Prof. Eyal Zisser, Vice Rector and lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and expert on Syria, spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News about the fall of the Syrian regime, the successor of Bashar Assad and the effects of the situation on Israel.
Prof. Zisser says that “as Israelis, it’s not in our hands. It’s a decision that the Syrians should take, and they took it, but generally speaking, the collapse of the Assad regime is a major blow and setback for Iran, and also for Hezbollah. We have to remember that Assad was a critical link on the way from Tehran to Beirut. He was the one that enabled the emergence of Hezbollah and enabled Hezbollah to become an existential threat to Israel. The 180,000 rockets that Hezbollah fired came from Syria, or through Syria with Bashar’s blessing. So I think that the removal of Bashar from power is not something that Israel should be worried or concerned about.”
“But,” says Prof. Zisser, “we know very little about the new leader, or who seems to be the new leader, Jolani. We know that he originally belonged to ISIS, to Al-Qaeda, but now he says that then he was a young man and people mature, so today he speaks in more pragmatic terms. We should follow things in Syria very closely.”
“There is no doubt that the fall of the Syrian regime is thanks to Israel’s recent military operations in Lebanon. The attack was planned years ago, but clearly the decision for the exact timing had to do with Russia’s engagement in the war in Ukraine, the Iranian setback last year and, of course, Hezbollah’s defeat in the latest war in Lebanon. Those forces saved Bashar ten years ago and now they were not able to offer him any support. This was a major reason that led to his collapse,” explains Prof. Zisser.
On a possible US involvement in the situation in Syria, Prof. Zisser quotes President-elect, Donald Trump, who said that, ’Syria is sand and death,’ “I think he will try to remove himself from any engagement in this conflict and let the others, such as the Turks and the Gulf States take care of Syria, but we’ll need to wait and see.
In conclusion, Prof. Zisser believes that “the IDF should not be deploying more forces to the Syrian border, as it will create more tension that is not needed right now. There is too much energy and I suggest that if there is energy among the high-ranking commanders of the IDF, they should pay attention to Hezbollah. We almost defeated them and then we somehow agreed to a ceasefire, so the energy should go in that direction and not towards Syria, which right now doesn't pose us any threat.”