The shocking absence of Arab national security

We cannot ignore the need to pose the following questions and provide honest answers to them. Is the security and living conditions situation in Sudan, the frenzied conflict between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the senseless fragmentation of state authority in Libya, the wrangling over the ownership, affiliation, and future of a piece of the desert between Morocco and Algeria, the new security-related border dispute between Jordan and Syria, leaving Lebanon alone to face daily crimes, destruction, and occupation by the Zionist army in its south, north, and indeed every inch of its territory, the entanglement of the US and Zionist colonial regimes in dragging Gulf Cooperation Council countries into their colonial aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the growing normalization of relations by some Arab states with the Zionist entity that annihilated Gaza and speaks of establishing a “Greater Torah State of Israel,” and the coercive tactics—militia-based, oil-related, and US colonial-geographic—in the Gulf and across various corners of the Arab homeland... Are all these scenes and disasters part of Arab national security and shared Islamic security or not? Is the answer not a resounding yes, a thousand times yes, regardless of the denials of the obstinate, the neglect of the opportunists, and the harmonization of the chanters with Mossad and multiple US intelligence networks? Therefore, what is the issue of the hour that must be given top priority in terms of thought, strategies, and concrete steps of confrontation, if not the unified, shared Arab national security? Yet this is a nation, these are societal forces, and these are peoples who have grown accustomed to circling around their problems and issues year after year and decade after decade, which, unfortunately, also applies to an existential issue like Arab national security. Who would believe that an issue raised, debated, and on which decisions were taken by many responsible Arab entities, such as the Arab League and Arab Summit conferences, since 1950—eight decades ago—remains among endless wishes and chatter and thousands of published analytical books? Worse still, as an existential issue in the actual Arab reality, it has significantly regressed over time, replaced by other types of security, such as water, food, trade, and tourism security, all of which are placed outside the umbrella of comprehensive national security, while major Arab cities burn and millions of sons and daughters of Arabism die or migrate, lost in every corner of exile and alienation. For example, I was struck by reading a profound, beautiful, and committed booklet published by the Arab Thought Forum in Amman in 1986 under the title “Challenges of Arab National Security in the Coming Decade.” The ideas, proposals, and aspirations presented by the participants were deep, candid, and bold, as if they were written and proposed for the days we live in today. The main speaker and dear friend, the creative Dr. Ali al-Din Hilal, concluded the discussions at that time with the following points: 1. The Arab homeland was experiencing a severe security crisis and facing regional, international, and national threats. 2. National security is a comprehensive societal issue, both internal and external. 3. Security primarily means building self-reliance, not dependence on external actors. 4. We should not forget the paramount importance of military power that protects every achievement of self-reliant security. 5. Security involves ideological and national considerations, not only Arab but also hostile external ones. 6. Achieving Arab national security requires action at three levels: the level of Arab governments and official systems, the level of an active role for organizations, unions, parties, and associations in civil society, and the level of educational and awareness-raising roles for thinkers and intellectuals. Does it need anything more than that?

Yes, there was at that time one essential condition, albeit somewhat present: the availability of a free, self-determined, active, and effective political and social will, which is now tragically and insultingly absent, and which some insist on keeping in the hands of external Zionist colonial powers. Restoring this will precedes even military strength; without it, national security becomes a subject of idle chatter, alas, capable of persisting, multiplying, and muttering for another eight decades of disgraceful humiliation and silence.