TEL AVIV and DUBAI — In a new overture toward Israel, Syrian activist and director of the Damascus Institute for Research and Studies, Kamal Al-Labwani, has called for Israel to enforce a no-fly zone in southern Syria, accept Syrian refugees and engage diplomatically to help resolve the crisis in the fragmented country.
Israel has been maintaining its mostly hands-off policy, but that could change if a growing Russian presence sharply tips the balance of power.
Labwani, an outspoken activist against the regime, said in his article published on Israel's i24news.tv that Israel does not have to open its borders to receive Syrian refugees. What Israel should do is send humanitarian aid to the Syrian side of the border.
"Israel can also play an important diplomatic role in promoting a solution dictated by the international community that will end the war in Syria. Such an effort is especially necessary vis-à-vis the Russians, who are playing a central role in perpetuating the hostilities," he wrote.
"Israel could also help enforce a no-fly zone in southern Syria, similar to the situation in the north of the country. ... Such a development would be very important in light of the recent incidents in al-Suwayda in southern Syria. It would also help prevent the conflict from turning into a Sunni-Druze conflict, which could spill over into Israel," he added.
Furthermore Labwani added that Israel can help improve the living conditions of the Syrians who reside close to the Israeli-Syrian border."Such work can be done in partnership with neighboring Arab countries and has the added value of promoting cooperation between the Syrian and Israeli peoples".
The calls made by Labwani, however, have hardly made any ripples across the Middle East, according to a Gulf Cooperation Council official.
Speaking to Defense News the official said that Labwani's calls are not viewed as serious.
"Labwani is not representative of the Syrian opposition or people in our view," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"Over the past his calls have been inconsistent and his positions have been questionable," the official added.
Ahmed Hazem, a prominent writer on Syrian affairs, published a response, saying Labwani's call to Israel is a "violation of the feelings of the Syrian people".
"Labwani's visit to Israel was not the first of its kind as he has already visited several times to receive the necessary instructions," Hazem stated.
"His persistence in violating the feelings of the Syrian people has reached its peak, when he spoke of 'the necessary alliance with Israel' and that Israel can be a partner and not an enemy. He has promised Israeli officials during his stay in Israel that he is prepared along with many opposition figures to give up the Golan Heights, in the event of reaching power in Syria," he added.
On its part, Israel is maintaining its limited interference policy with the Syrian crisis. Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, insisted Israel will maintain its policy of noninvolvement in the Syrian civil war and will act only when provoked by cross-border fire or if it suspects transfers of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite organization fighting on behalf of pro-Assad regime forces.
According to Eran, now a senior research fellow at the Tel Aviv University-based Institute for National Security Studies, Israel and Russia have had a "very tacit understanding" even before the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring (2011) and the Syrian civil war. "It is understood and accepted that both countries will pursue their respective interests [in Syria] without confliction."
He added, "As long as Israel won't go after Russian bases or assets on Syrian soil, and as long as Israel's military activity doesn't in any way infringe on Russian interests, there's no reason to change this understood modus operandi."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, is scheduled to visit Moscow Sept. 21 in an attempt to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to proceed cautiously with his military buildup in Syria.
According to a Sept. 16 statement from Netanyahu's office, the prime minister "will present the threats posed to Israel as a result of the increased flow of advanced war materiel to the Syrian arena and the transfer of deadly weapons to Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations."
A surge in Russian manpower and materiel aimed at bolstering the teetering regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could have grave consequences, a senior Israeli defense official told Defense News.
"If we learn through our intelligence means that Hezbollah is strengthening its own arsenal from the influx of new Russian capabilities, we will be forced to act," the official warned.
Retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, the Ministry of Defense's longtime director of political-military policy, said that Israel has no interest in getting involved in the war raging along its border with Syria. In a recent conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Gilad noted that Assad has completely forfeited control of the Golan Heights to the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida offshoot, and Daesh or the Islamic State.
"At the moment, both of them are not operating against Israel because of their internal issues and mostly because of our policy of deterrence," Gilad said.
He cautioned against those calling for a more expanded Israeli role in Syria beyond the humanitarian support and medical treatment provided to Syrian war victims by the Israeli government and private organizations like the Peres Center.
"Our policy is clear: Don't provoke us because if you do, we will respond very gravely," Gilad said, in what many took as reference to Israel's attack last March on Iranian and Hezbollah operatives in Kuneitra, on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
"At the end of the day, our deterrence works because they're all busy with internal battles," said Gilad. He warned, however, that if coalition forces battling the Islamic State push those forces further into the Syrian south near the Jordanian border, they could prove to be a clear and present danger to Israel.
"At our north is a state that is no longer a state, called Syria. I don't think it will ever be a state again. There's no way to rehabilitate it," said the Israeli Defense Ministry's policy chief.
In a Sept. 16 paper published by Israel's Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Yaakov Avmidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, insisted that as long as ongoing fighting does not turn decisively in favor of Assad and his Iranian-backed allies, Israel has no reason to intervene.
"Barring a major shift in the balance of power in Syria, a shift that would entrench a regime that is even more dominated by Hezbollah and Iran, there is no reason for Israel to change its policy," he said.
Email: bopallrome@defensenews.com; amustafa@defensenews.com
Awad Mustafa was a Middle East and Africa correspondent for Defense News.
Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com.
