Antun Saade and Hosni Al-Zaim
Saadeh knew that the Arab countries were not serious about the liberation of Palestine, and he was deeply saddened by Mrs. Wadih Kaddura Khartabil when she told me that she had met Saadeh in 1948 because her brother Adib Kaddura, a pharmacist, was belonging to the National Party. , and he told her that he was very enthusiastic about the Palestinian cause, and because his wife was a Palestinian doctor, they were preparing to go to Palestine and support its people with the help of Arab armies. Saade did not stop him, but told him that the Arab countries had already sold Palestine. This is exactly what happened when Ben-Gurion, then head of the Jewish Agency, announced the establishment of the “State of Israel” on May 14, 1948.
Saadeh did not survive this horrible tragedy. On January 21, 1949, he wrote an article in the Vse newspaper for its owner Muhammad Baalbaki entitled: “Arabism has gone bankrupt”, in which he said: “Cilicia leaves, then Iskenderun leaves , then came Palestine. I repeated my calls… the Arab world has not come together as one nation in Palestine. ” And praise for the negotiations between the Arab countries and Israel was repeated. Egypt signed a truce with him on February 24, 1948 on the island of Rhodes. On March 23, Lebanon signed an armistice agreement at Ras Naqour, and on April 3 of the same year a permanent ceasefire was signed between Jordan and Israel. Meanwhile, on March 30, 1948, Hosni al-Zaim launched his coup against Shukri al-Quwatli. Immediately thereafter, on April 5, Husni al-Zaim ordered the start of negotiations between Syria and Israel, and the delegation was led by Colonel Fawzi Selo.
Miles Copeland explains in his book The Game of Nations that Hosni al-Zaim’s coup was instigated and supported by the United States of America because Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli refused to pass the scoreboard line from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon through of Syrian territory without benefit. of the latter, while Hosni agreed with the leader not only on the passage of the oil pipeline, but also on the start of negotiations for a ceasefire with Israel.
Position of Hosni Al-Zaim
Saadeh does not know what we know now about Hosni al-Zaim’s discussions with Ben-Gurion and Moshe Sharett, otherwise he would not trust Dr. Sabri Qabbani, Hosni’s physician, a special leader and defender of Saadeh’s ideas and principles. Qabbani invited Saadeh to Damascus and persuaded him to cooperate with Hosni al-Zaim. The truth is that Qabbani did not know the true intentions of Hosni al-Zaim. According to Ben-Gurion’s memoirs, Hosni al-Zaim offered a separate peace to Israel on 16 April 1949 in exchange for half of the Sea of Galilee and the settlement of Palestinian refugees in Syria. On May 9, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson accepted Hosni al-Zaim’s initiative and considered it an offer not to be missed, and later accused Ben-Gurion of turning it down!
When Hosni al-Zaim learned that his proposal had been rejected, he instructed his doctor, Dr. Sabri Qabbani, to arrange a meeting with Anton Saadeh. The first meeting took place on 27 May 1949. Just four days after the meeting between Saadeh and Hosni al-Zaim Moshe Sharett quickly contacted Hosni al-Zaim and supported the United States in this work, and in June 1, Abba Eban sent a letter from Washington to Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett stating that the meeting between Ben-Gurion and Hosni al-Zaim led to a peaceful agreement, the first of its kind in between an Arab nation and Israel. Hosni al-Zaim used the Antoon Saadeh project as a bargaining chip with the Israelis before King Farouk, Bishara Khoury and Riad Solh.
The fact is that Saade’s arrest came from a well-known and unscrupulous home, and the confidants present were in a hurry to seek refuge in Jordan.
Saadeh returned to Lebanon on May 28, but Riad al-Solh, familiar with Zionist-Syrian discussions, decided to remove him, as his project was the only project that threatened the existence of the Zionist entity, because Saadeh is not associated with any eastern or western country outside Sorasia. Freiha, close to Riad El Solh, said the latter chaired a meeting on state security matters, where it was decided to arrest Saadeh and kill the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and the date was set for June 5, 1949. Damascus.
After meeting with Moshe Sharett, Hosni al-Zaim broke his promises to provide weapons, and Saada found himself facing a tightly closed road with no turning back and nothing to advance. His Majesty knows the importance of these dangerous events, and there is no other way but to declare a popular revolution, which is the last and only card. I confess to my mother that the victory of this revolution was hopeless when they last met in a famous poor house, but she had no other choice, so she called it the first “national revolution”, meaning it was not yet final. . , but opens the way for other revolutions made by his people, and fixes in him the position of arrogant, lofty and arrogant patriotism in the face of the Zionist colony, and exposes the obedience of the leaders of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt in the Zionist project, because for him resistance was the only way to the life and dignity of his people.
The position of the party leadership in Damascus
While Hosni supported leader Antun Saadeh, some of the secretaries of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party were happy, cheerful, excited about the revolution and hoped for the political and social benefits they would receive, but when they learned that the direction had changed of the wind, they betrayed Saadeh. to his inevitable fate. How? Saadeh was staying at the home of Al-Amin Marouf Saab, who refused to allow Mrs. Abla Khoury, who came from her uncle Fares Al-Khoury, the former Prime Minister of Syria, to warn Saadeh not to go to the Palace. of Republicans because Hosni Al- Zaim turned his back on him and Maruf Saab refused to let him see Saade. He also sent nationalist Adib al-Shishakli, a Syrian army officer, to warn Sa’d of Hosni al-Za’im’s schemes, but his message did not reach. Most dangerous of all was that Colonel Ibrahim al-Husseini, who was the liaison between His Majesty and Hosni al-Zaim, hid and visited the AM, asking him to inform the leader not to go to the Palace. of the Republicans, because Hosni al -Zaim will hand him over to the Lebanese authorities.
The fact is that Saadeh’s arrest came from a well-known house and the confidants present hurried to seek asylum in Jordan while others hid and made up the story to themselves that Saadeh had left them and went to Jordan with his special escort, Sobhi Farhat, and so they didn’t take any action, They spread this lie to the comrades, and they believed it! Despite the fact that Saadeh was extradited from Maaruf Saab’s house and his escorts were taken directly to the Mezze jail, where he remained until the coup of Adib al-Shishakla, which freed him.
* college professor
Sources:
– Miles Copeland, Game of Nations
– Memories of Sabri Qabbani
Diary of Ben Gurion
– Antun Saade, Complete Works, Nine Volumes
Message from Dr. George Younan
Source: Al-Akhbar
