Israel Closely Monitoring Jihadis Moving into the Golan

 

Israel Closely Monitoring Jihadis Moving into the Golan

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3946/israel-closely-monitoring-jihadis-moving-into

 

by Paul Alster

Special to IPT News

March 19, 2013

 

Haifa, Israel - If jihadi groups fighting to topple Syrian dictator Bashar

al-Assad succeed, "[i]t's us afterwards," warned Israeli Defense Force (IDF)

Chief of Staff Lt. General Benny Gantz during a conference last week. "We

could be the next challenge for the same organizations."

 

The Golan Heights, the border between Syria and Israel, has become

increasingly unstable as the Assad regime loses its grip on power and

radical Islamist and al-Qaida-inspired elements of the Free Syrian Army -

reportedly backed directly or indirectly by the likes of Qatar and Saudi

Arabia - move into the void.

 

The situation in Syria is "liquid, unstable and dangerous," Gantz said in

remarks at the 13th Herzilya Conference on Israeli security. If Assad falls,

Syria's massive arsenal of weapons could fall into the wrong hands. Those

jihadi groups would feel tempted to target Israel. As if to reinforce

Gantz's point, Reuters reported last Thursday that 1,000 insurgents have

moved into Khan Sheikh, just 15 miles from the Golan, after killing 30

soldiers in a battle for a Syrian government missile squadron south of

Damascus.

 

"The terror organizations are gaining footholds in the territory," Gantz

said.

 

Youtube video shows al-Qaida reconnaissance video of Israeli troops on Golan

border

 

That threat adds to the already tense situation in Israel's north, where

Hizballah poses a constant threat. "[The North] could explode at any

moment," Gantz said. "We are prepared and we will know to act with the

required force directly against Hezbollah and its state surroundings."

 

In a widely reported comment, Gantz added, "Lebanon, as the neighboring

state, can't be sovereign but not responsible. If this goes off, I'd rather

be an Israeli civilian, and not a Lebanese civilian."

 

The recent abduction of 21 Filipino UN peacekeeping forces on the Golan

border by a group associated with the Free Syrian Army highlights the

escalating tensions on Syria's southern border. Although the men were

released unharmed, Croatia announced last week that it would withdraw its

100 men from the UN mission "very soon." So far in 2013 Canada and Japan

have pulled out, leaving just Austria, the Philippines, and India providing

peacekeeping troops on the border; only the Indian mission appears fully

committed to staying.

 

Fears that the UN may withdraw its entire mission, leaving unfettered

freedom of movement for terror groups on Israel's border, were hardly

allayed at a recent press conference given by Martin Nesirky, spokesman for

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.

 

"Clearly, the mission there in Golan needs to review its security

arrangements, and it has been doing that," Nesirky told reporters March 8.

"It has also been looking at different scenarios, different arrangements,

how to operate in these new, rather difficult and challenging circumstances.

I don't have any further details on that, except one aspect: that night

patrols are no longer being carried out. This is something that was carried

out in the past; they are no longer being carried out."

 

While the majority of violence in Syria has been far from the Israeli

border, "there have been bullets crossing the [Golan] border, and a rocket,

and of course we had the kidnapping incident involving the UN observers,"

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson, told the Investigative

Project on Terrorism.

 

Until now, the Israeli fear was the transfer of weapons to Hizballah and

other hostile forces. Now, Hirschson said, comes uncertainty about a

post-Assad Syria. "It's something we are concerned about," he said. "I don't

know that at this point it is the biggest concern we have in our lives - I

think the transfer of chemical weapons, non-conventional and strategic

weapons such as surface-to-air and surface-to-sea weapons, or various

strategic weaponry which Syria has but may well fall into the hands of

Hizballah; that is probably far more of a concern to us today - but the

border with Syria and the stability there is not going to go away and is

possibly going to get worse."

 

He expressed confidence the UN would maintain a presence along the northern

border, crediting it with helping to maintain "a quiet [Syrian] border for

40 years."

 

Hirschson appeared less enthused about the UN's role on the Lebanese border,

saying, "We've not been excited about what's gone on in southern Lebanon.

What goes on in Lebanon is a completely different story and is about UNIFIL,

the UN's forces in Lebanon."

 

Leaving aside Hirschson's diplomatic language, the plain fact is that

UNIFIL's own website mission statement shows it has been a thoroughly

ineffective force in south Lebanon, an area completely controlled by the

terror group Hizballah.

 

UNIFIL's website describes its mission as: "Assist the Government of Lebanon

in securing its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in

Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel."

 

With a reported 70,000 missiles and masses of other armaments, by any

measure UNIFIL's inability to carry out its mandate in south Lebanon has

been a dismal, embarrassing failure. Hizballah not only poses a persistent

threat to Israel, it has also sent thousands of men to fight alongside

President Assad's forces in Syria, before potentially returning to southern

Lebanon with Syrian weapons.

 

Confirmation of the potential danger facing Israel as radical Islamist

organizations take control of strategic areas of Syria comes from no less a

source than Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Al Quds

Alarabi newspaper, who revealed on his own website on March 11, "Islamist

militants in Syria [have] formed an actual government - under the name, the

Religious Committee of the Eastern Zone - to run rebel-controlled areas,

particularly ones in the hands of Islamist fundamentalists. These groups

have cemented their place as the leaders of many parts of Syria, whether the

regime can hold on to power or not."

 

Atwan added, "Jabhat al-Nusra and the other militant groups in Syria are

following the Taliban's model to the letter - implementing Sharia law,

providing security, some social services and driving out competitors. The

Taliban did this and ended up in control of 90 percent of Afghanistan." In a

statement released on March 10, the Religious Committee of the Eastern Zone,

which reportedly includes Jabhat al-Nusra, announced, "God commanded the

Islamic battalions to form a religious council in the east to administer the

affairs of the people and fill a security gap."

 

Jabhat al-Nusra is just one of a number of hardline Islamist groups

operating in Syria under the general banner of the Free Syrian Army, the

organization that receives financial and other support - via the opposition

Syrian National Council - from the US, EU and Arab supporters like Qatar and

Saudi Arabia. Iraq-based al-Qaida groups have crossed the border to join the

fight against Assad, while the Syrian Islamic Front - which has appeared on

the scene only in the last three or four months - represent 10 or more

separate Islamic militant groups. Ghuraba al Sham, another radical Islamist

organization that has attracted many foreign jihadi fighters to its ranks,

also operates openly in Syria.

 

In a new twist, according to Al Monitor, it appears that Gaza-based

Salafists - financed once again by Qatar and Saudi Arabia - have joined the

fight in Syria against Assad and have allied themselves with Jabhat

al-Nusra.

 

The prospect of Syria's break-up and a Taliban-style regime potentially

extending to its border is a big concern for Israel, Atwan wrote. "Peace and

quiet in the Golan Heights has prevailed since 1973, but Islamist militias

are now bringing that to an end. With or without coordination between these

jihadi groups Israel could find itself facing Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

and Jabhat al-Nusra and co along its eastern borders."

 

But Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for

Defense of Democracies, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism he feels

it highly unlikely that the Shia fighters in Hizballah will join with Sunni

radicals now fighting on the opposing side in Syria.

 

"Jabhat al-Nusra have already said that they do not want to attack Israel at

this stage so as not to draw an Israeli response which would scatter their

capabilities and harm their priority, which is the take-down of the Assad

regime and the Alawites," Badran explained. "There are a plethora of militia

[forces opposing Assad] operating there [Syria], so you have operational

chaos. You have a kind of no-man's land feel there with everybody having a

say in things."

 

"I think that Hizballah is higher on their list of enemies than Israel is.

They are fighting each other in Syria right now - in Homs and around

Damascus - and Hizballah has been shelling them. They feel Hizballah is part

of the defence forces of the regime which makes them a direct enemy. I don't

see them suddenly saying that Israel trumps all of this so we're going to

align ourselves with Hizballah."

 

Badran describes the current policies of both the US and EU in Syria as

"moving from sheer cynicism to abject incompetence," but believes that for

the time being a major attack on Israel is highly unlikely. "There may be

sporadic attacks on Israel but really nothing of a strategic nature." Badran

concluded. "For now, I believe we're talking more of tactical nuisances

every so often."

 

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