"Turkish officials told Middle East Eye they had no desire to risk a direct confrontation with Israel in Syria or turn it into another battleground, especially after 13 years of civil war.

They also worry that such tensions would poison the efforts to reconstruct Syria as a state"

But would that fundamentally change Syria's position on the Golan? Damascus would simply claim that Shebaa is part of the occupied Golan, that's it. More difficult in Lebanon, as you explain.

Would that work as well if the Syrian government formally claimed sovereignty over Shebaa farms (which to my knowledge it has never done)? If the Lebanese government agrees then officially, there are no occupied Lebanese territories any more.

Televangelism as a phenomenon/ genre is often thought of as exclusively Christian (Prot, oft Pentecostal). Cf. the reporting on the recent passing of Jimmy Swaggart - crazy coincidence that my post came out the same day. But it’s been a growing trend across religions, including Islam, for decades.

One more thought: given how much power is personalized in the new Syrian regime, the president's own class background probably matters a lot as well.

Even after Dec 2024, dependence on the global capitalist system is not the whole picture: alliance with the urban bourgeoisie for purpose of regime stabilization should also be factored in.

Thanks a lot!

I'm not saying they want. My point is that when things go south in the region (and the often do), guns are more important than money.

Saudi-Syrian dynamics in post-civil war Lebanon are a good illustration of the limits of a regional strategy based on money alone

I think the latter take overestimates the "leadership" of Gulf states. They've never been able to project military power in the part of the Middle East that matters most to Turkey (Syria/Iraq).

Je suis d'accord. Je pense juste que "prêcher les convaincus" n'est pas une perte de temps et que ça doit sans doute même être une priorité.

Je n'ai jamais dit l'inverse. Mon propos est que ce n'est pas à eux que sont destinés les écrits théoriques sur les différentes formes de domination.

Évidemment mais il ne faut pas trop compter sur la force des arguments rationnels pour empêcher ça.