Israel Faces New Threats

Many thousands of people are celebrating the collapse of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, ending more than 50 years of rule by the al-Assad clan. Nearly 14 years of civil war saw thousands of dissidents jailed and more than 500,000 people killed as Bashar al-Assad fought to maintain his grip on power.

So, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the rebel offensive, called on Syrians to go to the streets on Friday to express their joy, and to mark “the victory of the blessed revolution.”

However, there is much uncertainty as to how the situation in Syria will develop. Jonathan Spyer of the Middle East Forum believes we are witnessing the early stages of formation of an authoritarian Islamist government, which will have elected bodies and elected leaders, but where the real power will lie with the armed group HTS, led by Al-Julani.

The future behaviour of such a government may well be heavily influenced by Al-Julani’s previous links with Al Qaeda and the general Islamist desire to create a global caliphate. Thus, the nascent government could well pose a threat to Israel in the future.

In addition to that, a proxy army of Islamist militias backed by Turkey is attacking the democratic area in northeast Syria where Kurds, Yazidis and Christians live. Residents of the area do not expect these attacks to stop and so they’re calling for help from the US, the West and the Christian world, to enable them to defend themselves.

Turkish ambitions under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seem to include the re-establishment of something like the Ottoman Empire that controlled the Middle East over a period of 400 years before the First World War. Those ambitions clearly represent another potential threat to Israel.

Consequently, the Israelis have taken the opportunity to destroy most of Syria’s military equipment, including chemical weapons facilities, which had been abandoned by the Syrian army. Earlier this week the Israelis conducted hundreds of airstrikes as well as striking the Syrian naval fleet from the sea.

They have also moved ground troops into, and just beyond, a demilitarised buffer zone in Syria that includes Mount Hermon – the dominant height in the region. The Israelis want to prevent any of the rebel / terrorist groups from moving into that area, so as to protect the residents of the Golan.

This report by CBN News: