The Arab region is going through an identity crisis, especially in the Levant and in Iraq, i.e. in the geographical area known for its ethnic, religious and confessional diversity. Such a crisis is being translated in continuous wars shifting from one location to another, in which countries of the region and of the West interfere, making use of this diversity to feed the conflict and steer it to their own advantage. When Syria and Lebanon were under French colonialism, after Lebanon was declared Greater, the two countries had many shared government services, such as customs and the currency, and Lebanese officers would study at the military academy in Aleppo. After independence, all shared services were cancelled, and attempts to shape a national identity began for each of the two countries. Syria, however, continued to view Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan as parts of itself that had been split away, and to wait for the opportunity to reclaim them. And such a view has not been restricted to some regimes and not others. Damascus treats the Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians residing on its soil exactly as it treats its own citizens: they have the same rights, save for the right to vote. In fact, Palestinians could – and still can – own property, join the army, get a job working for the government or in the public sector, and get free education and healthcare. This is not limited to the way the state treats them, as the Syrian people consider such treatment to be perfectly natural. In other words, Arabism was for the successive regimes that governed Syria, as well as for its people, something that was practiced in effect and was devoid of discrimination between citizens of the Levant, even in terms of the oppression and tyranny suffered by the Syrians themselves. And while slogans of “Lebanon First", “Jordan First", “Egypt, Palestine, etc... First" became popular in the region, Damascus continued to raise the slogan of Arabism first and last, until the war broke out. Then we began hearing of organizations, some armed and some unarmed, raising the same slogan and building upon it their strategies for relations with neighboring countries after the fall of the regime. We also began hearing from such organizations that some Lebanese, Jordanian and Palestinian nationals were trading in subsidized goods and living at the expense of Syrian taxpayers. The wars in Syria set off the identity crisis. Thus, the name of Syrian Arab Republic became no longer relevant for the Kurdish opposition, whose representatives were angered by this appellation, and complained of the “embassy" in Doha bearing this name. One can note that the Jihadists arriving to Syria from different countries, Arab or non-Arab, agree with Syrian Jihadists that the identity of Syria, and of the Levant as a whole, is an Islamic one. Indeed, religion does not recognize borders and only acknowledges social identities in accordance with religious law. As opposed to the identity crisis in the Levant, Israel has made its decision and chosen to be a Jewish State, making of religion its national identity. By making such a choice, it can maintain its racist practices against the Palestinians residing on its soil, and can issue laws and legislation that justify such racism and consider others, any others, to be enemies. It was striking that President Barack Obama would support such a direction, forgetting all the racist oppression that was, and continues to be, suffered by those of his complexion. The wars in Syria are shaping identities by force of arms and through the systematic destruction of all connections between the constituents of the Syrian people on the one hand, and their neighbors on the other. Indeed, shared identity, i.e. Arabism, has begun to fall apart, and the “nationalisms" that will be produced by the wars will represent a threat to those who raise them and to the Levant as a whole, perhaps even spreading to its neighborhood, particularly towards Turkey.
