ABSTRACT
These traditional Arab nationalists were their own worst enemies. Under the Mandates, their object was to show that it was too costly and impracticable for the foreign Powers to continue the direct occupation of their countries. This could be achieved by a purely negative policy, by civil agitation, and by administrative sabotage. In this they succeeded, but they could never afterwards shed their negativeness. Moreover, with independence achieved, the raison d'etre of their cohesion-the presence of the foreigner-was removed and with his removal the solid front with which they had faced him collapsed. They now fell to fighting with one another for the fruits of office. The countless parties with pompous titles into which they divided were entirely meaningless except in terms of clashes of will and personality. Because of the aristocratic and feudal background of most of them, office became synonymous to them with the protection and expansion of the particular land or commercial interest which they represented. Their triumph over the foreigner was erroneously taken by them as proof of their own importance and placed them in a false moral position vis-a-vis their public. They felt that they had satisfactorily fulfilled their duties to the people and that they could now start attending to themselves.
