History does not end. It waits under ruins, under silence, under treaties never honored. And in the Middle East, it waits for memory to return with vengeance.
The Israeli airstrikes on Syria most recently the reported bombing of Ahmed Shar’a’s presidential palace are not isolated military events. They are the echoes of a long-term strategy. A plan, now fully unleashed, that aims to sever Syria from its historical purpose, to disfigure it beyond repair, and to ensure that what was once a nation with imperial memory becomes nothing more than fragmented land administered by proxies or left to rot in chaos.
Since December 8, 2024, when the central authority in Syria effectively collapsed, the region has entered a new phase. Israel’s military pressure has gone beyond Gaza, beyond the Lebanese south it is now openly dismantling what remains of Syria’s symbolic institutions. This is no longer about deterrence. It is about redefining the Arab map.
For Israel, a stateless Syria is not a risk it is an opportunity. It blocks the return of Iranian influence, neutralizes the strategic depth of any future resistance, and crushes the Arab ambition especially that of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to reintegrate Syria as a geopolitical asset within their new sphere of influence.
Damascus was never just a capital. It was the eastern gate of the Mediterranean world, the beating heart of Arab intellectual life, and the silent archive of centuries of languages, religions, philosophies, and revolts. But perhaps the deepest and most unsolved question Syria’s central authorities have faced for over a century is this: is Syria a civilization or a nation?
This question, unanswered, shaped Syria’s contradictions. It was this question that pushed it into the storm of Baathist revolution after the collapse of the CENTO alliance when Arab nationalist regimes like Nasser’s Egypt saw U.S.-aligned regional structures as colonial continuations. And it is this same question that now haunts the rubble of Damascus.
For the Arab monarchies who once sent troops to the 1948 war for Palestine today’s stakes are no longer just about confrontation. These regimes are thinking long-term: energy corridors, security architecture, religious legitimacy, and the soft power of investment. In their eyes, post-war Syria was a zone to be stabilized and folded into a broader Arab-led order. Saudi Arabia, especially, had begun maneuvering quietly to bring Syria back into the Arab embrace, not through ideology but through capital a vision that threatened both Iran’s revolutionary network and Israel’s regional calculations.
That network the so-called Axis of Resistance was not just a geopolitical slogan. It was Iran’s instrument to claim moral leadership over the Palestinian cause, bypassing Arab regimes, funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and others to reshape regional loyalty. Yet it came with consequences. The very presence of these armed groups complicated Gaza’s standing, alienated conservative Arab capitals, and created a new sectarian front where the cause of Palestine became split between revolutionary and state-led strategies.
And in that vacuum, a crucial decision was made: the Arab League reaffirmed that the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is the PLO not Hamas, not militias, not factions. This clarity, though late, speaks volumes. It reflects a deeper anxiety: who owns the Palestinian cause today?
For Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Gaza matters not only as a symbol of resistance but as a civilizational artery. Historically it belonged to the larger Syrian landscape as did Jordan and Lebanon and its fate is tied to the rise or collapse of Damascus. If Syria remains dismembered, Gaza too remains trapped. In many ways, Gaza is the pulse of the Arab condition.
The bombing of the presidential palace with reports of top figures fleeing could signal more than an escalation. It may be the final blow to what remained of a central Arab authority. It risks igniting both Christian and Muslim Arab sentiment against Israel a backlash that could spread far beyond Syria’s broken borders.
And yet, in the face of this, silence dominates. Arab capitals calculate. Western media glance and move on. China watches. America arms. Iran recalibrates.
What now? With Syria’s symbolic center crushed, and Gaza bleeding under siege, the region stands on the edge of a question. Will the Arabs retreat again into cautious diplomacy, or will a new political vision rise one that can confront fragmentation without repeating the violence of the past?
Or is this the beginning of the post-Arab Middle East where borders remain but meaning fades?
More to come.
