by: Shadi Martini, Dr. Nir Boms ~ Ynetnews
An IDF soldier cares for Syrian baby in Operation Good Neighbor.
Monday, 3 March 2025 | With a mere two years separating their respective births, Israel and Syria have never known a time in which they weren’t at each other’s throats. Since 1948, the Syrian Arab Republic has participated in every major war against Israel, proudly waving the banner of resistance. Even after signing the 1974 armistice agreement, Syria tied its fate to Iran and Hezbollah, perpetuating its aggression against Israel through Lebanon and serving as a forward base for Tehran’s proxies. Yet now, as a new chapter unfolds in Syria, perhaps the time has come to write a new chapter in its relations with Israel as well.
In 2011, protests erupted in Syria against Bashar Assad’s regime. Assad responded with brutal repression, igniting a devastating war that claimed nearly a million lives and displaced two-thirds of the Syrian population, either as refugees abroad or internally. However, amid war atrocities, an unexpected moment of hope emerged. In 2015, Israel made the unprecedented decision to open its borders to provide humanitarian aid to areas across the border, which were controlled by various opposition groups, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Through Operation Good Neighbor, Israelis and Syrians collaborated to assist approximately 1.5 million Syrians trapped under the siege of Assad’s forces. This initiative, in which the authors of this article were involved, began to shift Syrian perceptions as they saw their supposed sworn enemy saving lives while their own government bombed cities and hospitals.
Through these efforts, Syrians and Israelis ceased to be complete strangers. Over the years, visits by Syrians to Israel became more common, and partnerships between civil groups began to emerge. Recently, Israelis have even been seen in Syria, and Jews, including Syrian Rabbi Yosef Hamra, have returned to visit the Jewish Quarter in Damascus.
On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah opened a Syrian front, adding yet another theater to the ring of conflict encircling Israel. A year later, following Russia’s substantial withdrawal of its assets from Syria to focus on its war in Ukraine, and in light of Israel’s extensive operations against Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria, Assad found himself exposed. His army, demoralized and weak, lacked the motivation to defend him. The day after a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Lebanon, Syrian opposition forces, led by the Liberation Front under al-Sharaa’s leadership, launched a blitz offensive.
They captured Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and pushed south toward Hama. Meanwhile, opposition forces in the south advanced toward Damascus. Within days, Syria fell, and President Assad fled the country on December 8, 2024. The nearly 14-year-long Syrian war ended with an 11-day military victory that stunned the world. Many Syrians credited Israel’s actions against Hezbollah and Iran as a significant factor in the opposition’s triumph over Assad.
The new leaders of Syria, who are also the leaders of the Liberation Front, have started sending positive signals toward the region and toward Israel. They have stopped referring to Israel as the “Zionist entity” or “Occupied Palestine.” While they have criticized Israel for its military actions, they referred to it by name for the first time.
Israel, however, launched a military operation that destroyed most of Syria’s aerial assets, along with other military and research facilities. It also sent its forces across the 1974 armistice line and seized the Syrian Hermon. While Israel might see these actions as justified, particularly in its demand to demilitarize the area south of Damascus, Syrians interpreted them as an act of war rather than an invitation for dialogue.
Many Syrians believe that their true enemies were Assad, Hezbollah and Iran, and that the emergence of a new Syria could foster relations with Israel based on something other than military hostility.
Perpetual war has been the defining reality for both Syria and Israel, and the past years have been no exception. Syria is only beginning to recover from a long war that tore apart its land and people. Ravaged and divided by years of conflict, it lacks even the most basic infrastructure, such as electricity and water.
Israel, too, has endured its share of wars, especially after the tragedies of October 7. Both nations have seen too much bloodshed, too many tears. Both peoples are shaped by trauma, exhausted by endless existential struggles. Yet, the Israeli–Syrian relationship that has quietly developed over the past 15 years has demonstrated that cooperation is possible. Both nations have fought to secure a better future for their people, and recently, even against the same enemies. Both have sought hope—and Israel offered a glimpse of it by providing medical care to tens of thousands of Syrians. Could this aspect of their relationship be transformed into the foundation for a better future for both countries?
As Syrians begin to rebuild their country and Israel looks toward the day after its most recent war, the time has come to consider a different future for both peoples. Syrians have reclaimed their land. The majority, long marginalized from their own country, now find themselves back in control. Syrians need, and are ready for, a fresh start. With the right efforts, a new relationship between the two nations can be forged.
It is time to envision a future where Syrians and Israelis ski together on Mount Hermon rather than fight over it. It is time for a new beginning for both peoples.
Shadi Martini is a Syrian businessman who became a refugee, an activist and humanitarian leader.
Dr. Nir Boms is a research fellow at Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University and at the International Center for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya.
Posted on March 3, 2025
Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit/Wikimedia.org
Photo License: Wikimedia
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