Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the country’s forces will continue to be deployed in a buffer zone along the Syrian border, including on Mount Hermon, until another mechanism is found to secure Israel.
The first time an Israeli leader visited the area while in office, Netanyahu spoke from the summit of Mount Hermon about the strategic importance of the location. He recalled his first visit to the summit 53 years ago when he was a soldier and said that since then, the region has only become more important because of recent events.
Accompanied by Defense Minister Israel Katz, who issued a direct order to rapidly deploy the construction of military fortifications in the region, there is a sense that this presence will be extended for an indefinite period. “The summit of Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Katz said.
After the Syrian civil war, Israel occupied a slice of southern Syria near Golan Heights and called it a buffer zone. Critics say that is against a 1974 agreement about cease-fire and may be an attempt to exploit Syria’s instability for territorial gains.
UN had initially created a demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and Israel after the 1973 war, and a force of about 1,100 UN peacekeepers had patrolled the area since. Israel occupies the Golan Heights, which it took from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed, an act that remains unrecognized by most of the international community. Mount Hermon is also strategically important because its top lies at the borders of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The United States is the sole country that recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over Golan Heights.
