US and Israel Topple Syria in the Name of Peace – What Really Happened?

As the Roman historian Tacitus once noted, “They create a wasteland and call it peace.” In today’s world, it is the United States and Israel who have created such a wasteland.

The narrative is straightforward. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration, in clear defiance of international norms, assert dominance over seven million Palestinian Arabs. When Israel’s continued occupation provokes armed resistance, it is branded as “terrorism.” Israel then implores the U.S. to dismantle Middle Eastern regimes that support these so-called “terrorists.” Under the influence of the powerful Israel Lobby, the U.S. has waged wars on behalf of Israel.

This week, the downfall of Syria marks the peak of a long-standing campaign by the U.S. and Israel, beginning with Netanyahu’s 1996 prime ministerial tenure. The conflict intensified around 2011 and 2012 when President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to destabilize the Syrian government through Operation Timber Sycamore. This operation has culminated now, after a tragic toll of over 300,000 lives since 2011.

The rapid collapse of Syria can be attributed to over a decade of stringent economic sanctions, the ongoing war, U.S. control over Syrian oil resources, Russia’s shifting focus to Ukraine, and recent Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, which had been a significant support to the Syrian government. Assad’s missteps and internal dissatisfaction certainly played a role, but his regime had been in the crosshairs of U.S. and Israeli strategies for regime change for decades.

Since 2011, the relentless assault by Israel and the U.S. on Syria, including airstrikes, extremist fighters, economic sanctions, and the appropriation of oil fields, has plunged the Syrian populace into despair.

Before the aggressive push to overthrow Assad in 2011, Syria was a stable, developing middle-income nation. In January 2009, the IMF Executive Board praised Syria’s strong macroeconomic performance, highlighting rapid growth in non-oil GDP, healthy foreign reserves, and reducing government debt. These achievements were partly due to significant regional demand and governmental reforms toward a market-oriented economy.

Immediately after the government’s fall, Israel launched approximately 480 airstrikes across Syria and obliterated the Syrian naval base in Latakia. Continuing his expansionist policy, Netanyahu unlawfully annexed the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights, declaring it a permanent part of Israel.

Netanyahu’s long-standing objective to reshape the region through conflict is now evident. At a December 9th press briefing, he declared an “absolute victory,” rationalizing the ongoing massacre in Gaza and the heightened violence across the region:

“Consider if we had listened to those who repeatedly said, ‘Stop the war.’ We would not have taken Rafah, secured the Philadelphia Corridor, eliminated Sinwar, surprised our foes in Lebanon and the world with a bold strategy, killed Nasrallah, dismantled Hezbollah’s underground network, or revealed Iran’s vulnerabilities. Our actions since the war’s start have methodically dismantled the opposition.”

The extensive history of Israel’s attempts to topple the Syrian Government is hardly known, yet the evidence is clear. This strategy began with U.S. and Israeli neoconservatives in 1996, crafting a “Clean Break” strategy for Netanyahu. This plan advised Israel (and the U.S.) to abandon the “land for peace” concept, which involved Israel returning occupied lands for peace. Instead, the strategy was to retain these lands, subjugate the Palestinians under an apartheid system, and pursue a so-called “peace for peace” by toppling neighboring regimes that challenged Israel’s territorial claims.

The extensive campaign by Israel to overthrow the Syrian Government is not widely recognized, yet the documentation is unequivocal.

The “Clean Break” strategy boldly asserts, “Our claim to the land—to which we have clung for hope for 2000 years—is legitimate and noble.” It further suggests that Syria, by challenging Israel in Lebanon, could be countered effectively if Israel took the strategic initiative against Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran.

In his 1996 publication Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu outlined this new approach. Rather than combating terrorists directly, Israel would target the states that support them, essentially having the U.S. fight these battles. By 2001, he clarified:

“The primary understanding is this: International terrorism cannot exist without state support. Remove that support, and the entire structure of international terrorism will collapse.”

Netanyahu’s strategy was embedded into U.S. foreign policy, aiming primarily at Syria. General Wesley Clark, post-9/11, was informed at the Pentagon that the plan was to attack and dismantle governments in seven countries within five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, and beyond. Although insurgencies against U.S. forces in Iraq delayed this timeline, they did not alter the overarching strategy.

The U.S. has initiated or supported conflicts in Iraq (2003 invasion), Lebanon (by funding and arming Israel), Libya (NATO’s 2011 bombing campaign), Syria (CIA operations in the 2010s), Sudan (support for secessionist rebels in 2011), and Somalia (support for Ethiopia’s 2006 invasion). An eagerly sought war with Iran by Israel remains pending.

Ironically, the CIA has often supported Islamist jihadists to fight these wars, and jihadists recently overthrew the Syrian regime. The CIA was instrumental in the creation of al-Qaeda, initially supporting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the late 1970s. Although Osama bin Laden later turned against the U.S., his movement originated from U.S. efforts. As Seymour Hersh confirmed, it was ironically Assad’s intelligence that warned the U.S. of an impending al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters.

Operation Timber Sycamore was a billion-dollar CIA covert initiative launched by Obama to dethrone Bashar al-Assad. The CIA funded, trained, and provided intelligence to radical Islamist groups, also facilitating a weapons pipeline from Libya (attacked by NATO in 2011) to Syrian jihadists. In 2014, Seymour Hersh described this in his article “The Red Line and the Rat Line”:

“A secret annex to the report, not disclosed publicly, detailed an agreement from early 2012 between the Obama and Erdoğan administrations regarding the rat line. The agreement outlined that funding would come from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, supported by MI6, was tasked with transferring arms from Gaddafi’s stockpiles into Syria.”

In a 2013 press conference alongside Netanyahu at the White House, President Obama stated, “Regarding Syria, the United States continues to collaborate with allies, friends, and the Syrian opposition to expedite the end of Assad’s regime.”

To the U.S.-Israeli Zionist mindset, an adversary’s call for negotiations signals weakness. This perception has led to the elimination of negotiation proponents by Israeli or U.S. forces, as seen recently in Lebanon. The Lebanese Foreign Minister revealed that Hassan Nasrallah, the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah, had agreed to a ceasefire with Israel just days before his assassination. Hezbollah’s long-standing acceptance of a peace agreement for a two-state solution mirrors this. In contrast, rather than negotiating an end to the Gaza conflict, Israel assassinated Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.

In the U.S.-Israeli Zionist perspective, a negotiation call by an adversary is perceived as a sign of weakness.

In Syria, rather than allowing a political resolution, the U.S. repeatedly obstructed the peace process. In 2012, the UN brokered a peace agreement in Syria, which the U.S. vetoed, insisting on Assad’s immediate departure. The U.S. sought regime change, not peace. In September 2024, Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly with a map dividing the Middle East between “Blessing” and “Curse,” categorizing Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran under the latter. The true curse, however, is Israel’s path of destruction and war, now extended to Lebanon and Syria, with Netanyahu eagerly anticipating drawing the U.S. into a conflict with Iran.

The U.S. and Israel celebrate having effectively devastated another opponent of Israel and supporter of the Palestinian cause, with Netanyahu claiming “responsibility for initiating this historic process.” Syria is likely to continue suffering from ongoing conflicts among various armed groups, as seen in other U.S.-Israeli regime-change endeavors.

In essence, American intervention, driven by Netanyahu’s Israel, has left the Middle East in shambles, with over a million casualties and ongoing conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. Iran is now on the verge of developing a nuclear arsenal, pushed towards this outcome against its will.

All of this serves a deeply unjust cause: to deny Palestinians their political rights in favor of Zionist extremism rooted in the ancient text of the Book of Joshua. Remarkably, this text—relied upon by Israel’s religious zealots—suggests that the Israelites were not even the original inhabitants of the land, as it recounts God’s command to Joshua and his warriors to commit multiple genocides to conquer the territory.

Against this backdrop, the Arab-Islamic nations and almost the entire world have consistently united in advocating for a two-state solution and peace between Israel and Palestine.

Instead of pursuing a two-state solution, Israel and the U.S. have created a wasteland and named it peace.