Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003091710
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DAMASCUS, SYRIA LENGTH: Medium
The Syrian leader also fiercely denounced the recent wave of Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel in his first public comment on the matter, saying migrating Jews would force Palestinians from their homeland.
"Let us now perceive that Israel was the first beneficiary, among all nations of the world, of the international changes that have taken place," Assad told a youth rally marking his socialist Baath Party's 27th anniversary in power.
The 6,500 youths and party activists gathered in a basketball arena interrupted the president 61 times with applause or chanting during his 95-minute speech.
Assad complained that in socialist countries once resolutely opposed to Israel, "Zionists are now active everywhere."
Assad said pro-Israeli delegations now often visit socialist countries, an apparent reference to Israeli delegations that have won recognition for their country from some Eastern European states.
Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia re-established relations with Israel in the past six months.
All the Eastern European countries except for Romania broke ties over the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Assad, long a hard-line opponent of Israel, vowed to continue his struggle "bearing in mind that the time is long and our Jihad [holy war] should be as long as time is."
Assad said Israel still seeks a "greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates," referring to a radical version of Zionism that foresaw Jewish rule from Egypt to Iraq.
He equated the expected mass migration of Soviet Jews with aggression, calling it "the freedom of occupying other people's territory and expelling them from their land."
"Beyond any doubt, the United States played the major role in the realization of Israeli desires," Assad said.
by CNB