Last week, the main agenda of Middle East politics was the crisis in Syria. Many observers have seen the eruption of the crisis as a surprise; however, for the attentive observers, it was not. Since the regime change in Syria, Israel has been targeting the new administration. It destroyed Syria’s military capacity immediately after the revolution and has been insistently violating the national sovereignty of the Syrian state. Unfortunately, the new regime cannot retaliate or prevent the Israeli transgression. Over time, the nature of the crisis has undergone significant changes.
The crisis started as a social conflict between two societal factions living in Syria. The crisis broke out when the pro-Israeli Druze forces attacked the Bedouins living in the southern part of the country. It has been a long time since the Druze community, living in the mountainous areas, has been clashing with the Bedouin Arab tribes, who reside in the desert-like regions. When the clashes between the Bedouins and the Druze community escalated and more than one hundred people lost their lives, the Syrian government decided to intervene and solve the problem.
The regional crisis evolved in a political nature due to the government's intervention. The top priorities of the new Syrian government have been to restore domestic political order, restructure state institutions and ensure economic development. However, at this point, the government is heavily dependent on foreign financial support to recover its monetary system. It lacks the required military capacity to defend the country from external aggression.
As expected, the government deployed security forces in the conflict region to prevent further escalation between the two conflicting sides. However, a pro-Israel Druze group attacked the security forces. Then, a new conflict broke out between the governmental forces and Druze groups. President Ahmed al-Sharaa took a conciliatory stance and declared a cease-fire three days after the conflict erupted. Those who follow Syrian developments are well aware that the first priority of the al-Sharaa government is the protection of the state's unity.
However, when Israel launched airstrikes against the Syrian government forces in Suwayda province only several hours after the announcement of the cease-fire, the crisis escalated into a third dimension, an intergovernmental problem. Israel even targeted the military headquarters and the presidential palace in the capital city, Damascus. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has once again supported the Israeli transgression and asked the Syrian security forces to withdraw from the Suweyda region. In other words, Israel and the U.S. did not hesitate to intervene in the domestic affairs of an independent nation.
After many regional states, namely the Arab Gulf states and Türkiye, raised their voices against the Israeli transgression and the following American mediation, Israel agreed to stop its strikes against Syria. However, the clashes still continue.
There are several important reasons for Israel targeting the Syrian government. The first is to undermine Syria’s national security. Israel has been attempting to make Syria a failed state, which is unable to achieve national unity and economic welfare for its citizens. It has been trying to exploit the domestic vulnerabilities of the Syrian government, thereby preventing the success of the reforms initiated by Damascus. It seems that Israel is determined to prevent the Syrian government from taking control of the Suweyda region. Israel may use the region in its future attacks against other Arab states such as Iraq and Jordan.
Israel’s regional strategy is to consolidate its regional hegemony. For this reason, it has been trying to eliminate any regional power that can challenge its regional hegemony. It is clear that Israel will not stop in Syria, since it is determined to punish all regional states if it is not stopped. Sooner or later, Israel will target other Arab states such as Jordan and Iraq to consolidate its regional supremacy further.
As for Israel’s broader strategy, it requires the weakening of all Muslim states worldwide. Therefore, the Israeli government has maintained close relations with all anti-Muslim states in the world. Israel, which supports any political actor that clashes with Muslim states, prefers to use different political actors as pawns in its regional geopolitical game. For example, it has been trying to exploit heterodox religious groups or ethnic minorities in Muslim countries against the traditional Muslim political actors.
By bombing regional countries such as Iran and Syria, Israel is diverting the attention of the international community elsewhere. It is trying to distract from the Gaza genocide and its inhumane plans for the Palestinian people. Thus, it aims to alleviate the growing criticism it faces. Israel continues to commit genocide in Gaza by targeting innocent civilians and condemning them to starvation.
Israel feels free to violate any principles of international law. As of today, the fundamental concepts and institutions of global politics and international law, such as non-interference in internal affairs, national sovereignty and political independence, have no meaning in the Middle East. Israel persistently violates these fundamental principles of the international system because it targets any country it wants at any time it chooses. Eventually, the Israeli practices will destroy the very nature of the international system, which will bring high costs for all countries.
Israel and some Western states, such as the United States, do not respect the states' claim to have a monopoly on the use of force within its borders, a fundamental principle of the modern international system. They do not allow the regional governments to eliminate violent non-state actors such as the Druze community or the YPG/SDF in Syria, within their territory. Israel and Western large powers want to keep these violent non-state actors as potential instruments of their future regional projections.
Israel continues to breach norms of the international system by bombing sovereign states in the Middle East and jeopardizing the ongoing regional normalization processes. Clearly, Israel does not seek security in the region. It has been working for controlled chaos in the Middle East, which will keep all regional countries busy with this chaos.
