For Israel, the risk that Syria President Bashar Assad would undermine calm of northern border less threatening than prospect of him toppled; Israel blames Assad and Iran for border infiltration on Nakba Day.

The Arab revolution knocked on Israel’s door yesterday, in Nakba Day demonstrations carried out by Palestinians from Syria and Lebanon in Majdal Shams and in Marour al-Ras. The demonstrators entering the Druze village in the foothills of Mount Hermon shattered the illusion that Israel can live comfortably, a “villa in the jungle,” cut off entirely from the dramatic events surrounding it.

More than the revolution in any other Arab country, the uprising against the Assad regime in Syria has threatened to spill over into Israel. President Bashar Assad hoped that his position as the leader of the “opposition” to Israel would save him from the fate of his counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt. When his seat became unstable, there was concern that Assad, or whoever replaces him, would try to escalate the conflict with Israel in order to regain legitimacy among the Syrian public and the  Arab world at large. Read more