ABSTRACT
The Egyptian-Syrian conflict had a major influence on the internal political conflict between separatists and a variety of unionist and Nasserite groups opposed to dissolution of the union. The regime established after the breakup of the Syrian-Egyptian Union was an alliance between the Syrian Army’s new leadership and a very heterogeneous coalition of parties and independent politicians who had been active in Syria even before the union. The present research classifies actors in Syria’s internal political environment during the separatist regime along two fixed lines of reference: the internal political orientations of the political elites; and their external political orientation. In the transition period immediately following breakup of the union, separatist groups became Syria’s ruling elite, while Nasserites became the competing elites. In addition to exploiting the Syrian-Israeli conflict for the purpose of cooling down internal conflict, the separatist regime also made use of the system-wide Arab-Israeli conflict.
