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‘Israel Doesn’t Want a Stable Syria’: The Media Uses Upheaval to Falsely Slander Israel
Rebel fighters holds weapons at the Citadel of Aleppo, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Bashar al-Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
The Independent’s world affairs editor, Sam Kiley, has a long history of reporting from the Middle East for several mainstream media outlets including CNN, Sky News, and London’s Evening Standard. Despite presenting himself as something of an expert, his flawed judgment was most famously on display in 2002, when Kiley conjured up witnesses to speak of Israel’s “staggering brutality and callous murder” in Jenin when the media libeled Israel for a massacre that never was.
Taking on the dramatic fall of the Assad regime in Syria for The Independent, Kiley’s analysis includes the following:
Israel doesn’t want a stable Syria, as the Jewish state has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, and captured more in 1973. It won’t ever allow Damascus to return to the eastern banks of the Sea of Galilee.
Israel “doesn’t want a stable Syria.”
Really?
History and common sense suggest otherwise.
1. While the Golan Heights has suffered rocket attacks, including the deadly attack that killed 12 children in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in July 2024, that rocket was fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon. Israel’s border with Syria has actually been one of its quietest over many decades with any security incidents few and far between — stability that has benefited Israel.
2. In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel and Syria signed the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement, which until now has been the longest successful continuous agreement Israel has ever had with an Arab country. That Israel has reacted to the end of the Assad regime by moving forces into the buffer zone to temporarily secure the area of the Syrian Golan where the Syrian Army has fled is a testament to the stability that the agreement brought for some five decades.
3. When it comes to Bashar al-Assad, for Israeli policymakers, Assad may be the better devil you know. Granted, Assad was a despicable dictator, but he was a known and relatively predictable actor whose primary interest in recent years was his regime’s survival. With Assad gone, Israel is faced with chaos in Syria and a potential takeover by hostile jihadist groups. While Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has attempted to portray himself and his forces as relative moderates, footage of a rebel spokesman surrounded by gunmen stating, “From here to Jerusalem. We’re coming for Jerusalem. Patience, people of Gaza, patience,” illustrates the potential dangers from Syria’s new rulers. Israel certainly does not benefit from the instability in Syria.
But then maybe Kiley’s interpretation is based on his own prejudices when it comes to the Jewish state.
He stresses that Israel captured more of the Golan Heights in 1973. What he doesn’t mention is that, as part of the aforementioned Agreement on Disengagement, Israel returned all of that extra territory — an inconvenient truth that doesn’t fit with Kiley’s portrayal of Israel as an aggressive colonizer.
There’s a reason Israel has annexed the Golan Heights and it’s not the land grab that Kiley implies. Prior to 1967, the strategic plateau that sits some 8,700 feet above Israel allowed Syria to dominate Israel’s northernmost communities. Syrian artillery fire regularly plagued northern Israel, and intermittent hostilities broke out, with both sides making incursions into the other’s territory.
Syrian forces regularly attacked Israeli farmers. Between 1950 and 1967, approximately 370 Israelis were hit by Syrian fire, with 121 killed.
After taking the territory in the defensive Six-Day War, the height advantage and strategic location afforded by the Golan Heights ensured that the territory could no longer be used to fire on northern Israel. This is why there is almost wall-to-wall opposition to giving the territory to Syria — whether it is governed by a dictator like Bashar al-Assad or jihadists who could potentially allow extremist groups to build terror infrastructure on Israel’s border in the same way that Hamas and Hezbollah did from Gaza and Lebanon respectively.
Ultimately, Sam Kiley’s “analysis” is both flawed and prejudiced. When it comes to Israel, for a world affairs editor, Kiley appears to have a loose grip on world affairs.
The author is the Editorial Director of HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post ‘Israel Doesn’t Want a Stable Syria’: The Media Uses Upheaval to Falsely Slander Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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FBI Investigating ‘Targeted Terror Attack’ in Boulder, Colorado, Director Says
FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Trump’s proposed budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the agency was aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado.
While he did not provide further details, Patel said in a social media post: “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
According to CBS News, which cited witnesses at the scene, a suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails who were participating in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Boulder Police Department said it was responding to a report of an attack in the city involving several victims. It has not released further details but a press conference was expected at 4 p.m. Mountain Time (2200 GMT).
The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fueled polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
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Terrorist Responsible for Death of 21 Soldiers Eliminated
An Israeli F-35I “Adir” fighter jet. Photo: IDF
i24 News – Khalil Abd al-Nasser Mohammed Khatib, the terrorist who commanded the terrorist cell that killed 21 soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip on January 22, 2024, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, the IDF said on Sunday.
In a joint operation between the military and the Shin Bet security agency, the terrorist was spotted in a reconnaissance mission. The troops called up an aircraft to target him, and he was eliminated.
Khatib planned and took part in many other terrorist plots against Israeli soldiers.
i24NEWS’ Hebrew channel interviewed Dor Almog, the sole survivor of the mass casualty disaster, who was informed on live TV about the death of the commander responsible for the killing his brothers-in-arms.
“I was sure this day would come – I was a soldier and I know what happens at the end,” said Almog. “The IDF will do everything to bring back the abductees and to topple Hamas, to the last one man.”
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Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81
FILE PHOTO: Vice Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Stanley Fischer arrives to hear Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual US-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel’s central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel’s economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer’s contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as “truly significant.”
The soft-spoken Fischer – who played a role in Israel’s economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation – was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
Netanyahu, now prime minister, called Fischer a “great Zionist” for leaving the United States and moving to Israel to take on the top job at Israel’s central bank.
“He was an outstanding economist. In the framework of his role as governor, he greatly contributed to the Israeli economy, especially to the return of stability during the global economic crisis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Stanley – as he was known in Israel – proudly represented Israel and its economy worldwide.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also paid tribute.
“He played a huge role in strengthening Israel’s economy, its remarkable resilience, and its strong reputation around the world,” Herzog said. “He was a world-class professional, a man of integrity, with a heart of gold. A true lover of peace.”
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