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 “very important opportunities” for Israel, he said in a video message.
As Syria plunged into chaos after Assad’s fall – its war-ravaged people grappling with an uncertain future and its ethnic and religious minorities wary of the new leadership’s jihadist history – Netanyahu’s government saw an opportunity to advance his quest to reshape the Middle East, one that envisions splitting Syria into smaller autonomous regions.
“A stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes different autonomies and respects different ways of life,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told European leaders at a meeting in Brussels last month.
Since Hamas’ October 7 attack and ensuing regional conflicts, Netanyahu has repeatedly boasted about “changing the face of the Middle East” in Israel’s favor. He views the developments in Syria as a direct result of Israel’s actions and is now seizing the opportunity to expand territorial control and establish zones of influence by seeking alliances with minority groups in Syria’s peripheries.
In the days that followed Assad’s ouster, Netanyahu ordered an unprecedented ground push into Syria, driving Israeli forces deeper into the country than ever before and upending Israel’s 50-year tacit détente with the Assads.
The escalation quickly abandoned Netanyahu’s initial pledge to practice “good neighborliness” to the new Syria. Hundreds of airstrikes targeted the remnants of Assad’s military to prevent them from falling into the hands of militant groups, and Israeli forces seized Mount Hermon, Syria’s 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.
Israel has vowed to continue, with an Israeli official telling CNN that the country won’t allow the new Syrian regime’s forces to deploy in southern Syria, seeing them as a threat to Israeli citizens.
Shifting border
Israel’s 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 but endorsed by US President Donald Trump during his first term. But Israel’s 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.
