JAWS OF A PINCER

"Syria today stands between the jaws of a pincer or the two blades of a pair of scissors," writes 'Urayb ar-Rintawi in Monday's Jordanian daily ad-Dustour. On the one hand, there is a bloody and merciless regime, and on the other there is an Arab League like a hill that hides what lies behind it. The regime did not see a political solution as a way out of its crisis, even after over eight months have passed and more than four thousand martyrs have fallen since the crisis began. As for the League, we all know that those who are the main engines behind its resolutions and policies are themselves in as much need of reform and change as Syria – perhaps even more so. On the one hand, the regime lies, from its weather forecasts to its 'political positions'; on the other, there is a League that lacks all credibility and only sees the 'Arabization' of the crisis as a ladder towards 'internationalization.' After the fit of anger that swept over Damascus in the aftermath of the urgent Arab ministerial meeting which suspended Syria's membership in the Arab League, the regime steadied its nerves and decided to pursue its 'game of buying time.' This time, it resorted to the tactic of escaping from the frying pan of the Arab ministers and their special committee to the fire of the Arab summit, and from the burning coals of the Arab League initiative which the regime accepted- but only verbally- while at the same time throwing over a hundred corpses of martyrs in its face, to the fire of the ministerial committee and the team of observers and fact-finding missions. But the only thing that is required and required from the regime alone is for it to end the killing, displacement, and pursuit without further delay, unilaterally and unconditionally. It must order the army back to its barracks, cleanse its prisons from detainees, lift the shackles imposed on the protestors' movement both inside and outside Syria, force the government to step down, form an opposition government, dissolve parliament, and call for the election of a pluralistic constitutive assembly that drafts a new constitution for the country, sets a date for early pluralistic presidential elections, allow for the freedom of the press and the media, and lift its hands off civil society. But the regime is not thinking along these lines. It is busy in its 'war of the cities' against its own people. It confines itself to making minimal promises – which are not respected – and rumors that keep the people, its supporters, and its allies on tenterhooks. Did [Lebanese Maronite leader] General Michel 'Aoun – Damascus' friend – not say that the Syrian crisis is behind our backs? Did he not set 'an official end' to the crisis tomorrow, Tuesday? Did the media friendly to Damascus not spread reports of 'reconciliation' between the Syrian regime and the Arab order before the bomb detonated by Arab League meeting exploded in everyone's face and the Syrian crisis entered a new part of its dark tunnel? The regime is escaping from the 'initiative' to the 'fact-finding mission' and from Arab ministers to Arab kings and presidents. Meanwhile, the keys to the Syrian crisis are still in 'Assad's pocket,' and the decision to escalate or to 'loosen the [state’s] grip' lies in the People's Palace at the top of the mountain [the presidential palace in Qasyoun Damascus] and not in the [Arab League’s] 'permanent residence' near Tahrir Square. The regime treats 'Arabization' as the gateway and first step towards 'internationalization.' It deliberately feigns forgetfulness of the fact that the national crisis in Syria would not have drowned in the labyrinths of 'Arabization' and bordered the shores of 'internationalization' had it not been for the regime's insistence on avoiding a democratic solution of the national problem, and had it not been for its insistence on ruling with a Hama-mindset [1982 bloody suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood] and other methods hailing from the late 1970s and the early 1980s. If we were to point an accusing finger at those responsible for the dangerous point that the Syrian crisis has reached, it would be it at the regime itself, which has turned a deaf ear to all the advice and 'prescriptions' suggested by all its friends and allies, both close and faraway. It alone bears responsibility for the pure Syrian blood spilt in the streets of Homs, Hama's squares, and the alleyways of Der'a. As for the Arab League, which seems to have been hijacked by a handful of Arab states, its decisions and policies suffer from a credibility deficit. They inspire no trust in the hearts of either Syrian or Arab citizens. The countries that are most enthusiastic about change and reform in Syria are themselves in even more dire and urgent need of overall and reform and radical change. While they display their attachment to 'Anglo-Saxon' democracy in Syria, their political regimes hail from a pre-industrial age. These countries are seeking other aims under cover from the dense smoke of fake slogans. They are settling scores with positions, axes, policies, and alliances, with regimes and organizations, to which they have always been hostile, both before and after the Arab Spring – especially since the July [2006 Hizbollah/Israel] war and Palestine's [2006] elections [won by Hamas]. They are continuing what they began with Condoleezza Rice and the neo-cons in Washington. As for the 'Arabization' of which the hijacked Arab League has been speaking – may God release it from its captivity now that He has awakened it from its coma – it is toothless and clawless. It lacks all tools and mechanisms. Arabization in the current Arab conditions will not exceed its Libyan limits. It will be no more than a step towards 'internationalization' but with an Arab umbrella and red carpet. Yes, Arabization has become the nom de guerre for internationalization. As for internationalization in the UN's current conditions and given the international ambiguities regarding the Syrian issue, it will end up as 'NATO-ization,' exactly as in the case of Libya, with an ever-ready endorsement from Ban Ki-moon public– at least in his personal capacity if it proves impossible to get a UN Security Council resolution. And the dangers of 'NATO-ization' in the Syrian case are no less onerous for Syria's future, the unity of its people and soil, and its position and place, that then threats that could arise from the other scenarios and possibilities that may yet result from coming Syrian events. The Syrian crisis' options and possibilities are located somewhere between these two sharp blades. But at any rate, and in all conditions and circumstances, it seems that both Syria and the region are sliding into 'the abyss' on whose brink they now stand. The earthquake’s fault lines seem to have begun to move. The pace of the confrontation seems to be intensifying. It is really unfortunate that we cannot repeat the famous saying that things have to get worse in order to get better, this time around. "Rather, we lean towards saying: Things are getting worse and will blow up,'