Smoke rises from Syrian village
Smoke rises from Syrian villageReuters

Professor Eyal Zisser, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Tel-Aviv University, spoke in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva following the recent reports of Israeli attacks on military targets on the outskirts of Damascus.

There is “nothing new” in such attacks, said Zisser, adding that this is not the first time Israel has attacked military warehouses and other military installations in an effort to prevent advanced weapons from falling into the hands of Hizbullah.

Zisser, who is also a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, said that while the Jewish state will not interfere in the Syrian civil war it will exert efforts to ensure that such weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.

He said that he does not expect a Syrian response to the Israeli assault, as it is in the interest of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to fight his “real enemies,” namely the Syrian rebels who seek to oust him from power.

“He cannot allow himself to engage in a new front,” he said, adding, however, if such assaults continue on an ongoing basis he will be forced to rethink his position.

Meanwhile Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad warned Sunday that the airstrikes on facilities near Damascus constituted an Israeli “declaration of war.”