Unscheduled Israeli Military Drill Simulates Move Into Golan

Based Around Scenario of Instability After Assad's Ouster

by Jason Ditz, September 19, 2012

Israel’s military has held what is being called by some their largest unscheduled training exercise yet today, simulating a move into the Golan Heights in response to a hypothetical deterioration of border security after the ouster of Bashar Assad.

Though Israel has long griped about Assad many in the government are seen as extremely concerned of what might come after his ouster in the current civil war, with Islamist blocs playing a growing role in the rebel movement.

Israeli planners have centered on what the civil war might mean for them, but in practice it has meant next to nothing so far, with the fighting mostly centering around major cities and the area around the Turkish border, and Syria reducing military presence near Israel to fight the rebels.

The more plausible scenario according to some analysts would not be a Syrian incursion into Israel, but Israel using the instability inside Syria as an excuse to invade and seize their chemical weapons. Israeli officials have raised this possibility in the past.

Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz