The rapid fall of the Assad regime in Syria led Israel, concerned that Syrian extremist groups could take advantage of the vacuum to attack Israel, to open another front in its war against its Arab neighbors, taking control of Syria’s buffer zone, including the Syrian side of Har Chermon.

There lies the Chermon’s highest peak, a vital strategic asset as it is the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to experts quoted in an article in The Media Line, Israel captured the peak in order to monitor the situation on the Israeli-Syrian border following the fall of the Assad regime. Syria is now ruled by several rebel groups, most of them adhering to extreme Islamic ideology – posing new security threats to the Jewish state.

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

“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.”

Referring to the IDF’s airstrikes throughout Syria in the past days, during which Israel destroyed 85% of the Syrian military’s assets, Michael said: “This is an unprecedented event in which the Israeli army has the ability to completely destroy an enemy army without a war. This opportunity is being used wisely by Israel in order to ensure a better reality.”

“For decades, the Israeli security establishment considered the border with Syria its quietest and closely associated to the Assad regime,” said Dr. Joel Parker, a researcher from the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. “Assad is the devil Israel knows, but at the same time, with the de-facto commitment to non-aggression with Syria, Israel watched it build up military abilities, including the development of chemical weapons, to levels that were far beyond when the armistice line was created.”

Although the head of the rebel groups, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has professed to be interested in maintaining positive ties with Syria’s neighbors, Israel is not taking his words at face value.

“What is known about al-Golani poses red flags for Israel,” said Parker. “He is the new kid on the block, associated with many jihadist operatives in the world, which has access to almost unlimited manpower. His charisma, his jihadi ideology, and his current control in Syria have Israel wanting to have access to chemical weapons, ballistic missiles, and even helicopters.”

“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.”

“The collapse of the Assad regime is one of the most significant shifts to occur in the Middle East in decades,” the article concluded.  “While Israel and Syria were sworn enemies under both Bashar Assad and his father, there was stability in the relationship, which has now been rattled. While this has removed Iranian presence from Israel’s border, it could be replaced by extreme Islam, which is also not favorable to the Jewish state.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)