In August 2003, Israeli warplanes flew over the summer palace of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the western province of Latakia. Israeli planes reportedly flew so low that they smashed windows. Assad was not there at the time and would not have heard of the incident. incident until a few days later. The rumor was a transparent warning to the Syrian president who opposes Hezbollah’s for Lebanon. Hezbollah earlier this month.
A similar incident occurred just under 3 years later, in June 2006, at the same coastal palace. Israeli planes were flying “low enough to make noise on the ground. “This time, Assad would have been on the scene. The rumor emerged after Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, 19. Syria welcomed Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal at the time, and the rumor was a clear warning to Assad of the possible consequences of supporting the group.
These excesses were obviously intended to demonstrate Israel’s reach and ability to potentially assassinate the Syrian president if he crossed certain Israeli red lines. In light of those two precedents, the unconfirmed report by Saudi news portal Elaph in mid-June claimed that Israel threatened to bomb one of Assad’s palaces if it continues to allow Iran to smuggle weapons into Syria is not implausible.
The report was released just days after Israel bombed the Damascus airport, forcing it to close for about two weeks. The airport attack is one of the largest of Israel’s aerial crusade into Syria that occurred more than a decade ago and showed how far Israel is. willing to pass to target Iran’s arms smuggling operations in Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has continually compared Iran’s proxy militia network in the region to an octopus whose tentacles threaten Israel and vowed that his government would target the leader of that proverbial octopus, Iran.
“For decades, the Iranian regime has practiced terrorism opposed to Israel and the region through proxies, emissaries, but the octopus leader, Iran itself, has enjoyed immunity,” he said last May. “As we have already said, the era of the Iranian regime’s immunity is over. Those who fund terrorists, those who arm terrorists, and those who send terrorists will pay a heavy price. “
Threatening to target Assad’s interests for his cooperation with Tehran’s regional proxies and arms smuggling would be perfectly compatible with stated Israeli policy.
Located on the Mediterranean coast, the Latakia Summer Palace would probably be Assad’s simplest palace to attack Israel. However, Israel would possibly attack the presidential palace, the so-called People’s Palace, high on the Mezzeh plateau overlooking the capital Damascus. the symbolism of the destruction of this palace would be much greater.
In August 2017, an unconfirmed report claimed that Israel had warned Russia that it would attack Assad’s palace in Damascus if Iran continued its operations in Syria.
The People’s Palace collected an alleged billion dollars and ended in 1990. Leveling it would be a blow to Assad’s prestige, especially at a time when several Arab countries are rescuing their regime from bleeding out after years of ostracism due to civil war. the symbolism of the smoke escaping from the charred rubble on the Mezzeh Plateau would not be lost on the Damascene hunting from below.
Syrian rebels fired large-caliber projectiles at the massive castle in November 2012, but they failed. “The rebels have focused their efforts on high-profile attacks on symbols of the Assad regime, such as its palace,” Reuters noted at the time.
In September 2018, Israel released photographs taken through its Spy Satellite Ofek 11 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of its launch. The footage showed Damascus International Airport, a Syrian army base and the presidential palace, strongly implying that the latter could be a potential target.
An Israeli attack on one of his palaces would probably not kill or attempt to kill Assad. The Syrian president owns several apartments in the Syrian capital and, according to many accounts, does not spend most of his time in the presidential palace. The palace is basically used to host meetings with visiting foreign leaders (with the notable exception of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invariably summons Assad to Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in Latakia every time he visits Syria) and officials, which as a family residence circle. Israel can even sign its goal of attacking, at most probably through its communication mechanism with the Russian military in Syria, in advance to ensure that Assad is not killed.
Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, had hoped for the option of an Israeli attack on the palace even before the structure was completed.
In 1989, the Washington Post noted that Hafez had promised that the ostentatious castle would be reserved for his successor.
“It’s a promise he will keep, but not out of generosity,” the report joked.
“Assad is afraid that the Israeli army will kill him and he will be a duck sitting in the palace on the hill,” he added. “If he was attacked with a missile, he wouldn’t even have time to run to the bomb shelter. “
“It did not escape him that his friend Muammar Gaddafi’s home in Libya was a simple selection for American bombers in 1986. “
Decades later, the question is still not whether or not Israel can destroy one of Assad’s palaces; it is if in spite of everything it makes the decision to do so.