For Israel, there is no real strategic or tactical need to keep up the friction with Syrian villages along the buffer zone - and a re-think may be necessary in the future.
US President Donald Trump may be pressuring Israel to withdraw forces from several areas along the border with Syria, according to a Tuesday Axios report. “President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call Thursday that Israel should start redeploying its forces out of Syria and urged him to do the same in Lebanon, according to US and Israeli officials,” an Axios report by Barak Ravid noted on Tuesday.
This raises questions about where Israel might shift forces and which areas are in the spotlight. To understand Israel’s current posture in Syria, it’s worth understanding how we got here, starting when Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. In 1973, after the war with Syria and Egypt led to a ceasefire, there was a new buffer zone created on the Golan between Israeli and Syrian forces, resulting in a 1974 ceasefire line.
The line is not a single line but several lines, one called Alpha and another called Bravo. "The Israel-Syria border consists of two lines which are separated by a 155-square-mile buffer zone," the IDF said in 2020. "This buffer zone lies in Syrian territory and is monitored by the UN. To the east of it is the Bravo Line that signifies the end of the buffer zone and the beginning of Syria. To the west is the Alpha Line, where the UN buffer zone ends and Israel begins.” (Ed note: All very interesting, but remember the prophecy found in Isaiah 17. Always keep one eye on the state of Syria.) (Read More)
