The End of an Era: After 54 years of the Assad’s family rule in Syria, 24 years of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, and 13 years of deadly civil war, Syrian rebels announced in the early morning hours the official fall of the Syrian regime after taking control of Damascus. The fate of Assad is unknown at the moment, with most reports saying the dictator fled to an unknown location.
This historic event is the culmination of a process that began a week and a half ago, with the start of the surprise attack by the Syrian rebels in the Idlib enclave toward the territories under Assad’s control. The rebels captured city after city at lightning speed, and advanced from Aleppo to Hema and the outskirts of Homs; this led to a resurgence of rebel cells in southern Syria, which took over the provinces near Israel and attacked Damascus from the south. The Assad army did not withstand the pressure, and quickly collapsed in all the battles it participated in.
In Israel, these developments are viewed with joy mixed with a cautious fear. The IDF has carried out a number of offensive and defensive actions in recent days, in preparation for the new reality that will exist on the Israeli-Syrian border: In the Golan Heights, roads near the border were closed, and classrooms were closed; at the same time, Division 98 (which had recently completed maneuvering in Lebanon) was brought to reinforce the forces at the border, and IDF forces began proactive activities in the demilitarized buffer zone between Israel and Syria (as determined in the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement after the 1948 war), In order to prevent the rapprochement of activists and armed men to the Israeli border and the creation of a danger to the residents of the Golan, according to Doron Kadosh.
However, there are optimistic voices at the Israeli leadership level regarding the overthrow of the Assad regime, with the most positive result of this event being the “breaking” of the Shiite axis connecting Iran and Iraq with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while wiping out many years of Iranian defeats in Syria and the Israeli border, and the destruction of a decades-long strategy against Israel. The changing Syrian space is in a flexible state, creating new strategic opportunities for Israel that could improve its position in the Middle East for the long term.
