a harder line on reunification with Egypt. In March 1972, Assad formed the National Progressive Front, a Baath-led coalition of socialist parties. He invited Atassi, who by this time was one of the most venerated nationalists in the country, to join a 13-member committee delegated with administering the NPF's political affairs. Realizing that Assad opposed restoring the UAR or the NPF, he left within a year and formed a new organization, the Democratic Arab Socialist Union. Assad promptly outlawed it and sought to isolate Atassi, who was therefore never allowed to enter parliament. Later life From that time until his death, he continued to extoll pan-Arabism and worked for this ideal, albeit within the rigid confines of the Assad dictatorship. Together with other illegal parties, his DASU formed the National Democratic Rally in 1980, to act as a sort of mirror version to the NPF. Jamal al-Atassi became its official spokesman. Such was his stature at the time of his death, that Assad ordered him a semi-official state funeral, honoring him as a patriot of conviction and principle. In a family of political giants, Jamal al-Atassi managed to carve for himself a distinct place in the Syrian political landscape, and commanded wide respect among his countrymen despite his continued opposition to the Assad government. He was known as a great political mind with his own views on Arabism and socialism. His death was followed closely by the death of Assad himself in 2000. During the Damascus Spring (June 2000 through the autumn of 2001), a reformist pro-democracy political discussion forum was named in his honor, until it was disbanded in a crackdown by the Syrian Government. Literary works The History of European Socialism Socialism: Its Past and Future The Ideology of Karl Marx Gamal Abdel Nasser: The Revolutionary Experience Articles on Socialism (With Michel Aflaq and Munif al-Razzaz). References Sami Moubayed "Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000" (Cune Press, Seattle, 2005). Syrian nationalists 1922 births 2000 deaths Syrian ministers of information Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region politicians People from Homs Syrian Arab nationalists Jamal Syrian people of Turkish descent