Israel wants to show Syria it can strike without consequence
Familiar, because for the previous months we had seen and felt similar strikes in Lebanon as Israel sought to destroy Hezbollah. And we had seen them from afar in Gaza.
The Syria strikes were said to be aimed at destroying munitions sites before they could pose a threat to Israel's security.
Since then, there have been over 900 air or artillery strikes on Syrian territory. The Syrian response - two complaints to the United Nations. And yet today they found Damascus on Israel's hit list.
However these strikes have a notable difference from the others. The issues between the Druze and Syrian forces are a domestic matter, they do not threaten Israel's security.
Israel says its actions are to protect Syria's Druze minority, yet the reality is, however much it might wish to be, Israel is not the appointed arbiter nor enforcer of the Middle East.
To strike in the centre of another capital, hitting close the presidential palace, the military headquarters and in front of live cameras, are the acts of a government which feels it can act with impunity.
Israel, emboldened after almost two years of military action on its neighbours, clearly has no fear of significant penalty or response when it comes to striking a sovereign capital.
The strikes, cloaked in the defence of the Druze, suggest more of a wish to exert control across the region and warn the Al-Sharaa government to keep its forces away from the border.
It's also an effort to reaffirm Druze support domestically within Israel.
But regionally it serves, again, as a warning as to Israel's sense of exemption from the norms and laws.
Israel defends its actions in Gaza as destroying Hamas, in Lebanon as destroying Hezbollah, in Yemen as destroying the Houthis, in Iran as destroying their perceived nuclear threat.
Syria does not pose any of those issues. Striking so close to the centre of its power is an attempt to deliver a calculated message that it can strike when and where it wishes, pretty much without consequence, should Syria step out of line.
Even if the United States does succeed in de-escalating this situation quickly, Israel has made its point. However it may not have made the Druze any safer, nor its position in the region or indeed the region itself.
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