KAIFO: Call it what it is. Israel is undermining critical changes in Syria

I’ve held my tongue long enough.

Israel is not a topic I often speak about. It’s not because I don’t care, but because public discourse on it is so often dominated by ignorance, arrogance, and performative certainty. Whether staunch supporters or harsh critics, most people have made up their minds about issues linked to Israel and the Middle East. But like a flag in the wind, public opinion shifts easily, and few are willing to stand still when the current turns.

I’ve learned this the hard way. I usually don’t engage in public or social media debate, not because I’m indifferent, but because most people have a hard time understanding where they stand. Discussions spiral into defensiveness, accusations, and sometimes outright hostility. So I’ve kept my thoughts private.

But I’ve been watching. I’ve taken note of who speaks, how they speak, and especially who chooses silence. I’ve paid close attention to the words of our elected officials, and their actions after their statements.

For over a decade, I’ve been engaged in the struggle for Syria’s freedom. I’ve spoken out relentlessly about the atrocities committed by the Assad regime, and the roles played by Iran, Hezbollah, Russia, and extremist factions like ISIS.

The Syrian people — my people — have suffered more than a decade of chemical weapons, mass incarceration, bombardment, and forced displacement. Over 1 million dead. More than 5 million displaced.

Yet for years, as this catastrophe unfolded, I was often asked: “Why don’t you speak about the Uyghurs? Or the Sudanese? Or the Palestinians?” As if my voice had not already been straining against silence. As if those asking had been paying attention all along.

The truth is, I’ve never stopped speaking out for Syrians, and for others suffering under oppression. But after Oct. 7, I went quiet. It’s not because I lacked conviction, but because the conversation had become too loud, too polarized, too detached from complexity.

Now, I can’t stay silent.

After years of devastation, Syria is finally beginning to move beyond the shadow of Assad. A new leadership is emerging from among the people themselves. The country has begun the difficult work of building a state responsive to its citizens, not one that treats them like expendable subjects. For the first time in decades, Syria has a chance to determine its own fate.

And yet, in the last seven months after Assad’s fall, Israel has launched nearly 1,000 air and artillery strikes on Syrian territory, carried out hundreds of ground incursions, and occupied swaths of Syrian land.

These are not symbolic gestures; they are military actions with real consequences.

What has Syria’s new government done in response? No attacks on Israel.

Instead, it filed complaints at the U.N. Security Council and actively worked to intercept weapons shipments headed for Hezbollah. They did this not out of allegiance to Israel, but out of a commitment to sovereignty and stability.

Syria is not seeking conflict. It is working to rebuild. It is re-establishing ties with Europe and Asia, lifting sanctions, and signing historic trade and development deals. It is trying to recover. And yet some suggest this new leadership is somehow collaborating with Israel? That it is complicit in its own destabilization?

Let me be clear: Syria’s new president, President Sharaa, is not a Western puppet nor a regional strongman in disguise. He is a survivor of Syria’s darkest years. He is someone who has lived through detention, torture, and the collapse of society. He is from the Golan Heights, a region that was effectively handed to Israel by the very regime he rose up against. To suggest that he is now aligned with Israel, as some critics do, is both absurd and insulting.

Israel has long justified its actions in the region as self-defense. But its recent actions feel less like defense and more like provocation. That’s especially true in regards to the bombing of central Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world and a home to Muslims, Christians,and Jews.

These are attacks on the idea of peace, on the possibility of regional progress.

This matters not just for Syrians, but for anyone who believes in the principles of sovereignty, human rights, and regional coexistence. The Israel of today, in its current political trajectory, is distancing itself from those principles.

And that’s the tragedy. Jews have lived across the Middle East for centuries. Every city had a Jewish quarter with neighbors, communities and shared lives. What we are seeing now is not a continuation of that story, but a rejection of it.

The region deserves better than zero-sum politics and indefinite occupation.

Those who continue to support the Israeli government’s actions without question are not serving the Abrahamic traditions of Moses or Jesus (peace be upon them). They are serving the ambitions of politicians and the machinery of permanent war.

Israel must come to terms with a changing region. The path forward is not dominance, but coexistence. It must learn to live with its neighbors, not as enemies to subdue, but as equals to engage.

That is what Syria is trying to do. The question is whether anyone will let it.

Obeid Kaifo lives in Aurora, is a graduate of Overland High School, runs a Denver restaurant with his family and is a former board member of the Syrian American Council.