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Once Again, Israel Helps Save the World in Syria
Top rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani speaks to a crowd at Ummayad Mosque in Damascus, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Syria, Dec. 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano
The Assad regime is gone. Sadynaya Prison is liberated, and the depth of the Assad family’s depravity is becoming clear.
While the West seems to hold out hope that the transition will lead to something better for the Syrian people, the saying in the Middle East goes, “The enemy of my enemy can also be my enemy.”
The incoming warlords are the HTS — a Sunni, ISIS-adjacent, Taliban-adjacent, Turkish armed and funded organization on the US and UK terrorist lists. If you Google them, the stories would be accompanied by graphic, hideous videos of revenge killings. I am choosing not to link to the horrific murders here, but you can find them online, and just know that they are a tiny fraction of what’s out there.
HTS leaders and militants said, upon entering Damascus, “This is the heart of the Abode of Islam. This is Damascus, the [land of] Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the land of Islam … This is the camp of the Muslims. From here we are coming to Jerusalem. Be patient, oh people of Gaza. Say Allah Akbar!”
One fighter added: “Just like that, Allah willing, we will enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Prophet’s Mosque [in Medina], and the Kaaba. We will enter these [mosques], Allah willing.”
In this context, Israel has offered the world a gift, decimating the Russian-Iranian arsenal Assad left behind before HTS can get its hands on it.
The first IDF strikes were on Syrian chemical weapons depots and “research facilities.” (You know, the ones President Obama declared 96 percent destroyed in 2014.) Then, according to @IDF on X:
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Israeli Navy missile ships struck the Al-Bayda and Latakia ports, where 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked. They took out dozens of sea-to-sea missiles with ranges of 80–190 km. Each missile carried significant explosive payloads posing threats to civilian and military maritime vessels in the area.
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The Air Force conducted more than 350 strikes on targets including anti-aircraft batteries, Syrian Air Force airfields, and dozens of weapons production sites, neutralizing Scud missiles, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, UAVs, fighter jets, attack helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars, and more.
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The IDF conducted air strikes on 130 ground assets in Syria, including weapons depots, military structures, launchers, and firing positions.
No civilians or homes — or anything besides destructive weapons — were targeted.
An IDF Spokesman said that Israel has destroyed approximately 80% of Syrian strategic weapons. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights agreed, “Israeli airstrikes have destroyed Syria’s military assets… The attacks resulted in complete suspension of air-defenses and put all targeted positions out of service.”
Oh, and yes, Israel entered the 400 sq km UN Golan buffer zone after helping the UN force there repel a rebel attack.
The UN is furious. “This needs to stop,” special envoy for Syria, Geir Pederson, told reporters. As Syrian factions “attempt an orderly transition” to a new government, it is “extremely important that we don’t see any action from any international actor that destroys the possibility for this transition in Syria to take place,” he added.
If UN officials think Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a “former”Al-Qaeda leader who claims to have recanted, should have access to chemical weapons and more, they are making the case for the demise of their institution.
Pederson said nothing about HTS-supporter Turkey, which has controlled more than 8,800 sq km of Syrian territory since 2018, and where last month it cut off water to one million people and this week escalated a bombing campaign against Syrian Kurds.
Where is the US in all this?
The Biden administration has been skeptical and derogatory about Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. When Israel decimated Hezbollah — and eliminated the terrorists who killed 247 US Marines in the 1983 barracks bombing — White House Middle East czar Brett McGurk said, “We have disagreements with the Israelis on tactics and how you kind of measure escalation risk. It is a very concerning situation. … We want a diplomatic settlement…”
It’s a relief, then, to find that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) is working toward the future stability and security of Syria. CENTCOM — of which Israel is a member — conducted dozens of airstrikes on known ISIS camps and operatives in central Syria, announcing that the strikes were part of an ongoing mission to “disrupt, degrade and defeat ISIS.”
The US contribution is relatively small, but given the possibilities, it is welcome.
This all speaks to the larger regional issue. As the US prepares for a new administration — one which has shown its affinity for Israel and for regional security — the words of CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla, before October 7, 2023, are important.
According to the official statement: “The ability for our forces to work together is a key aspect of our combined efforts to support regional stability.” In the past 14 months, CENTCOM was instrumental in shooting down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel and responding to Houthi terror attacks in the Red Sea. Gen. Kurilla has been in Israel several times, including on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack.
Former paratrooper & Sandhurst senior lecturer Andrew Fox, who has been writing from Israel and Gaza regularly since October 7, noted, “The world really should buy Israel a beer.”
CENTCOM, too.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
The post Once Again, Israel Helps Save the World in Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah
An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.
“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.
Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.
This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.
The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.
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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks
Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.
Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.
Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.
The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.
The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.
“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.
Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.
Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.
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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia
Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.