Around 31,000 Israelis currently live in settlements in the Golan Heights, considered “illegal” by international law. They live alongside around 23,000 Syrians, mainly Druze, most of whom do not have Israeli nationality. Conquered in 1967 during the Six-Day War, then annexed in 1981, this territory will be Israeli”for eternity“, assured Mr. Netanyahu last week.
Syria: what is the Golan buffer zone in which the Israeli army is deployed?
“Territorial influence”
This decision was justified by the Knesset”in light of the war and the new front in Syria“border, where the Salafist organization Hayat Tahrir al Cham (HTC) took control of Damascus and the country’s main cities. It comes a week after the IDF invaded the buffer zone separating Israel and Syria (under the UN control) and localities located beyond this no man’s land. “Israel attributes this policy to national security but above all it allows it to further increase its territorial influence.” on the Syrian Golan, argues Elena Aoun, professor and researcher at the Louvain-Europe Institute of Political Science at UCLouvain.
“Temporary” Israeli presence in the Golan buffer zone: Israel “violates” the 1974 agreement, according to the UN
In doing so, “the Hebrew State is already compromising any possibility [de cohabitation] with the future Syrian regime“. Assuring not to have “no interest“to enter into conflict with the new authorities in Syria, Israel has carried out more than 450 attacks on Syrian territory since October 8, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) recorded this Monday.
These strikes mainly target chemical weapons warehouses and the air defenses of the Syrian navy, in order to prevent the weapons from falling into the hands of rebels, according to Israeli authorities. During the night from Sunday to Monday, “Israeli fighter jets“led the”heaviest strikes since 2012” in the coastal region of Tartous (west), again according to this NGO based in London and with a network of informants in the country.
Dilemma for Damascus
These intensive measures could, however, ultimately threaten Israel’s security because “Tel Aviv is depriving future Syria of all its defense capabilities, increasing the risks of instability in the face of threats like the Islamic State“, notes Elena Aoun. Present on Syrian territory since 2013, Daesh could indeed take advantage of the security vacuum caused by the fall of Bashar al Assad to re-establish its capabilities and its pockets of resistance in several areas of the country.
Speaking to Syria TV, considered pro-opposition during the civil war, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al Charaa (aka Abu Mohammed al Joulani) warned on Sunday that Israeli attacks “exceeded the red lines” and could worsen tensions in the region. He added, however, that the next government in Damascus would not seek to enter into conflict with a neighboring state.
However, the Israeli government’s new project “presents the future Syrian regime with a considerable dilemma“, declares Ms. Aoun. Because “si the latter [ne s’oppose pas directement au projet israélien]this will delegitimize and weaken it internally. Conversely, if Damascus makes a decision on the matter, Israel will use its declarations as proof of hostility towards it. thus justifying its occupation of the Syrian Golan.
