Articles
Dissent Among the Alawites: Syria’s Ruling Sect Does Not Speak with One Voice
The Alawites emerged in the 9th century. Led by Muhammad ibn Nusayr, they broke with the Shi‘ites, who now form majorities in Bahrain, Lebanon and Iran,...
The Case Against Intervention in Syria
In Syria, the brutal regime of Bashar Assad is testing the proposition that repression works. The massacre of civilians in Houla is only the latest example of...
Showdown in Syria: Will Friday Protests Force Assad's Hand?
Syria could very well learn its fate this Friday. According to a source from the country with close ties to the regime, if large-scale demonstrations break out...
An Interview with Hafez Assad
Despite frequent accusations in the West--and the Hindawi trial in London--Syria has consistently denied links to international terrorism. President Hafez Assad...
Lebanon: Free-for-All
There are no permanent military alliances in Lebanon, where ten years of religious and civil strife have left a variety of Christian and Muslim warlords in a...
Syria: THE PEACE CONFLICT
If there is a clue to the future of Middle East peace, it may be in the fresher look that President Hafez Assad's defiant old regime is sporting these days...
Why Israel-Syria Peace May Have to Wait a Few Years
He may of a new generation and Western-educated, a healer rather than a warrior by profession and a Netizen rather than a nationalist by instinct, but don't...
Hafez Assad 1930-2000: Heir Apparent: The Doctor Will Lead You Now
With Hafez Assad's death, the spotlight turns to his son Bashar, 34, a mild-mannered ophthalmologist and perhaps the most unlikely political heir among the new...
Hafez Assad 1930-2000: After The Lion
There always seems to be the music. Whenever dictators pass away, it seems, state-controlled TV takes to the airwaves not with news reports but with music--as if...
Israel's New Syrian View
Saturnine by disposition, Syrian President Hafez Assad is not known for saying anything nice about anyone. So it astonished all manner of Middle East pundits...
