The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) warned on Tuesday, December 10, against Israeli and U.S. interference in the Syrian people’s right to determine their own future in the wake of the fall of the Bashar al-Assad deadly dictatorship.

The CPI and Hadash issued a joint statement in response to Israel’s invasion of Syria. Published by Zo Haderekh, the organizations’ analysis said Netanyahu’s conduct “points to the long-term ambitions of Israel and its regional and global allies, starting with the Turkish regime, Arab reactionary states, and ending with the United States.”

Residents of Majdal Shams celebrate after the rebels took over Syria in the occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024 (Photo: Chaim Goldberg / Flash90)

The CPI and Hadash emphasized that the U.S. has “for decades embraced and even financed fundamentalist terrorist gangs that are engaged in destabilizing the region.” Israel’s Communists said that there is now “a real danger that the U.S. will play a central role in running the Syrian state after the fall of Assad.” They expressed hope that the Syrian people, who are understandably rejoicing at the downfall of their repressive government, will succeed in rejecting U.S. control and “preserve their own interest an fulfill the aspirations of Syrians for freedom and a life of dignity” in democratic state that guarantees social, cultural, and religious pluralism and civil equality.

As unpopular as the Assad government was, CPI and Hadash said that official Israeli and U.S. cheering for the end of tyranny in the country rings hollow. “It was not concern for the peace of the Syrian people” that guided Netanyahu and Biden, but “the fact that the previous Syrian regime refused to cooperate with the regional plans of the U.S. and Israel.”

They said adherence to such a view would be “just as absurd as claiming that the U.S. occupied and destroyed Iraq, killing millions of Iraqis, out of concern for the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, or that France, Italy, Britain, and the U.S. destroyed Libya because of Gadhafi’s dictatorship rather than their desire to control its strategic capabilities.”

In addition, the CPI and Hadash said today, Wednesday, that Israel must withdraw forces from the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory. “Any military deployment in the separation zone between Israel and Syria is a violation of the disengagement agreement of 1974. We call on Israel to withdraw from the zone and to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a spokesman says.