-
ioned a persona that, combined with the beauty and pathos of voice and
face, touched the heart of a nation. Successive generations have encountered
him first on television, both from frequent broadcasts of movies (in full or
snippets) and recorded concert footage and, more recently, from home video
screenings (all of his films and a number of concerts are available on video
for rental or purchase). It is also on screen-through movies that work their
way onto television and video-that a younger generation of filmmakers has
utilized the Nightingale as a symbol of long-lost Nasser-era (if not Nasserist)
aspirations, as an unassailable icon-which Nasser is not-by which to de-
cry the predicaments of post-Nasserist Egypt.





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 309


Son of the Revolution

'Abd al-Halim Hafiz was born 'Abd al-Halim 'Ali Isma'il Shibana on June
20, 1929, in the West Delta town of al-Halawat.7 Orphaned young, he and
his three siblings were raised by an uncle in Zagazig. At sixteen he followed
an older brother, Isma'il, to the music academy in Cairo, where he special-
ized in stage music and the oboe. In music school he met Kamal al-Tawil and
Muhammad al-Mugi, lifelong friends who would be among his primary
collaborators in succeeding years. To make ends meet, he taught in a pri-
mary school for girls. Summers were spent with his musical cohort at the
Tawil family house in Alexandria. In a scene replete with cinema cliches,
'Abd al-Halim Shibana first took the microphone to sing when the vocalist
scheduled to sing Tawil's song "Liga"' for a radio session failed to show.8
Rechristened 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz in order to distinguish him from his
brother Isma'il, who had become a successful vocalist, he soon made his first
headline recording. Unfortunately, "Liga"' was not a success.
   It is hard to believe in retrospect-as hard in real life as in several of his
best film roles-that the Nightingale's newfound career as a crooner foun-
dered. The hagiography highlights his self-doubt, thoughts of bowing out,
which are no doubt credible. Reading between the lines, a somewhat differ-
ent character also emerges-however vindicated by posterity-of a stub-
born perfectionist with a clear sense of artistic self.' Abd al-Halim would not
take the easy path by singing old standards the old way. He bombed during
a ten-night run in Alexandria in August 1952; it was a week after the Free
Officers' coup, but the beach crowd was obviously not ready for an artistic
revolution.9
   His career took off over the course of the following year. In November
1952 he was summoned to the headquarters of the military junta, where
Nasser spoke to the importance of art in building a new society and anointed
him the voice of the new era.10 Eight months later, he performed at a concert
honoring the abolition of the monarchy. There, and again a month later at
the first annual Revolution Day gala, famed actor-director Yusuf Wahbi
introduced 'Abd al-Halim to the nation as the new star to usher in the birth
of the republic, proclaimed on June 18, 1953. Astutely conscious of his
image, 'Abd al-Halim had declined an invitation to open the later show,
preferring to wait until the audience grew more attentive." The Nightingale
never looked back. In 1955 star musician Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab
signed him to a two-year recording contract that included the production of
two films.
   Three years after the Free Officers' coup, and a year before the Suez War,
'Abd al-Halim had established himself as the most prominent vocalist of his
generation. His reputation as the bard of the revolution was solidified by his
collaboration with the best nationalist lyricists and composers.12 Everyone





310 | Joel Gordon


sang nationalist anthems (wataniyyat) in the heady first years of the revolu-
tion-Layla Murad, Shadia, Farid al-Atrash, Sabah, and the great Umm
Kulthum. Leading composers and lyricists competed to capture the spirit of
the times.13 But 'Abd al-Halim's anthems were in a league of their own. By
the onset of the socialist decrees, Egyptians eagerly awaited his annual col-
laboration with Salah Jahin (lyrics) and Kamal al-Tawil (music).14 He con-
tinued to insist on headlining nationalist galas, not fearful of ruffling the
feathers of even the powerful Umm Kulthum. The Star of the East sang at
Revolution Day fetes, but his was the awaited thematic highlight. When she
tried to bump him from prime time in 1964, he refused to appear on the gala
stage until Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) members interceded to
restore his position.15
   In her mannerism and fashion consciousness, the great lady evoked a
sense of earthy propriety and modesty.16 By contrast, the Nightingale per-
sonified a nation of smiles as well as tears, hand slaps, practical jokes, tri-
umphs over social adversity and, ultimately, ever-present mortality. If the
tabloids still chided-Was his recurrent illness feigned or hyped to outdo
Farid al-Atrash? Which leading lady had he secretly married this time,
Shadia or Su'ad?-it was a vain attempt to bring the Nightingale down from
his soaring heights. Whatever acrimony might exist between artistic com-
petitors, whatever tensions among creative collaborators, the love affair
with the public remained unabated. We may never be able to touch the real
'Abd al-Halim, except perhaps by scratching between the lines of hagiog-
raphy. What we have is the screen persona, so seemingly natural that we
would not want to believe otherwise.


Screen Persona

'Abd al-Halim Hafiz made sixteen films between 1955 and 1969 (for a com-
plete listing, see the filmography). His first three films screened in 1955. In
Ayyamna al-Hilwa (Our sweet days), for the first and only time, he played
second male lead (to Omar Sharif and in tandem with another newcomer,
Ahmad Ramzi).17 The remaining films were all his, even Al-Banat wal-Sayf
(Girls and summer, 1960), a compilation of three one-acts in which he only
appeared in one segment. He completed eleven movies between 1956 and
1962. A five-year absence was broken by the appearance of Ma'budat al-
Jamahir (People's idol, 1967), which was followed a year later by Abi Fawq
al-Shajara (Father's up a tree). There were other planned projects, including
perhaps a nonmusical role, but poor health intervened.18
   The films are all musical romances, some lighter, some more somber, in
which 'Abd al-Halim played essentially the same role: a sensitive youth
struggling to achieve some combination of financial and romantic success,





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 311


fame and fortune beyond his social means. Stardom, a comfortable station
in life, and romantic fulfillment are all precluded either by class and connec-
tions or by his heartthrob's own aspirations to do better than the gentle,
unassuming boy on the next balcony. Whether a struggling student, artist,
journalist, or teacher, he lives at home (with mother and younger siblings) or
shares quarters with a flatmate or two. The studio settings are never as
dreary as the story line would suggest. In some cases, the family appears to
be comfortably middle class: In Banat al-Yawm (Today's girls, 1957), he
shares a flat in Ma'adi and can afford membership at the Club; in Al-Banat
wal-Sayf, his family summers in Alexandria. Wherever he fits in a real so-
ciological hierarchy, he is always a figure for mass identification in clear
contradistinction to his sociological betters. His often marginal existence
is underscored by scenes in which he borrows-or playfully swipes from a
flatmate-suitable courting clothes, eats beans cooked over a kerosene
primus stove, washes his clothes in a metal basin, slips out past landlords to
avoid rent queries, and gets around town by bicycle.
   Costars and directors have all claimed that he was a natural screen talent.
Critics insist that his films broke new ground in screen musicals; rather than
cutting the action or relying primarily on stage revues, his songs comple-
mented the scenario, and he never lip-synched.19 He wonderfully played off
comic sidekicks and convincingly romanced the leading ladies of his day (for
female costars, see filmography). He played loveable trickster as well as
forlorn victim and often a combination of the two. Personal ambition was
ever tempered by compassion, and his triumphs were always the victory of
social justice and propriety over narrow-minded social conservatism and
excess.
   His movies are derivative of earlier films that celebrated middle- and
lower-middle-class virtue.20 They are not ideologically forthright revolution-
ary epics, but do nonetheless exude the optimism of early Nasserist social
reformism. They draw upon prerevolutionary melodramatic tropes, but
carry them a step further to meet the clarion call of the "new" postmon-
archical era in which class boundaries fall to true romance.21 In films that are
less overtly socially conscious, true love is often frustrated by social conven-
tions, parental interference, or adolescent romantic ambition.22
   Whatever the social setting, however explicit the reformist strain, 'Abd
al-Halim always represents his generation, one that "trembled with feeling,
anxiety, love, and vigor, welcoming life and striving for perfection. "23 He
reflects the anguish that was so often the product of romantic love, the
aspiration of the new middle class. No one in Egyptian film ever exuded
more powerfully the pain of rebuffed affection, the long dark night of the
soul following an unkept rendezvous, an unanswered, curtly answered, or
abruptly ended phone call, or a glimpse of his intended riding past in another





312 | Joel Gordon


man's car. The one early film in which he broke character, playing a some-
what hedonistic child of privilege, Fata Ahlami (My prince charming, 1957),
was his only box office disappointment. Then there is the explosive Abi
Fawq al-Shajara, in which he flees the chaste good girl for the arms of the
dancer. Despite a somewhat conventional ending, the film might well have
become transitional had it not been his final production.
   The last film in which 'Abd al-Halim imprinted his classic character is his
penultimate work, Ma'budat al-Jamahir. As if time has stood still, this film
re-creates all the key symbols of his early work. The Nightingale is still the
struggling artist living on the edge, getting by on extended credit from sup-
portive neighbors, and pining for the unattainable rich girl, a beautiful stage
star (Shadia, 'Abd al-Halim's leading lady in his first star performance
twelve years earlier) in whose play he has a bit part. If there is one enduring
screen image of 'Abd al-Halim in this film (and others), it is of him riding a
bicycle, singing, through the not yet crowded streets of Cairo. The bicycle is
his personal badge of honor-as a teenager he had apprenticed in a repair
shop-and has been a key symbol of the people in Egyptian cinema.24 While
rich girls have cars and drivers, poor boys take public transportation and
ride bikes.25
   'Abd al-Halim is often painfully aware that not having access to a vehicle
puts him at a terrible disadvantage. In Al-Wisada al-Khaliya (1957), he
misses Lubna 'Abd al-'Aziz on their daily walk, only to see her in her fianc6's
convertible. In Hikayat Hubb, he trudges home from a disastrous debutante
gig along the Alexandria corniche until the lovely heiress (Maryam Fakhr al-
Din) pulls up in her limo. He sings to her under the moon and wins her heart,
but later frets that he cannot meet her out at the pyramids on his bicycle. In
Ma 'budat al-Jamahir, he takes Shadia for a spin, and in the most enduring
bicycle scene he rides home from the theater, singing as he pedals through the
city, enters the alley, interacts playfully with kiosk vendors and cafe deni-
zens, and then climbs the stairs to his lonely flat. This scene contrasts sharply
with Shadia's later unannounced arrival in a chauffeured limousine.

Neo-Halim

'Abd al-Halim's films are replete with images that are ingrained in the minds
of successive generations, no less than his lyrics and tunes. He is at once part
of Egypt's collective memory and a living interface with the nation's collec-
tive present. Forever rescreened on television and video, his films-along
with the larger canon of pre-1970s black-and-white classics-serve to re-
mind viewers of a far more liveable environment, a nation of manners, a
Cairo of wide, uncrowded, often tree-lined boulevards that you could navi-





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 313


gate on bicycle while singing your heart out.26 Viewers may well recall the
political and military prices that the nation paid under Nasserist author-
itarianism, and some surely recognize the romantic unreality of much that
they see on the screen. Yet, amid the soundstages and studio sets, key scenes
were in fact filmed out on the street, and present-day Cairo/Egypt cannot
compare with the look of the golden oldies.
   Since the mid-1970s, a younger generation of directors, many the prod-
ucts of Nasser's state-owned film sector, have taken their cameras into the
streets to film a far more "real" society than that ever portrayed in the older
corpus, producing powerful "new" films in which "yesterday's filmic con-
ventions are no longer valid."27 While their deliberate neorealist bent has
always been in some respects a response to, if not criticism of, the film canon
that preceded them, leading filmmakers also invoke a great degree of nostal-
gia for the Egypt that "was." Not surprisingly, the key symbol in some of
their most powerful manifestations of nostalgia is 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz. In
the new cinema, he becomes and remains the personification of lost inno-
cence, shattered dreams, and a particular era that, whatever its warts, was
far better than the present.
   The films that I highlight below treat a number of issues, evoke a variety
of moods, and speak in varying degree to matters of past and present. Each
posits a dreary today in relationship to a romantic-and romanticized-
yesterday. Each utilizes 'Abd al-Halim in a different fashion. In the first two
films, he serves as symbolic backdrop, through music, film clips, and news-
reel. The second two films are more pointed efforts to revive the spirit of his
films, one an affectionate homage to a particular musical genre, the other a
pointed overturning of plot and mood. Although each film establishes the
link through the utilization of text, lyric, and image, all ultimately rely on the
high degree of pop-cultural literacy, the "encyclopedic knowledge of Egyp-
tian films and serials. . . and private lives and previous roles of actors and
actresses" that Egyptians of all social classes and ages command.28

Sawwaq al-Autobis (The Bus Driver) ('Atif al-Tayyib, 1983)
The story of Hasan (Nur al-Sharif), a combat veteran of the October 1973
War, Sawwaq al-Autobis is an archetypical "new" infitah film, critical of
Sadat's post-Nasserist economic liberalization. In these movies, protago-
nists-here driver and close friends-recall the triumphal "crossing" of the
Suez Canal, the expiation of 1967 now undone by economic speculation,
rampant corruption, and a general lack of civic compass. In recurring scenes
that provide a jarring lyrical refrain, Hasan guides his packed bus through
interminable traffic, just as his conductor weaves his way from front to
back, collecting fares. Incongruously, yet true-to-life, 'Abd al-Halim sings





314 | Joel Gordon


over the radio, folding recollected images of wide-open, easily navigable
thoroughfares onto the harsh visual realities of a jammed bus, parasitical
pickpockets, and the chaos of the streets.
   The all-too-obvious choreography of life on the streets masks deeper so-
cial ills. Hasan's sisters and their husbands, engaged in speculative business
ventures, have allowed his father's wood shop to fall into arrears so that they
can sell it to speculators. To help pay off the debt, Hasan takes a second job
as a cab driver and enlists moral and financial support from his army bud-
dies. They save the business, but not in time to revive his father's dashed
spirit. The film ends on a redemptive note: The bus driver is finally able to
nab the pickpocket who eluded capture in the opening scene. What lingers,
however, is the ultimate futility of the lone virtuous actor. A common thief
gets pummeled in full view of passersby, but the decay of middle-class family
values remains chronic.29

Zawjat Rajul Muhim (Wife of an Important Man)
(Muhammad Khan, 1987)
Muhammad Khan's troubling story of a young woman, who leaves univer-
sity studies to marry an "important" security police officer, moves 'Abd al-
Halim Hafiz from background soundtrack to the forefront of dramatic ac-
tion.30 The film opens with a nostalgic cinema flashback: A young schoolgirl
runs to catch an afternoon matinee. The film is Banat al-Yawm, and the
scene is that in which 'Abd al-Halim sits at the piano to sing "Ahwak" (I love
you), his signature tune. As Magda swoons in the screened film, our heroine
sits transfixed. Suddenly (as Khan's credits end) time spins forward, and a
young adult Mona watches an older Nightingale sing the same song in a
televised concert clip.
   'Abd al-Halim will become the movie's coda and the mirror to the down-
ward spiral of Mona's life and marriage, with her husband's increasing
brutality at home and on the job, and to the parallel crisis of Egyptian
being. Mona (Mervat Amin) first encounters Hisham (Ahmad Zaki) in a
neighborhood shop when she runs down, midconcert, to buy a blank cas-
sette. When Hisham later discovers his bride's obsession with the Nightin-
gale, he chides her-an omen of their not being kindred spirits-but also
plays a tape to gently wake her in the morning. As the marriage decays,
Mona takes increasing refuge in her tape player. When she attempts to
walk out on Hisham, he crassly tries to seduce her by invoking the Night-
ingale.
   Zawjat Rajul Muhim, an important political work, openly treats the
abuse of power by those with no regard for common aspirations. There is no
mistaking the symbolic utilization of 'Abd al-Halim as a marker of lost





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 315


innocence, common (rather than personal) aspirations, and Nasser-era am-
bitions to create a just, modern society. At a contentious 1977 New Year's
gathering of high police officials, Mona defends the Aswan High Dam-a
key symbol of Nasserism and the subject of a popular Nightingale anthem,
"Hikayat Sha'b" (The people's story). When the country erupts in violence
-the January 1977 bread riots-and Hisham disappears for days, busy
restoring order, Mona reaffirms Nasser's Suez promise to carry on the
struggle. The symbolism is accentuated by the casting (whether deliberately
or not) of Mervat Amin as Mona. She had, after all, played Amal, 'Abd al-
Halim's girlfriend in Abi Fawq al-Shajara, first spurned for Nadia Lutfi, then
reunited for the longest and most famous series of screen kisses in Egyptian
cinema. The "double level of the articulation of fame," the intersection of
"star-as-self/star-as-role," linking Amal to Mona and both to 'Abd al-Halim,
makes Mona's descent into depression and her undying fantasy-love for the
Nightingale all the more poignant.31
   That fantasy ends with the Nightingale's death, which Mona learns of
after observing a schoolgirl-reminiscent of her youth-running hysteri-
cally through the street, tearing at her hair. Snippets of the funeral follow,
with throngs of common Egyptians accompanying the body, while the
soundtrack plays another early love song, "Ana Lak 'ala Tul" (I will always
be yours), then cuts to a quick view of a young woman leaping from a
balcony. Hisham remains dismissive. He is fired for his handling of the dis-
turbances; as his world crashes down around him, he ejects a cassette from
the player and yanks out the tape. When, in the climactic scene, he shoots
Mona's father, then turns the gun on himself, her silent screams are covered
by strains of "Ahwak," the song that opened the film.

Ice Cream fi Glim (Ice Cream in Gleem) (Khayri Bishara, 1992)
Khayri Bishara's hip revival of the musical, out of fashion for nearly two
decades, is an 'Abd al-Halim film updated for the MTV generation. Not a
remake of any particular film, it is a general homage to the singer, star, and
film genre that recalls the classic Nightingale scenario. Sayf (pop-singer
'Amr Diab) lives in a converted Ma'adi garage, delivers videos for an un-
scrupulous music producer, and dreams of true love and stardom. He exer-
cises with an old spring chest extender, bathes in a bathtub rigged with a
bucket shower, and boils water for tea with an electric coil. His entire per-
sona, from his black leather jacket to his wall posters of 1950s Hollywood
icons (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Paul Newman) to the Elvis Presley
tunes he plays on his Walkman while riding his motorcycle around Cairo
invoke a transplanted Western-inspired nostalgia. Concurrently, these sym-
bols also conjure up more culturally rooted images. Sayf, as the first Elvis-





316 | Joel Gordon


snippet reminds us, is a "poor boy." His beat-up Jawa is like an updated
bicycle, in sharp contrast to the open Jeep driven by the rich kids who harass
him for attracting the girls.
   As in many of the 'Abd al-Halim musicals, the mood remains light and
optimistic, although tinged with sadness, and ends on a note of romantic
and artistic triumph. Sayf, a recent migrant from the countryside, has been
smitten on the Alexandria corniche by a chicly dressed beauty he sees fleet-
ingly at an ice cream bar. She remains his creative muse as he struggles to get
by, to keep his upwardly mobile girlfriend (she eventually rides off in a sports
car with a rich older man), to express himself musically, and to maintain a
positive love for homeland amid the grumblings of his outwardly mobile
band buddies. The Nightingale allusions are ever-present, from plot conven-
tion to mood to the prominent photos in the video shops where Sayf makes
his drops. Although Sayf cruises to Elvis, his friend Nur, a leftist poet with a
kufiya draped over his shoulders, rides behind him listening to the Night-
ingale's wataniyyat. As in Sawwaq al-Autobis, the optimism of the Nasser-
era anthems rings hollow against the gloomy vision of the streets.
   Although Sayf rejects ideology, opting to follow an apolitical path, Khayri
Bishara does not intend his audience to reject the leftist poet's politics and
certainly not the Nasser-era anthems. Their one collaborative song, "Rasif
Nimra Khamsa" (Platform #5), despite its comical performance-Sayf plays
a cripple while the band members feign blindness-is a good number, remi-
niscent of the underground political collaborations of Shaykh Imam and
Ahmad Fu'ad Nagm. Sayf and Nur quarrel over romantic jealousies, yet Nur
always comes back, and Sayf sticks up for him against his manager. Nur is
there on the sidelines when Sayf wins true love and finally scores commercial
success. That success takes place on the same Alexandria beach where Sayf
first found artistic inspiration and, more importantly, where 'Abd al-Halim
found his voice and where his screen persona repeatedly suffered romantic
anguish and found true love.

Lay ya Banafsij (Violets Are Blue) (Radwan al-Kashif, 1993)
If Khayri Bishara paid doting homage to the 'Abd al-Halim film as genre,
Radwan al-Kashif's directoral debut took a more hard-boiled approach,
cynically reworking Ayyamna al-Hilwa, one of the Nightingale's debut
films, in order to underscore the contrast between a sweet past and a sour
present.32 In the earlier film, 'Abd al-Halim, Omar Sharif, and Ahmad
Ramzi play struggling students who share a flat, as well as a romantic inter-
est in Hoda (Fatin Hamama), who rooms below. The competition, initially
good-natured, turns serious. Hoda's engagement to Omar precipitates a
split, until her life-threatening illness draws the friends back together in a





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 317


desperate effort to raise money for her operation: Ramzi takes a beating in
the boxing ring, and 'Abd al-Halim returns to his village to wed a cousin
whom he does not love. The operation is a success, but Hoda, despairing of
a projected future as an invalid, disobeys her doctor's orders to remain in
bed, then falls dead as the three friends, unaware of the severity of her con-
dition, walk off arm in arm.
   Kashif's version turns the story on its head. His trio lives not in a respect-
able student flat but in a one-room hovel on an unpaved back alleyway in a
slum on the edge of Cairo. They share the meager profits of a kushari (rice-
pasta-lentils) cart, a double bed, and the goodwill of a close-knit community.
Unfortunately, they also share affections for the beautiful but opportunistic
Nadia (Lucy). Rather than fall for Ahmad (Faruq al-Fishawi), who most
approximates Omar Sharif in the original, she weds 'Abbas (Nagah al-
Mugi), a crass reworking of the muscle-bound Ramzi character, who com-
mandeers the flat and, at Nadia's prodding, siphons off the business. The
strained friendship is not helped by her sexual overtures to Ahmad, unthink-
able in the earlier version. When 'Abbas attempts to steal the cart, his friends
expel him from the flat.
   Allusions to Ayyamna al-Hilwa are not veiled. On the two occasions
when Ahmad visits a friend in the projection room of a local theater, an 'Abd
al-Halim film is being screened. The second time the film is Ayyamna; a brief
snippet shows the jealous rivals reconciled.33 Sa'id (played by the diminutive
Ashraf 'Abd al-Baqi) incorporates the 'Abd al-Halim persona. He suffers
most from unrequited love and the loss of brotherly camaraderie, and in one
scene he roams along the Nile corniche as an 'Abd al-Halim tune plays in the
background. Later, after he and Ahmad have fallen out over sexual jealousy
for another local girl, Ahmad torches the food cart and abandons the neigh-
borhood. In a moving scene near the end, Sa'id and 'Id, the blind conscience
of the neighborhood, visit 'Abd al-Halim's grave. They lean a picture of the
Nightingale against the tombstone and seat themselves before it. 'Id be-
seeches God to "open the gates of opportunity as you did for 'Abd al-Halim
Hafiz." The atmosphere in the tomb is blessed, as "the beautiful sounds of
his songs swirl around us . . . magical, like something sweet."
   In the background, a young man sits reverentially, clutching a tape player
to his chest. Two young women stand off to the other side, swaying in silent
grief. As in the original film, death serves to reunite the three friends. This
time it is not the tragic mortality of the beloved but rather the intrusion of
ultimate social corruption. Sa'id finds 'Abbas mopping floors at the neigh-
borhood cafe after Nadia has dumped him, and he brings him home. Ahmad
returns carrying his dying brother, who was lured from the neighborhood by
illicit profit and who has now been wounded in a business-related shoot-out.





318 | Joel Gordon


   Lay ya Banafsij is a difficult film to categorize, for it is at once reverential
and deconstructive. In its deconstruction of the mid-1950s melodrama-
and by implication an entire genre-it reflects the cynicism, prevalent in an
entire corpus of remakes produced since the 1970s, that speaks to the shat-
tered dreams of a cosmopolitan modernist ethos rooted in the early decades
of the twentieth century. That lost world was personified by another popular
singer and film star, Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab, who became 'Abd al-
Halim's great patron. Since 1977, however, the ethos that has been increas-
ingly recalled on film is not that exemplified by 'Abd al-Wahhab's cosmo-
politan modernism but rather that of his young proteg6's social revolution.
   As in the screen personification of the middle-class son, 'Abd al-Wahhab
aspired for more; when he attained higher social status, he wore it well. In
his wide-lapelled suits and tilted tarbush (fez), he was as dapper as Fred
Astaire. 'Abd al-Halim, on the other hand, may attain success, but he does
not wear it well. Success does not spoil him; he never abandons his modest
roots, his friends, or his fundamental baladi (native/indigenous) tastes.
When he makes it-as in Ma'budat al-Jamahir-leaving the alley for an
elegant villa, trading in his threadbare suit for silk robes and his modest
repast for an elaborate buffet, he still prefers to hang out with old chums and
eat from the common ful (bean) pot.
   In this respect, the Nightingale's persona corresponds to ever-present
populist images of the Ra'is. Nasser is fondly recalled by many, whether in
the street or in the halls of influence, as a figure who tempered success and
power with modest appetite and the common touch. That persona, so vivid
in the popular memory of the Nasser generation, has been recaptured with
striking impact in the recent hit film Nasir 56 (1996), a clarion call to
counter post-Nasserist efforts to officially erase the Ra'is.34 The positioning
of 'Abd al-Halim/Nasser in the films described above is clearly marked by
textual and/or visual juxtaposition: the anthems, the references to Nasser-
era projects, and even pictures of the two side by side (in Lay ya Banafsij).


Postscript: "'Abd al-Halim Is Always with Us"

To the generation that both rules and struggles against the constraints of a
state that is still too dominant, 'Abd al-Halim personifies the idealistic
dreams of lost youth. No one personifies contemporary cynicism better than
master comic 'Adil Imam. For over two decades, on screen and stage, Imam
has been the most satirically vocal and physically comical exponent of com-
moner outrage. No wonder he has played the downtrodden everyman in the
most successful and illuminating, cynically altered remakes of the optimistic
classics of the pre-Nasserist cinema.35 Imam's movies-especially his recent





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 319


collaborations with director Sharif 'Arafa and scenarist Wahid Hamid-
speak forthrightly, if always in comic mood, to the disjunctures of a society
whose social revolution, for all its faults, has been systematically dismantled
since the infitah.
   In his most enduring work, Al-Irhab wal-Kabab (Terrorism and Shish
Kabob, 1992), he and his collaborators took on the behemoth symbol of all
that has gone wrong in Egypt, the towering bureaucratic nerve center-and
nervous breakdown-of internal affairs, the Mugama'.36 The story revolves
around how an average Egyptian-as he describes himself to the press at the
end of the movie-inadvertently seizes the building and takes its thousands
of occupants hostage. He does this after returning every working day for a
full week to join the chaotic parade of fellow citizens passing from one office
to the next in search of an official signature to effect what should be a simple
action (in his case, the transfer of his two children to a nearby neighborhood
school). He never does find the elusive Mr. Midhat-only his phone-bound
secretary and eternally-at-prayer subordinate. Confronted by an insensitive,
faceless bureaucracy, the Imam character loses his temper and winds up
holding a security guard's Kalashnikov.
   The ensuing pathos-tinged comedy bears little resemblance to anything
produced by 'Abd al-Halim. With his comically expressive face, 'Adil Imam
in no way recalls the Nightingale. Yet here, too, 'Abd al-Halim lurks in the
wings. He croons in the background when our hero tries to grab a few
moments of peace at a local sandwich shop. Returning home to a sleeping
flat on a Thursday night-with a weekly Friday respite upcoming-Imam
turns to the Nightingale, first singing love lyrics ("Ahwak" again) while
undressing (albeit noisily and increasingly irritated), then resorting to the
tape player to set a romantic mood. Alas, he fails to rouse, let alone arouse,
his sleeping wife. "What's with the 'Abd al-Halim at this hour?" she com-
plains, finally awake. '"Abd al-Halim is always with us in our thoughts," he
protests. "Life's pressures make us forgetful, but we remember him as soon
as things are not so bad."
   If the Nightingale's love songs fail to spark passion, what hopes for soci-
ety remain? This is where nostalgia and cynicism converge: in the playful
romantic antics of a downtrodden husband, the daydreams of a depressed
wife, the souring memories of combat veterans who find national triumph
undone by corruption, the sexual jealousy of bosom buddies, the reverence
of disconsolate youth who sit at the feet of the dead star, hoping to soak up
the baraka of a bygone era. 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz cannot be appreciated
outside the Nasser-era context. The films I have referenced all make serious
statements of social criticism directed at what has followed. 'Atif al-Tayyib
and Radwan al-Kashif target the pervasive corruption that invades the





320 | Joel Gordon


baladi quarter, undermining communal values. Muhammad Khan looks up
the ladder at officialdom to find the same decay. Khayri Bishara, with his
humor-laced contempt for the nouveau elite,37 provides the most upbeat
finale. His hero stays true to friends and class, and his ending, against the
grain of contemporary social cinema, is happy. Yet by trying to re-create the
conventional feel-good musicals of a bygone era, his homage, too, reminds
historically conscious viewers that their "sweet days" ended so long, long ago.

Filmography

Films of 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (in order of release)
   1955. Lahn al-Wa fa' (Faithful tune), dir. Ibrahim 'Imara; female lead,
Shadia.
   1955. Ayyamna al-Hilwa (Our sweet days), dir. Hilmi Halim; female
lead, Fatin Hamama.
   1955. Layali al-Hubb (Nights of love), dir. Hilmi Rafla; female lead,
Amal Farid.
   1956. Ayyam wa-Layali (Days and nights), dir. Henry Baracat; female
lead, Ayman.
   1956. Maw 'ud Gharam (Rendezvous of love), dir. Henry Baracat; female
lead, Fatin Hamama.
   1956. Dalila, dir. Muhammad Karim; female lead, Shadia.
   1957. Banat al-Yawm (Today's girls), dir. Henry Baracat; female lead,
Magda.
   1957. Al-Wisada al-Khaliya (The empty pillow), dir. Salah Abu Sayf; fe-
male lead, Lubna 'Abd al-'Aziz.
   1957. Fata Ahlami (My prince charming), dir. Hilmi Rafla; female lead,
Mona Badr.
   1958. Shar'i al-Hubb (Love Street), dir. 'Izz al-Din Zulficar; female lead,
Sabah.
   1959. Hikayat Hubb (Love story), dir. Hilmi Halim; female lead, Maryam
Fakhr al-Din.
   1960. Al-Banat wal-Sayf (Girls and summer), dir. Fatin 'Abd al-Wahhab;
female lead, Zizi al-Badrawi.
   1961. Yawm min 'Umri (A day in my life), dir. 'Atif Salim; female lead,
Zubayda Tharwat.
   1962. Al-Khitaya (The sin), dir. Hasan al-Imam; female lead, Nadia Lutfi.
   1967. Ma 'budat al-Jamahir (The people's idol), dir. Hilmi Rafla; female
lead, Shadia.
   1968. Abi Fawq al-Shajara (Father's up a tree), dir. Husayn Kamal; fe-
male lead, Nadia Lutfi.





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 321


Other Films Cited (alphabetical)

1949. Al-'Aysh wal-Milh (Bread and salt), dir. Husayn Fawzi.
1954. Bint al-Akabir (Daughter of nobility), dir. Anwar Wagdi.
1992. Ice Cream fi Glim (Ice cream in Gleem), dir. Khayri Bishara.
1992. Al-Irhab wal-Kabab (Terrorism and shish kabob), dir. Sharif 'Arafa.
1990. Kaburya (Crabs), dir. Khayri Bishara.
1993. Lay ya Banafsij (Violets are blue), dir. Radwan al-Kashif.
1996. Nasir 56 (Nasser 56), dir. Muhammad Fadil.
1983. Sawwaq al-Autobis (The bus driver), dir. 'Atif al-Tayyib.
1957. Sijin Abu Za'bal (The prisoner of Abu Za'bal), dir. Niyazi Mustafa.
1987. Zawjat rajul Muhim (Wife of an important man), dir. Muhammad
Khan.

Songs (sung by 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz unless otherwise noted)

"Ahwak" (I love you); lyrics by Husayn al-Sayyid; music by Muhammad
'Abd al-Wahhab.
   "Ana lak 'ala Tul" (I will always be yours); lyrics by Ma'mun al-Shinawi;
music by Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab.
   "Bil-Ihdan" (Embrace); lyrics by Salah Jahin; music by Kamal al-Tawil.
   "Hikayat Sha'b" (The people's story); lyrics by Ahmad Shafiq Kamil;
music by Kamal al-Tawil.
   "Lay ya Banafsij" (Why, 0 violet?); lyrics by Bayram al-Tunsi; music by
Riyad al-Sunbati, sung by Salih 'Abd al-Hayy.
   "Liga"' (Encounter); lyrics by Salah 'Abd al-Sabur; music by Kamal al-
Tawil.
   "Al-Mas'uliya" (Responsibility); lyrics by Salah Jahin; music by Kamal
al-Tawil.
   "Rasif Nimra Khamsa" (Platform #5); lyrics by Midhat al-'Adil; music/
performance by 'Amr Diab.
   "Sura" (Picture); lyrics by Salah Jahin; music by Kamal al-Tawil.
   "Al-Watan al-Akbar" (The greater nation); lyrics by Ahmad Shafiq Kamil;
music by Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab.


Notes

   1. For the origin of the nickname "Nightingale," see Majdi al-'Imrusi, A 'azz al-
Nass (Cairo: 'Adil al-Balak, 1994), 105.
   2. The list of popular books about 'Abd al-Halim is ever-growing. Only the most
helpful are cited in this essay. The most visible tell-all text is Munir 'Amr, Al-Nisa'fi
Hayat 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo: Madbuli al-Saghir, 1995).





322 | Joel Gordon


   3. Joel Gordon, "Secular and Religious Memory in Egypt: Recalling Nasserist
Civics," Muslim World 87, no. 2 (April 1997): 107.
   4. Joel Gordon, "Nasser 56/Cairo 96: Reimaging Lost Community," in Walter
Ambrust, ed., Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle
East and Beyond (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 161-81.
   5. Gabriel Rosenbaum's contribution to this volume raises similar comparisons
and makes a nice companion piece to this essay.
   6. When Arab leaders gathered in Egypt to assess the election of Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, the theme song for official radio and televi-
sion coverage was the 1958 anthem of Egyptian-Syrian unity, "Al-Watan al-Akbar"
(The greater nation). Egyptian television broadcast footage of gala performances of
Egyptian singers, with Abd al-Halim as the featured lead, singing under Muhammad
Abd al-Wahhab's stiff baton. For the rerelease of Abd al-Halim's anthems, see Wa'il
Qandil, "Aghani al-Thawra fi Mabahith Amn al-Dawla," Al-'Arabi (Cairo), July 24,
1995.
   7. For Abd al-Halim's biography, see 'Adil Hasanayn, Ayyamna al-Hilwa: Abd
al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo: Amadu, 1995); and 'Imrusi, A 'azz al-Nass.
   8. He was urged forward by Tawil, who had long tried to convince Abd al-Halim
to focus on vocals; see 'Imrusi, A 'azz al-Nass, 65.
   9. 'Imrusi, A 'azz al-Nass, 54-64.
   10. Abd al-Halim Hafiz, Hayati (Cairo: Ruz al-Yusuf, 1977), 147-48.
   11. 'Imrusi, A 'azz al-Nass, 73; Hasanayn, Ayyamna al-Hilwa, 31.
   12. Ibid., 93-127.
   13. Lyricist Ahmad Shafiq Kamil to author, 22 May 1996.
   14. The most often recalled are Bil-Ihdan, al-Mas'uliyya, and especially Sura.
   15.' Imrusi, A'azz al-Nass, 287-8 8.
   16. Virginia Danielson, The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and
Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1997).
   17. Fatin Hamama received a top billing, Sharif was second, and Ramzi was listed
among the supporting players. Abd al-Halim received special billing as a featured
player. The film, his first, is often listed second because it opened four days after Lahn
al-Wa fa' (Faithful Tune) in March 1955.
   18. Kamal al-Shaykh (personal conversation with author, 23 January 1996) re-
called engaging in serious discussions with Abd al-Halim but did not remember
details of the project.
   19. Kamal al-Malakh and Abd al-Mun'im Sa'd, Abd al-Halim Hafiz wal-Sinima
(Cairo: n.a., 1977), 46-47; 'Imrusi, A 'azz al-Nass.
   20. Walter Ambrust, Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1996).
   21. Joel Gordon, "Class-Crossed Lovers: Popular Film and Social Change in
Nasser's New Egypt," Quarterly Review of Film and Video 18, no. 4 (2001): 385-
96. Classic examples in the 'Abd al-Halim canon are Layali al-Hubb, Hikayat Hubb,
and Yawm min 'Umri.
   22. Here the classics are Al-Wisada al-Khaliya, Al-Banat wal-Sayf, and Al-Khitaya.





'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and Nasserist Longings | 323


   23. Malakh and Sa'd, Abd al-Halim Hafiz, 47.
   24. Egyptian films are replete with images of honorable, modest heroes riding
bicycles. Examples include Al-'Aysa wal-Milh, in which the young alley lawyer
proudly owns a bike; Bint al-Akabir, in which phone repairman Anwar Wagdi and
comic sidekick Isma'il Yasin ride to a house call; and Sijin Abu Za'bal, in which the
good-hearted Muhsin Sirhan is framed by having drugs planted on his bicycle.
   25. In 'Abd al-Halim films, good girls also take public transportation (Fatin
Hamama in Ayyamna al-Hilwa) or ride bikes (Magda in Banat al-Yawm, Nadia Lutfi
in Al-Khitaya).
   26. Egyptians commonly draw a dividing line between the films made before
1970, which were with only a few exceptions in black and white, and those which
followed, when color became the dominant mode of film production.
   27. Lizbeth Malkmus, "The 'New' Egyptian Cinema: Adapting Genre Conven-
tions to a Changing Society," Cineaste 16 (1988): 30-33.
   28. Lila Abu Lughod, "The Objects of Soap Opera: Egyptian Television and the
Cultural Politics of Modernity," in Daniel Miller, ed., Worlds Apart: Modernity
through the Prism of the Local (New York: Routledge, 1995), 204.
   29. Kamal Ramzi, "Sawwaq al-Autobis: Injaz Jil al-Shabab fi Majal al-Sinima,"
Al-Funun (Cairo), May/June 1984, 65-67. This moral decay is represented most
poignantly by Hasan's sister and brother-in-law in Port Said, black marketeers in the
city that had steadfastly resisted British invasion in 1956.
   30. Khan cowrote the original story for Sawwaq al-Autobis.
   31. For the notion of star power and fame, see George Custen, Bio/Pics: How
Hollywood Constructed Public History (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University
Press, 1992), 34, 47.
   32. Kashif's dedication is "To the writers of the '60s and the joy of composition,"
but his plot inspiration is clearly rooted a decade earlier. The title refers to a song
performed by Salih 'Abd al-Hayy.
   33. The first clip is the famous slap delivered by 'Imad Hamdi in Al-Khitaya, and
one of 'Abd al-Halim's most famous scenes.
   34. See Gordon, "Nasser 56/Cairo 96."
   35. Ambrust, Mass Culture, 165-73, 206-12, 214-17.
   36. Although built before the Free Officers' coup, and already a disaster by July
23, 1952, the Mugama' is often taken to be symbolic of the public sector state.
   37. See especially in his earlier Kaburya.











14



Nasser and Nasserism as Perceived in Modern
Egyptian Literature through Allusions to Songs

    Gabriel M. Rosenbaum





Introduction

Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser and the period of his rule left such an impact on
modern Egyptian society that it is not surprising to find allusions to both in
Egyptian literature.1 Such allusions are often made through the use of songs
that are identified with Nasser and his era. Songs play an important role in
modern Egyptian culture; composers and singers who are considered great
are admired in all strata of society, and their lyrics are memorized by people
of all ages.2 Allusions to songs are very common in modern Egyptian litera-
ture, as well as in conversation.3 In the early 1990s, journalist Lutfi al-Khuli
told me that in his opinion many stanzas from Egyptian songs expressing
certain truths and a kind of wisdom enjoy a status similar to popular prov-
erbs. In his opinion, an allusion to such a stanza is equivalent to using a
proverb, since it delivers the same kind of message.
   The Nasser period generated a wave of patriotic songs praising the achieve-
ments of the July 1952 Revolution, the new regime, and Nasser himself.
These songs, known as wataniyyat, became part of the cultural heritage.
Many have remained in the Egyptian collective memory and are often used
to allude to Nasser and his time. Notwithstanding their central position in
modern Egyptian culture and the attention they receive from critics and
scholars in Egypt and the Arab world, these songs have not enjoyed the
attention they merit from Western historians of modern Egypt.4 I hope that
this study will demonstrate the role that these songs and their performers
played in Nasserite Egypt and continue to play in modern Egyptian litera-
ture.
   In Egypt today, many literary and nonliterary texts are written in collo-





                                Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 325

quial Arabic ('Ammiyya) as opposed to standard literary Arabic (Fusha).
Most songs are also written and performed in the colloquial, thus facilitating
the incorporation of elements of such songs into Egyptian literature. This is
especially true for modern drama, which is written mostly in colloquial Ara-
bic.5 The stage offers numerous possibilities for creating an allusion: The
actors may sing the song, or its tune may be played under the dialogue that
alludes to the song, or a recording of the original performance of the song
may be played, with or without the actors joining in.
   Nasser was the dominant political figure in the 1950s and 1960s; to this
day, Egyptians find it difficult to talk about him with equanimity. Many still
remember him with admiration or with anger and bitterness. Nasser had a
magnetic personality and was an inflammatory speaker. He was the first
Arab leader to speak publicly in 'Ammiyya or to purposefully insert ele-
ments of 'Ammiyya into his speeches.6 His voice is familiar to Egyptians to
this day. Volumes of his speeches were published during his lifetime, and
tapes are still sold in local shops and stands. Nasser and his era often serve
as the background or even the pivot on which a certain literary text is based.7
References to both the man and the period are often made through allusions
to songs and sometimes to their performers. In this chapter, I shall discuss
this kind of allusion and its function in modern Egyptian literature.

The Revolution's Singers

The most popular singers in Egypt during the second half of the twentieth
century were Umm Kulthum (1898-1975), Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab
(1901-91), and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (1929-77). Of the three, Umm Kulthum
was regarded as the greatest, and 'Abd al-Halim was the most popular and
undoubtedly the one most closely associated with the revolution.8 'Abd al-
Wahhab also enjoyed recognition as a composer. He and Umm Kulthum
were popular before the revolution, whereas 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz grew with
the revolution.
   Although all three performed songs in the service of the revolution, 'Abd
al-Halim is the one most identified with its messages. He performed most of
the popular songs of that period, making him "the voice of the revolution"
and "the voice of the president."9 Nasser called him a national treasure
(tharwa qawmiyya), and more than twenty years after his death, he is still
regarded as the most popular Egyptian singer.10 Although young Egyptians
may not be familiar with Nasserite ideology, they do know 'Abd al-Halim's
songs, which convey elements of that ideology.
   Two cartoons reflect the position of 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz in modern
Egyptian culture. In the first, the singer is shown hovering in the sky like an
angel, while Egyptian Song is depicted as a woman leaning on a crutch,





326 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


symbolizing its sad state, who says to him, "Ahwak, bahlam bik, khusara"
(I love you, I dream about you, it is pity)." These three short sentences are all
allusions to "sentimental" songs that 'Abd al-Halim made famous, and they
convey the idea that the Egyptian Song was not the same without him, eleven
years after his death. In the second cartoon, a father, holding an issue of Al-
Ahram whose headline reads "History Is an Elective Subject," angrily re-
bukes his son: "Izayy ya wad mish fakir di sawrit min, di bita'it 'Abd al-
Halim, ya hmar!" (Son, why don't you remember whose revolution it is? It
is of 'Abd al-Halim, you ass!)12
   Most of the leading writers, composers, and singers of that time took part
in creating the wataniyyat, but the most dominant ones were 'Abd al-Halim,
poet Salah Jahin, and composer Kamal al-Tawil.13 'Adil Hasanayn, who has
devoted several books to Egyptian songs and singers, calls these three "al-
thaluth al-mubdi' lil-wataniyyat" (the creative trinity of the wataniyyat),
and the critic Sami al-Salamuni calls them "thulathi Jahin Kamal al-Tawil
'Abd al-Halim" (the Jahin Kamal al-Tawil 'Abd al-Halim trio).14
   Nasser had a special relationship with the three leading singers and regu-
larly invited them to his table for the annual celebration of the July 1952


"I love you, I dream about you, it is pity." Al-Akhbar, March 29, 1988.





Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 327

e,., .4js'  e


"Son, why don't you remember whose revolution it is? It is of 'Abd al-Halim, you
ass!" A tribute to 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz in Ra'uf 'Iyad, 'Alam Ra 'uf lyad (Cairo: Mirit,
2000), 21.

Revolution.15 This close relationship is mentioned in numerous books and
articles published in Egypt in recent years. According to Virginia Danielson,
"Friendship developed between Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-Nasir during
the 1950s, and the connection between the two figures remains strong in the
collective memory to the present day. 'She was a powerful weapon for him,'
people said, suggesting that he made political use of her performances."
Danielson also quotes Ni'mat Ahmad Fu'ad, who said, "President 'Abd al-
Nasser gained much from his association with her. He always liked her and
he took the opportunity to befriend her." She describes the close personal
relations between the two and points out that "Umm Kulthum supported
the policies of the revolutionary government and cultivated friendships with
a number of the new national leaders."16 The singer also had a close relation-
ship with Nasser's wife.17
   The report about the conflict between Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-Halim
Hafiz demonstrates the power of Umm Kulthum and the influence that she
had over Nasser. Umm Kulthum was furious with 'Abd al-Halim, who not





328 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


only dared to criticize a new song of hers but also refused to retract his
criticism and to apologize. A few days later, he found that Egyptian radio
was no longer broadcasting any of his songs. One minister, a friend of 'Abd
al-Halim, promised him that he would speak with the president and solve
the problem, but a few days later he reported that he had failed. 'Abd al-
Halim had no choice but to go to Umm Kulthum and apologize. Umm
Kulthum, who had awaited that act, accepted his apology, and immedi-
ately after that 'Abd al-Halim could again be heard on Egyptian radio.
When Nasser himself called and told him that the problems with Egyptian
radio were over, 'Abd al-Halim then realized that Umm Kulthum had asked
Nasser to ban him and later to lift the ban and call him.18
   On October 21, 2001,I interviewed an old musician in Cairo who used to
work with both Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz. This musician told
me some amazing stories about Umm Kulthum's powerful personality and
the influence she had in Egypt. As an example, he told me that once he was
on his way with 'Abd al-Halim to Syria, where they were planning to per-
form. Before the airplane took off, the doors opened and he and several of
his colleagues were asked to leave the plane. It appeared that Umm Kulthum
was about to give her monthly performance on Egyptian radio, and she
would not consent to perform without these musicians. She was influential
enough to stop the plane and take the musicians out of the orchestra of 'Abd
al-Halim Hafiz, who could not protest. Another story he told me was that
Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-Halim were supposed to sing at the Officers'
Club on the occasion of the Revolution Day celebration. At that time Umm
Kulthum was angry at 'Abd al-Halim because he had criticized her. She
declared that he must wait outside the club until she finished singing, as she
did not want him present. Then she stood up and sang for more than seven
hours, preventing him from performing that night.
   In his book Sirri Giddan! Yusri al-Fakhrani shows that Nasser and 'Abd
al-Halim Hafiz were particularly close. Nasser saw to it that 'Abd al-Halim,
suffering from bilharzia, was sent abroad for treatment at state expense (39).
'Abd al-Halim referred to Nasser as baba, meaning daddy (39). According
to al-Fakhrani, Nasser used to call 'Abd al-Halim, listen to him sing through
the telephone, and ask for his opinion about his ideas; the singer always
responded as cautiously as possible (109-10). Nasser could appreciate the
influence of 'Abd al-Halim's songs because he himself would become so
excited when he heard these songs that his eyes were wet with tears (110).
Al-Fakhrani compares Nasser and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, finding similarities
in their personalities and activities, particularly in the realms of politics and
art: "For eighteen years Nasser practices art for the sake of politics, and
'Abd al-Halim practices politics for the sake of art!" (13).





                                Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 329

   Al-Fakhrani also compares the singer to Muhammad Hasanyn Haykal,
who reflected the regime's policy in his weekly articles: "Haykal writes and
'Abd al-Halim Hafiz sings"; "Haykal builds a wall around the press and
controls it, and 'Abd al-Halim builds a wall around singing and controls
it" (109). In al-Fakhrani's opinion, 'Abd al-Halim's songs were equal to
Nasser's speeches and Haykal's articles in their power to influence the
masses (110). Al-Fakhrani compares 'Abd al-Halim and Haykal to two
train rails on which Nasser rapidly rode to establish his leadership (110).
Because of his activity, al-Fakhrani describes 'Abd al-Halim as "the real
information ministry of Nasser" (50) and even defines him as a "political
party" (45).
   Umm Kulthum saw 'Abd al-Wahhab and 'Abd al-Halim as her rivals.
Nasser regarded himself as a patron of all three and interfered in their pri-
vate and artistic lives. For example, a story well known in Egypt is Nasser's
role in creating one of the most popular Arab songs ever. Nasser decided that
'Abd al-Wahhab would compose for Umm Kulthum, and he was very persis-
tent about it. The first result of this effort was the song "Inta 'Umri" (You
are my life),19 which became one of the most popular songs in the history of
Arab culture. There is practically no Arabic-speaking adult in the Middle
East who does not know this song, both lyrics and melody.


Allusions to Songs from the Nasserite Period

In Egyptian literature, occasional references to the quality of Egyptian songs
and singers can be found. Listening to songs of Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-
Halim not only is a sign of good musical taste but also proves something
about the quality of the listener. For example, in the play Crazy Sa' dun
(Sa'dun al-Magnun), by Lenin al-Ramli, when Sa'dun appears before a
medical committee, it turns out that on the day he was committed he walked
the streets and sang one of the songs of 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz. One of the
doctors reacts, "So he has good taste."20 In another play by the same author,
when a young man asks a father for his daughter's hand, the father asks
him, "Do you listen to the Lady?" meaning Umm Kulthum.21 In the play
Ma 'rakat Marid al-Edz (The struggle of the man sick with AIDS), by Galal
Muhammad, Hamida describes her meeting with a police officer at the po-
lice station: "I found the officer sitting, listening intently to the radio playing
a song of Umm Kulthum. I felt I could trust him when I found out that he
listens to Umm Kulthum."22
   In an early short play by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Al-Zammar (The piper, 1932),
Umm Kulthum is one of the characters.23 In one scene, her fans gather to
listen to her records.





330 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


   In a short story by Ihsan 'Abd al-Quddus, "Allah Allah ... ya Sitt" (God,
how wonderful, lady), friends gather to listen to Umm Kulthum's weekly
broadcast.24 "Is-Sitt" (the lady) is a general reference in Egypt to either Saint
Sayyida Zaynab or Umm Kulthum. Umm Kulthum has several admiring
ephitets, like "Sitt il-Kull" (the best of all ladies) and "Sayyidat al-Ghina al-
'Arabi" (the lady of Arab singing). Fans at her performances used to ex-
claim, "Allah Allah . . . ya Sitt," to express admiration.
   The attitude of the older generation toward the emergence of the young
'Abd al-Halim in the world of singing is reflected in the words of Saniyya
al-Mahdi in Nagib Mahfuz's story "Al-Baqi min al-zaman sa'a" (There is
one hour left). Saniyya, who is upset because her grandson is "indifferent
to 'Abd al-Wahhab and Umm Kulthum while he is enthusiastic about 'Abd
al-Halim," says about the new singers: "They are annoying, but every
generation has its own interest."25 This attitude, of course, changed rap-
idly.26
   'Abd al-Halim is so identified with the revolution that in Mahfuz's novel
Yawm Qatl al-Za'im (The day the leader was killed), he is mentioned by
'Ilwan Fawwaz Muhtashimi on the same level as Nasser: "We have lost our
first leader and our first singer."27 The same Muhtashimi, who is not happy
with Anwar al-Sadat, Nasser's successor, compares Sadat not to Nasser but
to 'Abd al-Halim, as a representative of the revolution, referring to 'Abd al-
Halim's famous nickname, the "Dark Nightingale" (al-'Andalib al-Asmar)
as opposed to "the dark crow," here a reference to the dark complexion of
Sadat. The two figures are not mentioned by their names, but the allusion
would immediately be identified by any Egyptian:
   la yugad shakhs yastahiqq al-ihtiram wala fi'l yastahiqq al-thiqa wala
   wa'd yastahiqq al-tasdiq. dhalika al-ta'rikh al-munhadir ma bayna al-
   'andalib al-asmar wal-ghurab al-asmar.
   There is no person who deserves respect nor an action that deserves
   trust nor a promise that deserves credence. That history descends be-
   tween the dark nightingale and the dark crow.28

   When "Ilwan Fawwaz Muhtashimi, in the above-mentioned novel, de-
scribes the beautiful days of Nasser's period, two short sentences in collo-
quial Arabic are integrated into the description, which is otherwise written
in Fusha. These sentences, which contradict the style of the text as well as the
principles of Mahfuz, who was always against writing in the colloquial, are
in fact an allusion to one of the revolution's songs, "Ihna -sh-Sha"b" (We are
the people), which was first performed by "Abd al-Halim Hafiz in July 1958,
after Nasser was elected president.29





                               Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 331

   Ayna al-ayam al-hilwa? kanat tugad ayam hilwa la shakka fi dhalika
   ... wakan yugad hiwar wadihk wahamas al-dirasa wasatwat al-butula.
   ihna -sh-sha'b. ikhtarnak min 'alb-i sh-sha'b. wal-hubb kan baqa min
   al-ward fi qirtas min al-amal.

   Where are the good old days? There were, no doubt, good days ... and
   there were, in those days, a dialogue, a laughter, the enthusiasm of
   studies and the power of heroism. We are the people. We chose you
   from the very heart of the people. And love was a bouquet of flowers
   wrapped up in hope.30

   Some literary works are replete with allusions to songs that become a
dominant element in the text. Such are the novel The Time of 'Abd al-Halim
Hafiz (Zaman 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz) and the plays Bus Station (Mahattit
Utubis), Crazy Sa' dun (Sa'dun al-Magnun), and The Problem, the Shame,
and the Rescue (al-Qadiyya wal-'Ar wal-Khalas). Many events from the
Nasser period are recalled in these texts, and there are numerous allusions to
songs identified with the events mentioned in the plays.
   The Time of 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, by Mahmud Qasim, is a nostalgic
novel that depicts the Nasser period through the songs of 'Abd al-Halim.
This novel contains many allusions to these songs, both the patriotic and
the sentimental ones. I will quote only one example here, in which the path
of Egypt with Nasser from 1952 to 1967 is depicted by a joke that creates
puns through allusions to five songs of 'Abd al-Halim. Three of these are
wataniyyat ("Sura," "Ya Ahlan bil-Ma'arik," and "Idrab") and two are
sentimental ("Gana -1-Hawa" and "Wayl"):

   sa'altu:

   - hal sami'tum akhir nukta?

   - lam antazir hatta yu'dhan li an aqul al-nukta.

   - fi al-bidaya ahassu bil-ghurur faghannu "sura kullina kida 'ayzin
   sura" wa'indama badat al-sura gamila waqafu yughannuna "ya ahlan
   bil-ma'arik" wabisur'a ga'at al-ma'raka, wabisur'a ghannu "idrab ...
   idrab. lagl-i -1-kubar ... lagl-i s-sighar" wi-hoba ... ga'a yadribu fadu-
   riba madha yaf'al? lam yakun amamahu siwa ann yaqul "illi shabakna
   yikhallisna." lakin man shabakhum lam yukhallishum ... faqal "il-
   wayl il-wayl... ya -[Yu] mmah ... il-wayl."

   I asked:


Have you heard the latest joke?





332 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


     I did not wait until I would be permitted to tell the joke.

     In the beginning they felt pride so they sang, "Picture, we all want a
   picture," and when the picture seemed beautiful they stood up singing,
   "Welcome, you wars," and quickly the war did come, and quickly they
   sang, "Shoot, shoot, for the sake of the older ones, for the sake of the
   young ones." And all of a sudden, he who came to shoot was himself
   shot. What could he do? He had no choice but to say, "The one who
   got us involved will rescue us."31 But the one who got them involved
   did not rescue them, so he said, "Woe is me, woe is me, oh Yumma."32

   The Problem, the Shame, and the Rescue traces the history of Egypt from
the June 1967 War to the October 1973 War, through the story of a young
Egyptian couple.33 Throughout the play, the appropriate atmosphere is cre-
ated through allusions to songs performed by 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz and other
singers. In most cases, as is clear from the stage directions, these songs are
played in the background. For example, "We listen to one of the songs of the
year 1967" (74); "We see on the screen and listen to the song by Fayda
Kamil: I will fight to the last drop of my blood, like my father said to my
uncle" (90). On a few occasions, lyrics are integrated into the dialogue, as in
the following example:
   Sadiq: id-darb-i lissa mustamirr..

     [ughniyyat 'Abd al-Halim: "khalli -s-silah sahi."]

   Sadiq: aywa.. brafu.. 'alek.. khalli -s-silah sahi.. iw'a yinam ya wlad
   abadan.. [yughanni 'Abd al-Halim.] khalli -s-silah sahi.

   Sadiq: The shooting continues.

     ['Abd al-Halim's song: "Let the Weapon Be Awake."]

   Sadiq: Yes, well done. Let the weapon be awake. Do not let it ever fall
   asleep, boys. ['Abd al-Halim sings.] Let the weapon be awake. (127)

   Military songs constitute part of the wataniyyat. When Egypt's wars are
mentioned in plays, military songs identified with those wars may be heard
in the background, helping to create a warlike atmosphere. In the play
Mahattit Utubis, when Safiyya, Kamal, and Bilya reminisce about the Sinai
War, one hears in the background the war song "Wallah Zaman ya Silahi"
(It's been a long time, my weapon), performed by Umm Kulthum. This song
served under Nasser as the national anthem. Its opening lines are integrated
into the dialogue in such a way that lyrics (whose textual order is kept intact)
alternate with lines spoken by the characters. In the printed text, the name of





                                Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 333

Umm Kulthum appears in this scene as one of the figures, although it is clear
that the song is meant to be heard from a recording, since she is not a char-
acter in the play:

   Umm Kulthum: wallah zaman ya silahi.

   Kamal: hanihzimhum..

   Umm Kulthum: ishta't-i lak fi kifahi.

   Bilya: nazlin bil-barashut..

   Safiyya: yib'a kalb-i ibn-i kalb-i minhum yigi 'uddami wa-na a'ta'u
   hitat!

   Umm Kulthum: iz'aq wiqul ana sahi ya harb wallah zaman..

   Umm Kulthum: By God, it has been a long time, my weapon.

   Kamal: We shall defeat them.

   Umm Kulthum: I have missed you in my struggle.

   Bilya: They are coming down with parachutes,

   Safiyya: If just one of those dogs, sons of dogs, comes at me, I will tear
   him to bits!

   Umm Kulthum: Shout and say: "War, I am awake, so much time has
   passed."34

   The Nasser period is further evoked in this play by an allusion to 'Abd al-
Halim's sentimental song '"Ala Add ish-Sho' (illi fi 'iyuni)" (According to
the longing [in my eyes]) (99). Later, the song "Sura" is heard (100), and
Nasser's death and funeral are hinted at by 'Abd al-Halim's 1958 song "Ya
Gamal ya Habib al-Malayin" (Oh, Gamal, beloved by the millions) (104).
   In The Problem, the Shame, and the Rescue, the change from Nasser's
era to Sadat's, from defeat to victory and from despair to pride, is marked
several times through allusions to "Let the Weapon Be Awake," identified
with the period after the October 1973 War and performed by 'Abd al-
Halim.35
   The 1992 play Crazy Sa' dun is replete with allusions, mostly to songs
from the Nasser period. The atmosphere of that era is re-created with the
help of familiar songs, by playing recordings of them, mentioning their
names, and actually performing parts of them. The following are some typi-
cal examples; the first one is heard when Sa'dun mentions the union between
Egypt (the southern region) and Syria (the northern region):





334 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


   Sa'dun: kanit ayamha -l-wahda mawguda ben il-iqlim ish-shimali wil-
   iqlim il-ganubi! (ughniyyat min il-muski lisu' il-hamidiyya ana 'arfa -
   s-sikka liwahdiyya).

   Sa'dun: In those days there was a union between the northern region
   and the southern region! [Song "From al-Muski to al-Hamidiyya Mar-
   ket, I know the way by myself."] (87)

   This is an allusion to a song performed by the Lebanese singer Sabah from
the time of the union between Syria and Egypt. Al-Muski is a famous market
in Cairo, and al-Hamidiyya is a famous market in Damascus. When Sa'dun
tells Wafa that his brother Hagras went to participate in building the Aswan
High Dam, he and Wafa sing the opening line of the song "Al-Sadd al-'Ali"
(The high dam, also known as "Hikayit Sha'b," The story of a people),
which tells the story of building the dam:

   Sa'dun: wa-khuya hagras rah yishtaghal fi -s-sadd il-'ali wimshina
   nihtif.

   Al-ithnan: 'ulna hanibni wa-adi ihna banena is-sadd il-'ali.

   Sa'dun: And my brother Hagras went to work on the high dam and we
   walked shouting.

   Both: We said we shall build, and here we are, we did build the high
   dam. (87)

   In several places in the play, when wars are mentioned, 'Abd al-Halim's
song "ya Ahlan bil-Ma'arik" (Welcome, battles) is integrated in various
ways. In the following example, the song may either be heard on the radio or
sung by the actor, or both:
   Sa'dun: ir-radyu biyzi' marshat aho. [yagri nahwa al-gihaz.] ya ahlan
   bil-ma'arik ya bakht-i min yisharik.

   Sa'dun: The radio is playing martial music. [He runs toward the re-
   ceiver.] Welcome, battles, lucky are those that take part in you. (90)

   In the second example, the song is performed by the actor alone:
   Sa'dun: [yughammid 'aynayhi wayutamtimu hamisan ka'annahu
   yaqra'u ta'widha.] ya ahlan bil-ma'arik.. ya bakht-i min yisharik.

   Sa'dun: [Closes his eyes and murmurs quietly, as if mouthing an in-
   cantation.] Welcome, battles, lucky are those that take part in you.
   (97)





                                Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 335

   And in the third example, only a recording is used:
     [nasma' bidayat ughniyyat "ya ahlan bil-ma'arik" bisawt khafid.]
   Al-sawt: ya ahlan bil-ma'arik.. ya bakht-i min yisharik.

     [We hear the beginning of the song "Welcome, battles," in a low
   voice.]
   The voice: Welcome, battles. Lucky are those that take part in you.
   (101-2)

   The role of 'Abd al-Halim as Nasser's "real information ministry" can be
seen, for example, in the songs "al-Mas'uliyya" (The responsibility) and "ya
Ahlan bil-Ma'arik," in which the singer gives a simple explanation of the
May 1962 National Charter of Nasser. Allusions to this charter are made
several times in the play (51, 56-57, 129).
   Allusions to the Nasser period are occasionally also made in order to
illuminate issues in contemporary Egypt, by linking them with Nasserite
Egypt. Such is the case of the song "Sura, Sura" (Picture, picture) in the title
of a short play by Lenin al-Ramli, Kullina 'Ayzin Sura (We all want a pic-
ture).36 The title is, of course, an allusion to the famous song. The back-
ground of the play is contemporary post-Nasserite Egypt. The main charac-
ter is an Egyptian who is taking pictures in a poor neighborhood, to the
indignation of the local inhabitants. The allusion makes the reader think
simultaneously of the play's plot as well as of the song, its period, and its
message.
   A reference and a pun based on this song are made in a recent satirical
story by 'Ali Salim, entitled "Shura Shura Shura Kullina 'Awzin Shura"
(Shura, Shura, Shura, we all want Shura). Shura (close in sound to sura) is
here Maglis al-Shura, the upper house of Parliament, and the story criticizes
the special privileges that members of Parliament misuse.37
   The satirical story "Ihtifaliyyat Watani Habibi" (The celebration of my
beloved fatherland), by Is'ad Yunis, criticizes various aspects of behavior in
Cairo. Cairo here is nicknamed "Watani Habibi" (my beloved fatherland),
and the humor is largely based on allusions to the patriotic song "Il-Watan
il-Akbar" (The great fatherland), performed by 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz. This
song opens with the line "watani habibi il-watan il-akbar" (my beloved
fatherland, the great fatherland) and praises the glories of the Arab world.
Several times, while describing Cairene scenes, with both its local inhabit-
ants and visitors from the Arab world, the author cynically refers to Cairo
with the opening line of the song. For example, when describing the way in
which taxi drivers treat Egyptians and then Arab tourists, she says, "innahu





336 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


yahra' bikull al-himma lil-tarhib bi'abna watani habibi illi yom wara yom
amgadu bitikbar" [and he (the taxi driver) hurries with utmost care to wel-
come the sons of my beloved fatherland whose glories increase day after
day]. 38


Conclusion

In 1998, I edited the Hebrew translation of the play Sa' dun al-Magnun. I
found it necessary to add more than one hundred footnotes, mainly referring
to the numerous allusions to songs mentioned in the play. Without notes,
such texts would remain incomprehensible to the Israeli (as well as to the
Western) reader. When rethinking Nasserism, it should thus be borne in
mind that a large part of the legacy of the revolution is preserved in the
Egyptian collective memory by the songs of that period. These songs also
serve as a literary stock from which writers can take materials that create an
intimate dialogue with the Egyptian reader. This dialogue may seem like a
code to the non-Egyptian, and if we want to decipher it, we must not
ignore the key to the cipher: the wataniyyat by 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, Umm
Kulthum, Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab, and other singers of their time.


Songs Recorded by Abd al-Halim Hafiz

'"Ala Add ish-Sho' (illi fi 'iyuni)" [According to the longing (in my eyes)].
Lyrics: Muhammad 'Ali Ahmad. Music: Kamal al-Tawil. EMI/Sawt al-fann,
0946 31821-2 2 (compact disc).
   "Gana -1-Hawa." Lyrics: Muhammad Hamza. Music: Baligh Hamdi. EMI/
Sawt al-fann, 0946 310519-2 0 (compact disc).
   "Khalli -s-Silah Sahi." Lyrics: Ahmad Shafiq Kamil. Music: Kamal al-
Tawil. New Sound (audiocassette).
   "Hikayit Sha'b." Lyrics: Ahmad Shafiq Kamil. Music: Kamal al-Tawil.
Hafni, 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, pp. 76-78.
   "Khusara Fura'ik ya Gara." Lyrics: Ma'mun al-Shinawi. Music: Baligh
Hamdi. New Original (audiocassette).
   "Ihna -sh-Sha'b." Lyrics: Salah Jahin. Music: Kamal al-Tawil. Sawt al-
fann, T.C. 156 (audiocassette).
   "Al-Mas'uliyya." Lyrics: Salah Jahin. Music: Kamal al-Tawil. Sawt al-
fann, T.C. 145 (audiocassette).
   "Sura." Lyrics: Salah Jahin. Music: Kamal al-Tawil. Sawt al-fann, T.C.
146 (audiocassette).
   "Il-Watan il-Akbar." Lyrics: Ahmad Shafiq Kamil. Music: Muhammad
'Abd al-Wahhab. EMI/Sawt al-fann, 0946 310547-2 3 (compact disc).





                                  Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 337

   "Il-Wayl il-Wayl." Lyrics: Salih Gawdat. Music: Muhammad 'Abd al-
Wahhab. New Original (audiocassette).
   "Ya Ahlan bil-Ma'arik." Lyrics: Salah Jahin. Music: Kamal al-Tawil.
Sawt al-fann, T.C. 156 (audiocassette).
   "Ya Gamal ya Habib al-Malayin." Lyrics: Isma'il al-Habruk. Music:
Kamal al-Tawil. Sawt al-fann, T.C. 156 (audiocassette).


Notes

   1. Allusion in a work of literature is defined as a reference, explicit or implicit, to
another literary work or passage or to a person, place, or event. See M. H. Abrams,
A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. (Philadelphia: Harcourt Brace College, 1999),
9-10; Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz, Literary Terms: A Dictionary (New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), 9. An allusion, however, is not a mere reference; it
"may enrich the work by association and give it depth. When using allusions, a
writer tends to assume an established literary tradition, a body of common knowl-
edge with an audience sharing that tradition, and an ability on the part of the audi-
ence to 'pick up' the reference." John A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms
and Literary Theory, 4th ed., rev. Claire E. Preston (London: Blackwell, 1998), 27.
"Since allusions are not explicitly identified, they imply a fund of knowledge that is
shared by an author and the audience for whom the author writes. Most literary
allusions are intended to be recognized by the generally educated readers of the
author's time, but some are aimed at a special coterie." Abrams, Glossary, 10. For a
detailed discussion of the literary allusion, see Ziva Ben-Porat, "The Poetics of Liter-
ary Allusion," Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature 1 (January
1976): 105-28; Ziva Ben-Porat, "Reader, Text, and Literary Allusion: Aspects in the
Actualization of Literary Allusions," Ha-Sifrut 26 (April 1978): 1-25 (Hebrew).
   2. Books and articles that deal with the musical activities and biographical details
of singers who are considered great, especially Umm Kulthum, 'Abd al-Wahhab, and
Abd al-Halim Hafiz, as well as anthologies of their songs, are constantly being
published in Egypt and in the Arab world. The items mentioned below are only a few
examples.
   About Egyptian songs and Egyptian music in general, see Virginia Danielson,
"The Arab Middle East," in Peter Manuel, ed., Popular Musics of the Non-Western
World: An Introductory Survey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 141-60,
256-59; Mustafa Fathi Ibrahim and Armand Pignol, l'Extase et le Transistor: La
Chante fgyptienne (Cairo: Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Economiques
Juridiques et Sociales, 1987); Kamal al-Nagmi, Al-Ghina al-Misri: Mutribun Wamu-
stami'un (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 1993); Kamal al-Nagmi, Turath al-Ghina al-'Arabi
(Cairo and Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1993); Muhammad Qabil, Mawsu'at al-Ghina al-
Misri fi al-Qarn al-7cshrin (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1999);
Ali Jihad Racy, "Music in Contemporary Cairo: A Comparative Overview," Asian
Music 13, no. 1 (1981): 4-26; Qastandi Rizq, Al-Musiqa al-Sharqiyya wal-Ghina al-
'Arabi (Cairo: Maktabat al-Dar al-'Arabiyya lil-Kitab, 1993); Salwa A. El-Shawan,





338 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


"Al-Musiqa al-'Arabiyya: A Category of Urban Music in Cairo, Egypt, 1927-1977,"
Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1980; 'Abd al-Hamid Tawfiq Zaki, A 'lam al-
Musiqa al-Misriyya lbra 150 Sana (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab,
1990); Abd al-Hamid Tawfiq Zaki, Al-Tadhawwuq al-Musiqi wa-Ta'rikh al-Musiqa
al-Misriyya (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1995).
   On Umm Kulthum in Western languages, see Hammadi Ben Hammed, Oum
Kalthoum (Paris: Alif Les Editions de la Mediteranee, 1997); Gabriele Braune, Umm
Kulthum: Ein Zeitalter der Musik in Agypten (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1994); Virginia
Danielson, The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society
in the Twentieth Century (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1997); Stefanie
Gsell, Umm Kulthum: Persunlichkeit und Faszination der ugyptischen Sdngerin
(Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 1998); Samir Megally, L'Egypte Chantee: 2-Oum
Kalthoum (Paris: Editions Samir Megally, 1994); Ysabel Saiah, Oum Kalsoum:
L' toile de l'Orient (Paris: Deno l, 1985). See also Selim Nassib's novel Oum (Paris:
Editions Balland, 1994), which tells the story of Umm Kulthum and the love of poet
Ahmad Rami for her. On Umm Kulthum in Arabic, see Suhayr Abd al-Fattah, Hayat
Sawt Umm Kulthum (Jidda and Cairo: Manshurat al-Khazindar); 'Abdallah Ahmad
'Abdallah, Umm Kulthum (Cairo: Markaz al-Raya lil-Nashr wal-I'lam, 1995);'cAdil
Hasanayn, Sirat al-Hubb: Umm Kulthum (Cairo: Amadu, 1999); 'Adil Hasanayn,
Wataniyyat Umm Kulthum wa-'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo: Amadu, 1999); Hayat
wa-Aghani Kawkab al-Sharq Umm Kulthum (Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, n.d.);
Khalil al-Misri and Mahmud Kamil, eds., Al-Nusus al-Kamila liGami' Aghani
Kawkab al-Sharq Umm Kulthum (Cairo: Muhammad al-Amin, 1975); Sa'd Sami
Ramadan, Umm Kulthum: Sawt fi Ta'rikh Umma (Lebanon: al-Sharika al-'Ala-
miyya lil-Kitab, 1997); Muhammad Rif'at, Mudhakkirat Kawkab al-Sharq Umm
Kulthum kama Rawatha Binafsiha (Beirut: Mu'assasat 'Izz al-Din, 1990). On the
relations between Umm Kulthum and the Free Officers, see Hanafi al-Mahallawi,
Abd al-Nasir wa-Umm Kulthum: 'Alaqa Khassa Giddan (Cairo: Markaz al-Qada
lil-Kitab wal-Nashr, 1992); Sa'id al-Shahhat, Umm Kulthum waHukkam Misr (Cairo:
Dar al-Fursan, 2000).
   On 'Abd al-Wahhab, see Mustafa 'Abd al-Rahman, Al-Shi'r fi Musiqa Abd al-
Wahhab (Egypt: Akhbar al-Yawm, 1989); Nabil Salim Azzam, "Muhammad 'Abd
al-Wahhab in Modern Egyptian Music," Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1990;
Ratiba al-Hafni, Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab: Hayatuhu waFannuhu (Cairo and
Beirut: Dar al-shuruq, 1991); 'Adil Hasanayn, 'Abd al-Wahhab (Cairo, n.d.); Samir
Megally, L'fgypte Chantie: 1-Mohammed Abdel Wahhab (Paris: Aditions Samir
Megally, 1992); 'Adil Nashid, "Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab: Fannan al-Qarn al-
'Ishrin," Sabah al-Kher, May 15, 2001, 39-46; Muhammad Rif'at, Mudhakkirat
Musiqar al-Gil Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab Kama Rawaha Binafsihi (Beirut:
Mu'assasat 'Izz al-Din, 1990); Mahmud Sultan, Abd al-Wahhab: Mu'gizat al-
Zaman fi al-Fann al-Musiqi wal-Ghina'i (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-'Amma lil-
Kitab, 1986). Al-Nahr al-Khalid (Kuwait and Cairo: Dar Su'ad al-Sabah, 1992)
contains conversations between 'Abd al-Wahhab and the playwright Sa'd al-Din
Wahba, presented in a series on Egyptian television (these conversations were pub-
lished in colloquial Egyptian).





                                 Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 339

   On 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, see 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo: Markaz al-Raya lil-
Nashr wal-I'lam, 1999); Samir Megally, L'Egypte Chant e: 3-Abd El-Halim Ha fez
(Paris: Editions Samir Megally, 1998); 'Adil al-Balk, 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo:
Dar al-Ma'arif, 1993); Abd al-Karim Abd al-'Aziz al-Gawadi, 'Abd al-Halim
Hafiz: Damir al-Hubb al-Mutakallim (Beirut and Baghdad: Dar al-Kitab al-'Ilmi and
Maktabat al-Iishtiraki, 1992); 'Adil Hasanayn, 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz: Aghani wa-
Ash ar (Cairo: Amadu, 1997);'Isam Hafni, 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz Dhalika al-Ustura
(Egypt, 1999); 'Adil Hasanayn, Ayyamuna al-Hilwa: 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Cairo:
Amadu, 1995);'cAdil Hasanayn, Wataniyyat;' Ali Nagi, Sinima 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz:
Bayna Sidq al-Ihsas.. wa-'CAbqariyyat al-Ada!-Mishwar al-'Andalib al-Asmar ma'a
al-Sinima al-Misriyya min "lahn al-Wa fa" ila "Abi Fawqa al-Shagara," 1954-1969
(Tanta: Dar Nagi lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi', 1989); Muhammad Rif'at, Mudhakkirat al-
'Andalib al-Asmar 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz kama Rawaha Binafsihi (Beirut: Mu'assasat
'Izz al-Din, 1990); al-Sayyid al-Shorbagi, Abd al-Halim Hafiz: Mishwar al-Magd
wal- 'Adhab (Cairo: al-Dar al-'Arabiyya lil-Kitab, 2000); Majid Tarad and Rabic
Muhammad Khalifa, Abd al-Halim Hafiz: Hayatuhu wa-Fannuhu (Tripoli, Leba-
non: al-Mu'assasa al-Haditha lil-Kitab, 1999).
   Articles about these singers constantly appear in the Egyptian press, especially on
the anniversaries of their deaths. Abd al-Halim Hafiz receives most of the attention,
with whole issues of weekly magazines replete with articles, interviews, and pictures
devoted to him, his career, and his personality. See Al-Kawakib; Akhbar al-Nugum;
Sabah al-Kher; Al-Sinima wal-Nas. Cheap editions of pocket books containing biog-
raphies and lyrics of the great singers, many of which are edited by Ahmad, are sold
in stands and on the street, e.g., Muhammad 'Ali Ahmad, 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz:
Hayatuhu wa-Rawa i' Aghanihi Kamila (Egypt: Maktabat Ragab, n.d.); Muham-
mad 'Ali Ahmad, 'Abd al-Wahhab: Rawa'i' Aghani 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Qadima wal-
Haditha (Cairo: Maktabat Kusta, n.d.); Muhammad 'Ali Ahmad, Al-'Andalib al-
Asmar 'Abd al-halim (Cairo: Maktabat Kusta, n.d.); Muhammad 'Ali Ahmad,
Sayyidat al-Ghina al-'Arabi Umm Kulthum: Hayatuha wa-Aghaniha (Cairo: Makta-
bat Nasir, n.d.).
   A series of three programs produced in France in 1990 offers interesting testi-
mony to the attitude of Egyptian culture (and Arab culture in general) toward Umm
Kulthum, Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, and Farid al-Atrash. The series, Les grandes
voix de la chanson arabe, cites prominent Egyptian cultural figures, such as Nagib
Mahfuz, as well as the man on the street. Produced by Arcadia Films, La Septe, and
Institut national de l'audiovisuel. Written by Simone Bitton. Directed by Claude
Guisard.
   A 1996 American film about Umm Kulthum, A Voice like Egypt, directed by
Michal Goldman, is based on Danielson's book, The Voice of Egypt. In addition, an
Egyptian television series about Umm Kulthum has recently been released. Songs of
Umm Kulthum, distributed in Egypt by Sawt al-Qahira (Sono-Cairo), and of 'Abd al-
Wahhab and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, distributed in Egypt by Sawt al-Fann, are avail-
able on audiocassettes and compact discs.
   3. See Gabriel M. Rosenbaum, "Allusions to Popular Songs in Modern Egyptian
Drama," in Clive Holes, ed., Proceedings of the Second International Conference of





340 | Gabriel M. Rosenbaum


l'Association Internationale pour la Dialectologie Arabe (Cambridge University,
1995), 197-206.
   4. There are a few exceptions. See Yoram Meital, "Revolutionizing the Past:
Historical Representation during Egypt's Revolutionary Experience, 1952-1962,"
Mediterranean Historical Review 12, no. 2 (December 1997): 60-77, in which he
describes the role of Egyptian songs and singers in spreading the ideas of the revolution.
See also "The National Songs and Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya," in Danielson, Voice, 164-67.
   5. See Gabriel M. Rosenbaum, "The Language of Dialogue in Modern Egyptian
Drama (Mainly since 1952)," Ph.D. diss., Tel-Aviv University, 1994 (Hebrew).
   6. On Nasser's speeches, see Clive Holes, "The Uses of Variation: A Study of the
Political Speeches of Gamal Abd al-Nasir," Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics 5
(1993): 13-45; Nathalie Mazrani, Aspects of Language Variation in Arabic Political
Speech-Making (Richmond, U.K.: Curzon, 1997).
   7. On this kind of literature, see Mustafa Bayumi, Burtireh: Gamal Abd al-Nasir
fi cUyun al-Adab al-'Arabi (Cairo: Dar al-Huda lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi', 1998). For
allusions to Nasser in the writings of Nagib Mahfuz, see Mustafa Bayumi, Mu'gam
A'lam Nagib Mahfuz (Cairo: Matabi' al-Ahram, 1997), 92-104. On allusions to
Nasser and the revolution in Egyptian and Arab films, see Ziyad Fayid, Al-Thawra
fi al-Sinima al-Misriyya: Yulyu 1952-Uktubar 1973 (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-
'Amma lil-Kitab, 1999).
   8. For example, Tariq al-Shinawi reports in Ruz al-Yusuf, no. 3283 (May 13,
1991), 3-7, that when the Sawt al-Fann record company released a few years earlier
two cassettes of patriotic songs, one by Abd al-Halim Hafiz and one by Abd al-
Wahhab, the tape by Abd al-Halim sold far better. See Walter Armbrust, Mass Cul-
ture and Modernism in Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 73.
   9. On the reasons for preferring Abd al-Halim to Umm Kulthum as the leading
singer of the revolution, see Yusri al-Fakhrani, Sirri Giddan! 'Abd al-Nasir, 'Abd al-
Halim (Cairo: Matabi' al-Ahram, 1993), 37.
   10. Shorbagi, 'Abd al-Halim, 100.
   11. Cartoon entitled "An evening with 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, 1045 p.m. (first
channel)," Al-Akhbar, March 29, 1988. Allusions are printed in boldface; on trans-
literating 'Ammiyya and Fusha, see note 20 below.
   12. Cartoon entitled "Memorial of the July Revolution," in Ra'uf 'Iyad, 'Alam
Ra'uf 7lyad (Cairo: Mirit, 2000), 21.
   13. On Salah Jahin, see Marilyn Booth, "Jahin, Salah," in Julie Scott Meisami and
Paul Starkey, eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, vol. 1 (London: Routledge,
1998), 407-8; Marilyn Booth, "Poetry in the Vernacular," in Muhammad Mustafa
Badawi, ed., Modern Arabic Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992), 463-82,474-76; Gabriel M. Rosenbaum, "The Big Night: A Popular Play in
Colloquial Egyptian Arabic," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 23 (1999): 228-
93. For references to sources on Jahin, see ibid., 229 n. 5. On Kamal al-Tawil, see
Qabil, Mawsu'a, 223-24.
   14. Hasanayn, Wataniyyat, 142; Sami al-Salamuni quoted in ibid., 144, and
Hasanayn, Ayyamuna, 102.





                                 Nasser and Nasserism in Allusions to Songs | 341

   15. See Balk, 'Abd al-Halim, 61.
   16. Danielson, Voice, 166. On Umm Kulthum as a national singer, see 'Abdallah,
Umm Kulthum, 33-34.
   17. Shahhat, Umm Kulthum, 130.
   18. Shorbagi, 'Abd al-Halim, 91-101.
   19. On this matter see Shahhat, Umm Kulthum, 120-21; Hafni, 'Abd al-Wahhab,
94-95.
   20. Lenin al-Ramli, Sa' dun al-Magnun (Kuwait and Cairo: Dar Su'ad al-Sabah,
1992), 22. The transliteration represents literary or colloquial Egyptian Arabic, de-
pending on the text quoted. Both are written in the same Arabic characters; the
differences between the two varieties are reflected in the transliteration.
   21. Lenin al-Ramli, Inta Hurr (Egypt: Matabi' Ruz al-Yusuf, 1982), 71.
   22. Galal Muhammad, "Ma'rakat Marid al-Edz," in Galal Muhammad, Ma'rakat
Marid al-Edz/ Fazlaka fi al-Mustawayat (Cairo: Distributed by Maktabat al-Nahda
al-Misriyya, 1991), 30.
   23. Tawfiq al-Hakim, "Al-Zammar," in Tawfiq al-Hakim, Al-Masrah al-Munaw-
wa (Egypt: Maktabat al-Adab, 1966), 653-690. Her nickname was often spelled
Thuma but was pronounced Suma in colloquial Arabic.
   24. Ihsan 'Abd al-Quddus, "Allah Allah ... ya Sitt," in Ihsan 'Abd al-Quddus,
Clba min Safih (Cairo: Maktabat Misr, n.d.), 61-67.
   25. Nagib Mahfuz, Al-Baqi min al-Zaman Sa'a (Cairo: Maktabat Misr, 1982),
58, 59.
   26. The younger generation debated who was better, 'Abd al-halim Hafiz or Farid
al-Atrash, the sentimental singer and musician of Druze origin. Both were popular,
but the popularity of 'Abd al-Halim overshadowed (and still overshadows) any other
Egyptian singer.
   27. Nagib Mahfuz, Yawm Qatl al-Za'im (Cairo: Maktabat Misr, n.d.), 23; cf.
cartoon 1 above.
   28. Mahfuz, Yawm, 35.
   29. Hasanayn, Wataniyyat, 74.
   30. Mahfuz, Yawm, 23. Later, as mentioned above, a comparison is made be-
tween Nasser and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz, without their names being mentioned.
   31. This is a line from the song "Gana -1-Hawa" (Love came to us). The other
allusions here are to the opening lines.
   32. Mahmud Qasim, Zaman 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz (Saudi Arabia and Cairo: al-
Dar al-Wataniyya al-Jadida lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi' and al-Markaz al-Faddi lil-
Ma'lumat, 1995), 34-35.
   33. 'Abd al-Mun'im Salim, Al-Qadiyya wal-car wal-Khalas (Egypt: al-Hay'a al-
Misriyya al-'Amma lil-Kitab, 1977). Page numbers are cited in text.
   34. Nihad Gad, Mahattit Utubis, in Nihad Gad, 'Adila: Mahattit Utubis (Cairo:
Maktabat Gharib, 1985), 100-101. For the full lyrics, see Misri and Kamil, Nusus,
390. The recorded version of this song (lyrics: Salah Jahin; music: Kamal al-Tawil) is
no longer on sale in Egypt. Subsequent pages are cited in text.
   35. Salim, Qadiyya, 127, 133, etc. See example quoted above.





342 I Gabricl M. Roscnbaum

   36. Lenin al-Ramli, Kullina cAyzin Sura," in Ramli, Al-A amal al-Kamila, vol. 2
(Cairo: al-Hay'a al-Misriyya al-cAmma lil-Kitab, 2002).
   37. Ali Salim, "Shura Shura Shura Kullina cAwzin Shura," in Salim, Hal Ladayka
Aqwal Ukhra? (Cairo: Akhbar al-Yawm, 1999), 19-24.
   38. Iscad Yunis, "Jhtifaliyyat Watani Habibi," in Yunis, Al-Mutasawwilun (Cairo:
Dar al-Huda lil-Nashr wa1-Tawzic, 1995), 39.












Selected Bibliography






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Contributors


Gabriel Ben-Dor is professor of political science at the University of Haifa
and head of national security studies at the university. His publications in-
clude The Druzes in Israel: A Political Study (1979), Confidence Building in
the Middle East (with David B. Dewitt, 1995), and Minorities and the Arab
States (edited with Ofra Bangio, 1999).

Leonard Binder is professor of political science at UCLA. He is the author or
editor of The Ideological Revolution in the Middle East (1964), In a Mo-
ment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt
(1978), Islamic Liberalism: A Critique of Development Ideologies (1988),
Ethnic Conflict and International Politics in the Middle East (1999), and
Politics in Lebanon (1963).

Nathan J. Brown is professor of political science and international affairs at
George Washington University. He has written Peasant Politics in Modern
Egypt (1990), The Role of Law in the Arab World (1997), and Constitutions
in an Unconstitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and the Prospects for Ac-
countable Government (2001).

Yoav Di-Capua is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. He is writing a
dissertation titled "Historians and Historiography of Twentieth-Century
Egypt," and his publications include "Embodiment of the Revolutionary
Spirit: The Mustafa Kamil Mausoleum in Cairo," History and Memory
(2000).

Mohamed Riad El-Ghonemy is a senior research associate at the Interna-
tional Development Center, Oxford University. He is a fellow of the Depart-
ment of Economics of the American University in Cairo and professor emeri-
tus at the University of El-Shams. His publications include Mafhum al-Islah
al-Zira'i wal-Tanmiya al-Rifiyya (1980), The Political Economy of Rural
Poverty (1990), Land, Food, and Rural Development in North Africa (1993),
and Affluence and Poverty in the Middle East (1998), and Egypt in the
Twenty-first Century: Challenges for Development (2003).





356 | Contributors


Gad G. Gilbar is a professor in the Department of Middle Eastern History at
the University of Haifa. He is the author or editor of Economic Develop-
ment of the Middle East in Modern Times (Hebrew, 1990), Population
Dilemmas in the Middle East (1997), The Middle East Oil Decade and
Beyond (1997), Ottoman Palestine, 1800-1914: Studies in Economic and
Social History (1990), and Demography and Politics in the Arab States
(Hebrew, edited with Ami Ayalon, 1995).

Rami Ginat is a senior lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern History
at Bar-Ilan University. His publications include The Soviet Policy towards
the Middle East (1993) and Egypt's Incomplete Revolution (1997).

Joel Gordon is associate professor of history and associate director of Mid-
dle East and Islamic studies at the University of Arkansas. He has written
Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution
(1992) and Revolutionary Melodrama: Popular Film and Civic Identity in
Nasser's Egypt (2002).

Meir Hatina is a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African
History at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Islam in Modern Egypt
(Hebrew, 2000) and Islam and Salvation in Palestine (2001).

Uri M. Kupferschmidt is a senior lecturer in the Department of Middle East-
ern History at the University of Haifa. His publications include Henri Naus
Bey: Retrieving the Biography of a Belgian Industrialist in Egypt (1999) and
Islam, Nationalism, and Radicalism in Egypt and the Sudan (edited with
Gabriel W. Warburg, 1983).

David W. Lesch is professor of Middle Eastern history at Trinity University,
San Antonio, Texas. He is the author or editor of Syria and the United States:
Eisenhower's Cold War in the Middle East (1992), 1979: The Year That
Shaped the Middle East (2001), The Middle East and the United States: A
Historical and Political Reassessment (1996) and History in Dispute: The
Middle East since 1945 (2003).

Elie Podeh is a senior lecturer in the Department of Islam and Middle East-
ern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include
The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World: The Struggle over the Baghdad
Pact (1995), The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United
Arab Republic (1999), and The Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Israeli History
Textbooks, 1948-2000 (2001).





Contributors | 357


Paul Rivlin is a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle
Eastern and African Studies and at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel
Aviv University. He is the author of The Dynamics of Economic Policy
Making in Egypt (1985), The Israel Economy (1992), and Economic Policy
and Performance in the Arab World (2001).

Gabriel Rosenbaum is a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic Lan-
guage and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has pub-
lished articles and chapters in numerous journals and edited collections.

Avraham Sela is a senior lecturer in the Department of International Rela-
tions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author or editor of
The Decline of Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest
for Regional Order (1998), The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and
Adjustment (with Shaul Mishal, 2000), and Political Encyclopedia of the
Middle East (1999).

Onn Winckler is a senior lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern His-
tory, University of Haifa. His publications include Population Growth and
Migration in Jordan, 1950-1994 (1997) and Demographic Developments
and Population Policies in Ba'thist Syria (1999).















Index


'Abbud, Ahmad Pasha, 148
'Abd al-Nasser, Gamal. See Al-Nasser,
  Gamal 'Abd
'Abd al-Quddus, Ihsan, 330
'Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad, 23, 309,
  318,325,329-30,336
Abrahamian, Ervand, 7
Acheson, Dean, 233
Agrarian Reform. See Egypt; Syria
Al-Ahali, 148, 150, 153, 156
Al-Ahram, 169. See also Egypt: media
Ajami, Fouad, 1, 4, 189
Algeria, 47, 198
Al-'Alim, Mahmud Amin, 62
Alpha Plan, 211
'Amaleq, 92
Amit, Meir, 88
'Amr, 'Abd al-Hakim, 24, 46, 60, 150, 156,
  242
Anderson, Robert, 79-80
Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (1936). See Egypt
Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (1954). See Egypt
Arab Cold War, 200
Arabism. See pan-Arabism
Arab-Israeli conflict, 73-94, 192-95, 197-
  200. See also War
Arab League, 184, 186-87, 190, 195-96
Arab Legion, 191
Arab Nationalist Movement (al-Qawmiyyun
  al-Arab), 191, 203
Arab oil. See Oil
Arab socialism, 1, 17, 25, 27-28, 41, 55-
  57, 66, 127-29, 241-45, 255-62, 264,
  277-78; and authoritarian regime, 129-
  31; and Islam, 63-64; and law, 131-34,
  139, 141-42. See also Egypt: economy
Arab Socialist Union (ASU), 6, 19, 21, 51-
  53, 56-57, 60, 132, 134, 137, 277
Arab summits, 195-200


'Arafat, Yasir, 47, 65, 92
Argentina, 7. See also Per6n; Per6nism
'Arif, 'Abd al-Salam, 86
Al-Asad, Hafiz, 199
Aswan High Dam, x, 17, 109, 169, 235,
  242-43,245,253,255,257,259,274,
  276, 285, 334; symbol of Nasserism, 315
Ataturk. See Kemal, Mustafa
Al-Atrash, Farid, 310
'Awad, Louis, 6
Al-Azhar, 61-63, 123, 167, 170, 173, 261,
  263
Al-'Azm, Khalid, 213
'Azzam, 'Abd al-Rahman Pasha, 184

Badeau, John, 216
Baghdadi, 'Abd al-Latif, 57, 59
Baghdad Pact (1955), 18, 45, 191, 209-
  12, 234-35; and Nasser, 78, 184, 188,
  209-12, 234-35; U.S. position, 209-10,
  234
Bakdash, Khalid, 213, 238-40
Bandung conference (1955), 78-79, 184,
  235
Al-Baquri, Shaykh Hasan, 63, 69
Bar-Tal, Daniel, 74
Bat-Galim affair (1954), 76
Ba'th Party, 27, 185, 191; Syria, 45, 86,
  191, 228; in Iraq, 86, 191, 194, 228
Ben-Gurion, David, 74-75, 229; perception
  of Nasser, 75-94, 223
Birth control. See Egypt: family planning;
  Al-Nasser, Gamal 'Abd: family planning
Al-Bizri, Afif, 213
Black September (Jordan, 1970), 199
Bodnar, John, 100-101
Bourguiba, Habib, 27, 198, 204, 297. See
  also Tunisia
Bowles, Chester, 216






360 | Index


Caffery, Jefferson, 207, 233
Cambodia, 271
Canada, 169
Capitulations: abolition of, in Egypt (1937),
   131, 133
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 207, 216,
  220
Child's Day, 22
China, 164, 208, 264, 268, 271
Cold War, 5, 26, 45, 49, 73, 78, 205-6, 208,
  210, 212, 214, 224, 231, 268. See also
  United States: and Soviet Union
Colonialism, 4-5, 8, 9, 12, 145-48, 243,
  273
Communism, 1, 12, 235. See also United
  States: and Soviet Union
Copts, 113, 166, 170
Crabbs, Jack, 23
Czech arms deal (September 1955), 18, 78-
  79, 91, 104, 234, 254
Czechoslovakia, 169, 246, 254

Dayan, Moshe, 74, 77-78
Decolonization, 4, 8, 28, 182
De Lespes, Ferdinand, 17
de-Nasserization. See Nasserism
Dulles, John Foster, 209, 214-15, 219, 226,
  234-35
Durkheim, Emile, 152

Eban, Abba, 99
Eden, Anthony, 48
Egypt: agrarian reform (September 1952),
  x, 21, 57, 103-4, 108-9, 132, 164, 253-
  55, 266, 273, 278; agriculture, xi, 259-
  60, 268-74, 276; Alexandria Cotton
  Exchange, 275; Anglo-Egyptian Treaty
  (1936), 104, 232; Anglo-Egyptian Treaty
  (1954), 25, 76, 184; armed forces, 168-
  69; birth control policy, 21, 164, 171-72,
  260-62, 267, 278, 282-94; Bonaparte's
  occupation (1798), 13, 113; British colo-
  nialism, 13-15, 103-4, 234; capitalism,
  254-55, 274-75; Communist Party,
  51; Constitution (1956), 22-23, 50, 60,
  133, 135; Constitution (1971), 37, 140;
  corporatism, 19; democratic regime, 50-
  51, 108, 110-12, 115; demography (pop-


  ulation growth), 15, 30, 171-72, 175,
  257, 267, 278, 282-99; economy, 14-15,
  20-21, 27-30, 41, 108, 110, 116, 130,
  253-62, 264-68, 273-78, 285; educa-
  tion, 22-23, 104, 110, 130, 164, 167-68,
  253-57, 261, 267, 274, 293; effendiyya,
  14, 25-26, 28, 207 (see also Middle
  class); elite, 163-72; employment, 20, 22,
  30, 256-58, 276; family planning (tanzim
  al-usra), 21, 164, 171-72, 260-62, 267,
  278, 282-94; Five-Year Development
  Plans (First, 1960-1965), 254, 256-62,
  264, 274-78, 286, 297 (Second, 1966-
  1970), 276-77; guided capitalism, 255;
  health, 261-62, 282; hegemony, 29, 76,
  181, 183, 187-88, 195-200; import sub-
  stitution (ISI), 259, 264, 273, 275-76,
  295; industry, 254, 256-57, 259, 262,
  264, 273-76, 285; infrastructure, 261;
  International Monetary Fund (IMF),
  276-77; and Iraq, 189 (see also Iraq;
  Qassem, 'Abd al-Karim); Islam, 60-64,
  113 (see also al-Azhar); and Israel, 75-
  94, 118, 181-83, 192-95, 210-11; Ku-
  waiti episode (1961), 190; legal system,
  127-42; media, 19, 38, 169-70, 191;
  migration, 14-15, 37; National Produc-
  tion Council, 254; nationalism, 25, 66,
  182-83; nationalization, 257, 262, 274-
  75; Ottoman rule, 13; Palestine conflict,
  183, 186-87 (see also Arab-Israeli con-
  flict); peasants, 132 (see also Nasserism:
  peasants); sequestration of foreign prop-
  erty, 255, 257, 274; social changes, 255;
  "soft state," 296-97; sports, 24, 145-
  58; State Council, 135-36, 140, 143;
  Supreme Court, 136-37, 139; Supreme
  Constitutional Court, 139; and Syria,
  189-90, 211-14 (see also United Arab
  Republic; Syria); trade unions, 20, 132
  (see also General Federation of Trade
  Unions); 'ulama, 170; universities, 167-
  68; women in, 22, 169, 172-73, 292-
  93, 297-98
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 209-15, 219, 226-
  27
Eisenhower Doctrine (1957), 18, 45, 211,
  213






Index   361


Elath (destroyer), 222
Eliav, Benjamin, 85-86, 98
Eshkol, Levi, 74, 88-91, 98-99
Etatism, 5, 12, 27. See also Al-Nasser,
  Gamal 'Abd: economy
Eveland, Wilbur Crane, 225

Faisal, Crown Prince, 228
Farid, Muhammad, 116
Faruq (football club), 148-50
Faruq, King, 184, 207, 225, 232
Fatah, 194
Fellahin. See Nasserism: and peasants
Fertile Crescent, 179-81, 183-91
Ford, R.A.D., 243
Frisch, Roger, 256
Fu'ad, King, 148
Fuda, Faraj, 113, 123

Gawhar, Sami, 57-58
Gaza Raid (1955), 77, 193, 210
Gazira Club, 146, 158-59
General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU,
  Egypt), 20
George, Alexander, 72-73
Germany, West, 169

Al-Hadi, Ibrahim 'Abd, 62
Hafiz, 'Abd al-Halim, 23-24, 307-20, 325-
  31, 333, 335-36; and Haykal, 329; and
  Nasser, 309, 318, 325, 326-30, 335; and
  Umm Kulthum, 327-28
Al-Hakim, Tawfiq, 31, 46, 53-56, 69
Halim, 'Abbas Ibrahim, 148
Harel, Isser, 78, 88
Hashemites: Iraq, 83, 187, 227; Jordan,
  187, 227
Hatem, Mervat, 22
Haykal, Muhammad Hasanayn (Heikal,
  Mohamed Hassanein), 46, 54-55, 76,
  109-10, 213, 226, 329
Higher Council of Arts, Letters, and Social
  Sciences (Egypt), 23. See also Nasserism:
  popular culture
Hijji, Tariq, 114
Holocaust, 74, 87-88, 92
Al-Hudaybi, Ma'mun, 166
Husayn, King (of Jordan), 83, 198


Husayn, Saddam, 47, 65, 92, 105
Husni, Su'ad, 307

Ibrahim, Hasan, 58-59
Idris, Yusuf, 24
Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun. See Muslim
  Brothers
Imam, 'Abdallah, 61-64
Imam, 'Adil, 318-19
India, 273. See also Nehru; Neutralism
Indonesia, 271
International Monetary Fund (IMF), 276-
  77
Iran, 7, 216, 294
Iraq, 47, 65, 191, 194, 209-10, 212, 214,
  226, 239-40, 294; Communist Party,
  239-40; Kurdish problem, 239; Revolu-
  tion of 1958, 83-85, 214, 239; and UAR,
  239
Islamism, 221
Israel, 3, 6, 168, 221-22, 234; and estab-
  lishment of UAR, 81-83; and Iraqi coup
  (1958), 83-85; perceptions of Nasser and
  Nasserism, 6, 72-94. See also Egypt; Al-
  Nasser, Gamal 'Abd

Japan, 164, 268-69, 271-73
Johnson, Joseph, 217
Johnson, Lyndon, 89, 215, 219-23; and
  Nasser, 219-23
Johnson Plan (1962), 217
Jordan, 83-85, 127, 190-91, 199, 212,
  217-18, 294; Western intervention
  (1958), 191
Jordan River, 219

Kamal al-Din, Husayn, 57-59
Kamel, Mustafa, 2, 17, 116
Kemal, Mustafa (Ataturk), 75, 83, 90-91,
  264
Kemalism, 12, 27
Kennedy, John F., 192, 205, 215-20, 227-
  28; assassination of, 219; and Nasser,
  216, 218-19
Khartoum Arab Summit (1967), 198, 222
Khashaba, Ahmad Muhammad, 232
Khomeini, Ayatollah, 7
Khomeinism, 12, 27






362 | Index


Khrushchev, Nikita, 215, 231, 237-38,
  241-43, 245
Al-Khuli, Lutfi, 55, 62, 324
"Kol Israel" (Voice of Israel), 98
Korea, South, 20-21, 264-78; agrarian
  reform, 266, 268-270; agriculture, 268;
  army, 269; Cold War, 268; demography,
  267; economy, 266, 269-73, 278; edu-
  cation, 267, 271; employment, 267;
  "hard state," 272-73; health, 267; his-
  tory, 268-69; import substitution, 270;
  industry, 269-70, 272, 278; and Japan,
  268-69, 272; law system, 268; and
  Nasser, 264-78; tax system, 268; and
  U.S., 269-72; Vietnam war, effect of,
  270. See also Korean War
Korean War, 208, 268; impact on Egypt's
  economy, 254
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), 239
Kuwait, 190, 217

Land reform. See agrarian reform under:
  Egypt; Korea; Syria
Larson, Deborah, 73
Latin America. See Populism
Lawzi, Salim, 24
League of Nations, 13
Lebanon, 47, 83-85, 191, 226; Civil War,
  46; Western intervention (1958), 191
Liberal Party, 102, 192
Liberation Rally (1953), 18, 52, 58
Libya, 47

Mahfuz, Nagib, 46, 67-69, 71, 103, 106-8,
  116, 121, 330
Malaysia, 271
Marcos, Ferdinand, 285
Meir, Golda, 74, 80; and Nasser, 80, 83-84,
  87-88,90-91
Middle class, 25-26, 28, 207; economy, 14;
  Nasserism, 67, 164; populism, 9-10, 12,
  21, 29, 57. See also Egypt: economy
Middle East Command (MEC, 1951), 208,
  232
Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO,
  1952), 209, 233
Middle East Supply Center, 208
Mishap (1955), 76-77, 91
Modcrnization, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10-11, 13, 28,
  48, 50, 61, 145-46, 151, 157


Monroe, Marilyn, 65
Montreau Conference (1937), 131
Morocco, 127
Mubarak, Husni, 31, 69, 165-66, 282,
  308; democracy, question of, 114-16,
  130; demographic policy, 290-94;
  Nasser's legacy, 100-118; political
  system, 114-16
Muhammad, 'Ali, 3, 115
Muhammad (the Muslim Prophet), 75,
  154
Muhi al-Din, Khalid, 55-57, 62, 109
Muhi al-Din, Zakariyya, 60, 219-20, 286
Mukhitdinov, Nureddin, 239-40
Munich agreement (1938), 73, 92
Muslim Brothers, 46, 69, 112-13, 117,
  122, 124, 166, 183; and Nasser, 57-64,
  112, 120, 180, 184, 210, 220, 285, 290,
  297
Myrdal, Gunnar, 272, 296

Nagib, Muhammad, 49, 58-59, 75-76, 116,
  151, 200, 225, 233; role in sports, 145,
  150-54
Nahhas, Mustafa, 104, 116, 232, 247
Nasser 1956 (film), 31, 69, 105-6, 318
Al-Nasser, Gamal 'Abd: allusions to, in
  songs and plays, 324-36; Arab socialism,
  241-45, 250, 255-62; arts, 309; assassi-
  nation attempt, 61-62; Ataturk, per-
  ceived as, 75, 83, 90, 264; balance of
  achievements and failures, ix-xii, 199-
  200; Bismarck, perceived as, 75, 86, 91;
  charisma, x, 2, 9-10, 13, 15-18, 26, 45,
  47-51, 180, 184-85, 191; and children,
  22-23; death, 16, 31, 46, 51-53, 67, 90,
  103, 106, 199, 246, 307, 333; demo-
  graphic perception, 285-87; economic
  policy, 20, 27-28, 30, 41, 241-42, 253-
  62, 273-78 (see also Egypt); education,
  21-23 (see also Egypt); the elite, 163-73;
  family planning, 20-21, 261, 285-88 (see
  also Egypt); father figure (baba), 15, 31;
  hegemony of Arab world, 25-26, 29, 76-
  77, 81, 84, 88-89, 181-82, 188, 193-95,
  197, 199; Hitler, perceived as, 6, 48, 78-
  79, 81, 83-89, 92; al-Husayni, Hajj
  Amin, perceived as, 92; iconography, 64-
  67; Kuwait, 190, 217; and Isracl, 181,
  191-95, 198 (see also Israel); as leader,






Index   363


  ix-x, 2, 13, 45, 59, 75-94, 116, 179-81,
  195, 211, 215, 238, 308, 325; legacy, ix-
  x, 31, 46-47, 50-53, 100-118, 140, 179-
  80, 308, 325 (see also Mubarak, Husni);
  March Manifesto (1968), 22, 46, 51-52,
  56; media, use of, 17, 19-20; Mussolini,
  perceived as, 85, 92; nationalization of
  Suez Canal, 81, 253, 255, 274 (see also
  Suez Canal); neutralism, 26-27, 234-37,
  243-44; Palestine problem, 180, 185,
  188, 192-95, 199; pan-Arabism, 17, 25-
  26, 29, 76-77, 81, 179-81, 187-92, 199-
  200, 212, 223, 238, 240; Per6n, compari-
  son with, 86; personality, xiii, 49;
  Philosophy of the Revolution, 1, 56, 76,
  81-85, 88, 90, 92, 181, 253; rule of law,
  127-42; and Qassem, 191, 194, 214,
  239, 245; and sports, 24, 150, 156-57;
  and Soviet Union, 26-27, 230-46; and
  students, 21-22; and Syria, 212-13; UAR
  breakup, 189, 191-92, 277; UAR forma-
  tion, 82-86, 187-89, 192, 199, 213, 237,
  245; and universities, 21-22; and U.S.,
  26, 205-25, 226, 228, 233-35, 236-38,
  240, 243; "welfare state," 30; Yemen
  War, 192, 194, 199, 218-19, 233, 243,
  257; 1967 War, 46, 59-60, 88-89, 106,
  197-99, 210, 244
Al-Nasser, Hoda 'Abd, xiv
Nasserism (al-Nasiriyya), x, xiii, xiv, 1-2, 5-
  6, 12, 50, 54, 165, 184, 200, 211-12,
  214, 219, 221; authoritarianism, 19, 28,
  129, 131, 134, 142; cultural revolution,
  23-24, 145, 150; decline, 86-90; defini-
  tion, 1-7; de-Nasserization, 5-6, 31, 46-
  47, 53, 100, 119, 246; failure, 29-3 1;
  ideology, 1-3, 6, 24-28, 45; Israeli per-
  ception of, 82, 84 (see also Al-Nasser,
  Gamal 'Abd: and Israel); legal legacy,
  127-42; Marxist interpretations, 3, 256;
  messianism, 4, 184; mobilization tech-
  niques, 18-24; modernization project, 2-
  3, 13; and peasants (fellahin), 21, 29, 31,
  52, 132-33, 153, 164; popular culture,
  23-24 (see also literature); populism, xiv,
  4-7, 12-31, 132; protest movement, 3-4;
  social contract, 129-30, 139; and sports,
  144-58; system of politics, 18-24; and
  womcn, 155-56, 164 (see also Egypt:
  womcn in); and youth, 155-56


Nasserist Party, 100, 109, 117
Nasserists, xi, 46, 191, 206
National Charter (May 1962), 1, 13, 19,
  27-28, 51-52, 56-57, 63, 193, 242, 253,
  255, 260, 277, 266, 335
National Progressive Unionist Grouping
   (NPUG), 109, 112
National Union (1957), 6, 18, 38, 52
National Water Carrier Project (Israel),
   194
Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal, 235, 285
Neutralism, 26-27, 29, 154, 184, 232, 235-
  36, 238, 240, 243-48
New Outlook, 91, 99
Nile Valley unity, 113
Nonalignment. See Neutralism
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
   (NATO), 208-9, 212
Nuqrashi, Mahmud Fahmi, 62, 104, 232

Oil: Arab, 197; Middle East, 209; "Oil
  Boom," 290
Organization for Economic Cooperation
  and Development (OECD), 273

Palestine: Palestinian entity, 190, 194-95;
  refugee problem, 211, 215, 217-18. See
  also Arab-Israeli conflict; Al-Nasser,
  Gamal 'Abd; Egypt; Pan-Arabism
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
   190, 195, 198
Palestinian Authority, 128, 142
Pan-Arab games, 155, 161
Pan-Arabism, x, 1-3, 14, 17, 25-27, 29,
   54, 66, 81-82, 91, 103, 109-10, 113,
   141, 179-200, 212-15, 221, 223, 237,
   240-41; Palestine question, 2, 186,
   192-95
Park, Chung Hee, President, 264-78. See
  also South Korea
Peres, Shimon, 74
Per6n, Juan, 29, 86, 154, 160
Peronism, 7, 12, 29
Populism, xiv, 1, 4-31, 149-50, 132-33;
   and charismatic leadership, 9-10; and de-
   mocracy, 10-11, 16; and economic per-
   ception, 27; and ideology, use of, 11-12;
   and Latin America, 4, 6-13, 15, 25, 28-
   29; and mobilization techniqucs, 10-11;
   and pan-Arabism, 26






364 | Index


Qaddafi, Mu'ammar, 47
Qassem, 'Abd al-Karim, 189, 194, 214,
  239, 245
Qutb, Sayyid, 61

Rabin, Yitzhak, 65
Rafael, Gideon, 77-80, 97
Rajab, Hasan, 234-35
Al-Ramli, Lenin, 329, 335
Al-Rashid, Harun, Caliph, 154
Reilly, Patrick, 240
Resolution 242 (UNSC), 198, 221-22
Revolution (July 1952), xiii, 6, 13-14, 45,
  56, 75, 100, 103-4, 115, 131, 166-67,
  183, 206, 233, 237, 255
Revolutionary Command Council (RCC),
  46, 58, 153, 206-8, 255
Ried, Malcolm, 69
Rif'at, Kamal, 62
Russia, 7, 164

Sabri, 'Ali, 60, 62, 134, 136, 180
Al-Sadat, Anwar, 5-6, 31, 46, 50-51, 53,
  57, 59, 69, 100, 106, 109, 115, 118-19,
  143,156,165,200,223,241,244-46,
  282, 297, 308, 313, 330; demographic
  policy, 287-90 (see also Egypt: family
  planning); economic policy (infitah), 130,
  277, 313; legal changes, 139; and Muslim
  Brothers, 197, 290; and Soviet Union,
  244-45; and U.S., 245. See also
  Nasserism: de-Nasserization
Al-Sa'id, Nuri, 83, 184
Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, 17, 65
Salah al-Din, Mahmud, 232, 234, 247
Sanhuri, 'Abd al-Razzaq, 135-36, 141
Saraj al-Din, Fu'ad, 102
Sa'ud, King (of Saudi Arabia), 219, 227
Saudi Arabia, 85, 190-92, 212, 214-15,
  217-18, 226-28, 277, 294
Shamir, Shimon, 4, 28
Al-Shams (sports club), 156
Sharaf, Sami, 156-57
Sharett, Moshe, 74, 97-98, 193; Nasser,
  negotiations with, 193; Nasser, percep-
  tion of, 75-82, 91
Shepilov, Dimitri, 237
Sidqy, 'Aziz, 259


Sidqy, Isma'il, 104
Sinai Evacuation Day, 118
Singapore, 271
Socialist Labor Party (SLA), 124
South East Asia Treaty Organization
  (SEATO), 208
South Korea. See Korea, South
Soviet Union (USSR), 78, 181, 195, 205-6,
  208-9; archives, 230-31; and Egypt, 26-
  27, 82-83, 89, 104, 181, 198, 228, 230-
  47, 254, 259, 274, 277; and Iraq, 214,
  239-40, 245; and Israel, 211; July 1952
  Revolution, attitude toward, 233; and
  Syria, 237-41; and UAR, 237-42; and
  U.S., 45, 50, 105-6, 156, 180, 184, 193,
  211, 236, 296, 332
Sports: festivals, 152-53; and Islam, 154;
  during monarchy in Egypt, 145-49; na-
  tionalism, 147-49, 151-56; during repub-
  lic in Egypt, 149-57
Springborg, Robert, 20
Stalin, Joseph, 65, 231-32
Students: political participation of, 22, 257.
  See also Al-Nasser, Gamal 'Abd: students
Sudan, 47, 113, 157, 259
Suez Canal, 197, 257, 297; nationalization
  (1956), 18, 31, 45, 50, 81, 103-6, 184,
  235-36, 253, 255, 274
Suez War. See War: of 1956
Switzerland, 169
Syria, 47, 189-92, 198-99, 211-14, 216,
  226, 237, 294 (see also United Arab Re-
  public); agrarian reform (1958), 238;
  Communist Party (SCP), 237-41; 1957
  crisis, 211-12

Tahir, 'Adl, 155
Taiwan, 271
Al-Tali'a Group, 51-52, 54-55, 62
Thailand, 271
Third World, 6-7, 13, 28, 212, 215, 220
Tiran Straits, 106, 193, 211
Tito, Josef, 224, 235, 238, 246
Trevelyan, Humphrey, 236
Tripartite Declaration (1950), 208
Tripartite Federation (1963), 86-88
Truman, Harry S., 206, 208, 233-34
Truman Doctrine, 208






Index   365


Tunisia: and Egypt, 294-98; family plan-
  ning, 21, 282, 287, 294-98; Islamic op-
  position, 297-98; status of, 296, 298
Turkey, 210, 212, 264, 294
Al-Tuwani, Ahmad, 150

Umm Kulthum, 16, 23, 307, 310, 325, 327-
  30, 332, 336; and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz,
  327-29; and Nasser, 327
United Arab Republic (UAR), 18, 25, 28,
  45,50,69,82-86,103,156,188-89,
  194,199,213-16,237-40,242,257,
  277, 333-34. See also Al-Nasser, Gamal
  'Abd
United States: and Arab-Israeli conflict,
  205, 216-17, 220-23; and Britain, 206-
  8; defense plans, 208-10, 226-27, 233;
  and Egypt, 26, 30, 181, 188, 192, 205-
  25, 226-28, 233-34, 236, 243, 245,
  253, 277; and Iraq, 209-10; and Israel,
  209-10, 215-22, 224, 226; and July
  1952 Revolution, 207, 225; and Pales-
  tinians, 215-19; policy in Middle East,
  205-26; and Saudi Arabia, 214-15,
  218-19, 227-28; and Soviet Union, 79,
  205-25; and Syria, 212-13; and UAR,
  211-16; and 1967 War, 220-22; and
  Yemen War, 218-19
'Urabi, Ahmad, 17
Urbanization: in Egypt, 14-15; and popu-
  lism, 8-9, 15


Vietnam, 271
Voice of the Arabs, 191

Wafd Party, 13, 58, 102-4, 112-13, 115,
  117, 207, 232-33
Wahhabiyya Movement, 75
War: of Attrition (1969-70), 18, 46, 48, 200,
  222-23; Gulf (1991), 169; of 1948, 17,
  74, 168, 183, 186; of 1956, 45, 50, 105-
  6, 156, 180, 184, 193, 211, 236, 296,
  332; of1967, 18, 21, 30, 46, 55, 59-60,
  88-89,103,106,109,118,136,183,
  198-200, 219, 220-23, 244, 257, 278,
  287, 332; of 1973, 168, 197, 287, 313,
  333; Yemen, 18, 21, 30, 86, 168, 194-95,
  218-19, 223, 243, 257, 276-77, 296
Warhol, Andy, 65
Wasat Party, 122-23
Wataniyyat, 310, 316, 324, 332, 336
Weber, Max, 2, 9, 48
World Bank, 270-72, 292

Yemen, 18, 21, 30, 47, 56, 192, 194-95,
  199, 218-19, 247, 276-77. See also War:
  Yemen
Young Egypt Party, 183
Yugoslavia, 238. See also Tito

Zaghlul, Ahmad, 148
Zaghlul, S'ad, 17, 116
Al-Zamaleq (football club), 150, 153, 156