Epstein Secrets

s to `counter the Zionist project [the state of Israel] in its different aspects' — a position unlikely to change before an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The group has also traditionally supported Hamas." Any Syrian regime (Islamist or secular, democratic or authoritarian) will lose legitimacy if it

wites who adhere to a form of Islam derived from the Shiism practiced in Iran. Many orthodox Sunni, who form the majority in Syria, do not consider Alawites to be legitimate Muslims. The Islamic Republic's attempts to expand Shiism throughout the Arab world, especially in Syria, have fostered intense ha

ng to a stable regime, hurting the Iranian axis and as an opening to change in Lebanon. Others, most notably the prime minister, refused to concede the Golan Heights. This camp now claims, quite rightly, that there is no sense in making a deal like that with a regime whose stability is strongly in question. In

to American interests, he firmly believes Lebanon should be within Syria's sphere of influence, and he is a member of a minority Islamic sect, the Alawites, that has had a chokehold on power in Syria for decades. SONY_GM_00078425 JPM-SDNY-00001552 EFTA_00188892 Confidential Treatment Requested by JP

essful, it proffers doubtful leverage in his tug of war with Tel Aviv. Although Syria is an independent state, in 44 years it hasn't managed to pry the Golan Heights away from Israel; a Palestinian state is unlikely to do better with the 60 percent of the West Bank that remains under full Israeli control. Legall

ernizing Shah. The Syrian government has no such psychic resources. It is held together in its presidential family and its top military echelons by Alawites-a religious minority that may be characterized as Shi'ite or syncretist, depending on who is articulating its beliefs. And those Alawite leaders h