Assad's two faces

National Post ^ | January 12 2004

[knighthawk]

Last month, The New York Times published an interview with Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian dictator was on his best behaviour, asking the United States to revive peace talks between Syria and Israel, and even suggesting that his nation could have normal relations with the Jewish state. He also insisted that his intelligence agencies were working with the CIA to thwart terrorist attacks, pledged his support for democracy in Iraq and said Damascus does not give weapons or money to the terrorist group Hezbollah.

That's the kind of message Mr. Assad knows the West wants to hear. Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April, Syria has come under the microscope for its alleged coddling of former members of Saddam's regime, its support for Palestinian terrorism and its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

But, as is often the case in the Arab world, Mr. Assad sang a far different tune inside his own borders. As documented by exiled Syrian journalist Subhi Hadidi and the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Syrian government news agency published a version of the interview that was half the length of the one provided to The Times, and omitted key questions about Iraq, Hezbollah, relations with Israel and co-operation between Damascus and Washington. Apparently, Mr. Assad didn't want his own people to know he would consider peace with the "Zionist entity."

Unfortunately, we have seen this trick before in the Middle East. In 2002, for instance, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat published a soft and cuddly op-ed in The Times opposing violence against Israel. Just days later, he told a Ramallah crowd, "we will make the lives of the infidels Hell," and called for "a million martyrs" to march on Jerusalem.

The underlying problem in both cases is an Arab political culture that venerates uncompromising militancy, particularly in regard to Israel, and disdains compromise as a sign of weakness. The only Arab leaders who can bring their nations forward are those who dare to speak the language of peace both at home and abroad, such as Egypt's Anwar Sadat, co-architect of his country's historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Mr. Assad, sadly, is no Sadat.

[knighthawk]

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[Nonstatist]

The underlying problem in both cases is an Arab political culture (that ) disdains compromise as a sign of weakness

And adores two-facedness, they forgot to add.

[GladesGuru]

"two-facedness" is the exact point.

In the Koran, one learns that Mohammed made peace with a tribe in order to survive, even though he planned all along to kill them when he could.

Then, when he could, he did. Such "two-facedness" is therefore approved of by "The Prophet" himself.

My apologies to the "multi-cultral" advocates and to any Muslims, but that's what happened.