by Yonah Jeremy Bob
The program of Syrian Druze working in the Golan Heights will start on March 16.
The IDF's presence on the Syrian Mount Hermon and in the buffer zone in general protect Israel from a range of Syrian, Hamas, and Iranian threats, Defense Minister Israel Katz told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday while standing next to a Syrian outpost which the IDF took over in December following the fall of the Assad regime.
"There are a series of threats. This regime is a jihadist regime. It put on a mask, but then it removed its mask. It tries to get a following," globally to reduce economic sanctions and become reaccepted into the Western-fold of nations, Katz told the Post.
The defense minister said, "We knew about this in advance, and we got ready," in justifying the IDF's presence in Syria, though Jerusalem has said it has no territorial claims to the country.
On December 7-8, the regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled the Assad regime, and since then, it has actively promoted itself as a more tolerant, moderate, and Western-looking Syria that respects Syrian minorities and would never threaten Israel.
However, Israel quickly seized a buffer zone in southern Syria as al-Sharaa was taking power out of concern that he (his background is as a former member of al-Qaeda) and some of his jihadist allies might talk sweetly to the West for the moment, but then attack Israel in the future once it would let its guard down.
Next, Katz stated, "And also there are attempts by Iran and Hezbollah to smuggle weapons," to reconstitute the Lebanese terror group's arsenal to return its ability to attack and threaten Israel.
These two threats are widely known.
Palestinians within Syria
But Katz noted for the Post another much lesser known threat, "and there is also a Palestinian threat...they have lots of refugee camps which are" being used to conceal attempts to formulate attacks on Israel.
In fact, though rarely discussed in the media, there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Syria. While many of them have no particular interest in Israel, Hamas and other terror groups have cleverly tapped into the poverty and hopelessness that many Palestinians in Syria have suffered during their many decades in that country to draw new recruits to carry out terror attacks against the Jewish state.
"We are here, and the IDF is here" as long as needed to prevent any of these groups from threatening Israel from Syrian territory, Katz told the Post.
Katz and IDF officials have given indications that the IDF could be in Syria for years, with a withdrawal date from the buffer zone depending on threat conditions on the ground and not having a set timetable.
Returning to al-Sharaa, who is also known as Julani, Katz told a group of Israeli media on the Syrian Hermon with him, including the Post, “every morning that Julani opens his eyes in the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF observing him from the heights of the [Syrian] Hermon and will remember that we are here and in the entire southern Syria area.”
He added that, “we will strengthen the connection between the local [Syrian] residents and soon, on the 16th of this month, we will start [the program] of [Syrian] Druze working in the Golan Heights” within Israel.
Israeli defense sources estimate that there are around 500,000-600,000 Syrian Druze in the area of the Druze and Hermon mountains.
Further, the defense minister added that overnight, between Monday and Tuesday, the air force attacked more than 40 targets in southern Syria in order to follow through on Israel’s statements that it will remove potential threats from southern Syria.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF had revealed that the thrust of the targets in question were Syrian radar systems.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-845646
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