As Syria spirals toward civil war, key background information is absent from the news:
Syria is the last of the countries known in the Arab world as the front-line states. The long presence/influence in the Eastern Mediterranean of France, which continued to be an emblem of revolution even in the countries it colonized, probably contributed to Syria’s espousal of Baathism, an Islamic version of socialism, its close ties with an Iranian regime born of revolution, and its hardline stance vis a vis America’s protege, Israel.
Jordan has been a firm ally since 1994. But the Egyptian revolution showed that rank and file Egyptians do not support their country’s 1972 peace accord with Israel. The main point of dissension with Syria is a 700 square mile rocky plateau known as the Golan Heights which divides northern Israel from southern Syria. As the Syrian people follow in the footsteps of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, revolting against their President, Syria risks becoming more of a potential threat to Israel than it has been under Bashar el-Assad, a consummate politician.
Aside from Israel’s present military advantage of owning a big hill overlooking its neighbors territory, its eventual withdrawal to the pre-1967 border would give Syria control of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main source of fresh water. That is why America is acting behind the scenes to achieve Syria’s ouster from the Arab League, and some in Congress are calling for an intervention modeled on that in Libya.
Some readers have criticized what I call my ‘kitchen sink’ approach to politics. In fact, it is a deliberate effort to familiarize them with systems thinking, in which the whole is more than the sum of its parts. In the present case, other back stories are necessary to complete the Syria/Israel close-up.
Many Americans see the continuities between Bush and Obama (alas), but are unaware of other, similar phenomena in other countries. For example, Communist Soviet Union policies continue in Cossack Capitalist Russia. To understand why Russia, like the Soviet Union, supports Baathist Syria, opposing Arab League sanctions, or why it defends Iran’s nuclear program, we need to know that five hundred years of Mongol rule constituted a primitive form of communism in which all land belonged to the state, and princes were merely its caretakers. (See ‘The Russian Tradition’ by Tibor Szamuely.)
China too has a long ‘socialist’ ethos, which in turn harks back to Confucian bureaucracy and Taoism’s recommendation that rulers be reasonable. In a contradiction that is only a surface phenomenon, China continues to support left-wing regimes, such as Cuba and Brazil, Iran and Syria. Unlike the United States, China is not proud to be one of the biggest polluters of the atmosphere, and even as it tries to pull millions into the ‘middle class’, it realizes the need for worldwide cooperation against climate change.
In America, the notion of ‘fair play’ still implies that ‘the best man wins’, ruling out compassion for the underdog. Since we defeated the Indians, we have gone from one conquest to another, either by force or intimidation. The handy term ‘populism’ has blurred the difference between capitalism and socialism.
We continue to back Israeli politicians who cling to the back story of invincibility even as neighboring peoples come closer to imposing a settlement with the Palestinians. And like the Israelis, we believe our big boot tradition can crush the wave of revolt that is sweeping the world. Intended as a warning to China, President Obama announced an increased U.S. presence in the Far East. But as with the situation of Israel, this strategic decision comes across as the pouting of a child whose toys are being taken away, one by one.
