But Arab states, with a total population 50 times that of Israel and vast economic resources, oil and labour, could not find a correspondingly strong voice in the world economy and international politics, as long as broader global considerations tied the West to Israel. And here is the undeniable linkage. Israel and the Palestinian question stand in the way of full economic and political integration of the Arab world with the West. Egypt attempted to achieve this objective by distancing itself from the Pan-Arabic cause and attempting a separate accommodation with Israel. The strategy failed.
Militant nationalism hopes to achieve the same objective by show of strength.
It is fighting the West in order to join it on more favourable terms. The initial occupation of Kuwait was a straightforward military act on the part of Iraq for its own national interests. For Iraq the best scenario would have been a quiet annexation without immediate regional repercussions. But once this was forcefully resisted by the West, exactly because of its real linkage with the future of Israel, and once a US military intervention against an Arab state became imminent, the aborted Iraqi act was embraced by militant Arab nationalism as a contribution to the broader regional cause. It is not difficult to see why for Arab nationalism the field of action appears to have widened and why even a destructive war may still count as a political advance.