Iraqi proxy firepower and Syrian jihadists along Israel’s eastern border
For Israel, the strategic nightmare extends far beyond Iraq; a war with Iran would almost certainly activate a second front along its northern border with Syria, where another set of dangerous actors stands ready. While the world giving little attention to Shiite militias in Iraqi uniforms, a parallel network of Sunni jihadist fighters already operates inside the Syrian army. These forces, many of them former rebels now wearing regime insignia, are trained, armed and quietly supported by Turkey. They control significant territory in northern and eastern Syria and maintain a direct line to Israel’s Golan Heights.
During the war with Iran, the proxies from Iraq would pour fighters and advanced weaponry into western Syria, creating a continuous supply line of rockets, drones and special forces aimed at the Golan. At the same time, Turkish-backed Sunni factions inside the Syrian army would open fire on Israeli positions. For Israel, this would mean fighting on two fronts simultaneously: defending against precision strikes from Iraqi territory while repelling a ground and rocket assault from Syria. The unification of these two camps, Shiite proxies from Iraq and Turkish proxies of Sunni jihadists in Syria, would represent a historic shift. For the first time since the 1973 war, Israel could face coordinated attacks from both sectarian axes.
In the post-war phase, the threat would evolve into something even more dangerous. A joint Shiite-Sunni jihadist campaign against Israel would produce a powerful propaganda victory for radical Islamists worldwide.
As Part One of this article demonstrated, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already issued a fatwa calling for jihad against the United States and Israel, should Iran be attacked. Similar fatwas may follow from Sunni religious figures, seeking to unite against their common enemy, Israel. A unified call to arms, broadcast from Tehran and amplified through Turkish networks, would resonate deeply among Muslim communities in Europe, North America and Australia. Social media, already saturated with anti-Israel rhetoric, would become a recruitment tool on an unprecedented scale. The same networks that fuelled the surge in antisemitic incidents after 7 October 2023 would be supercharged. What begins as rockets from Iraqi and Syrian soil could quickly translate into lone-wolf attacks on Jewish institutions and Western targets from Berlin to London to New York to Melbourne.
The danger is not confined to the battlefield. In north-eastern Syria, the autonomous region known as Rojava, western Kurdistan, home to the Syrian Democratic Forces, would face assault from Turkish-backed jihadists. An attack here would complete a pincer movement against Kurdish aspirations across the region, further destabilising an already volatile neighbourhood and removing another buffer that indirectly protects Israeli interests.
This convergence serves Turkey’s broader regional strategy. Ankara has long sought to expand its influence across the Middle East, positioning itself as the natural leader of Sunni Islam and a counterweight to both Iran and the West. By maintaining deniability while directing Sunni jihadist elements inside Syria, Turkey creates a situation in which it can benefit from chaos without bearing direct responsibility. A weakened Iran and a bloodied Israel would leave a vacuum that only Ankara could fill.
Israel faces a threat that is both immediate and existential. The militias in Iraqi uniforms and the jihadists in Syrian ones are not separate problems; they are complementary pieces in a larger design. Turkey’s strategy, Iran’s proxies and the ideological pull of a united jihad all point towards the same outcome: a conflict that could engulf the Middle East and send shock-waves far beyond it. The West, and Israel in particular, can no longer afford to treat these groups as mere Iraqi or Syrian internal matters. They are the forward edge of a war that is coming.
The answer to the alarm raised across these two parts is simple for any wise politician: any serious attack on Iran must begin with its proxies in Iraq; otherwise, the consequences are too dire to comprehend.
Ab Boskany is an Australian writer of Kurdish-Jewish background. He writes fiction, poetry and literary essays, and has contributes to “The Jewish Report” (Melbourne and Sydney editions, every issue) and “All Israel News”. His work intertwines memory, exile and faith, engaging both with Jewish history and the wider cultural worlds of the Middle East. He publishes in Kurdish and Arabic. He holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Western Sydney, an MA in Literature (Texts and Writing), and an MA in TESOL.