WORLD IN BRIEF : SYRIA : Bitter Assad Decries Changes in East Bloc

Syrian President Hafez Assad decried the changes sweeping Eastern Europe as a boon to Israel and called for a holy war “as long as time” against the Jewish state. Assad also fiercely denounced the recent wave of Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel, saying migrating Jews would force Palestinians from their homeland. “Let us now perceive that Israel was the first beneficiary, among all nations of the world, of the international changes that have taken place,” Assad told a youth rally marking his Baath Arab Socialist Party’s 27th anniversary in power.