Amid concern and joy, Netanyahu orders army to invade Syrian buffer zone
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria was a "direct result" of Israel's military campaign against Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.
"This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East," he said.
But in a sign of the potential danger Israel feels from the unknown leaders in Damascus, Netanyahu said he had ordered the army to seize the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.
"Together with the defense minister and with the full support of the cabinet, yesterday I ordered the Israeli army to take control of the buffer zone and the nearby commanding positions," he said during his visit to the Golan Heights. "We will not allow any hostile force to settle on our border."
This is the first time Israeli troops will be stationed in the buffer zone since the 1974 agreement establishing the Line of Control between Israel and Syria, although they have previously entered no-man's land for brief periods in the past. The buffer zone has been monitored by UN peacekeepers since 1974. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed it in 1981.
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Israeli leaders are watching events across the border in Syria with a mixture of concern and joy, after 50 years of detention were overturned in a matter of hours.
"We don't know much," said Boaz Shapira, a researcher at the Alma Foundation, a think tank dedicated to issues in northern Israel. "The situation we were used to in Syria in the past — 50 years under the Assad regime — has completely changed."
Bashar al-Assad was hardly an ally, but there was an understanding that allowed the two countries to coexist. Although Israel has sometimes cared for the victims of the Syrian civil war, it has maintained official neutrality in the conflict. The Israeli military has also targeted the supply lines of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah in Syria for years - including the killing of Iranian military commanders at the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April - but has avoided targeting the Assad regime itself.
The rapid capture of Damascus by the rebels means Israeli leaders will have to weigh the implications for their own security.
Iran has now lost one of its most important strongholds in the region. This will be cause for celebration for Israel, which has been fighting Iranian-backed forces in Gaza (Hamas) and Lebanon (Hezbollah) since last October. Netanyahu, who said the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a step toward changing "the balance of power in the region for years to come," sees this as a step forward in that goal.
Mordechai Kedar, who specialized in Syrian affairs during a 25-year career in Israeli military intelligence, said the events in Syria were a domino effect of Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7. "It's not just Israel — it's the entire Middle East that's going to celebrate," he told CNN.
A man waves a Syrian opposition flag in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Dec. 8, 2024, as people celebrate the fall of the Assad regime. A person waves a Syrian opposition flag in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 8, 2024, as people celebrate the fall of the Assad regime. Stoyan Nenov/Reuters
The fall of the Assad regime is a "huge blow" to Iran, said Amos Yadlin, a former general in the Israel Defense Forces who also served as head of the military intelligence directorate. .
"The rebels who took down the posters of (Iranian commander Qassem) Soleimani and Nasrallah from the Iranian embassy in Damascus illustrate the severity of the strike on the axis," he said. "The reconstruction of Hezbollah seems even more difficult with the loss of Syria, which was a logistical backwater for the weapons of Assad, Iran and Russia."
On the other hand, no one really knows - including Israel - who are the rebels who now control Syria and how they will exercise their power.
The offensive was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was previously an affiliate of al-Qaeda. The US government has repeatedly offered a $10 million reward for the capture of its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, whose real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa. Kedar said that despite his radical roots, the early signs were positive. "So far, they are quite rational," he said. "For example, they allow the government to run the country."
Jolani called on rebel forces to leave state institutions intact. "All military forces in the city of Damascus are strictly prohibited from approaching public institutions, which will remain under the supervision of the former Prime Minister until his official handover, and firing bullets into the air is prohibited," he wrote on Telegram. .
"Here, they are learning from the mistakes of the Americans in Iraq. They don't want to destroy the country. They want the system to work — certainly under different rules and with different management. That's a very rational way to run the country."
Yadlin said Jolani "had shown great political sophistication and had conquered Syria almost without a fight."2024-12-08t104510z-341519658-rc2ykbah2zvl-rtrmadp-3-syria-security-israel.webp
In this photo, anti-government forces hold military vehicles as they drive through Hama province, December 7, 2024. Syria's government said on December 7 that it was creating a ring of steel around Damascus, state media reported, as advanced rebels said they were advancing toward the city.
'This is all shocking': Syrian expert explains what surprised him about rebel advance in Damascus
'In the short term, the rebels pose no threat to Israel,' he said. "When it comes to implementing its power in Syria, it will not engage alongside the most powerful military force in the region. Israel must shape the rules of the game against Syria in the same aggressive manner as it did in Lebanon."
This view is not universal. Israel's Minister of Diaspora and Combating Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chiklisaid, said in a statement that "the fact is that most of Syria is now under the control of al-Qaeda and Daesh affiliates." He called on the Israeli military to establish full control of the buffer zone that has existed since 1974 between the territories controlled by Israel and Syria.
Indeed, Israel's top priority will be securing its border with Syria. The Israeli military said the deployment of troops to the Golan Heights buffer zone was done "to ensure the security of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel."
Shapira said he suspected Israel wanted to provoke the new rulers in Damascus by intervening in the Syrian Golan. "Having more territory means we have to deal with other players who may not be so happy," he added. "There are dozens of different militias," Shapira said. "This will be a real challenge for Israel."
The Israeli military, in its statement on the Golan Heights operations, said: "The State of Israel does not intervene in the internal conflict in Syria."
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