{"id":231,"date":"2019-05-25T00:10:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T05:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/?p=231"},"modified":"2019-05-25T00:13:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T05:13:23","slug":"the-syrian-uprising-and-the-arab-israeli-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/2019\/level-systems\/local\/the-syrian-uprising-and-the-arab-israeli-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"The Syrian Uprising and the Arab-Israeli Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mehistorian.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/syrian-uprising-and-arab-israeli.html\">Older blog<\/a> 16 November, 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nSyria is attracting a\n considerable international attention these days, not only because of \nthe drama of peaceful protest against tanks and sniper bullets which \nrepresents a continuation of the Arab Spring started in Tunisia last \nDecember, but also because of that small country\u2019s political importance \non the Middle Eastern scene. A plethora of informational and analytical \narticles proliferates in the international press vouching for this \nimportance. Analysts are pressed to speculate about the nature of what \nis happening, especially at the opaque levels of the Syrian top \ngovernment officials, and also about the future of this civil unrest \nthat many see as a potential game changer in the region. However, \nrecently, an interesting NYT op-ed and a response to it seemed to pull \nour attention toward the past rather than the future. The author of the \nop-ed (\u201cMy Syria, Awake Again After 40 Years,\u201d June 26, 2011) is \nMohammad Ali Atassi, a prominent figure of the Syrian\n opposition, a journalist and a film maker, but also the son of Syria\u2019s \npresident during the crucial period of 1966-1970; the president who was \ntoppled in a <em>coup d\u2019etat<\/em> by Hafiz al-Assad, the father of Syria\u2019s\n current president, Bashar al-Assad; and the president who was \nimprisoned without charge for 22 years until his death in 1992. The \npiece\u2019s author posited his family\u2019s plight as a backdrop for his piece \nwhich endeavored to draw a poetic picture of Syria\u2019s recent history \nportraying it as having been laying dormant under the Assads\u2019 Stalinist \nrule before resurrecting through the events currently unfolding in \nSyria. The true drama of two presidential but opposite families is a \ngreat metaphor of Syria\u2019s modern history, albeit a bit reductive. \nHowever, why would such a compelling story prompt an otherwise unlikely \nsurgical response from the Israeli Embassy? (Letter to the editor, \n\u201cSyria and Israel,\u201d July 1, 2011, by Dan Arbell, Dep. Chief of Mission, \nIsraeli Embassy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nIn fact the Israeli \ndiplomat, true to his vocation, was responding to a minor part of the \nop-ed that alluded to an assumed duplicity of Israel in Syria\u2019s plight \nrepresented by the Assads\u2019 rule. \u201cIt [Syria the dormant] meant a \nconcerted international effort to keep a dictatorial regime in power in \nthe name of regional stability \u2014 preserving the security of Israel and \nmaintaining a cold peace on the Golan Heights.\u201d These were the words of \nMr. Atassi, to which the Israeli diplomat retorted saying: \u201c[your \nfather] was also a Baath Party dictator, who in 1967 helped precipitate \nthe Six-Day War by trying to deprive Israel of the Jordan River waters.\u201d\n As a historian of the region, I see here &nbsp;a display of another aspect \nof the Syrian problem that has not yet risen to the surface albeit being\n on many people\u2019s minds; certainly the minds of the Israeli diplomacy \nthat is keeping a watchful, and quite observant I might say, eye on what\n is happening. This aspect touches both the history and future of the \nArab-Israeli conflict. What is at stake is no less than that: \ninterpreting the past and shaping the future. Mr. Atassi\u2019s claim is now a\n clich\u00e9 among Arab intellectuals, but on which hinges a whole different \nperspective for looking at the conflict; a perspective in which Syria \nand other Arab countries appear as passive victims of the international \npolitics of oil and Cold War that valued stability in the Middle East \nover the lives of the region\u2019s inhabitants. The Israeli diplomat\u2019s \nresponse was succinct, swift and surgical, nipping in the bud this view \nthat is slowly emerging from the events of the Arab Spring. These \nevents, while attracting much attention and support from western \naudiences, seem to germinate a minor \u201cwestern guilt\u201d toward Arabs, \nespecially in the Egyptian case, given the past western support for its \nhighly discredited ex-president and dictator Mubarak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nDespite many calls \nurging president Obama to interfere diplomatically in Syria, the USA \nremains largely inactive. This contrasts sharply with the US\u2019s active \nrole in Libya; especially that the Syrian regime has committed \ncomparable atrocities to those of the Qaddafi regime. Israel, however, \nis the ever-present absent in the Arab Spring. It prefers, wisely so, to\n watch and confer with its closest friends rather than intervene in a \nway that could change the course of events in unpredictable and \nundesirable ways. The aforementioned letter to the editor, however, \nbrings to the forefront a whole set of Israeli, and also American, \nanxieties relating to the eventual outcome of the Syrian problem. The \nlatest Hollywood-esque intervention of the American ambassador to Syria,\n Mr. Robert S. Ford (i.e. his 8<sup>th<\/sup> of \nJuly visit to the restive city of Hama), is another reminder of Syria\u2019s \nimportance in the even more important, yet volatile, Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nThe tenacity of the \nSyrian demonstrators, who even surpassed their own expectations, in \ndemanding change, as well as the utter political immaturity of Syria\u2019s \ncurrent ruling clique is creating a dilemma for the US and the European \nUnion. On one side, by supporting the legitimate demands of the \ndemonstrators for more freedom and political representation they can \nhomogenize their vacillating responses to the Arab Spring. However, on \nthe other side, the lack of a viable alternative to the current Syrian \nregime among the Syrian opposition can make for a rocky transition of \npower in that country, which could have a destabilizing effect on the \nalready precarious situation in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Libya. \nIt is clear that the US prefers to keep a reformed and weakened version \nof the Assad regime in Syria, one that is more amenable to external \npressure, while at the same time keep looking for a viable alternative, \nor perhaps until the fragmented Syrian opposition could create such an \nalternative. But, what is \u201ca viable\u201d alternative in the eyes of the US \nand the EU? It is precisely the answer to this question that the \naforementioned Israeli response can elucidate. A \u201cviable\u201d Syrian regime \nis one that moves the issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict \nforward, not backward. From my perspective at least, the Israeli \ndiplomat makes it clear that Israel does not want a regime with \nrevisionist aspirations, one that redraws the portrait of such a pivotal\n moment as the Six Day War of 1967. Israel maintains, and wishes it to \nremain so, that the Six Day War was a defensive, or at worst a \npre-emptive, war forced upon Israel by a reckless Syrian regime (that of\n Mr. Atassi\u2019s Baathist father) who upped the belligerent rhetoric while \ntrying \u201cto deprive Israel of the Jordan River waters and firing \nthousands of shells at Israeli civilians.\u201d The recently emerging images \nof Egypt and Syria as victims are highly undesirable to Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nMoreover, the issue \nof the Golan Heights (captured from Syria in precisely the 1967 war) and\n the Syrian regime\u2019s inability to recover them from Israel are becoming a\n center piece in the opposition\u2019s delegitimization campaign of the Assad\n regime. This development must be a cause of equal concern for Israel as\n well as for the Syrian rebels. For Israel, any future Syrian regime, in\n case the Assad regime is successfully toppled, will find itself bound \nto take the kind of action the lack of which has discredited its \npredecessor, i.e. recovering the Golan Heights or at least keeping a \nsimulacrum of a recovery effort. For the Syrian opposition, their future\n efforts to rebuild their country\u2019s dilapidated infrastructure and \nstrained economy will be seriously undermined by such a military \ncommitment; also given the fact that it was precisely a similar \ncommitment that functioned as the ideological cover for the \nmilitarization of the Assad regime since 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nThe resurgence of \nthe Golan Heights issue in the Syrian uprising is not, however, a sign \nof resurgence of Baath\u2019s Arab nationalism or Nasser\u2019s pan-Arabism. In \nspite of the solidarity that Arab protesters in different countries have\n expressed toward each other\u2019s causes, the current Arab uprisings have \nsolidified regional identities and brought to the forefront regional \nparticularities. These uprisings are paving the way for the formulation \nof social contracts within each country through the building of wide \ncoalitions for the sake of toppling the entrenched dictators. Such \nsocial contracts were lacking in many Arab countries, especially in \nSyria, due to the fact that they were formed by their respective \ncolonial masters at the outset of the First World War. These social \ncontracts will in my opinion aid the formation of regional nationalisms \nat the expense of a larger and all encompassing Arab nationalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nIt is an irony of \nhistory that all complicated and stubbornly unresolved issues must come \nall together and absolutely demand to be resolved, and now. The Arab \ndictators, as well as the unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict, were \nbecoming just another fact of life that one brought oneself to accept \nand expected to be there even in one\u2019s children\u2019s textbooks. Suddenly, \nseemingly because of a cart vendor\u2019s mishap and subsequent desperate \nself-immolation, all of \u201clife\u2019s certainties\u201d seem to change in the same \nstubbornness that characterized their previous defiance of all \nresolution. I do not envy the American foreign policy makers for the \npast four grueling months that they had; but also do not envy the Arab \npeople who have now to make choices they have not encountered in forty \nyears. I think it is imperative that countries like Syria and Egypt do \nnot fall now in the trap that paved the ground for the emergence of long\n standing and cruel military dictators; I mean the trap of tying their \nidentity and their <em>raison d&#8217;\u00eatre<\/em> to such a cause as the eternal \nstate of war with Israel. Regardless of who is at fault in the \nArab-Israeli conflict, the continuous state of war with Israel has \nenabled successive Arab governments since 1948, especially in Syria and \nEgypt, to impose a continuous state of emergency and divert considerable\n resources to arming themselves and establishing repressive and corrupt \nmilitary regimes. I hope not to see such a regime in Syria that uses the\n lion\u2019s share of the country\u2019s meager budget in order to build a massive\n army and a monstrous security apparatus which only serves to keep its \npopulation in check. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nThe post-colonial \nregimes of Syria engaged in the damaging two-faced policy of verbally \nand openly threatening Israel while secretly seeking peace (or at least \nnon-aggression) arrangements with it; of building gigantic arsenals for \nthe purpose of \u201cdefeating Israel\u201d while using them exclusively against \ntheir citizens; of stifling internal dissent citing \u201cforeign \nconspiracies\u201d against internal stability and national unity (a favorite \nBaathist scare tactic) while engaging in regional conspiracies to \ndestabilize neighboring countries or engaging in proxy wars with Israel \nfor meager negotiation gains. These immature, and frankly thuggish, \ntactics never worked and were only suited for the Mafiosi style of \ngoverning that these regimes adopted. On the other hand, one must not be\n oblivious to the real existence of three major problems: the West Bank \nand Gaza, the Palestinian refugees, and the Arab population within \nIsrael. Deciding on how to solve these problems, whether by two \nexclusive states or one inclusive state, will certainly involve all Arab\n countries neighboring Israel and is absolutely necessary for \nmaintaining the much needed peace and stability in the region. \nTherefore, any emerging Syrian opposition that seriously wishes to \ngather international, especially western, support for its cause to \ntopple the current regime must think about its future policy concerning \nthe Arab-Israeli conflict. It must also keep a healthy degree of \ntransparency vis-\u00e0-vis its own people concerning that policy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\nIt\n is my belief that the unfolding Arab Spring presents a great \nopportunity for a breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict. As the Arab\n Street moves in the direction of an ideological rupture with the past, \nas it makes clear its desire for liberal political reforms, and as it \nrecognizes the need for international support for bringing about the \ndemise of the powerful dictatorial regimes that oppress it, there is \ncertainly hope for a change of direction in the Arab-Israeli conflict \nthat could lead to its resolution to the satisfaction of all parties \ninvolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Older blog 16 November, 2011 Syria is attracting a considerable international attention these days, not only because of the drama of peaceful protest against tanks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scscme.org\/scscme\/blogs\/atassib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}