In October 2015, a former US state department official revealed that Syria and Israel had come close to brokering a peace deal in 2011, which some say could have averted the Syrian Civil War But as Israel was unwilling to relinquish disputed territory, and Syria didn’t want to lose Iran as an ally, the deal never materialized.
For decades the two countries have been in physical and ideological conflict So we wanted to know, why do Israel and Syria hate each other? Well, historically, the two have been fighting, since before they became sovereign nations Like many other Arab countries, the creation of an Israeli state was extremely opposed, and the incoming Jews were considered invaders Still, Britain, which controlled the area where today Israel and Palestine exist, allowed for its creation Within a day of announcing independence, Israel was invaded by Syrian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and Lebanese forces.
After 10 months, Israel won the First Arab–Israeli War From then on, the two countries have refused to enter into diplomatic relations Like many neighboring countries, Syria does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty In fact, when Israel applied to join the UN in 1948, Syria represented the only negative vote They argued that Israel did not have the undisputed territory, nor the elected government, to establish a state
But although they have seen almost nonstop hostility, one interesting time period almost saw peace between the two Following the Arab-Israeli war, Syria went through a bloodless coup d’état, secretly guided by the United States The new leader offered a peace solution to Israel, but roughly 4 months after taking office, the Syrian government was again overthrown and the peace-seeking president was executed However, the most direct contact between the two countries occurred during the 1967 Six-Day War The war saw Israel annex the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Golan Heights from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria respectively.
Since the war, most efforts in Syrian-Israeli relations have been focused on returning Golan Heights in exchange for ceasing Syrian belligerence However, six years after the Six-Day War, Egypt and Syria invaded their former territories in Israel in an effort to recapture them Although Egypt made some gains, Syria saw Israeli troops push even farther into Syria, past Golan Heights borders Although Egypt and Israel eventually came to a peaceful accord, Syria was thrown into a state of chaos In the 1980s, while Israel was at war with Lebanon over the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Syria attempted to send in troops but was unsuccessful.
A second war with Lebanon in 2006 over Hezbollah saw a similar situation, with Syria sending weapons to the terrorist organization Today, the Syrian Civil War has only seen a few of what Israel has called “retaliatory airstrikes” As of yet, they have made no moves to enter into the Syrian conflict While Syria is being ripped into pieces, there is no way of knowing how the future regional government will interact with Israel But history suggests that it won’t be peacefully
