The darkness over Damascus was lit up like a light bulb early last month, the entire city illuminated in orange for five seconds in the middle of the night. All reports said these were the biggest explosions yet in the more than two-year conflict. And where did these missiles that struck the military base on the edge of the city come from? Israel.
It had slipped the minds of many that the region’s most powerful military was also watching; the beast, however, has only stirred.
While massive international interests are at play in Syria, the proximity of Israel, the strength of the Israeli army, and Israel’s sway over American and Western foreign policy means that there is perhaps no power so able to quickly and radically redefine the parameters of the Syrian conflict. When Russia said last month that it would send S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, the Israeli Army responded that it would destroy any such shipment. No one should doubt that they would follow through with this threat.
Let’s be clear: Israeli policy makers do not care about the lives of Syrians or the destruction of their country. They care about preserving “Israeli security”. For a long time, Syria’s Assad family was Israel’s perfect enemy. While the Syrian army posed little threat against the far-more-sophisticated Israeli war machine, the Assads oversaw a police state powerful enough to prevent local paramilitary groups from forming and launching attacks from the Golan Heights — from the point of self-interest, the Assads knew what the Israeli response would be.
Thus today, from an Israeli perspective, one has to wonder what sort of future Syria is preferred. One run by the radical and unpredictable Salafist factions now hijacking the Syrian opposition in the name of jihad, or one under the grip of a tyrannical regime bent on crushing internal dissent and ruthlessly looking out for its own self interest? With many cards in their hand yet to be played, the Israelis may yet flush out a neighbor they love to hate.
