Part 2 - Walking into the unknown with Syria

Read part 1: The fall of Assad – Good or bad for Israel?

Before you’re ready to breathe a sigh of relief, because a brutal dictator has been deposed, check out who the replacement is going to be.

The news is not good when hearing it from Aaron Cohen, ex-Israeli special forces agent, and counterterrorism analyst and Rebeccah Heinrichs, Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute, specializing in national defense and foreign policy, both of whom recently appeared on Fox News@Night. 

They wasted no time adding proper context to the more accurate image of rebel head, Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the strongest of all of the Syrian rebel groups. Identifying him as “an al-Qaeda veteran who then joined ISIS, followed by the Al Nusra group,” Cohen explains how he has seamlessly shifted from hard-core jihadist to an adept media spokesperson, able to articulate his cause to the outside world. Far from a “freedom fighter,” Cohen says, “he is a terrorist who has put out a statement saying, ‘we are coming for Jerusalem next.’”

According to Heinrichs, ever since the U.S. left Afghanistan, ISIS has attempted to gain dominance wherever they felt they could get a foothold. Now, she says they could easily take advantage of a vulnerable Syria, which lacks leadership, insinuating themselves into the mix of other vying entities, all of whom seek dominance. But as Heinrichs puts it, “These are not Jeffersonian democrats who just want freedom, because there is no freedom in jihad,” so although HTS claims to be interested in “taking care of minorities” the evidence of that will only come as events further unfold. 

In the meantime, no one should be taken in by what appears to be a polished Westernized front act, designed to gain acceptance by other nations who are happy to see the fall of a tyrant. Because, it’s impossible to ignore Al-Jolani’s declaration that his takeover was “a victory for the entire Islamic nation” or “Allahu Akbar,” the first words he said when entering the famous Damascus Umayyad Mosque identical utterances proceeding the detonation of every suicide bomber. 

The plethora of rebels, whose only commonality was their hatred of the oppressive Assad regime, represent the vast unknown in this region, but one with the most potential impact to the Jewish state, who shares a border with Syria, an area considered to be strategic military territory that, undoubtedly, some, if not all of them, would like to conquer.

It is because these rebels espouse the same ideology as al-Qaeda, ISIS and other extreme Islamic doctrines, chief of which believes that all of mankind must be under its control, that everyone would be wise to think of them no differently than another life form of Hamas, willing to bide their time, but ready to pounce at a moment they believe the Jewish state has sufficiently been lulled into a false sense of security.  

Hopefully, we’ve already learned that bitter lesson, coupled with the reality that neighbors who refuse to recognize our legal and God-given right to the land of our ancestors cannot be classified as potential peace partners. Because if their goal is to rid the Middle East of any Jewish presence, then we have no basis to build anything together.

Why would we even think that another Islamic terror group, taking control of neighboring land, would result in a different outcome? To come to such a conclusion, would mean that we have learned nothing from the real lesson of October 7th – which is realizing that the goal of extremist Muslims is to utterly destroy Israel and seize our land, in its entirety. That is why the upcoming conference, set for June, to be co-sponsored by French president Macron and Saudi Arabian Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, towards the goal of reviving a two-state solution is nothing more than an exercise in futility.

Regrettably, there is no “preferable” group to lead Syria, if they are all committed to our demise.  But for those who insist on believing the myth that peaceful coexistence can occur in the Middle East, they will foolishly continue to accommodate whatever it takes to try to bring that about. It is the reason that the UK is already rethinking its HTS terror ban, in order to facilitate diplomatic channels.

But doing so will only work towards lending the legitimacy needed, by these rebels, in order to eventually be seen as the heir apparent of a Middle East country lacking a leader, something which is highly problematic during a time when a vacuum is waiting to be filled.  

In his article titled, “What does the fall of Assad mean for the US and Israel,” Senior Editor of the Jerusalem Post report, Dr. Eric Mandel says that there will likely be many among Trump’s new incoming administration who will “be for the US to do nothing.  However, the Marco Rubio-Mike Waltz faction knows better. Creating a vacuum in the Levant will create more chaos with the chance of American troops being drawn in again.”

The history of the Middle East is one which has been marked by a never-ending series of power struggles, aimed at holding the levers of control by whatever means possible.  Given centuries of tribal influence, accompanied by barbarism and abject violence, Israel finds herself in the midst of uncivilized, brutal and primitive actors, who will stop at nothing, including masquerading as reasonable purveyors of peace and good will, in order to hoodwink an unsuspecting public who takes them at their word.  But recent events warn us not to be gullible.

True and lasting peace will only come when foreign leaders, of neighboring countries, are first willing to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland with a legal and biblical right to return.  It must be ready to respect and honor her borders, her laws and her sovereignty. That will be followed by a commitment to abandon the threat of all attacks, because part of recognition is to relent that we are here to stay, and they have made peace with that fact.

Until such guarantees can be given, Israel will have to live with the expectation that each of these characters, dubbed today as “rebels,” are merely an extension or continuation of the former history of a bloody Middle East which will never find its place of rest until the Almighty supernaturally intervenes, because it is only He who can put an end to thousands of years of enmity based on the bitter rivalry which began with Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael, and the child of promise, Isaac, the rightful inheritor of the land.