A piece I wrote for @EngelsbergIdeas on many Syrians' wish for unity despite various actors pushing for an imaginary divided and conquered nation, that even colonial powers did not achieve at the height of their hegemony one hundred years ago.

2. The UAR is why we ended up with “Arab” in Syria’s official name. Until 1958, it was the Syrian Republic (1st & 2nd); when Syria seceded from Egypt / UAR in 1961, it kept Arab and added it to its original name, hence the Syrian Arab Republic. It therefore precedes the Baath.

2 things about Syria that many get wrong:.1. The “opposition” current green-white-black flag was from before independence until 1963 Baath coup, EXCEPT for 1958-1961 United Arab Republic (UAR) with Egypt, when we shared a flag. Baath changed it to red-white-black & 3 green stars.

There was little solid data in the long Assad decades because polls were outlawed. Today, we can already surmise that nearly two thirds of Syrians want democracy, and that most prefer separating religion from governance, as this important survey shows.

RT @krishgm: Israel says it killed these Palestinian Al Jazeera journalists, claiming - without providing any evidence - that Al Sharif was….

2254 has been resuscitated. It doesn't necessarily mean it will ever be applied like it should have been nearly 10 years ago, but nobody bothered to bring it up for several months after Assad fled. The world is paying attention to what's happening in Syria; that's a good thing.

RT @MoSalah: Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?.

These techies left Syria as refugees; they are now returning to set up its tech industry and help rebuild their country of birth.

In 2012, the Assad regime had also tasked Lebanon ex-minister Michel Samaha (secretly recorded passing orders) with blowing up Muslim & Christian sites so they could blame Islamists during full-blown Syrian revolution. Assadists and their minions are the OG sectarian arsonists.

Nonsense, it wasn't under Assad. Palestinians got their rights in Syria under democratically-elected President Shukri Al Quwatli in 1956, i.e., 14 years before Assad's military coup of 1970, 20 years before the Assad-led massacre of 3000 Palestinians at Tal El Zaatar in Lebanon.

Making sense of Syria begins with understanding why people rose up in 2011 and the sequence of events this triggered. If you'd like to pre-order your copy of It Started in Damascus from @Waterstones by 31/07 with promotion code SUMMER25, it's 25% off:

RT @EmmanuelMacron: Fidèle à son engagement historique pour une paix juste et durable au Proche-Orient, j’ai décidé que la France reconnaît….

We are not safe and free until everyone is safe and free, and until every refugee has been given the chance to choose to come back. Everyone is sad, everyone is anxious, everyone is frustrated. Syrians deserve so much better.

The state must refine its strategic vision, and it can only do that by including experienced people who think differently, who bring new perspectives, but who are just as patriotic as the flag-waving we-are-free-Syrians-singing folks.

That's the way it works, not just in Syria: when you freely give yourself immense powers, you must also take on the corresponding responsibilities.

The current authorities must take control and rein in the agents provocateurs and their armed gangs, but also their own armed forces whose transgressions have been documented. The government must carry its duties as a state, not a militia.

. as every other country that has managed to live and prosper when its people speak different languages & have more than one ethnicity and religion. Citizenship with equal rights for everyone is not rocket science and is one of the easiest things in the world to achieve.

Syrians are not a special case, really, we are not so exceptional or still grieving because of past colonial meddling, despite what every orientalist tells you. We have the same number of normal people and the same number of morons and the same number of criminals . .

. if we don't separate state and religion, everyone will lose. Such classifications do not belong in a normal, modern country that is for everyone. It's 2025, we can go forward & build a state of equal citizens like every other country in the world that boasts similar diversity.

These malignant illnesses persist in too many Syrian circles, and eradicating these symptoms should be one of our most urgent priorities. Yes, we are waiting for accountability and justice, but if we don't reject the archaic sectarian, ethnic or geographic identity politics . .

The incitement (partly through fake news) is also coming from many Syrians who are the result of over half a century of the Assad cancer & the Baathist plague that robbed from everyone the essence of civic duty and healthy patriotic belonging.