Israel had no interest in Syria
That's patently bullshit, though. Syria was a hub for arms supplies from Iran to Hezbollah. Syria under Assad Sr. was one of the major belligerents during the Yom-Kippur War and, unlike Egypt, refused any rapprochement with Israel. Syria also possessed the strongest air force of all Arab nations in the region and held a large arsenal of chemical weapons. And last but not least, Syria was the main opponent in the dispute over the Golan Heights and Israel always had a strong interest in fully annexing them during a moment of Syrian weakness or disarray.
Sorry man, but Israel had and still has a very strong geopolitical interest in Syria and the Assads. Yes, for quite some years during the past decade, keeping Assad in control was Israel's preferred outcome over a chaotic islamist takeover, but this doesn't mean that their feelings for Assad were friendly, nor that Israel wasn't ready to secure its own interests as soon as Assad falls. Which it evidently did.
At the end of the day, al-Sharaa doesn't give a fuck about a few Druze villages on the foothills of Golan, but he needs to bring the fertile and densely populated Alevite heartland around Latakia and Tartus under his control to consolidate his power. Likewise, a genocide against the Alevites doesn't really affect Israel's core interests. From my outsider perspective, peaceful coexistence between Israel and the new regime in Damascus should be no problem... at least for the time being.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 9 2025 01:21pm