26, sep ,2026

Compensating for a lack of electoral legitimacy through ideological fervor is a known and possible tactic, and the cunning Hafez al-Assad knew this, Therefore, as they say, he “handed over” the Golan Heights to Israel and rejected all tempting offers to return it (talks under Turkish auspices; Assad rejected the Israeli offer to return the Golan in exchange for six square meters on the Sea of ​​Galilee), How would Assad manage if he regained the Golan Heights, and what would he trade it for? Would Palestine be enough to trade? Or would it be better to trade Palestine and the Golan Heights together?!

 It is easy to hide the face of the tyrannical, thieving criminal with the mask of Palestine and the Golan together, The capital of investment in the ideology of resistance and defiance in the case of Palestine and the Golan is greater, and therefore the dictatorial gains are greater, and excess in this investment may compensate for the electoral deficit with regard to legitimacy, Here we want to recall the advice that the late Rifaat al-Assad gave to the late Bashir Gemayel, he told him if you want to erect gallows, then raise the flag of Palestine, However, Gemayel’s ethics centered around zero prevented him from adhering to the Assadist advice, He erected gallows without raising the flag of Palestine, while the Assadists erected gallows under the banner of Palestine, and the Golan partially replaced the gallows with cardiac arrest. This was the mentality of the Bedouin, pastoral, tribal people. 

   Had it not been for the profound sense of electoral illegitimacy, the search for compensatory legitimacy, as practiced by the Assad regime and later the Al Julani   regime, would not have been necessary, This involved exploiting what should not be exploited and bequeathing what should not be bequeathed, The background and foundation of these practices was a disregard for the people, their intellect, dignity, and interests, Anyone who officially announces referendum results claiming that a candidate received 100% of the vote is either completely insane or possesses boundless contempt for the people and their will and reason, They treat the people as if they were an obedient flock led to pledge allegiance to their shepherd, Assad fully grasped the reality of electoral fraud and understood the benefits of riding the wave of Palestine and the Golan Heights to compensate for the inability to obtain genuine electoral legitimacy, Thus, the people were treated as a flock, and indeed, the people have been a flock not only since 1963 but for fourteen centuries and still are, The Al Julani  regime is no different from Assad in its talk of an eternal transitional phase, followed by the establishment of a People’s Assembly—a parliament—appointed by him or those he appointed, On the other hand, Azalama claims that his popularity and the percentage of his followers exceeded 90% of the Syrians, without any feeling of embarrassment about the people discovering the fabrication and the lie, Whoever has 90% popularity does not logically need to be appointed,We do not feel the existence of any clear and effective popular discontent with the issue of “appointment.” The reason is that the people are indeed a herd with chronic habituation for tens of centuries.

  The Syrian people paid the price for Assad’s continued rule in bitter installments for half a century, and they paid the price for the Ottomans’ rule for four centuries, and they paid the price for the Caliphate of the Quraysh for ten centuries, Throughout those centuries, we did not witness a single revolution or protest movement, until the French Mandate came after World War I with the critical, enlightened mindset of the French Revolution,Here, the Political Parties Law was issued, and several elections were held. There was an election law, and even after some years of French departure, the French “veneer” remained in effect,The 1954 elections were the only clean elections, despite several military coups before them,The veneer was removed in 1958 with a referendum in which Nasser received 100% of the votes! In subsequent years, Assad and his son received similar percentages, and in the appointed People’s Assembly, al-Julani will also receive that percentage,Is it not shameful that there was a state under the French Mandate and that there was no “state” after independence? Is it not shameful that political parties were abolished in the era of independence and replaced by a religious entity, that is, what is called “pre-state,” after there were political parties and a quasi-state during the French Mandate? Isn’t it shameful that the country, under the banner of independence, has developed to the point of defining a person by their religion, i.e., by their sect, and not by their political orientation? That is, the Syrians failed to build a political state after independence and quickly returned to Ottomanism and the culture of millets, and before that to the culture of the best nation, and to dhimmi status and the covenant of Omar, and then to the dual culture of believer-infidel. Isn’t it expected that the country would fail to transform into a political state, and the state is political by its nature? The Sultanate and the Caliphate did not represent “states” in the known sense of the state, but rather they were religious entities with legitimacy derived from Sharia.   

Syria in the 1950s was a “project” of a state, and after it was destroyed, perished, and disappeared, it was officially transformed into a colony with an internal and external colonizer, and recently with an internal colonizer, We did not know how Syria would develop after the transformation into a colony, and now we know how it has developed, We did not expect much that would bring joy, and nothing that would bring joy has been achieved at all, Syria is still under the complex internal-external colonization, Instead of the mullahs’ turban, there is now Erdogan’s fez. As for the internal colonization, the host has changed, but the host, i.e. the regime, has not changed significantly, It was said that it is not fair to evaluate the current authority after months of sitting on the seat of power ,              It has now been proven, after almost two years, that the Golan is ISIS, and that the quasi-state has moved towards a pre-state or no state, i.e., from bad to worse.  

Generally, it is difficult for any authority, no matter how powerful, to transform the Syrian entity into a state, and for that state to be democratic, respecting freedoms, justice, a n       d e         quality           This difficulty is related to the      accumulated culture of the people, Over the last fourteen centuries, nothing has accumulated but sectarianism, corruption, tribalism, violence, tyranny, exploitation, and domination under Bedouin rule for 1000 years and Ottoman rule for 400 years. The ruler does not have a monopoly on Bedouinism, tribalism, violence, corruption, and other negative aspects; these characteristics and traits are deeply rooted in the psyche of the Arabs, both rulers and ruled. Undoubtedly, the ruler has the ability to instill in people characteristics that are incompatible with the concept of a modern civil state, as is the case in Europe, The dictator Franco led Spain to democracy and freedom, and what Ataturk did was also good, albeit in a different way. Kikonen ruled Finland for 25 years, until the early 1980s. According to the United Nations’ annual report on global happiness, Finland has held the top spot in the world for eight consecutive years, Finland is the first country In the world in terms of freedoms, democracy, social justice and global standing, like President Kikonen, Mr. Bashar al-Assad has ruled for nearly 25 years, As a result, there is no unhappy person in Finland and no happy person in Syria!    The people’s silence and addiction to subservience after fourteen centuries of brutal colonialism, their hypocrisy, sycophancy, and triviality, were as compatible with the Assad regime as the court poets were with the Caliph, Had it not been for the people’s silence, there would have been no means or methods, including the exploitation of regional and national calamities, such as the Palestinian and Golan issues, to consolidate their hold on power, What we call calamities were nothing but a curse upon the people and a boon to the Assad regime and those who followed it, fabricated stories, and fawned over it, content with crumbs, An ignorant, Bedouin-like people, in partnership with the Assad regime, transformed what we metaphorically call a “state” into a mere brothel for plunder and the transfer of public funds to the personal possession of Assad and his henchmen, without any sense of guilt. Plunder is inherent in the Bedouin mentality of the people and those who rule them with a Bedouin mentality. It is the nature of the pastoral Bedouin mind, in which “construction” and integrity are not among its hallmarks, Bedouin plunder devoured the state project, flesh and bone, skin, leaving it a mere skeleton. Dead, without life or vitality. 

     The Bedouin, pastoral mentality is imprisoned by chronic corruption   and utterly detached from the concerns and interests of the public, The nationalization of public affairs and their transformation into personal possessions is not merely a presidential problem, Within every Syrian resides a leader like Assad or al-Julani, just as the Caliphate resides within every believer in Muhammad, Greed has become a collective neurosis in both the president and the subordinate; they all want to devour everything, they all want a state to devour, flesh and bone. Therefore, there is no point in changing the presidency without changing the nature of the people, nor is there any point in removing Assad while leaving millions of lions within the Syrians, There is no future for Syria except by severing ties with the Bedouin, pastoral mentality that currently resides equally in the minds of both the president and the subordinate, The presidency has evolved from bad to worse, and the people have also evolved from bad to worse.