Why Did Syria Call Israels Prime Minister a “Terrorist”?
By Richard H. Curtiss December/January 1991/92, Page 41 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs On the fifth day of the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa produced an old British “wanted” photo of a young Jewish terrorist. He was responding to charges by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that Syria supports “terrorism. ” The Syrian reaction was understandable, but a tactical blunder. Until that moment, an international noose had been tightening around Israel’s intransigent prime minister. George Bush’s threat to link future aid to Israel to the peace process looked easier and easier to accomplish. Then, with the Syrian’s words, the US media focus changed, and two Washington Post reporters were able to write, straight-faced, that ”the week’s most dramatic demonstration was the Syrian display of aggressiveness toward Israel.” Syrians live in a vanished mid-century world where the Cold War set the tone of international politics. US and West
