A top American Jewish leader said Monday that a secret visit he recently made to Syria could be a sign that President Bashar Assad wants to improve relations with the West.

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, also said the international community should proceed with caution as the Arab world begins to embrace democracy.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hoenlein confirmed his recent one-day visit to Damascus at the invitation of Assad.

Hoenlein said his mission was humanitarian, that he was not acting as an envoy for Israel, and that he spent hours discussing a variety of issues with Assad.

There was no interpreter. It was just the two of us, he said.

Hoenlein refused to divulge details. I assume my invitation came because he wants to improve some things, he said. Maybe out of all of this some good can come.

Israel and the U.S. have expressed numerous concerns about Assad, ranging from Syria's poor human rights record to its support for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and links to armed anti-American groups in Iraq.

Hoenlein's visit to Syria came several weeks before popular unrest erupted in Egypt, forcing longtime President Hosni Mubarak to step down last week. The developments in Egypt, as well as similar unrest that forced Tunisia's longtime ruler to flee the country, have fueled calls throughout the region for democratic reforms.

Hoenlein said he believes people in the Arab world are ready for democracy, but questioned whether the necessary institutions are in place for true reform.

He stressed that neither Israel nor the American Jewish community should be a factor in any transition. These are decisions that people there in the region have to make, he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/american-jewish-leader-confirms-he-secretly-visited-syria-1.343411

Syrian ambassador to US says plan to restore 11 synagogues across country 'has nothing to do with the conflict and is not a gesture to the Israelis'

Syrian President Bashar Assad has approved the renovation of 11 synagogues across the country. Renovation experts plan to complete the restoration of the Al-Raqi Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Damascus by the end of the month as the renovation of 10 other synagogues in Syria's major cities continues.

"Assad sees the rebuilding of Jewish Damascus in the context of preserving the secularism of Syria,” Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, told the Wall Street Journal. “This is an effort by the regime to show its seriousness and an olive branch to the Jewish community in America, which they have been wooing.”

The project was likely executed following Assad's meeting two months ago with Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

At the time, Hoenlein denied reports that he was sent to relay a message to the Syrian president from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he arrived to discuss a sensitive issue, related to the Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Syria and received a "very positive response from Assad."

Despite the generous move, it is probably not meant as a message from Syria to Israel. "It has nothing to do with the Israeli-Syrian conflict," Syrian Ambassador to the US Imad Mustafa said Monday. "This is not a gesture to the Israelis."

Seeking closer ties with Syrian Jews

Commentators estimated that the move was aimed at improving Assad's image in the American administration, which views him as Iran's ally and a disturbance in Lebanon. According to the commentators, the president seeks to use the gesture in order to strengthen Syria's ties with the large Syrian-Jewish community centered in Brooklyn, New York and New Jersey.

Many of the community members, estimated at 75,000, maintain close ties with Syria. Some of them visit their birthplaces and conduct regular business relations in the country.  Over the years, dozens of the community members returned to Syria after experiencing absorption difficulties in the US, mainly financial.

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Submitted by andie531 on Tue, 2011-02-15 18:24

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