The ‘Middle East’, as the British describe it, is in ferment, with Israel bombing Gaza with all the bloodlust, religious fervour and vengeance reminiscent of the Old Testament in retaliation to the harrowing attacks by Hamas on October 7. So, a book, called False Prophets: British Leaders’ Fateful Fascination with the Middle East from Suez to Syria by Nigel Ashton annotating the colourful history of relations between Britain and Middle Eastern countries from the Suez crisis to the Iraq debacle, is fascinating if only for one reason. There has been a general fatigue in the West with the constant carping by Arabs about interference from foreign powers, the West taking the view that Middle Eastern countries have to take responsibility for the state their societies are in, and not to blame the West in the ad hominin manner they are wont to do. This book provides a strong evidential basis for the neo-colonial construct which the Arabs allege exists and which persists, but with recent events may be reaching its nadir.
If we look at the present Middle East, we see a situation where post the Iraq war and the removal of Saddam Hussein, the influence of Iran has extended to Iraq, a Shia majority country, upsetting the equipoise in the Middle East between the Shia and Sunni Arab. The removal of Saddam led to the rise of Sunni extremism in the form of ISIS which spread to Syria and led to a rag-tag coalition assisted by the West and the Gulf Arabs challenging the Alawite hegemony of the Assads in Syria. Lebanon remains on edge, with the Shia and the Palestinians looking to Hezbollah for protection against the incursions of Israel. Libya is an egregious example of Western intervention – led by Emmanuel Macron and David Cameron, backed by a reluctant Barack Obama – in deposing General Muammar Gaddafi causing the dismantling of the Libyan State, the promotion of warlords, militias, encouraging fundamentalism in neighbouring countries and being one of the prime causes of mass migration and human trafficking from Africa to Europe. These are only a few examples, but they are not edifying ones.
Nigel Ashton
False Prophets: British Leaders’ Fateful Fascination with the Middle East from Suez to Syria
Atlantic Books (March 2022)
This book relates how even a middle-level ex-colonial power such as the UK has exercised an outsize and largely malign influence on the developments in the Middle East, a role magnified when it joined with the US in the “special relationship” described by Tony Blair as an “article of faith”, as it did in the Iraq war. Harold Macmillan once described the role of the British qua the Americans as similar to the role played by the Greeks to the Romans, and indeed the British have provided intellectual heft for much of the dysfunctional interference and bungling that has occurred in the post-war period. It also extirpates the fallacy that the Suez crisis marked the end of British imperialism in the Middle East, it did no such thing. In fact, the fascination that the Middle East exercises over British politicians causing the British government to interfere in various wars, depositions of monarchs, and providing unwavering support for the Israeli position over the years has been truly remarkable.
The Suez crisis led to the downfall of Sir Anthony Eden, a politician, who rightly opposed appeasement but mistook a nationalist leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, for a new Hitler and together with the French and Israelis took over the Suez Canal, as Eden had the presentiment that Nasser would use this vital trade route to strangle Britain. The conservative perceptions and policies – under prime ministers Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home – can be seen through the prism of colonialism and antagonism towards nationalist leaders such as Nasser and Mossadegh of Iran. Whilst, that was bad enough, the Left has been much worse.
The Labour Party were infatuated with the faux socialism of the Kibbutzim, conveniently ignoring the fact that many of them were constructed on land which belonged to the Palestinian Arabs who in 1948 were forced out of their territory by the Israelis and gangs who would today qualify as terrorists. The manner in which the Palestinians were evacuated from their historic lands was justified in the context of the appalling legacy of the holocaust. Many Labour politicians were friends with the early Zionists such as Ben Gurion, and Golda Meier. But beyond socialism, there was religion, at least three of the Labour Prime Ministers who were the most fervent of Zionists, such as Wilson, Callaghan and Blair were animated by biblical fervour, ignoring the fact that some of the most prominent Palestinian leaders were secular and many of them Christians. In Tony Blair, we see the distillation of an almost Manichean ideology post 9/11, where the world is broken down into good and evil, that these attacks on that fateful day presaged a civilisational challenge to the West and freedom.
Whilst there is this neo-conservative argument that the Middle East needs democracy and freedom, an intellectual justification for toppling what are seen as authoritarian rulers, this argument camouflages a point that many thinking Arabs see. First, this is convenient to the West when the rulers are anti-Western or nationalist. But when it comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a fundamentalist authoritarian dictatorship which has traditionally been a Western ally, these rules do not apply – although under crown prince Mohammed bin Salman this is changing.
Secondly, and this emerges strongly in Ashton’s book, is the religious element, particularly in relation to Zionism, which influences Western policy. The Jewish lobby has historically supported Zionism, Lord Rothschild was influential in promoting what became the Balfour Declaration in 1917 setting out the basis for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. US policy has been influenced by this lobby ever since Israel was formed. But, even more seminal has been the role of evangelical Christians, particularly in the US, and, apparently from Ashton’s book, Labour politicians such as Wilson, Callaghan, Blair and Brown, who have indulged Israel and the latter two did nothing to prevent the colonisation of the West Bank by Israeli settlers rendering the two-state solution academic, leaving over 5 million Palestinians without citizenship or nationality, making them the nowhere people.
Of course, Britain as a middle level power does have its limitations, but at least if we hark back to Macmillan, the British role as mentor to the US gave legitimacy to the US’s approach on important issues. George W. Bush relied heavily on Blair’s support and guidance in going to war with Iraq, but once the war started, Blair was marginalised and so was the experience of the British, which could have made a difference to the end game. The Iraq imbroglio proved a major own goal for the West, handing over a significant Arab country and oil producer to the Iranian camp as well as causing Sunni disaffection in the form of ISIS.
What people fail to understand is that the Middle East does exercise a disproportionate influence on world affairs. Post the Yom Kippur war, the European experiment with social democracy foundered, with oil prices rising dramatically by virtue of the OPEC boycott. The introduction of the petro dollar led to the expansion of American power and influence as the present situation with America funding two wars, in Ukraine and Gaza, may now signal the irreversible decline of such power. The price of the petro dollar was the US giving carte blanch to the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia to spread their pernicious version of Islam throughout the Muslim world and funding Jihad.
Perhaps if the West had adopted a more rational and equitable approach to the Middle East, these countries and the world would be spared such suffering and distress.
Javed Gaya is a Bombay high court lawyer who is currently writing a book on the historical, geographical and political impact of partition on India and the wider sub-continent, particularly with reference to the Indian Muslims and other minorities.
