MIDDLE EAST WARS
WHY ISRAEL BOMBED SYRIA FOLLOWING IRAN
Saro Thiruppathy wonders if Israel’s increasing aggression is a strategic move towards a Greater Israel in line with the Abrahamic Covenant
On 13 July – following reports of the abduction of a Druze merchant – a wave of sectarian violence between the Druze, Bedouin militia and government forces rocked the Suwayda Governorate in Syria.
Although internal discord is nothing new in Suwayda, the crisis worsened when the government tried to impose its authority in the region.
The importance of the ethno religiously monotheistic Druze community for Israel is that it pulls with Tel Aviv. The Druze, who observe a unique faith, are present in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Venezuela, Germany and Canada. And since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, they have shown solidarity with the Israelis. Many also serve with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
According to a 2010 census, the Druze – who call themselves ‘al-Muwaḥḥidūn’ (the monotheists) – constitute the largest religious group in Syria and account for 3.2 percent of the population. They live mostly in the rural mountainous areas of Mount Druze in the eastern and southern parts of Damascus.
After violence broke out in the Druze city, Israel bombed Damascus, Suwayda and Daraa, claiming that it was protecting the Druze against Syrian government forces. Analysts claim that a week later, more than 1,100 people had been killed in Suwayda.
This conflagration reignited fears of a breakdown of law and order in Syria since it was taken over by rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa a.k.a. Abu Mohammad al-Julani. In the aftermath of former president Bashar al-Assad’s departure from Damascus, hundreds of members of the Arab ethno religious minority the Alawites have also been killed.
FLEXING MUSCLE The bombing of Damascus in violation of Syria’s sovereignty has been condemned by Arab nations. This attack by Israel followed soon after the bombing of Iran in June.
Zionist leaders claim that Israel faces existential threats from nations such as Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. And since the attack on southern Israel by Hamas in 2023, it has carried out approximately 35,000 raids on those countries.
Although Israel inked the US backed Abraham Accords in 2020 with Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan, its relationship with these states isn’t particularly strong.
However, the military and monetary might of the US ensures that other Arab nations also toe the line, in terms of fostering peace and prosperity in the Middle East, through regional stability and economic partnerships.
Relations with Iran have been far from cordial ever since former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made existential threats against Israel in 2005. Thereafter, the Zionists stepped up their rhetoric that Iran was enriching uranium and had the capacity to manufacture a nuclear bomb.
Eventually, Israel attacked Iran in June and faced a juggernaut of missiles in response.
PROXY WAR Following 9/11, the Israeli government strongly encouraged former US president George Bush to attack Iraq based on unfounded claims that then president Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
Then US Secretary of State John Kerry went on record saying that the present Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (a private citizen at the time) was “profoundly forward leaning and outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq.”
He was quoted in The Washington Post, which claimed that Israel was “urging United States officials not to delay a military strike against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.”
GREATER ISRAEL Regardless of Cairo kowtowing to Tel Aviv, and refusing to allow food and medical aid to enter Gaza through the Rafah Border Crossing, there have been rumblings among Zionists about replacing the cold peace between Egypt and Israel with a cold war.
There are even suggestions that Egypt should be the next focus after Iran.
Meanwhile, a pattern is emerging of Israel’s increasing enmity, the attacks on its neighbours and a proxy war with Iraq. And the concept of a ‘Greater Israel,’ which envisions an expanded territory that is in line with the Abrahamic Covenant referred to in the Christian and Hebrew Bibles, is quietly emerging.
The Hebrew Bible claims that the Promised Land extends from the Nile River to the Euphrates in Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia). But the Christian Bible states that covenant only applies to the land between the Euphrates and the Brook of Egypt, which is merely a desert stream rather than the mighty Nile.
Ironically, although the Promised Land was occupied by the Canaanites at the time of the covenant, Abraham himself wasn’t a Canaanite and hailed from the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in Southern Mesopotamia near the Euphrates.
Some far-right Zionists favour a Greater Israel that encompasses even lands that aren’t covered by the Mandate for Palestine such as Jordan, parts of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq. Their ambitions aim to counter their obsession with extinction and it is possible that a Greater Israel could become a reality.
The achievement of a larger footprint may be why Israel’s acts of aggression over the decades appear to be far more strategic rather than merely random armed encounters.
