The Syrian Source
SHANKS, HERSHEL
PERSPECTIVE Editor's Viewpoint The Syrian Source HERSHEL SHANKS With Ara fat on the rope s , Damascus—that master of terror by proxy — may be the key to peace in the Middle East The Syrian...
...Unless Syria reins in the terrorists operating out of Damascus, she may be lumped together with Iraq and Iran...
...Therefore no one has a solution...
...The assumption was that Arafat could control terror if he had the support of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan...
...Although Israel has unilaterally and fully withdrawn from southern Lebanon to a line certified by the United Nations, Syria accedes to a Lebanese claim that Israel still holds a piece of Lebanese territory—the so-called Shebaa Farms...
...Syria has terrorized Lebanon, which she now controls through 35,000 troops stationed primarily in the Bekaa Valley...
...Syria sponsors Hezbollah terror in this 10-square-mile piece of land south of the Lebanese border (even though Israel claims it is part of the Golan Heights...
...Faced with that threat, Syria blinked, agreeing to sever all ties with tie PKK...
...Like a spigot, Syria turns it on and off at will, whenever it serves her purpose...
...By contrast, she keeps things extremely calm on the Syrian border adjacent to the Golan Heights, because she knows that terrorism here would result in massive Israeli retaliation...
...But the recent Turkish experience suggests that Syria can wisely weigh consequences and take action to avoid these consequences when they are dire enough...
...That's the good news, such as it is...
...In short, Syria can control it if she wants to...
...Syria may want to avoid the consequences America is planning for Iraq...
...No more...
...Even with the support of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, Arafat could not do it His Palestinian Authority not only lacks the will, it now lacks the power...
...Syria may well be the key to a peace settlement in the Middle East...
...The answer is "yes...
...The headquarters of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several other prominent terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is in Damascus...
...The problem is trying to get there...
...We are likely to see more and more focus on her...
...Ankara reportedly massed 10,000 troops on its border with Syria...
...PERSPECTIVE Editor's Viewpoint The Syrian Source HERSHEL SHANKS With Ara fat on the rope s , Damascus—that master of terror by proxy — may be the key to peace in the Middle East The Syrian Source IN LAST FEBRUARY'S issue, I wrote in this space that "the road to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement runs not through Gaza City [where Arafat was then holed up in his villa], but through Cairo, Riyadh, and Amman...
...It is from there that the word—and the finances—goes out...
...The Washington Post recently quoted a "senior [American] official" as saying that the shape of a peace settlement is "self-evident...
...Is there a government that can control Palestinian terrorists...
...Its name is Syria...
...Teenagers—like the 16-year-old who recently drove a suicide bomb into a bus near the Megiddo Junction between Hadera and Afula that killed 17 Israelis—do not decide to blow themselves up without indoctrination and organization that emanates from Damascus...
...Whether a carrot or stick, wielded by America or Israel, is enough to get Syria to act responsibly is of course the question...
...The New York Times quotes another "senior [American] official" as saying that we are calling on Arabs other than Arafat "to take responsibility for stopping the violence...
...In 1998, Turkey threatened military retaliation if Syria did not shut down the offices and training camps of the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group that operated in Turkey...
...More specifically, you can't get there if you can't control Palestinian terrorists...
...Syria is a master of terror by proxy...
...Damascus is only 35 miles down a level road...
...Damascus also supplied the funds, the training, and the explosives, indirecdy if not directly...
...Focusing on Syria also sheds light on the other two members of that international terrorist trinity, Iraq and Iran...
...The common assumption is that no one can now rein in Palestinian violence and terror...
...And that's the last we heard of that conflict...
Vol. 27 • August 2002 • No. 4
