A new Arab renaissance

Thomas Friedman's recent op-ed Middle East column is nothing less than sweet. Ever since I started reading his best-selling From Beirut to Jerusalem, I have gained a very profound respect for the expertise of this man in matters pertaining to the Middle East.

Something really is going on with the proverbial "Arab street." The automatic assumption that the "Arab street" will always rally to the local king or dictator - if that king or dictator just waves around some bogus threat or insult from "America," "Israel" or "the West" - is no longer valid. Yes, the Iraq invasion probably brought more anti-American terrorists to the surface. But it also certainly brought more pro-democracy advocates to the surface.

I mean seriously, if you're looking for quality Middle East analysis, look no further than this guy. It is clear that we are witnessing a re-birth of Arab idealism, one that is not centered around hating the West, rather, one that desires to emulate those practices that have brought countless states up from destitution and into the modern world community.

This editorial is chock-full of thought-provoking passages, but there is one section at the end that is really mind-blowing. Friedman borrows an excerpt from Lebanon's leading newspaper, An Nahar. Journalist Samir Kassir writes:

Throughout history, Beirut's streets have been reserved for the "defense of pan-Arab causes." But with the funeral for Rafik Hariri, Arab nationalism has taken on a new aim, he declared: "Today, the nationalist cause has shrunk into the single aim of getting rid of the regimes of terrorism and coups, and regaining the peoples' freedom as a prelude to a new Arab renaissance. Thus hundreds of thousands of free citizens walked in Rafik Hariri's funeral - while only a paltry cortege mobilized by the single party and its intelligence apparatuses walked in [former Syrian President] Hafez al-Assad's funeral a few years ago. [With the Hariri funeral] Beirut was the beating heart of a new Arab nationalism. ... This nationalism is based on the free will of citizens, male and female. And this is what the tyrannical [Syrian] regime should fear more than anything else if it tarries about ending its hegemony over Beirut and Lebanon."

Arab nationalism has a new definition, according to Kassir. It was once a term that the West associated with tyranny, a pseudo-Soviet bloc alliance of Arab states rallying together against their powerful Jewish neighbor. But as Kassir so eloquently pointed out, this new sense of nationalism is based on the "free will of citizens, male and female." No longer is it a ploy by national socialist governments like the one in Syria to distract Arab citizens from the lack of freedom they can express by giving them a common enemy, but rather it is a genuine desire to break free from the old order. If the Middle East had a Berlin Wall, I think it would be safe to say, judging from recent events, that the pick axes have already been brandished.