Minister says Israel should take over buffer zone with now-jihadist-controlled Syria

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the ruling Likud party says Israel should take over the buffer zone with Syria that was established in 1974, warning of the ramifications of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

“The events in Syria are far from being a reason for celebration,” Chikli tweets, arguing that the Islamist rebel forces have been rebranded and that, “bottom line, most of Syria is now controlled by subsidiaries of al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

The good news, he contends, is “the strengthening of the Kurds and the expansion of their rule in the country’s northeast (Deir Ezzor region).”

He asserts that “Israel should renew its control of the peak of the Hermon and establish a new defensive frontier on the basis of the 1974 disengagement line — we must not let jihadists entrench themselves near our communities.”