Peace posters are popping up in the streets of Damascus, long a bastion of conflict with Israel. Epithets like "Zionist entity" have all but vanished from the official vocabulary.

President Hafez Assad, Syria's ruler since a 1970 coup, is slowly preparing his people for the possibility of a peace treaty with their old foe.He has switched the focus of state propaganda from vilifying Israel to stressing Syria's importance in spreading peace through-out the Middle East.

Slogans that began appearing along main roads over the summer proclaim: "Peace Is a Noble Aim" and "What We Want Is a Just Peace."

But Assad, who says he has made a "strategic choice" for peace after a 46-year state of war, is proceeding with extreme care. Peace, more than war, may present the greatest challenge to a government that used the Arab-Jewish struggle as a reason for its iron rule.

Assad began the policy shift in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his main bankroller and arms supplier.

He agreed to participate in Middle East peace talks, started liberalizing his state-run economy and gave the increasingly influential private sector a greater say in economic policy.

One of Assad's key cards in the peace process is Syria's control of supply routes for Muslim militants fighting Israeli troops and their allies in southern Lebanon. In August Assad ordered early retire-ment for several Syrian officers thought to have ties with the militants.

He also named a new commander of Syria's elite special forces: Brig. Gen. Ali Habib, who headed the Syrian contingent in the U.S.-led Gulf War coalition. Habib is believed to favor a rapprochement with the United States.

But peace would be a big change for a society weaned on anti-Israeli animosity.

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"I'm trying to imagine it, but I can't. It's too early," said Mohammed Krayan, an engineer from the Golan Heights.

Yanna Hamoud, an architecture student, also had trouble imagining peace.

"The Israelis are creating problems all over the world to distract attention from the problem here," she said. "This is the kind of people they are. They manipulate words. They maneuver. They have influence everywhere."

But there are others, especially in business, for whom peace cannot come too soon - although none would dare question Assad's cautious approach.

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