Why is Syria so quick to negotiate?

• Last Updated: November 14. 2009 7:12PM UAE / November 14. 2009 3:12PM GMT

During the last few days, Israel showed a rare and utterly astonishing enthusiasm in seeking to resume negotiations with Syria, wrote Dawood al Sharyan in an opinion piece published in the London-based Saudi daily Al Hayat. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu declared he was also ready to re-engage in talks with Damascus anywhere, any time and with no prior conditions. He was even said to have sought mediation from the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Israel also played its pressure game against the Syrian President, Bashar al Assad, accusing him of not being serious in his endeavour for peace, as his “contradicting declarations on peace and resistance” have showed.

The aim is certainly not to burnish the image of Israel by blaming Syria for lack of seriousness, but rather to give the latter a new role in the peace process and to replace Egypt, on the morrow of a Palestinian presidential crisis and stumbling efforts to bring the Cairo inter-Palestinian dialogue on track.

For the author, the French and Israeli declarations signal the arrival of a new role and an increasing presence of Damascus on the regional arena, but Syria can only achieve its long sought objectives through a radical change in its relationship with its Arab neighbours, namely Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.

New Ottomans but few new Arabs

The Arab media has grown obsessed by the so called “new Ottomans”, a term that describes the present Turkish government’s actions and political positions, which have attracted wide attention, noted Ali al Sharifi in an opinion piece for the Bahraini newspaper Al Wasat.

“The wide Arab popular support for Turkey’s stance regarding regional issues expresses a deep yearning by the Arab population to find a model to defend their lost dignity as a result of successive Israeli aggressions.”

In political writings, there is no established term, such as “new Arabs”, to denote a rising school of thought, political trend or model of governance within the Arab world. This is because the Arab mentality and discourse stay attached to old-fashioned assumptions, or at best, tend to borrow a liberal ideology that is alien to the local environment in terms of religion and social values.

Arabs will be able to modernise their discourse if they learn from their setbacks as well as past experiences. Turkey, for instance, has updated its political approach, and come up with a new vision towards government and international relations. It also succeeds in producing a new balanced system of thought that maintains the secular mode of governance without bringing prejudice to its deep-rooted cultural values and assumptions.

Texas shootings and conspiracy theories

“The shooting spree at a Texas military base that resulted in 12 deaths and 31 wounded has caused Arab and Muslim communities in the US to have their heart in their mouth for fear of any backlash from racist groups there,” wrote Hassan Shukri Fulful in an opinion piece for the Qatari newspaper Al Watan.

They particularly fear the consequences of the campaign led by some “malignant” media and influential public figures that tend to associate the shooter’s Arab and Muslim origins with the September 11 attacks. Yet, there is no need for this concern because the US is a melting pot society with citizens belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, and that the shooter, Major Nadal Malik Hasan- born to Arab immigrant parents, was raised, educated and pursued his carer in the US. This means he is foremost an American citizen, who was undergoing some problems related to his potential deployment to his country’s forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“As such, it is clear that the man was facing a personal problem and was under great pressure who could not handle. This could happen to any person in any place in the world.

“Though I tend to be against the conspiracy theory, this time, the fuss about the shooter’s background, prompts me to think about who has steered this campaign. I cannot, therefore, resist the urge to accuse the pro-Israel media of being the mastermind.”

Arab diplomacy without credentials

“Arab leaders in their entirety do stand with the Palestinian people and support their just cause but at different levels,” wrote Fahd al Fanek in an opinion article in the Jordanian daily Al Rai.

The international community, mainly the US and the European Union, both have a deaf ear for Arab “calls”, “urgings”, “warning” and other words of the same family. In the international balance of power, Arabs do not weigh much and their statements barely have more impact than an article in a newspaper.

The US and EU are fully aware that their interests in the Arab region are not at stake. So there is no price to pay for ignoring all those calls emanating from this part of the world. The prime Israeli concern is security and in this regard Israel’s Arab neighbours are committed to ensuring the borders of the Jewish state more than they are concerned about security in their own capitals.

The West’s concern, on the other hand is oil and terrorism. Oil is secure, as no one dares to call for an oil export ban to the West. Arab efforts and collaboration in fighting terror are taken for granted and they are themselves in a self-defence position. In his Cairo speech, the US President, Barack Obama was not addressing the official Arab regimes but terrorist organisations and the concessions it contained were but lip service.

* Digest compiled by Mohamed Naji

mnaji@thenational.ae