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.
