Israel moved into territory in Syria now that the Assad government has ended and the international response to this is mixed.
Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are all outraged but the United States says that it is a “defensive action.”
Israel moved tanks and infantry beyond the demilitarised buffer zone and the Egyptian government said that it condemned this “in the strongest possible terms” and that it amounted to the “occupation of Syrian land” and a “severe breach” of a 1974 armistice deal.
The U.S. State Department, however, said that “context” is important. Spokesperson Matthew Miller said this: “First of all, the Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area around the negotiated Israeli-Syrian buffer zone, which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations that would threaten the state of Israel and would threaten civilians inside Israel. Every country has the right to take action against terrorist organizations.” He insisted that the occupation was temporary.
Temporary is a relative word when it comes to Israeli presence. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Golan Heights would be occupied by Israel “for eternity.”
