(JNS) Syria has remained formally at war with Israel since 1973. Knowing it could not win a direct confrontation, Damascus waged war by proxy—arming Hezbollah and inviting Iran to entrench itself on Syrian soil. After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, President Bashar Assad became consumed with clinging to power. For Israel, the immediate concern was no longer Syrian aggression but the risk of violence spilling across the border.
Syria and Iran had signed a mutual defense pact in 2005, and Assad became more dependent on Tehran as his regime tottered. At one point, Iran was believed to have more than 13 military bases with five divisions of troops in Syria, provoking Israel to repeatedly bomb targets to prevent a buildup of troops and weaponry.
Israel was less at war with Syria than at war in Syria. Before the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Jerusalem was primarily engaged in interdicting Iranian smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, preventing the construction of weapons factories or destroying those it discovered and ensuring Iranian-backed forces could not establish a...
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