Israel and Syria are like loving brothers, often bickering. However, hostility between both sides over the years of Al-Assad’s regime have been continual.
The two countries have been locked in a perpetual war since the establishment of Israel in 1948, with their most significant and direct armed engagements being in the First Arab–Israeli War in 1948–1949, the Third Arab–Israeli War in 1967, and the Fourth Arab–Israeli War in 1973.
Why is Israel attacking Syria, you might ask? I mean, what does Israel gain by attacking Syria in the wake of al-Assad’s overthrow?
After the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Israel has been encroaching on its neighbour’s territory.
Since al-Assad’s dramatic flight to Russia on Sunday, Israel has attacked Syria more than 400 times and, despite UN protests, launched a military incursion into the buffer zone that has separated the two countries since 1974.
These aggressions have come as the country tries to transition away from 53 years of dynastic family rule.
In the last few months, Israel has attacked its unfriendly neighbour Lebanon because Palestinian rebels known as Hezbollah, also Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group were regularly firing missiles across the border into Israel.
Israel declared its military objectives to be: the full occupation of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone, the establishment of a security zone free from heavy weaponry and military infrastructure, and the prevention of Iranian arms smuggling routes through Syria to Lebanon.
Now, Israel says it is focused on destroying Syrian military infrastructure.
Israel claims that it is trying to stop weapons from landing in the hands of “extremists”, a definition it has applied to a rotating list of actors, most recently Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the primary Syrian opposition group that led the operation to overthrow al-Assad.
Israel says it has targeted military facilities, including weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and research centers.
Israel has also deployed military units to the buffer zone along the Golan Heights separating Syria and Israel. The terrain has been an officially designated demilitarized zone as part of a 1974 UN-brokered ceasefire deal. However, Syria has supported the regional conflict to destroy Israel.
Israeli forces have launched one of their largest air attacks in Syria, targeting more than 480 sites, including main airports, air defense facilities, fighter jets, naval vessels and other strategic infrastructure, following the removal of Bashar Al-Assad.
Israel has seized the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from Syria, including Mount Hermon and nearby villages, advancing at least 18km (11 miles), towards Damascus, a Sanad investigation shows.
In addition to the more than 100 strikes on the capital, Israel carried out attacks in Al Mayadin in the east, Tartous and Masyaf in the northwest, at the Qusayr crossing with Lebanon, and the Khalkhalah military airport in the south.
Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Monday that the former Syrian territory along the Golan Heights, which has been classed as a demilitarised zone since 1974, would remain part of Israel “for eternity”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has defended the Israeli strikes since Sunday, saying Israel’s intention had been solely to target suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rocket sites – to prevent their seizure by armed groups opposed to Israel’s ongoing offensives on its neighbours.
At a briefing for foreign media, Sa’ar said Israel was acting “in a precautionary manner”.
“That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they not fall into the hands of extremists,” he said.
Syria has been a very important partner for Iran to support terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah who are attacking Israel from Lebanon. Israel is trying to create a huge buffer zone to ward off future attacks in this ongoing confrontation between Iran and Israel.
The government has not made any statements outside of “acting in the interest of Israel’s defence” that could indicate its intent.
However, some prominent Israeli figures have spoken about their views of what should happen next.
Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity party and a Netanyahu opponent, told reporters on Monday that this was “an opportunity of historic proportion” for Israel. He called on policymakers to “develop our relations with the Druze, Kurds and other groups in Syria”, suggesting that Israel may be able to develop relations with groups who have traditionally opposed the coalition of armed opposition that deposed al-Assad.
The same day, The Times of Israel interviewed a researcher and former member of the Israeli military, who took Gantz suggestion even further, suggesting that Syria could be broken up into a series of cantons, with each free to cooperate with external actors, including Israel.
“The modern nation-state in the Middle East has failed,” former Colonel Anan Wahabi, who identified as a member of the Druze minority, said.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Bickering (n) = backbiting, squabbling, wrangling, internal strife, power struggle, arguing, disputing, quarreling, debating
Beleaguered (adj) = stressed, harassed, fraught, under pressure, besieged longsuffering
Druze minority = Arabs who speak Levantine Arabic and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). In 2021 the largest Druze communities outside the Middle East are in Venezuela, with approximately 60,000, and in the United States, with around 50,000. The Druze people do follow Jesus of Nazareth in one way. More specifically, they believe that Jesus was an important prophet, and that many of his teachings are correct and true. However, they do not accept the Christian theological belief that Jesus was the Son of God and Savior of the world.
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