Israel Destroys Syrian Military Without a War

Amidst the chaos in Syria, and with grave doubts about what’s to come, despite the soothing assurances about protecting the rights of minorities that Ahmad al-Sharaa (a/k/a Mohamed al-Jolani) keeps issuing, the Jewish state worries that the instability in Syria could lead to a takeover of the country by jihadists, possibly led by other leaders in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who do not share Al-Sharaa’s putative change of heart, or by leaders from other rebel factions.

More on the IDF’s most recent actions in Syria can be found here: “Syria can help Israel ‘completely destroy enemy armies without war,’ expert says,” by Keren Setton, The Media Line, December 11, 2024:

Israel’s concern that the instability in Syria could spill over into its territory has led it to major action in the neighboring country, essentially opening an additional front in the multi-front war it has been engaged in for fourteen months.

Over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria that was established as part of a 1974 cease-fire reached between the two hostile countries.

In that buffer zone is Mt. Hermon’s highest peak, the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

“The territory guarantees strategic control over the whole southern Syrian arena, which generates an immediate threat to Israel,” Kobi Michael, a researcher at INSS and the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told The Media Line. “There is no higher vantage point than the Syrian part of the Golan.”

Power in Syria is now de-centralized, with the country fragmented between several groups, most of them extreme Islamist, potentially posing a new array of threats to Israel.

“Israel is not looking to apply sovereignty to the buffer zone, but rather to militarily control the area in order to prevent danger under conditions of instability,” Michael assessed….

The Israeli military swiftly entered Syria, apparently reaching deep into its territory and taking control of the peak of Mount Hermon, which allows for an advantageous view of both Syria and Lebanon. Reportedly, the army also conducted airstrikes in Syria against sites that stored unconventional weapons, air-defense systems, and navy vessels. Video on social media showed explosions in various cities and pictures of alleged Syrian Air Force bases destroyed.

“This is an unprecedented event in which the Israeli army has the ability to completely destroy an enemy army without a war,” said Michael. “This opportunity is being used wisely by Israel in order to ensure a better reality.”…

The IDF is not engaged in a war with Syria. It has no desire to conquer and permanently hold territory (Israel says its stay in the Syrian Golan is both “limited and temporary”), or to kill Syrians. Its only aim is to destroy military assets accumulated by the Assad regime, and that pose a potential threat to Israel. That is what Michael means by describing this as “the ability to completely destroy an enemy army without a war.”

“There is no way to tell where this is going,” said Michael. “Israel could be facing a difficult reality that will force it to stay and broaden its hold on territory, perhaps even act more forcefully in order to pre-empt danger.”

There is such great uncertainty as to who will emerge on top in Syria that the Israelis of necessity must assume the worst: a regime of jihadists who are intent on helping the Palestinians in Gaza and to “liberate Jerusalem” as well, which is what some HST members have just vowed to do on social media. Al-Jolani spent decades allied with Al-Qaeda and ISIS; how likely is it that he has had a conversion on the road to Damascus, and no longer sees himself as a jihadist? Israel can take no chances.

Meanwhile, the IAF keeps on keeping on, this week concentrating on the coastal area around Tartus. Possibly the IAF had been waiting until the Russians had left to strike this area. One of its bombs was so powerful that it has been described as an “earthquake bomb,” even measuring, according to a Turkish source, 3 on the Richter scale. Israel’s military, meanwhile, says it has laid waste to most of Assad’s heavy weapons and air defenses. The IDF said that it had “inflicted severe damage on Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets and helicopters, Scud missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea precision-guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, rockets, and more.”

And this has been accomplished not during a war, but proleptically, by stripping Syria of its weapons, so that it won’t be able for many years to launch or join a war against Israel or cause harm to its other neighbors. Keep it up, Israel. You are now close to turning Syria, which has been a promoter of violence at home and abroad for the past 54 years, into a demilitarized country, that can no longer do you, or the region, or the world, any harm. The world may denounce you, but that world will be a safer place.

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