Rabbi Yoel Manovitz, head of Golan Yeshiva, made a brief reference to the capture of the Syrian Hermon and the connection of the fall of the Assad regime to Golan Yeshiva. "We have been privileged that the Almighty has saved us and redeemed us from the hand of a stronger than we. The people of Israel has returned to the Hermon that once was Syrian and is now Israeli." "I was moved that they waited for the Golani soldiers to raise the flag, the brigade that has spilled so much blood on this place over the decades. We were blessed, one morning there was no Syrian air force, and by the afternoon there was no Syrian navy." Related articles: IDF operated in Syria to prevent Turkish takeover Syrian Foreign Min. on Israeli strikes: 'Unjustified escalation' IDF investigating rabbi's visit to Syria Rabbi Shlomo Aviner visits Syria The rabbi added to the seminary's connection. "We paid a price - last week we lost one of our students, Captain (res.) Sagi Rubinstein, and we accompanied him to his eternal rest. The yeshiva has grown - fifty-one years ago on Yom Kippur, Assad gave the order to enter the Land of Israel and Golan Yeshiva was conquered. Forty-nine years ago, villains from Syria murdered three students of the Golan Yeshiva, today there is no Assad, no Bashar Assad, no Hafez al-Assad."
