Crazy situation up on our northern border. I dont think anyone knows how this is going to play out.
The Syrian rebels are anti-Assad, and they have now taken out the Assad regime, but that does not make them friendly to Israel. Are we going to get chaos on our northern border, will we have an organized enemy, will we have people trying to turn a new leaf and reaching out a hand in friendship? I dont know if anybody knows, but I definitely do not know, but I do know I am amazed how quickly and easily they made their move and took out the entire regime and made the Assad family flee for their lives, and I know I am happy the Assad's are no longer in charge of the country, though I would prefer that they would have been caught and made to pay for their crimes against humanity (and maybe that will still happen).
It seems pretty clear to me that part of the cause of the collapse of Assad was how weak it was revealed that Iran really is. Israel took out their air defenses and flew loop deloops over Tehran for hours unchallenged. Hezbollah was quickly knocked out tot he point that they practically begged for a ceasefire after saying for 14 months that they would not accept any ceasefire until Gaza is resolved. Israel was able to prevent Iran from resupplying Hezbollah and even from helping out in Syria. Hamas has been mostly decimated, though still in power and holding out. With everyone out of business or distracted, Assad was all alone and couldn't handle it himself.
In the meantime there have been some voices offering friendship or at least cooperation with Israel. Hopefully our government can work the situation to help guide them to at least not be an active hostile enemy looking for trouble, and maybe even create an alliance of some sort. I think a first great gesture would be something I have seen suggested a lot on Twitter/X early this morning - return the remains of Eli Cohen to Israel. I personally would add adding at least whatever information they have on Ron Arad - remember Israel once captured a Syrian general to be held in exchange for Ron Arad information so they likely were somehow involved or have access to information, in addition to the role Syria played in general in Lebanon and with Iran...
We are living in interesting times....
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