Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview Shmuel Bar ...

Bashar’s Syria 423the same type of regime. The Syrian Ba’th ultimately accepted the idea of “unity of goals” and madeit into a primary political lever for enhancing Syrian influence in the Arab world.27. Michel ‘Aflaq, Fi Sabil al–Ba’th (In the Path of the Ba’th), Beirut, 1978, p. 207.28. Ibrahim Khalas, Al-Tariq Likhalaq al-Isan al-‘Arabi al-Jadid (The Path to Creation of theNew Arab Man), Jaish al-Sha’ab, no. 749, April 25, 1967.29. An ideology developed by Kim Il-Song, the “Great Leader” of North Korea, that dictatesindependent political, economic, social, and military policies as much as possible, compelling NorthKorea to be one of the most closed societies in the world.30. Auto-emancipation—a concept coined in the late nineteenth century to express the needfor a discriminated community (e.g. the Jews of Europe) not to wait for the majority society or thestate to declare their emancipation and equality but to liberate themselves by expressing their ownnational identity.31. Like many “ideological” regimes, the ideology of the Ba’th stands in sharp contrast withmost of its actual practices. Its social ideals include support of gender equality but in practice, itsleading bodies are almost totally male. It is ostensibly secular but does not eschew the use of Islam as aninstrument of legitimization. Despite its ostensibly “Socialist” character, the nomenklatura managesan extensive “grey economy” which is not state controlled in the traditional meaning.32. In contrast, Sadam Hussein’s cynical use of Islamist rhetoric and adding the slogan “AllahuAkbar” to the Iraqi flag.33. The pinnacle of these efforts was the 1973 confirmation by the Lebanese Shiite leader, theImam Musa Sadr, that the Alawites are Shiite Muslims.34. Isqandar Luqa, Hafez al-Asad, Mu’ajim fi al-Fikr al-Siyasi wa-al-Ijtima’i (Hafiz al-Asad –A Collection of political and social thought) (Damascus: the General Association of Workers, 1995)pp. 105–107.35. See al-Thawra, February 10, 1995: “Worshipping Allah is to be in a state of communication(tawassul) with the Creator though the means of may differ, the ends are one: quietude of the soul andconfidence in the future days.” The use of the term tawassul is pregnant with Islamic connotationsand aims at a Sufi interpretation of communication of the individual Muslim with Allah through theintercession of the Prophet without the need to rely on living ‘ulama or Sheikhs.36. See Itzchak Weismann, Modern Sufi Attitudes toward the West: Four Naqshbandi Cases,Unpublished monograph.37. For an extensive discussion on the terminology of Islam, see Mordechai Kedar, Asad inSearch of Legitimacy: Message and Rhetoric in the Syrian Press under Hafiz and Bashar (Portland,OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2002) pp. 78–115.38. Diplomats who have served in Damascus have noted that Hafez al-Asad, despite his purportedprovincialism (speaking only Arabic with foreign dignitaries and lecturing them on the historyof the region according to the Ba’thist narrative), received a European education during the Frenchmandate in Syria, and had a wealth of political interaction—including on the personal level—with awide variety of foreign leaders. See Bassam Haddad, Syria’s Curious Dillema, Middle East Report,236 (Fall, 2005).39. Bashar did not even reach this position by dint of his personal interest but inherited it fromhis brother, Basil.40. Al-Thawra, June 15, 2000, p. 9.41. See Mordechai Kedar, Asad in Search of Legitimacy, pp. 229–244.42. This succinct statement of the main source of Bashar’s legitimacy was pointed out to meby Prof. Eyal Zisser from University of Tel Aviv.43. According to Sa’ad al-Hariri’s account, Bashar had told his father: “This is what Iwant. If you think that President Chirac and you are going to run Lebanon, you are mistaken.It is not going to happen. President Lahoud is me. Whatever I tell him, he followssuit. This extension is to happen or else I will break Lebanon over your head and Walid Jumblat’s...So,you either do as you are told or we will get you and your family wherever you are,”http://forum.shrc.org/english/bb/Forum3/HTML/001207.html. The episode is quoted in the Mehlisreport. http://forum.shrc.org/english/bb/Forum3/HTML/001205.html