"Those Good Jews, Who Have Brought To The Muslim Arabs Civilization & Peace ... The Muslims Have Declared Holy War Against Them"

In Palestine, the Arab Riots broke out that same year

Wow!!!  What a discovery!  Elder of Ziyon has posted a truly remarkable document, a letter (as translated from the Arabic by Dr Mordechai Kedar) written against this background by the then leader of the Alawites (Bashir Assad's grandfather) to French prime minister Léon Blum in 1936.  Here is a taste, but the letter really must be read in full on Elder's blog:

"The spirit of fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, whose roots are deep in the heart of the Arab Muslims toward all those who are not Muslim, is the spirit that continually feeds the Islamic religion, and therefore there is no hope that the situation will change. If the Mandate is cancelled, the danger of death and destruction will be a threat upon the minorities in Syria, even if the cancellation [of the Mandate] will decree freedom of thought and freedom of religion. Why, even today we see how the Muslim residents of Damascus force the Jews who live under their auspices to sign a document in which they are forbidden to send food to their Jewish brothers who are suffering from the disaster in Palestine [in the days of the great Arab rebellion], the situation of the Jews in Palestine being the strongest and most concrete proof of the importance of the religious problem among the Muslim Arabs toward anyone who does not belong to Islam. Those good Jews, who have brought to the Muslim Arabs civilization and peace, and have spread wealth and prosperity to the land of Palestine, have not hurt anyone and have not taken anything by force, and nevertheless the Muslims have declared holy war against them and have not hesitated to slaughter their children and their women despite the fact that England is in Palestine and France is in Syria. Therefore a black future awaits the Jews and the other minorities if the Mandate is cancelled and Muslim Syria is unified with Muslim Palestine. This union is the ultimate goal of the Muslim Arabs."