Prime Minister Netanyahu travelled with Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to the newly liberated Hermon summit yesterday.
The Hermon summit is the tallest peak between the Nile and the Euphrates and despite liberating it in 1973, Israel was forced to hand it over to Syria as part of Henry Kissinger’s flawed disengagement agreement signed between Israel and the Assad regime in Syria at the time. With no one to talk to or trust in the HTS dominated Syrian transitionary government, Israel has been forced to liberate the summit once again.
Visiting the “Syrian” Hermon yesterday Prime Minister Netanyahu said the following: “I am here on the summit of Mt. Hermon with the Defense Minister, the IDF Chief-of-Staff, the Head of Northern Command, the Director of the ISA and senior commanders. We are holding this assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security. This is nostalgic for me. I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit. The place has not changed. It is the same place but its importance for the security of Israel has only been underscored in recent years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events that have occurred below us in Syria. We will determine the best arrangement that will ensure our security.”
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz added the following: “The IDF is here to protect the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of the State of Israel from any threat, from the most important place to do so.“
“We will remain here for as long as it is needed,” Katz added. “Our presence here at the peak of the Hermon strengthens security and adds a dimension of both observation and deterrence to Hezbollah’s strongholds in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon and deterrence against the rebels in Damascus, who pretend to present a moderate image, but belong to the most extreme Islamic sects.”
Israel’s liberation of Mount Hermon’s summit is more than just a patriotic moment in Israel’s history, it is a strategic message that the Jewish State is here to stay. From the dark days of October 7th 2023 to the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel’s war has been sluggish with no clear end in site. True, there were moments one can point to that had a taste of victory. These include entering Rafah despite threats from the Biden administration or blowing up most of Hezbollah’s leadership through the ingenious use of pagers, but there was still something lacking - clear win. Taking the entirety of the Hermon is victory in the clearest sense of the word. Conquering land in the Middle East is what constitutes victory.
The nation has been looking for some sort of light, some recompense for the tremendous trauma that the Arabs that surround us inflicted and continue to inflict on us. Taking the Hermon and merging its commanding height with Israel’s superior technology essentially gives Israel control over southern Lebanon and southern Syria. The Syrian Druze villages that sit at its foot know the IDF is not going anywhere and in that realization have come to understand where they want their future to be. One can assume the Druze on the other side of the ridge in Lebanon believe the same as their brethren in Syria.
There is something about seeing Israel’s 75 year old Prime Minister with all of his challenges – (some self induced, but most coming from Israel’s Deep State), recounting how he had been at the summit 53 years earlier as head of a special forces unit in the 1973 war. The statement was not innocuous, but a reminder of the immense service he has given to the country over the years as well as the following lesson: Israel had been there before and only due to American pressure the summit was given over to the Assad regime. Netanyahu claims Israel’s liberation of the Hermon is temporary. No one believes that, especially Netanyahu.
The old axiom: “Fool me once – shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me,” is at play here. Netanyahu knows there is no country better suited to control the Hermon than Israel and he knows that Israelis from across the political spectrum agree with him.
In the Middle East, the ability to assert power and control is real sovereignty – not the artificial boundaries imposed by Sykes and Picot in 1916. Controlling the Hermon is equal to being the sovereign in southern Lebanon and southeastern Syria and Prime Minister Netanyahu is not about to hand that over to anyone else.