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December 20, 2002/Tevet 15 5763, Vol. 55, No. 17
British Jews angered by Assad's visit
RICHARD ALLEN GREENE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LONDON - British Jews have responded angrily to an official visit here by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The visit is "quite disgusting," said a spokesman for the Zionist Federation of Britain, one of the main organizers of a protest held in London as Assad had lunch with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Dec. 16.
"It has upset many people in the Jewish community in London and beyond," spokesman Simon Barrett added.
As Blair and Assad met Dec. 16, hundreds of pro- and anti-Syria demonstrators chanted and banged pots and pans outside Downing Street.
Assad's visit - the first official visit to Britain by a Syrian head of state - is being seen partly as a reward for Syria's recent support of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which threatened Baghdad with "serious consequences" if it did not allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq.
Syria, the Security Council's only Arab member, was not expected to back the resolution when it came up for a vote in late November. But it cast its supporting vote at the last minute.
In addition, observers say, Assad was invited to London because Britain is eager to keep Syria behind the U.S.-led coalition in the event of an attack on Iraq.
But British Jews say such strategic goals do not justify the red-carpet treatment Assad is receiving.
In addition to a lunch with Blair, Assad is also meeting Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, and is being hosted by the Lord Mayor of London during his Dec. 15-18 visit.
Lord Janner, a veteran Labor Party politician and a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said it is "perfectly reasonable and proper" that, as leader of a country on the Security Council, Assad be received by the prime minister.
"But it is not reasonable that he meet the queen or Prince Charles," Janner said.
Many British Jews went further, especially in light of Assad's support for suicide bombers in an interview last week with the Times of London newspaper and a report in Britain's Daily Telegraph that Syria is continuing to smuggle arms to Iraq.
Moreover, critics point out, terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine all maintain offices in Damascus.
"It is one thing having dialogue and another having a red-carpet treatment," said Stuart Polak, director of the lobbying group Conservative Friends of Israel.
"Syria is still on the American list of states that sponsor terrorism," said Polak, who participated in the Dec. 16 demonstration.
The British government "has totally stepped overboard" by making Assad's trip "almost a state visit," the highest level of diplomatic visit, he said.
The Zionist Federation of Britain said London's position appeared inconsistent.
"How can we be fighting a war on terrorism" if Assad is "on an official visit and meeting the queen?" Barrett asked. "There is a completely contradictory message going out to the British public."
He added: "There are issues that have to be highlighted, like his support for Hezbollah and Al-Qaida in the refugee camps of southern Lebanon, and Syria's illegal occupation of Lebanon."
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