In 1936, in a concession to Sunni nationalists, France decided to reincorporate the Alawite State, then called the Government of Latakiya, into Syria proper. In a last ditch effort to reverse that decision, separatist Alawite leaders – who wanted nothing to do with Islam – petitioned France’s Jewish prime minister, Leon Blum. In a letter influenced by the Great Arab Revolt that had just erupted in Palestine – and has since been lamented as the “lost cause of Alawite Zionism” – the Alawites wrote: “The condition of the Jews in Palestine is the strongest and most explicit evidence of the militancy of the Islamic issue vis-à-vis those who do not belong to Islam. These good Jews contributed to the Arabs with civilization and peace, scattered gold, and established prosperity in Palestine without harming anyone or taking anything by force, yet the Muslims declare holy war against them and never hesitated in slaughtering their women and children, despite the presence of England in Palestine and France in Syria.” “Therefore we ask you to consider the dreadful and terrible fate that awaits the Alawites if they are forced to be annexed to Syria, when it will be free from the oversight of the Mandate, and it will be in their power to implement the laws that stem from its religion.” The most famous signatory of that the letter to Blum was Sulayman Assad, Hafez’s father and Bashar’s grandfather, two apples that obviously fell far away from the tree, at least as far as Jews are concerned.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:12:14 +0000