Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks Essay, Research Paper

American University Of Beirut

A Survey on Expectations of Israeli-Syrian Peace

PSPA 203

Dr. Harik

Marwan Sharaiha

A Suvey on Expectation of Israeli-Syrian Peace

Countries going through the Peace Process can have different reactions considering what might happen to their future. The survey sample I worked on deals on what Syrians and Lebanese expect out of the Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks, and what the Jordanians experienced from the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty. With the use of the sample, locating the behavioral differences and how the culture of the three countries has the impact on determining their upcoming route, would become greatly simplified.

The questions that have been used in the survey each has a specific reason being there, the questions deal with how each and every volunteer view the subject, and how they might react to the discussion made by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. It even resembles the personal point of the person filling out the sample.

As you can acknowledge from the survey, it covers and multi-nationality purpose in which Jordanians, Lebanese and Palestinians can also fill it out. Every country has its own culture, gone through different situations than each other; gathering information from different sources/people we can compare and contrast a wider variety thus getting more accurate information.

How the idea was brought about? … As mentioned in the introduction, Jordanians, and Egyptians before them were in the same situation, maintain peace with Israel. Syria and Lebanon are yet working on it, from this you can adjust the facts that most of the countries neighboring Israel prefer peace, this statement may be incorrect but it’s not

wrong. Most of the Syrians and Lebanese are building up hopes from the peace talks taking place in Washington, that?s not wrong but over-expecting or under-expecting might jeopardize the community. People depending on peace with Israel to have better future, they might be thinking as most Jordanians thought when the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Talks were taking place, some of the population had a hunch that afterwards everything would change to the better, well, it is changing to the better but at a very slow pace. They assumed that the economic situation would grow faster thus increasing liquidity, they were greatly surprised when that did not happen.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to come up with a relationship on how the three societies view the situation and what are their future aims, the questionnaire may not be as accurate as it should due to the questions asked only cover a certain topic. The people being asked might have an incident that occurred recently and plays a role in filling out the survey, this ofcourse, will be taken in to consideration when drawing out the conclusion.

A copy of the sample made follows:

PSPA 203 Research Paper

Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks

The questionnaire is intended to pinpoint the major differences concerning the Peace work of both, the Israeli-Jordanian and the Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks, and what is the population?s view to the current situation of their country. Locating what the Jordanians experienced from the Peace Treaty, and what the Syrians and Lebanese are expecting from all that is happening.

1.Your Sex:

Male

Female

2.Age Group:

Under 18

18 – 25

26 – 33

34 – 45

Over 45

3.Educational Degree:

Secondary

Undergraduate Studies

Graduate Studies

Other

4.Nationality:

Jordanian

Lebanese

Syrian

Other (state: )

5.Are you familiar with the Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks taking place?

Yes

No

6.Peace with Israel would enhance the country?s financial/industrial stability and growth.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

7.Peace with Israel would stabilize internal political affairs.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

8.Would you visit Israel after accomplishing the Peace Treaty.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

9.Israeli are visiting your own country.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

10.Would you still join the army (if it?s optional) guaranteed no war will strike for the upcoming century.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

11.Would you consider the loss of a belonging for the sake of the Peace Treaty accomplishment.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Thankyou for your corporation.

Referring to the sample questionnaire, it starts by asking the person about their sex, age group, educational degree, and nationality. Starting with that and moving to the topic questions each resembling an idea that?s helps the surveyor to gather the information he needs. The question about the sexes, would only give an idea about how society affected both sexes, and how they reacted to the questions being asked, its not of any importance at this period but it might have an affect when plotting the conclusions.

Age Group and Educational degree, would tell what are we being faced with; experience might have a part in determining the answers, that?s why everything should be accounted for. A person with a higher education level thus older age, would attain more experience than a university student. The student would only compare such situations with what he/she read or been through recently, whereas the older person might have been through same or similar times. In contrast, they may have different answers for other questions; knowing why the questions were answered in such a way could help the surveyor.

Question five deals with what the subject knows about the peace talks, it’s a plain question being very straight forward asking him/her to answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Questions 6 and 7, would consider what the subject might be expecting in the near future, how the peace treaty would enhance the country’s financial/industrial growth, and the second where if the peace would stabilize the political affairs, these statements relate what the subject experienced and what he hopes to be accomplished from peace. Questions 8 and 9 would reflect his inner personal view of the situation, if the person feels that he/she?s are being violated if Israeli citizens would visit their country. The last two questions are more of the nationalistic type, in which they adhere the nationalism of that specific subject filling out the sample. The 11th question (the last question), is addressed to the Syrians more than any other, the loss of a belonging in this situation is the loss of the Golan Heights. If the subject is willing to lose for the sake of the peace treaty then he/she’s willing to give up a part of their own for that reason. Does this mean the Syrians are refusing to give away the Golan Heights only due to the fact that it’s going to Israel.

After distributing the sample questionnaires, and the results were returned, and the following was recorded:

23456789101112

112211212342

222221342115

313221435535

422211112344

522211441214

622211345215

712221324543

812211242241

922231222324

1013211212342

1112221435535

1222221342115

1322211112344

1422211441214

1522211345215

1612221324543

1722231222324

1812131222324

1912231444455

2012211333443

2112221233324

2213221233324

2312331344444

2412321424444

2511231424444

2622231424434

2712231333424

2822221221244

2912231333455

3012211121142

From the results, I noticed that most of the three nationalities I surveyed had similar answers. Due to the random distribution of the answers I concluded that they weren’t sure about what is really happening to the Peace Talks taking place, nor do Jordanians know what they really benefited from their Peace Treaty.

The 30 sample papers of the survey included 18 male, and 12 female, most were in the age range of 18-25 which was due to the fact that it was distributed during university hours. Most of the subjects that filled the survey were Jordanians (I am a Jordanian, which means that most of my friends are Jordanian), this decreases the percentage of being accurate, the sample should have had an equal no. Of applicants of all nationalities. The applicant numbers with respect to their nationality: Lebanese 10, Syrian 9, and Jordanian 11.

According to what the participants, and to the results that were noted, the following was conceived; questions 6 and 7, a relationship between them was noticed that in most of the papers returned, those two questions had similar answers. Determining that the person is either looking for modernization and development from the peace, or that it?s going to be a major set back to society.

Questions 8 and 9, had also some kind of relationship where, the Lebanese, Syrian or Jordanian filling out the form, wanted to visit Israel but didn?t like the idea concerning Israeli?s visiting his own country. The majority answered for question 9 with ?disagree?, reflecting their view with a rejection.

Question 10, this question, endures the nationalist part in the person filling the sample out. Joining the army when it?s optional is not something believed by anyone.

Most the individuals filled it out with ?agree? or even ?strongly agree? representing themselves as being a nationalistic citizen. These answers were not accounted for, Jordan has its army optional for the population, so the population is not forced to join; from my experience being a Jordanian a very low percentage of the population is in the army and

that?s probably for their low living standards and unemployment.

The final question, is addressing the Syrian Society more than any other, as they are now negotiating the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights was the belonging that was meant to be in the question; this question is supposed to get hold of the participant?s psychological side.

The final conclusion to this survey; civilizations in the Middle East are going through change and development, they have to face peace with different views depending on the society?s culture and tradition. It only seems that what I mentioned in the introduction was on track that all 3 societies are looking for a better living and they think that it would be accomplished by maintaining peace with Israel and the neighboring countries.

My Notes:

I faced many set backs in this survey, some were that most of the questions addressing the public were not in a good form, and probably wasn?t very understandable. Not giving the survey the time and work it needed due to some factors, maybe if the sample was better distributed or even better questioning so that the person filling out the survey would find it easy to handle.

Thankyou