Just hours after Islamist rebels ousted longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at edge of the occupied Golan Heights and looked out over Syria. The historic downfall will create \u201cvery important opportunities\u201d for Israel, he said in a video message. <\/p>\n
As Syria plunged into chaos after Assad\u2019s fall \u2013 its war-ravaged people grappling with an uncertain future and its ethnic and religious minorities wary of the new leadership\u2019s jihadist history \u2013 Netanyahu\u2019s government saw an opportunity to advance his quest to reshape the Middle East, one that envisions splitting Syria into smaller autonomous regions. <\/p>\n
\u201cA stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes different autonomies and respects different ways of life,\u201d Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar told European leaders at a meeting in Brussels last month. <\/p>\n
Since Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack and ensuing regional conflicts, Netanyahu has repeatedly boasted about \u201cchanging the face of the Middle East\u201d in Israel\u2019s favor. He views the developments in Syria as a direct result of Israel\u2019s actions and is now seizing the opportunity to expand territorial control and establish zones of influence by seeking alliances with minority groups in Syria\u2019s peripheries. <\/p>\n
In the days that followed Assad\u2019s ouster, Netanyahu ordered an unprecedented ground push into Syria, driving Israeli forces deeper into the country than ever before and upending Israel\u2019s 50-year tacit d\u00e9tente with the Assads. <\/p>\n
The escalation quickly abandoned Netanyahu\u2019s initial pledge to practice \u201cgood neighborliness\u201d to the new Syria. Hundreds of airstrikes targeted the remnants of Assad\u2019s military to prevent them from falling into the hands of militant groups, and Israeli forces seized Mount Hermon, Syria\u2019s highest peak, and a strategically vital position overlooking Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. On Monday, Israel targeted radar sites and military command centers in southern Syria, and on Thursday, it targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Syrian capital Damascus. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s border with Syria had remained largely unchanged since the 1967 war, when it occupied and later annexed the Golan Heights from Syria in a move rejected by most of the international community\u202fbut endorsed by US President Donald Trump during his first term. But Israel\u2019s recent actions in Syria have blurred the lines of that border as it takes more territory. Israel has never fully demarcated its borders with its neighbors. <\/p>\n
For half a century, Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar, ruled Syria ruthlessly, enduring wars, rebellions, and uprisings while stoking sectarian fears to deter calls for change. The younger Assad avoided direct confrontation with Israel but provided its archenemy, Iran, with key supply routes to Tehran\u2019s armed proxy groups, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, which fired thousands of rockets at Israel during the Israel-Hamas war. <\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa \u2013\u202fformerly known by his nom du guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and once linked to Al-Qaeda \u2013 ousted Assad in a Turkish-backed lightning offensive before assuming power in December. Shedding traditional attire and military fatigues, he adopted a suit and tie, repeatedly telling foreign news outlets that he had no interest in confronting Israel. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought he could court Israel in the sense of reassuring it that there would be no violence along its border and no fight with Israel\u2026 but Israel is emboldened by the last year-and-a-half, and with the support of the Trump administration is looking for greater ambition,\u201d Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, said. <\/p>\n
Israeli officials now say there will be an Israeli military presence in Syria \u201cindefinitely\u201d and have called for the protection of Syria\u2019s Druze and Kurdish people, significant minorities living in Syria\u2019s south and northeast respectively. The Druze populate three main provinces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan heights in the south of the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cJolani (Sharaa) took off his galabiya (robe), put on a suit, and presented a moderate face \u2013 now he has removed the mask and revealed his true identity: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaida school, committing atrocities against the civilian population,\u201d Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week after forces loyal to Sharaa killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority in response to an attempt by supporters of Assad to take control of cities near Syria\u2019s Mediterranean coast. <\/p>\n
The slaughter, which claimed more than 800 people on both sides, underscored the danger to Sharaa\u2019s fragile regime as regional players intensify efforts to forge alliances with different communities within Syria. <\/p>\n
If Israel succeeds in creating a demilitarized zone in Syria with the backing of local Druze residents, it will bring large parts of the country\u2019s south under Israeli influence, representing Israel\u2019s most significant territorial control in Syria since its founding. <\/p>\n
If that changes, \u201call hell can break loose,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Sharaa has taken a harsher stance on Israel\u2019s moves, condemning its advances as \u201chostile expansionism\u201d while moving to reconcile with the very minorities Israel has courted. <\/p>\n
A day after the bloody violence on the coast over the weekend, Sharaa signed a landmark agreement with Kurdish-led forces to integrate them into state institutions, and is reportedly close to signing a similar deal with the Druze in southern Syria. <\/p>\n
Carmit Valensi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, said that Israel\u2019s actions are driven by its concern that Syria\u2019s unrest and instability will spill over into its territory. <\/p>\n
As Netanyahu seeks to expand Israel\u2019s influence in Syria, he has singled out Syria\u2019s Druze for protection, seeking to ally with a religious minority that could become disenfranchised by Syria\u2019s new Islamist rulers. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu and Katz instructed the Israeli military earlier this month to \u201cprepare to defend\u201d the Druze in Syria and said that Israel \u201cwill not allow the extremist Islamic regime in Syria to harm\u201d the group. Syrian Druze may also be allowed to work in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. <\/p>\n
The Druze, an ethnic Arab group following an offshoot of Islam, also have a significant presence in Israel and the Golan Heights. Although most Golan Druze identify as Syrian Arabs and reject the Israeli state, some have accepted Israeli citizenship. In Israel, Druze citizens are required to serve in the military \u2013 unlike their Muslim and Christian Arab compatriots. <\/p>\n
Many members of the Syrian Druze community have rejected Netanyahu\u2019s offer for support since the fall of Assad. Crowds took to the streets of Suwayda, a Druze majority Syrian city, to protest his call to demilitarize southern Syria and regional leaders representing the group accused Israel of expansionary goals. <\/p>\n
Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader who is widely respected by Druze outside Lebanon, warned about Israel\u2019s ambitions last week. <\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael wants to use tribes, sects and religions for its own benefit. It wants to fragment the region,\u201d he told a news conference in Beirut Sunday. The Druze \u201cshould be careful,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The group \u201cbarely registers on a scale of relevance,\u201d Lister said. \u201cThere is a very, very small faction in Suwayda that appear to be hinting at the idea that they would be open to some kind of external protection.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel also sees Syria\u2019s Kurds as a potential ally and has called for them to be protected against a Turkish military campaign. Turkey blames Syria\u2019s Kurdish militants of being linked the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant separatist group in Turkey. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with creating alliances with non-Sunni Muslim minorities or non-Arab minorities is that most Syrians actually want to have unity, so I think Israel will continue try to create tension\u2026 because Israel was so outward in its ambitions that it has had an opposite effect and created a moment of unity amongst Syrians,\u201d Hall said. <\/p>\n
While Israel\u2019s moves in Syria may have been the most visible, it is not the only regional or global player that has sought to expand its influence there. <\/p>\n
Turkey, which had long opposed the Assad regime and pushed for his ouster, plans to sign a defense pact with Sharaa that could see the deployment of fighter jets in two bases in central Syria. <\/p>\n
\u201cTurkey does have plans with Damascus\u2019 permission to occupy at least two major airbases in central Syria, deploy fighter jets into Syria in order to exert some semblance of Syrian sovereignty,\u201d Lister said. \u201cOf course that is directed at Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia, where al-Sharaa was born and spent his early years, deployed a royal jet last month to transport him to Riyadh for meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a bold gesture that underscored the kingdom\u2019s intent to reassert its dominance in the region while signaling the decline of Iran\u2019s once-formidable sway over Syria. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf any other force in Syria today believes that Israel will permit other hostile forces to use Syria as a base of operations against us, they are gravely mistaken,\u201d Netanyahu said in a news conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael will act to prevent any threat from emerging near our border in southwest Syria.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Just hours after Islamist rebels ousted longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at edge of the occupied Golan Heights and looked out over Syria. The historic downfall will create \u201cvery important opportunities\u201d for Israel, he said in a video message. As Syria plunged into chaos after Assad\u2019s fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}