Double Enmity: Asad vs Arafat
Khaled Abu Toameh

'SPITTING IN ASAD'S FACE': Asad launched an assault on his exiled brother Rifaat's compound amid reports of nefarious plotting against the regime. Palestinians say that Arafat gave the red-carpet treatment to Rifaat's son Somar in Gaza just to annoy him. (Boccon-Gibod)

(January 17, 2000) The two leaders' seething mutual distaste dates back decades

Last summer, shortly after Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas called Yasser Arafat "the son of 60,000 whores" for making concessions to Israel, the Palestinian leader returned the compliment in kind to Tlas's boss, Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad.

The occasion was a surprise visit to Gaza of Somar Asad, the son of the Syrian president's exiled brother and sworn enemy, Rifaat. Arafat and top Palestinian Authority officials gave the red-carpet treatment, including private audiences, to Somar, who owns the London-based Arabic News Network satellite channel (the Arab world's answer to CNN) and had come to the Palestinian territories to look into opening a Gaza bureau.

The high-profile coverage Somar's visit received in the Palestinian media wasn't unintended. Somar's father, Rifaat, has been at loggerheads with Hafiz al-Asad for 15 years. Palestinian officials admit that the nephew's visit was exploited by the PA leadership "to spit in Asad's face."

The intended insult is just another chapter in the long-standing enmity between Arafat and Asad. And although Palestinians may publicly welcome the resumption of Israeli-Syrian peace talks, in the eyes of Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, Hafiz al-Asad remains the Arab world's No. 1 enemy of the Palestinian cause.

Arafat's strong distaste for Asad dates back to the 1970s, when Syrian "peace-keeping" troops in Lebanon battled against Palestinian fighters in the civil war there. In the mid 80s, Asad publicly humiliated Arafat by declaring the PLO leader a persona non grata in Syria, and ordering him to leave the country within 24 hours. Since then, Asad has allowed Arafat's Palestinian opponents - from the rejectionist front and dissident groups like the PFLP, the DFLP, Hamas and others - to operate out of his territory, in some cases providing them with material support as well. Some of these groups, clearly operating with the approval of their Syrian hosts, are currently waging a propaganda war from their bases in Damascus against Arafat's peace talks with Israel. They accuse him of betraying the cause and selling out to the Jews.

Asad has yet to forgive Arafat for signing the 1993 Oslo agreement with Israel, which the PLO negotiated without Damascus's knowledge. "The Syrian president believes that Arafat stabbed him and the entire Arab world in the back by striking a deal with Israel," says Palestinian political analyst Hani al-Masri. "Ever since the signing of Oslo, Asad has refused to patch up his differences with the Palestinian president. When it comes to Arafat, he never forgives."

Arafat would like to repair his strained relations with Damascus, but so far he has not been able to bring himself to accept Asad's condition: an apology for signing the Oslo Accords.

Some Palestinians attribute Asad's insistence on an apology to his personal grudge against Arafat. After all, they say, Asad has relations with Jordan and Egypt, both of whom also signed treaties with Israel behind Syria's back.

In private conversations, the Syrian president is said to make no secret of his aversion to Arafat. In 1998, Asad gave a hero's welcome in Damascus to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, an Arafat arch-rival, who'd just been released from an Israeli jail.