Netanyahu hints Israel has thwarted plots to crash hijacked planes into European cities
“Where will the spillover [of a Sunni-Shiite clash in Syria] happen? In Europe. Where will the human flow go? To Europe. Who’s preventing that right now? Israel? Right now, Israel alone. But I maintain that it’s a common interest that we have,” he said.
After initially maintaining neutrality in the first two years of the Syrian civil war, Israel began to help the various Sunni rebels fighting the Assad regime – including the Islamist al-Nusra Front. The strategic shift came as a result of increasing worries about Iran and its growing military capabilities, and the conclusion that even if Assad would win the war, he would be much weaker than he was before the civil war erupted in 2011.
This weakness would mean that the main forces supporting him – Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia – would pursue their own goals in Syria, largely ignoring Assad.
Intelligence and military analysts say that this is what is now happening on the ground in Syria, where Iran and Hezbollah are expanding their control over areas close to the Israeli border.
Israel has been trying to persuade the United States and Russia to keep Iranian forces, Iran-backed Shiite militias, and Hezbollah at least 25 miles away from the Syrian-Israeli border, but without much success.
Russia has quietly told Israel that Russian forces would not fight Iran and Hezbollah in order to keep them in line, but would not stop Israel from doing so. Analysts note that there is a good military information sharing arrangement between Israel and Russia when it comes to operations inside Syria.
The position of the United States is more ambiguous. The Trump administration has employed tough rhetoric in addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but as has been the case with the Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine and Russian commercial support of the North Korean regime, President Trump has been reluctant to take action which would directly confront Vladimir Putin’s policies, even when these policies undermine the interests of the United States and its allies.
Israel is has been increasingly expressing its worries that the Trump administration’s acquiescence in a de facto control of Syria by Iran and Hezbollah, with Russian presence limited to the country’s western coastline, has considerably narrowed Israel’s margin of security.
Last week, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said the most serious immediate threat to Israel was posed by Hezbollah, followed by other Iran-supported jihadist groups positioned on the Syrian border.
Eisenkot described Iran as a “multidimensional threat,” highlighting Iran’s desire to obtain nuclear capabilities, followed by its efforts to achieve hegemony in the region.
