repatriation

Syrian President Bashar Assad is confused and worried. The heat is on, and it\’s not clear he can take it.

Israel points a menacing finger at Syria for hosting terrorists, accusing it of enabling last Friday\’s deadly terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, which has been blamed on the Damascus-based Islamic Jihad.

Assad has said he wants to renew peace talks with Israel, but at the same time he wants to please his backyard radicals. In addition, anti-Syrian sentiment in Lebanon is sizzling; the United States and France are pressing Syria to withdraw from Lebanon; the United States is growing impatient with Syria\’s tolerance of Palestinian and Iraqi terrorists; Assad wants to appease the United States without losing his face with Arab hardliners; and Syria\’s longtime ally, Egypt, is toying with \”democracy,\” while Assad\’s own internal reforms are stuck.

So which way can he go?