Israel has used the war in Syria to solidify its claim to the Golan Heights
For the last five years, Israel has been providing money, weapons, logistical support and even direct military assistance to "moderate rebels" with the goal of creating an Israeli-controlled "buffer zone" to ensure that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights stay forever-occupied.
In other words: Israel is occupying more Syrian land to protect the Syrian land that it's already occupying.
According to an in-depth report by Nour Samaha,
Israel’s “safe zone” now unofficially runs roughly 6 miles (10km) deep and 12 miles (20km) long beyond the demarcation line of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The effort is intended to prevent the Syrian government and its allies, specifically Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, from maintaining a foothold along the Israeli fence. Israel used a similar tactic to establish a zone of control in the south of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.
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For Israel, establishing a buffer zone in southern Syria not only creates distance between its border and pro-government forces – particularly those backed by Iran – it also cements Tel Aviv’s control over the occupied Golan Heights, an area of Syrian land that the Israeli army captured in 1967.
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