11/14/2025
For all my life Syria has been a country with enemies and mired in conflict. They fought Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. They meddled in Lebanon for decades, and they had a brutal civil war for over a dozen years. The Syrian people have been kept poor and impoverished as a result.
In 2004 I was in Israel and biked around the Sea of Galilee, not far from Syria. Even if I had wanted to, there would have been no way for me to travel from there to Syria, the borders were shut.
Three days ago, unimaginably, President Ahmed al-Sharaa was in the oval office shaking hands with the President of the United States. This is an amazing turn around.
I don't know if things will improve, but I certainly hope that Syria is able to make peace with all of it's neighbours and enter into an age of peaceful prosperity. Maybe the borders between Israel and Syria will one day be open. I wish them all the best.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaida member, is the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House.
