After the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, it is in Syria that Israel is advancing its troops. The day after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Israeli army began to show its muscles to the Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) group which overthrew Syrian power, by deploying in the Golan buffer zone, between Israel and Syria.
A “limited and temporary measure taken for security reasons”, assures Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, while Benjamin Netanyahu affirms for his part that “the Golan will be part of the State of Israel for eternity”. The Israeli Prime Minister even promised that he would double the population in this disputed territory, before formalizing the occupation of the buffer zone with a visit in fatigues and bulletproof vest to the summit of Mount Hermon, on the borders of the Golan, Tuesday.
Security initiatives
Enough to raise the question of Israeli ambitions in this area illegally annexed since 1974, and beyond. Let us first recall that the Golan Heights belongs to Syria and that its annexation by Israel is only recognized by the United States, since the signature of Donald Trump in 2019. There is a buffer zone between the annexed region and the Syria, which the Israeli army has penetrated in recent weeks. The UN thus considers the takeover of the demilitarized zone as a “violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement.
By thus advancing in this de-escalation zone which does not belong to it, Israel “anticipates possible attacks against the Golan or its territory”, explains Thomas Vescovi, doctoral student in political studies on Israel and Palestine at the School of Advanced Studies in social sciences (EHESS) and at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
It is therefore for security reasons that the Jewish State justifies these trips. Accompanied by some 500 strikes on military infrastructure, these movements are above all part of a global strategy aimed at “putting its neighbors under permanent pressure by showing its strength and never being taken by surprise”, explains Thomas Vescovi. Since October 7, 2023 and “his greatest security failure in at least fifty years”, judges the researcher in training, Benyamin Netanyahu “is taking the maximum number of initiatives against his neighbors to ensure his political survival”, analyzes- he again.
Towards colonies?
In Syria, the Golan Heights is no longer the subject of discussion in the region. No state will go to war against Israel to defend Syrian sovereignty over the area. Doubling the Israeli population will then only reinforce the fait accompli of annexation. Will the Israeli government go so far as to develop settlements in this area? If there has been no announcement in this direction for the moment, “in the history of Israel, any conquest of territory is accompanied by colonies, without them necessarily being permanent”, warns Thomas Vescovi.
Dominique Vidal, journalist-historian co-author of Palestine-Israel: A Visual History (Threshold), does not believe in the establishment of new settlements but nevertheless underlines the “fuzzy” nature of “Israeli political discourse for decades”. A video showing pro-settlement Israelis in Jabal El Sheik, the newly occupied Syrian zone, celebrating and calling for colonization of the territory, is nevertheless circulating in the Palestinian media. “Symbolically very strong” images, underlines Thomas Vescovi.
Means of pressure
More than a colonization project, “it is more of a military establishment allowing the Hebrew State to have a card in hand in possible future negotiations concerning its war against Hamas in Gaza” , adds the historian, who judges the Israeli government’s communication to be “deliberately unclear”. He also cannot imagine the Israeli army pushing its advance further into Syrian territory.
Our file on Syria
Whatever the plan, it is very unlikely for the two specialists that Israel’s actions will lead to conflict with the new Syrian leaders. Too busy rebuilding a ravaged country and trying to stabilize a nation fractured by more than ten years of civil war, the members of HTS “do not have the slightest intention of entering into armed conflict with Israel,” affirms Dominique Vidal, nor the military means to do so. For Thomas Vescovi, the government of Benyamin Netanyahu “finally establishes new standards without worrying about international law”.
