Purported Israel’s strike on Syria seen in wider context of Hezbollah, Iran

Syria has accused Israel of working with the Syrian opposition — a serious charge but perhaps also not a surprise given Israel’s longstanding quest to eliminate or reduce the influence of Iran among its neighbors.

Iran is one of Syria’s closest allies. As the world examines the two attacks on Syria, widely attributed to Israel, some have pointed to it not as an attack on Syria, but rather on Iran.

Specifically, experts in the area say, it is more an attack on Hezbollah and less Israel trying to help Syria’s rebels.

Hooman Majd, the author of “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ,” cautioned, though, that Israel really would rather not be involved in Syria’s civil war.

“In some ways, they’d probably even prefer for the status quo to be maintained,” Majd said. “Iran is somewhat bogged down in defending (Syrian leader Bashar) Assad at the same time Syria is not really a threat.”

If Assad falls, for example, there could be an Islamist government that’s outright hostile to Israel. So, Israel’s unlikely to be taking sides in the Syrian conflict.

Rather, Majd said, Israel is acting in its own self-interest, to eliminate weapons that could be a threat to Israel if transferred to Hezbollah.

“They look at the threats to Israel and that’s it. As any state would, you look at those threats and you try to eliminate those threats,” Majd said. “Then you look at the bigger picture and you look at Syria as a sphere of influence for Iran to then maintain its pressure on Israel, and that’s an added advantage if you’re reducing Iran’s influence there.”

Majd is also leery of making too big of a deal out of the Syrian civil war giving Israeli officials a chance to move against Hezbollah. He pointed out that Israel has always had the ability to move against Hezbollah, even in Syria.

“As they’ve done in the past — assassinated people in Damascus. Damascus was full of Israeli spies,” he said. “They’re just looking at Syria, quite happily, to see Iran relatively bogged down there in their defense of Assad.”