Tell the Syria story in numbers. Israel is protecting itself. Nothing more. Nothing else.
155 square miles.
71,500 square miles.
The first figure is the size of the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria.
The second figure is the size of Syria.
Did you know, Israel is undermining the territorial integrity of Syria? So says France, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.
Israel is undermining Syria by controlling the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria. This buffer zone held for 50 years, renewed biannually and automatically by the UN. The buffer zone collapsed when Syria collapsed on Dec. 8, 2024
By definition, the buffer zone buffered Israel against any Syrian intrusion into Israel, which is exactly the history Syria has had with Israel since 1947. There was no more buffer after Dec. 8, so Israel moved in to protect itself against an unpredictable hostile action against Israel.
Unpredictable is exactly what Syria is right now. Israel acted preemptively in light of the radical new circumstances in Syria.
Oh but listen to the howls about the territorial integrity of Syria. For 13 years Syria’s territorial integrity was brutally attenuated by ISIS and by Bashar Assad. Not 155 square miles of Syria, but tens of thousands of square miles of Syria.
For that, current critics of Israel’s control of the buffer zone had no moral objection. They had strategic objections, to be sure. They rightly worried about ISIS’ Islamic radicalism and brutality, even as they did absolutely nothing but wring their hands over Assad’s atrocities, or, in the case of the Arab countries, expel Syria from the Arab League. In the event, they voiced no concern for the “territorial integrity” of Syria.
Suddenly, Israel protects itself with 155 square miles, plus the summit of Mt. Hermon — out of 71,500 square miles — and territorial integrity is a top level of concern.
It’s a thin veneer for the objection to what Israel is primarily doing in Syria today: destroying Assad’s chemical weapons and other weapons. It’s the same objection to Israel protecting itself against Hamas and Hezbollah. It’s the same hostility.
Syria went to war against Israel in 1947, 1967, 1973 and 1982. Before 1967, Syria fired rockets down from the Golan Heights on the Israel kibbutzim below. Syria fired with impunity. Syria nearly overran Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Unlike Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, UAE and Bahrain, Syria remains in a state of war with Israel. That might change under the new leaders; no one knows. But Israel would be foolish not to exploit the fall of Assad, the distraction of Russia and the weakness of Iran and Hezbollah, to destroy Syria’s weapons with impunity while it can.
Notice: There are no, or almost no, civilian casualties as a result of Israel’s destruction of Syria’s weapons. The supposed source of the outrage against Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah suddenly evaporates when Israel protects its own territory against a 77-year-old enemy without civilian casualties.
Tell your story in numbers, many say. Here’s the story: 155 square miles vs. 71,500 square miles. That divides into Israeli control of two one-thousandths of Syria. But, you know, “territorial integrity!”
Bah, humbug.
© 2024
