Word: hafez
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Syrian President Amin Hafez recently has been calling for war against Israel "at the earliest date." Such Arab threats-and Israeli counterthreats- have been heard before. Nevertheless, the water war seems to be heading for a showdown...
...seemed little different from their many predecessors; in 18 years of independence, Syria has had 15 coups, eight of them successful and almost all bloodless. But last July, when there was an uprising by rebels supporting Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, the difference be came clear. Baathist Strongman Hafez smashed the revolt and slew 27 Nasserite leaders - the first such mass execu tion in modern Syrian history. Warned Hafez: "Let them think twice before trying again. And if they try, let them be ready...
Nasser responded by denouncing Baath as atheistic, and the cry was picked up by Moslem religious leaders as well as by Syria's merchants and landowners, worried by Baath's militantly socialist program of nationalization and land reform. Hafez replied: "Allah alone knows who are atheists, and will punish them." The Baath regime in neighboring Iraq was toppled last fall, but in Syria the Baathists continued to preach class war, pitting workers, peasants and the army against everyone else. Early this month, Baath expropriated all landholdings over 25 acres and nationalized six of the country's largest...
Lowered Minaret. The well-organized mob soon routed the police and drove back the first troop detachments with fire from barricades, rooftops and minarets. Reinforcements were rushed in. Strongman Hafez left his huge marble office in Damascus with its yard-long model of a Russian T-54 tank and flew to the scene. His ultimatum: Unless the rebels surrendered their arms and handed over 19 suspected rebel leaders-mostly from Hama's big landowning families-the army would attack with overwhelming force. Said Hafez: "You have until dawn to decide...
During the night, Hafez moved up additional units, including T-54s. Next morning, the tank columns and armored infantry broke through the barricades and drove the rebels into last-ditch positions in the rabbit warrens of the old city and in the Sultan Mosque. Tanks and artillery hammered at the mosque for an hour, and shells brought the 60-ft. minaret, together with a rebel machine-gun nest, crashing down...