The fall of the Assad regime is a formidable change in Syria. It brought a moment of bliss for the Syrian people who will create a new state. There are hopes pinned on the will of the people which will bid farewell to decades of oppression, tyranny and aggression. The capabilities of Syrians will be displayed and the rights of all the people will be established. In these circumstances, the Israeli occupation was the first to attack the new Syria.
Israel bombed hundreds of vital and military sites and facilities in Syria to deprive it of benefiting from them. It also occupied Syrian territories, and it placed a hostile position to the new state.
It was a first scene of aggression for those who converged at the squares of Damascus, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor with joy at a glimmer of new hope. It happened alongside the unfortunate images of decades-long criminality emerging from Sednaya prison. Israelis carried out aggression with more than 300 airstrikes in Quneitra.
This scene is now engraved in the memory of the Syrians, that the Israeli occupation is the one who wanted to start this step. This is because deterrence, arrogance and the upper hand are its policy to impose its will. The occupation miscalculated again, as it has been doing in the past.
But there were few within Israel who were thinking rationally, such as DrorZe’evi in Haaretz, who described the occupation’s bombing of Syria and occupation of its lands as a short-sighted act, and that “there should be a restraint policy for the new Syria, to include it in the Arab moderation bloc and the Abrahamic alliance”. Israel believes that what happened in Syria is part of its vision to build a new Middle East. But the Syrians who revolted and confronted the regime for a whole decade do not share this vision with the occupation. It seems that the latter does not yet understand the mentality of the people of this region and their cultural characteristics, just as it did not understand the Palestinian people, nor did it understand Gaza, nor did it expect the Flood of Al-Aqsa. Like any occupation, Israel felt very tempted by the opportunity to attack the capabilities and lands of the Syrian people. It did not realise that by doing so it was sowing the seeds of a threat against itself.
Yair Krauss said in “Yedioth Ahronoth” to Netanyahu: We are on the mountain, and we will remain on the mountain, (Syrian Mount Hermon). The occupation wants to exploit the vacuum which occurred between the fall of a regime and the building of a new state to create a situation in its favour.
In the Israeli leadership, they say: The Syrians do not have a government now, which can demand the UN Security Council for the withdrawal of the forces. Therefore, this is an opportunity to change the maps and alter the geography at the time of this historic development.
The occupation is still thinking with the mentality of the past. It has not yet realised the latent exchanges in Syria. Therefore, it will seek, as it began from the first day, to continue tampering with Syria’s reality. But it will not succeed, as it has been in a state of complex and severe confusion since October 7, 2023.
[by Mahmoud Alrantisi in Syria TV]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque