Farrukh Abadi
On Tuesday (12/17), Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Netanyahu toured Syria’s Jabal Al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon), the highest peak in the eastern Mediterranean region, following its seizure by the Israeli Defense Forces. The mountain is situated on the Lebanese-Syrian border, just 25 miles away from the Syrian capital of Damascus and at the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The mountainous region extends past the buffer zone established by the UN between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian territory; Israel now occupies the buffer zone as well.
Since December 7, following the fall of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad by various rebel groups earlier in December, Israel began carrying out a land, air, and naval offensive in Syria, which continues to this day. Israeli forces have so far carried out over 800 strikes across Syria, the heaviest strikes in the area in over a decade. One strike in the coastal city of Tartus was registered as the equivalent of a category-3 earthquake and injured dozens of civilians.
The IDF claims to have destroyed “over 90% of the identified strategic surface-to-air missiles”, and has “inflicted severe damage on Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets and helicopters, Scud missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea precision-guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, rockets, and more.” The IDF has also claimed to have destroyed Syria’s navy.
Israel claims its attacks are preemptive, despite neither the former Assad government nor the new rebel government attacking or planning on attacking Israel. In fact, the new Syrian government has taken pains to assure the US and Israel that Iran and Hezbollah are its enemies now that Assad is overthrown.
Israel’s assault on Syria also includes a ground invasion that has extended past its illegal occupation of the Golan Heights and into the strategic heights of Jabal Al-Sheikh, overlooking the Syrian capital to the east and Lebanon to the west. The Israeli government declared this latest extension of its occupation is only “temporary”, stating that they will remain there until there was an allied power at the head of the Syrian state. However, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has already told Israeli troops to be prepared to stay in the mountains throughout the winter and has called for the construction of infrastructure for troops. No timeline has been given for leaving.
Israel has also begun to bulldoze land in the Golan Heights for construction projects and settlements, promising to double the Israeli population in the area. These efforts have so far focused on Majdal Shams, the Druze village struck by an airstrike earlier this year, which Netanyahu used as a pretense to escalate aggression against Lebanon under the guise of protecting the Druze minority.
Israel occupied the majority of the Golan Heights, a plateau in southwestern Syria, since 1967, which it later annexed in 1981. Illegal under international law, the occupation and annexation is only recognized internationally by the US, during Trump’s previous administration. Last week, Netanyahu stated that “the Golan will be part of the State of Israel for eternity.”
The US has been carrying out strikes of its own in Syria on what it claims to be “known ISIS camps and operatives”. The Biden administration has praised the fall of the Assad government, which took place through the rapid takeover by former al-Qaeda affiliate group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), among other Turkish and US-backed groups. HTS, for its part, has only nominally denounced the Israeli advances while emphasizing that they “do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else”.
Despite being recognized as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the USA since 2012, the two remain in talks as the US contends with Russian imperialism for domination over the country.
Photo: Netanyahu tours Syria’s Jabal Al-Sheikh.
