Qifa Nabki writes: This is how I think Saad is going to move, within the next couple of weeks, provided Hizbullah (and Syria) sign off.

Saudis Step Up Efforts to Repair Syria Ties
By MARGARET COKER

Saudi Arabia is accelerating its effort to lure Syria from Iranian influence, Saudi officials said, a move they hope will improve chances for a renewed peace initiative in the region.

Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest economy and the world’s biggest oil exporter, is offering economic incentives to Syria, including the promise of increased investment in Syria’s moribund economy. It has also moved aggressively to repair the nations’ strained diplomatic ties.

Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Saudi King Abdullah, right, welcomes Syrian President Bashar Assad on a visit to Riyadh in March. Saudi Arabia has been working to repair strained diplomatic ties with Damascus.

Riyadh’s efforts come alongside a more public push by the Obama administration to improve U.S. ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A detente could have significant repercussions for the region. Washington is hoping to engage Syria in a new round of peace talks with Israel. Both the Obama administration and its Arab allies want to diminish the influence Iran-backed groups Hezbollah and Hamas have over regional affairs. Syria wields influence over these militant organizations, classified by Washington as terrorist groups.

Syria’s relationship with Iran, which dates back to the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, has always involved a measure of convenience and pragmatism. Mr. Assad’s father, former President Hafez Assad, broke from fellow Arab leaders and supported Tehran in that war because of his vehement opposition to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

Saudi-Syrian ties soured after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a close Saudi ally. Many inside and outside Lebanon blamed Syria, but Damascus has denied any complicity.

Just over a year ago, relations between the two were so strained that Saudi King Abdullah al Saud boycotted an Arab League summit in Damascus. Earlier this month, however, the king named a new ambassador to Syria, after a yearlong absence. Saudi diplomats say King Abdullah is also considering a bilateral summit this summer in Damascus with Mr. Assad.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has accused Syria of meddling in Iraq and in Lebanese affairs after Damascus ended its long occupation of the country, shortly after the Hariri assassination. The U.S. has slapped tough economic sanctions on Syria.

But by late last year, Mr. Assad appeared to have orchestrated a diplomatic makeover. Western powers applauded him for helping to broker a peace deal between political parties in Lebanon in 2008. Then, Mr. Assad agreed to indirect peace talks with Israel — though those talks broke down early this year after Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Late last year, Saudi Arabia began shuttle diplomacy that has included visits between intelligence chiefs and top decision makers in both Riyadh and Damascus.

“We are reminding [the Syrians] of the natural links that we share,” said a Saudi royal adviser. “We have presented a way for them to get out of the hole that they have dug for themselves” with their alliance with Iran, the adviser said.

During the oil boom of the past few years, cash-flush Gulf states like Saudi Arabia showered Syria, whose own oil output has dwindled, and other poorer Arab neighbors with investments.

In 2006, Saudi Arabian businesses were the largest foreign investors in Syria, injecting €645 million, or about $910 million, according to European Union statistics. But as relations soured, investment dropped. In 2007, Saudi investment in Syria was just €10 million.

Government statistics are difficult to come by, but anecdotal evidence suggests investment is headed back up again. A Saudi construction firm this month announced the opening of a $110 million industrial park in Syria. Saudi tourists are filling Damascus cafes and hotels, giving a needed boost to the country’s services and real-estate sectors.

The biggest potential beneficiary of the warmer ties is Lebanon, which has long served as a proxy battleground for bigger regional powers. Last month, a coalition of Western-leaning politicians, backed by Saudi Arabia, beat back an opposition slate led by Hezbollah and backed by Iran and Syria, in parliamentary elections.

Lebanese Prime Minister-elect Saad Hariri, from the Saudi-backed front, sat down Wednesday with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a leader seen as close to Syria. At the end of their meeting in Beirut, Mr. Berri declared that a Lebanese government should be formed by the end of the month, the clearest sign yet that political patrons in Riyadh and Damascus are getting along.

The Saudi royal adviser said the planned bilateral meeting between King Abdullah and Mr. Assad will seek to cement the two leaders’ cooperation in forming the Lebanese government.
—Julien Barnes-Dacey and Nada Raad contributed to this article.

According to Levant News, Syria and Israel will carry out unofficial talks in Greece next week.

??????? ????? ????????? ?? ????? ?????? ???????
???????? ??????? ??????

???? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ??????? ???????? ??????? “??? ?????” ?? ??????????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??????.

Feltman: U.S. Ties with Syria Promising…but Face Problems, Particularly over Hizbullah

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said relations with Syria are getting out of the “deep freeze” that has prevailed since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive Beirut bombing.

“The current relationship with Syria is promising, yet it faces problems. It is promising on the one hand because there are a lot of areas where the U.S. and Syria can work together in order to achieve objectives of common interests,” Feltman said in an interview with pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, published on Thursday.

“However, some of the key issues that have contributed to the freezing of relations continue to pose problems,” Feltman explained. “We simply do not agree with Syria on the nature of Hizbullah, be it (Hizbullah) a positive or a negative impact on the security of the region.”

He said that while Syria defends Hizbullah, Washington still considers the Shiite party a terrorist organization.

“This is a very serious matter. We have different views on this issue,” Feltman added.

2009-07-16 11:40:
Lebanese Druze leader calls for opening new page with Syria49.758 GMT

Syria
BEIRUT, Jul 16, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Lebanese Druze majority leader Walid Joumblat said that the political and geographical fate of Lebanon lies in the hands of Syria, his remarks were published in an interview with local daily Nahar Al-Shabab annex Thursday.

In a significant turn around of his previous political stands, Joumblat called for opening a new page with Syria, hinting to the possibility of visiting Damascus soon.

“The Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon ending 30 years of military presence, so why do we always have to refer to the past,” Joumblat said.

Jumblatt warns of Israeli ‘extremism’ after surprise meeting with Nasrallah
Daily Star, Saturday, June 20, 2009

Jumblatt warns of Israeli ‘extremism’ after surprise meeting with Nasrallah

BEIRUT: A surprise reconciliation between the leaders of Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party was followed on Friday by Walid Jumblatt’s re-directing his rhetoric south, to Palestine, and warning of the “absolute extremism” of the Israeli government. “I call on all of our people in Palestine to reject sectarian and non-sectarian violence and cling to their Arabism and Palestinian national project, to confront Zionist projects that promise to be more dangerous and fiercer in the coming phase,” Jumblatt said in a statement.

The PSP leader said the Israeli government had no interest in a peace settlement and “insisted on absolute extremism” in its current policies.

Jumblatt, or the burden of reinvention
Michael Young, Thursday, July 16, 2009

When Walid Jumblatt visited Hassan Nasrallah recently in a catacomb of Beirut’s southern suburbs, he took with him two books, Tariq Ali’s “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power” and Ahmed Rashid’s “Descent into Chaos,” about America’s failure at nation-building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central

Jewish Leaders Give Obama No Push-Back on Settlement Freeze
By Nathan Guttman, Forward

As Jewish leaders left their July 13 meeting with President Obama, it was clear that despite some misgivings, the bulk of the organized Jewish community is in full support of his peace efforts, including his policy on settlements…..

Commentary: Syria receptive to U.S. advances
By Mohamed H. Hamdan | The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian analysts and officials are applauding Washington’s decision to send an ambassador to Damascus after a four-year absence.

The move, these observers say, reflects awareness by the new American administration of the important role Syria plays in bringing peace and stability to the Middle East.

Washington withdrew Ambassador Margaret Scobey from Damascus in February 2005 to express its “profound outrage” over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria was widely believed to be behind the killing.

The U.S. embassy has remained open since then, but headed by a charge d’affaires. Syria retained its envoy in Washington during the period.

Observers view the Obama administration’s decision to return an ambassador to Damascus as a reward for Syria’s improved attitude in the region, including the exchange of diplomatic representation with Lebanon and boosting security along its border with Iraq.

The move also comes as the government in Iran, Syria’s strongest strategic ally, is undergoing political turmoil in the wake of its disputed presidential election.

One Damascus-based political analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his security, said Washington sees an opportunity to weaken ties between Damascus and Tehran.

This analyst also said that the United States has tried to persuade its allies in the region, mainly Saudi Arabia, to reconcile with the Syrians in order to further isolate Tehran.

There were already signs of divergence between Iran and Syria on some regional issues.

But this analyst cautioned that “the price of breaking their alliance with Iran would be very costly” for Syrians.

“What the U.S. has offered to the Syrians is not enough to take that risk,” he said.

To sever its ties with Iran, this analyst said, Damascus would insist on the full commitment of the United States to the peace process with the Israelis and eventually the return of the Golan Heights.

George Hajouj, a Damascus-based political analyst, said he believed that Damascus had a clear vision of what role the United States should play after the appointment of the new ambassador.

Damascus wants Washington to pave the way for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the “land-for peace” principle whereby Israel would relinquish occupied territory in exchange for a peace agreement with Palestinians.

The ‘Could’ with the Likkud (and others in Israel) is an exercise in futility. PULSE, Julian Brody

“…. By distancing itself from Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah and strengthening its relationship with the United States, Syria could increase its regional influence.

….By strengthening its relationship with the United States and Europe through an Israeli-Syrian peace deal, Syria could continue to refinance its heavy foreign debt and attract foreign investment to spur economic growth.

Prime Minister Netanyahu could also benefit from an Israeli-Syrian treaty. Such a deal would demonstrate his commitment to the peace process and improve his relationship with President Obama. However, Prime Minister Netanyahu will face strong opposition to a Golan withdrawal. According to Hof, polls consistently show that 70 percent of Israelis are unwilling to give up the Golan …

Since Israel relies on the Sea of Galilee as its primary natural reservoir to serve its dense population centers, Hof’s proposal avoids giving Syria the ability to increase its population density in the Golan Heights and possibly jeopardize Israel’s water supply. Instead, the proposal strives to “minimize the Syrian impact on waters vital to Israel’s economy, facilitate Israeli civilian access to the full circumference of the Sea, and carve out an area where Syrian-Israeli people-to-people contacts might easily and informally take place.” …..In essence “Syria gets the land and regulated access to the water, and Israel gets the water and regulated access to the land.” Bi-national access to the preserve will further increase Israeli-Syrian civilian contact and contribute to the development of a “warm peace.”

Though Hof offers a practical and feasible solution, he neglects a major source of contention within the Israeli-Syrian relationship: terrorist sponsorship. It is unlikely that Israel will reach an agreement if Syria does not promise to renounce its ties with Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hof contends that Syrian renunciation of terror is a consequence, not a stipulation of the treaty, since “Syria would be unable to uphold its end of normal peaceful relations.” …”

Syria’s National Museum makes it into this list of the top ten museums in the world.

Treasure trove: Roman, Byzantine and Arab Islamic collections sit side by side in the museum

For the sheer volume of artifacts displayed, Syria’s national museum deserves a place in the top ten. Located in the oldest continually inhabited city in the world the museum certainly equals its surroundings with its two wings hosting Arab Islamic, Classical and Byzantine collections. Many of the most important finds from excavations throughout Syria are on display here and the collection begins even before you enter. The facade of the building incorporates the transplanted gateway of Qasr al-Heir al Gharbi, a desert castle near Palmyra. Visitors can see clay tablets of the oldest alphabet in the world, the Ugaritic Alphabet and ivory, bronze and marble classical statues found at the many archeological sites throughout the country.

Star attraction

By far the most popular part of the museum is the reconstructed 2nd-century AD Synagogue, with walls that are covered with Talmudic laws and scenes from the scriptures.

Entrance fee?

According to the Syrian Embassy, entrance to the museum is free.

All4Syria explains who the members of the new National Security Council are. All are the usual suspects so far.

In the second news story, Ibrahim Hamidi explains Syria’s strategic plan to become a major entrepot and gas and oil link tying together the four seas: the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian and the Arab Gulf.

* ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????: ??? ????? ????????? ??????? ???????
???? ????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ??????.

???? ???? ???? ????? ??????????? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????. ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ????????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? “??????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ????????? ?????????? ?????????? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ??? ????? ?????????? ?? ??????? ???????? ???????” ??? ????? ???????.

????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ????????.

???? ????? ?? «????? ?????????» ? «????» ??? ??? ???? ?????
???????, 13 ?????2009

???? – ??????? ?????

(Thanks to JAD)

?? ???? ????????? ?????????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ???? «???? ??????????» ??????? ????? ????? ??? «???? ???» ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????.

????? ???? ???? ????? ??? «????? ?????????» ????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????????????: ?????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???????? ??? ????? ????????. ??????? ????? ??? ?????? ?????????? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????. ????? ????? ??? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ?? ????????? ?????? «?????? ???????? ??????? ?? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????!

? ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???????».

???? ?????? ??? ?????? ???????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ???????. ???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ?? «?????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???????»? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ?? «????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ???????? ?? ??????? ?????? ?? ???????».

??? ?????? ???? ????? «??????? ?????????» ?????? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ???????????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ???????? ????????? ???????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ?????? ???????? ??????? ???? ???? ????????? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ???????? ????? ?? ???????.

???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ??? 2004? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ????????? ?????? – ?????? ?? ???????? ??? ?? ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?????????. ??? ????? ?????? ?? ????? «???? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?????????»? ???????? ??? ??????? ??????? ????? ??? ??????? «????? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ????????»? ??? ??? ?? ???? ????? «???? ?????» ??? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ???????.

?? ?? ?? ?? ????? ???????? ?????? ?? ??? 2003 ??????? ??????? ??? ????????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???? 2006 ???? 2009 ???????? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?? ????????? ???????. ???? ???????? ????????? ?????? ????????. ??? ???????? ??????-?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ????? ????? 2004 ??? ????. ????? ??????? ??????? ????? ??? ???????. ?????? ??????? ??????? ?? 800 ????? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????.

????? ????? ????? ????? ????????. ????? ????? ??????? ????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????. ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ????? ????? ??????. ??? ?? ????? ???? ?? ??? «????? ???????: ??????? ?? ??? ???????». ?????? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ??? ????? ???????. ???? ???? ?????? ?????????? ??????????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? «?????» ????? «?????» ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ?? ???????.

???? «?????? ????????????» ??????? ??? ?????? ????. ??? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?? ???? (????) ??????? ?? ??? ?? ?????? «??? ?? ??? ????? ???????? ????????? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? (?????) ?????? ???? ??????? ??????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ????????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ?????????? ???????? ????????»? ????? ??? ??? ????? «????? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? ??? ??????? ????????? ??? ??????? ?????? !

????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????????? ??? ????? ????????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ????????? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? ?????????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??? ??????».

???? ??????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???????: «????? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ????????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??????» ? ??????: «?????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ????? ?????? ????????? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????????? ??? ????? ?????». ????? ??????? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ????????? ?? ???????.

???? ??? ???????? ???????? ????????? ????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??????. ?? ?? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ???????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ???????? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? «????? ?????????» ?? ???? ????????. ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ????? 200 ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ??? 1.4 ????? ????? ??????.

???? ???? ??????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ???????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ??????-???????. ???? ????? ???? «????? ????? ???» ??????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??????. ??? ?? ???? ???????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? «??????: ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????????? ?????? ??????? ??????: ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ????????? ??????? ??? ????? ???????. ????? ?????? ????? ?? «????? ????» ????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ????? 50!

0 ????? ??? ???? ??????? ???????.

??? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ????. ?? ?? ????????? ?????????? ?????? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??????. ???? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ???????? ????? ??????? ????????? ?? ????? ??????. ?? ??? ??»??????» ???? ???? ???????? ????? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? «????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????? ????????»? ?????? ??? ?? ??????? «???? ???? ????? ????» ???? ???? ????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ???????????? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?????? ????? «????? ?????!

» ??? ??? ???????.

???? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ???????? ?? ??? 1991? ??? ?????? ???????????? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? ???????. ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ??????? ?? «???????? ????????» ?????? ???????? ?? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??????.

???? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? ??? 19 ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????????? ????????? ?????????. ???????? ?? ??????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?????? «???» ??? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??????? «?????» ??????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ???? «??? ???? ?? ?????». ????? ?? «??????: ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ?????????? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ???????? ??? ????? !

??? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? «?? ????? ??????» ?????? ?? ???.

???????????? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ????. ?? ??? ?? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? «?? ?????» ???? ???? ?? ???????? ??? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???????? ??????? ????? ??? ??? ??? 31 ????? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ????? ???? 23 ????? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ??? 35 ??????? ?? ????? ??????. ???? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? ?????? «?????» ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?? 13 ??????. ???? ?????? ??? ?? ??????? ????!

???? ???? ????? ????? 50 ????? ???? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ????????? ?????????? ?? ??? «????» ??? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????.

???? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?? ????? «?????» ???? ??? ??????? ?? ???????? ???????? ??? ????? ??????. ??? ?? ????? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ???? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ??????? ??? ??????? ?????????. ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??????? ??»?????».

?????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???????. ?? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ????????? ??? ????? «????? ????????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????»? ?????? ??? «???? ??? ??? ????? ????????? ????????? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ????????? ?????? ??????? ???? ???? ??????? ???????? ??? ?????????? ???????? ???????? !

?????? ????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????».

????? ???????? ???????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ??? «???? ????? ???????» ?? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ??????????? ?? ????? ??????? ?????. ??????? ????? ???? ??????? 50 ????? ??????????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ??? 2015. ??? ?? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ???? 132 ????? ????? (????? 77 ??????? ?? ?????? ?????) ?????? ???? ??? ???? 8 ?? ????? ??? ????? ???????? ???????. ?? ???????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ????????? 74 ????? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ????. ??? ???? ????????? ???!

??? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ????????? ???? ???? ????? ???????? ?? 1994 ??????? ?? 13 ???? ????? ???????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??????? ?????????. ??? 2006? ??? ????? ????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ?????? (??????? ????????) ??? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ??? 50 ????? ?? ?? ????? ????? ??????. ??? ??? ?? ????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? 296 ????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ?????????.

????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? 31 ?? ????? ?? ??? 2006 ???? ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??? 59 ?? ????? ?? ???????? ?????????. ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? «????? ????? ???????» ???? ??????????? ?? ???????? ??????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ?????. ?????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? 36 ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ?? ????????? ??? ??????? ????????? ??????? ???????.

??? ??? ?????? ???????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ???????. ???? ????? ??? ?? ????: «????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ?????????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????».

DJ Damascus Stock Market Delays Decision On Adding Trading Day
2009-07-14

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)–Syria’s recently launched stock market, which is currently open for trading two days a week, has delayed a decision to open on a third day due to low trading volumes, its executive director said.

“The board decided to postpone discussing this issue, given that trading volumes are still weak,” Mohammed Jleylati told Zawya Dow Jones by telephone late Monday.

“It may be posed for discussion again in a month or so, or later, but we haven’t discussed it yet in any final form,” he said.

Syrian banks hold between 100 billion Syrian pounds ($2.1 billion) and SYP150 billion in deposits, some of which is likely to start being invested in the stock market, Jleylati said.

“We expect that bank deposits will be withdrawn and used in the market or in the listing of companies,” he said.

The Damascus Securities Exchange – which opened in March with six listed company – now has 11 companies listed. Trade is carried out every Monday and Thursday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time.

Britain is behaving responsibly by cutting arms contracts with Israel to indicate its disapproval of the brutal Gaza campaign. Even if it is a symbolic act, it is important. Had the US objected to Israel’s bombing campaign — even mildly – the Obama administration might not be dealing with Netanyahu today. pusillanimous behavior during the Gaza campaign – his approval of Israel’s onslaught – doubtlessly convinced many Israelis to vote to the right. After all, if it is so easy and cost free to kill one’s opponents rather than make concessions, why not? The US, the only country that Israel depends on, voiced no disapproval. On the contrary, Obama voiced his contentment with the bombing, when he defended Israel’s behavior, explaining that Israel had the right to defend itself and that he would do the same thing. He voiced not a word of caution or restrain. If the US faces an intransigent and right wing Israel today, it is largely its own fault. Bravo Britain; better late than never.

Uri Misgav in Yedioth Ahronoth: Via Pulse, FLC

“Frederick Hoff, President Barack Obama’s man for negotiations between Israel and Syria, began an intensive three-day visit to Israel yesterday.

It remains unknown what messages Hoff, a diplomat who specializes in resolving international conflicts, will take with him to Damascus. What is known is the outline that Hoff presented to the Israeli leadership…………

Hoff shows a rare sensitivity to the two sides’ psychological situations, including a particularly impressive in-depth analysis of the water issue and the Sea of Galilee. That element is particularly important, because at the focal point of the document is the idea of creating a “nature reserve” (or a park) that is geared first and foremost to overcome the psychological problems that have prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement to date.

It is important to understand and to bear in mind that in all the talks that have been held between Israel and Syria ever since the “deposit” that Rabin left with secretary of state Warren Christopher (including during the first Netanyahu government), the parties reached nearly complete agreement on a series of pressing issues: withdrawal and the evacuation of the settlements, security arrangements and early warning stations, demilitarizing the Golan Heights and the use of the water sources. The obstacle that stood in the way of a signed agreement was the inability of the two sides to agree on the final border that would demarcate Syrian sovereignty on the Golan Heights. The Americans’ intention to renew the talks is based on their faith in their ability to resolve that old problem.
What precisely does the “nature reserve” proposal involve?

As noted above, it is geared to provide what is mainly a psychological solution that will allow the two parties to reach an agreement and to feel that their psychological needs have been met. A variety of versions of this agreement have been circulating for the past 13 years already. Hoff mentioned it in a document ten years ago and itemized it in a detailed position paper he wrote in 2001.The ground-breaking idea is to separate sovereignty from control. In other words, not to have the line of sovereignty necessarily convey the line up until which use can be made of the area. Simply put, to reach an agreement about a certain area in the southern Golan Heights and the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee that will formally be placed under Syrian sovereignty, but in practice will be accessible to the two parties-without them having to present passports and pass through border control.

Hoff and others suggest that a variety of civilian uses can be made of those nature reserves: hiking, touring, and perhaps even academic and agricultural activity.

One of the important things about the current Hoff document is what is absent from it. The document does not specify precisely the boundaries of the nature reserve. Officials who were in touch with Hoff in previous years said that he had taken into account comments that were presented to him after the publication of his previous document in 2001, at which point he appended an explicit and precise map of the desired nature reserve. This time he has refrained from repeating that course of action. Refraining from appending a map would seem to indicate that the Americans have concluded that it would be best to leave that issue completely open to negotiation.”

Britain Cuts Some Arms Exports To Israel Over Conduct in Gaza
(By Howard Schneider, The Washington Post) JERUSALEM, July 13

Britain has revoked five licenses for arms exports to Israel after reviewing how British-provided equipment was used during Israel’s three-week war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, officials from both nations said Monday. ….It marks the only such action to date by a foreign government against Israel over the country’s incursion into Gaza in December and January. Israeli officials said the license revocation would have no effect on the country’s military and noted that 177 British arms-export licenses remain intact.

CIA’s secret program: Paramilitary teams targeting Al Qaeda
By Greg Miller
The agency had a plan after Sept. 11 for paramilitary forces to take out Al Qaeda figures overseas. Congress was never told. ….

[Was the US attack on Syria last fall that killed eight and supposedly took down a mujahidiin facilitator connected to this CIA operation? It would explain the secrecy surrounding the operation. It would also explain why the US military never showed us photos of the dead and captured facilitator who was taken away in US helicopters. Syria claimed that the US killed only innocent farmers, women and children. The US never showed us evidence of their kill. They could have put an end to accusations that they Key Stone cops and calloused ones to boot. Perhaps the reason was that the CIA did not want to bring attention to this paramilitary team that congress knew nothing about? Who knows? Secrets stoke wild theories.]

Obama meets with Jewish leaders on Israel, Iran
Associated Press – YNET
Published: 07.14.09, 07:30 / Israel News

US president seeks to allay concern of Jewish leaders regarding US’ revamped strategy on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ‘No one could leave that meeting with any doubt about Obama’s commitment to Israel,’ says executive director of National Jewish Democratic Council

US President Barack Obama told Jewish leaders Monday that eight years of US-Israeli unison in demanding Palestinian concessions has produced no results and asked leaders to give him time to try his tactics for a Middle East peace.

Obama assured 16 Jewish leaders that the United States remained steadfast in its commitment to Israel’s security. But during a private hour-long White House meeting, the president told guests that he was asking Israel and the Palestinians alike to take concrete steps toward restarting peace talks — and that would require sacrifices from both sides.

Obama met with the leaders, who have fretted that he is being too critical of longtime ally Israel and too lenient toward Palestinians and their Arab neighbors. They privately complained that Obama delivered a speech to the Muslim world during a trip to Cairo but skipped a stop in Jerusalem.

“I think people were very direct with the president in expressing their views. … I think the president was very candid in responding,” said Alan Solow, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations…..

In the NYTimes, here

“… Participants said some of the toughest questioning of Mr. Obama came from Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Two said that Mr. Hoenlein told the president that diplomatic progress in the Middle East has traditionally occurred when there is “no light” between the positions of the United States and Israel. But Mr. Obama pushed back, citing the administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

“He said, ‘I disagree,’ ‘’ said Marla Gilson, director of the Washington action office of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization. “He said, ‘For eight years, there was no light between the United States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished.’

Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director of J Street (E-Mail)

I just left an extraordinary meeting with President Barack Obama, which he called to meet with the leadership of the American Jewish community. A dozen organizations – including J Street – were at the table.
It was made clear to the President and his team the strong support that exists among American Jews and the broader public for a strong push to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for a two-state solution, and for a regional and comprehensive approach to the peace process.

The President said such a resolution was in Israel’s interests. In the interests of the Palestinian people. And clearly in the interests of the United States.

The President expressed his gratitude, as did many of his aides, afterward for our attendance.
You should feel great. After little more than a year – and through your online advocacy and donations – J Street has arrived. We are your political voice when it comes to Israel and the Middle East – representing you in Washington and in the national political debate.

In recent days, much has been made in Jewish media of supposed concerns and reservations in the Jewish community about President Obama and his approach to the Middle East.

And today I had the opportunity to take our message of support directly to the White House – that there’s a big difference between the views expressed by a vocal minority on behalf of the Jewish community – and what that community really thinks and supports.
We’ll be in touch, Jeremy

Can Syria end the Arab cold war?
Chris Phillips, guardian, Tuesday 14 July 2009

The gradual return of international diplomats to Damascus signals a thaw in Syria’s intractable feud with Saudi Arabia.

Malcolm Kerr described the 1950s and 1960s in the Middle East as an “Arab cold war” pitting Nasser’s Egypt and allies against conservative Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Though the actors and ideologies have changed, some form of cold war in the Arab world has remained ever since, whether Cairo’s temporary exclusion after making peace with Israel in 1979, or Syrian-Saudi-Egyptian collusion with the US against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1991. Its latest embodiment is well known: Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, under the patronage of Iran, face allies of the US in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

So why is Saudi, arguably the bitterest of Syria’s Arab rivals, extending a hand to end this cold conflict now? Riyadh has three priorities that promote reconciliation with Damascus….

So will these measures win over Syria and end the latest Arab cold war? Ostensibly Damascus is weak and in need of allies: Hezbollah is still reeling from electoral defeat and Iran is subdued domestically and isolated internationally. Moreover, US sanctions are starting to have an impact on the Syrian economy, and Obama’s support is crucial if the long-occupied Golan Heights are to be recovered. Surely ditching Iran and embracing the Arab moderates is the best way to ensure the dual goals of economic development and returning territory?

Yet from a position of seeming weakness Assad is proving to be increasingly shrewd in foreign relations. He has turned the Lebanese defeat to his advantage by emphasising Syria’s lack of interference – something that has won plaudits from the French president Nicolas Sarkozy among others. Similarly, a recent interview on western television has helped his British-born wife Asma present a more positive view of the country. Yet, at the same time as promoting western and Arab rapprochement, Assad has shored up the Iranian alliance by being the first leader to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election.

Contrary to American and Saudi wishful thinking, it is the Iranian alliance that has given Syria its regional importance and allowed it to confront the moderate Arab states despite military and economic weakness. ……..

Mitchell

‘Talk of resuming Syria talks premature’
JPost

Talk of a resumption of Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations is “very premature considering Syrian intransigence and support for terror,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post.

Speculation was rampant in Israel after the arrival of American diplomat and Syria expert Frederick Hoff, a top advisor to American Middle East envoy George Mitchell…. Ayalon denied outright Israeli media reports that Hoff is bringing with him an early draft of an American plan for an Israel-Syria compromise on the Golan Heights.

Frederick Hoff

Shimon Shiffer in Yedioth Ahronoth: (Via “friday-lunch-club”)

“The American administration has decided to discreetly examine ways to resume negotiations between Israel and Syria.

It was learned last night that senior American diplomat Fred Hoff, a member of the team of special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, will meet today with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and top officials in the political and security echelon. The goal is to examine the possibility of resuming the talks between Israel and Syria, closely accompanied by the US.

Hoff will continue from here to Damascus, to talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad and with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. As of now, the Israeli side is sticking to the position whereby the talks with Syria can resume, but without preconditions. According to this position, the Syrians will be able to demand the return of the Golan Heights, while Israel will make it clear that it demands to remain on the Golan Heights in any arrangement.

That said, the Israeli intelligence community advocates resuming the negotiations with Syria and an agreement that entails the return of the Golan Heights with it being demilitarized on both sides of the border, in return for Damascus cutting its alliance with Iran.

Orly Azulai of Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Fred Hoff has already written a proposal for an Israeli-Syrian agreement:

The American administration has already begun to draw up a plan for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria. It is based on a detailed document written by Dr. Fred Hoff, a member of George Mitchell’s team, who will arrive today for talks in Israel.

Hoff recently completed writing the document that forms the initial draft for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria. Mitchell adopted this document as the basis for the peace between Israel and Syria.

The document suggests solutions to the complicated problems that are the bone of contention between Israel and Syria, and even suggests a route for the border line between the two countries that the American administration is already calling the “Hoff line.” Hoff suggests that the peace process between Israel and Syria take place in two stages: in the first stage the sides would build trust by sharing parks, nature reserves and water sources on the Golan Heights. He says that this way the two peoples will learn to live together and could bring down the walls of suspicion. In the second stage, he proposes, Israel would withdraw from the Golan to the line that he suggests.

He does not say how much time should elapse between the normalizationagreement and shared use of these reserves to the beginning of the withdrawal. However, based on sources close to Mitchell, this would be aprocess that would last for several years. Hoff’s proposal provides for a solution in which there are only winners for a problem that for years was considered a zero sum dynamic, says Scott Lasensky.”

Water for Peace
By STANLEY A. WEISS
July 13, 2009,
Op-Ed Contributor, NY Times

LONDON — Just days after the death of his father, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was asked to rank the issues of dispute between Syria and Israel. “Israel ranks her priorities in the following way: security, land and water,” he said. “But the truth is different. They consider water to be the most important.” He added, “Discussing this matter now is premature and its turn will come only after the land issue is discussed.”

Nine years later, the land issue remains frozen. The issue of water, however, has taken a dire turn. After a five-year drought, the region is headed toward a water calamity that could overwhelm all efforts at peace.

The Jordan River now has large sections reduced to a trickle. The Sea of Galilee is at its lowest point ever. The surface area of the Dead Sea has shrunk by a third. Iraq’s ancient marshes are now marked by large swaths of stalks and caked mud.

In northern Syria, more than 160 villages the past two years have run dry and been deserted by residents. In Gaza, 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water. In Israel, the pumps at the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), its largest reservoir, were exposed above the water level, rendering pumping impossible. In Lebanon, 70 percent of wastewater is dumped into cesspools, polluting groundwater; Jordan is struggling with just 10 percent of its average rainfall.

Little wonder that many warn that future wars will be fought over water, not land.

But can crisis be turned into opportunity? Could water, rather than land, be the way to cooperation and peace in the Middle East?

“We are great believers in the water issue as a catalyst for regional peace,” says Gilead Sher, Israel’s chief negotiator at the Camp David summit and the Taba peace talks in 1999-2001. “In all previous rounds of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the water section has been very close to concluding between the sides within the agreement framework.”

Others, like Jordanian Munqeth Mehyar, Palestinian Nader Al-Khateeb, and Israeli Gidon Bromberg, believe water provides new avenues for dialogue. Together, the three run EcoPeace, an organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to promote sustainable development and build “Good Water Neighbors” in the Middle East.

Syria itself is also taking a leadership role. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri met recently with Iraqi Minister of Electricity Wahid Kareem in Damascus to discuss water resources. This came on the heels of a recent meeting in Baghdad of the energy ministers of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria to discuss energy and security, which led to talk of a regional compact — a “new Baghdad Pact, without the U.S.,” as Zaab Sethna calls it. Sethna, co-founder of Northern Gulf Partners, working to bring investment to Baghdad, adds: “Water would be a natural area for cooperation.”

It is time to make peace on behalf of water.

First, the U.S. should work with Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Syria to convene a conference — in Istanbul. “The best way to resolve the water shortage is to bring water from super-abundant sources in the north — that is, Turkey,” says the Israeli scholar Bernard Avishai.

The carrier would have to run through Syria and possibly Lebanon. Turkey has offered to lead such efforts in the past — most recently proposing a “water plan for peace,” using water from the Manavgat River to aid its neighbors.

Second, the United States must persuade Israel to share its water expertise and technology with its Arab neighbors. Water, rather than land, could form the basis of an agreement between Israel and Syria, revolving in part around the disputed Golan Heights, the source of more than 55 percent of Israel’s fresh water.

The U.S. should also broker a new agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to replace the failed Joint Water Committee. The agreement should make each side a partner in both supply and management. Without it, Gaza will run dry, and pollution from the Strip will continue to threaten Israeli water reserves.

Third, the U.N. should mobilize a global effort to find cheaper, more environmentally friendly ways to convert seawater into drinking water. While widely practiced in Israel and Gulf states, desalination costs three times what it costs to tap traditional sources, and can use 10 times the energy. At its climate change conference in Copenhagen this December, the U.N. should launch a campaign to build public-private partnerships to turn the promise of desalination into a more tenable solution.

It has been said that if Israel were on fire, its Arab neighbors would not supply the water to put the fire out — and vice-versa. But when it comes to water, every nation is in the same boat.

Stanley A. Weiss is the founding chairman of Business Executives for National Security.

Iraq lashed by sandstorms and battling drought
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq bone dry for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farm land, threatening drinking water supplies and intensifying fierce sandstorms that have coated the country in brown dust.

The drought has dealt a harsh blow to hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, the government’s budget suffered a double-hit: Lower than expected oil prices have crimped revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import most of the crops, especially wheat and rice, to meet domestic demand.

“Look at this land. There is no water,” said Ashur Mohamed Ahmood, slipping the tip of his black cane into deep cracks in his parched field. He cautioned children not to run, fearing their small bare feet would get stuck in the crevices crisscrossing the farm on the outskirts of Baghdad.

“Without water there are no plants. This is the plant,” he says, uprooting a weed and throwing it back to the ground…..

Echoes from Ugarit… and Beyond
by Salma Al-Shami

Malek Jandali
Echoes from Ugarit (Soul b Music, June 2009)
$12.99 (CD)/$9.99 (mp3)
Available at: cdbaby.com/cd/malekjandali

Much like his beloved Syria itself, Syrian pianist and composer Malek Jandali‘s debut album Echoes from Ugarit cradles a splendid fusion of styles and traditions from across cultures and time.

This cosmopolitan ethos becomes Jandali’s signature compositional mark that unites the diverse eight tracks on the album recorded with conductor Sergey Kondrashev leading the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. In each piece, East meets West, sometimes explicitly, sometimes subtly; but often, where one ends and the other begins becomes irrelevant. Instead the music’s structural integrity is preserved by the interdependence of its melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic components, each of which individually may represent a different style or time but collectively combine in pieces that are reflective of musical eras past yet refreshingly modern.

Syrian Pianist Malek Jandali

The first and last tracks of the album serve as bookends to the broad spectrum of Jandali’s musical melting pot. With clear historical illusions to an era and place influenced by Arab culture, “Andalus” dramatically opens the album: the rhapsody’s introduction, which features a rhythmic augmentation of the melody played in octaves on the piano supported by rolled chords, gives way to a seductively playful Eastern melody that dances atop tango rhythms articulated in the strings and on the piano.

And while “Andalus” presents un-mistakable cultural evocations, the album’s last piece, “Arabesque,” features a more nuanced melding of styles. The waltz-like opening presents a sweeping melody—drenched in nostalgia—that is initially played in the strings and eventually echoed and elaborated in a piano solo. Subsequently, as the primary musical thought is tossed back and forth between the piano and the orchestra, interludes of more Arabic-like music—denotable through the addition of vibrant, rhythmic sections with sharp accentuation, beautiful ornamentation, and varied instrumentation (particularly when the solo oboe plays the melody)—are skillfully woven in.

For all of its magnificent moments, however, Echoes from Ugarit has its shortcomings. The album lacks variation in that all pieces are piano concerto-like, showcasing solo piano with orchestral accompaniment. Jandali spent the greater part of his musical education training as a pianist, studying at Jugendmusikschule in Germany where he was born, at the Conservatory of Music and the High Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria, and at the North Carolina School of the Arts before beginning his forays into composition.

Consequently the structure of his music—most of which hovers in minor keys—tends to showcase him more as a pianist than as a composer. (For example “Piano Dream,” where a whimsically ornamented melody twists and turns over fast-paced, broken-up chords in the left hand of the piano accompaniment, shows his technical ability to play crisply and precisely without ever sacrificing the continuity of the musical line.) But Jandali does not provide music that is exclusively for orchestra or that prominently features instruments other than the piano.

The compositional structure of the music he does provide, however, has several strengths. Jandali is particularly adept at achieving a fluid dialogue between the piano and orchestra, at times using one to comment on or punctuate the other’s musical idea or initiating a call-and-response figure between the two. “Leil” (“Night”) most vividly demonstrates these exchanges, especially between the piano and solo instruments such as the clarinet, flute, and horn. The piece is filled with the rich, brooding harmonies reminiscent of German romanticism and features a vacillation between extremes of emotions, musically captured through sharp contrasts in dynamics (loud versus soft) and orchestral texture (dense versus thin).

Perhaps Jandali’s most intriguing piece is the one from which the album draws its name. “Echoes from Ugarit” demands that listeners be engaged more on an intellectual level than on an emotional one. Its theoretical underpinnings, which one understands only by reading the CD liner notes in Arabic or English, outshine their aural manifestations.

“Echoes from Ugarit” is inspired by the oldest music in the world found on tablets dating back to 3400 BCE in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. These tablets denote an accompanied, sung hymn of an infertile woman directing her prayers to a moon goddess.

In light of this information, the compositional structure makes perfect sense: with the tonic repeatedly sounding in the bass and a line of ascending and descending triplet thirds and seconds in the low stings and bassoon, a haunting melody floats above complex and often dissonant harmonies. Jandali gives listeners a dark and sullen supplication of a grieving woman; however, the piece is defined primarily by its harmonies, and its chant-like melody leaves listeners wanting. Consequently, as in a stream of consciousness, the piece has forward motion without a definite shape or direction.

Still in naming the album Echoes from Ugarit—it encompassing the numerous musical and cultural colors that it does—Jandali reminds audiences that even an ancient civilization and the place that cradles it is more than a lifeless point of origin. The musical echoes to which it gives birth go on to ricochet between eras, places, and cultures, with some frequencies becoming lost and others reinforced depending on the space in which they are cast. Jandali’s debut work will leave listeners blissfully content for the moment and eagerly awaiting where he will take them in his future releases.

_________

Syrian-American soprano and pianist Salma Al-Shami holds a Bachelor of Music in voice and opera performance and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). Performing regularly in New York where she currently resides, she will be a Fulbright Fellow in Syria for the 2009-2010 year before returning to Northwestern to pursue her doctoral degree in political science.

If Obama is going to do something important in the Middle East, this administration will have to bring Syria to center stage. To do so it will have to press Israel to part with the Golan even though Uzi Arad, a Netanyahu aide said recently that “Israel needs to retain part of the Golan “for strategic, military and settlement reasons. For water, landscape and wine.” Syria way be weak militarily but it holds many regional cards. Most importantly, it speaks for Arab opinion in condemning Washington for being two-faced in its claim to be on the side of justice and law.

If Washington is going to make a good faith effort to restrain Israel’s territorial acquisitiveness, it should not be signing an agreement to sell 75 new US F-35 fighters to Israel, at least not yet. Israel’s superior air power convinced Olmert that he could kill Israel’s enemies rather than negotiate with them. Further increasing Israel’s military superiority will not diminish this bad habit. Equally, the Obama administration should not be pressing the “IAEA to…. push for special inspections in Syria,” at least not yet. (See this article about how the US is offering the IAEA an 8% increase in money if it presses the Syria case, among other things.) Washington seems blind to the fact that its efforts to improve Israel’s military might while chipping away at its rivals makes Israel impervious to entreaties that it fulfill international law. One the one hand, Washington claims it has no means to make Israel give up the Golan, and on the other, it doesn’t even try.

The Saudi outreach may come at a price that the US is not happy to see paid…”
July 11, 2009 MEPGS, (Via FLC)

“The Saudis want to persuade Iran’s erstwhile allies, notably Syria, that Teheran is a weak regime,” says one veteran analyst. Another notes, “The uprising has killed the myth of Iran stability.” One problem with this approach, say US officials, is that, in the case of Syria, the Saudi outreach may come at a price that the US is not happy to see paid. Specifically, they worry that the Saudis will reduce their support for their allies in the Lebanese government in order to attract Syria. Already, their protege, Saad Hariri, has seen Saudi support for a more independent Lebanese stance towards Syria dissipate. Or as one US official put it last week, “The Saudis may be willing to sell out Lebanon for Arab unity against Iran.” [US officials say they have remonstrated with the Saudis about this, but so far to little effect].

Israel-US F-35 deal ‘targets Iran, Syria defense’
Sun, 12 Jul 2009
An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Israel’s plans to buy US F-35 fighters indicate its desire to be able to penetrate the Russian air defense systems Iran and Syria are set to receive, a report says.

F-35 fighter aircraft can make the S-300 air defense systems ineffective, as computer simulations have shown that the new US stealth fighters outperform Russian missiles, Ria Novosti cited officials in Tel Aviv as saying…..

The final price for the model, estimated at over $100 million, and technical details of the deal still remain to be determined however…..

Predictions are that the final contract will be signed in early 2010 with the US promising to deliver a third of the 75 estimated F-35 fighters to Israel by 2014….

Obama for closer ‘engagement’ with Syria

LONDON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said he was troubled by Syria’s behaviour but hoped for progress in ties with former foe Damascus, in an interview to be screened Sunday.

Obama was asked by Britain’s Sky News television if he would accept an invitation to go to Damascus for face-to-face talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We’ve started to see some diplomatic contacts between the United States and Syria,” Obama said, in an interview recorded during Saturday’s visit to Ghana.

“There are aspects of Syrian behaviour that trouble us and we think that there is a way that Syria can be much more constructive on a whole host of these issues.

“But, as you know, I’m a believer in engagement and my hope is that we can continue to see progress on that front.”

Assad said earlier this month that he would be willing to meet Obama in Syria to discuss Middle East issues.

“We would like to welcome him in Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this,” he told Sky News.

State, Mitchell were in the loop on Syria
Ben Smith at Politico: July 10, 2009

I quoted approvingly today from a Jim Hoagland column that I thought got a couple of the big things right on Obama’s foreign policy: The unified front of principals, and the policy-making White House core.

I’ve also heard from some of the people involved, though, that the column was wrong in its lede, and what it casts as a telling anecdote and “misstep”:

Surprised to see the news the other day that the Obama administration is sending an ambassador back to Syria? So was Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Officials there were still negotiating with Damascus to win some movement on Middle East issues when President Obama’s decision was leaked.

That really doesn’t match the account I’ve gotten.

I’m told the recommendation came in a memo from Mitchell to Clinton and Obama after his mid-June meeting with Syrian President Assad. The decision was discussed in a Deputies Committee that included the powerful Deputy Secretary of State, Jim Steinberg as well as a Mitchell aide, Fred Hoff. Clinton’s personal staff on the seventh floor was aware of the recommendation before it was announced, as was the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman.

Hoagland’s column suggests that others in Foggy Bottom were taken aback, but both Clinton and Mitchell — the central negotiator on the ground in the Middle East — were in the loop on this one.

New chapter for Syria-Saudi relations
Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent, UAE / July 10. 2009

The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, angered his peers in the Middle East when he called them “half men ” for not supporting Hizbollah during Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon. Louai Beshara / AFP

Damascus: If America’s decision to send an ambassador to Syria, after years of ice-cold relations between Damascus and Washington, signals a shift in the Middle East’s political atmosphere, this week’s announcement by Saudi Arabia that it will do the same is a clear sign that a new chapter is really beginning……

….. For decades Syria has doggedly insisted that the underlying situation can be solved only with a comprehensive regional peace agreement that sees it regain the Golan Heights. Regardless of American or Saudi ambassadors being posted to Damascus, or efforts to weaken the Syrian-Iranian alliance, if that does not happen, any new chapter is doomed to have the same old ending.

Netanyahu’s paranoia extends to ‘self-hating Jews’ Emanuel and Axelrod
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz

……Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communication normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.”

The [Israeli] Foreign Ministry unveiled a new plan this week: Paying talkbackers to post pro-Israel responses on websites worldwide. A total of NIS 600,000 (roughly $150,000) will be earmarked to the establishment of an “Internet warfare” squad.

The Foreign Ministry intends to hire young people who speak at least one language and who study communication, political science, or law – or alternately, Israelis with military experience gained at units dealing with information analysis.

How to talk to Non-Jews about Israel – the 2009 Global Language Dictionary

http://ndn3.newsweek.com/media/9/israel-settlements-luntz-selling-wide-horizontal.jpg

Frank Luntz

A 116 page secret manual used to school American Jewish leaders in how to effectively discuss Israel has been leaked to Newsweek.

How do you sell the American public on the idea that Israel has the right to maintain or even expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank? Be positive. Turn the issue away from settlements and toward peace. Invoke ethnic cleansing.

Those are three of the recommendations made by Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, in an internal study he wrote for the Washington-based group The Israel Project (TIP) on effective ways to talk to Americans about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Full report

Here are some excerpts provided by an SC reader:

Rules
10) Draw direct parallels between Israel and America—including the need to defend against terrorism.
The language of Israel is the language of America: “democracy,” “freedom,” “security,” and “peace.”
12) No matter what you are asked, bridge to a productive pro-Israel message. When asked a direct question, you don’t have to answer it directly. You are in control of what you say and how you say it.
13) Talk about the future, not the past.
14) Hope.
15) Use rhetorical questions. Avoid head on attacks of your opponents. Use a soft tone. Show regret that the Palestinians have been led so poorly.
17) K.I.S.S. and tell and tell again and again. A key rule of successful communications is “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. Successful communications is not about being able to recite every fact from the long history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is about pointing out a few core principles of shared values—such as democracy and freedom—and repeating them over and over again.
18) Avoid “analysis paralysis” and be pro-active.
22) Never, never, NEVER speak in declarative statements. Never.

• “Living together, side by side. This is the best way to describe the ultimate vision of a two-state solution without using the phrase.

Chapter 3
HOW TO TALK ABOUT PALESTINIAN SELF GOVERNMENT & PROSPERITY

That said, it is important to note that there are effective ways to uphold the ultimate goal of a Palestinian self-government while legitimately questioning how soon the solution can be reached. This is the rhetorical area in which you need to operate.

5) The fight is over IDEOLOGY – not land; terror, not territory. Thus, you must avoid using Israel’s religious claims to land as a reason why Israel should not give up land. Such claims only make Israel look extremist to people who are not religious Christians or Jews.

Chapter 5:
THE LANGUAGE TACKLING A NUCLEAR IRAN

Note also the use of Arab nations to marginalize Iran. Just as we recommend in the chapter about Hamas, there is immense value in isolating Iran’s leadership as being out of step with Arab neighbors. Many Americans would be surprised to know that these nations are afraid of Iran, just like Israel. By surprising them, you open their minds to the rest of your message.

Chapter 8:
SETTLEMENTS

1) Talk about “a willingness to negotiate” and “Camp David” in the same sentence.
4) The settlements are necessary for the security of Israel.

—-

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem that Damascus would not restart peace talks unless Israel showed willingness to discuss a full withdrawal. (Jerusalem Post)

Israel must stay ‘deep in Golan’

The Golan Heights are militarily strategic and a key water source

An aide to Israel’s prime minister has said Israel must keep a large part of the Golan Heights, rejecting Syria’s major demand for a peace deal.

The previous government held indirect talks with Syria, assumed to be based on returning the Golan Heights, occupied in 1967, in return for peace.

In June, Syrian President Bashar Assad said there was no partner for talks on the Israeli side.

Correspondents say the aide’s comments will serve to reinforce this view.

Syria has remained in a state of war with Israel since its 1948 foundation.

Israel took control of the Golan Heights, a strategic mountainous area now popular with Israeli holidaymakers, during the 1967 Six Day War.

‘Integral role’

The comments come amid a thaw in relations between the US and Syria.

US President Barack Obama has sent envoys on a series of visits, and Mr Assad recently invited the US president himself to Damascus.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell recently visited Syria and said Damascus had an “integral role” in finding peace in the region.

But the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands to the right of his predecessor, Ehud Olmert.

Correspondents say the new government’s emerging position makes an Israeli-Syrian deal look unlikely.

“The position is that, if there is a territorial compromise, it is one that still leaves Israel on the Golan Heights and deep into the Golan Heights,” the aide, Uzi Arad, said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

He said the Israeli government was willing to resume negotiations with “no prior conditions”, but Israeli control of parts of the territory was necessary for “strategic, military and land-settlement reasons… needs of water, wine and landscape”.

Syria wants the entire territory back.

The Golan Heights is currently home to about 18,000 Israeli settlers and another 17,000 Druze Arabs loyal to Syria.

Top adviser to Netanyahu: Israel will not leave entire Golan even in peace deal
MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press, July 10, 2009

Israel needs to retain part of the Golan “for strategic, military and settlement reasons. For water, landscape and wine,” said Arad. He nonetheless called on the Syrians to resume peace talks with Israel with no preconditions but “with each side aware of the other’s position.”……

Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has accepted the idea of a Palestinian state, an idea he long opposed. But in the Haaretz interview, Arad took a dim view of the Palestinian leadership, saying he saw not a government but a “disorderly constellation of forces and factions.”

There “could be worse” leaders than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Arad said. “But even with him I don’t see a real interest and desire to arrive at the end of the conflict with Israel. On the contrary. He is preserving eternal claims against us and inflaming them,” he said.

Syria: Israel’s most valuable partner for peace
By Jamal Bittar Friday, 07.10.2009, 05:17pm

The recent gesture by the Obama administration to re-open the U.S. embassy in Damascus and renew talks with the Syrian government was meant to lay the groundwork for a resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks under American auspices. There is indeed a window of opportunity for Israel to make peace with another Arab country, which if achieved, would ultimately bring peace to the whole region.

Many hardliners in Israel feel the U.S. has managed to find and support the only nation in the region that is actively anti-peace, and who will return absolutely nothing for peace. They say “this idea that Syria can produce peace is an old liberal idea.” But so was the idea that Egypt could produce peace, and it did. It still does. No more war, no more bloodshed on the Israel-Egypt border for over 30 years. How many young Israelis and Egyptians owe their lives to this “old liberal idea?”

Syria indeed has more to offer Israel than any other country in the region. The Syrians have the Golan Heights issue, in which it is supported by the international community. Syria borders Iraq and could have a significant impact on Iraq’s future. Syria has major influence in Lebanese politics, to Israel’s dismay. They carry the Hamas and Hizbullah cards in their hand and enjoy the alliance with Iran, which annoys and disturbs Israel. Therefore, Syria is the nearest and strongest enemy of Israel; you cannot rule them out. Syria can offer everything and nothing. It has a lot of support in the Arab world. Without a genuine peace with Syria, Israel will never have peace with the Palestinians; there will always be bloodshed.

By making a true friend of Syria, the U.S. can put all of these things on the table and perhaps negate them. All it would take is the return of the Golan Heights and a few billion dollars a year in aid. For Obama, this is the bargain of the century. The current investment in Israel has returned only thirty years of settlement expansion and failed peace efforts. It has raised a generation of Israelis who feel entitled to American aid and who balk at American influence.

If the U.S. had continued to alienate the Syrian regime, that could have increased the likelihood of an emergence of domestic tensions, notably among the Kurds and the Muslim Brotherhood. We have all seen the effects of such domestic tensions in Iraq. The U.S. cannot find a substitute for Bashar Assad’s regime. Unlike the case with Iraq, it is difficult to identify a prominent Syrian opponent to the Syrian leader, inside or outside of the country.

The new Assad has proven himself to be a man of principle making the best of a difficult agenda. His approach to negotiations with Israel is correct. Assad’s argument all along has been that the only way you can really get a systematic peace process going now is bringing in America to broker it. And the American role would be very important. It’s a tremendous challenge for the Obama administration diplomatically: nurse an agreement over the Golan Heights, which everybody seems to want, and use that to start talking about regional peace.

And that would mean bringing Iran into the process while holding off the Israelis. The Israelis are interested in a Golan Heights settlement because they see a settlement with Syria over the Golan Heights as an issue that would isolate the Iranians from the Syrians and, therefore, give the Israelis more leverage to go after Iran, if they choose to do so, if they view Iran as a strategic threat. They don’t view the Palestinian issue, whether Hamas or Fatah, as a strategic issue. The Israelis see it as a tactical issue. The problem for Israel is that the Syrians have a different motive for dealing with it. They’re not interested in walking away from the Iranian agreement.

If the Obama administration can get into a possible settlement of the Golan Heights dispute, land for peace, we can get a regional peace process going. And then the United States would have to also accept the idea that Iran should participate. Richard Holbrooke recently talked about the inevitability of having Iran involved, because for the United States, you have to look at the idea of having Syria, Turkey and Iran all together, all border countries playing an enormous role in making sure that the Iraqis — as we walk out of Iraq, and making sure that that happens safely— have a lot to say about what’s going to happen inside Iraq. They can be moderating influences. Therefore, we can see the potential for an enormous sort of a change in the paradigm.

President Obama is looking for partners for peace in the Middle East. It takes brilliant and courageous leaders to make bold and decisive decisions; Israel has lacked those leaders due to corruption and a total disregard for the safety and peaceful existence of the Jewish state.

For decades, Israel has been able to indulge their greed for Arab land and their greed for American support at the same time. Now the time has arrived in which they will have to choose one and let go of the other. It still seems a good deal. Better be careful not to lose both.

The writer is professor of interdisciplinary studies at the University of Toledo.

Syrian President dissolves the Office of National Security (Maktab al-`amn al-qawmi) and replaces it with a National Security Council (Majlis al-`amn al-watani).

The Office of National Security is appointed by the REgional Command of hte Baath Party. The new body will be civilian and subject to the regular laws of government employment.

We must wait to see if the President will establish the new body under his office as president or under his office as leader of the Regional Command of the Baath Party. In theory, if he reestablishes the body under his authority as president and not as head of the Baath Party, the authority of the Baath Party will be diminished.

All4Syria

?????? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??????

??? (???? ?????)
10/ 07/ 2009
???? ( ???? ?????) ?? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ????? 36 ?? ???? , ???? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ????????? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ???????? ??????? ?? ?????. ???? ?? ??????? ?? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ???????? ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ???????? ?? ???????? ???????? ????????? ???????? ?? ??????? , ????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? 2005 , ???? ????? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ??????? .
???????? ??????? ??? 14 ??? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ?? ???????? ???????? ????? : ????? ?????? ??? ???????? ??? ?????? ????? ??????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ” ??????? ” ???? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ???????? ? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ???? ???????? ???????? ???????? ??????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ???????? ???????? ????????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? .

??? ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ?? ????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ????? !
????? ?????? ????? ???????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? ????????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?????
???? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ????????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????????? ?
???? ??? ??? ????? ????? ???? ????????? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ??? 1963 ???? ????? ??????? ???
?????? ?? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ????? ???????? ???? ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ??????? ????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ?????? .
????????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ????? ???????? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ??????

Misguided Missiles

Injured Liberty crewmembers are escorted to a memorial service on the deck of the aircraft carrier America on June 10, 1967.

Injured Liberty crewmembers are escorted to a memorial service on the deck of the aircraft carrier America on June 10, 1967. (National Archives – National Archives)

THE ATTACK ON THE LIBERTY: Book review in the Washington Post
By John Lancaster
Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship …..

The record of the Navy’s civilian and military leadership was less inspiring. Though privately furious, U.S. officials lied about the nature of the Liberty’s mission and, Scott writes, were so eager to avoid stirring up public anger toward Israel that at one point they contemplated scuttling the ship to prevent news organizations from photographing the damage. Adm. John McCain, Jr., the father of the Arizona senator and 2008 presidential candidate, comes in for especially sharp criticism. As the head of the Navy’s inquiry, Scott writes, McCain understood that a “report critical of Israel would trigger diplomatic ramifications for the State Department and create domestic political trouble for the beleaguered White House, which now wanted to deemphasize the attack.” As a consequence, he contends, McCain barred his investigators from traveling to Israel to interview the attackers and allowed only a week to complete the probe, “less time than it took to bury some of the dead.” …..

Scott cites transcripts of conversations between the Israeli pilots and air controllers in Tel Aviv to show that at least some Israeli commanders were aware of the Liberty’s identity before the attack. He also shows that many U.S. officials — including then-CIA director Richard Helms — were privately scornful of Israel’s explanation. Some believed the attack may have been ordered by a battlefield commander who feared that Israel’s combat orders, if detected by the Liberty, might somehow leak to the Arabs.

Scott clearly has his own suspicions, though he produces no smoking-gun evidence to support the charge of a deliberate attack, perhaps because none exists. In that sense, his book is likely to disappoint the conspiracy theorists as much as it angers proponents of the “fog of war” defense offered by Israel. But Scott is wise to leave the speculating to others. The story is shocking enough as it is.

I just did a Radio NPR talk show with Mona Yacoubian for the Washington DC area: Kojo Nnamdi Show (July 9, 2009) Democracy Building & Consensus in Lebanon

Guests:
Joshua Landis, Co-Director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma; Author of SyriaComment.com blog

Mona Yacoubian, Director, Lebanon Working Group, U.S. Institute of Peace

In recent elections, Lebanese voters sent a pro-Western majority to parliament, denying a challenge from the militant Hezbollah. We look at the challenges ahead for the newly-named Prime Minister Saad Hariri — son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — and look at the foreign powers like Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. are likely to play. Windows Media

Daily Star (Via FLC)

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that Syrian president Bashar Assad “kept the commitments” that he had promised France concerning Lebanon. Sarkozy was speaking to reporters in L’Aquilla, Italy at the opening of the G8 Summit. Following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, French-Syrian ties deteriorated considerably. However, in 2008 ties were revived following a visit by Sarkozy, newly elected at the time, to Syria …”

Maya Bengal in Ma’ariv: Obama Lets Settlements grow (Via Pulse and FLC)

The Americans have agreed to allow Israel to construct some 2,500 housing units in the settlements. This is in complete contrast to statements relayed to Israel in recent months, since the new administration took office.

The agreement was secured after Defense Minister Ehud Barak was able to convince the Americans to allow Israel to continue and build those units whose construction had already started. In other words, the Americans gave their consent to letting the construction continue of some 700 buildings, which amount to some 2,500 housing units.

Upon his return to Israel, the defense minister reported to the forum of six – which includes, besides himself, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and ministers Avigdor Lieberman, Dan Meridor, Benny Begin, Moshe (Bugi) Yaalon – on the results of the meeting.

In addition, an understanding was reached between Mitchell and Barak that if it was indeed decided to halt settlement construction in the West Bank, this would occur only in the framework of regional negotiations – in which both Syria and Lebanon would also take part.

The Americans have adopted the position that Israel should not be required to halt settlement construction as a precondition, but rather only when the peace process with the Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority gets on track.

A week from now, special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell will arrive once again in Israel and is expected to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Incidentally, sources close to the defense minister are now saying that the level of tension between Washington and Jerusalem has abated.

According to them, the Americans have worked to accommodate Israel and the atmosphere in now more constructive.

Syrian Souvenirs for Steinmeier
By Yassin Musharbash in Damascus, Syria

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier sees Syria and its president, Bashar Assad, as an important regional player, a key to Mideast peace. In Damascus, Assad did all he could to accomodate this leap of faith, showing a willingness to find a middle ground even on hot-button issues.

Steinmeier stressed in Syria, as he had done in Israel on Monday, that the current opportunity may be short-lived. He believes Obama provided impetus by indicating he’s ready to take a tougher line with Israel. Now the players in the region have to position themselves. Negotiations have to start very quickly, Steinmeier said in Damascus. “The chances we have must be seized this year, otherwise the window will close,” he said.

He wants Palestinians and Israelis to start final status negotiations this autumn to replace a “peace process” that has been torpedoed and watered down all too often. That’s the position shared by the United States and Steinmeier. It’s worth a try after the failure of previous attempts, they believe.

The Syrians, who until now have given the impression that time is the least of their concerns, were surprisingly clear on Tuesday in agreeing that time was now of the essence. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem hinted that Syria’s ties with Iran — a sticking point with the international community — may no longer be a taboo issue.

Asked by a journalist what he thought of the US demand that Syria divorce itself from Tehran in exchange for a return of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, he said no one could predict what would happen to the relationship once the Golan Heights were returned to Syria.

The minister also reaffirmed at a joint news conference with Steinmeier that his country remained ready to negotiate with Israel. But he added that he would prefer the talks initially to be held indirectly via Turkish mediation. Israel is currently signalling that it would prefer to negotiate directly with Damascus. So the issue here is not whether but how — a further tentative sign of rapprochement. …

????? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????!

?????? ?????? ?? ??????: ????? “????” ?????? ???????? ??????????

?? ????? ???????: ????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ???? 38 ???????!

?????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ?????????, ???? ??????? (???? ?????)!

?????? ???????? ????? “???? ?????” ?????? ??? ??????

The Syian and Iranian relationship:

Ray Takeyh’s new book, Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of Ayatollahs, has an interesting section on the Syrian-Iranian relationship. Here it is posted to the Oxford University Press Blog. Tayekh, a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes about the relationship between Iran and Syria, beginning with the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Syria alliance that followed.

Al Jazeera English signs first major US TV deal

Mossad chief Dagan stirs the pot
2009-07-07 16:28:05.10 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 7 (UPI) — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to extend the tenure of former army Gen. Meir Dagan as head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, by a year has got the nation wondering what clandestine missions the man the liberal daily Haaretz calls “the angel of destruction” will think up next……

Dagan “is said to have returned the agency to its glory days,” says the Jerusalem Post.
He has notched what his peers see as several major successes. Most of these remain shrouded in mystery, but there have been reports that key scientists in Iran’s nuclear program died in mysterious circumstances.

More in the public domain, however, was the discovery of what Israel says was a North Korean-built nuclear reactor in western Syria and its subsequent destruction by the Israeli air force in September 2007 and long-range air strikes in Sudan against alleged shipments of Iranian arms being smuggled to Hamas in Gaza in January and February 2009.

But possibly the most spectacular operation widely attributed to Dagan’s Mossad was the February 2008 assassination of Hezbollah’s legendary operations chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of the Israeli State
By Joshua Holland

What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same “children of Israel” described in the Old Testament? And what if most modern Israelis aren’t descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn’t “return” to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?

What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora — the story recounted at Passover tables by Jews around the world every year detailing the ancient Jews’ exile from Judea, the years spent wandering through the desert, their escape from the Pharaoh’s clutches — is all wrong?

That’s the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year. After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated into a dozen languages and will be published in the United States this year by Verso…..

Inventing a People?

Zand’s central argument is that the Romans didn’t expel whole nations from their territories. Zand estimates that perhaps 10,000 ancient Judeans were vanquished during the Roman wars, and the remaining inhabitants of ancient Judea remained, converting to Islam and assimilating with their conquerors when Arabs subjugated the area. They became the progenitors of today’s Palestinian Arabs, many of whom now live as refugees who were exiled from their homeland during the 20th century.

As Israeli journalist Tom Segev summarized, in a review of the book in Ha’aretz:

There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened — hence there was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of national-identity formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and, most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua.

But this begs the question: if the ancient people of Judea weren’t expelled en masse, then how did it come to pass that Jewish people are scattered across the world? According to Zand, who offers detailed histories of several groups within what is conventionally known as the Jewish Diaspora, some were Jews who emigrated of their own volition, and many more (90%) were later converts to Judaism. Contrary to popular belief, Zand argues that Judaism was an evangelical religion that actively sought out new adherents during its formative period.

This narrative has huge significance in terms of Israel’s national identity. If Judaism is a religion, rather than “a people” descended from a dispersed nation, then it brings into question the central justification for the state of Israel remaining a “Jewish state.”…..

Sexy Brit bringing Syria in from the cold
By OLIVER HARVEY
Chief Feature Writer for The SUN – what else

Born in the west London suburb of Acton, she speaks with a cut-glass English accent and her childhood friends called her Emma.

She is Asma al Assad – First Lady of Syria – and she is certainly not the average Arab dictator’s wife.

She likes to show off her willowy form in figure-hugging jeans and her mousy brown hair is cut in a stylish flicked bob. ….

The Muslim Challenge to Nationalism
July 6, 2009, By James Brazier, London Correspondent

There is plenty of evidence that the world’s Muslims do not take the nation-state for granted. WorldPublicOpinion.org, supported by the University of Maryland, has run two sets of surveys in Muslim-majority countries to gauge public opinion of geopolitical affairs. The most recent poll, “Public Opinion in the Islamic World on Terrorism, al Qaeda, and U.S. Policies”, published in February 2009, produced much the same results as the first one two years earlier.

Both surveys showed majority support for a new Caliphate in some large Muslim countries. According to the latest survey, 70 percent of Egyptians believe Egypt should be erased in favour of a superstate. Sixty-nine percent of Pakistanis agreed that their country should be dissolved in a similar fashion while, according to the 2006 survey, 67 percent of Moroccans felt likewise. Indonesians, far-flung from the centre of Islamic geography and never a party to historical Caliphates, mostly rejected the idea (although 35 percent did not).

Respondents tended to view the system of nation-states as a foreign conspiracy designed to weaken and divide Muslims. Large majorities in every country polled (Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco, Palestine, Iran, and Azerbaijan) cited “weaken and divide” as the main policy goal of the United States in the Muslim world. There was even greater unanimity as to why the U.S. sought this weakness and division: control over oil. This belief was “so widespread as to be consensual,” according to the report’s authors.

Few respondents believed that the U.S. genuinely supports democracy. Large majorities concluded either that the U.S. actively opposes free elections in their countries (especially respondents in Jordan and Egypt), or that the U.S. seeks democracy only when it is likely to result in a cooperative government.

Risking Israel’s ire, US takes 1,350 Palestinian refugees
By Patrik Jonsson | The Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 200

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.

It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region’s roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq’s border with Syria.

“Really for the first time, the United States is recognizing a Palestinian refugee population that could be admitted to the US as part of a resettlement program,” says Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch in Washington.

Given the US’s past reluctance to resettle Palestinians – it accepted just seven Palestinians in 2007 and nine in 2008 – the effort could ruffle some diplomatic feathers.

For many in the State Department and international community, the resettlement is part of a moral imperative the US has to clean up the refugee crisis created by invading Iraq. The US has already stepped up resettlement of Iraqis, some who have struggled to adjust to life in America.

The resettlement of Iraqi Palestinians is “an important gesture for the United States to demonstrate that we’re not heartless,” says Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations and Middle Eastern studies at New York University.

But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.

“This is politically a real hot potato,” says Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, “[A]merica has become a dumping ground for the State Department’s problems – they’re tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb.”

SADDAM’S GUESTS
Palestinian refugees came to Iraq in successive waves over several decades, first in 1948, then in 1967, and in 1991. They were treated well under Hussein but were also used to attack Israeli policies, and their presence was resented by many Iraqis.

After Hussein was deposed in 2003, many of these Palestinians were driven out of their homes and now live “at the mercy of the weather” in rough camps along the Syrian and Jordanian border, says Mr. Ben-Meir. The number of Palestinians in Iraq has fallen from around 34,000 to an estimated 15,000, with about 2,773 living in camps, according to the State Department.

The US, which takes in about 80,000 refugees annually, hopes to bring 17,000 Iraqi refugees this year.

CATEGORIZED AS IRAQI REFUGEES
While the US generally doesn’t accept Palestinians, Todd Pierce, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, says that the Iraqi population of Palestinians falls under a different category from those in Gaza and the West Bank. Each applicant will be carefully scrutinized for terrorist ties, he adds.

The US reluctance to accept Palestinians is because it “doesn’t want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel,” says a diplomat in the region, who requested anonymity because he is not cleared to talk to the press. But these Palestinians, he says, will be processed as refugees from Iraq.

Mr. Krikorian says the US should be the last refuge for those fleeing persecution. Only Jordan of all the Arab countries routinely grants citizenship to Palestinian refugees, he notes. More recently, says Mr. Frelick, Jordan has also shut its borders to Palestinians coming from Iraq.

Frelick, who has visited a camp on the Jordanian border, said the Iraqi Palestinians are “apolitical,” and “basically desperate, scared, miserable, and ready to just get out of Iraq.”

Resettlement agencies urge an overhaul of America’s 30-year-old refugee policy.

Many Iraqi refugees in US now in dire straits
By Patrik Jonsson and Kristen Chick
The Christian Science Monitor
June 18, 2009

Atlanta; and Lynn, Mass. – It hasn’t been smooth sailing for the thousands of Iraqi refugees entering America’s resettlement program. Only 11 percent are finding work this year, compared with 80 percent two years ago. Many are frustrated as benefits dwindle, cash runs out, and eviction notices pile up.

With such findings in hand, nonprofit resettlement agencies like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) are urging this week an overhaul of America’s three-decade-old refugee policy.

Reforms should include more cash assistance from the US government to the refugees, the IRC says. The government should also offer a uniform and more substantial package of benefits, the IRC says.

Refugees “never imagined that they would be struggling to survive here in America,” says Alaa Naji, a refugee from Baghdad who now works in Atlanta for the IRC. “They expected more from a country that was involved in the violence that destroyed our land, homes, and loved ones.”

Complaints about the handling of refugees have risen as the United States has tried to welcome more Iraqi refugees. Until 2006, only 202 Iraqis had come to the US, partly because of security concerns. In the past three years, 25,659 Iraqi refugees have arrived.

Some argue that US officials have oversold refugees’ prospects. “You’ll see there’s a universal theme to [Iraqis’] complaints, which is that they were told they were going to have a great life, and they’re completely shocked when they’re given jobs like washing cars,” says Ann Corcoran, a Washington County, Md., farmer who runs a critical blog, Refugee Resettlement Watch.

It’s often hard for people to reconcile themselves to the reality of life as a refugee, says Kay Bellor, IRC’s vice president for US programs. Many refugees are highly educated, and they find it difficult to work in menial jobs and give up their earlier lifestyle, she says.

This spring, as a stopgap measure, the State Department released $5 million in emergency rent stipends to help refugees on the verge of eviction. …..

Costa Rica is world’s greenest, happiest country

Latin American nation tops index ranking countries by ecological footprint and happiness of their citizens
(page 63 of 64 in the above pdf file)
syria is number 38
usa is number 114
uae is number 123
saudi is number 13
egypt is number 12
israel is number 67
lebanon is number 111

Egyptians cry racism in woman’s slaying in Germany
By MAGGIE MICHAEL

CAIRO (AP) — Thousands of Egyptian mourners marched behind the coffin of the “martyr of the head scarf” on Monday — a pregnant Muslim woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom as her young son watched.

Many in her homeland were outraged by the attack and saw the low key response in Germany as an example of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Her husband was critically wounded in the attack Wednesday in Dresden when he tried to intervene and was stabbed by the attacker and accidentally shot by court security.

“There is no god but God and the Germans are the enemies of God,” chanted the mourners for 32-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini in her hometown of Alexandria, where her body was buried after being flown back from Germany.

“We will avenge her killing,” her brother Tarek el-Sherbini told The Associated Press by telephone from the mosque where prayers were being recited in front of his sister’s coffin. “In the West, they don’t recognize us. There is racism.”

Al-Sherbini, who was about four months pregnant and wore the Islamic head scarf, was involved in a court case against her neighbor for calling her a terrorist and was set to testify against him when he stabbed her 18 times inside the courtroom in front of her 3-year-old son.

Her husband, who was in Germany on a research fellowship, came to her aid and was also stabbed by the neighbor and shot in the leg by a security guard who initially mistook him for the attacker, German prosecutors said. He is now in critical condition in a German hospital, according to al-Sherbini’s brother.

“The guards thought that as long as he wasn’t blond, he must be the attacker so they shot him,” al-Sherbini told an Egyptian television station…..

Walid Muallem – Syrian Foreign Minister – “Yes, we do want to get the Golan back on a silver platter,” he said. “Let’s face it — it’s our land and our right to have it back is the most normal thing in the world.”

(AFP) Muallem said Syria supported further indirect contacts with Israel, which were frozen after the Jewish state launched a massive offensive against the Gaza Strip in December.

“We think a resumption of indirect contacts with Israel through Turkish go-betweens is the best way of getting to direct negotiations, but first and foremost we have to be confident that there is a political will in Israel to achieve peace,”…

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Syria deserved Western respect for the constructive role it had played in its smaller neighbor Lebanon in recent months, adding that Damascus did not interfere in the legislative elections and will not interfere in forming Lebanon’s next cabinet.

“Syria did not intervene in the Lebanese elections. Syria will not interfere in the formation of a new Lebanese government, but we want the new government to be a real government of national consensus between all parties that will secure Lebanon’s stability,” he said.

Syria backed a Hizbullah-led alliance in last month’s election in Lebanon that was won by the rival Western-backed coalition of prime minister-designate Rafik Hariri.

Hariri has said he is ready to renew the national unity government formed after factional violence last year, but only on condition that Hizbullah and its allies give up the veto powers on cabinet decisions they enjoyed in the outgoing government

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Syria on Tuesday to do its part to ensure the success of Middle East peace efforts and said “destructive elements” in the region that needed to be reined in.

“Syria has an objective interest in the success of the Middle East peace process and I call on Syria and also my counterpart Mr. Muallem to do its part,” he said at a joint press conference in Damascus with Muallem.

“There is no time to lose,” Steinmeier said after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Muallem on the latest leg of a Middle East tour.

But he said the Syrian-backed Lebanese group Hizbullah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had shown “no interest in the success of the peace talks.”…

New Lebanon government awaits Saudi-Syria understanding

Lack of progress in talks between Syria and Saudi Arabia is holding up the formation of a new Beirut government set to group Riyadh’s allies in Lebanon with rivals backed by Damascus, a senior politician said.

Senior Saudi envoys have visited Damascus at least three times since Lebanon’s parliamentary election a month ago, won by the “March 14” coalition led by Saad al-Hariri and backed by Riyadh and Washington.

The talks have highlighted the influence of Saudi Arabia and Syria in the country……

The last round of talks in Damascus on Friday grouped Saudi Prince Abdul-Aziz, King Abdullah’s son, and Information Minister Abdul-Aziz Khoja, the former Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country dominated Lebanon until 2005.

The talks ended without a breakthrough needed to smooth the way for Hariri, prime minister-designate, to form the new cabinet, the senior Lebanese politician said on Tuesday.

“The atmosphere is good because Syria and Saudi Arabia are not arguing,” the politician said.The source said the talks had focused on a possible Hariri visit to Syria, which the billionaire politician has accused of his father’s assassination. The Sunni leader, who was raised in Saudi Arabia, is Riyadh’s closest ally in Lebanon.

“The matter of the government formation is moving along naturally,” Hariri said on Saturday. “The government of Lebanon is formed in Lebanon … any other talk is incorrect,” he said.

……”The general impression is negative. The Lebanese have no role in the formation of their government,” Aoun said in an interview with Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

“None of the Lebanese are involved. Receiving notification of what is going on outside is not participation.”…

Lebanese Opposition insists on its demand for veto power.

“The Opposition respects the President (Suleiman) and his shares in the government, but our shares are ours and his shares are his,” Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh said on Tuesday.

He hoped that the government would be formed in Lebanon.

….

Hariri is faced with three Syrian options:(al-Akhbar headlines translated by Lebanon Now)

…. Up until last Thursday, the dialogue between Riyadh and Damascus had resulted in three proposals submitted by the Syrian president to Prince Abdel Aziz. Bashar Al-Assad tasked the Saudi prince with briefing the Lebanese prime minister-designate on these proposals and conveying a clear position by Hariri in this respect.

The first of these proposals is for Hariri to form a majority government immediately in his capacity as a majority leader.

The second one pertains to the formation of a national unity government. Hariri would have to negotiate with the opposition, which would voice its demands in order to reach an agreement even if this requires that Hariri grant the opposition its obstructing-third demand.

The third proposal is for Hariri to visit Damascus, so that the Syrian leadership gets to know him if Damascus is to act as a mediator between him and the opposition to facilitate the formation of the government.

The leaders of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar are not to be absent from the Sharm al-Sheikh Summit.(From as-Safir)

Arab sources indicate that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has decided not to take part in the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement set to be held in Sharm al-Sheikh on July 15 and 16. Instead he will send deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Moqdad….

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri told his visitors that he will not accept any conditions binding his mission, and that if some insist on these conditions, including the “obstructing third”, he would rather tell the president he cannot form the government.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said that the coast is clear for [launching] a political consensus process “in which there is no predominance” and expressed hope that “the prime minister-designate will agree on forming a national unity government.”

A must read — The Qnion — by Qifa Nabki on the Hariri, Assad, Abdullah summit.

SyriaNews: Deputy Prime Minister Dardari says government salaries will be raised 35% until the end on 2010. Over the life of the 2005-2020 five year plan, government salaries will have been raised by close to 100%.

???????: ????? ??? ??????? ????? 35% ??? ????? 2010 ??????? ?????? ???????

??????? ??????????

??? ???? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ?????????? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ????? 2010 ????? ????? ?? ????? ???????? ??? ??? 35%.

????? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? “?????? ???????? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ??? 35%? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ??? 100%”.

????? ????? ??????? ??????? 2005-2010 ????? ??? ????? ???????? ???? 65% ???? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ??? 100%.

????? ??????? ?? “????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? “??? ??????? ????? ??????? ?? ??????? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ????????? ???? ???”.

???? ??? ???? ?? ????? 2008 ??? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????????? ????? 25%? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ????????? ???????? ?????? 25%.

Saudi Ambassador to Syria:

“A Saudi diplomat said Monday that the kingdom has appointed a new ambassador to Syria, the strongest sign yet of the solidifying reconciliation between the two rival Arab nations. …. An official at the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Syria has approved the appointment of a Saudi ambassador, identifying the diplomat as Abdullah al-Eifan. The diplomat at the Saudi Embassy in Damascus said he would assume the post soon. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment was not yet official, and gave no further details. Al-Eifan’s appointment is a strong indication that a much talked about summit meeting between the Saudi king and the Syrian president would be held in Damascus in the coming days or weeks. Observers have suggested a summit in Damascus was unlikely before the king appoints his envoy to Syria. …” (AP)

Former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer sharply denied reports Monday that he is under consideration to become the next American ambassador to Damascus. (Jerusalem Post)

[The Jerusalem Post also quotes David Schenker of WINEP as saying of the decision to send a US ambassador to Syria:

“it was definitely connected to the turmoil in Iran and the administration’s efforts to take advantage of Teheran’s perilous moment. “[They want] to maximize the press on Iran, to make them concerned that Syria is contemplating a change of camps,” he said.

[Landis analysis] I think this is WINEP spin. It is much more likely that the decision to resend an ambassador was made before the Iran elections and was linked to the Centcom mission that visited Damascus shortly before the Mitchell visit in June to discuss security arrangements along the Iraq border and the resumption of intelligence sharing. I also find Moshe Maoz’s suggestion (See article copied below) that “the United States will replace North Korea as the major arms provider to Syria,” to be unlikely. Such a Syrian shift could not be contemplated unless Israel clearly agrees to give back the Golan, and that is highly unlikely given Netanyahu’s government and statements. Maoz writes: “If Syria chooses to sever its relations with Iran and Hizbullah, new doors may open up for a possible détente with the West and Israel, including the return of the Golan Heights.”

It is most unlikely that Syria will sever relations with Iran and Hizbullah before the return of the Golan. Left-leaning Israelis argue that Syria should trust Netanyahu to deliver if Syria first flips? Why would Syrians believe this? Left-leaning Israelis have little credibility in Israel. They have lost too many elections and the Labor Party is all but extinct. Tzipi Livni’s party bombed both Lebanon and Gaza, suggesting that it would prefer to kill its enemies than compromise with them.

Few Syrians are likely to believe that Netanyahu or his parliamentary allies will relinquish the Golan as liberal Israelis claim they will. There is just no reason for Assad to believe Israel or Washington will deliver. Netanyahu has stated repeatedly and clearly that Israel will not return the Golan. I think we need to take him at his word. Even analysts such as Martin Indyk argue that Netanyahu will relinquish the Golan only if he believes that Israel faces a stark choice between relinquishing the West Bank to Palestinians or the Golan to Syria. There is no sign yet that Obama has the desire or will to force such a stark choice on Israel. Obama has not once mentioned the Golan. Surely, Assad will be wise enough to wait until Obama shows his hand.

Analysis: Syria’s way out of the ‘Shi’ite Axis of Evil’
Jul. 7, 2009
moshe maoz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Monday’s news that Saudi Arabia will appoint an ambassador to Syria signifies a gradual effort by the western world and moderate Arab nations to extract Syria away from the “Shi’ite Axis of Evil” and to strengthen relations with the West under the aegis of the American administration.

Reports of the appointment come amidst the backdrop of the Syrian-Saudi-Lebanese summit, set to convene in Damascus next week, and US President Barack Obama’s announcement that the US will also appoint an ambassador to Syria.

The Saudi ambassador appointment and the combined effort of the United States and other western nations to foster better relations with Syria stem from a legitimate Iranian threat to the region’s interests and oil resources. A nuclear Iran has the capability not only to threaten Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations with war, but also to demand oil concessions in the hope of dominating the Middle Eastern market.

The Americans hope that their push for better relations with Syria will force the Syrian government to better patrol the Iraqi border and stop the infiltration of foreign fighters into Iraq. In addition, the Americans are likely to demand that Syria reject North Korean military aid. In exchange, it is possible that the United States will replace North Korea as the major arms provider to Syria, similar to the Americans’ replacement of Soviet aid in Egypt.

Iran’s inexorable isolation from the world and its disputed nuclear program threaten to isolate the much more moderate Syrian regime. If Syria chooses to sever its relations with Iran and Hizbullah, new doors may open up for a possible détente with the West and Israel, including the return of the Golan Heights. In the event of a Syrian-Western alliance, Syria could receive economic-military aid from the Arab Gulf States and the United States.

Despite the opposition of the Israeli public to returning the Golan, the political establishment is willing to do such in an agreement that would pass muster with the Israeli public. This would include a major change in Syria’s relationship with Iran, and a cessation of Syrian support to Hizbullah.

In fact, most Israeli prime ministers, with the exception of Ariel Sharon, have had no major objections to relinquishing the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, which was never part of the “Greater Israel” vision. Moreover, Israel would find it much easier to have a satisfied Syria manage a Palestinian peace agreement, rather than deal directly with Hamas or Fatah.

Syria’s relationship with Iran is becoming increasingly onerous and while Syrian President Bashar Assad wants to maintain his Iranian ties, he cannot afford to play both cards. In the event that Israel attacks Iran or vice versa, Syria would be drawn into a regional war, from which it would have nothing to gain. A conventional army like Syria’s, unlike the forces of Hamas or the insurgency in Iraq, would lose in a military conflict with Israel or the West.

In the case of a future Syrian-Western alliance, Iran and Hizbullah will be more isolated than they currently find themselves. Hizbullah would lose a major economic and military supporter, and Iran would lose more ground to the Sunni Arab alliance. While this may push Hizbullah further into the Lebanese political arena, the group may also turn to terrorist action against their former sponsors.

Moshe Ma’oz is professor emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He was interviewed by Alex Sorin.

Charles De Batz-Castelmore sent me this youtube link of French public TV interview in 6 parts with Bashar, which was probably recorded in Feb 2009 – “A visage découvert : Bashar Assad.”. Charles writes:

There is nothing really new for a close observer of Syria, but this TV show is quite interesting nonetheless because of the interviews close friends, and Asma Assad. It includes some aspects of his personal life, his view of his former medical career, etc..

About politics, probably the most interesting part is the answer Bashar gave about the apparent contradiction of the close relationship between a secular republic and the Islamic Republic of Iran. (part 5 ) and some parts about teh regional situation (part 6).

Interesting to find David Lesh interviewed . 😉

Shana Marshall, “SYRIA AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: PROSPECTS FOR REFORM?” MIDDLE EAST POLICY, VOL. XVI, NO.2, SUMMER 2009, is now online.

Most of the French comments about Syria are a little bit stereotypical (IMOH) Dimashq view from Saint Germain des Pres 😉

Obama faces a Persian rebuff
The Hindu: India’s National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 02, 2009
M.K. Bhadrakumar

The Iranian regime shows definite signs of closing ranks and pulling its act together in the face of what it assesses to be an existential threat to the Vilayat-e faqih system.

The street protests in Tehran fizzled out……

Also, the regional milieu can only work to Iran’s advantage. Turkey distanced itself from the European opinion. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan greeted Mr. Ahmedinejad’s victory. Moscow followed suit. Beijing has never before expressed such staunch solidarity with the Iranian regime. Neither Syria nor Hezbollah and Hamas showed any inclination to disengage from Iran. True, Syria’s ties with Saudi Arabia improved in the last six months and Damascus welcomes the Obama administration’s recent overtures. But far from adopting the Saudi or U.S. agenda toward Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem openly criticised the legitimacy of the street protests in Tehran.

He warned last Sunday when the Tehran streets were witnessing unrest: “Anyone betting on the fall of the Iranian regime will be a loser. The[1979] Islamic revolution is a reality, deeply-rooted in Iran, and the international community [read U.S.] must live with that.” Mr. Moallem called for the “establishment of a dialogue between Iran and the United States based on mutual respect and non-interference in Iran’s affairs.”

Again, in an interview with the CNN on Saturday, Syria’s ambassador in Washington Imad Moustapha advised the Obama administration to “exercise caution” in adopting strident criticism of the election verdict as it will “harm the efforts” to find a solution to the nuclear issue. He said Iran was a “very important country in the Middle East” and a close friend of Syria. Outside interference in Iran’s internal affairs was damaging regional stability. Equally, success of Saad Hariri as the newly-elected Prime Minister of Lebanon — and the country’s overall stability — will hinge on his reconciliation with rivals allied to Syria and Iran.

All things taken into account, therefore, there has been a goof-up of major proportions in Washington. The Obama magic suddenly wore off when he sounded like George W. Bush in disregarding convention and courtesy, contrary to the abundant promise in the Cairo speech. It is inconceivable that the Obama administration harboured the notion that the commotion inTehran’s middle-class districts would weaken the Iranian regime or make it diffident and dilute its resolve while the critical negotiations on the nuclear and other issues regarding the situation around Iran commenced. Mr. Ahmedinejad left hardly anything to interpretation when he stated in Tehran on Saturday: “Without doubt, Iran’s new government will have a more decisive and firmer approach towards the West. This time the Iranian nation’s reply will be harsh and more decisive” and will aim at making the West regret its “meddlesome stance.”

(The writer is a former Indian diplomat.)

‘Assad won’t get Golan on a ‘Silver platter’
By GREER FAY CASHMAN

Syrian President Bashar Assad must understand that he cannot expect to receive the Golan Heights on a silver platter while he continues to maintain contact with Iran and to strengthen Hizbullah, President Shimon Peres told German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier on Monday. German Foreign Minister Frank…

“Israel is ready to return to the negotiating table immediately, but without any pre-conditions,” Peres said when asked if he had a message for Steinmeier to relay to Assad.

Steinmeier, who is the Social Democratic Party candidate for chancellor, is on a brief tour of the region to promote peace. His visit has sparked great media interest in Germany, to the extent that he is accompanied by a 30-member press entourage.

Landing in Israel at 4:30 a.m. on Monday, Steinmeier met with Peres less than four hours later.

While there are still many difficulties to overcome in Israel’s efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, there is good reason for hope, the president told Steinmeier.

“Change is residing in different domains,” Peres revealed as he discussed what is happening to the Palestinians in terms of freedom of movement, security and economic development. These changes may help to bridge different gaps, he said, adding that “Europe can play a major role with patience, understanding and fairness on all sides.”

But time is of the essence, Peres emphasized. “We have to act dynamically and move ahead. Germany is an important player in Europe and Europe is an important player in the Middle East.”

As a candidate for chancellor, he said to Steinmeier, “you have an important role to play.”

Peres outlined some of the significant changes in the West Bank, which he described as an important breakthrough which Israel and the Palestinians see eye to eye on. The most important change, he said, was that 25 out of 41 checkpoints had been dismantled, allowing for greater freedom of movement, and enabling more progress to be made with Japan’s economic projects in Jericho, France’s in Bethlehem and Germany’s in Jenin.

In addition, for the first time, cities are being handed over to the Palestinians to make their own security arrangements, Peres told the German foreign minister. The police force in Jericho is being trained by the Europeans, and US General Keith Dayton, with the support of the Quartet, is training security forces that he refers to as his “gendarmerie”, said Peres.

Praising Dayton for doing “a good job”, Peres acknowledged that prior to the training of the security forces, there was fear, that if Israeli security personnel left the area, there would be chaos.

Recalling conversations held with Peres earlier in the year during and after Operation Cast Lead, Steinmeier said: “The war is over, but we have not gained peace. You know better than anyone else that the way to stability can be gained by talking to the Palestinians with the focus on a two-state solution. The pre-condition has to be security for Israel and its citizens, and we have to try to gain the support of the moderate Arab states.”

Steinmeier added that in his perception, this was what was behind the initiative of US President Barack Obama when he went to Cairo.

Europe and Germany would support this initiative as much as possible, he said.

Echoing the need to seize the dynamic of the situation, Steinmeier said that he had a clear insight that events in Iran emanating from the presidential elections did not make the situation any easier.

Peres agreed, and noted that the revolution against the Shah had been with the intent of eradicating corruption. Those who replaced the Shah brought about even more corruption, he said, and what was happening now indicated that “Ahmadinejad has lost Iran,” and that “it will have an effect all over.”

Aluf Benn / U.S. wants Iran to know it can be attacked

Iran’s nuclear program has been restored to prominence on the American-Israeli diplomatic agenda. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted the “two states for two peoples” formula on the Palestinian issue, American recompense came in the form of Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that Israel, as a “sovereign nation,” will decide for itself how to deal with Iran.

George Stephanopoulos, the ABC television presenter to whom Biden made this remark, thrice asked him how the U.S. would respond if Netanyahu took independent action on Iran. Biden did not hesitate. The U.S., he said, “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do” if they feel threatened by another country.

That is almost exactly what Condoleezza Rice, former president George W. Bush’s secretary of state, said when asked the same question a year ago. However, Biden declined to say whether the U.S. would allow Israel to overfly Iraq en route to Iran.

Iran’s nuclear program has been restored to prominence on the American-Israeli diplomatic agenda. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted the “two states for two peoples” formula on the Palestinian issue, American recompense came in the form of Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that Israel, as a “sovereign nation,” will decide for itself how to deal with Iran.

George Stephanopoulos, the ABC television presenter to whom Biden made this remark, thrice asked him how the U.S. would respond if Netanyahu took independent action on Iran. Biden did not hesitate. The U.S., he said, “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do” if they feel threatened by another country.

That is almost exactly what Condoleezza Rice, former president George W. Bush’s secretary of state, said when asked the same question a year ago. However, Biden declined to say whether the U.S. would allow Israel to overfly Iraq en route to Iran.

‘Saudis give Israel green light to attack Iran’
By Haaretz Service

Saudi Arabia has indicated to Israel that it would not protest use of its airspace by Israeli fighter jets in the event the government resolves to launch a military assault against Iran, according to a report which appeared in the British Sunday Times.

According to The Sunday Times, Mossad chief Meir Dagan held secret meetings with Saudi officials who gave their tacit approval to Israel’s use of the kingdom’s airspace.

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” The Sunday Times quoted a diplomatic source as saying last week.
Advertisement

The report also quoted John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as saying that it would be “entirely logical” for Israeli warplanes to fly over Saudi Arabia en route to bombing nuclear targets in Iran.

Though any Israeli attack would be roundly condemned by Mideast leaders at the UN, Bolton said Arab leaders have privately expressed trepidation at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.

“None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn’t trumpet it as a big success,” Bolton told The Sunday Times

Syrian-Saudi Contacts Freeze as Egypt Reportedly has Reservations over Damascus’ Negative Role

Halt in contacts between Damascus and Riyadh over Lebanon has made it almost impossible for a summit between Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Abdullah to be held in Damascus on Monday.

Syrian sources told As-Safir newspaper that exchange of ideas between Riyadh and Damascus was ongoing, “but so far did not reach a level where a (cabinet line-up) could be announced.”

The sources denied that preparations were underway for a Saudi-Syrian summit to be held in Damascus on Monday. They did not rule out, however, an Assad-Abdullah summit at a later stage.

Meanwhile, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted well-informed Egyptian sources as saying that Cairo “feels uncomfortable toward … attempts to force PM-designate Saad Hariri to make concessions beforehand, least of which is a visit to Damascus prior to cabinet formation.”

The Egyptian sources said Cairo supports further Syrian-Saudi rapprochement. However, they said recent contacts showed that Damascus was not keen on restoring Arab unity or even achieve progress with regards to the Lebanese and Palestinians dossiers.

They said latest contacts, instead, showed a “Syrian attitude that barters every proposed step with a list of demands and conditions that only serves the narrow interests of Syria, particularly with regards to Lebanese affairs.”

The sources said Syrian demands aim at strengthening the Lebanese Opposition stance.

Corruption Scandal Coming to an End: Weeks of turmoil created by the uncovering of a major corruption ring in the city of Homs appear to be nearing an end. (Syria Report)

Education: Syrian President lays Foundation Stone of Massar Discovery Centre
The Syrian President and his wife laid on July 2 the foundation stone of the Massar Discovery Centre, a children-dedicated educational and cultural centre. (Syria Report)

(XIN) Syria strives for economic rejuvenation by opening up
2009-07-06

DAMASCUS, Jul 06, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s proposal to rejuvenate Syria’s economy by bolstering economic cooperation with the countries around eastern Mediterranean, Black Sea, Arabian Gulf and Caspian Sea is “ambitious and far-sighted,” local independent daily Al-Watan commented on Monday.

“He is seeking to broaden his country’s relations by boosting economic ties and trade relations with neighboring states,” the article published on Al-Watan said.

In recent months, Syria has signed a series of trade and economic agreement with Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Yemen, Azerbaijan and Greece.

Meanwhile, senior Syrian officials have called on foreign businessmen to pay more attention to the Syrian market, stressing huge incentives available in Syria including skilled labors and the country’s special geographic location.

The newspaper’s article hailed that Assad’s vision to boost Syria’s unique geographic position between Europe and the East ” encompasses more than politics.”

“If his proposal is realized, the trade routes connecting eastern Mediterranean and central Asia will flourish, bringing about an unprecedented political and cultural interaction among the region which will promote economic development, and lead to a sustainable peace based on mutual interests,” said the article.

Syria, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2004, has embarked on economic reforms and spurred economic growth after decades of stagnation and government reliance on oil revenue.

Syrian Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Hussein announced last month in London that Syria expects to attract 30 billion U.S. dollars of foreign private investment in the next five years, as it opens up its economy.

According to the official news agency SANA, a Thai trade delegation has visited Syria last Sunday and discussed with local officials the possibility of investing in Syria.

Who will be appointed the next ambassador to Syria? Two names have been mentioned by Laura Rozen at Foreign Policy.com – Jake Walles and Daniel Kurtzer. They are both career diplomats, but what else do we know of them and who would be more effective?

Jacob Walles is not well known (here is his official bio), but from Googling him one finds that as Consul General in Jerusalem, he was in the thick of the Bush Administration’s efforts to get the PLO to confront Hamas in 2007. See this memo, entitled, “Abbas Coup Talking Points,”

While reporting “The Gaza Bombshell” for Vanity Fair, David Rose acquired an extraordinary trove of documents showing how the U.S. pressured its Palestinian allies to take on Hamas—a strategy that proved disastrous when Hamas staged what appears to have been a pre-emptive coup in Gaza in June 2007.

These “talking points” were left behind in Ramallah by a State Department envoy. Palestinian and American officials say they formed the basis for State Department official Jake Walles’s discussions with Palestinian president and Fatah party leader Mahmoud Abbas in late October or early November 2006. According to the memo, Walles urged Abbas to dissolve the Hamas-led government if Hamas refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, promising that the U.S. and its Arab allies would strengthen Fatah’s military forces to deal with the likely backlash from Hamas.

Jake Walles explained to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he would get Western and “Arab” monetary and military aid, as well as political backing if he took on Hamas decisively and created a “new P.A. government” that “fully and clearly accepts the Quartet principles.” When Hamas failed to comply with Abbas’ proposals, Abbas was to “declare emergency rule and form an emergency government” in order to take on Hamas and rule Palestinians.

It must be remembered that Welles is in no way the author of this terrible Bush administration policy. He was merely carrying out orders, as they say. There are also complaints by Israelis that Walles acted in a pro-Palestinian manner during his service as U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, a post which has ambassadorialal rank and seems to be designed to serve the Palestinians in contrast  to the office of Ambassador to Israel, which is designed to serve Israelis. See this and this.

Daniel Charles Kurtzer, we know much more about. I met him at a Council on Foreign Relations conference during the presidential campaign, where we talked about making peace between Israel and Syria. An orthodox Jew, he was Dean of Yeshiva University in New York, from which he graduated. He was U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005 and before that ambassador to Egypt. He is considered more even-handed than Dennis Ross. He is a visiting professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. See his Wikipedia blurb, and also this excellent recent article in the Washington Post explaining why there is no US agreement with Israel for limited expansion of settlements, contrary to Israeli claims. He concludes:

The Obama administration is pursuing policies that every administration since 1967 has articulated — that settlements jeopardize the possibility of achieving peace and thus settlement activity should stop. This does not diminish the Palestinians’ responsibilities, especially their commitment to stop violence and terrorism and uproot terrorist infrastructure. President Obama emphasized this in his Cairo speech. But Palestinian failures in no way justify Israeli failure to implement their road map commitments with respect to settlements and outposts. It is time for Israel to freeze all settlement activity and dismantle the unauthorized outposts.

He has written a book on US diplomacy of peace: and believes that the US should create opportunities for peace in the Middle East. “Why wait for an opportunity to present itself? Why not go out and try to create an opportunity for Arabs and Israelis to talk to each other?”

Kurtzer was a firm believer that the Palestinian track should be solved first before the Syrian track and Golan issue.

Martin Indyk writes in his book on the peace process (P. 24) that

Daniel Kurtzer and Aaron Miller … felt keenly that the United States could not hope to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict unless it treated the “core” Israeli-Palestinian problem first.

Indyk believed and still believes that Israel should make peace with Syria first. Kurtzer and Miller “felt that it was clearly the wrong one.”

Indyk mentions that he, Dennis Ross, Kurtzer, David Miller and Robert Malley were dubbed the “five rabbis” by an Arab journalist because “all the members of Clinton’s peace team were Jewish.” He argues that it is untrue that their Jewishness and relationships to Israel or the “Israel lobby” prejudiced the talks or contributed to the failure of the talks. On the contrary, Indyk argues that it helped. He writes, “Behind the stereotyping lay the reality that our Jewish identities generated a deep desire in all of us to make peace since we all believed that Israel’s security depended on ending the conflict with its Arab neighbors…” (p. 25).

David Aaron Miller disagrees with Indyk. He argues that America’s peace team acted as “Israel’s lawyer,” causing the failure. He writes,

For far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel’s attorney, catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of successful peace negotiations. If the United States wants to be an honest and effective broker on the Arab-Israeli issue, than surely it can have only one client: the pursuit of a solution that meets the needs and requirements of both sides.

I do not know who would make a more effective US ambassador in Damascus, Kurtzer or Walles. Kurtzer has more clout in Washington, he campaigned hard for Obama within the Jewish community and thus Obama would be obliged to give him a hearing. He is much better known than Walles. He would give Damascus a higher profile in Washington and could do an effective job of selling any agreement to Israelis and Americans. His Jewishness and close relationship to the Jewish community in the US will undoubtedly make many Syrians believe that he may act as “Israel’s lawyer.” All the same, many, if not most of Washington’s top envoys for negotiating peace have been Jewish since Kissinger was Secretary of State. Syrians have gotten used to it even if they are not happy about it. Would Kurtzer’s obvious strengths out weigh his baggage? It is hard to say. What is more, we know too little about Jake Walles to say anything about his abilities or politics. In the mean time, we can be content that an ambassador will be returned to Damascus.

[end]

The following is Washington gossip on appointments:

Kurtzer to Syria? [Via Capital J]

Laura Rozen at Foreign Policy.com reports on some possible choices for the new ambassador to Syria, and a former ambassador to Israel is one of them. She says Dan Kurtzer, who was an early surrogate for President Obama in the Jewish community during the campaign, is a possibility. The other name she mentions is Jake Walles, currently serving as the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.

Rozen also has news on positions possible being filled at the State Department’s Near East Affairs department, and some moves for some familiar names at the Brookings Institution:

Ronald Schlicher, a career Foreign Service officer who previously served as the consul general in Jerusalem, is expected to be named principal deputy assistant secretary of state, diplomatic and Washington Middle East hands say. The Brookings Institution’s Tamara Cofman Wittes is a candidate to be the deputy assistant secretary who oversees Middle East democracy issues. The job, which was previously held by Liz Cheney and J. Scott Carpenter, has been fashioned to focus on “Arab reform.” Wittes declined to comment, and Schlicher couldn’t immediately be reached. …

Brookings Institute:

Because Brookings’ director of Foreign Policy Studies, Carlos Pascual, has been nominated to be Obama’s ambassador to Mexico, some shuffles are expected at the think tank. As previously reported, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and current director of Brookings’ Saban Center for Middle East Policy, is expected to succeed Pascual. Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst, is expected to be named director of the Saban Center. (He didn’t respond to a query.)

News about Dennis Ross: Read Harper at Col. Pat Lang’s blog, who writes that Washington sources are telling him that Ross’s move from the State Dept. to the NSC will not give him more authority. He writes:

[Ross] did something that clearly crossed the line, and was working at cross-purposes to Secretary of State Clinton and special envoy Mitchell. Maybe he also crossed Richard Holbrooke. I hope to get more of the inside details soon, but for now, I am convinced by these sources, that Ross was dumped, and that it was the AIPAC/WINEP crowd that had to be somewhat appeased, by giving Ross a desk at the National Security Council, somewhat equivalent to a cell with a view at one of those old Soviet gulags.