While Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has traded his combat fatigues for a suit and tie and insists he wants peace with all of Syria’s neighbors, has clearly taken in the Americans, from Ambassador Tom Barrack to President Donald Trump, the Israelis have not been fooled. They have seen his army’s attacks on the minorities — the Alawites in Latakia, the Druze in their Sweida stronghold, and now the Kurds in northeastern Syria — as part of his attempt to terrify them into submitting to the Sunni Arabs who now rule, by agreeing to submit to the dissolution of their own militias, and the integration of their fighters into the Syrian National Army.
And just now, the Syrian Army has pushed the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) out of their role guarding the tens of thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters and their families kept imprisoned in camps in Syria. The Syrian army has now entrusted the operation of those prison camps to the UN Human Rights Commission. Some ISIS fighters and their families have managed to be set free. Those freed are now making their way back to their countries of origin, including many in Europe. They are just as fanatical now as they were when they were first captured and imprisoned.
Given all this, Israel is determined to hold onto the territory it seized just after Assad’s fall. This includes a new buffer zone created by the IDF just north of the Golan Heights, where nine military outposts have been built, and taking over all of Mt. Hermon, giving Israel control of its commanding heights that overlook the road to Damascus far below.
More on Israel’s deep distrust of the new regime in Damascus, and its moves to protect itself from future Syrian aggression, can be found here: “Why Israel must not trust the new Islamist order in Syria,” by Amine Ayoub, Israel National News, January 24, 2026:
The fall of the House of Assad in late 2024 was heralded by many as a victory for the Syrian people, but for the State of Israel, the transition to an Islamist-led order in Damascus has created a strategic nightmare that is currently culminating in a “jihadi time bomb” on the northern border.
The fragile security apparatus that once contained and kept at bay tens of thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters and their families has shattered following the rapid withdrawal of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under military and political pressure from the new central government.
No comments:
Post a Comment