Eurasia Press & News
Bottom Line Up Front
Israel’s policy in Syria relies on hard power and control over territory rather than building an interrelated web of diplomatic alliances and coalitions to protect its interests.
Israeli leaders are expanding a buffer zone in southern Syria even though U.S. officials warn that doing so might undermine the new government in Damascus.
Following an Israeli raid into Syria last week that killed 13 people, President Trump rebuked Israeli policy and called on Israel not to “disrupt Syria’s development.”
Israel’s continued control over an expanded zone in southern Syria and its repeated air strikes on Syrian military infrastructure have caused an impasse in U.S.-brokered talks on a security pact.
Israel has adopted an approach toward post-Assad Syria that is reliant on hard power and critical assessments of the Islamist-oriented government in Damascus to try to secure its interests. Israel has de-emphasized building bridges to interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, focusing instead on attacking perceived threats and securing a buffer zone in southern Syria. Israel sees the buffer zone as essential to prevent hostile militant groups, Damascus’ forces, and Turkish troops from massing near Israel’s borders. Israel is also attempting to control key border areas of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, consistent with its core priorities since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack — establishing forward defense and strategic depth on all its frontiers. During his visit to Washington in November, Sharaa gave several interviews in which he asserted Israel has no strategic rationale to risk alienating Damascus by using force or occupying territory in Syria. He noted his ouster of the Assad regime had essentially resolved Israel’s most significant security problem in Syria — the extensive presence in Syria of Iranian security personnel and Iran-backed militias, including Lebanese Hezbollah.
Israel’s policy contrast sharply with the orientation of the Trump team, which has sought to integrate the new Syrian government into a broader U.S.-guided security and economic architecture for the region. The differing U.S. and Israeli approaches on Syria, in addition to disagreements over some aspects of policy toward Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and other files, have fueled periodic tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s actions also cloud the prospects for Trump to include Syria in the Abraham Accords, under which several Arab and Muslim states have normalized relations with Israel. Trump considers the Accords emblematic of his vision of a region dominated by like-minded allies that can prosper and secure peace and stability by constraining “spoilers” such as Iran and its Axis of Resistance coalition of non-state actors.
Israel displayed its harder approach toward Syria last week by conducting a large raid on the southern Syrian village of Beit Jinn, causing numerous Syrian casualties. According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF): “[Israeli] troops conducted an operation to apprehend suspects from the [Jamaa] Islamiya [Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood] terrorist organization operating in the Beit Jinn area of southern Syria.” The group is a Lebanon-based Hamas affiliate that has not generally maintained a presence in southern Syria. The IDF statement added that “several armed terrorists opened fire at the troops. IDF soldiers responded with live fire, supported by aerial assistance.” The raid and airstrikes killed near two dozen Syrian villagers, including several women and children, and resulted in injuries to six IDF soldiers. Israeli officials assert Beit Jinn, a community of fewer than 3,000 located 30 miles from Damascus, has long been a hub for Hamas-linked activity. The IDF has conducted several attacks on targets there since the Assad regime collapsed one year ago. Syria condemned the operation as a “war crime” that aims to “ignite the region” in conflict.
The Beit Jinn raid was the latest Israeli effort to establish and secure a de-facto buffer zone in Syria. After the Assad regime collapsed, the IDF advanced through a UN-monitored demilitarized zone between Israeli and Syrian positions along the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed but remains internationally recognized as Syrian territory. The IDF currently is holding nine posts inside southern Syria, including two posts on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon. Sources report that, to date, IDF troops have been consistently operating in areas up to nine miles inside Syria, attempting to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of what Israel defines as “hostile forces.” Israel has also conducted hundreds of strikes on Syrian military equipment, government facilities including the defense ministry, missile and chemical weapons infrastructure, and suspected positions of militant groups still present in Syria.
Corroborating analysts estimate Israel wants to expand its buffer in Syria; officials in Damascus assert that Israel wants to eventually create miles-wide “security bubbles” to protect several Druze-inhabited enclaves adjacent to Mount Hermon. Many in the Syrian Druze community have relatives in Israel and have clashed violently with post-Assad Syrian security forces and government-linked militias on several occasions since Assad fell. Netanyahu punctuated Israel’s effort to protect the Druze by touring IDF positions near the Druze village of Hader on November 19. He was flanked by his top defense and security officials, in what appeared to represent a blatant show of force.
Experts interpreted Netanyahu’s Hader visit and the Beit Jinn raid as a part of a broader effort to demonstrate Israel’s strategic dominance in order to extract Syrian concessions in U.S.-brokered talks on a limited security pact. Netanyahu stressed, in the context of his visit to Hader, that: “Syria has an interest no less than Israel — perhaps even more — in reaching a security agreement with us.” To date, Sharaa’s negotiators have offered Israel only a narrow southern buffer — far short of Israel’s demands for a comprehensive security pact that includes conceding Israeli control of most of the Golan Heights. On Tuesday, Netanyahu said his country could reach an agreement with Syria if Damascus agreed to respect a buffer zone large enough to ensure Israel’s security. He stated, while visiting the IDF personnel wounded in the Beit Jinn raid, “In a good spirit and understanding, an agreement can be reached with the Syrians, but we will stand by our principles.”
Israel’s military actions against Syria, as well as its extensive demands for a security deal, caused the U.S.-brokered talks to stall and ultimately break down in November. The impasse disappointed Trump team mediators, who acknowledge that the difficulty of forging even a limited Israel-Syria pact likely puts Syrian participation in the Abraham Accords out of reach for the foreseeable future. A senior U.S. official told regional media that Syria “doesn’t want problems with Israel. This isn’t Lebanon (apparently referring to Hezbollah, not the Lebanon government)” — drawing a distinction between Israel’s recent strikes in the two countries. The official added: “[Netanyahu] is seeing ghosts everywhere…We are trying to tell [Netanyahu] he has to stop this, because if it continues, he will self-destruct, miss a huge diplomatic opportunity and turn the new Syrian government into an enemy.” Israel’s Channel 12 reported that U.S. officials repeatedly expressed frustrations to their Israeli counterparts over the weekend about the escalation in Syria in the wake of the Beit Jinn raid. The criticism reflected U.S. frustration that Israel-Syria relations were deteriorating, in contrast to relations between Israel and the Lebanese government in Beirut. On Wednesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials held their first direct meeting in decades.
Trump punctuated his team’s frustration with Netanyahu’s approach toward Syria on Monday, issuing a message on his social media channels. The post stated: “The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed, through hard work and determination, in the Country of Syria. We are doing everything within our power to make sure the Government of Syria continues to do what was intended, which is substantial, in order to build a true and prosperous Country…It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State. The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together…” Trump officials privately echoed Trump’s message to Sharaa’s government. On Monday, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye, who also serves as special envoy for Syria, met with Sharaa in Damascus, reportedly reinforcing that the Trump administration is working to restrain Israeli actions inside Syria.
Yet, Trump and Netanyahu have made clear that differences on Syria will not derail the broader relationship between Israel and Washington. Trump’s critical post on social media prompted Netanyahu to call Trump, immediately after the post appeared on Monday, to explain the Beit Jinn raid and Israel’s Syria policy more broadly. The Israeli readout of the conversation made no mention of Syria or the Beit Jinn raid, and Netanyahu’s office stated Trump invited Netanyahu to visit the White House “in the near future.” The visit, which reportedly might take place before the end of 2025, would be Netanyahu’s fifth visit since Trump returned to office in January. Israel’s Channel 12reported the Syria issue would constitute a focus of the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, although presumably the two leaders will discuss the broad range of active files in the region, most of which showcase general — although not complete — alignment in the U.S. and Israeli positions.
