Events in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon are blowing up in many faces and the fighting between Shiites, Sunnis and other factions has shifted with mounting calls for the ousting and arrest of Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

While the war in Syria is in its second year, Iranian and Hizbullah involvement, including Hizbullah fighters on Syrian soil, has changed the ‘religious war’ as perceived by many to a new political reality, which appears to be backfiring on Nasrallah. Hizbullah has sustained significant losses in the fighting. Nasrallah is seeking to protect his interests, which include seeking to prevent the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria as well as seeking to move weapons to southern Lebanon towards strengthening his arsenal against Israel.

Israel continues monitoring while maintaining a heightened status of alert, hoping to remain an observer and avoiding the need for military intervention in the ongoing Syrian civil war. It does appear however that regional events are becoming increasingly complicated as Israel’s intelligence community attempts to keep a pulse on goings on, in real time.

As he opened the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 2 Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5773, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the media that ongoing events in the Golan Heights show why Israel cannot rely on an international force for her security.”

The prime minister added “Over the weekend, I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. We discussed issues related to Syria, where the situation is becoming daily more complex. Only last week, we saw battles close to out border on the Golan Heights. Israel is not intervening in the Syrian civil war, as long as fire is not being directed at us. The crumbling of the UN force on the Golan Heights underscores the fact that Israel cannot depend on international forces for its security. They can be part of the arrangements. They cannot be the basic foundation of Israel’s security.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)