Introduction to conversations with Syrian opposition leader Fahad Almasri

Self-exiled son of an old established Damascus family anticipates the fall of Bashar Assad and the rise of a New Syria.

Don’t let his name fool you — yes, ‘Almasri’ means ‘the Egyptian,’ but the Almasri family is a very large family that has been in Damascus for at least 14 generations.

Almasri is the head of the National Salvation Front in Syria (NSFS), an opposition group with a plan for how to rehabilitate Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, including a detailed roadmap for peaceful and mutually beneficial relations between Syria and Israel.

I met Fahad online in 2016 and before I engaged him in conversation, I vetted him with people I respect. Because many Israelis (including me for a time) had been taken in by the Jordanian Mudar Zahran, I did not want to be the vehicle for introducing a charlatan from Syria. As it turns out, Mudar and Fahad are so different as if to be from different planets. I can only hope that Fahad will understand my need to check him out before taking him seriously.

After fleeting communications with Fahad over the years, I finally got around to interviewing him this past week. My French-speaking friend, Navonel Glick, facilitating our discussion, translating back and forth between us.

In the interview, we talked about:

1.     Fahad’s childhood and the makings of a national opposition leader;

2.     the current situation and why Syria is not picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Hamas against Israel, along with Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis, and Iraq; and

3.     the potential fall of Assad and rehabilitation of Syria, including, of course, what that will mean for Israel.

I want to use the present article to lay the groundwork for understanding Almasri in context. I will do that by copy-pasting here the two articles I wrote on my website in 2016 and 2017 (titles linked to original posts). What I wrote then is still relevant.

You can follow him on @AlmasriFahad on “X.”

1. 10 December 2016

Fahad Almasri Offers Israel Real Peace And Middle East Stability . . . But . . .

Fahad Almasri, an important Syrian opposition leader, released a video in which he promises that a new Syria will be a force for peace and stability in the Middle East and for Israel. He implores Israel to take sides in the Syrian civil war. Part of that video was shown on Israel’s Channel 2 News on December 5 and I will translate the entire piece below the video (Since Channel 2 went off the air, the video is no longer available on its own and can now only be viewed in the Hebrew press).

Translation of the Video

Ya’akov Eilon: One of the most well-known activists among the Syrian opposition comes out with a rare offer to the people and the government of Israel. In a 20-minute video, he suggests ways for cooperation. Ehud Yaari, our correspondant on Arab affairs: this, of course, enrages Assad and his friends.

Ehud Yaari: Of course. They are going wild over this, and we must remember, against the background of the hard strikes the opposition are absorbing from the Russian air force, Hizballah and the Iranian militias, there are new organizations arising on the side of the opposition. One of these is the National Salvation Front, that is supposed to be formally announced in the convention next month and the animating force in that organization is Fahad Almasri. He is very well-known. He was the speaker of the Free Syrian Army until a certain stage, when because of disagreements he was removed from that position. Now, in the video we are about to see (we will not, of course, be showing all of it), he says to Israel: You have to openly come out against Assad, to say that Israel wants him to be deposed. You have to understand that the establishment of an Alawi state on Sunni soil is not in your interest. Your interest is a united Syria. This New Syria, he says, will give citizenship to all the Palestinian refugees within its boundaries, and she will regard the settlers on the Golan (which of course he wants to see returned to Syria), she will see the settlers on the Golan as something that he calls “peace ambassadors”. These statements are making waves in the Arab world because he is a very well known personality and he needs also to be heard here, among other reasons, because he says: “Gentlemen, Israelis”, he talks directly to us, “Look, the magnitude of what is happening today in Syria is reminiscent of the Holocaust.” Here is a portion of the video:

Fahad Almasri: People of Israel: The New Syria will not be an enemy state toward any state or power in the region, Arab or international. The land of Syria will, under no conditions, be a military headquarters, transfer point, training camp, offer logistic assistance, a launching pad or passageway for weapons or extremists or terror outside our borders. Syria will not provide resources to military or terrorist organizations or activities that seek to harm the security of any state among those states in our region and in the world.

Ya’akov Eilon: Thank-you very much. One of the senior activists in Syria calls on Israel to take a side against Assad.

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Reporting on the video message to Israel, the multi-lingual 24-hour news channel broadcasting from Israel, i24 News, wrote that there was also a request to the Knesset. Almasri asked that the parties supporting Assad refrain from doing so as Assad’s fall will bring benefit to the entire Middle East and not just the Syrian people. While Almasri did not cite names, the only political movement in Israel backing the embattled Syrian president is the predominantly Arab Hadash party, part of the United List faction.

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I believe Ehud Yaari when he says this video is making waves in the Arab world. What I find interesting is that, aside from the two brief reports on Channel 2 News and i24 News and one in Italian, there has been no talk about it here and no talk about it internationally, whether that is in English or European languages, as far as I can see.

I have no doubt that our leaders are in touch with Almasri. I also have no doubt that no Syrian government, new or otherwise, will ever get sovereignty over the Golan. Perhaps that is why Israel cannot openly discuss this.

Would Almasri make peace with Israel without getting the Golan away from Israel? In any case, this address to Israel is an interesting development, in line with the way Saudi Arabia now seeks to work together with Israel against ISIS.

What struck me most was how the issue of offering the 1948 Arab refugees citizenship in the Arab countries in which they now find themselves was raised by an Arab leader in one of those countries. Will it now become a subject open for discussion?

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[The original message to Israel in Arabic is available on YouTube here. And an English translation is available on LinkedIn here.]

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2. 8 February 2017

Syria’s Fahad Almasri continues to woo Israel — Is he a new Sadat?

Leader of an opposition movement attempting to forge a path to the establishment of a peaceful regime in Syria, Fahad Almasri continues to reach out to Israel and Israelis. In December, I published a translation of a brief spot on an Israeli news broadcast reporting on a 20-minute video he put out in which he entreats an Israeli entity (apparently The United List party) to desist from supporting Assad and for the Israeli government  to support him. He promises peace with Israel and Syrian citizenship for the Palestinian Arabs within her boundaries.

Later that same month, Almasri met with Likud MK Yehuda Glick and Mendi Safadi of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy. He invited Syrian Jews to return to Syria to help rebuild the country and reclaim their property. According to Safadi, many opposition groups within Syria were surprised and moved by the humanitarian aid and medical assistance provided by Israel to the Syrian people and are now openly seeking contacts with us.

On 11 January 2017, the Hebrew University’s Truman Center held a conference on the future of Syria, attended by exiled Syrian opposition leader, Issam Zeitun and Syrian-Kurdish journalist Sirwan Kajjoand, and to which Almasri communicated with the audience via satellite from Paris. They expressed much hope for a new Middle East in which Israel plays a significant part and appealed to Israel to step up and help the Syrian people yet more. Israeli Arab students were livid at this appeal to the establishment in Israel, declaring that the Syrian opposition is a traitor to the occupied Palestinian people.

Fahad Almasri has not only been denounced by Israeli Arab students. His overtures to Israel have earned him threats from Palestinian Arabs in Syria and probably from many quarters in the Arab world. Yet he is emboldened by Israel’s continuing fight against Iranian supported terrorism as he sees a peaceful and prosperous Syria depends upon eradicating Iran’s influence with the country.

How far is he willing to go? Last night Minister Without Portfolio Ayoob Kara sent out a whatsapp message regarding Almasri and I will translate it below.

Fahad Almasri, head of the “National Salvation Front of Syria”, announced yesterday from Paris on “Rozana” radio [Syria] that the new Syria under his leadership will not be opposed to Israel and will not oppose any country in the region and that she will recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Almasri added that the Jews of Syria will be a bridge to peace between Syria and Israel and will be able to visit Damascus at any time with Israeli passports and be an inseparable part of Syria.

Minister Ayoob Kara, who is in contact with Almasri, called him to thank him and his people for their stand in support of Israel. During this conversation, Almasri revealed to him that 30 Jews have joined the “National Salvation Front”, three Jewish women from Damascus among them, and added that the Jews are an inseparable part of the national, religious, educational and human Syria, and an inseparable part of Syrian and Middle Eastern culture.

Minister Kara invited Almasri to visit Israel in the near future.

I would like to know more about these Jews supposedly fighting with the opposition forces – where are they from? Are they descendants of Syrian Jews who fled Syria for their lives? We know that a small number of Israelis joined the Kurds in their fight against ISIS. We must wait to verify the truth or myth in the claim that Jews are fighting with the opposition in Syria. [ADDED 5 October 2024: I have contacts now with Syrian Jews and will talk with them soon.]

Kara does not mention it, but there are reports of SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency) having published Almasri’s “roadmap” (link no longer working) for peace between Syria and Israel; I have scoured the SANA website in Hebrew and in English and found nothing.

Syrian opposition leaders are courting Israel and looking for Israeli support. I would love to believe that they are serious.

Sadat changed the path of history for his country when he recognized the fact that Israel is willing to give up land for peace, even when that meant uprooting beloved communities such as Yamit.

Do some in Syria believe that we will be willing to give up the Golan in exchange for a piece of paper declaring peace between our two countries? You can probably sense from how I worded that last phrase that I do not put much faith in such a deal – the Golan is not the Sinai. Anyone who has gone up to the Golan has seen how the entire north of Israel would be at the mercy of any hostile regime on the Golan – it lies beneath you like a precious flower held in a giant’s open palm. And the example of Egypt shows us how long it can take until stability is brought to an Arab country. We cannot again (e.g., the withdrawal from Gaza) sacrifice the well being of our citizens, this time by putting our faith in words of peace that may prove to be empty and meaningless, at least until Syria gets its act together.

I felt honoured by Sadat’s visit to our Knesset and heartbroken by his assassination. I respect Fahad Almasri’s declarations of support for Israel and the Jews. Do I believe he can reach the stature of a statesman such as Sadat? He has a lot to prove before he even comes close.

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