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The U.S. and Israel View Syria Differently
(Wall Street Journal) Dov Lieber - Israel's aggressive posture toward the new government in Syria has emerged as a rare point of disagreement with Washington, where President Trump wants a quick resolution to the two countries' tensions. After the collapse of the Assad regime a year ago, Israel carved out a 155-square-mile area inside Syria that it still holds. Since then, it has seized weapons and conducted frequent airstrikes in the south of the country. The U.S. is brokering talks on a security agreement between Syria and Israel, but they appear stalled. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contends that such an agreement is possible only if Syria accepts the demilitarization of land stretching from southern Damascus to the Israeli border - a demand rejected by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Israel took a lesson from the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks from Gaza that it can't bargain away its security interests to please its neighbors or even Washington. It now sees withdrawals from Gaza in 2005 and southern Lebanon in 2000 as mistakes that allowed Hamas and Hizbullah to prepare launchpads for cross-border attacks. "It's easy to take the risk when you're in Washington, but when you're in the Golan Heights it's much more risky. It's too close," said Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser.