The Rise and Fall of Greater Syria: A Political History of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party

Abstract

In the 1940s and 1950s, it was common among ʿAlawi high school students in Lataqiya to ask one another “shu dinak” (what is your religion, or creed?), by which they meant “are you a member or supporter of the Baʿath of the SSNP [Syrian Social Nationalist Party]?” These were two radical but different parties. The Baʿath was a Pan-Arab nationalist party combining a doctrine of secular Arab nationalism with a belief in social democracy. The SSNP expounded a doctrine of secular Syrian territorial nationalism rejecting Arab Nationalism and a separate existence of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, which were instead to be united in a large Syrian state. Both ideologies were attractive to members of minority communities in Syria and Lebanon who were uncomfortable with the Sunni tinctures of classical Arab Nationalism. The dividing line ran sometimes within families. Thus, Ghassan Jadeed was a prominent officer in the Syrian army, a member of the SSNP, who was assassinated by emissaries of Syria’s military intelligence in Beirut in 1955. His brother, Sallah Jadeed, was a prominent member of the Baʿath Party, who became one of the principal leaders of the Baʿath regime in Syria after the coup of March 8, 1963.The SSNP was one of the most interesting political movements to emerge in the Fertile Crescent during the first half of the twentieth century. It was founded by Antuna Saʿadeh, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese, who returned from Brazil and became active in the political and intellectual circles of Beirut in the 1940s. Saʿadeh was influenced by the right-wing and fascist movements in Europe, as were other politicians and movements in the region (the name Phalange given by Pierre Jumayyel to his party was clearly reflective of the trend). According to Saʿadeh, there was and there had been a national entity called Greater Syria composed of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. This entity had existed for many centuries but was brutally divided by the colonial powers into four “artificial states.” The purpose of the movement was to abolish this artificial division and to establish Greater Syria. Saʿadeh’s specific opposition to the Lebanese state reflected the Greek Orthodox’s opposition to the Maronite-Catholic hegemony in Lebanon. He actively sought to topple the dominant order in Lebanon, staged a failed coup, escaped to Syria, was extradited to Lebanon, and executed in 1949. His disciples continued their activity in Lebanese politics, staging another failed coup in 1961, but the brunt of their activity shifted to Syria, where, in the 1950s, they fought against rising tide of Arab Nationalism and Soviet influence.It was an ironic twist of fate that when the Baʿath finally came to power in Syria, particularly after the establishment of Hafez al-Asad’s regime in 1970, that the SSNP in Syria, a minor party by that time, was tolerated by the regime and came to support it. This was facilitated by personal relationships and by Hafez al-Asad’s quest to establish Syria’s hegemony over Lebanon and the Palestinians. The Baʿath that had been the most distinctive Pan-Arab political movement and played a key role in establishing Syria’s union with Egypt (1958–61), ended up after 1963 as the champion of Syria’s separate existence, and then as a regional power, exercising influence over its weaker neighbors. Members of the SSNP could argue that Hafez al-Asad was in fact implementing Antun Saʿadeh’s legacy.Carl Yonker’s book, based on his doctoral dissertation at Tel Aviv University, describes and analyzes the SSNP’s history and its remarkable journey during several decades. He does it well. The one comment to be made is that the contemporary part of the book dealing with current events should have been extended.