The Arab States and the 1948 War in Palestine: The Socio-Political Struggles, the Compelling Nationalist Discourse and the Regional Context of Involvement

The moves leading to the military involvement of the Arab states in the Palestine war in May 1948 deserve an examination in the context of the socio-political conditions that prevailed in the Arab states, The invasion of Palestine by Arab armies marked the intersection of two lines of conflict. One was the conflict between the Arab states and the ruling dynasties. The other was the socio-political conflict between the ruling conservative elites opposed to the deep socio-economic and political reforms needed by the modern middle strata, the effendiyya. The purpose of this article is to examine the domestic socio-political struggles, the compelling nationalist discourse in the Arab states and the interaction of that discourse with the regional inter-Arab relations that led the Arab states to war against Israel in May 1948.