Israel’s Greater Israel Plan and Syria’s Struggle in 2025

Israel’s Greater Israel Plan and Syria, The Middle East in 2025, reads like an epic geopolitical drama filled with shifting alliances, collapsing regimes, and relentless conflict. At the heart of one of its most gripping subplots is Israel’s escalating military campaign in Syria—a series of strikes and incursions raising profound questions: Why can’t Syria retaliate effectively? Why do neighbouring Muslim countries remain largely silent? And what role does the much-discussed “Greater Israel” plan play in this high-stakes game? https://mrpo.pk/the-abraham-accords/

Let’s unpack the questions of Israel’s Greater Israel Plan and Syria ,piece by piece with fresh insights from recent regional upheavals and emerging power dynamics.

The Collapse of Assad’s Syria: Opening the Floodgates

Few events have reshaped Syria as much as the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in late 2024. This seismic political earthquake did more than just end a 60-plus-year Baathist rule; it shattered the last threads of centralised military power Damascus once wielded35. The Syrian army, battered by years of civil war and external bombardments, was no longer capable of mounting a serious defence against external aggression.

Israel, known for its strategic opportunism, swiftly moved to fill this void. Following Assad’s ousting, Israeli forces launched sweeping airstrikes across Syria’s military and strategic sites, far exceeding the more limited strikes during Assad’s tenure that mainly targeted Iranian proxies like Hezbollah5. Now, with Syria reduced to a patchwork of tenuous factions, Israel operates with near impunity, carving out buffer zones, destroying weapon stockpiles, and asserting territorial control south of Damascus.

Was Assad’s downfall engineered by Israel? Most analyses suggest otherwise. His removal was primarily a product of internal decay, prolonged civil war, and economic collapse. However, the power vacuum Assad’s fall created undeniably gave Israel a freer hand to pursue its objectives in Syria35.

The Greater Israel Plan: The Long Shadow Over Syria

Talk of a Greater Israel plan often conjures visions of biblical borders stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, a concept rooted in religious texts and ultra-nationalist ideas. While not official Israeli policy, this vision informs the mindset behind many territorial ambitions and security strategies. It’s less a public manifesto and more a shadow motivating expansionist gestures, settlement policies, and military actions.

Syria’s fragmentation plays directly into this narrative. Every strike, every occupation of territory, chips away at Syrian sovereignty, fulfilling a strategic objective to keep Syria weak and divided, preventing any future resurgence that could challenge Israel’s southern frontier57. Some analysts view current Israeli operations as an explicit attempt to cement control over parts of southern Syria, turning instability into opportunity.

Why Syria Can’t Retaliate: A Game of Exhausted Pawns

Israel’s Greater Israel Plan and Syria: Why is Syria unable to respond robustly to Israel’s repeated attacks? Imagine trying to play a chess match when half your pieces are missing, your king is exposed, and your opponent’s queen has too much firepower. Syria simply lacks the military capacity and internal cohesion to strike back without risking total annihilation.

Here are the main reasons:

• Military Devastation: Years of civil war, with countless defections and losses, have left the Syrian army hollow and overstretched35. Its air defences are regularly decimated by Israeli air raids.

• Political Fragmentation: Post-Assad Syria is divided among multiple factions with competing interests. Coordinating a unified military response is nearly impossible.

• Fear of Escalation: Open war with Israel could jeopardise whatever fragile stability Syria maintains. The cost of total war could be catastrophic for a nation already in ruins.

• Lack of Strong Allies: While Iran and Russia were major supporters of Assad, their priorities and influence have waned after his collapse, leaving Syria diplomatically isolated5.

The Deafening Silence: Neighbouring Countries and Islamic Military Coalitions

If a family member was being attacked relentlessly, you’d expect relatives to scream for justice, right? So why is there so little uproar when fellow Muslim Syrians suffer under Israeli aggression?

Many Muslim-majority countries and organisations have vocally condemned Israel’s strikes. Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Turkey, Iran, and pan-Islamic bodies like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have issued statements denouncing attacks on Syria’s sovereignty5. Yet these condemnations largely remain rhetorical.

The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), based in Saudi Arabia and comprising over 40 Muslim states, focuses primarily on combating terrorism, not confronting a militarily superior state like Israel. The coalition lacks either a mandate or political consensus to engage Israel militarily in Syria5.

Several factors explain the muted practical response:

• Political Fragmentation: The Muslim world is deeply divided along sectarian (Sunni-Shia), national, and geopolitical lines. Countries often prioritise regime survival over external intervention.

• Risk Aversion: No country wants to escalate an already volatile situation that might spiral into a regional war.

• Changing Alliances: Many Gulf states have warmed relations with Israel in recent years, complicating unified opposition.

• Domestic Priorities: Wars in Yemen, economic crises, and internal security challenges consume much of the regional powers’ resources and attention.

The Regional Chessboard: Monarchies, Regimes, and Their Priorities

Looking beyond Syria and Israel, a broader pattern emerges. Many Middle Eastern rulers—in monarchies, autocracies, and authoritarian republics—appear primarily focused on preserving their dynasties and power bases. The Arab Spring and ensuing unrest showed how fragile regimes can be.

• Monarchs and presidents view stability first as their own survival.

• Political dissent is tightly controlled to avoid any “Arab Spring 2.0.”

• Regional conflicts are often seen through the lens of regime security, not pan-Islamic unity.

This focus explains why many governments offer stern official language against aggression but stop short of concrete military action5.

Wrapping It Up: The Complex Reality Behind Headlines

The Israel-Syria conflict in 2025 is a story woven from the threads of shattered regimes, ancient ambitions, fractured worlds, and stark realpolitik. Assad’s fall opened a Pandora’s box, offering Israel a freer hand but leaving Syria and its people exposed. Neighbouring countries’ loud proclamations reveal genuine concern but also stark limitations, shaped by political divisions and survival instincts.

In a way, it’s like a game of dominoes in slow motion—one tile falls, shaking the whole region, but the pushback is cautious, calculated, and often restrained. The dream or nightmare of a “Greater Israel” continues to cast a long shadow, underscoring how Middle East geopolitics remains an intense struggle between ideology, survival, and power.

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