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Syria

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Syria

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Highlights

  • The tide had essentially turned, and from here on out, with few exceptions, anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism became the calling cards for political success in Syria. (Location 1083)
  • The nature of the Arab cold war also changed in Syria in March 1963, when the Baath Party finally captured power in a coup. The very existence of Israel was anathema to the Baath. The party’s Syrian founders, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar, were imbued with anti-imperialism as well as doctrinaire socialism. The (Location 1240)
  • Since Syrians consider Arab nationalism to be their birth-right, it was almost a sacred duty to support the Palestinian cause, especially at a time when the elimination of Israel and the return of the Palestinian homeland were still considered viable options. (Location 1343)
  • For centuries this had been the Alawite hinterland. The first of his family to receive a formal education, Assad entered the military academy in 1952, graduating as a military pilot with the rank of lieutenant in 1955. (Location 1587)
  • He was thus in an advantageous position as he rose through the ranks when the military symbiotically converged with party politics in the 1950s, bringing people like Assad along for the ride. He had joined the fledgling Baath Party in 1946, and would become one of its rising stars, eventually emerging as one of the leading elements of the new Baathist regime when it came to power in March 1963. (Location 1589)
  • Hafiz al-Assad came to rule Syria via a 1970 intra-Baath coup that cast out the radical wing of the party, which had been ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel. (Location 1594)
  • Corrective Movement (al-harakat al-tashishiyya). Its primary intent was to bring Syria back within accepted parameters in the Arab world and open up the economy to the private sector. (Location 1599)
  • A more academic description would say that Syria under Assad developed into a neopatriarchal state. This essentially means that he became a father-ruler, what Hisham Sharabi would call “a modernized version of the traditional patriarchal sultanate” that existed for centuries in the Middle East.4 (Location 1913)
  • The elections themselves betrayed the nature of the beast. The Syrian presidential elections under Assad occurred every seven years. They were, in fact, referendums rather than elections. Typically, there were no other candidates, and the ballot consisted of ticking off a “yes” or a “no” in an open voting environment. It would indeed be the intrepid voter, no doubt with security looking on, who would vote “no.” This system usually garnered between a ninety-seven and a ninety-nine percent vote for “election” to another seven-year term. (Location 1938)
  • In his speech he made economic reform a clear priority, and while not ruling out democratic reform, he did say that it would have to be “democracy specific to Syria that takes its roots from its history and respects its society.”1 (Location 2000)
  • those in the West failed to realize that Bashar was a child of the Arab–Israeli conflict, a child of the superpower cold war, a child of the tumult in Lebanon, and, most importantly, a child of Hafiz al-Assad. (Location 2037)
  • The turning point in this regard came with the US war in Iraq, when Washington accused Damascus of a number of different affronts, including aiding a nascent Iraqi insurgency and sheltering Iraqi fugitives and possibly even the weapons of mass destruction that US personnel could not find in Iraq. (Location 2050)
  • This deterioration was symbolized by the passage of the Syrian Accountability Act by Congress in October–November 2003; it was signed into law by President Bush in December. Although mostly symbolic considering the low level of economic interaction between the two countries, the Act provided the president with a range of sanctions against Syria which he could choose to implement. (Location 2055)
  • By the summer and fall of 2012, the fighting intensified to the point where one could label the conflict as an all-out civil war. Aleppans reluctantly became ensnared in the conflict by the fall, with the city becoming split between regime forces on one side and opposition groups on the other. (Location 2384)

public: true

title: Syria longtitle: Syria author: David W. Lesch url: , source: kindle last_highlight: 2022-02-28 type: books tags:

Syria

rw-book-cover

Metadata

Highlights

  • The tide had essentially turned, and from here on out, with few exceptions, anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism became the calling cards for political success in Syria. (Location 1083)
  • The nature of the Arab cold war also changed in Syria in March 1963, when the Baath Party finally captured power in a coup. The very existence of Israel was anathema to the Baath. The party’s Syrian founders, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar, were imbued with anti-imperialism as well as doctrinaire socialism. The (Location 1240)
  • Since Syrians consider Arab nationalism to be their birth-right, it was almost a sacred duty to support the Palestinian cause, especially at a time when the elimination of Israel and the return of the Palestinian homeland were still considered viable options. (Location 1343)
  • For centuries this had been the Alawite hinterland. The first of his family to receive a formal education, Assad entered the military academy in 1952, graduating as a military pilot with the rank of lieutenant in 1955. (Location 1587)
  • He was thus in an advantageous position as he rose through the ranks when the military symbiotically converged with party politics in the 1950s, bringing people like Assad along for the ride. He had joined the fledgling Baath Party in 1946, and would become one of its rising stars, eventually emerging as one of the leading elements of the new Baathist regime when it came to power in March 1963. (Location 1589)
  • Hafiz al-Assad came to rule Syria via a 1970 intra-Baath coup that cast out the radical wing of the party, which had been ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel. (Location 1594)
  • Corrective Movement (al-harakat al-tashishiyya). Its primary intent was to bring Syria back within accepted parameters in the Arab world and open up the economy to the private sector. (Location 1599)
  • A more academic description would say that Syria under Assad developed into a neopatriarchal state. This essentially means that he became a father-ruler, what Hisham Sharabi would call “a modernized version of the traditional patriarchal sultanate” that existed for centuries in the Middle East.4 (Location 1913)
  • The elections themselves betrayed the nature of the beast. The Syrian presidential elections under Assad occurred every seven years. They were, in fact, referendums rather than elections. Typically, there were no other candidates, and the ballot consisted of ticking off a “yes” or a “no” in an open voting environment. It would indeed be the intrepid voter, no doubt with security looking on, who would vote “no.” This system usually garnered between a ninety-seven and a ninety-nine percent vote for “election” to another seven-year term. (Location 1938)
  • In his speech he made economic reform a clear priority, and while not ruling out democratic reform, he did say that it would have to be “democracy specific to Syria that takes its roots from its history and respects its society.”1 (Location 2000)
  • those in the West failed to realize that Bashar was a child of the Arab–Israeli conflict, a child of the superpower cold war, a child of the tumult in Lebanon, and, most importantly, a child of Hafiz al-Assad. (Location 2037)
  • The turning point in this regard came with the US war in Iraq, when Washington accused Damascus of a number of different affronts, including aiding a nascent Iraqi insurgency and sheltering Iraqi fugitives and possibly even the weapons of mass destruction that US personnel could not find in Iraq. (Location 2050)
  • This deterioration was symbolized by the passage of the Syrian Accountability Act by Congress in October–November 2003; it was signed into law by President Bush in December. Although mostly symbolic considering the low level of economic interaction between the two countries, the Act provided the president with a range of sanctions against Syria which he could choose to implement. (Location 2055)
  • By the summer and fall of 2012, the fighting intensified to the point where one could label the conflict as an all-out civil war. Aleppans reluctantly became ensnared in the conflict by the fall, with the city becoming split between regime forces on one side and opposition groups on the other. (Location 2384)