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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian and Saudi Pro Democracy Reformers meet Sharansky |
| 2005-05-22 |
| This is a Rantburg Exclusive since I was a witness. There is a fellow in my synagogue who is a big linguist and pro democracy (and pro Bush) fan and he has a lot of friends in the mid east. He was sponsoring a light meal Saturday pm (Seudah Shalishit) in memory of the anniversary of the death of his mother (yarzeit) and invited some his friends. Natan Sharansky came (and sat near me for the morning (Shaharit) service. In the afternoon (we eat a light meal after the afternoon prayer- Mincha, and before the evening prayer - Maariv), Sharansky and members (including Farid Ghadry) of the reform party of Syria (see: http://reformsyria.org/) and members of a reform party of Saudi Arabia (they call themselves Arabians not Saudis because they detest the ruling tribe) had something of a love in. They finished each others sentences - they spoke English sometimes and Arabic at other times. |
| Posted by:mhw |
| #2 PlantDan Right now they have not real clout. The one in Syrian is reasonably well organized and the well educated part of the population is favorably inclined. Also, the regime is not as vicious to dissent as, for example Saddam. My own impression of Mr. Ghadry was that he didn't seem 'tough' enough to compete in the Syrian arena. The Arabians are probably even more marginalized. Among the issues they have on their side is resentment by the Western tribes (the ones in Mecca and Medina) against the regime because the regime is so corrupt and the issue that the regime is sponsoring various mosque and military building activities that are destroying cultural resources in their area. There is a lot of resentment against this but its just grumbling. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-05-22 10:07 |
| #1 mhw: do these reform-minded arabs have any real clout? |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-05-22 09:58 |