ABSTRACT
Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Israelis developed an emotional nationalism directed against foreign rule or influence. Nationalists were successful in ending colonial domination in most of the area by the end of World War II, but they achieved this goal only to be faced with continuing problems of hunger, disease, and poverty. Local nationalisms proved more powerful than Pan-Arab-ism. The emergence of Jewish nationalism and the re-creation of the state of Israel were secondary developments provoked by the primary nationalism of western Europe. The age of conscious nationalism had arrived for the whole Arabic-speaking area. From this point on there occurred a struggle between the new protonationalism of the Pan-Arab world and the heteronational elements among its inhabitants. While politico-economic factors were the contemporary reality, at the base of the differences was the religious and cultural antagonism which colored the pattern of nationalism in the Middle East.
