TEHRAN - After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. It also intensified airstrikes targeting Syrian military positions across the country.

While Syria is still grappling with the problems resulting from the ousting of the Assad government, the Israeli regime sees the opportunity ripe to occupy more Syrian territories and impose restrictions on Syrian citizens in the south under the pretext of creating buffer zones. Seeing no hurdles, its forces have reached 20 kilometers of Damascus, the capital.
 
Israel feels greatly emboldened to advance its expansionist policies after it destroyed the Gaza Strip with the American-supplied fighter jets and 2,000-pound bombs. That is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the Knesset on December 23, 2024, said Israel's war in Gaza had offered opportunities to sign new peace accords with Arab nations and "dramatically change the face of" the Middle East.

Regrettably, while Israel is unashamedly humiliating Syria, the secretary general of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is urging the international community to take “urgent and decisive action” to stop the “blatant violations” in Syria.

Who is (P)GCC chief Jasem Albudaiwi imploring to stop Israel’s misuse of the situation in Syria? 

It is ironic to call on the international community to stop Israel’s occupation of more Syrian lands or stop its attacks on the country’s military sites while the Arab world, including the Persian Gulf Arab states, was not doing anything concrete to force the U.S. and other Western countries to stop shipment of arms to Israel in its nearly 16-month genocidal acts in Gaza.
 
As a politician Albudaiwi knows well that the only thing that the international community can do is either condemn Israel or table a resolution at the toothless UN General Assembly to ask Israel to end its illegal behavior in Syria or one or two countries submit a resolution at the UN Security Council against Israel which will surely face the American veto, as it happened repeatedly during Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. 

The Arab world, which consists of 22 countries, has the tool to tame Israel. Its (P)GCC states can threaten the West with an oil boycott; other fellow Arab states can also threaten a boycott of goods from the West to force them to pressure Israel to stop its expansionist policies in Syria.

Seeing no action by the Arab world, Israel, with a greenlight from Washington, has started attempts to depopulate the occupied West Bank from its native Palestinian people. Pernicious moves are underway to implement this project. The American Congress is seeking to approve a bill to change the name of the occupied West Bank to Judea and Samaria, and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has advocated for the creation of a Jewish state that would encompass all Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab territories, including the Syrian capital of Damascus.
On Feb. 26, Axios revealed it had obtained a copy of an internal memo that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast has instructed committee staff to refer to the West Bank by its Hebrew name Judea and Samaria.

Also, Turkey, which is the chief supporter of the current Syrian rulers, has just condemned Israel’s moves in Syria. Even when the Israeli army was committing genocide in Gaza, it was facilitating oil from the Republic of Azerbaijan to Israel.

Given the nascent ruling system in Syria, impotence by fellow Arab countries and Turkey, Israel is eying Syria as a delicious prey. 

Additionally, war criminal Netanyahu feels more comfortable for his expansionist policies as he has a key backer in the White House - Donald Trump - who recognized the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as part of Israel in his first presidency in March 2019 in violation of international law.