![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
Israeli strikes have political motive, as well as militarypublished at 15:39 British Summer Time<\/p>\nIsraeli strikes have political motive, as well as militarypublished at 15:39 British Summer Time<\/p>\n
15:39 BST<\/p>\n
While Israel\u2019s strikes in Syria may appear to be a show of strength, they reflect more than simple muscle-flexing.<\/p>\n Syria\u2019s post-Assad government is still in its infancy – its army and security forces are weak, fragmented, and struggling to assert control.<\/p>\n In the immediate aftermath of former dictator Bashar al-Assad\u2019s fall in December, Israel launched a sweeping wave of air strikes, targeting more than 400 military sites in just 48 hours.<\/p>\n The intent was clear: to prevent any rapid militarisation that could threaten Israeli security, particularly near its northern border.<\/p>\n Although the new Syrian leadership has signalled it has no appetite for regional war – and quiet, US-backed negotiations with Israel may be under way. Israel sees a red line in the presence of what it regards as Islamist-aligned forces near Druze communities and the Israeli buffer zone.<\/p>\n The strikes are as much a deterrent as they are a warning.<\/p>\n But the campaign is not without consequence. It’s stirring anger on the Syrian street and even dividing opinion among Druze, some of whom reject any association with Israel. <\/p>\n Ultimately, these strikes are as political as they are military, aimed at shaping the emerging post-Assad order before it hardens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli strikes have political motive, as well as militarypublished at 15:39 British Summer Time 15:39 BST Lina SinjabMiddle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-267051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114863926567815783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/f5890347-a976-4a87-86d3-174525a71a38.jpg.webp.webp\")
Lina Sinjab<\/strong>
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Beirut<\/p>\n![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/f1b56af8-606f-4189-a589-482d6648bff8.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, Reuters<\/p>\n