Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel is taking no chances when it comes to potentially hostility. The Jewish state launched airstrikes targeting military assets in Syria last week in order to establish what Israeli defense minister Israel Katz stated was a “sterile defense zone.” According to Katz, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched such a barrage in order to prevent Assad’s arsenal of chemical weapons and rockets from ending up in the hands of extremist groups eager to wage war against Israel. The strikes targeted military assets across the country and destroyed dozens of airframes and a defense ministry research center believed to be related to Assad’s chemical weapons infrastructure.
The quick collapse of the Assad government in Syria took the region by surprise. As the lightning offensive by rebel forces forced out the ruling family of Syria for the last five decades, chaos ensued. Many of the rebel groups, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have former connections to radical Islamist movements like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. Israel is currently still at war with the Gaza-based Hamas terror group and took advantage of a power vacuum in Syria in order to thwart potential new threats from its northern neighbor. Regardless of who takes power in Damascus, the Jewish state will be protected from potential hostile acts due to its airstrikes.
Notably, the IDF reported that it had taken out over 90 percent of Syria’s sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles like the SA17 and SA22 systems. As detailed by The Jerusalem Post, “Besides these more active attack systems, the air force now has a stunning air superiority in Syrian airspace, which it could never have dreamed of as long as the Assad regime was intact because it has destroyed essentially all of Syria’s radar capabilities.”
The downfall of the Assad regime is a huge win for Israel, as it came at Iran’s detriment. For years, Syria has stood as a central pillar in Tehran’s regional proxy strategy. Iranian weapons, training, and funding have supported groups across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Many of the weapons deployed by Hezbollah in its recent flare-up with Israel were likely smuggled through Syria from Iran. While the demise of Assad is a net positive for the Jewish state, his successor may be just as hostile to Israel once in power. HTS has been attempting to disassociate from its Islamist root. However, the group’s true nature and priorities cannot be fully understood until a transfer of power is formalized.
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
