Born in Beit Eiba, a small village near Nablus, while Palestine was still ruled under the British Mandate, Hasan Afif El-Hasan, Ph.D, is a political analyst and journalist whose work is published in Al-Ahram, PalestineChronicle.com and other print and online media.

Dr. El-Hasan lived through the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, then the annexation of the West Bank to Jordan. He witnessed the defeat of the Arab armies, the exodus of the Palestinians, the total dissolution of their community and the ensuing chaos. The Iraqi military contingent camp was on his village’s land in 1948 but as the Iraqi commanding officer said, “We have no orders to fight.” This paradoxical situation inspired the author’s future research and writing. After completing high school in the West Bank, Mr. El-Hasan earned his teaching credentials in Nablus and taught math and science in its secondary schools. Later he came to the United States, where he earned a B.S. degree in electronics engineering and an M.S. in electrical engineering, and enjoyed a successful career in technology. He then earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Riverside and went on to study the origins and the context of the current conflict. 

 

Hasan shows that Arab leaders generally do not believe that government is a trust on behalf of the people. They believe that if there is democracy and their societies are composed of equal and competing individuals, there will be a tendency...

Hasan shows that Arab leaders generally do not believe that government is a trust on behalf of the people. They believe that if there is democracy and their societies are composed of equal and competing individuals, there will be a tendency towards anarchy. People involved in the Arab Spring uprisings demanded inclusive and equitable democracy, social justice and economic development. There were no civil society institutions strong enough to challenge the weapons of authoritarianism that included ideology, repression, payoffs and crony capitalists;¢ solidarity. The author argues that Saddam Hussein's 1980 war on Iran was the spark that set off a chain of events, leading to bloody wars which led to the US invasion of Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and to the Arab Spring uprisings. The revolts and the counter revolts took different forms in each country based on its history, the type of government and the economy. The author argues that the Arab Spring is a step in a long process toward democracy rather than an aberration between periods of authoritarian regimes. People involved in the Arab Spring uprisings demanded inclusive and equitable democracy, social justice and economic development. There were no civil society institutions strong enough to challenge the weapons of authoritarianism that included ideology, repression, payoffs and the solidarity of the crony capitalists. To understand the causes of the Arab Spring and its aftermath, the book provides the reader with a review of the culture that is common across the Middle East that includes the history of the Islamic religion, specific sects, and Arab tribalism, with a brief history of each country. There are few activities more controversial than writing the history of a nation involved in a conflict. Even while witnessing history unfolding in a country, different historians provide different narratives, different causes and different conclusions. This becomes more obvious when the history of the conflicts is viewed through the prism of the politics of sectarianism, ethnicity and tribalism. The author strives for an objective view, but he does not hide his strong support to liberal democracy and human rights.

In Yemen, the US had been exploiting the power vacuum in the country to wage a covert war against terror organizations linked to al-Qaeda using drones and fighter jets long before the Arab Spring started. These military operations were among the Obama administration's most closely held secrets to protect Yemen's President Saleh's standing among his people. It was all coordinated with the CIA teams in Sana;¢a, the capital of Yemen. At the approval of President Obama in 2011, American drone...

In Yemen, the US had been exploiting the power vacuum in the country to wage a covert war against terror organizations linked to al-Qaeda using drones and fighter jets long before the Arab Spring started. These military operations were among the Obama administration's most closely held secrets to protect Yemen's President Saleh's standing among his people. It was all coordinated with the CIA teams in Sana;¢a, the capital of Yemen. At the approval of President Obama in 2011, American drone aircraft fired missiles and killed the radical American-born fugitive Anwar al-Awlaki who was on the run in Yemen's tribal area. The US would not support an uprising against Saleh. After the Arab Spring, and the fall of Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime, the US has been in bed with the Saudi coalition, supporting its war on Yemen. The military coup against the MB elected government must have been planned by the CIA and Israel's Mossad, and executed by Abdel-Fattah Sisi. The first action by the Egyptian military after the coup was closing the tunnels that were supplying Gaza with smuggled civilian needs and military weapons. The tunnels had been Israel's main grievances against Egypt's Husni Mubarak regime. Hypocrisy and double standards are the principles of the US policy-makers, before and after the Arab Spring. Democracy is promoted but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power in Egypt or the Palestinian Authority. Nonproliferation is preached for Iran but not for Israel. Human rights are an issue with China, but not with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Israel. Aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is repulsed but not against non-oil owning Bosnians. That is why the US is likely to continue having difficulties defending its interests against those of the ME societies. This is an observation, not in defense of any undemocratic regime or abuser of human rights.