Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to return the Golan in 2000,
...but Syria’s Assad said no. Most Middle Eastern political analysts assume Assad never wanted a deal, that he merely went through the motions because it suited him at the time. Syria’s secular non-Muslim Alawite-dominated government needs a permanent state of war with Israel to survive in a country with a hostile Sunni majority. Resistance temporarily lends the regime the legitimacy it would otherwise lack. Assad needed an excuse, though, to say no when the Israeli government agreed to return the Golan for peace. And his excuse was that Israel would not give him the eastern shore of the sea.
A long and interesting piece by Michael Totten.
two men with full heads of hair...one of whom is wearing a wig....are fighting over a comb...
Posted by: john begley at September 13, 2010 9:09 PMExcellent article, as are the comments that follow it.
Posted by: Mississauga Matt at September 13, 2010 10:02 PMIt reinforces Irshad Manji's description of the Palestinians as the "ultimate weapon of mass distraction". Middle eastern dictator/kleptocrats need Israel and the pretext of Arab/Israeli conflict to distract their populations from the incompetence and corruption of their own governments. Assad may have also feared that "peace" at any event could only be temporary since the strategic advantage created by possession of the Golan would have invited pressure from within and without for another, inevitably ruinous, war with Israel. Like the condition of permanent conflict described in Orwell's "1984", the tension and supposed instability of the status quo is effectively the most stable arrangement middle eastern dictators can hope for.
Posted by: DrD at September 13, 2010 10:05 PMThe Assads, their disliked tribe, and the shadowy French operatives who assisted them to power, could have been a helpful scenario to Americans trying to figure out what in the world they were trying to accomplish in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadam had a lot in common with the process also but tended to let delusions of Stalinist slaughter/grandeur and brutalizing his neighbouring countries overwhelm his innate hillbilly cunning.
Posted by: Sgt Lejaune at September 13, 2010 11:04 PMand why do the opwers that be keep trying to find peace?
what is the alternative?
opwers! LOL !!!
a screwed up version of 'powers' exactly what there is in syria.
Anyone who thinks they understand this...has not been properly briefed.
The Hypothetical destruction of Isreal would upset an establish statis quo and destabilize the entire region.
That said, this old artillery gunner, would want his tubes on the heights....we still dig holes the same old way.
Ironic that Syria's ruling class can't make peace with Israel for fear of the reaction of their Islamist underclass.
Religion of peace indeed.
Posted by: syncrodox at September 14, 2010 11:00 AM