Why did Israel conduct a strike on Syria? Our analysis • FRANCE 24 English

Why did Israel conduct a strike on Syria? Our analysis • FRANCE 24 English

Well, for more on the story, I have with me in the studio our international affairs commentator Doug Herbert. So, Doug, uh the Syrian presidency has called this Israeli strike a dangerous escalation. Help us understand the the rationale, if you will, of this attack of the Israeli attack near the presidential palace. Uh this is a this is a question that I think our viewers could rightfully ask themselves. What does Israel have to do with this conflict with what appears to be a local sectarian clashes within Syria? Why is Israel getting involved? Good question. So, look, begin with Golan, right? The Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967. It annexed it in 1981. The international community doesn’t recognize that. But perhaps more importantly is the timeline since the ouster of Bashar Assad in Syria um last December. Since then, Israel appears, it hasn’t really confirmed it, but appears to have seized more land in the region, but specifically more in Syria. Now, from Benjamin Netanyahu’s uh perspective, the reason that he is claiming to be the great defender uh this defender of the Drews community um you know, seizing the mantle of their defense, even though a lot of Drews themselves are saying, um no thanks uh Israel, we’re fine on our own. We we actually don’t need your intervention in your defense. Um he’s still claiming to be their defender. Uh two big reasons. Obviously, he sees the new Syria’s new government uh under a leader who was whose group was formerly uh associated and tied to to al-Qaeda. He casts them as extremists, an extremist threat. Um this is a government that he does not like and he has been very clear. He has called for this is Netanyahu has called for what he says is the demilitarization. He wants to see demilitarization of the provinces in which this Drew’s minority are based south of the capital south of Damascus including Suea along the Suea highway. it as a city as well, two other provinces as well. And basically what he says is he will not allow, these were his words, he will not allow, Israel will not allow Syria’s government forces, that is government forces under the authority of this new transitional government that Israel casts as an extremist entity to operate anywhere south of Damascus near Israel. sees any such um presence by forces allied to the new Syrian inter uh not interim Syrian government as representing a threat to Israel. So in a nutshell that is why uh Israel has been targeting uh and sending what it calls it called this a clear message uh to the rulers basically you know you stay out of this area in in the south of Syria um and you let us take up the defense of the Drews and like I said the Jews are not a monolithic force who are who are asking Israel to come in and defend them. Are there some Drews who who um have no problems with the Israeli intervention? Absolutely. But there’s also uh uh some Drews religious leaders who actually want to remain within a unified coherent Syria Syrian nation. Want to see the unity of Syria succeed. Want to be part of an eventual uh mosaic of different groups within a unified Syrian state and don’t want Israel to uh to be meddling uh on the on the pretext of of defending them. They say we don’t need you to defend us. Thank you very much. So when I say it’s complicated, it literally is complicated, but it’s not obvious on its face that Israel should be intervening on behalf of this minority community, the Jews community in in southern Syria. And the Syrian government, you know, has a lot on its plate at the moment, doesn’t it? I mean, the sectarian violence that you just talked about for one. So the strike is just one of many conflicts that it’s dealing with, isn’t it? I mean, how is the government responding and reacting to this with great difficulty? Look, we hear not a day goes by where some member of the international community uh the Syrian representatives met with the US last week. We hear statements from Europe. They all say the same thing. They want this government to promote unity and inclusion and stability. This is the way and and the government desperately needs uh the West to be on board, the West to give it lift sanctions, to give it economic uh lifeline because its economic situation is more than precarious right now. The new interim leadership in Damascus is viscerally aware of the fact that it needs the goodwill of the West. It is doing everything it can or at least says it’s doing everything it can to try to foster that goodwill by showing it’s doing everything it can to make sure that these sectarian clashes do not devolve into something far worse. Remember, Syria can be excused, right? It’s coming out of uh 13 years of devastating civil war. The security situation is extremely fragile to say the least in the country. They have their hands full. But I will note that there have been the so-called GSS, the Syrian government for forces uh intervening alongside fighting alongside Drew’s fighters uh against to try to fend off these attacks on the Jews community. So Damascus would say it’s showing goodwill. It’s doing everything to hold things together. Some people ask looking on, but do they really have ultimate control over all of these disparate forces that are right now uh a drift in their country? All right, great to hear your thoughts. Thank you very much for that, Doug.

Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus early on Friday in its clearest signal yet of hostility toward the Islamist-led Syrian authorities and a preparedness to ramp up military action in the name of Syria’s Druze minority. Analysis by FRANCE 24 Foreign Affairs Commentator, Douglas Herbert.
#Syria #Israel #Druze

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