The centrality of hereditary succession in the quest for peace and stability was shown by Hafez al-Assad when he agreed to unprecedented good will gestures aimed at drawing Ehud Barak’s Israeli government into a peace deal. An old and sick man who was to die a few months later, he acted with a sense of urgency to reach a deal that would relieve his inexperienced son of the burden of struggling for the recovery of the Golan Heights.