00:00And Yatam, Qatar has condemned these attacks, as I said earlier.
00:05They've also criticized Benjamin Netanyahu's recent tour of occupied Syrian territory,
00:11calling it a breach of international law and a threat to national security.
00:17What exactly was the purpose of this very trip?
00:21So we're pretty close to an election in Israel.
00:25According to plan, there will be an election held within the next year.
00:30Some are speculating it might be in March.
00:32Some are saying it will be in June.
00:34So Netanyahu is, of course, doing this to show power.
00:37He knows that these images that you're showing on your screen now,
00:40they're going to be shown on Israeli TV as well.
00:42He's looking as the commander-in-chief.
00:45He's up there looking across the Syrian border while he's actually in Syria.
00:48And he's telling also Ahmad al-Shara, the Syrian president,
00:53that Israel is there to stay.
00:55That's at least what he's signaling.
00:58And his defense minister has also said that Israel is not going to leave this area
01:02and also not going to leave Mount Hermon, which is a very strategic point,
01:06because they fear that the vacuum will be filled by some of Ahmad al-Shara's jihadist warriors.
01:12And they can't accept that.
01:14But this is, of course, bad news for anyone who's hoping to see a Syrian-Israeli security pact,
01:20something that has been negotiated for a long time.
01:23But both parties really are pretty far from each other when it comes to this particular issue
01:27of Israel withdrawing from the December 8th border,
01:31essentially going back to where they were before Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
01:36So I don't think, and the people that I speak to in Israel,
01:38don't think that we're close to any security pact.
01:41And I think that Netanyahu showing up in this area yesterday
01:45clearly shows that, at least for now, Israel is not leaving that area.
Comments