Golan Heights residents fear escalation
As world powers decide their next steps for a volatile Syria, in the largest Jewish town in the Golan Heights, the security chief is preparing bomb shelters.
AS world powers decide their next steps for a volatile Syria, in the largest Jewish town in the Golan Heights, the security chief is preparing bomb shelters. “We have checked electricity and water in shelters, and cleaned them,” Avi Lugassi told me in his office on Tuesday.
It is more than 20 years since Katzrin, most famous as the home of the Golan Heights Winery, was targeted by rockets. But many residents eye the nearby border with Syria and say it’s only a matter of time before they are heading to shelters.
“If they do it from Gaza with missiles targeting Israeli civilians, it’s waiting to happen in the Golan as well,” commented salesman Doron Rauch.
For some, it’s not just about rockets. Tzila Peled watched the images of the April 4 chemical attack with abhorrence – and also fearing what a Syrian chemical attack could one day do to Israelis like her. “If they can do it there, they can do it anywhere,” she said.
As she spoke, Iran was threatening to strike Israel, in retaliation for an attack on an Iranian-sponsored Syrian military installation last Monday which has been widely attributed to Israel.
The IDF was preparing for such a scenario, local media released images of what was said to be Syrian aid bases that are used for Iranian drones and aircraft, and a former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was predicting an escalation.
As for the American attack on Syrian targets last Friday, Netanyahu has been applauding it, saying that the “important international message of the attack is zero tolerance for the use of non-conventional weapons”.
But the security and military establishments don’t expect it to solve Israel’s problems, and many of the people of Katzrin are resolute about this.
“Trump acts on his interests and Putin on his,” said car trader Yossi Shavit. “We have to worry for ourselves.”
The American attack did not deal with Israel’s main worry – Iranian entrenchment in Syria.
The American strike didn’t deal with this, and it allowed the chance for Iran’s proxy, the Syrian regime, to save its people and equipment, via a pre-strike warning given to Russia.
Fears in Katzrin go beyond rockets and chemicals, to the worry of attack by drones. Two months ago the Iranians launched a drone from Syria towards Israel. It was shot down and, at the time, was reported to be a surveillance drone. But Jerusalem has now revealed it was actually packed with explosives and poised to detonate over Israel.
For Rauch, developments like this point in a clear direction. “The Iranians are closer now and they are switching from offence to defence,” he said.
Walking around Katzrin, you would never guess that it is on the doorstep of a bloody civil war. The town is pretty and calm, and people are going about their normal routines.
One teenager, asked about the situation in Syria, said it simply doesn’t interest her and she is just going about normal life. Orr Cohen, a waitress in her 20s, said that the suffering of Syrians is “in my head all the time”, but the security risks facing Israel rarely worry her – “maybe because it’s so rural and idyllic”.
There is even a lone voice playing down the spectre of the Syrian regime. Rezi Gurzadin was born in the Golan Heights before 1967, when it was part of Syria.
“In the Druze community he’s seen as good,” Gurzadin – a member of the Arabic-speaking Druze community – said, discussing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the chemical attack. “He’s a doctor, not a man who would do something like that.”
Despite the optimism of some, in Lugassi’s office, things sound ominous. “We don’t want to put people into panic,” he said, hinting that locals residents know only part of the story about threats that are looming.
He has been watching the tragedy over the border for years, and is bemused that it takes chemical weapons to prompt firm action by the US, when hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by other means.
“It’s very strange,” he said. “One conventional bomb does more damage than the chemical attack. Around half-a-million people have been killed by the war, a small number by chemicals.
“There are killings of children and adults all the time, and we always knew Assad had chemical weapons.” He characterised the US strike as little more than “lip service” and commented: “To stop this you need to stop conventional weapons, not just chemicals.”
Others in Katzrin were more enthusiastic about the US strikes, believing that a red line needing enforcing, and Donald Trump took the initiative. “A chemical attack changes everything,” said Ares Astamk. “It can destroy the whole region.”
Before the chemical attack, Trump said that he wanted to move US troops out of Syria. Trump’s retaliation has made a quick exit harder, and Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, said, “Our work in Syria is not done.” However, she was vague on the extent to which America expects to rein in Iran before leaving.
The prospect of a US withdrawal makes the Israeli government ever more determined to stress that it will act as it sees fit regarding Syria.
“We will maintain total freedom of action,” said Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “We will not accept any limitation when it comes to the defence of our security interests.”
Some Katzrin residents are surprisingly relaxed about a US withdrawal. “I don’t think it makes such a difference if the US is there,” commented Shirel Slapak, a 37-year-old secretary.
But Peled, who was worried about chemical weapons being unleashed against Israel, takes the view of the Israeli establishment, which wants the US to remain in Syria for as long as possible. She said: “When the Americans are there, I feel safer.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
comments