Will Trump stand for Syria Firstism?
Syria’s de facto leader is talking tough on Israel’s presence in the two countries’ buffer zone. But how long can that last after Tel Aviv-friendly Donald Trump enters the White House? Excerpts from This Week, Those Books. Sign up at https://thisweekthosebooks.substack.com/ and get the post and podcast the day it drops
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The Big Story:
The fall of Syria’s dictator had set off ecstatic scenes, recalling similar events in neighbouring Iraq and in Libya…
But Bashar al-Assad’s regime was not toppled by foreign forces as happened with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, nor by fighters supported by Nato as with Muammar Gaddafi in Libya…the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, which has effectively seized control in Damascus, seems to be taking a pragmatic and inclusive approach.
This Week, Those Books:
A scholarly look at the fighters who’re taking charge in Syria.
What went wrong with Libya after Gaddafi’s fall.
A novel from Syria’s neighbour, Iraq, about a strongman’s bloody handiwork.
The Backstory:
The scramble for Syria is underway with foreign powers trying to exert control and thereby influence the sequence of events as a new government is formed.
Israel is conducting airstrikes on Syria and made its first overt entry into Syrian territory in more than 50 years. It crossed the disputed borders of the occupied Golan Heights…
This Week’s Books:
The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
By: Aaron Y Zelin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Year: 2023
Aaron Zelin, whose research has long focussed on Sunni Arab jihadi groups in North Africa and Syria, recently noted that a statement by HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani sounded like it came from a western HR department rather than a jihadist warlord. It was a reference to Jolani’s comment – “diversity is a strength” – on the ethnic and religious mix of Aleppo, as his fighters captured Syria’s second largest city.
Zelin’s expertise makes this 2023 study crucial to understanding Jolani…
Choice quote:
“…Jawlani (sic) has stated that he primarily wants two things from the United States and the West: ‘There is no need for you to classify people as terrorists and announce rewards for killing them…”
Understanding Libya Since Gaddafi
By: Ulf Laessing
Publisher: Hurst
Year: 2020
After Gaddafi was overthrown in August 2011, Ulf Laessing was one of the few foreign journalists to report from there. He was Reuters bureau chief for Egypt and Sudan and his knowledge helps understand what went wrong with Libya’s euphoric revolution against its tyrant…
Laessing notes that Libya’s conflict is not about ideology but money and that it’s hard to end because “too many people benefit from the status quo”.
Choice quote:
…
“The brutality of the Gaddafi era was also a driver in the post-revolution era, as many Islamists took on former regime security agents or officers, especially in Benghazi – former prisoners fighting their long-time captors”.
The President’s Gardens
By: Muhsin al-Ramli. Translated by Luke Leafgren
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Year: 2017
This take from Iraq is only partly fictional because the author’s brother was executed by Saddam in 1990.
The story is about an unnamed president, who is both capricious and cruel. Executions are commonplace…The novel starts with dull-witted herdsman Ismail puzzling over nine banana crates on the roadside. But bananas were a rarity in Iraq because of a UN embargo imposed after Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The first line of the book sets the tone: “In a land without bananas, the village awoke to nine banana crates, each containing the severed head of one of its sons”…
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Originally published at This Week, Those Books
