They may be proud and patriotic Syrians and they may have even gone out of their way for you as a Christian (I assume) but for me as a Jew, (in their eyes) there can never be reconciliation.
Currently, the Syrians have pulled many forces back from their border with Israel in the Golan Heights in order to save the regime closer to home. This just goes to prove that Israel is not a major threat to their country no matter what the fanatical, lying hatred in their government controlled media and entertainment would claim.
I would be curious to know if you ever met a Syrian who was honest, intellectually about Israel. Concerning their attitude towards you as a Christian, ok, I am glad you had good experiences but would they take me out for a drink knowing I was a Jew? I doubt it.
Herein lies the crux of the matter. How tolerant are they...really? Israelis are not taught to hate Syrians but Syrians are taught to hate Jews & Israelis. Where is the balanced Syrian view here?
I think it’s important to differentiate, from a Syrian perspective, in attitudes to ‘Jews’ and to ‘Israel’. There aren’t always problems with regard to the former: a Jewish (though not Israeli) colleague of mine from the UK, who came out to work on IT with us for a few weeks, was quite open about his religion and genuinely treated with just as much courtesy and respect as I was. Israeli backpackers and travelers who happen to have a second passport (ie a non-Israeli one) do travel to Damascus: there’s even a bar in the old town where they tend to hang out: I’d meet some there on a fairly regular basis. They don’t mention that they’re Israeli, but they can be quite open about being Jewish.
Re Israel, then it’s true to say there are strongly negative feelings, in general, though these are political rather than religious, and don’t normally equate to personal antipathy to individuals. I sat up once into the small hours with this colleague and local friends who were both Christian and Muslim (over a few glasses of arak, to boot) discussing religious differences (and even a few shared beliefs) in a frank but respectful and always cordial manner: hardly a sign of a hotbed of fanaticism, though I’ll admit I chose my friends carefully. The Jewish quarter of old Damascus is still known and referred to as such, though there are precious few Jews still living there today.
I also think the point about government controlled media which you make is very relevant. Perceptions of Israel are inevitably shaped by this: as is sometimes also the case in America, most of the ‘masses’ believe what their MSM tells then on TV or in the newspapers. Their media does teach them to hate Israel, as an entity. But Syrian do tend in my experience to have more of a ‘mind for themselves’ than some others in the region. Meaning this doesn’t necessary equate to a hatred of all Israelis, nor, it should be said, are the words ‘Israeli’ and ‘Jewish’ in any way synonymous in the public perception.
As anywhere, there are of course bigots, fanatics, fools and uneducated idiots who believe whatever they see on state TV. The issue of the Golan Heights is a particularly thorny one in Syria, and frankly, yes, I doubt anyone espousing support or admiration for Netanyahu’s government would find many there ready to consider the legitimacy of his opinions.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, I also came across a lot of anti-Palestinian feeling in both Syria and Jordan. One (Syrian, Muslim) colleague commented to me frankly once that in his opinion ‘the Palestinians deserve exactly what they’ve got’. He’d had a couple of drinks at the time, I believe, but I remember some of his friends nodding in agreement, and no-one forcibly disagreed at the time.
Look, I’m not saying that Syria has a bright future. I’m not saying there aren’t crazies there who are out to do in Damascus what Morsi’s lot are out to to in Egypt. But I do think, based on extended personal experience, that there are enough reasonable, educated people there; with a secular, or non-Islamic sense of nationality and culture, that democracy at least might have a chance. There’s precious little to be hopeful about in the ME, so if there’s a bit of good fortune to be had in the way things turn out somewhere, I hope it’s the Syrians who are the ones who get it. They sure as hell deserve it more than the Saudis or the Kuwaitis.