Palestinian prisoner release makes few waves in Arab press
Syrian opposition advocates roadmap for peace; Islamist groups fighting Assad not likely to offer support
Michael Bassin is a founding member of the Gulf-Israel Business Council, a co-founder at ScaleUpSales Ltd, and the author of "I Am Not a Spy: An American Jew Goes Deep In The Arab World & Israeli Army."
Israel’s release of 26 Palestinian prisoners and their return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip are barely mentioned in the Arab press today. Leading dailies such as A-Sharq Al-Awsat, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, and Al-Arabiya make no mention of the release whatsoever.
The Doha-based Al-Jazeera and the London-based Al-Hayat feature minor news stories about the release and subsequent celebrations taking place throughout major Palestinian population centers. However, their coverage by no means captures the major headlines.
The release of these prisoners, most of whom had been jailed since before the Oslo peace accords, signals a major victory for the Palestinian Authority as it renews negotiations with the Israeli government. 78 additional Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed in the coming weeks.
In Al-Jazeera’s coverage, it is mentioned that Hamas views the prisoner release as a win-win situation for all Palestinians. Hamas remains stubbornly opposed to any negotiations conducted by the Palestinian Authority with Israel. But, at least for a night Hamas supporters decided to put their differences with Fatah aside and celebrate the return of their captives.
Al-Hayat‘s story features the profiles of various prisoners who have remained behind bars for decades and are only now being reunited with relatives who could not visit them at their Israeli prisons.
Syrian opposition establishes roadmap for peace
Leaders of the Syrian National Coalition, the primary opposition movement to the rule of President Bashar Assad, have for the first time drawn up a detailed roadmap for establishing democracy and stability in Syria. The plan, which is meant to bring “reconciliation and justice” to all of Syria’s victims, comes as rebel forces make increasing military gains against the Syrian army, Arab media reports.
The Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al-Awsat leads off with the headline, “Syrian opposition develops a roadmap for transition.” The daily reports that the plan, which will be officially unveiled Wednesday afternoon by national coalition chief Ahmad Jarba, is the work of over 300 experts in the fields of politics, security, economics, and law who have been meeting regularly for the past year.
In recent months, Syria has witnessed many atrocities perpetrated by militants on both sides of the Syrian civil war, which has killed at least 100,000 people. The United States and other Western nations have long worried that in the event that the Assad regime fell, the leading opposition groups had no concrete plans for how to take power and bring stability to the country.
“The accusation that the Syrian opposition does not have a plan for after the fall of Bashar Assad has been made over and over again,” said Radwan Ziadeh, the executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, in an interview with A-Sharq Al-Awsat. “Now for the first time we can offer a clear vision about democracy and the future of the revolution.”
The American government in particular will appreciate that the centerpiece of the roadmap is the emphasis that democracy is the ultimate objective for Syria through the creation of a parliamentary political system.
“The plan gives hope to those who paid with their blood to achieve the goals of equality and democracy,” Ziadeh added.
The London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat notes that although the civil war could last for years, it is unlikely that Assad’s forces will ever be able to reconquer much of the territory they have already lost. Unfortunately, many experts are now saying, even if Assad stepped down from power today, that does not mean the Syrian conflict would necessarily come to an end.
“Assad is no longer the focus of the crisis in Syria,” according to Kenneth Pollack, a scholar at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. “Assad is the chief warlord in a coalition of warlords. If he is cut out of the picture that does not mean the other warlords will peacefully leave the scene as well.”
Members of Assad’s Alawite ethnic group have a lot to worry about if the Syrian regime topples. Extremist Sunnis eager to take revenge have threatened to ethnically cleanse Alawites from the country. Re-integrating Alawites into a peaceful and democratic Syria will be extremely challenging.
The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reveals that one particular opposition group known as the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” has been particularly brutal in its fight against Assad loyalists. Openly declaring itself a jihadi organization with ties to Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has been rumored to have massacred thousands of Syrian soldiers and civilians and also to have rounded up opposition activists it perceives as a threat.
The group’s stated goal is to turn Syria into a purely Islamist state, a far cry from the peaceful and democratic Syria the national coalition purports to advocate.
Despite the lack of alignment in the goals of the different opposition groups, on one point they all agree: Any future peace negotiations with the Assad regime will be predicated on an Assad departure, not a power-sharing agreement.
The Doha-based media network Al-Jazeera highlights that Russia is keen to get peace negotiations underway once more. However, its current fallout with the United States over its decision to grant asylum to famed leaker Edward Snowden means that for the foreseeable future, any decisions on Syria will continue to be made on the battlefield.
