WhatsappWhile the war in Gaza continues, Israel is pushing further and further into southern Syria in an attempt to build a demilitarized buffer zone that will include both the Druze region in the Bashan as well as the larger Druze province of Sweida or Jabal Al Druze. Doing this requires the IDF to militarily take over the Daraa province in which hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims live.
The fact is, videos like the above that show Jihadists in southern Syria threatening to do another October 7th on Israel, has driven Israel to solidify its hold on southern Syria. Without the IDF backing up the Druze and Christian residents in the south, Jolani’s Jihadist henchmen would have slaughtered them a long time ago.
While it would be easier for Israel to simply try to create a bridge from the Bashan to Sweida/Jabal Al Druze, the fact is the terrain from the southern Golan through the Yarmouk to Sweida/Jabal Al Druze is easier to maneuver and farther away from Damascus. Connecting the two areas this way means less of the Sunni majority Daraa province to manage as well as creating a buffer zone along the Yarmouk river between the Jihadist Syrian government and the Kingdom of Jordan.
Israel has made significant headway into the southern area known as the Yarmouk basin. This area is politically part of the Daraa region, but the reality is that is is a very low lying area at the mouth of the Yarmouk that meets Jordan and Israel’s Golan. The Yarmouk is considered porous and provides an easy place for Jihadists to cross. It appears that Israel is planning to stay there indefinitely.
While there has been considerable rhetoric threatening Israel from both Jolani’s HTS and Turkey’s Erdogan, the Trump administration and even some countries in the EU are quietly rooting for Israel to strengthen its foothold in southern Syria, both as a counterweight to Turkey’s expansionism and as a stabilizing force that will ultimately protect the Druze. For Israel, it has no choice but to seize the momentum and provide the kind of strategic depth it has long sought.
