Cries of joy have now turned into sighs of despair, as we all witness the new threats emerging for Israel from the new regime in Syria.
By Rachel Avraham
When Assad’s regime fell, supporters of Israel across the globe were happy because the fall of the last standing Baathist regime in Syria meant the weakening of Iran in the Middle East region, as the Assad regime was closely aligned with Iran. It meant that no more would Iran be encroaching upon the Syrian Golan Heights and posing a threat to us. It meant that the route for Iranian weapons to reach Hezbollah in Lebanon would be cut off, as allies of Tehran no longer controlled Damascus. For the State of Israel, Iran is our main existential threat. The Iranian regime all the time chants “death to Israel” and seeks a nuclear program, which aims for our annihilation. Anything to weaken Iran thus appeared to be good.
However, cries of joy have now turned into sighs of despair, as we all witness the new threats emerging for Israel from the new regime in Syria. Indeed, it was perhaps wishful thinking to think that individuals who were formerly associated with Al Qaeda could ever have been a positive force for change in the Middle East.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, severed ties with ISIS in the past and was considered its official branch for several years. Those who followed the messages from ISIS jihadists a decade ago surely remembers that those who believe in this Islamist ideology believe they must kill all infidels to fulfill the will of Allah. We were witnesses to the genocide carried out by ISIS against the Yazidi and Christian population. Just as Iraq is full of various religions and sects, so is Syria, but in Syria, there is one sect that, beyond being non-Muslim (or more accurately, having freed itself from the yoke of Islam and chosen to believe in a different faith, making it even worse than just a group of infidels), is also suspected of having ties with Israel.
An anonymous Druze source from Syria shared his experiences as a Druze living under the rule of the jihadist Islamists known as HDS: “They held the Druze area in Idlib and what they did there is not good at all. The jihadists of HDS put Islamic prayer in our Druze shrines and brought sheiks to teach us about Islam. The women and many others were smuggled to Suweyda. They wanted to force the women to marry the Islamists and so we smuggled them out. The people left in Idlib are mostly old people.”
According to him, “The first three days when HDS came to power, they went and harassed people, calling them unbelievers. They spat on women because they did not cover themselves properly. They are jihadists. They cannot be reformed. If things continue as are, it will not lead to anything good. They want to build an army. They want to keep their weapons in the hands of the Syrian state and not let anyone else to participate in that state, except for them.” In his words, he claimed that not all Muslims in Syria support the ideology and way of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but the organization controls the imams in the mosques throughout the country. This is how they manage to attract Syrian citizens to their cause.
Since HDS took over, they have been engaging in wanton violence against the Alawites, the Christians and the Kurds. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that monitors human rights violations in Syria, over 1,500 Syrian civilians were killed in sectarian violence between March 6 and March 12. According to the Times of Israel, most belonged to Syria’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam to which deposed President Bashar al-Assad also belonged. So far, Israel’s alliance with the Druze and Israeli incursions into Syria has protected the Druze from sharing their fate, but the population still lives in fear.
However, not only the Druze fear what may come next from the HTS regime in Syria. According to MEMRI, “On October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas massacre in Israel, and in the months that followed, senior political, military, and religious figures from the Syrian jihadi group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) – the Al-Qaeda offshoot that would take control of Syria in early December 2024 – came out in full support of the attack. This support took the form of multiple declarations of jihad against Israel, to include large-scale suicide attacks against it and its supporters and “filthy Jews” around the world, and for the murder of Israeli leaders. HTS officials said that the battle to destroy Israel should shed blood and sever limbs, and referenced the Hadith about the gharqad tree, that according to a Hadith will shield the Jews when the Muslims come to slaughter them on Judgment Day.”
For example, on October 7th itself, Egyptian-born HTS cleric Yahya (Abu Al-Fath) Al-Farghali – who was at the time very close to Al-Joulani but has been marginalized since the takeover – called, on his Telegram channel, for suicide and other attacks, referencing jihad and martyrdom: “Oh Allah, grant those who wage jihad for your sake in Gaza victory over Your enemy and theirs, and give them a clear conquest… Guide them to Your straight path and to what You love and are pleased with.” Later that day, he added that despite Iranian support for Hamas, Sunnis should nonetheless celebrate other Muslims’ “[acts of] worship and infliction of harm on Allah’s enemies.”
Ten days later, on October 17th, Al-Farghali wrote that only “suicide operations” would deter Israel and that every Muslim must undertake them against Israelis anywhere in the world. On October 19th, he wrote that the “quickest deterrence of the massacres committed against Gaza” would be a large-scale campaign of unrestrained martyrdom-seeking – i.e. suicide – operations so that the situation “gets out of control,” adding that the strategic liberation of Al-Aqsa and Palestine would follow “the uprooting of Zionism’s pegs in the region – that is, the traitorous collaborationist rulers of the Muslim countries.” In other words, once HTS is done going after Israel’s Arab allies, then they will go after Israel directly.
The Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), an HTS-affiliated rebel governing body, published its Statement of Support for the Palestinian People’s Right to Regain its Land – ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ on October 10th. It congratulated Hamas and the Palestinian factions on their operation and affirming the Palestinians’ right to take over Israel, and declared that this struggle inspires the Syrian mujahideen. “Sooner or later the occupier will disappear,” it said, as it called on Islamic religious bodies and scholars worldwide to “defend and back our people in brave Palestine and support their struggle and jihad.” It concluded with expressions of “esteem and admiration to the steadfast Palestinian people and battalions of the resistance, chiefly the Martyr Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades,” and asked Allah to “honor the Palestinian and Syrian nation with victory and empowerment.”
MEMRI concluded, “After the HTS takeover of Syria, the group’s leader, Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, reclaimed his given name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, exchanged his military uniform for a suit and tie, and appeared to swiftly and pragmatically adopt positions favored by the West. At least, he spoke as if he had. But it is still to be seen whether HTS’s jihadi origins are buried in the past or will resurface to prevail over more moderate approaches.”
