Atop Syrian Hermon, Netanyahu says Israel to stay until ‘another arrangement’ found

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli troops would remain stationed inside Syria for the foreseeable future, as he met with senior security officials for a situation review atop Mount Hermon.

The premier was joined by Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bat and Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin, and his visit appeared to mark the first time a sitting Israeli leader has entered Syrian territory.

Israel entered the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights hours after rebel groups in Syria took Damascus on December 8, stressing that the seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 is a temporary defensive move that will last only until security is guaranteed along the frontier. Israel says it has no desire to become involved in the conflict in Syria.

Standing atop Mount Hermon, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would remain on its peak “until another arrangement can be found that guarantees Israel’s security.”

“I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers on a Sayeret Matkal patrol,” he said, speaking of the nostalgia that the site brought him.

“This place hasn’t changed, it’s the same place, but its importance to Israel’s security has only been reinforced in recent years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events taking place below us here in Syria,” Netanyahu said.

He added that going forward, Israel would “determine the best arrangement that will guarantee our security.”

Echoing the same sentiments as the premier, Defense Minister Katz described Mount Hermon as “the eyes of the State of Israel to detect near and far threats.”

“The IDF is here to protect the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of the State of Israel from any threat, from the most important place to do so,” he said in remarks provided by his office.

“We will remain here for as long as it is needed,” Katz added. “Our presence here at the peak of the Hermon strengthens security and adds a dimension of both observation and deterrence to Hezbollah’s strongholds in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon and deterrence against the rebels in Damascus, who pretend to present a moderate image, but belong to the most extreme Islamic sects.”

Katz’s comments appeared to refer to the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.

The group has its roots in al-Qaeda and is proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, although it has sought to moderate its rhetoric in recent years.

Since the fall of Assad, the group’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has stressed that the rights of all Syrians, regardless of religion or ethnicity, will be protected under his leadership.

In an interview with the UK’s Times newspaper on Monday, al-Sharaa said that his group was “committed to the 1974 agreement” with Israel that established the demilitarized zone in Syrian territory at the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

“We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks,” he said.

He called for Israel to “pull back to its previous positions,” and criticized heavy Israeli strikes in recent days that have taken out most of the Assad regime’s military assets, reiterating his position that it had a right to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the government’s fall, but that it now has no legitimate basis to keep operating in Syria.

“There is no justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Highlighting Israel’s wary approach to HTS and its leader, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel accused al-Sharaa of being “a wolf in [sheep’s] clothes” due to his jihadist history.

Speaking at a press conference, Haskel held up a photo collage of al-Sharaa am, showing him as a member of various jihadist organizations.

“It is important to avoid falling for the attempt to whitewash jihadist (groups) in Syria. We know who they are and their true nature, even if they change their names, and we understand how dangerous they are to the West,” said Haskel, a lawmaker from Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party.

“These are terrorist organizations and this is a wolf in [sheep’s] clothes.”

Prior to founding HTS, Julani fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. He later set up its subsidiary in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, which for a period was allied with the Islamic State terror group.

He later broke from both jihadist organizations before rebranding Al-Nusra into the Islamist HTS.

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