Qatar Incites To Open A Front Against Israel On The Syrian Border In The Guise Of Popular Resistance

Memri

8 hours ago

Introduction
Since Israel's deployment of forces in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 and the advent of the new regime there, Qatar has been acting to open a new front against Israel on the Syrian border in the guise of popular resistance. Qatar has made direct attempts to recruit Syrian activists for this purpose, sometimes going over the head of the new Syrian regime, headed by Ahmed Al-Sharaa, aka Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, previously the head of the Islamist terror organization Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham. It should be noted that Qatar's attempts to open a new front against Israel in Syria could undermine the new regime's efforts to cultivate a moderate and pragmatic image, efforts that Qatar – which is sponsoring the new regime – has itself been promoting.
As part of the attempt to open this front, the Qatari government and non-government press has published articles and interviews with Syrian "military experts" warning that the real goal of Israel's military presence in Syria is to divide the country in order to take control of it and of the entire region. The articles call on the Syrian people to rise up and foil this Israeli plan – by staging protests but also through armed activity. They explain that the new Syrian regime, which Qatar supports, currently prefers to adopt a policy of silence and of tolerating the Israeli presence because it lacks the military power to fight it, and also because rebuilding Syria and attracting foreign investment are currently top priorities. Therefore, they say, the task of fighting Israel falls to the Syrian people. Yasser Abu Hilala, a former director-general of Qatar's Al-Jazeera Network, even noted that such popular action would "help the [Syrian] government in its strategy of silence."
Calls for Syrians to carry out armed activity against Israel are also heard from members in the Doha-based International Union of Muslims Scholars (IUMS), which is sponsored by Qatar and serves as one of its tools for spreading terrorist Islamist and anti-Western ideology.
It should be stressed that Qatar is a prominent supporter of the new Syrian regime and is heavily involved in Syria, including through influence on Syrian decision-makers,[1] as evident, for example, in the appointment of Hamza Mustafa, a close associate of the Qatari regime, as information minister.[2] The Qatari efforts to encourage armed popular resistance against Israel in Syria are apparently aimed at fostering a Syrian strategy of struggle against Israel ostensibly without involvement of the authorities.
Syria is not the only arena in which Qatar incites armed action against Israel in the guise of "resistance." It is also known as the main supporter and financer of Hamas, and the Qatari media, especially Al-Jazeera, welcomed the October 7 attack against Israel and helped Hamas with media and information campaigns.[3] In addition, Qatari journalists celebrated the November 2024 attack on Israeli football fans who were visiting Amsterdam for a match.[4]
Furthermore, on March 31, the IUMS issued a fatwa enjoining all Muslims and Islamic countries to embark on jihad against Israel, calling this the religious duty of every believer.[5]
Qatar is also working to strengthen the Syrian front against Israel by reconsolidating Hamas's presence in that country, after the organization's standing in Syria grew precarious due to unstable relations with the previous regime.[6] Since Al-Sharaa took office, there have been increasing reports in the Arab media about contacts between his regime and the Hamas leadership. These Qatari efforts are at odds with international pressure on Al-Sharaa, especially American pressure, to prevent terror activity against Israel in Syria.
This report reviews Qatar's incitement and encouragement of popular action against Israel in Syria.
Israel's "Occupation" In Syria Threatens Regional Stability; Only "Deadly Military Pressure" Will Cause It To Withdraw
As mentioned, since Israel deployed military forces in southern Syria to prevent hostile elements, both Iran-backed militias and jihadists, from approaching its border, Qatar has been harshly attacking this move, stating that Israel is threatening not only Syria and its territorial integrity but the stability of the region as a whole. A statement issued by the Qatari foreign ministry on December 9, 2024, condemned the "Israeli occupation" of the buffer zone on the Syrian border, calling it "a dangerous development and a blatant attack on Syria's sovereignty and integrity, as well as a flagrant violation of international law," and adding that "the Israeli occupation's policy of imposing facts on the ground, and its attempts to occupy Syrian territory, will lead to ever-increasing violence and tension in the region."[7]
A March 16, 2025 editorial in the government daily Al-Watan said: "…The Syrian people are facing immense challenges, not least of them the Israeli attempts to divide this Arab country by feeding the zealotry and sectarian conflicts [in it] … in order to thwart the dream that [the Syrians] managed to realize recently [i.e., the overthrow of the Assad regime]." The editorial claimed further that Israel seeks "to divide the entire region into sectarian entities in order to ensure its own survival and expansion," and that "the Syrians have struggled and paid the price of their revolution in blood. Today they deserve support and assistance, because the plots being hatched by Israel and several other forces ultimately target all the Arabs…"[8]
Cartoon in Qatari government daily: The Israeli serpent, which already has Gaza in its grip, sinks its fangs into Syria as well (Al-Watan, Qatar, December 20, 2024)
An article by Iraqi journalist Jassem Al-Shamari in the Qatari government daily Al-Sharq stressed that the only way to drive Israel out of the territories it has occupied is through "deadly military pressure." Al-Shamari wrote: "Israel's claim that its measures [in Syria] are temporary are a trap, [an attempt] to subdue [concerns] and deceive the international and Arab public. Past experience shows that Israel does not withdraw from any territory it seizes unless subjected to deadly military pressure."[9]
The New Regime Is Currently Unable To Act Against Israel, So The Syrian People Must Do So In Its Stead
Some articles in the Qatari press defended the decision of the new Syrian regime – which Qatar seeks to sponsor – to refrain from responding to the military activity Israel has been carrying out in Syria since the ouster of the Assad regime. This activity has included attacks on bases and arms depots of the Assad regime, as well as the deployment of forces in a buffer zone along the border to prevent the approach of hostile forces. The articles explained that, currently, the regime's top priority is to rebuild and reunite the country, and to this end it seeks to establish good relations with the West in order to elicit aid and the lifting of sanctions. As a result, it is temporarily unable to act against Israel, and the people are called upon to do so in its stead.
An editorial published in the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on December 25, 2024, some two weeks after Israel's deployment of forces in southern Syria, stated: "The new Syrian Administration, which is [still] feeling its way, faces immense challenges, so its top priorities are clearly… to ensure internal stability and peace so as to reassure the Syrians, their Arab surroundings and the entire world and prepare the ground for economic and political reforms and for extricating Syria from the burdensome economic and political sanctions.
"It is only natural that the leader of the new administration, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, should take the measure of declaring that Syria is exhausted and has no intention of fighting the Israelis.[10] But it is just as natural that the Syrians, who are directly impacted by Israel's invasion, should oppose what is happening with the simple means at their disposal, by organizing demonstrations and protests and opposing any cooperation with Israel. It is also natural that this peaceful resistance should develop means to confront Israel…"[11]
Former Al-Jazeera director-general Yasser Abu Hilala likewise addressed the factors that, in his opinion, currently keep the Syrian regime from confronting Israel and therefore compel the Syrian people to take the initiative instead. He wrote on January 31, 2025 in the London-based Qatari daily Al-Arabi Al-Jadid: "…The five priorities listed by the new Syrian president[12] indicate that the campaign [against Israel] has been postponed, [but] not canceled. Anyone committed to the Syrian revolution hopes this [is so], because it is inconceivable that the Syrians should forget the issue of Palestine, or that of the Golan, given that one million [Syrians] were displaced from [the Israeli Golan], including President Al-Sharaa [himself]. It is also impossible for Syria to relinquish its water [rights], for [the waters of] Mount Hermon and the Sea of Galilee are Syria's lifeblood. [However,] right now the priority is to build a strong Syria that can obtain its rights from the Zionist enemy. It is impossible to enter the fray unprepared. The rebels launched the campaign to liberate [Syria from Assad, and managed to reach] Damascus on December 8, 2024, because they had prepared for this moment for several years. The campaign against the [Israeli] enemy must not begin at the place and time convenient for the enemy… The enemy wants a broad conflict in which it will have the upper hand, in order to realize its plan to divide Syria and put it back together based on an alliance of minorities…
"The new leadership knows… that its main task, of liberating Syria from the tyrannical [Assad] regime, has ended, and that today it must build the new Syria over the ruins of the old. To do this, Syria must be removed from the sanctions list. Any conflict with Israel means that the American sanctions over the entire country will remain in place… The [Syrian] state's policy of silence, tolerance and disregard [of Israel's military activity] is justified… But silence on the part of the people of the [Syrian] homeland, which would help the enemy, would be wrong. [Syrian] society must work to strengthen Syrian unity, as happened in the villages of the Daraa [region] that were attacked by Israel[13]… This will help the government [while it maintains] its policy of silence."
Abu Hilala noted Al-Sharaa's years-long commitment to the liberation of Al-Aqsa, not just the liberation of the Golan, and contended that statements to this effect made by Al-Sharaa when he was leader of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham[14] did not just reflect the position of that organization but "a Syrian consensus that has existed since the days of Sheikh Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam."[15] He added: "Even if silence is the option chosen by the state, it is surely not the option favored by the people."[16]
In another article, published on June 3 in the Qatari daily Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, Abu Hilala described the popular resistance as "the strongest card" available to the new regime and called on it to make use of it. He criticized countries that, he said, are trying to drag Syria into a confrontation with Israel or into normalization with it.
He wrote: "...Syria does not need anyone to entangle it today in a difficult and destructive confrontation with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu or in a soft [but] destructive [process of] normalization. Rather, it needs its allies to take an honest position so as to stop the aggression against it and [enable it] to achieve its historic rights...
The strongest card available to the Syrian state is the position taken by its people. The attack by unarmed Syrian heroes on an Israeli patrol in Quneitra, [who] took down an Israeli flag, trampled it and burned it,[17] reflected courage, wisdom and awareness. The patrol was unable to confront [these] unarmed people… The Syrian state should invest in the card of popular [resistance]…"[18]
Cartoon in Qatari daily: The Israeli serpent lies in wait for the "rebels" who have just crushed the Assad regime (Al-Sharq, Qatar, December 11, 2024)
Syrians Can Wage Armed Resistance, Like In Iraq And Afghanistan
Muwaffaq Zaidan, an Al-Jazeera reporter and a columnist for the Qatari government daily Al-Sharq, noted that Syrian civilians have personal arms they can use against the Israeli forces, and that, unlike the besieged Gaza Strip, Syria can receive arms from the Arab countries and the region. He wrote: "… [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu should know that the Syrian people no longer have anything to lose… Organizing mass protests in Daraa today will threaten the Zionist entity and place it in a new situation, dangerous and serious. Does [Israel] think it can handle popular protests in the area it is occupying… [?] This uprising, combined with the personal arms available to the people, will show the Zionists that excessive force is useless, as we have seen with our own eyes in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
"The Syrian people is exhausted by the latest wars against Assad's gangs… It no longer has anything to lose… If Netanyahu insists on trying its patience, he will get a taste of what the West experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq. Continued Zionist attacks on Syria will spark popular resistance that will be no picnic for Netanyahu. He will see a besieged area -- just like Gaza, which has steadfastly resisted him for 16 months. But Syria, [unlike Gaza], has Arab and regional supply [routes]."[19]
Zaidan wrote in a similar vein on his X account: "The [Syrian] people, which has uprooted a regime that was supported by regional and international powers and by cross-border sectarian gangs [i.e., the Shi'ite militias supported by Iran], will teach Netanyahu a lesson, Allah willing. Attacks on Syria will have repercussions. Those who endured and steadfastly [resisted the Assad regime] for 14 years can do so again. Don't try the patience of this people."[20]
Muhanna Al-Hubail, a columnist for the Qatari Al-Watan daily and head of the Canadian Centre for Consultancy, advised the Syrian regime to make use of "popular resistance" by "limited forces" that are "covertly affiliated" with the regime. He wrote: "Confronting the aggression of Israel – which boasts about destroying Gaza without compunction or fear of its Arab neighbors, and enjoys the Trump Administration's support for its endless [acts of] destruction… – will have no effect and will not prevent the all-out war that this entity [i.e., Israel] is planning and seeking. However, continued inaction has far-reaching implications as well. Activating limited forces to engage the enemy, such as popular resistance that is covertly affiliated with a vital state institution, can change the picture…"[21]
IUMS Members: The Syrian People Will Resist Israel Even With Kitchen Knives
Several members of the IUMS likewise incited the Syrians to take violent action against Israel. IUMS member Muhammad Saghir responded on X to an April 3 incident in the Daraa area, in which locals fired at Israeli forces that were engaged in seizing munitions and destroying terror infrastructures, provoking Israeli fire that killed nine. Saghir wrote that Israel is destroying Syria's military capabilities in order to render its new regime unable to defend itself, let alone liberate its land, but stressed: "Even if the people of the new Syria are left with nothing but kitchen knives, the Zionists will not be secure. They are motivated by delusions of power, and [seek to] undermine the security that the Syrians have taken it upon themselves [to ensure for themselves] in this phase of building their homeland. The aggressor [i.e. Israel] will lose if it tries to escalate the conflict with them. The boys who steadfastly resisted the barrel bombs of Bashar [Al-Assad], the jets of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the battalions of Iran know that the Zionists are much greater cowards and villains than any of the above. #Dara_is_the_graveyard_of_invaders."[22]
Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Shinqiti, an IUMS member and a lecturer at Qatar University, shared a composite picture of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and a bleeding Benjamin Netanyahu, captioned "A Single Enemy from Damascus to Jerusalem," and commented: "If Syria remains stable and its [re]building is completed, this will be a catastrophe for the Zionists in the long term. If they do not allow Syria's stability and [re]building, and decide to attack its land and its unity, this will be a catastrophe for them in the short term. The Zionist enemy has no future after the liberation of Syria and after [the Syrian] soldiers reach the outskirts of Jerusalem."[23]
The image shared by Al-Shinqiti
Articles In Qatari Daily Encourage Armed "Popular Resistance" Against Israel
In recent months, the London-based Qatari daily Al-Arabi Al-Jadid published several articles highlighting the option of an armed "popular" uprising of locals in southern Syria against Israel. A March 29, 2025 article titled "Repeated Israeli Attacks in Syria… and Readiness for Popular Resistance" quoted an unnamed source in the Syrian factions in the south who warned of an armed conflict between Syrian locals and Israel. According to this source, "the repeated Israeli attacks in southern Syria, open the door to every option, including the emergence of popular resistance… Any excessive aggression will lead to intense popular resistance regardless of military abilities… When there is need to confront Israel, we will do so with the military resources we have. There are plenty of weapons in Daraa, and we will receive assistance from all the Syrians. I believe that, if Israel enters cities and towns like Tafas, the conflict will begin."[24]
On March 27, following an incident in the town of Kawiya in the Daraa area in which an Israeli drone shot at gunmen who had fired on an Israeli force and killed four of the gunmen, the daily published an article titled "Popular Resistance against the Israeli Aggression in Syria – Is It Realistic?", in which Syrian researchers and analysts called on the new regime to allow the people to rise up against Israel using the private arms at their disposal. Military commentator Abdallah Al-As'ad, head of the Rasd Center for Strategic Studies, urged the Syrian government, which is currently engaging in diplomacy with Israel, "to allow the Syrian people to wage resistance against its aggression," and added, "It is inconceivable that the people of Daraa should leave their land to the Israelis when they can wage tremendous resistance in order to hold on to their land. The people have weapons and are eager to wage resistance against the Israeli forces."
Syrian Military expert Diyaa Qadour said: "Popular resistance based on local support can constitute an effective and deterring force against any attempts by Israel to expand its [presence] or impose a new reality in the occupied areas… This resistance must be united and well-coordinated with the local and government forces…"[25]
Image published with the article titled "Popular Resistance against the Israeli Aggression in Syria – Is It Realistic?")
In another article in Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, from April 4, Syrian analysts warned that the Syrian people is ready to confront the Israeli forces. Imad Al-Masalameh, a dignitary from Daraa, told the daily that some Syrians have begun "demanding popular resistance" against these forces to stop "their unacceptable intervention" in Syria. The Syrian people, he added, "is exhausted after 14 years of war against the deposed [Bashar Al-Assad] regime, but we are able and willing to wage resistance against the Israeli forces that have arrived in [the city of] Nawa. All the young men of the region are on the alert."
Abd Al-Jaber Al-Akidi, an officer who defected from Assad's army and headed a military council of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, told the daily that "resistance is the Syrian's choice if this Israeli recklessness continues… The Syrian state is being established and is unable to confront [Israel], due to the power balance, which is in favor of the Western-backed Zionist entity. Therefore, there is no choice except to launch popular resistance against the Israeli invasion." Military researcher Rashid Horani did not rule out the possibility that the new regime would "help the locals in the area west of Daraa to wage popular resistance against the occupation forces…"[26]
On April 25, the daily published the third installment in a series of articles about the new Syria. Titled "The New Syria – The Confrontation with Israel that Has Been Postponed," this installment speculated that Israel means to occupy more areas in Syria and annex them. The writer, Shahira Saloum, therefore wondered, "What is left for the Syrian people and leadership to do? They have two options: confrontation or confrontation. Since the new regime is currently unable and unwilling to do this, confrontation, in the form of popular resistance, is the [only] choice."[27]
*N. Mozes is a research fellow at MEMRI.