Individuals react to the autumn of Syrian regime in Umayyad Sq. on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Insurgent forces in Syria claimed that that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the nation. Syria has been mired in a multi-party civil warfare since 2011, amid the Arab Spring uprisings. (Picture by Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Pictures)
As Syrians have fun the top of the Assad dynasty, their pleasure is shared by tens of millions in lots of elements of the world. Pictures of jubilation have crammed TV information broadcasts in addition to social media platforms.
Many Syrian refugees throughout Europe and the Levant have expressed disbelief coupled with gratitude on the alternative to return residence.
The rebel and armed battle to alter the regime in Syria has been within the making for various years and concerned many home and exterior actors.
Many will probably be asking whether or not the autumn of Bashar al-Assad may have any bearing on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
In different phrases, will the revolutionary zeal that accompanied an intense interval of coaching, coordination and preparation to free Syria from Assad’s iron-fisted grip finish in Damascus?
Or will it prolong to the Levant?
Let’s be clear: Israel and the USA’ opposition to Assad’s authorities had zero to do together with his repressive rule. That is borne out by the truth that neither of these international locations nor fellow Western allies have any downside with equally repressive regimes reminiscent of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and others.
It needed to do with one easy reality: Syria beneath Assad served as an essential conduit for weapons to the resistance teams combating Israel.
Severing that provide line has at all times been their objective, which begs the query whether or not Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and its chief, Abu Muhammed al Jolani, will adjust to Israel’s “ban” or revive the weapons lifeline to Palestine.
In its message of congratulations, Hamas hoped that post-Assad Syria would proceed “its historic and pivotal position in supporting the Palestinian individuals”.
So too has the chief of Islamic Jihad, Ziad Al-Nakhala, who echoed Hamas’s sentiments: “The Islamic Jihad hopes Syria will stay an actual help for the Palestinian individuals, their simply trigger, because it has at all times been.”
Individually, issues are additionally raised whether or not Israel’s geopolitical leverage within the wider Arab area will enhance or diminish.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t hidden his glee that his nemesis Bashar al-Assad has been faraway from energy. He has boasted that his wars in Lebanon, Gaza and the missile assaults on Iran have triggered the collapse of Assad’s regime.
He subsequently expects the HTS to reciprocate by establishing “peaceable” neighbourly relations. The swagger in Netanyahu’s voice and physique language factors to vanity and defiance.
Whereas negotiations are continuing to institute orderly governance in Syria by the HTS, Netanyahu has instructed his forces to grab management of a beforehand demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory within the Occupied Golan Heights and assault what is claimed to be weapons depots with tons of of airstrikes.
Netanyahu’s newest violation of Syria’s sovereignty has seen the Israeli Navy finishing up a large-scale assault on the nation’s naval belongings.
Israeli media, quoting army sources, reported that quite a few Syrian navy vessels armed with sea-to-sea missiles had been destroyed in strikes carried out by Israeli Navy missile boats, on the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast.
Israel’s air pressure has carried out greater than 300 airstrikes in Syria because the departure of Assad. Experiences point out that the bombing marketing campaign has destroyed advance weapons, airports, essential infrastructure and varied installations.
The overthrow of Assad conjures recollections of the revolutionary ousting of Egypt’s dictator, Hosni Mubarak. The democratic course of which unfolded thereafter resulted in a preferred election of a Muslim Brotherhood chief, Muhammed Morsi. Shortly thereafter, a army coup backed by the US, Israel and the Saudi monarchy, put in a army robust man, Basic Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has remained devoted to the US.
The Western interventionalist sample within the area, as described by a commentator, appears to be, help democracy, however provided that it finally ends up producing an ally that’s aligned to your pursuits — in any other case, provoke regime change to herald a dictator.
As the Jewish musician, conductor and author, Jonathan Ofir writes, when it’s to do with the Center East, “there may be at all times an elephant within the room — Israel”.
Many questions and issues have arisen about what follows subsequent in Syria and the area.
No dialogue on Syria beneath the HTS will probably be full with out the burning difficulty of the occupation of strategic elements of its territory by Turkey, the US and Israel.
These are among the many many troubling points the brand new formation faces because it takes steps to supply the individuals of Syria their elected authorities.
Iqbal Jassat is an govt member of the Media Evaluate Community.