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00:00Right. There are a number of reasons, one being Israeli fears of confronting out-of-control Islamist militias on its border.
00:10Israel and Syria have a significant border that throughout the very authoritarian period of the Assad regime was a quiet border,
00:20an unfriendly but quiet, under-control border.
00:23And now it appears that there isn't really strict control over that area.
00:28The other reason, as you alluded to, are the Druze populations.
00:34There's a significant Druze minority in Syria and there's a significant Druze minority in Israel that is very politically influential.
00:45And in many cases, Israeli Druze are blood relations of these Druze in Syria just across the border.
00:53And so in the last three days in Israel, as news of what appears to be massacres by Salafi militias in Syria,
01:04unclear how connected they are or not to the government in Syria directly,
01:08but as news of these attacks against Druze communities in southern Israel filtered through,
01:15a pretty massive political pressure has been placed on the government to rescue these people.
01:21In fact, there are at least 20 Syrian Druze, maybe more by now,
01:25who have been airlifted into Israeli hospitals, wounded people from Syria.
01:30That in and of itself is not a commonplace thing.
01:33And we have very prominent Israeli military figures, journalistic figures, Druze themselves,
01:40who are demanding that the government act immediately and forcefully
01:44to prevent a massacre of basically their cousins and brothers across the border.
01:50And Noga, any international military implications in all of this?
01:59Lots. So that's a very, very good question.
02:02The United States still has about 2,000 troops deployed in Syria up in the north,
02:07in the Kurdish areas where they had been placed years ago to defend that other minority,
02:12the Kurdish minority in Syria.
02:14President Trump announced that they would withdraw, but they have yet to withdraw.
02:18There is a very significant Russian military presence.
02:23In fact, some people were referring to Syria as a Russian military camp before the fall of Bashar Assad.
02:30The Russians had kind of come in and established a major military presence
02:37to protect Bashar Assad before his fall and to establish a military presence in the Middle Eastern region for Russia.
02:45Turkey has become a predominant force in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime.
02:51And so Israel now staking out positions possibly for the long term in southern Syria implies a really significant international takeover,
03:04I would say, with an Israeli part now in Syria, in a Syria that is still not consolidated around its new government
03:14and where various forces are still angling for power and influence.
03:19Israel, of course, is doing this while mid-war, still with Hamas.
03:24And so it's a very complicated, I would say, general panorama militarily right on Israel's northern border.