Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Land of Miracles

ARAFAT MEMORIAL BRIDGE, MAY 15, 2003

Today President Abdul Qasem of Syria and President Yitzakh Rabin of the Federation of Jerusalem sign a historic free trade accord – the first step in Syria’s admission to the Federation. It ironic, but not surprising that the birthplace of modern Arab nationalism now clamors for a place in the cosmopolitan, western-oriented Federation. The tide of history has been flowing inexorably in this direction for a dozen years now. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a domino effect among Ba’athist regimes in the Middle East, and only the iron will of Hafez Assad preserved State Socialism in Syria as long as it did.

It didn’t always look like things would work this way, though. Historians are still amazed that the Federation exists at all, let alone that it is the dominant power in the Middle East. In the 1930s Arabs and Jews were at each other’s throats in Palestine, with terrorist paramilitaries brutally murdering one another – the only thing they could agree upon was their mutual hatred of the British, against whom both groups also constantly battled. Palestinian Arab leaders had even begun to call for the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine and actively seeking support from Nazi Germany.

Into this mess stepped Winston Churchill, then a failed career politician tarred with the Gallipoli fiasco of World War I, but the only man in the Conservative party who seemed to relish the challenge of the Palestine problem. Churchill ruthlessly suppressed the terrorist organizations on both sides and dealt exclusively with moderates, favoring groups like the Nashashibi faction among Arabs and the Mapai party among Jews. By the time he was recalled to London to join Chamberlain’s war cabinet, Jewish-Palestinian political cooperation was a fact (if a fragile one) in Palestine. The open support of Arab extremists for Hitler politically discredited them after the war, and led to the death or exile of many who participated in Axis-inspired uprisings in 1941-42. What was perhaps worse from the Arab extremists’ viewpoint, militant guerilla leader Fawzi al-Qawkuji’s effort to form an “Arab Legion” for Hitler permanently earned Stalin’s enmity. When the U.N. proposed its partition plan in 1947, both the Jews and the Nashibishi Palestinian government accepted. The Arab League planned to invade and “liberate” Palestine in spite of U.S.-Soviet-British opposition, but King Abdullah of Transjordan’s last-minute about face cost the league its best invasion routes, and the “war” turned out to be nothing but a few skirmishes on the Syrian border and a joint Israeli-Palestinian sweep of Galilee to clear out die-hard guerillas.

Abdullah was assassinated for his “treason,” but his son Hussein continued his anti-nationalist policies. In 1952 Hussein not only formally recognized Israel and Palestine, but proposed an economic union between the three states which grew into the Jerusalem Federation, which today celebrates its 50^th anniversary. The Federation’s system of a rotating Presidency insured that all member states would enjoy a share of control – it would not simply be a Hashemite superstate as Arab League officials charged. Jerusalem created the peace, stability, and economic growth which the Ba’athists throughout the Middle East promised but could never deliver. As the increasing prosperity of Arabs in the great modern cities of Gaza, Amman, Haifa, and Jerusalem itself became apparent, popular sentiment in the Arab world turned against the nationalist-socialist leaders of the 1950s and 60s. Lebanon joined the Federation in 1962. Egypt followed suit in 1974, and Kurdistan in 1976 after its successful rebellion against Iraq. By the 1980s the Gulf Emirates had formed commercial alliances with Jerusalem, and the combination of Gulf and Egyptian oil with Palestinian agriculture, Jordanian industry and Israeli high-tech had created a new economic superpower.

While the rest of the world has battled with post-colonial chaos, dictatorship, and ethnic strife, the blood drenched Holy Land – perhaps the most fought-over land in history – has enjoyed five decades of uninterrupted peace and prosperity. The unification of the Middle East seems as inevitable now as turmoil and bloodshed seemed at the end of World War II. It seems nothing short of a miracle.

But then again, Jerusalem is the land of miracles.

Gregory Eatroff is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honors Society, and editor of Fans!! (www.faans.com), an award-nominated online comic. He is a regular guest at several science fiction conventions and has served on numerous discussion panels on alternate history and historical models in SF with people far more famous and respected than he is ever likely to be.