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By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
One of the last remaining Jews in Syria told Israel’s Channel 11 Sunday that the new regime that swept into power a week ago has not harmed the country’s tiny community.
Although the major group in charge, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a Sunni Muslim extremist element, the source said, “We are not afraid.”
He acknowledged that on the first day the rebels took Damascus, there was anarchy and both houses and cars were stolen, but nothing happened to the four estimated Jews left in the city, nor to their personal or communal property.
“No one entered the Jewish properties and synagogues,” he said.
“In recent days,” he added, “I was walking down the street and one of the rebels said hello to me. Everything is routine. It may be better than it was.”
He also hastened to say that it hadn’t been bad for the Jews under the previous nationalistic regime, either, saying “I was satisfied both during the Assad era and now everything is fine.”
Heritage sites, including Jewish ones, were preserved under the Assad regime. Considering the tiny number of indigenous Jews, places such as synagogues could mainly be considered a tourist attraction.
The man also expressed cautious optimism that there may be a chance for the new government to move towards peace with Israel.
This may not be realistic, considering the extremist Muslim orientation of most of the rebel forces, whose leaders have talked in the past of conquering Jerusalem.
In the short term at least, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader, said on Saturday that “The situation in Syria, exhausted by years of fighting, does not allow for entering into new conflicts,” and that “the top priority is construction and stability,” rather than fights “that will lead to more destruction.”
In that context, he noted that Israeli fears that it was threatened by the new Syrian government were unfounded and “do not justify the recent violations of Syrian sovereignty.”
The IDF pre-emptively moved into the abandoned demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights as a precautionary move to ensure the safety of the Israeli communities there.
This included the higher Syrian Hermon spur, which has a much more commanding view of the region than the Israeli Hermon.