Next door to the war
The State of Israel has long ceased to be the center of conflicts in the Middle East, although traditional diplomacy (including domestic), by inertia, continues to give this country increased attention.
The Palestinian-Israeli “peace process” is being discussed by politicians as if it could be reanimated, and there are numerous programs of the international humanitarian and human rights movement in the UN that focus their attention on the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the region is engulfed in conflicts much more bloody than the Arab-Israeli one, and its constituent countries weaken or fall apart without the participation of Israel. Some external players change their attitude to this country in accordance with the Middle Eastern realities (like the administration of Donald Trump in the US), while others (left-liberal forces from Obama and Soros to the officials of the UN and the EU) are trying to preserve their usual anti-Israeli strategy.
It is characteristic that Russia's participation in the civil war in Syria, which borders on Israel and has been its military adversary for decades, is significantly different from the military-political cooperation between Moscow and Damascus in the Soviet period. In the current situation, countries adhere to positive neutrality, which allows them to maintain a presence in the region without colliding or clashing. This task has recently seemed impossible, all the more so since Israel’s opponents of Israel, such as the Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah, are on the side of Damascus, but for almost a year and a half of the actions of the Russian Aerospace Force in Syria, it was resolved - first of all due to regular Russian-Israeli contacts on top state and military level.
At the same time, the cooperation of the parties in the civil war-ridden region of the Eastern Mediterranean is distinguished by a rare stability, in contrast to Turkey, which has gone from negative neutrality to confrontation on the verge of conflict. And through swift and demonstrative (at the initiative of Turkey) reconciliation to joint actions on the withdrawal of the pro-Turkish groups from the military confrontation with Damascus. It should be noted that during the same period, reconciliation with Turkey took place in Israel, and in the United States openly the anti-Israeli and anti-Russian administration of President Obama was replaced by the Trump administration, which is positive towards Israel and at least for the time being neutral to Russia. That will positively affect the situation in Syria and other areas of intersection of interests of Moscow and Washington.
Domestic experts, considering the policy of Israel towards Syria and what is happening on its territory during several years of civil war, usually rely on traditional stamps from Soviet times that have little in common with the real state of affairs. This article, based on materials prepared for an IBI by an Israeli scientist V. Chernin, is intended to give readers the opportunity to get acquainted with the point of view “from the floor,” presented without distorting bills. World media, as a rule, describe the Israeli position regarding the Syrian events, passing through its filters, which often distort it beyond recognition (as well as the Russian or Iranian). Meanwhile, it is interesting and important in its own right, including because Israel directly borders on the fighting areas in Syria.
Netanyahu's special gift
Clashes between the allies of President Assad and the armed opposition have been going on for several years in the governorates (governorates) of Quneitra and Dara'a, adjacent to the Golan Heights, which came under Israeli control as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967. With the exception of individual targeted attacks on targets in Syrian territory (they are usually reported by foreign sources, while the Israeli authorities remain silent), the Jewish state does not intervene in a civil war in a neighboring country. Regarding the events there since 2011, since the beginning of this war, Israeli politicians have been very cautious. Public statements were made only by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (he has been in office since 2009) and the Ministers of Defense (since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, this post has been occupied by Ehud Barak, Moshe Yaalon and Avigdor Lieberman). The meaning of the statements has always been reduced to the fact that Israel is not involved in the war in the SAR and does not want to be drawn into it, but will not allow shelling of its territory from Syria. Not only representatives of the ruling coalition, but also the parliamentary opposition refrained from speaking out on this topic.
Regardless of their political views, all Israelis understand that on the threshold of their country one of the bloodiest Middle East conflicts of the century unfolded and that the ability of Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent being drawn into this conflict is a common interest. This ability of the prime minister was one of the important reasons for Netanyahu’s unprecedented political success for Israel for many years. Since September, 2015, after the start of Russia's intervention in the civil war in Syria, Israel has established and maintains bilateral contacts with Moscow in the military sphere. The leading figure in these contacts is the prime minister. Israeli media and politicians, including the parliamentary opposition, avoid commenting on Netanyahu’s visits to Moscow (not to mention criticism of this). Understanding that it is a question of agreeing with Moscow on issues related to the protection of the vital interests of the Israeli population, they provided the Prime Minister with credibility in contacts with President Putin and other senior officials of Russia.
This does not mean that everyone in Israel supports the policy of Russia in Syria. Iran and Hezbollah, Russia's allies in the Syrian conflict, are seen as enemies. However, Israeli politicians, both from the right and from the left camp, refrained from publicly criticizing the actions of the Russian Federation in Syria. Only non-parliamentary radical left-wing Israeli organizations, supported by local Muslim Arabs and a very limited number of Jews, spoke with her. Last year, they repeatedly organized small anti-Russian demonstrations in connection with the fighting in Aleppo and the victims among its civilian population. Until recently, completely ignored calls for the Israeli authorities to open the country's borders and accept refugees from Syria.
The attitude of the Israeli Arabs to the civil war in Syria is ambiguous. Druzes and Christian Arabs sympathize with their co-religionists who are under attack in Syria by Sunni militants. However, the Sunnis, who make up the order of 80 percent of the Arab population of Israel, are not united in this matter. The media cites facts of the participation of Israeli Muslims in the civil war in Syria on the side of the Islamic State (IG), which is banned in the Russian Federation, talking about propaganda in its support, conducted in Arabic-language social networks. All Israeli Arabs who returned to the country, who fought on the side of the IG or tried to join it (usually they get to Syria through Turkey), were tried and received prison sentences.
On the other hand, in many cases, attempts to join the IS militants in Syria were thwarted by the appeal of their relatives to the Israeli authorities. Among Muslim Arabs in Israel (not to mention Christians and Druze), the awareness that living in a Jewish state guarantees them not only living standards, social guarantees and civil liberties that are inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the population in Arab countries has strengthened during the years of the Syrian civil war. and physical security. A special position regarding the conflict in Syria is held by the Druze community of Israel, whose representative in the government is the minister without portfolio in the office of Prime Minister Ayub Kara (Likud Party).
The tacit cooperation of Israel with the militants of the Dzhebhat an-Nusrah group banned in the Russian Federation (providing them with medical assistance), lobbied by Saudi Arabia, which established a certain relationship with Jerusalem in the general opposition to Iran, caused outrage of the Druze community. This is explained by the involvement of militants in the forcible conversion of Druze to Islam in Syria and attacks on the large Druze village of Khader (Quneitra governorate), east of the border with Israel. A year and a half ago, there were demonstrations of Israeli Druze and attacks on the “ambulance” of the IDF transporting injured Syrians to Israeli hospitals. As a result, the leaders of the Syrian Sunni militants who contacted the Israelis expressed regret for this and promised to refrain from attacks on the Syrian Druze. The conflict between the Israeli authorities and the Druze community was resolved, in particular, through the efforts of the aforementioned Ayub Qara, who served as deputy minister for regional cooperation.
Immigrants and refugees
Speaking about the ethnic and confessional factor in Israel and the civil war in Syria, it is important to mention that today there are almost no Jews left in the UAR. Once the Jewish population of Syria was very large. Its southwestern regions, according to the Bible, part of it donned the tribes of Manasseh, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, until the end of the 1st century AD were part of the ancient Hebrew states. Thousands of Jews left Syria between the First and Second World Wars, moving to British Mandatory Palestine and the countries of the West (primarily to Latin and North America). The 1943 census of the year showed that 30 thousands of Jews lived in Syria, of which 17 thousands lived in Aleppo, 11 thousands lived in Damascus and two thousand lived in Kamyshly. Subsequently, the Jewish population was reduced due to emigration (including illegal) and repatriation to Israel. In the middle of 90's, about four thousand Jews remained in Syria. President Hafez Asad allowed them to leave the country on the condition that they would not repatriate to Israel. According to the 2006 of the year, a few dozen Jews remained in Damascus and a few people in Kamyshly. In Aleppo, by this time there were no Jews.
The absence of the Jewish population, which for decades has been hostage to the military-political confrontation between Syria and Israel, limits the interests of the Jewish state in the intra Syrian military conflict to three main points. These are the prevention of the spread of military actions on their territory, the non-deployment of the armed forces of Iran and Hezbollah on the Syrian-Israeli border and guaranteeing the security of the Druze minority in Syria. The latter is important for Israel in connection with the special relationship between the Druze and the Jewish state (in Israel they often speak of a “blood alliance” between the Jews and the Druze who serve in the Israeli army - the IDF).
To achieve these goals, Israel maintains contact with a number of opposition Sunni opposition groups operating in the governorates of Quneitra and Dara'a. Contacts are not advertised, but it is known that thousands of Syrians received and receive medical assistance in hospitals in northern Israel and in field hospitals built by the IDF at the border. Moreover, assistance is provided both to members of the opposition detachments and the military personnel of Bashar al-Assad’s army and the civilian population. Casual reports of Israeli humanitarian assistance to civilians directly in Syrian territory.
News It was the fact that Israel will accept refugees from Syria. The media reported that Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, representing the ultra-orthodox Sephardic Shas party, approved a program under which Israel will receive one hundred orphans whose parents died during the civil war in Syria. So far we are only talking about a fundamental decision, but the implementation of the program will begin soon. It is planned that during the first three months of their stay in Israel, as part of the initial adaptation, Syrian children will live in a special orphanage. After that, they will be transferred to regular educational institutions under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.
It is not excluded that Israeli social services will try to find foster families for them. Children will be in the country in the status of temporary residents. In practice, this means that they will receive an Israeli ID card, but not an Israeli foreign passport. As it was reported in the media, it is not excluded that the country will accept the next of kin of these Syrian children - their brothers, sisters and parents, if they show up. Israel intends to promise the UN that after four years in the country in the status of temporary residents, Syrian children will be able to obtain Israeli citizenship, which will give them the right to stay here forever.
Israel has experience in successfully settling refugees who arrived in the country from Lebanon in 2000 after the withdrawal of the IDF forces from the security zone in the south of that country. These were mostly Maronite Christians who collaborated with Israel, as well as a small number of Lebanese Druze. What confessional communities the children belong to, who are supposed to be brought to Israel from Syria, is not reported. Most likely we are talking about Sunni Muslims, Arabs and Circassians - residents of the governorates of Quneitra and Dara'a. The issue of confessional affiliation is of particular importance if these children are transferred to foster families. According to Israeli law, orphans are transferred only to foster families professing the same religion as the lost parents of children.
One "Debka" said
The coming to power of Donald Trump in the USA changed the rules of the game in Syria. In any case, this is perceived in Israel, although most of the media avoid at this stage publishing comments on this topic. The only exception is the Israeli Debka website (in Hebrew and English), specializing in military and foreign affairs in the Middle East. Often, he is the first not only to describe, but also correctly predict the development of events, although from time to time he receives reproaches of the excessive sensation of materials. A report was published on the site, according to which, after Donald Trump replaced Barack Obama in the White House, an agreement was reached between the United States, Russia and Turkey on the creation of zones of control of the three mentioned states in Syria.
On the map published by Debka, the control zone of the Russian Armed Forces extends to the west of Syria, including the Mediterranean coast, the Alawite Mountains, where most of the Alawites, who are the main pillar of the Bashar Assad regime, and such large cities as Aleppo, Idlib and Homs, are concentrated. Under the control of the Turkish army should be a relatively small strip of the border area in the central part of the Syrian-Turkish border. There lives a Turkic minority (Syrian Turkomans), whose armed groups are supported by Ankara.
As for the USA, two zones should be under the control of the American army: in the northeast and in the southwest of the country. North-Eastern - Syrian Kurdistan, whose authorities do not hide their contacts with the United States and Israel. A significant (if not most) part of the Christian population preserved in Syria is concentrated here. Armed formations of Assyrian Christians operate in close contact with Kurdish formations. The South-Western control zone directly borders with Israel and is of particular interest to the Jewish state. This zone includes the governorates of Quneitra and Dera'a, as well as Al-Suweida governorate, the majority of the population - Druze. There is also a significant Christian minority in As-Suwayda.
If the “Debka” message is true even in general, the Syrian governorates of Quneitra, Deraa and Al-Suweida will indeed come under the control of the armies of the United States and Jordan, as well as the allied armed forces of the Syrian opposition, all the goals of the Jewish state in Syria will be achieved. However, the author believes that this information posted by the Israeli site does not reflect the real agreement of the leadership of the countries in question, but is a classic information stuffing, a purely Israeli or American-Israeli. This kind of sensing of the situation (in this particular case with respect to Turkey and first of all Russia) with an attempt to describe to partners the possible contours of the future compromise is characteristic of information resources associated with the special services and the army, including such as the Israeli Debka.
Through their channels, information can be communicated to potentially interested parties without direct contact between diplomats or politicians, thus avoiding the awkward and conflict situations imminent in multilateral conflicts involving opponents whose reconciliation seems impossible (like Israel and Iran). The absence of the distribution of areas of responsibility of Iran (as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar) on the proposed “Debka” confirms its Israeli or American-Israeli origin. This does not diminish the value of information from the point of view of understanding Israeli interests, despite the dubious possibility of putting this scheme into practice ...
The Palestinian-Israeli “peace process” is being discussed by politicians as if it could be reanimated, and there are numerous programs of the international humanitarian and human rights movement in the UN that focus their attention on the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the region is engulfed in conflicts much more bloody than the Arab-Israeli one, and its constituent countries weaken or fall apart without the participation of Israel. Some external players change their attitude to this country in accordance with the Middle Eastern realities (like the administration of Donald Trump in the US), while others (left-liberal forces from Obama and Soros to the officials of the UN and the EU) are trying to preserve their usual anti-Israeli strategy.
It is characteristic that Russia's participation in the civil war in Syria, which borders on Israel and has been its military adversary for decades, is significantly different from the military-political cooperation between Moscow and Damascus in the Soviet period. In the current situation, countries adhere to positive neutrality, which allows them to maintain a presence in the region without colliding or clashing. This task has recently seemed impossible, all the more so since Israel’s opponents of Israel, such as the Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah, are on the side of Damascus, but for almost a year and a half of the actions of the Russian Aerospace Force in Syria, it was resolved - first of all due to regular Russian-Israeli contacts on top state and military level.
At the same time, the cooperation of the parties in the civil war-ridden region of the Eastern Mediterranean is distinguished by a rare stability, in contrast to Turkey, which has gone from negative neutrality to confrontation on the verge of conflict. And through swift and demonstrative (at the initiative of Turkey) reconciliation to joint actions on the withdrawal of the pro-Turkish groups from the military confrontation with Damascus. It should be noted that during the same period, reconciliation with Turkey took place in Israel, and in the United States openly the anti-Israeli and anti-Russian administration of President Obama was replaced by the Trump administration, which is positive towards Israel and at least for the time being neutral to Russia. That will positively affect the situation in Syria and other areas of intersection of interests of Moscow and Washington.
Domestic experts, considering the policy of Israel towards Syria and what is happening on its territory during several years of civil war, usually rely on traditional stamps from Soviet times that have little in common with the real state of affairs. This article, based on materials prepared for an IBI by an Israeli scientist V. Chernin, is intended to give readers the opportunity to get acquainted with the point of view “from the floor,” presented without distorting bills. World media, as a rule, describe the Israeli position regarding the Syrian events, passing through its filters, which often distort it beyond recognition (as well as the Russian or Iranian). Meanwhile, it is interesting and important in its own right, including because Israel directly borders on the fighting areas in Syria.
Netanyahu's special gift
Clashes between the allies of President Assad and the armed opposition have been going on for several years in the governorates (governorates) of Quneitra and Dara'a, adjacent to the Golan Heights, which came under Israeli control as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967. With the exception of individual targeted attacks on targets in Syrian territory (they are usually reported by foreign sources, while the Israeli authorities remain silent), the Jewish state does not intervene in a civil war in a neighboring country. Regarding the events there since 2011, since the beginning of this war, Israeli politicians have been very cautious. Public statements were made only by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (he has been in office since 2009) and the Ministers of Defense (since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, this post has been occupied by Ehud Barak, Moshe Yaalon and Avigdor Lieberman). The meaning of the statements has always been reduced to the fact that Israel is not involved in the war in the SAR and does not want to be drawn into it, but will not allow shelling of its territory from Syria. Not only representatives of the ruling coalition, but also the parliamentary opposition refrained from speaking out on this topic.
Regardless of their political views, all Israelis understand that on the threshold of their country one of the bloodiest Middle East conflicts of the century unfolded and that the ability of Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent being drawn into this conflict is a common interest. This ability of the prime minister was one of the important reasons for Netanyahu’s unprecedented political success for Israel for many years. Since September, 2015, after the start of Russia's intervention in the civil war in Syria, Israel has established and maintains bilateral contacts with Moscow in the military sphere. The leading figure in these contacts is the prime minister. Israeli media and politicians, including the parliamentary opposition, avoid commenting on Netanyahu’s visits to Moscow (not to mention criticism of this). Understanding that it is a question of agreeing with Moscow on issues related to the protection of the vital interests of the Israeli population, they provided the Prime Minister with credibility in contacts with President Putin and other senior officials of Russia.
This does not mean that everyone in Israel supports the policy of Russia in Syria. Iran and Hezbollah, Russia's allies in the Syrian conflict, are seen as enemies. However, Israeli politicians, both from the right and from the left camp, refrained from publicly criticizing the actions of the Russian Federation in Syria. Only non-parliamentary radical left-wing Israeli organizations, supported by local Muslim Arabs and a very limited number of Jews, spoke with her. Last year, they repeatedly organized small anti-Russian demonstrations in connection with the fighting in Aleppo and the victims among its civilian population. Until recently, completely ignored calls for the Israeli authorities to open the country's borders and accept refugees from Syria.
The attitude of the Israeli Arabs to the civil war in Syria is ambiguous. Druzes and Christian Arabs sympathize with their co-religionists who are under attack in Syria by Sunni militants. However, the Sunnis, who make up the order of 80 percent of the Arab population of Israel, are not united in this matter. The media cites facts of the participation of Israeli Muslims in the civil war in Syria on the side of the Islamic State (IG), which is banned in the Russian Federation, talking about propaganda in its support, conducted in Arabic-language social networks. All Israeli Arabs who returned to the country, who fought on the side of the IG or tried to join it (usually they get to Syria through Turkey), were tried and received prison sentences.On the other hand, in many cases, attempts to join the IS militants in Syria were thwarted by the appeal of their relatives to the Israeli authorities. Among Muslim Arabs in Israel (not to mention Christians and Druze), the awareness that living in a Jewish state guarantees them not only living standards, social guarantees and civil liberties that are inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the population in Arab countries has strengthened during the years of the Syrian civil war. and physical security. A special position regarding the conflict in Syria is held by the Druze community of Israel, whose representative in the government is the minister without portfolio in the office of Prime Minister Ayub Kara (Likud Party).
The tacit cooperation of Israel with the militants of the Dzhebhat an-Nusrah group banned in the Russian Federation (providing them with medical assistance), lobbied by Saudi Arabia, which established a certain relationship with Jerusalem in the general opposition to Iran, caused outrage of the Druze community. This is explained by the involvement of militants in the forcible conversion of Druze to Islam in Syria and attacks on the large Druze village of Khader (Quneitra governorate), east of the border with Israel. A year and a half ago, there were demonstrations of Israeli Druze and attacks on the “ambulance” of the IDF transporting injured Syrians to Israeli hospitals. As a result, the leaders of the Syrian Sunni militants who contacted the Israelis expressed regret for this and promised to refrain from attacks on the Syrian Druze. The conflict between the Israeli authorities and the Druze community was resolved, in particular, through the efforts of the aforementioned Ayub Qara, who served as deputy minister for regional cooperation.
Immigrants and refugees
Speaking about the ethnic and confessional factor in Israel and the civil war in Syria, it is important to mention that today there are almost no Jews left in the UAR. Once the Jewish population of Syria was very large. Its southwestern regions, according to the Bible, part of it donned the tribes of Manasseh, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, until the end of the 1st century AD were part of the ancient Hebrew states. Thousands of Jews left Syria between the First and Second World Wars, moving to British Mandatory Palestine and the countries of the West (primarily to Latin and North America). The 1943 census of the year showed that 30 thousands of Jews lived in Syria, of which 17 thousands lived in Aleppo, 11 thousands lived in Damascus and two thousand lived in Kamyshly. Subsequently, the Jewish population was reduced due to emigration (including illegal) and repatriation to Israel. In the middle of 90's, about four thousand Jews remained in Syria. President Hafez Asad allowed them to leave the country on the condition that they would not repatriate to Israel. According to the 2006 of the year, a few dozen Jews remained in Damascus and a few people in Kamyshly. In Aleppo, by this time there were no Jews.
The absence of the Jewish population, which for decades has been hostage to the military-political confrontation between Syria and Israel, limits the interests of the Jewish state in the intra Syrian military conflict to three main points. These are the prevention of the spread of military actions on their territory, the non-deployment of the armed forces of Iran and Hezbollah on the Syrian-Israeli border and guaranteeing the security of the Druze minority in Syria. The latter is important for Israel in connection with the special relationship between the Druze and the Jewish state (in Israel they often speak of a “blood alliance” between the Jews and the Druze who serve in the Israeli army - the IDF).To achieve these goals, Israel maintains contact with a number of opposition Sunni opposition groups operating in the governorates of Quneitra and Dara'a. Contacts are not advertised, but it is known that thousands of Syrians received and receive medical assistance in hospitals in northern Israel and in field hospitals built by the IDF at the border. Moreover, assistance is provided both to members of the opposition detachments and the military personnel of Bashar al-Assad’s army and the civilian population. Casual reports of Israeli humanitarian assistance to civilians directly in Syrian territory.
News It was the fact that Israel will accept refugees from Syria. The media reported that Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, representing the ultra-orthodox Sephardic Shas party, approved a program under which Israel will receive one hundred orphans whose parents died during the civil war in Syria. So far we are only talking about a fundamental decision, but the implementation of the program will begin soon. It is planned that during the first three months of their stay in Israel, as part of the initial adaptation, Syrian children will live in a special orphanage. After that, they will be transferred to regular educational institutions under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.
It is not excluded that Israeli social services will try to find foster families for them. Children will be in the country in the status of temporary residents. In practice, this means that they will receive an Israeli ID card, but not an Israeli foreign passport. As it was reported in the media, it is not excluded that the country will accept the next of kin of these Syrian children - their brothers, sisters and parents, if they show up. Israel intends to promise the UN that after four years in the country in the status of temporary residents, Syrian children will be able to obtain Israeli citizenship, which will give them the right to stay here forever.
Israel has experience in successfully settling refugees who arrived in the country from Lebanon in 2000 after the withdrawal of the IDF forces from the security zone in the south of that country. These were mostly Maronite Christians who collaborated with Israel, as well as a small number of Lebanese Druze. What confessional communities the children belong to, who are supposed to be brought to Israel from Syria, is not reported. Most likely we are talking about Sunni Muslims, Arabs and Circassians - residents of the governorates of Quneitra and Dara'a. The issue of confessional affiliation is of particular importance if these children are transferred to foster families. According to Israeli law, orphans are transferred only to foster families professing the same religion as the lost parents of children.
One "Debka" said
The coming to power of Donald Trump in the USA changed the rules of the game in Syria. In any case, this is perceived in Israel, although most of the media avoid at this stage publishing comments on this topic. The only exception is the Israeli Debka website (in Hebrew and English), specializing in military and foreign affairs in the Middle East. Often, he is the first not only to describe, but also correctly predict the development of events, although from time to time he receives reproaches of the excessive sensation of materials. A report was published on the site, according to which, after Donald Trump replaced Barack Obama in the White House, an agreement was reached between the United States, Russia and Turkey on the creation of zones of control of the three mentioned states in Syria.
On the map published by Debka, the control zone of the Russian Armed Forces extends to the west of Syria, including the Mediterranean coast, the Alawite Mountains, where most of the Alawites, who are the main pillar of the Bashar Assad regime, and such large cities as Aleppo, Idlib and Homs, are concentrated. Under the control of the Turkish army should be a relatively small strip of the border area in the central part of the Syrian-Turkish border. There lives a Turkic minority (Syrian Turkomans), whose armed groups are supported by Ankara.
As for the USA, two zones should be under the control of the American army: in the northeast and in the southwest of the country. North-Eastern - Syrian Kurdistan, whose authorities do not hide their contacts with the United States and Israel. A significant (if not most) part of the Christian population preserved in Syria is concentrated here. Armed formations of Assyrian Christians operate in close contact with Kurdish formations. The South-Western control zone directly borders with Israel and is of particular interest to the Jewish state. This zone includes the governorates of Quneitra and Dera'a, as well as Al-Suweida governorate, the majority of the population - Druze. There is also a significant Christian minority in As-Suwayda.
If the “Debka” message is true even in general, the Syrian governorates of Quneitra, Deraa and Al-Suweida will indeed come under the control of the armies of the United States and Jordan, as well as the allied armed forces of the Syrian opposition, all the goals of the Jewish state in Syria will be achieved. However, the author believes that this information posted by the Israeli site does not reflect the real agreement of the leadership of the countries in question, but is a classic information stuffing, a purely Israeli or American-Israeli. This kind of sensing of the situation (in this particular case with respect to Turkey and first of all Russia) with an attempt to describe to partners the possible contours of the future compromise is characteristic of information resources associated with the special services and the army, including such as the Israeli Debka.
Through their channels, information can be communicated to potentially interested parties without direct contact between diplomats or politicians, thus avoiding the awkward and conflict situations imminent in multilateral conflicts involving opponents whose reconciliation seems impossible (like Israel and Iran). The absence of the distribution of areas of responsibility of Iran (as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar) on the proposed “Debka” confirms its Israeli or American-Israeli origin. This does not diminish the value of information from the point of view of understanding Israeli interests, despite the dubious possibility of putting this scheme into practice ...
Information