Middle East: End of a Myth

Not for years had the Middle East seen so quick and clean a coup. Streaking, north from barracks outside Damascus, a slim rebel force of 20 tanks seized the capital at dawn. There were no mob scenes, no assassinations and almost no gunfire. When they tuned into Damascus radio at breakfast, Syrians learned that they had been “liberated” from the United Arab Republic, of which their country had been an uneasy part for nearly four years. In northern Syria, Aleppo radio went dead in the midst of the anthem, Beloved Nasser, Lover of Egypt and Syria —returning ten minutes later with a searing tirade against Nasser, the “tyrant” who “wished evil for the Arab people.”

At midnight, when Latakia radio went off the air, the U.A.R.’s last Syrian stronghold had fallen to the rebels.

By noon next day, the rebel leaders proclaimed their independence. As U.A.R. flags yielded to Syria’s red-starred, green-white-black tricolor, they turned the government over to a civilian regime headed by a diffident, middle-roading law professor. The new Premier, Sorbonne-educated Dr. Mamoun (“Trusted One”) Kuz-bari, 47, a former Minister of Justice, promised his countrymen constitutional government and “a true and democratic life.” Jordan, swift to welcome any setback to Nasser, was the first country to recognize the new regime; it was followed by Turkey, which has also had strained relations with the U.A.R.

Does Arab Fight Arab? Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser took to Cairo radio to denounce the revolt. In somber, ragged sentences, he declared: “What happened today is more serious than Suez. Any division in national unity is much more serious than foreign aggression.” To “straighten out the situation,” as he put it in his broadcast, Nasser ordered his fleet and 2,000 paratroops to take seaport Latakia, started commandeering merchantmen to haul ground troops to Syria, which is seperated from Egypt by Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. Suddenly, Nasser changed his mind. He called off the attack just after the first 120 Egyptian paratroops landed. (They surrendered.) Explaining his decision, Nasser asked sadly: “Does Arab fight Arab? For whose sake will blood be shed?” To the last he insisted: “The U.A.R. will remain.”

But the revolution was complete, ending in 48 hours the unequal union between little Syria (pop. 4,500,000) and 26 million Egyptians.

Syrian Twitch. It was Syria’s President Shukri Kuwatly who had promoted the merger with Egypt, out of fear that his country might otherwise be taken over by a strong Communist clique in the army. While Nasser hailed the new state as “the first step on the path to complete Arab unity,” it was soon apparent to Syrians that their wealth was being siphoned off to prop impoverished Egypt. Nasser’s land reforms alienated landowners and hurt the economy. Businessmen, after long years of laissez faire, bitterly opposed Nasser’s import restrictions, currency controls, a new income tax, nationalization of banking and insurance.

Moreover, with Nasser’s blessing, the easygoing country was consigned to the rule of Interior Minister Abdel Hamid Serraj. Now 36, a ruthless graduate of the French-modeled gendarmerie, Serraj had a hammer lock hold on the country through control of its 15,000-man police force and an army of informers. Strongman Serraj beat and imprisoned thousands of Syrians. So efficient were his spies that garrulous Syrians learned to speak in whispers, developing an ailment known as “Syrian twitch”—a nervous compulsion to glance over their shoulders when talking.

Alarmed by Syrians’ loathing for Serraj —and well aware that an uprising in the U.A.R.’s remote northern province might not easily be suppressed—Nasser belatedly removed Serraj from power and assigned him to Cairo. Under one of Nasser’s closest and ablest friends, Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer (who was put on a plane to Cairo by the rebels last week), civil rights were restored—and ironically, Syrians were able to plot last week’s coup.

Less Than Reverence. For Nasser, as the Middle East’s most fervent apostle of Arab unity, the revolt was a crushing blow. Not only was the U.A.R. in ruins, and with it Nasser’s grandiose dreams of a superstate encompassing the whole Arab world. Nasser’s myth would also be badly bruised in the eyes of millions who idolized him as a crusader against colonialism. By its impassioned rejection of Egyptian “tyranny,” the revolution could only deepen the suspicion that under the guise of pan-Arabism Nasser pursues a Pharaonic imperialism. After Nasser’s fulminations against Syria’s revolt last week, the Arab world may in the future treat Cairo radio exhortations to revolution with something less than reverence.