Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

March 1, 2021

Syria Could Have Had Peace with Israel. Instead, Its Rulers Chose Slaughter and Impoverishment

Bashar al-Assad was never capable of taking a different path.

Exactly ten years ago yesterday, the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad made a stunning offer to American negotiators: he would cut ties with Iran, cease support for Hizballah and Hamas, and stop threatening Israel—in exchange for the Golan Heights. But a mere two weeks later, his troops started shooting peaceful protestors in the city of Daraa, and Assad launched a bloody war against his own people that has not yet come to an end. Frederic Hof, who was an America mediator between Damascus and Jerusalem at the time, reflects:

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