An Israeli minister revealed that the military and government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were deeply divided over the Syrian conflict since its eruption in 2011.
He said that some officials viewed the crisis as an opportunity to topple president Bashar Assad, while others supported that he remain in power.
He lamented that Assad’s supporters ultimately came on top, in what was a “grave error that favored Iran.”
“We are paying the price of this mistake today,” said the minister in comments that were leaked to the media on Sunday.
Some of Assad’s opponents in Israel believed that the time was right to oust the president, especially after the Syrian opposition had shown an openness in dealing with Tel Aviv. It was clear that his ouster would not have been possible without Israel.
The minister was referring here to the opposition Free Syrian Army and other factions that had indeed contacted Israel. Some of their members had also openly visited Tel Aviv and stated that they were ready for peace. They also requested Israeli logistic support and weapons to fight the regime.
The minister said that these talks lasted for years until it was no longer possible to topple Assad. That was when ISIS began to emerge in Syria.
Had the Israeli government helped the non-extremist Syrian rebels and taken advantage of the regime’s weakness, Assad would have been ousted and a new regime, which would have been supported by the United States and moderate Arab countries, would have been set up in Damascus, recalled the minister.
Opponents of Assad’s ouster believed that his replacement did not necessarily have to be any less hostile to Israel than the current regime, he added. There was no guarantee that the new political parties and organizations would have been open to Israel.
Indeed, the alternative at the time appeared extremist and no less of a threat than the Iranian mullahs, he remarked.
Moreover, the opponents of the ouster recalled Israel’s failed experience in Lebanon during the 1980s when Bashir Gemayel was elected its president. There were hopes in Israel at the time that peace would be signed with its northern neighbor, but Gemayel was assassinated and Hezbollah was formed soon after. Years later, the party now controls Lebanon, said the minister.
Rather than oust Assad, Netanyahu’s government worked to impose “vital red lines” that ensured Israel’s national security and that avoided dragging it to war in Syria or Lebanon, stressed the minister.
The red lines remained largely unchanged in the past ten years, reported Yedioth Ahronoth. They include preventing any attack against Israel from Syria, barring Syria’s use of chemical weapons and their transfer to Lebanon and thwarting the establishment of an Iranian front in Syria.
