The Associated Press reports:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces will stay in a buffer zone on the Syrian border, and specifically on the summit of Mount Hermon, “until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.”

Netanyahu made the comments from the mountain’s summit — the highest peak in the area — which is inside Syria, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with the Israel-held Golan Heights.

This was apparently the first time a sitting Israeli leader had set foot this far into Syria. Netanyahu said he had been on the summit of Mount Hermon 53 years ago as a soldier, but the summit’s importance to Israel’s security has only increased given recent events.

Israel seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in the days after Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted by rebels.

Israel’s capture of the buffer zone, a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized area in Syrian territory, has sparked condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating a 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria in the wake of Assad’s ouster to make a land grab.

Netanyahu traveled to the buffer zone with Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said he instructed the Israeli military to quickly establish a presence including fortifications, in anticipation of what could be an extended stay in the area.

“The summit of the Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Katz said. [Continue reading…]