{"id":8761,"date":"2011-03-25T08:58:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T12:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=8761"},"modified":"2011-03-27T00:03:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T04:03:06","slug":"is-there-a-soft-landing-for-syria-by-joshua-landis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/is-there-a-soft-landing-for-syria-by-joshua-landis\/","title":{"rendered":"“As Protests Mount, Is There a Soft Landing for Syria?” by Joshua Landis"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Protests Mount, Is There a Soft Landing for Syria?<\/a>
\nJoshua Landis in Time
\nMarch 25, 2011<\/p>\n

The regime has been rocked by protests and is offering to make changes even as it clings to power. But divisions of sect and social class mean that its fate may rest with the choices of the Sunni social elite
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

The Baathist regime that has ruled Syria for 48 years is on the ropes. Even President Bashar al-Assad himself seems to have been shocked by the level of violence used by Syria’s security forces to suppress demonstrations that began a week ago, and on Thursday afternoon his office announced unprecedented concessions to popular demands. But the question of whether those concessions assuage protesters’ concerns or prove to be too little too late may be answered on the streets after Friday prayers.<\/p>\n

The protests began a week ago in the dusty agricultural town of Dara’a, near the border with Jordan, over the arrests of high school students for scrawling antigovernment graffiti. Those demonstrations quickly spun out of control, with thousands joining in, inspired by the wave of revolutions that have rocked the Arab world, to demand political freedoms and an end to emergency rule and corruption. The government responded brutally, killing over 30 demonstrators and wounding many more, according to activists. Gruesome videos of the crackdown, disseminated via the Internet in recent days, have enraged Syrians from one end of the country to the other.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, the regime began to try a different tack, with Assad’s spokeswoman Buthaina Shaaban offering the President’s condolences to the people of Dara’a and acknowledging their “legitimate” demands, even as she insisted that reports of the scale of protests and the number of casualties had been exaggerated. Oddly, the President has himself not appeared on TV since Syria’s political troubles began, apparently hoping to protect himself from criticism. But Shaaban insisted that Assad was completely against the use of live fire in suppressing the demonstrations. She emphasized that she had been present in the room when the President ordered the security agencies to refrain from shooting at protesters \u2014 “not one bullet.”<\/p>\n

But the only promised concessions that can be taken to the bank are pay rises for state employees of up to 30%, and the release of all activists arrested in the past weeks. Other reforms, which the regime undertook to study, are job creation, press freedom, permitting the formation of opposition parties and lifting emergency law. Should they be implemented, those changes would be nothing short of revolutionary. But many activists have already dismissed Assad’s offer as a stalling tactic to make it through the next few days of funerals and, most importantly, Friday prayers. The opposition has called for Syrians to assemble in large numbers in mosques for a day of “dignity” and demonstrations.<\/p>\n

In order to mount a serious challenge to the regime’s iron grip on power, opposition activists will have to move their protest actions beyond Dara’a and its surrounding villages, and extend it to the major cities. Their attempt to do so presents the country with a choice of great consequence: they must decide if Syria is more like Egypt and Tunisia, where the people achieved sufficient unity to peacefully oust their rulers, or whether Syria is more like Iraq and Lebanon, which slipped into civil war and endless factionalism. (See TIME’s interactive map “Rage across the Region.”)<\/a><\/p>\n

Like its neighbors Iraq and Lebanon, Syria is a multireligious and ethnically diverse society. President Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam of which adherents comprise just 12% of Syria’s population. The Dara’a protests prompted Alawites in the coastal city of Latakia to gather in large numbers in a central square, Dawwar az-Ziraa, to show support for their embattled President. Many have changed their Facebook profile images to a picture of Bashar. Syrian Christians and other religious minorities that together make up a further 13% of the Syrian population have also shown broad support for Assad, who has defended secularism. Many have worked themselves into a panic about the possibility that political upheaval will empower Islamists, as happened in Iraq. Almost 1 million Iraqi refugees live in Syria, their presence a cautionary tale of regime change that has gone wrong.<\/p>\n

Key to a successful revolution is splitting Syria’s elites, which comprise the Alawite officer class of the security forces and the great Sunni merchant and industrial families, who preside over the economy as well as Syria’s moral and cultural universe. If those elites stick together, it is difficult to envisage widespread but scattered popular revolts overturning the regime. But an Alawite-Sunni split within the elites would doom the regime. The cohesion of those elites, though, is a question of social class as much as of confession.<\/p>\n

The centrality of Dara’a in the uprising may have limited its appeal to the urban elites. The dusty border city marked by tribal loyalties, poverty and Islamic conservatism may inspire Syria’s rural masses who suffer from poverty, a prolonged drought and joblessness, but mass demonstrations there have frightened Syria’s urban elites. Even those who share anger at repressions and hope for liberation with their rural counterparts still fear the poor and the threat of disorder.<\/a><\/p>\n

The urban elites, in fact, see the regime itself as a dictatorship of countryfolk. The Baath Party that took power in 1963 was dominated by young military officers and rural elements that had little more than high school education and a mishmash of socialism and Arabism to guide them. Their meager education combined with resentment at the wealth and privilege of Syria’s urban elites provided a lethal brew, prompting nationalization of land and businesses.<\/p>\n

Having been brought up in privilege in Damascus, the President has more in common with the capital’s elite than he does with the Alawites of the coastal mountains who brought his father to power. When Bashar al-Assad took over after his father’s death in 2000, he began liberalizing the economy and society. High culture has boomed. Foreign imports, tourism and arts are being revived. Today, Syria is a wonderful place to be wealthy; life is fun and vibrant for the well-heeled.<\/p>\n

For the impoverished majority, however, the picture is grim. One-third of the population lives on $2 a day or less. Unemployment is rampant, and four years of drought have reduced Syria’s eastern countryside to a wasteland of dusty and destitute towns and cities like Dara’a. The last thing wealthy Aleppines, Homsis and Damascenes want is a revolution that brings to power a new political class based in the rural poor, or for the country to slip into chaos and possible civil war.<\/p>\n

The Arab rebellion is sorting out the countries of the Middle East, distinguishing those that have become true nations, with a cohesive political community and an ability to leave behind the postcolonial era of dictatorship and repression, from those doomed to struggle by divisions of ethnicity, sect and tribe. Lebanon and Iraq have both stumbled. Libya is crashing before our eyes, and Yemen may also follow in a downward spiral.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

In all likelihood, there is no soft landing for the Syrian regime, whether it comes sooner or later. Fearful of being pushed from power and persecuted, Alawite military leaders are likely to stick by the President. What remains to be seen is whether the Sunni elite, which has stood by the Assad family for over four decades in the name of security and stability, will continue to do so \u2014 or whether President Assad is willing to risk making profound and risky changes.<\/p>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,2061364,00.html#ixzz1HlkLDFLO<\/a><\/p>\n

Joshua Landis is the director of Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma and author of the blog https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[End of story]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Live updates on towns in which demonstrations are taking place<\/a>. (Lebanon Now)
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Al-Arabiya reports demonstrations in Damascus, Duma, Latakia, Homs and Reka.<\/p>\n

To read more: http:\/\/www.nowlebanon.com\/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=253828#ixzz1HcGpgvIa<\/a>
\nOnly 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http:\/\/www.nowlebanon.com\/Sub.aspx?ID=125478<\/div>\n

Additional comments by readers
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By the way, just now BBC and aljazeera reporters asked to leave Daraa just before prayers.<\/p>\n

On a separate note, strange things happened today. Aljazeera usually broadcasts part of Qaradawi’s sermon every Friday during the revolutions. Today it didn’t. While Orient TV for the first time had his sermon live from Doha. And surprise surprise Qaradawi called on the Syrian people to revolt and that Gaddafi, Saleh and Bashar are the same, and the need for Muslims everywhere to support Syrian brothers! Meanwhile, Al-Bouti [most popular and senior Imam in Syria] sermon was about the need to give the promises by the government a chance and the need of calm.<\/p>\n

How did Orient know that Qaradawi would be supporting Syria demonstrations today? Interesting. There seems to be some coordination taking place between Islamists everywhere and Syrian opposition outside. Qaradawi praised Bashar as a young educated open-minded doctor who he met during the war on Gaza. Then he followed it with “Syrians view him as a Sunni”!!! And that he is surrounded by corrupt and brutal men.<\/p>\n

Reports on small demos<\/strong> in idleb and its villages. Orient reporting about a demo in Halab.<\/p>\n

I think things will calm down later this afternoon.<\/p>\n

If the government didn’t act yesterday with these “promises” the situation today would have been much worse.<\/p>\n

Any indication of Syrians being tricked again with promises will be the final straw. I’ve been angry for 2 months because I was seeing this happening. The government didn’t act. If it did it would have been looking as the strongest in the region. The reaction (with same concessions) makes the gov look weak true. But at this point looking weak and giving the people their demands is much better than looking like Gaddafi….<\/p>\n

Rula Amin from Aljazeera English in Damascus: “this is a new Syria. Not clear if people are emboldened by government concessions or because of Daraa but everyone is openly speaking up everywhere in Syria. This is a new Syria”<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Syria\u2019s Bashar Al-Assad Faces Most Serious Unrest of His Tenure<\/a>
\nBy: Leila Fadel | The Washington Post<\/p>\n

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the most serious unrest of his 11-year tenure Thursday as anti-government protests in a southwestern city threatened to escalate after a deadly crackdown….<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Syrian is frightened, and they don\u2019t want to be Iraq. That\u2019s the cautionary tale \u2014 and the government has raised the banner of security and stability for the last 40 years,\u201d said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. \u201cThey\u2019re hesitating, but it seems like there is a big hole in the dike here, and the fear factor is collapsing. The latest videos streaming out are horrifying; they\u2019re very gruesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people will either react to the violence perpetrated by security forces in Daraa or submit to the fear, Landis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is gambling that the people will be horrified by the prospect of Iraq, and the opposition hopes that the people will be emboldened and angered and go out Friday and demand change,\u201d he said…..<\/p>\n

Abd el-Karim Rihawi, of the Syrian Human Rights League, said most Syrians sympathize with Assad and would prefer him to be the agent of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want to destroy their country,\u201d Rihawi said. But, he added, referring to the government, \u201cif they insist on dealing with this movement with an iron fist, I think maybe the situation will blow up \u2014 and we can\u2019t imagine what that will look like.\u201d….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peter Harling at International Crisis Group<\/a><\/p>\n

“… A window of opportunity still exists to change these dynamics, although it is fast closing. Unlike most of his peers in the region, President Bashar Assad has accumulated significant political capital, and many Syrians are willing, for now, to give him the benefit of the doubt. In fact, a broad range of citizens \u2013 including members of the security apparatus \u2013 are desperately waiting for him to take the lead and to propose, before it is too late, an alternative to spiraling confrontation. Although he has held numerous consultations and sent some signals of impending reform through the foreign media and other officials, he has yet to assume clear and palpable leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead, faced with an unprecedented, multi-faceted, fast-paced and critical challenge, the power apparatus at best is implementing chaotic steps that convey a sense of confusion, at worst is reacting according to well-ingrained habits. Left to its own devices, it will send precisely the wrong messages to a population that will not wait much longer for the regime to get its act together and to put forward a comprehensive and credible vision. At this point, only one thing can change swiftly, dramatically and effectively for the better, and that is the president\u2019s own attitude…..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

President Assad must show visible leadership and do so now. His political capital today depends less on his past foreign policy successes than on his ability to live up to popular expectations at a time of dangerous domestic crisis. Meanwhile, repression perpetrated under his responsibility is costing him dearly. He alone can prove that change is possible and already in the making, restore some sense of clarity and direction to a bewildered power apparatus and put forward a detailed framework for structural change. This should include several steps:<\/p>\n

Hizbullah Member Accuses Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and America of Conspiring to Bring Down Syria and of Sending Arms into Syria<\/a><\/p>\n

Tayyar, Lebanon
\n???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ??????? “????? ????? ?? ????? ???????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ??????????? ??? ?????? ????? “???????” ?????? 50 ??? ?? ???? ??????? ?50 ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ?50 ??? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ?50 ??? ?? ?????? ?????”.
\n?????? ??????? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ????????? ???????? ???? ????? ????? “???? 3 ???? ?????? ?? ????? ????. ?????? ???????? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? 13 ???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????????? ??? ??? ????… ??? ?????? ? 5 ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ????? ????????? ???????”.<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\n???? ??????? ?????: “????? ??????? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ?????????<\/strong>.. ??? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ????? ???????? ???? ?? ?????? ??? ?????. ??????? ????? ??????? ??????? ????? ???????????? ???????”.<\/p>\n

???? ???????: “????? ???? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ???????? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??? ???? ??????.. ?? ??????? ?? ????? ???<\/p>\n

\n

Is There a Soft Landing for Syria?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The regime has been rocked by protests and is offering to make changes even as it clings to power. But divisions of sect and social class mean that its fate may rest with the choices of the Sunni social elite<\/p>\n

Joshua Landis<\/p>\n

<p> The Ba’athist regime that has ruled Syria for 48 years is on the ropes.\u00a0 Even President Bashar al-Assad himself seems to have been shocked by the level of violence used by Syria’s security forces to suppress demonstrations that began a week ago, and on Thursday afternoon his office
\nannounced unprecedented concessions to popular demands. But the question of whether those concessions assuage protestors, or prove to be too little too late may be answered on the streets after Friday prayers.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nThe protests began a week ago in the dusty agricultural town of Dera’a, near the border with Jordan, over the arrest of high-school students for scrawling anti-government graffiti. Those demonstrations quickly spun out of control, with thousands joining in, inspired by the wave of revolutions that have rocked the Arab world, to demand political freedoms and an end to emergency rule and corruption. The government responded brutally, killing over 30 demonstrators and wounding many more, according to activists. Gruesome videos of the crackdown, disseminated via the internet in recent days, has\u00a0 enraged Syrians from one end of the country to the other.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nOn Thursday, the regime began to try a different tack, with Assad’s spokeswoman Buthaina Shaaban offering his condolences to the people of Dara’a and acknowledging their “legitimate” demands, even as she insisted that reports of the scale of protests and the number of casualties had been exaggerated.\u00a0 Oddly, the President has himself not appeared on TV since Syria’s political troubles began, apparently hoping to protect himself from criticism. But Shaaban insisted that Assad was completely against the use of live fire in suppressing the demonstrations. She emphasized that she had been present in the room when the President ordered the security agencies to refrain from shooting at protesters [EM] “not one bullet.”
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nBut the only promised concessions that can be taken to the bank are pay raises for state employees’ of up to 30%, and the release of all activists arrested in the past weeks. Other reforms, which the regime undertook to study, are job creation, press freedoms, permitting the formation of opposition parties, and lifting emergency law. Should they be implemented, those changes would be nothing short of revolutionary. But many activists have already dismissed Assad’s offer as a stalling tactic\u00a0 to make it through the next few days of funerals and most importantly, Friday prayers. The opposition has called for Syrians to assemble in large numbers in mosques, for a day of “dignity” and demonstrations.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nIn order to mount a serious challenge to the regime’s iron grip on power, opposition activists will have to move their protest actions beyond Dera’a and its surrounding villages, and extend it to the major cities. Their attempt to do so presents the country with a choice of great consequence: They must decide if Syria is more like Egypt and Tunisia, where the people achieved sufficient unity to\u00a0 peacefully oust their rulers, or whether Syria is more like Iraq and Lebanon, which slipped into civil war and endless factionalism.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nLike its neighbors Iraq and Lebanon, Syria is a multi-religious and ethnically diverse society. President Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shi’ism whose adherents comprise just 12% of Syria’s population. The Dara’a protests prompted Alawites in the coastal city of Latakia to gather in large numbers in a central square, Dawwar az-ziraa, to show support for their embattled president.\u00a0 Many have changed their Facebook profile images to a picture of Bashar.\u00a0 Syrian Christians and other religious minorities that together make up a further 13% of the Syrian population have also shown broad support for Assad, who has defended secularism. Many have worked themselves into a panic about the possibility that political upheaval will empower Islamists, as happened in Iraq.\u00a0 Almost a million Iraqi refugees live in Syria, their presence a cautionary tale of regime-change gone wrong.
\n<\/p>
\n<p> ?Key to a successful revolution is splitting Syria’s elite, which comprises the Alawite officer class of the security forces, and the great Sunni merchant and industrial families, who preside over the economy as well as Syria’s moral and cultural universe.\u00a0 If those elites stick together, it is difficult to envisage widespread but scattered popular revolts overturning the regime. But an Alawite-Sunni split within the elite would doom the regime. The cohesion of those elites, though, is a question of social class as much as of confession.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nThe centrality of Dera’a in the uprising may have limited its appeal to the urban elites.\u00a0 The dusty border city marked by tribal loyalties, poverty, and Islamic conservatism may inspire Syria’s rural masses who suffer from poverty, a prolonged drought, and joblessness, but mass demonstrations there frightened Syria’s urban elite. Even those that share an anger at repression and a hope for liberation with their rural counterparts still fear the poor and the threat of disorder.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nThe urban elites, in fact, see the regime itself as a dictatorship of country folk. The Ba’ath Party that took power in 1963 was dominated by young military officers and rural elements that had little more than high-school educations and a mishmash of socialism and Arabism to guide them. Their meager education combined with resentment at the wealth and privilege of Syria’s urban elites provided a lethal brew, prompting nationalization of land and businesses.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nHaving been brought up in privilege in Damascus, the President has more in common with the capital’s elite than he does with the Alawites of the coastal mountains who brought his father to power. When Bashar al-Assad took over after his father’s death in 2000, he began liberalizing the economy and society. High culture has boomed. Foreign imports, tourism and the arts are being revived. Today, Syria is a wonderful place to be wealthy; life is fun and vibrant for the well-heeled.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nFor the impoverished majority, however, the picture is grim. One third of the population lives on two dollars a day or less. Unemployment is rampant, and four years of drought has reduced Syria’s eastern countryside to a wasteland of dusty and destitute towns and cities like Dera’a. The last thing wealthy Aleppines, Homsis and Damascenes want is a revolution that brings to power a new political class based in the rural poor, or\u00a0 for the country to slip into chaos and possible civil war.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nThe Arab rebellion is “sorting out” the countries of the Middle East, distinguishing those that have become true nations, with a cohesive political community, and an ability to leave behind the post-colonial era of dictatorship and repression, from those doomed to struggle by divisions of ethnicity, sect and tribe. Lebanon and Iraq have both stumbled. Libya is crashing before our eyes, and Yemen may also follow in a downward spiral.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\nIn all likelihood, there is no soft landing for the Syrian regime, whether it comes sooner or later. Fearful of being pushed from power and persecuted, Alawite military leaders are likely to stick by the president. What remains to be seen is whether the Sunni elite, which has stood by the Assad family for over four decades in the name of security and stability, will continue to do so [EM] or whether President Assad is willing to risk making profound and risky changes.
\n<\/p>
\n<p>
\n<i>Joshua Landis is the director of Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma and author of the blog [XREF {https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/} {Syria Comment}]<\/i><\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Protests Mount, Is There a Soft Landing for Syria? Joshua Landis in Time March 25, 2011 The regime has been rocked by protests and is offering to make changes even as it clings to power. 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