Of course not. Inconvenient, since the facts belie the narrative some here like to promote. Anyway, Syria is a story which is still unfolding. Optimists hope the rebels represent a positive change; pessimists suspect it'll be "second verse, same as the first", just with different thugs and autocrats in charge. Clearly, Israel's rapid creation of border buffer zones suggest it has no faith that the new regime can be counted on to exercise restraint if it comes into possession of the old regime's mustard gas and sarin supplies, not to mention its warships and other conventional weapons. Time will tell. |
Russia was sanctioned before they annexed anything as well. Iran never invaded or annexed. |
“Provocations” and “attacks” don’t supersede international law, dummy. |
Oh FFS, will you allow the lies of past accusations die naturally? “Warships”? Are you serious? Did you see the glorified fishing boats that were blown up? Your defense of Israel’s actions is as uninformed as it is nauseating at this point. |
Some of their new Syrian holdings are on Syria's border with Lebanon. |
Druze areas are now asking to be annexed by Israel:
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-833318 |
well, the article explains that the Druze village in question is home to long time supporters of Assad, who now fear retaliation from the winning rebels. see below "A source from Syria explained to the Jerusalem Post that, as opposed to the major Druze population concentrations in the Suwayda area, who have protested against the Assad regime for over a decade, these villages in the Syrian Golan area have remained largely loyal to the now overthrown regime. The source explained that they now fear violent acts of retaliation from other Syrians who were opposed to the Assad regime. " |
+1 I’m not flagging them because they’re instructive. I am a little disappointed because I would like more actual discussion of the events. |
Didn't the Russians do something similar with Ukrainians? |
And now, conveniently, the new regime can be bombed at will by Israel with no air defense. |
It really isn't that complicated. Ever since the war in 1973, there's been a general understanding between Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights. That particular corner of the world has been fairly peaceful for 50 years. It tends to be Druze and those on the Israeli side have been absorbed within Israeli society without issue for decades.
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime and the resultant abandonment of positions by the Syrian army changed things. If you've ever been to the region, you can visibly see how important the Golan Heights are strategically for anyone that controls them. Or is subject to anyone else that controls the Golan Heights. It's an important piece of geography. Syrian government forces abandoned this extremely significant, strategically important, high land with the collapse of the Assad government. There are a dozen militias in Syria, including ISIS. It's not unreasonable for Israel to secure the area during a time of turbulence. I don't trust the Netanyahu government at all. But I think this is a momentary national security issue that's driving things, rather than a move to change borders with a well-established state. The next move will be dependent on how the situation in Syria unfolds. Israel taking land is untenable. But securing their country from threats from violent Islamic radicals like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and so on will be broadly supported in the short term. |
Bibi, Ben Gvir, and Smotrich all have a well established history of their intentions in situations such as this. Nobody is going to stop Israel from doing it but let's call a spade a spade. |
No. Russia staged an operation where they infiltrated Donbas with FSB operatives and "little green men" and took over local governments and ran psyops and held bogus "referenda" involving tons of fake ballot-stuffing along with in-person voting surrounded by scowling Russians holding Kalashnikovs to make sure you vote the right way. |