Fayez Sayegh- the Party Years (1938-1947)

by Adel Beshara

  Fayez Sayegh

  The Party Years 1938-1947

  Adel Beshara

  Fayez Sayegh

  The Party Years 1938-1947

  Adel Beshara

  Copyright © 2018 Black House Publishing Ltd

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Black House Publishing Ltd

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  Fayez Sayegh 1922-1980

  Table of Contents

  Fayez Sayegh

  Preface

  Introduction

  1 - An Intellectual Portrait

  2 - The Rise of Fayez Sayegh in the SSNP

  3 - The Fall of Fayez Sayegh from the SSNP

  4 - Disagreement with Sa’adeh

  5 - The Question of Existentialism

  Conclusion

  Appendix

  Bibliography

  Preface

  This book provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the early writings and activism of Fayez Sayegh, whose passionate and prolific intellectual career was well known within academia (and probably also within the ranks of intelligence agencies anxious to keep outspoken and courageous critics of Zionism under surveillance). It is aimed at readers with diverse interests including nationalism, colonialism, Zionism, philosophy, ideology, humanism, and party activism.

  Very little is known about Sayegh’s early life. We remember him mainly as an articulate defender of the Palestinian cause: a subject that his work internationalized in words and deeds. However, we have only a faint idea of how and why he chose this life-long trajectory. The answer to the “how and why” lies in the roots that sustained his passion and got him there in the first place: the period between 1938 and 1947 when he was a political activist with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). This is the period of Sayegh’s first intense intellectual development under two distinct and irreconcilable currents: (1) Antun Sa’adeh’s nationalism and (2) Kierkegaard-Berdyaev’s existentialism.

  The tragedy that befell Sayegh when his soul became a battlefield for these two currents is an intrinsic part of this book. Its purpose is to unravel how Sayegh was woven into this intricate web and reveal how he managed or failed to disentangle himself from it. In the process, much light will be shed on his fallout with Sa’adeh in 1947, which led to his expulsion from the SSNP and the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

  Those who knew Sayegh personally have confirmed that he consistently refrained from speaking about his dispute with Sa’adeh. They never understood why, and Sayegh never told them. He was so tight-lipped about the affair that he never referred to it in his writings or publicly spoke about it after 1948. Even more baffling is the absence of any reference to Sa’adeh in the entire mass of Sayegh’s voluminous writings from 1950 to 1980. Even when the topic of discussion shared much ground with Sa’adeh (nationalism, Zionism, Communism) and the analysis bore his stamp, Sayegh did not mention him anywhere. Yet his publications show that, despite his evasive tactics and self-imposed ban on Sa’adeh, Sayegh never succeeded in completely disconnecting from his old leader.

  In fairness to both of these men, this book recapitulates the dispute from the perspective of both parties. Independence and objectivity is maintained throughout the narrative by drawing on what both men said and wrote and what others close to them thought of the dispute. Naturally, in personal ideological disputes, the level of confusion and conflicting opinions is high. We attempt to cut through the maze of this confusion by deconstructing the dispute point-by-point rather than addressing it holistically. Analytically, because the book is largely about Sayegh, the focus is on his interpretation and explanations. Sa’adeh’s response serves as a complimentary backdrop. The aim is neither to condemn nor to vindicate Sayegh, but to provide a novel entrance point into an obscure and forgotten phase of his life.

  After Sayegh’s death in 1980, his widow donated a large collection of his papers on Arab affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict to the Middle East Library Division of the Marriott Library in the University of Utah, USA. In this collection there is a substantial amount of material on Sayegh’s involvement with the SSNP. Some of this material, which has not been published, has enabled us to obtain invaluable insight into Sayegh’s frame of mind, and to some extent, into his dispute with Sa’adeh.

  We were also able to rebuild a coherent picture of Sayegh’s years in the SSNP by drawing on his published writings between 1944 and 1947, especially in Sada an-Nahda, the Beirut-based newspaper he edited in 1946-1947. We are deeply grateful to the Jafet Library at the American University of Beirut for furnishing us with an electronic copy of Sada an-Nahda.

  In the second half of the book, the reader is presented with translations of some of Sayegh’s party writings from that period. The selected material in this section serves as an indicator of his sense of loyalty and deep commitment to the SSNP until his sudden downfall in December 1947.

  As with the preparation of any book, several individuals deserve our thanks and praise: Dennis Walker, John Dayeh, Badr el-Hage, Michel Abs, and Ihsan al-Jamal.

  Adel Beshara

  Melbourne, March 25, 2019

  Introduction

  In 1963, the would-be ambassador of the United States to Qatar, Andrew Killgore, gave a speech on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He delivered the speech against a backdrop of mounting criticism in the American press of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s program to build rockets to fire at Israel (ostensibly with the help of German scientists). During the speech, a young man in the audience interrupted Killgore furiously: “Mr. Killgore, when will the United States make Nasser get rid of his Nazi scientists?” Immediately, another man at the back of the room was on his feet saying, “Mr. Killgore, let me answer that question. Nasser will get rid of his Nazi scientists when the U.S. gets rid of its Nazi scientists”.

  The man behind that response was the distinguished professor Fayez Sayegh, who was teaching that year at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, US. The reference to Nazi scientists was to Werner von Braun and other German rocket scientists whom Washington had brought to the U.S. from Germany at the end of World War II to help with its military weapons program.

  Despite his many well-known qualities, Fayez Sayegh remains a shadowy figure. No biography of him appeared either during his lifetime or after his death in 1980. Biographical snippets are readily available, but they are mostly of an inferior quality. Moreover, reference to the first major phase in his intellectual political career (1938 to 1947) is extremely rare. This is most unfortunate and highly negligent, because the foundations of Sayegh’s acclaimed activism and intellectualism extended deeply and firmly into that period. He was a remarkable orator before he became known in the West. In addition, he was also:

  an outspoken political figure before he started lecturing abroad;

  an efficient analyst and researcher before he landed in the United States;

  a political activist before he joined the Arab bandwagon and the Palestine Liberation;

  a capable administrator before he worked at the United Nations and the Arab League; and

  a published writer long before his books started to appear around the world.

  Intellectually, many of the views and opinions Sayegh developed after 1950 were an extension of his prior views and opinions. Even when he strayed from them,
he retained some of the earlier qualities and values. For example, after 1950, Sayegh gradually drifted away from Syrian nationalism and joined the high tide of Arab nationalism. However, on closer scrutiny, we find that it was a partial rather than a full paradigm shift, as Sayegh continued to adhere to his pre-1950 notion of nationalism and to voice the same skepticism with which he characterized Arab nationalism. Similarly, his attitude towards Communism and Zionism after 1950 shows very strong continuity with his attitude and position before 1950.

  We cannot understand the real Sayegh and his inner character and sense of reality by ignoring a sizable period in his life. The interval of 1938-1947 is crucial. During this time, Sayegh came of age as a political activist and a gifted orator with a thoughtful, reasoned mind. During those years, many young men and women expanded their intellectual and political horizons under the tutelage of Antun Sa’adeh (1904-1949), the founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), but none more than Fayez Sayegh. For almost a decade, he served the Syrian Social National Party with the utmost devotion. He rose from a junior role in the Party as a local branch executive to become the Party’s leading spokesperson on cultural and political affairs, a public orator, and the chief editor of the Party’s newspaper and internal publications. His published material on the Party prompted certain circles to regard him as the heir apparent to Sa’adeh.

  At personal level, the period of 1938-1947 is Sayegh’s first scholarly encounter with philosophical thinkers and themes. His academic record shows him studying and writing on various philosophical systems and ideas including Islamic and ancient Syrian philosophers such as Lucian of Samosata. Ultimately, Sayegh found his philosophical calling in existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will. It appealed to Sayegh’s gentle nature and strong nostalgia for moral and spiritual betterment. He found in existentialism’s philosophical and theoretical foundations an outlet from the evil problems that seem to drive the world from one adversity to another. Undoubtedly, the miseries and horrors of World War II (which sparked a renewed interest in existentialism and other moralist philosophies) influenced Sayegh, as did his coaching at the hands of the Christian existentialist, Charles Malik.

  However, little did Sayegh realize that he was moving along two conflicting axes: (1) a nationalism soliciting his loyalty to the nation as the supreme value in life, and (2) an existentialism beseeching him to step back from collective ideologies that had brought nothing but suffering and disaster on humanity. Sayegh straddled these two currents blissfully unaware or perhaps in denial of what could happen if they collided. For almost three years (1944–1947), he was able to maintain a delicate balance between them by insulating himself from external interference. At one point, he attempted to reconcile the two and had mixed success. But the contradictions were too great to conceal, and they ultimately caught up with him.

  The rupture occurred when Sa’adeh returned from exile in 1947 and admonished Sayegh to refrain from infusing the Party’s national doctrine with existentialist themes. However, because Sayegh had developed an irreversible fondness for existential philosophy, he stood up to his leader. In the course of the polemical dialogue that followed between Sayegh and Sa’adeh, a wide range of issues beside existentialism was discussed concerning Sa’adeh’s leadership, authority, prerogatives, and the Party’s program. Fundamental intellectual and theoretical themes (e.g. freedom of thought, totalitarianism, and the relationship between ideology and philosophy) also came to the fore. The result was a complete break-up between Sayegh and Sa’adeh, but not before an intense debate that presented a multitude of questions few had seen coming.

  Although Sa’adeh emerged as the clear winner of the dispute, it produced three primary results:

  Sayegh was expelled from the Party.

  Sa’adeh consolidated his position as the undisputed leader of the SSNP.

  New insights into the ideology and worldview of the SSNP surfaced.

  After this, Fayez Sayegh went on to become a renowned academic, writer, and political statesman. Although he moved well away from the SSNP, he continued to write and advocate for or against many of the same issues he had engaged in during his Party years: Zionism, Communism, nationalism, reformism, and the Palestine question. Syrian nationalism was perhaps the only topic he avoided. This omission and the fact that Sayegh never liked to talk about his interim Party years is probably why any reference to that period is sparse.

  This book is a detailed reconstruction of that phase. It retraces Sayegh’s meteoric rise in the SSNP, during which he was entrusted with two executive departments, oversaw the Party’s newspaper, joined its Supreme Council, and became its leading spokesperson on national and international affairs. It also outlines the factors and circumstances that led to his spectacular fall from the Party. Until now, what little has been written about this obscure phase has followed two distinct trajectories. Some pieces are mindless pieces of rabid anti-Sa’adeh tripe that portray Sayegh as only a victim of intellectual suppression; while others blow him up into an ever-present figure and a hero of our times. We aim to present a more balanced assessment grounded in an intellectual and historical perspective rather than in sympathetic eulogies.

  All the available facts will be considered carefully and both sides of the story will be presented. The point of the exercise is not to cast aspersions on Sayegh or Sa’adeh or to champion one over the other, but to provide a more accurate and detailed description of their disagreement, which will contribute to our understanding of other related issues.

  By no means is this a definitive biography of Sayegh’s early life. However, it does fill a gap in the existing literature. Although further detailed research is needed, the book should serve as a useful foundation for the writing of a full and comprehensive biography of Sayegh in the future.

  1

  An Intellectual Portrait

  Born in 1922 in Kharaba, Syria, where his father was a Presbyterian minister, Sayegh was reared in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee in what was then Palestine. Back then, people moved freely between modern-day Lebanon, Syria, and occupied Palestine either to search for jobs and opportunities or to visit relatives. Despite the division of the region between the French and British mandates, as pre-decided in the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, there were no formal political barriers, no frontier checkpoints, and no visa requirements. A keen sense of territorial community made social mobility possible for most people.

  Since the middle of the nineteenth century, Tiberias had been a popular destination for Western Christian missions. Its association with biblical narratives made it particularly appealing to the Church of Scotland mission to the Near East,1 which shifted its Presbyterian project to the town around the 1880s after its failure and withdrawal from Aleppo and Damascus. Arguably, this background played a part in the decision of the Sayegh family to relocate to Tiberias.

  From an early age, Sayegh leaned toward education. He attended the local school for his primary education and then went to Scots College: a secondary school in Safad, Palestine. He received a B.A. degree in 1941 and an M.A. degree in 1945 from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. His education was made possible with the help of scholarships from the Department of Education, the Government of Palestine, and the Faculty of Arts and Science of the AUB. Fayez excelled in every field, especially in philosophy under the close supervision of Charles Malik.2 In an anecdote often repeated it is said that Charles Malik once was talking to students about the impact of environment on the formation of individual personality and made a striking comparison between the Lebanese and the Hauranis (a reference to inhabitants of Hauran, a region in southwestern present-day Syria) as evidence of the superiority of the Lebanese over the Hauranis. Malik then turned around and ask sarcastically: “Can a clever young man like Fayez Sayegh come out of a backward country such as Haura
n?”. Fayez immediately rose to his feet and replied, “Yes. My father is Haurani and I am proud of my Haurani origin”. The class burst into laughter leaving Charles Malik red-faced and gasping.3

  In 1949, Sayegh earned a doctorate in philosophy at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, with a minor in political science. After receiving his degree, Sayegh spent most of his life alternating between public responsibilities and teaching. He worked for the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, DC, and as a research officer and adviser to the Lebanese delegation to the United Nations. He subsequently served as counselor to the Kuwaiti and Yemeni delegation to the U.N. and chief of the Arab States delegation to the U.N. His impressive résumé also included positions as program officer (Middle East) to the U.N. Radio Division and social affairs officer at the United Nations Division of Human Rights.

  As a teacher and educator, Sayegh taught at Yale, Stanford, the AUB, University of Oxford, and Macalester College. He was an extraordinarily gifted teacher and lecturer. His teacher at the AUB and Acting Head of the Department of Philosophy, A. Kenneth Cragg, noted in a letter of recommendation:

  I formed the highest opinion of his academic ability and his capacity as a teacher. He showed great application and very considerable powers of exposition and had that ability to make a subject live and to enthuse students in its pursuit which is so important a part of classroom work.4

  Sayegh enjoyed exchanges with students that faculty half his age could not match. He never forgot what it was like to be young. The exuberance of undergraduates charmed him and he, in turn, charmed them. His in-depth and extensive knowledge in philosophy and political science, of which he made effective use, gave him an edge over his colleagues and competitors. He could teach in both fields with considerable ease and fluency. His main courses centered on Arabic philosophy and current Middle Eastern affairs, especially during periods of political instability in the Middle East.