I'm John Batchew with my good colleague Bill Rajo, Senior Fellow Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

He keeps the Long War Journal, where you can find routinely, almost daily, postings by David Diyud watching Hezbollah in Gaza.

Now we turn to Syria.

David, consistently, Israel is maintained that Syria is a chaotic

state, a failed state, and they keep the deployment on the Golan Heights on Mount Arman,

and looking 50 kilometers more, I'm told, into Syria for fear of strikes. We have confusing news out of Syria. I mentioned suddenly the

Qataris and the Saudis are interested in paying Al-Shara's debt so he can go on the bond

market. What is the present thinking in Israel, in the IDF or in Jerusalem, about what is to be

done with Syria? Look, I think the Israelis are taking a pragmatic

approach to developments in Syria. You don't have, as these Israelis, you don't have a choice

of your neighbors or who rules them. And fortunately, the Syrians didn't even have a choice

in who would be their liberator from decades of, you know, the brutal, monstrous

Assad regime's rule and ended up being a former al-Qaeda guy.

And I think the Israeli approach to this is like, okay, not our preferred option, but what's

he going to do?

We're going to judge him by his actions.

So if Chara is willing to play ball, if he's willing to, you know, do all the things to

take all the boxes that make the Israelis feel safe and secure in Syria, I think they'll

be willing to accept his presence, his rule over Syria, and whatever happens internally.

Really, it shouldn't be Israel's business.

Now, we have seen what I would call missteps by the Israelis.

Now, caution, more aggressive posture in Syria, given, first of all, the person who took over in Syria

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