By Gerald A. Honigman
07/02/2010
Gerald A. Honigman
Back in 2005, I wrote an earlier version of this current analysis.
Over the years, the Syrian front in the Arab-Israeli conflict has wound up--due mostly to deadly Syrian shenanigans--being placed on the back burner, as far as American State Department priorities in the region were concerned.
Not that the Foggy Folks didn't have "good intentions"--as far as the Syrians were concerned--but the latter were just too darn honest to even provide the facade of cooperation which, for public relations and the American Congress, would have been convenient to have before the squeeze was placed on the Jews once again.
Syria has never recognized the independence of Lebanon, and considers it along with at least Jordan (eastern "Palestine"), Israel, and itself to simply be part of Greater Syria. The break-up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire (which controlled much of the region for about five centuries) after World War I reinvigorated such schemes as well. Manipulations, assassinations, and so forth in Lebanon are linked to this, as is the 1970 partial invasion of Jordan to support the PLO's attempted overthrow of the Hashemites there, support of one proxy group after another vis-a-vis Israel, etc. and so forth. Only Israel's mobilization in the north in Black September prevented further Syrian action, very likely saving King Hussein's derriere in the process.
In subsequent years, even though Israel was assured after the June '67 War via UNSC Resolution 242 that it would not have to return to the suicidal armistice lines imposed upon it in 1949 which made it a mere 9-15 miles wide in its strategic waist, but would receive secure, defensible real borders instead, over time such assurances were soon forgotten. My article, Resolution To Kill The Resolution, details this unfortunate turn of events.
With the appointing of James Baker III as Secretary of State during best pal, President George H.W. Bush's presidency, Syria was assured that it would get the same deal Egypt got from Israel...a total withdrawal from lands Arabs repeatedly used to launch invasion, death, and destruction from--this time, the Golan Heights.
Only Syria's unceasing machinations in Lebanon, support of the oppostion against America in Iraq, alliance with Iran, and so forth eased the pressure from Foggy Bottom on the Jews to hand themselves over as a sacrificial lamb.
Nowadays, things have now taken an even more serious turn for the worse.
Washington and the Foggy Folks have frequently shifted back and forth between the Syrian and Palestinian Arab tracks as events dictated. President Obama is on record supporting a total Israel withdrawal to the '49 armistice lines and agreeing to being inundated by millions of alleged Arab refugees. Those are key elements of the alleged Saudi (of the grave) Peace Plan that Mr. President has repeatedly said Israel would be crazy not to accept.
Subsequently, Israel's "peace" partners among the Palestian Authority have refused to budge on any territorial or other compromise and have insisted that Israel simply cave in to all of their own demands. And they have been supported in this by the current American administration and, of course, the Foggy Folks (who fought President Truman over the rebirth of Israel in the first place).
Since Israel recently elected leaders who have so far resisted American demands for it to take steps towards suicide, negotiations between Israel and the good cops of the latter-day Arafatians of Mahmoud Abbas are at a standstill. The bad cops of Hamas are simply biding their time...
So, it's now Syria's turn again.
Arieh O'Sullivan reported in The Media Line on February 5th that the American ambassador--withdrawn after the Syrian's involvement in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri back in 2005, is now set to return to Damascus, and at no cost to the latter.
Given the fact that the current American Administration is already on record calling Israel crazy to refuse such a "deal" which promises Arab good behavior in return for it giving away all of the concrete, essential tangibles necessary for defense and mere survival, James Baker's old promise to the Butcher of Damascus will undoubtedly now be offered to his son.
To understand all of this in greater detail, some more history is in order. So please bear with me...
I just couldn't get the image out of my head.
There she was, I guess about seven or eight years ago now, Ashleigh Banfield--MSNBC's rising star--standing before a statue of the great Muslim warrior, Salah al Din, in Syria, glorifying the Arab claim that they were his modern descendants in the fight against Jews and other allegedly new crusaders in the region.
Arab tyrants love to make such claims. Syria's twin butchers to the east are famous for this as well. The late Saddam, thanks to America, now of spider hole fame, loved to present himself as Saladdin reincarnate.
And poor Salah al Din is rolling in his grave.
A Kurd from northern Iraq (where Arabs later gassed and massacred Kurds by the tens of thousands), he indeed led the fight for the Dar ul-Islam against the crusaders in the Holy Land.
But those were the relatively early centuries after the Arabs burst out of the Arabian Peninsula, spreading their Caliphal imperial conquests in all directions. And despite the Abbasid Revolution (largely supported by the Mawali) which toppled the Damascus-based Arabist
Umayyads over such issues, non-Arab converts to Islam still sought to win equality in Arab eyes (and escape special taxes) by toeing, especially well, the Islamic line.
Listening to the Muslim but non-Arab Iranian President's remarks about Israel's destruction, some things change...and some things never change. One of the best ways for non-Arab Muslims to pass the ultimate litmus test is to out Arab the Arabs in Jew hatred.
Some of the worst hate-mongers on campus that I have encountered were from Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and so forth. That was the ticket to stand tall alongside Arabs in the Muslim Student Organization, etc.
So, while Iranians have suppressed and slaughtered Muslim Arabs in oil-rich Khuzistan ("Arabistan"), Muslim Kurds, Muslim Baluchis, Muslim Azeris, and others as well in the name of their own national interests, their religious credentials remain impeccable (without getting into the Shi'a-Sunni dispute). Supporting Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad in the struggle to exterminate the Jew of the Nations (whose population includes tens of thousands of Iranian Jews who fled for their lives), insures this as well.
Back to Salah al Din...
In 1968, the Kurdish nationalist, Ismet Cherif Vanly, wrote The Syrian 'Mein Kampf' Against The Kurds (Amsterdam). So I couldn't help feeling sickened by seeing Banfield endorsing the Arab line while standing in front of a mounted statue of that great warrior. If he only knew what the Arabs would be doing to his own people centuries later...long after their conversion to Islam, and still going on as I write this article: Kurdish children being forced to sing songs praising their Arab identity in schools; Kurds slaughtered for nothing more than seeking to be able to retain their own cultural identity and speak their own language while obtaining some semblance of equality; and so forth.
And a bit more perspective is in order as well.
One needs to keep all of this in mind when the murderous, despotic junk heap broadcasting from Syria leads the pack in attacking those allegedly "racist Zionists" who have made Arabic the second official language of their state, have Arabs who side with Hamas as representatives in the Knesset and leading demonstrations at Hebrew University, and have, as citizens, the freest Arabs living anywhere in the Middle East. And this despite the fact that many of the latter do indeed compose a potentially dangerous fifth column.
But, I'm drifting a bit...so let's return to the implications of the pending return of the American ambassador to Damascus.
Despite Syria's deadly hegemonic attitudes and actions towards what it sees as its Lebanese "provinces;" despite its appalling treatment of Kurds, native Jews, and others as well; despite its support for terrorists undermining Iraq's attempt at democracy; despite the great likelihood that many of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction found a home in Syria; despite Damascus' support of major terrorist organizations whose aim is the destruction of the Jew of the Nations and giving safe haven to those organizations within its own borders; despite its record as mass slaughterer of any and all who decent, author of the infamous "Hama Solution;" etc., etc., etc....America is now poised to squeeze the Jews again--not Syrian Arabs.
Had Syria not opposed America in Iraq and blatantly assassinated independent-minded Lebanese, the Foggy Folks would have indeed be pressing forward with former Secretary of State James Baker's pledge to Assad the First of a total Israeli retreat from the Golan Heights. President George W. Bush made Baker (whose law firm represents the Saudis against American victims of 9/11), his Special Middle East Envoy. Since I've written much about Baker's Jew problem elsewhere, I'll drop it for now.
Recall that the Heights were part of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine until Britain and France did some imperial trading, and that the territory changed hands often throughout the centuries. It was not exclusively Arab, and Jews too had a long history there.
Recall as well how Syria used the Heights to rain terror on Israelis below prior to the 1967 War--which it also largely instigated.
And, lastly, also remember that Israel offered to return all of the territories right after that war in return for peace treaties and was offered the infamous "3 Nos of Khartoum" in response. It got attacked on Yom Kippur from those Heights again in 1973--Arab tanks rolling towards Israel proper. The Jew of the Nations came close to being destroyed that year. Since then, Syria has once again built up its own massive arsenal of missiles, aircraft, tanks, chemical weapons, and such, and is best buddies with a soon-to-be nuclear Iran which has pledged to eradicate Israel.
In earlier years, Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already offered an almost complete return of the Heights in exchange for peace. The exception covered a tiny stretch of land protecting Israel's water sources. But that was, of course, too much to ask of Arabs who--after all--are so understanding of their own national competitors' needs. I'm sure, for example, that if the situation was reversed, and it was Israel who repeatedly attacked Syria and lost territory as a result of its aggression, that Syria would make a similar offer to the Jews.
Sure... And would you like to buy a bridge I'm selling?
Right now Israel controls the passes Syrian tanks would use to roll down hill to kill Jews.
Right now Israeli artillery can send Baby Assad and friends a calling card right from the Heights. Right now Syrian artillery and gunners can't do this anymore to Jews. Right now Israelis are assured that an enemy sworn to its death will not be in control of its water supply.
And, also right now, America must finally rid itself of the Arabist State Department practice of constantly twisting the arm of its beleaguered friend to make suicidal concessions to such deadly and obnoxious adversaries, all of whom refuse to recognize the rights of anyone but themselves in the region. Like the Arabs, the Foggy Folks joined in the rejection of the very right of Israel to even exist in 1948...for a number of reasons, blatant anti-Semitism included.
Despite the Obama Administration's openly admitted preferences on this subject, as with the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (aka, the West Bank--only as a result of British 20th century imperialism), a territorial compromise--which meets the needs of both parties to the conflict--must be reached on the Golan as well.
Think of all the territories that have exchanged hands because of wars. America holds many territories itself because of this...not to mention others as well.
The national security requirements of the tiny sliver that is Israel on a world map need to be taken no less seriously...especially since, unlike the super power, three thousand mile-wide America (largely protected by vast oceans and with fairly reasonable neighbors) and others whose demands often extend hundreds--if not thousands--of miles away from home, those of the Jew of the Nations involve what's going on right on its very own doorstep and in its virtual backyard.
Syrian Arabs have watched closely as Israel's alleged moderate peace partners in the Palestinian (Arab) Authority took the new American President's cue, dug their heals in, and openly proclaimed that Israel must do all the giving while they do all the taking in negotiations.
Damascus has excellent reasons to assume equal treatment in these regards.
Israel must offer its hand in peace, but must not cave in to another yet another version of Chamberlain's "peace for our time"--whether on the West Bank, the Golan, or elsewhere.
Dr. Sherkoh Abbas, of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, has written part of the Foreword to my new book, The Quest For Justice In The Middle East...The Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective ( http://q4j-middle-east.com ) Not that it would do any good given the realities at work here, but perhaps it should also be required reading in Washington among the various powers that be.
