SYRIA Specific

Remember: Tyrants Always Fall (With a Musical Reminder to Tyrants)

Latest on top from not on. This from the NYTimes about Israel’s continued raids, allegedly for security purposes. The longer these go on the greater the risk there is for the very wider war many have feared in the region, and for the evaporation of whatever good will might come out of the new political situation in Syria.

Too many beats! I can’t continue to cover Syria, although I’ll touch on it in my Middle East Peace with Justice beat. The below link will still be updated as I save Syria stuff in my online bibliography, however. But I’m archiving the and discontinuing commentary.

I have been very impressed by recent articles in New Lines. I’ve read lots of stuff about Syria but just haven’t been impressed enough to highlight it here. But I wanted to share this piece: https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/dawn-in-damascus/. I’m going to be very sparing and selective on Syria as I know so little. The durable URL to all saved SYRIA items is here.

5/20/25: ISIS lays bombs in Southern Syria (a largely Druze area).

5/14: NYTimes (gift) reports on Trump’s decision to remove sanctions on Syria.

5/2/25: The NY Times reports (inadequately) on the lastest Israeli bombing in Syria. A better report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which gets support from the Conservative American Institute, but which produces maps and reports on topics ranging from Ukraine to the Middle East which many rely upon and I rarely find are not objective. For instance, it reports that starting in Marc Druze armed factions and Druze leaders were already starting to implement the same kinds of agreements other armed factions have made to enter the Syrian government armed forces and that on May 1 they and the government agreed on another such agreement. The wild card is that some Sunni extremist forces that are anti-Druze have been attaching Druze; implementation of the agreement. However, in my view, Israel’s insistence that government forces not enter the area south of Damascus would (a) prevent full implementation of that Druze/government agreement, since it is exactly those Druze-reinfordced units that would presumably seek to repel any such Sunni extremists. But that is a lay view on my part.

5/2/25: Israel struck very near the Syrian presidential palace, allegedly as a warning against any Syrian army actions against the Druze minority. Recently the Jerusalum Post reported Syria might join the Abraham Accords. But a day later Syria indicated it could not, on the grounds that Israel occupies Syria territory.

4/16/25: News on plans to cut US troops in Syria.

3/9/2025 Syria: Alawite attacks lead to mass retaliation on civilians.

1/30/25 MEMRI reports this coverage of the announced and reported plans for Syria.

Also, although her experitise is primarily on Iran, see Barbara Slavin’s piece.

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