I included a chapter about Bashar al-Assad in my 2006 book Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators.

As politicians and pundits scramble to make sense of Assad’s sudden overthrow, here is an excerpt from my book worth keeping in mind:

“Bashar has been uncompromising in his anti-Semitism.  When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”  At an Arab summit conference in Beirut in March 2002, he declared that all Israelis were legitimate targets for terrorist attacks.”

-David Wallechinsky

Dictator of the Month: Who is Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? By David Wallechinsky