Israel’s Military Operations in Syria are a Necessity Despite the UN’s Objections

A coalition of rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Syria’s Assad dictatorship in slightly less than two weeks, following nearly fourteen years of strife. HTS has terrorist origins. Although it cut its ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, HTS is still designated by both the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organization.

HTS’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa pledged recently that his group would govern with tolerance for different religions and minority communities. Encouraged by such promising statements, the Biden administration has made “direct contact” with HTS members, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But anyone who claims to know where Syria is headed under its new Islamist leadership is either naïve or a liar.

What we do know for certain is that Bashar al-Assad left behind stocks of conventional weapons and equipment (including from Russia and Iran), chemical weapons of mass destruction, intelligence systems, and military production facilities. If they were to fall into the wrong hands, the results could be devastating, especially for neighboring Israel. Thus, Israel had to take preemptive military action to destroy as much as possible of the Syrian arsenal that could have been seized by Israel’s enemies and turned against the Jewish state. Whatever HTS’s true intentions towards Israel may be, there is nothing to stop profiteers in various parts of the country from selling Syrian weapons they seize to Iran, Hezbollah, and ISIS in Syria.

Israel’s IDF operations were designed to eliminate a potentially new dangerous front on Israel’s doorstep. The operations have included hundreds of attacks on weaponry and other military assets within Syrian territory and a temporary presence within the buffer zone in Syrian territory adjoining Israel.

As Sarit Zehavi & Tal Beeri wrote in an article posted on the Alma Research and Education Center website, “Israel is exercising its right to self-defense and creating a security zone that provides a response to the lessons learned from October 7...”

Despite the grave danger that Syrian chemical and other offensive weapons in the hands of Israel’s enemies pose to the Jewish state, the United Nations has criticized Israel for taking reasonable military steps to protect its citizens. A note to UN correspondents from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ office stated, “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Secretary-General is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria.”

UN-led diplomatic efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the long civil war in Syria and to bring about a more inclusive government within an agreed-upon constitutional framework have proven to be a total failure. Regime change was accomplished by force instead. The rebels who prevailed are an enigma with unclear intentions. HTS remains designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the UN. Moreover, HTS and its rebel coalition partners do not control the entire country. ISIS remains a threat, for example. And it is not known how many Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah forces are still in Syria.

For years, Iran used Syria during Assad’s rule to locate its weapons and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces and as a land route to transport sophisticated weapons from Iran to its terrorist proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. That did not appear to ruffle the UN’s feathers. But when Israel acts during a chaotic period of transition following Assad’s overthrow to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and other military assets that could be used against Israel, the Secretary General is “deeply concerned.”

Israel is “deeply concerned” about the safety of its citizens and its very survival as a Jewish state. It will do whatever it deems necessary to ensure both, irrespective of what the UN and the so-called “international community” think.