Over the past few days, Israel has found itself facing increasing pressure on the Syrian front. Strategically, it is concerned that Russia will provide Syria with the advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. On an operative level, it faces ongoing efforts by Syria and Iran to transfer advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tactically, there has been a rise in the number of shooting incidents across the Golan Heights border.

Even if there is no direct and immediate connection between these three axes, the overall context is quite obvious. The chaos in Syria has only gotten worse, resulting in greater uncertainty and the fear of extreme scenarios that could drag Israel into some form of active involvement in the fighting, something that Israel has struggled to avoid for the past two years. The tension in Jerusalem is quite apparent in the vast number of official statements and publications, some of them seemingly contradictory. This testifies to a diversity of approaches and attitudes toward Syria among the country’s political and defense leadership.

Further evidence of this appeared in the international press last week in the form of two articles, which appeared days apart, on either side of the Atlantic. In the first article, which appeared in The New York Times on May 15, Israel reiterated its threat that Syrian military action could lead to a harsh Israeli response that would likely topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. In the second article, which appeared in the Times of London on May 17, Israel actually expressed the hope that Assad would remain in power.

Both of these statements were attributed to senior Israeli officials, and neither of them was denied. This would indicate that both statements were issued with the proper authority and approval. The message that both these articles relay is that Israel has yet to define in some clear and unequivocal manner what it would want a future Syria to look like, and it is still too embroiled in preventative measures. This is also the message of the very clear and direct warning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released on Sunday, May 19, at the start of his cabinet meeting. He simply warned Syria that it is playing with fire and could well pay a steep price for that.