The protestant working class

 Eamonn McCann

"The fact that, from the Protestant workers’ point of view, the privilege is pretty small, matters not at all. When tuppence-halfpenny is looking down on tuppence, the halfpenny difference can assume an importance out of all proportion to its actual size."
I think I've read that despite the preponderance of Alawis in the state apparatus, most of those in their traditional homeland in Northwest Syria are poor farmers. So perhaps they are more comparable to the Protestants of Northern Ireland than the Israeli Jews, who as a people-class are all privileged by the dispossession of the Palestinians.

Also:

"The great mass of the people continue, for historical reasons, to see religion, not class, as the basic divide in our society. This sectarian consciousness is reinforced, week in, week out, by local Tory newspapers. The machinations of Catholic and Protestant Tories such as McAteer, Glover, Anderson, and Hegarty are carefully calculated to maintain the status quo. The end result is a working class which is unresponsive to socialist ideas...
One of the basic difficulties arises out of the present division of the working class along religious lines. Many Protestant workers in Derry feel that they are members of a vaguely privileged section of the population (as, in one sense, they are). As a result, despite the economic situation of the area, they are resistant to change. Many of the Catholic workers interpret the bulk of Governmental activity as being to some extent directed against them as Catholics. Thus, they are ‘easy meat’ for the adroit demagogy of the McAteers and Hegartys."
[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/mccann93.htm]