Israel plans to double population in Golan, cites threats from Syria

JERUSALEM: Israel agreed on Sunday to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel fighters who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago. “Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, annexing it in 1981. In 2019 then-President Trump declared US support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, but the annexation has not been recognised by most countries. Syria demands Israel withdraw but Israel refuses, citing security concerns.
“The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat — despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present,” defence minister Israel Katz told officials examining Israel’s defence budget, according to a statement. Netanyahu’s office said the govt unanimously approved a more than 40-million-shekel ($11m) plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan. It said Netanyahu submitted the plan to the govt “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan”.
Some 31,000 Israelis have settled there, said analyst Avraham Levine of the Alma Research and Education Center specialising in Israel’s security challenges on its northern border. The Golan is home to 24,000 Druze, an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam, he said. Most identify as Syrian.
Syria’s de facto leader, Abu Muhammed al-Jolani who leads HTS, said on Saturday that Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts a s his country focuses on rebuilding.
SinceAssad’s fall, Israel has moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria and carried out hundreds of strikes on strategic weapons stockpiles. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel struck Syria 75 times in attacks that began Saturday night near Damascus, and cities of Hama and Homs.
Racy pix of Assad go viral, spark ridicule
Bizarre and personal photos of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad have surfaced from his abandoned residences, sparking ridicule among Syrians who only until recently were persecuted for criticising his leadership.
The images, reportedly discovered in photo albums from Assad’s mansions in the hills of Damascus and Aleppo, painted an unflattering portrait of Bashar and his father, Hafez Assad, who had governed Syria with an iron grip for decades. They stripped away the carefully constructed image that the Assad family had cultivated.
One photo featured Hafez Assad in his underwear, striking a bodybuilder-like pose. Other images showed Bashar Assad in a Speedo flexing his biceps; astride a yellow motorcycle in his briefs; perched on a handcycle, also in his briefs; and staring blankly in a kitchen, wearing only white under wear and a sleeveless undershirt.
Social media footage showed Syrians touring the Assads’ opulent estates, revealing extravagant decor, jacuzzis and other lavish possessions out of reach of ordinary people living amid civil war since 2011. Fuelled by decades of persecution and a desire for vengeance, people stripped the mansions of valuables and exposed Assad’s private world, including some of his photo collections.
The unbecoming images of Assad in various states of undress and odd scenarios quickly went viral, turning into an object of mockery. “What is it with the Assad family and being photographed in their underwear? Highly interested in knowing the fantasy behind,” journalist Hussam Hammoud wrote on X.
One particularly peculiar shot showed Bashar in a Speedo aboard a boat, surrounded by other people. Another depicted him on a balcony overlooking the sea, teasing a girl sitting on his shoulders. In one photo, taken in a mountainous setting, Bashar is seen with a group, which included his reportedly maternal cousin, Ihab Makhlouf, who is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of Hitler.
US in direct contact with rebels behind Assad exit
US secretary of state Antony Blinken revealed Saturday that Washington had made direct contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Shamrebels, despite previously designating the group as “terrorists”. Blinken would not discuss details of talks with HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that drove Assad into asylum in Russia. Blinken said the easing of sanctions on Syria would depend on “sustained action” by the rebel-installed interim govt.