Just hours after Islamist rebels ousted longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at edge of the occupied Golan Heights and looked out over Syria. The historic downfall will create “very important opportunities” for Israel, he said in a video message.
As Syria plunged into chaos after Assad’s fall – its war-ravaged people grappling with an uncertain future and its ethnic and religious minorities wary of the new leadership’s jihadist history – Netanyahu’s government saw an opportunity to advance his quest to reshape the Middle East, one that envisions splitting Syria into smaller autonomous regions.
“A stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes different autonomies and respects different ways of life,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told European leaders at a meeting in Brussels last month.
In the days that followed Assad’s ouster, Netanyahu ordered an unprecedented ground push into Syria, driving Israeli forces deeper into the country than ever before and upending Israel’s 50-year tacit détente with the Assads.
The escalation quickly abandoned Netanyahu’s initial pledge to practice “good neighborliness” to the new Syria. Hundreds of airstrikes targeted the remnants of Assad’s military to prevent them from falling into the hands of militant groups, and Israeli forces seized Mount Hermon, Syria’s highest peak, and a strategically vital position overlooking Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. On Monday, Israel targeted radar sites and military command centers in southern Syria, and on Thursday, it targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Israel’s border with Syria had remained largely unchanged since the 1967 war, when it occupied and later annexed the Golan Heights from Syria in a move rejected by most of the international community but endorsed by US President Donald Trump during his first term. But Israel’s recent actions in Syria have blurred the lines of that border as it takes more territory. Israel has never fully demarcated its borders with its neighbors.
For half a century, Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar, ruled Syria ruthlessly, enduring wars, rebellions, and uprisings while stoking sectarian fears to deter calls for change. The younger Assad avoided direct confrontation with Israel but provided its archenemy, Iran, with key supply routes to Tehran’s armed proxy groups, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, which fired thousands of rockets at Israel during the Israel-Hamas war.
Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – formerly known by his nom du guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and once linked to Al-Qaeda – ousted Assad in a Turkish-backed lightning offensive before assuming power in December. Shedding traditional attire and military fatigues, he adopted a suit and tie, repeatedly telling foreign news outlets that he had no interest in confronting Israel.
“He thought he could court Israel in the sense of reassuring it that there would be no violence along its border and no fight with Israel… but
Israel is emboldened by the last year-and-a-half, and with the support of the Trump administration is looking for greater ambition,” Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, said.

Бирюзовый - Израильские
Крым Голаны, желтый - прямая оккупация (треугольничек - гора Хеврон, где Израиль снес поклонный крест), сиреневый - Израильский "протекторат"
ОтсюдаИзраиль напрямую оккупировал часть Сирии, выступает за её федерализацию, вовпреки желанию центральных властей и арабского большинства, устроил протекторат над южной Сирией, где живут друзы, которые в большинстве это вовсе не приветствуют, поскольку сами-то не большинство и Америка все это поддерживает.