Israel Prepares For the Day When Assad Is No Longer In Power In Syria

UN peacekeepers monitor the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border from an army post at Mount Bental in the Golan Heights last July (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Haaretz: Rebel advances in Syria leave Israel contemplating life without Assad

IDF deputy chief of staff says Syrian army ‘has ceased to exist’ and that Hezbollah’s casualties are significantly higher than previously believed.

Israel’s defense establishment has started keeping an even closer eye on Syria’s civil war, given the growing assessments that President Bashar Assad’s regime is having trouble repelling the rebel onslaught and is rapidly losing its grip on some of the areas still under its control.

This week, the rebels took over Ariha, a town in northern Syria that directly threatens the Alawite enclave on the Mediterranean coast.

The Alawite sect, to which Assad belongs, is the regime’s main power base.

Update: As Assad Slips in Syria, What is the Best Outcome for Israel? -- Algemeiner

WNU Editor: If the Assad regime does fall .... or abandons the Golan heights and the border region with Israel .... Israel better prepare itself to having Al Qaeda and/or Islamic State fighters on its borders. But for the moment .... according to Israel's top general in this region the situation .... the border is "better than ever" .... Israeli army: Situation on northern border 'better than ever' (Haaretz). What's my take .... I call this "the lull before the storm".