Early last month, shortly after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Israel took a step that dramatically altered the strategic landscape of the entire region.
Quietly and without any prior indications, the IDF entered the buffer zone on the Golan Heights separating Israel and Syria and liberated the highest peak of Mount Hermon, raising the blue-and-white banner over the tallest mountain in either country.
And while Israeli officials were quick to insist that the move was temporary, it would be a grave mistake to forgo this territory.
For both strategic and historical reasons, the Jewish state should annex all of the newly acquired parts of Mount Hermon and formally incorporate them into Israel.
While most Israelis think of the Hermon as a single summit, it is in fact a cluster of mountains, control of which was divided after the 1967 Six Day War.
Seven months after the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel and Syria signed the Disengagement Agreement on May 31, 1974, which created a 235-sq.km. (146-sq.mi.) zone. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was tasked with patrolling the area.
On the Israeli side of the line, the tallest peak of the Hermon range is 2,236 meters (7,335 feet), whereas on the Syrian side the crest of the Hermon reaches a height of 2,814 meters (9,232 feet), giving the Syrians a significant advantage.
But that mountain is now held by the IDF, and its importance cannot be overstated.
By taking it, Israel has more than doubled the area of the Hermon under its control, and it now commands a mountaintop which is just 40 km. from Damascus, potentially placing the Syrian capital within range of IDF artillery.
The new foothold also provides Israel with a panoramic observation point from which it can closely monitor Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which has long served as a Hezbollah stronghold.
On December 9, Naftali Hazony, a former Israeli fighter pilot, highlighted in a post on X some of the additional military and intelligence benefits of the move.
“Once placed on Mount Hermon,” he wrote, “Israel’s radar will see far into both Syria and Lebanon, providing early warning of incoming low-flying jets and drones. Israel’s intelligence can also leverage the peak, placing sensors to conduct surveillance and intercept enemy communications.”
Furthermore, Hazony noted that “any hostile force advancing toward Israel will now be exposed and at the mercy of Israel’s drones, surface-to-surface missiles, and laser-guided bombs. Residents of northern Israel can sleep more soundly knowing that Israel controls this peak.”
And that is precisely why it is essential that Israel hold on to the Hermon until the end of days.
On December 13, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to make preparations to remain on the Hermon over the winter, which suggests that the army is in no hurry to depart.
But on December 17, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the peak of the Hermon, where he held an operational briefing with military and security officials, and said: “We are holding this assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security.”
This position might have been a reflection of pressure being applied by the outgoing Biden administration in Washington.
Five days before Netanyahu’s statement, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that while America backed Israel’s operations in Syria to defend against potential threats, he had “every expectation” that the taking of the Hermon would be temporary.
Fortunately, Sullivan’s job and the positions he espouses are at this point truly temporary, since on January 20 the new Trump administration will take power, which may provide an opening for Israel to assert its sovereignty over the Hermon.
After all, it was during Trump’s first term that Washington recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, so perhaps that could soon be extended a little farther northeast.
Israel has always had a historic claim to Mount Hermon
BUT THE Jewish state’s claim to the mountain range is not only a matter of military necessity. It is also firmly rooted in our people’s history.
The Hermon is mentioned a number of times in the Bible, such as in the Book of Joshua, the Psalms, and the Song of Songs.
In Deuteronomy (3:8), Moses recounts how the Israelites captured the lands of the Emorite king Sihon and Og, the king of Bashan, “from the brook of Arnon to Mount Hermon.”
The verse which immediately follows says, “the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion ,and the Amorites call it Senir.”
Rashi, the preeminent biblical exegete, notes that yet another verse in Deuteronomy (4:48) lists Mount Sion as an additional name for Hermon and asks why was it necessary for scripture to tell us all of these various appellations.
His answer, written more than 900 years ago, resonates no less strongly today: “To extol the praise of the Land of Israel, that there were four kingdoms priding themselves in it, with one saying ‘it shall be called by my name,’ and another saying ‘it shall be called by my name.’”
In other words, everyone wanted the Hermon, but it was – and remains – part of the Land of Israel.
Amid the chaos now prevailing in Syria, where a former al-Qaeda affiliate has assumed power, the existential need for the Jewish state to retain the Hermon has never been clearer, a sentiment shared by a consensus of Israelis.
Perhaps that is why, when King David famously extolled “brothers dwelling together in unity” in Psalm 133, he likened it in verse 3 to “the dew of Hermon, that comes down upon the mountains of Zion, for there God commanded the blessing: life forevermore.”
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.