Israelis watch intently as Syrian rebels approach Golan …
Posted By admin on June 20, 2015
The Israeli early warning station on Mount Hermon, above the cloud line on the Golan Heights. Photograph: STR New/Reuters
The top of Mount Hermon bristles with the golfball antennae, surveillance masts and bunkers that make up Israels northernmost intelligence base. Damascus is a blur in the distance, but the villages on the edge of the Golan Heights are easily visible below, deceptively peaceful in the afternoon sun.
Perched on the windswept 6,500 ft peak, the Israeli army has a birds eye view of what is happening as Syria disintegrates. Hadr, a pro-regime Druze village, fell to rebel fighters on Wednesday. Nearby Jubata al-Khashab is held by loyalist forces. Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaida, is advancing.
On the Syrian and Lebanese sides of the border, this eyrie is known as Jebel al-Sheikh. It saw fierce fighting in the 1973 war but for 40 years watched over a quiet front, the peace maintained by Hafez al-Assad. In recent weeks, however, signs have multiplied that the end may be approaching for his son Bashar.
Syria is dead, Moshe Yaalon, Israels defence minister, declared last week. Assad is paid to be president but he only runs a quarter of the country. He can stay in his palace but hes no longer relevant. Hes on the way out.
Syrias Druze community around 5% of the population has been split between supporters and opponents of Assad but has largely managed to stay out of the war. Now they have been targeted by Nusra and Islamic State (Isis). That has alarmed their co-religionists in Lebanon, on the Israeli-occupied Golan and in Israel proper, where, unlike Arab citizens, the minority serve in the armed forces.
Israeli Druze have demonstrated outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, demanding action to save their brethren, but to no avail. Many in southern Syria expect Israel to do something to keep the knives of Isis away from the throats of the Druze, said a supporter, Mordechai Kedar, recalling the fate of the Yazidis in Iraq. Still, the army did send messages to Nusra, via the mainstream Free Syrian Army (FSA), warning the Islamist group not to harm Syrias Druze.
Publicly, Israel insists it is sticking to its policy of staying out of the conflict next door. But that is not the whole story. Ehud Yaari, a well-connected Middle East analyst, wrote last October that some rebel groups were maintaining constant contact with the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) though they had only been given a modest amount of weapons. UN reports have described Israeli troops handing boxes to armed Syrians.
Evidence of links to anti-Assad groups including Nusra meets official silence. In one intriguing case, subject to censorship and a legal gag order, a Druze activist from the Golan and a serving IDF Druze soldier reportedly learned of and filmed a covert meeting between Israeli intelligence officers and Syrian rebels.
Exactly what Israels eyes and ears can glean about its neighbour from Mount Hermon is a closely guarded military secret. But the implosion of Syria has brought new challenges. In terms of knowing the enemy we used to need to know the name of the Syrian president and chief of staff, Yaalon observed. Now we need to know the leaders of every single militia.
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Israelis watch intently as Syrian rebels approach Golan ...
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