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Syrian Unrest Threatens Mythical Peace Process
(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - To Washington's foreign policy "realists"" and the professional peace processers in the State Department, the spread of the so-called Arab Spring to Damascus has provoked something akin to panic. Sunday's New York Times quoted administration officials saying: "The deepening chaos in Syria, in particular, could dash any remaining hopes for a Middle East peace agreement." The belief that a Syria run by one of the Assads would ever make peace with Israel was always a myth. Yet, punctuated by only brief interludes of sanity, the impulse to think well of the Assads was part of Washington's peace process obsession for decades. The fact that every such effort failed miserably never penetrated into the consciousness of the peace processers. It never seemed to occur to them that the Assads needed a foreign foe to distract their people from their own tyrannical leaders. The last thing Bashar Assad wanted or needs is peace with Israel - no matter what the Israelis were prepared to give him.