Israel strikes Syria's capital Damascus, NPR,

[progree]

10:10 am CDT 7/16/25

Israel on Wednesday conducted airstrikes in downtown Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The Israeli military said the targets included Syria's military headquarters in Damascus as well as another military target near the Syrian presidential palace.

. . .

The strikes came amid ongoing tensions in southwest Syria, home to the minority Druze, whose community straddles the border between Israel-occupied Golan Heights and Syria. The Syrian military joined Bedouin militias in clashes against the Druze.

Israel struck the Syrian military there on Monday and Tuesday in what they said was an effort to protect the Druze and keep the Syrian side of the border demilitarized.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/07/16/npr-israel-strikes-damascus-syria

Too late to put it in LBN (12 hour rule)

So it's now more than a border area skirmish.

[applegrove]

1. What the hell is Netanyahu doing?

[progree]

4. Thanks much for the link to the very informative article. People should know that it has a map too if one scrolls

down far enough.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. So, what's Netanyahu's plan?

Retake the Golan Heights and start a military adventure into Syria, and then occupy that land and appropriate it to Israel?

[Igel]

5. Avoid domestic unrest.

He was officially pissed when Hezbollah managed, with denials of ever doing anything to hurt the wrong people, ever, to strike a Druze community in Israel.

Partly because Hezbollah wasn't nice to the large Druze community in Lebanon, and its supporter Assad wasn't nice to Druze in Syria.

That's 1.

But also there are two large areas of Druze in Syria--one's adjacent to the Golan Heights (not where the non-Damascus Israeli strike hit) and the other in Suweida and points south-ish (where the strikes hit). What was hit? Syrian troops.

The strikes in Damascus were the Ministry of Defense.

Don't know if Israel should be defending an oppressed minority when assaulted by local armed "us-supremacist" bigots, only to have the same-'ethnicity' military intervene to break up the fighting by taking the bigots' side. But that's one way of putting it that's not actually inaccurate in any regard.

[AloeVera]

6. Very informative, thanks. A question:

"...an effort to protect the Druze and keep the Syrian side of the border demilitarized."

Which of the two do you think is the real reason and which is perhaps the cover for it?

I suppose both could be true, but in my view unlikely. Unless he fears that the Druze in Israel could be drawn in. I have read that some have crossed the border to aid their brethren in Syria.

[AloeVera]

8. It's to keep the buffer zone free of Syrian forces.

Don't forget that, after the fall of Assad in 2024, Israel invaded the UN patrolled" buffer zone" in place for decades, and continues to occupy it.

In effect, Israel in 2024-25 took the remaining one-third of the Golan it did not occupy after the 6-day war in 1967. The other two-thirds it already annexed in 1981. The annexation is not recognized by the international community except for Trump Admin I.

In essence, the answer to your question is yes. This is leading to more annexation of Syrian territory.