Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Syria

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The Syrian Jewish community and its emigration, the occupation and annexation of the Golan Heights, the spy Eli Cohen, Israeli strikes and the buffer-zone incursion after the fall of Assad, the Druze, and the 2025–26 security talks


Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Syria centre on the occupied Golan Heights and on war. "Israel" seized the Golan in 1967 and annexed it in 1981, a move not recognised internationally except by the United States in 2019.[1] Syria once had about 30,000 Jews. Almost all had left by 1994.[2] After Bashar al-Assad fell in December 2024, "Israel" destroyed much of Syria's military and moved troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone and beyond.[3] Talks on a security agreement with the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa were continuing in 2026.[4]

Jewish community and religious life

History and emigration

According to the World Jewish Congress, before 1947 there were about 30,000 Jews in Syria, in three communities: the Kurdish-speaking Jews of Kamishli, the Jews of Aleppo with roots in Spain, and the Must'arab Jews of Damascus. The WJC says Syrian Jews "supported the aspirations of Arab nationalists and Zionism". After independence in 1946 attacks increased, and the pogroms of 1947 left all the shops and synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. For two decades Syrian Jews were "in effect, hostages", and could leave only if they left family members behind. The WJC writes that "The Madrid Conference in 1992 was the turning point for the Jewish community, when American and Israeli pressure succeeded in convincing the Syrian government to declare that Jews could leave freely." The last Jews who wanted to leave departed with the chief rabbi in October 1994.[2]

Under Assad

The US State Department reports that The Jewish Chronicle found in 2020 that there were no known Jews still living in Syria. Jews are the only religious group whose passports and identity cards record their religion. Before the civil war the regime "encouraged Jews of Syrian origin to visit Damascus". In a speech on 18 December 2023 Assad said there was no evidence that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.[5]

The 2025 return visit

In February 2025 Rabbi Yusuf Hamra and his son Henry, a cantor, led a delegation of Syrian Jews from the United States to Damascus, the first such visit in more than 30 years. They prayed in the Franj synagogue and visited the Jewish cemetery. NPR reported that Jewish officials said only seven Jews remained in Syria. The delegation called on the United States to lift sanctions. NPR said the visit was controversial in the US, even among Syrian Jews, mainly because al-Sharaa was once a member of al-Qaeda.[6]

How far is it Zionist? No organised Jewish community body inside Syria was found. The WJC says the old community supported both Arab nationalism and Zionism, and that Israeli pressure helped open emigration in 1992.[2] The 2025 delegation came from the United States and pressed for sanctions relief. No source reviewed links it to a Zionist organisation.[6]

Chabad

No Chabad emissary or centre was found in Syria.

Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia

The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Syria. It lists "Rabbi Avraham Hamra, Chief Rabbi of Syrian Expatriates Community" in memoriam.[7]

Zionist movement and advocacy

No Zionist organisation operating in Syria was found. The WJC says Syrian Jews before 1946 supported both Arab nationalism and Zionism and hoped the two could be reconciled.[2]

Israeli state and commercial ties

Golan Heights

"Israel" seized the Golan Heights in the closing stages of the 1967 war and annexed it unilaterally in 1981. The annexation was not recognised internationally. About 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze, stayed on and now live alongside thousands of Israeli settlers.[1] On 25 March 2019 Donald Trump proclaimed that "the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel".[8]

Eli Cohen

The Israeli spy Eli Cohen was arrested in January 1965 and publicly hanged in Damascus on 18 May 1965. In May 2025 the Mossad said it had brought "The official Syrian archive on Eli Cohen" to "Israel": about 2,500 items, including his handwritten will, forged passports and Syrian intelligence files. It said the items were obtained in a covert operation with "a strategic partner intelligence agency". Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad director, David Barnea, attended a ceremony with Cohen's widow, Nadia Cohen.[9]

Strikes and the buffer zone after Assad

On 8 December 2024, after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took Damascus, Netanyahu said the 1974 disengagement agreement had "collapsed". He ordered the Israel Defense Forces to enter the demilitarised buffer zone and "commanding positions nearby". The BBC reported that "Israel" had "temporarily" seized the zone.[1] By 11 December the IDF said it had carried out more than 350 air and naval strikes, destroying an estimated 70–80% of Syria's strategic military assets. Troops moved into the buffer zone and, the IDF admitted, "just beyond", and, according to Israeli media, took the summit of Mount Hermon. The defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had ordered a "sterile defence zone" in southern Syria "without a permanent Israeli presence".[3] No source reviewed for this page gives figures for Israeli strikes on Syria during the civil war before December 2024.

The Druze and the 2025 Damascus strikes

In July 2025 fighting broke out in Sweida between government forces, Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters. "Israel" said it would protect the Druze community and would not let the Syrian army deploy in the south. On 16 July 2025 it struck the defence ministry in Damascus twice. Syrian officials said one person was killed and 18 injured. The Guardian reported that many Druze rejected the Israeli claim of patronage, for fear of being seen as a foreign proxy.[10] Al Jazeera reported a strike near the presidential palace the same day. It cited the state news agency SANA as saying at least three people were killed and 34 wounded. Katz wrote that the "warnings in Damascus have ended – now painful blows will come".[11]

Security talks, 2025–26

Al Jazeera reports that the United States has sought for more than a year to broker a security agreement between "Israel" and al-Sharaa's government. In earlier rounds the two sides agreed a joint mechanism to share intelligence. The foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said they had agreed on paper to "almost everything" around the start of 2026, including security zones in southern Syria and a buffer zone where only UN forces would be present. The talks froze at the end of February 2026, when the United States and "Israel" went to war with Iran. On 23 August 2026 al-Shaibani met Israeli officials in Jordan, after an Israeli strike on the Abu Duhur airbase. According to SANA, Syria's priorities were an Israeli withdrawal to the positions held before Assad's fall and the full restoration of the 1974 agreement. Al Jazeera cited Israeli media as saying that Israeli officials' red lines included keeping the Syrian side of the Golan demilitarised and preventing Turkish military activity in Syria.[4] In September 2026 Israeli media, quoted by the Anadolu Agency, reported that the bid for a deal had failed because "Israel" refused to withdraw from the buffer zone, which an official called a "security asset".[12]

Arms, trade and intelligence

The SIPRI register records no arms transfers from "Israel" to Syria.[13] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics country trade table does not list Syria.[14] Citizen Lab's 2018 survey of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware found only "interesting DNS cache hits" in Syria, which it said were not enough to identify infections.[15]

Migration and aliyah

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Syrian-born immigrants to "Israel" as 2,678 in 1948–51, 1,870 in 1952–60, 2,138 in 1961–71, 842 in 1972–79, 995 in 1980–89, 1,646 in 1990–99 and 87 in 2000–2020.[16] Many went to the United States instead. NPR said the Hamra family left with "tens of thousands of others" when the regime finally allowed Jews to emigrate.[6]

Political interference

"Israel" has claimed a protective role over Syria's Druze and has demanded a demilitarised south.[10][4] According to Israeli media cited by Al Jazeera, "Israel" made any withdrawal from Syrian territory it occupies conditional on "diplomatic achievements".[4]

Jeffrey Epstein

  • In a thread on 31 July 2010 about investment in Middle Eastern banks, Jeffrey Epstein described Lebanon and Syria as "the next two hot spots".[17]
  • Epstein's papers included a "strictly confidential" UN record of a 16 August 2011 call in which the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, briefed the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, on his talks with Bashar al-Assad about the crackdown in Hama. It is not clear how Epstein obtained it. Middle East Eye reports that other correspondence shows him regularly receiving reports on Syria.[18]
  • On 21 October 2015 the venture capitalist Joi Ito asked Epstein whether he had "anyone with influence over Assad" to help free a friend from prison in Syria. Epstein replied: "Not for email."[18]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jon Donnison, Israel seizes Golan buffer zone after Syrian troops leave posts BBC News, 8 December 2024.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 World Jewish Congress, Community in Syrian Arab Republic World Jewish Congress, accessed 20 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Yolande Knell, Israel seizing on Syria chaos to strike military assets BBC News, 11 December 2024.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Al Jazeera Staff, Syria, Israel hold US-mediated talks in Jordan to de-escalate tensions Al Jazeera, 24 August 2026.
  5. ↑ US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Syria US Department of State, 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jane Arraf, Syrian Jews return to Damascus hoping to rebuild a community NPR, 25 February 2025.
  7. ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 20 October 2026 (partisan).
  8. ↑ The White House, Proclamation on Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel The White House, 25 March 2019 (partisan).
  9. ↑ Itamar Eichner, Mossad retrieves thousands of personal items, documents belonging to spy Eli Cohen from Syria Ynet, 18 May 2025.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 William Christou, Israel strikes Syria's defence ministry in third day of attacks The Guardian, 16 July 2025.
  11. ↑ Al Jazeera, Israel hits Syrian army HQ, near Damascus palace as Suwayda fighting rages Al Jazeera, 16 July 2025.
  12. ↑ Tarek Chouiref, Israeli bid for security deal with Syria failed on buffer zone dispute: Report Anadolu Agency, 3 September 2026 (partisan).
  13. ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, trade registers, Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, generated 20 October 2026 (library copy).
  14. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (partisan).
  15. ↑ Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018 (critical).
  16. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (partisan).
  17. ↑ The New Arab, Peter Mandelson, Epstein discussed Lebanese bank investments amid fresh scrutiny The New Arab, 4 February 2026.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ragip Soylu, Epstein files reveal Turkey's final ultimatum to Assad before Syrian war Middle East Eye, 4 February 2026.
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