How the nation defeated the people

"The Islamic nation" was not slow to enter this crowded arena of political actors, especially following the Iranian Revolution and its rallying cry of "Neither East nor West... but Islamic unity." Needless to say, this unity could only take shape under the leadership of the Iranian clergy, who had risen against the "taghut" and proclaimed themselves defenders of "the oppressed."

Today, we find ourselves in the final stage of an undefined "nation", one that lacks a clear identity or leadership yet presents itself as a political actor supposedly behind the "Al-Aqsa Flood." This ambiguity allows all parties to evade responsibility for the catastrophe now engulfing Gaza and the wider Levant. Except for Hamas, whose fingerprints on the events of October 7 are evident, those who once stood at podiums calling for war have since retreated from their own rhetoric.

Arab leftists also made their mark, framing the Palestinian national liberation movement as an integral part of the global struggle against imperialism. One thinker even proposed a "lever theory," suggesting that the liberation of Palestine would serve as the catalyst for a sweeping Arab revolution.

Conflicting interests

Replacing "the people" with "the nation," whose components, leadership, and responsibilities remain ill-defined, has undermined the ability to clearly identify the interests connected to resolving the Palestinian cause. The interests of the "nation" are not necessarily aligned with those of the "people" and often eclipse them entirely. The interests of the "Arab nation" have repeatedly overshadowed those of the Palestinian people. Later, when political Islam imposed a religious framing on the cause, the priorities of the "Islamic nation" came to govern the entire discourse surrounding Palestine.

There is no avoiding the conclusion that the reality shaped by Islamist movements has become a complete catastrophe. In place of tangible solutions and clearly defined interests rooted in a specific people, we are now confronted with religious imperatives and apocalyptic prophecies of wars in which Muslims annihilate non-believers, accompanied by expectations of the return of hidden Imams. These are notions that cannot be placed on a negotiating table or subjected to the consequences of either success or failure. Religious discourse has rendered the Palestinian cause unsolvable, turning it into a sacred obligation accountable only to its divine originator.

In doing so, "the nation," along with the discourse constructed around it, fractured the national fabric, dividing Palestinians more deeply than at any point during the height of nationalist or leftist factionalism, and further weakened their position. This leads to the pressing question of who now stands as the legitimate political actor responsible for the Palestinian cause. The military defeat suffered by Hamas may well evolve into a conclusive ideological and political collapse, yet this does not suggest that Palestinian division will be healed any time soon.

Corm's musingspales

It is worth recalling an observation made years ago by the late Lebanese thinker Georges Corm. He pointed out that the most hostile Orientalists place Muslims and Arabs outside the framework of social progress and historical development, arguing that Islam dictates every aspect of life, from politics to economics.

At the same time, Islamist extremists assert that the Islamic "nation" is incompatible with modernity, which they dismiss as a construct of infidel Western thought. Instead, they insist that the "nation" must adhere to its own divinely ordained laws enshrined in scripture. Corm observed that this convergence between Islam's fiercest opponents and its most extreme adherents should deeply alarm anyone reflecting on the condition of this region.

**This is a direct translation from Arabic**