Asking Saul and others in the Jewish Quarter their views of what the solution is to stop the slaughter, they insist that the government is now basically and finally getting on the right track, yet they yearn for the days of Hafez al Assad and are adamant, and tend to believe it will happen, that systemic modernization and liberalization be immediately implemented, ranging from the economy, routing out graft, and expanding civil liberties. They lament the misjudgments that were made during the spring of 2011 following the crimes committed by the regime against the youngsters in Deraa who were brutalized and killed. That an opportunity to nip the uprising in the bud was lost is a fairly common opinion heard in the Jewish community.

The path to internal civil peace for Syria, and likely the region, in the view of Damascene Jews, as well as others in Syria seeking a return to normalcy, emphasize the following points:

  • There must be an immediate and real, across the country, cease-fire supported and insisted upon by all the local and international power brokers.
  • All manner of humanitarian aid and methods of delivering it across Syria and also to the approximate one million Syrian refugees forced out of Syria by the violence must be immediately organized and supported by all sides without political and military calculations of which side might benefit. The Syrian people will benefit and that outsiders should return to whence they came is a common expression.
  • All parties much commit to saving the endangered cultural heritage and historic sites and support the still existing government institutions, infrastructure and civil services.
  • The holding of the 2014 scheduled multi-party presidential elections on time, with international monitoring by groups such as the UN and the Carter Center. Internationally arranged security during the voting must be arranged to avoid the experience of Iraq with respect to voting intimidation and even targeting. In the run-up to the voting and during the campaign period, security must be guaranteed by all sides. Following the elections an immediate national referendum must be held for the citizens to render their verdict on the current constitution.

In Syria’s Jewish community there appears to be no interest in the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine. “Zionism is completely alien to Judaism. It concerns expansionist political goals not religion.,” one gentleman explained. “What we see being done to our Palestinian brothers under occupation by fanatics in the name of religion has much more in common with some of the extreme Jihadists around here than with most Jews,” another explained.

One old lady brought out an article translated into Arabic she acquired years ago entitled, “Israel’s Flag is Not Mine”. It was written by my late friend, who I had the honor to work for on his Middle East Perspectives magazine years Ago; Alfred M. Lilienthal was the author of “The Zionist Connection”, among several other important works and, I was told, has always been popular in Syria despite the Zionist lobby labeling him “A self-hating Jew”, whatever that is supposed to mean. One gentleman, who has lived in the same house on Straight Street for 47 years, explained to me that the label meant the same as the “anti-Semite” smear as applied to non-Jewish critics of Zionism.

“Most Jews in Syria have always agreed with most of this man’s views. Zionism and the Zionist regime in Palestine is the enemy of Jews, not our saviors,” she explained.

Saul then injected, “Zionism has caused most of the problems in the area. Our religion is much respected in Syra. We have all lived together without problems for millennia. There were no pogroms or ghettos here. Religion comes from God. Zionism comes from fascism and racism.”

I left the meeting for a tour of one of the three remaining Synagogues in Damascus, the Franji synagogue off Al-Amin Street across from the Talisman Hotel in Bab Touma, and at which Jewish artifacts this week are being collected for preservation in case war comes to the Quarter. Accompanied by Saul and the remarkably fit sisters, R. and G., I was reminded of a few words the sometimes profane and often brusque scholar Lilienthal frequently used to sum up his political views on the Middle East: “Everything for the Jews. Nothing for the Zionists.”

I believe my new friends would agree.