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Mount Hermon: "The Eyes of the State of Israel"

Mount Hermon is a snow-capped mountain ridge where Israel, Syria, and Lebanon meet. Its highest peaks, about 9,200 feet, are in Syria. From the Syrian summit you can see across southern Syria toward Damascus, about 40 miles away, and down into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Israel has held the lower, southern slopes since 1967. Until December 2024 the Syrian summit was Syrian, watched over by UN peacekeepers. This page tells how Israel took it, what its leaders have said about keeping it, and why an Israeli reserve colonel says holding it serves an ideological goal, not a defensive need.

How it was taken​

On 8 December 2024, the day Syria's Assad government collapsed, the Israeli army moved into the demilitarized buffer zone set by the 1974 disengagement agreement and seized the Syrian summit of Hermon. That same day, Likud minister Amichai Chikli wrote that Israel "must urgently renew its control over the peak of Mount Hermon and establish a new defense line based on the 1974 ceasefire line" (Amichai Chikli on X, 8 December 2024).

What Israel's leaders said on the summit​

On 17 December 2024 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the Syrian summit with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the army chief of staff, the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister had entered Syrian territory. He said Israeli forces would stay "until another arrangement can be found that guarantees Israel's security." Katz called Hermon "the eyes of the State of Israel to detect near and far threats" and said, "We will remain here for as long as it is needed" (Times of Israel, 17 December 2024).

The same week, according to Mondoweiss, "a group of religious Orthodox Israelis went to the summit of Mount Al-Sheikh [the Arabic name for Hermon] in Syria, recently occupied by the Israeli army, and held a religious ceremony there, under the sight of Israeli soldiers" (Mondoweiss, 17 December 2024). Haaretz's editor-in-chief, Aluf Benn, titled his analysis "From Mount Hermon's Peaks, Netanyahu Plots His Vision of a Greater Israel" (Haaretz, 11 December 2024).

From "until another arrangement" to "forever"​

DateSpeakerWords
17 Dec 2024Netanyahustay "until another arrangement can be found"
17 Dec 2024Katz"We will remain here for as long as it is needed"
Apr 2026Finance Minister Smotrich"a conclusive political leg in Syria with the Hermon crown and the buffer zone"
9 Apr 2026Smotrich"In Syria, Mount Hermon, parts of the north, south, and east"
23 Sep 2026Katzthe Golan is "an integral, eternal part of Israel"; Israel will not withdraw from Hermon; new territory "will remain ours forever"

Sources: Times of Israel, 17 December 2024; Ynetnews; Smotrich video; Times of Israel liveblog, September 2026; Israel National News.

In two years the language moved from temporary to eternal. Washington had promised in December 2024, in the words of Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken as reported by Mondoweiss, to "make sure that Israel's presence in Syria doesn't become permanent." Mondoweiss added: "Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights in 1967 was also said to be temporary."

An Israeli colonel says it is not about defense​

Col. (res.) Udi Evental, a former strategic planner in the Israeli military, wrote in April 2026 that the Hermon position is "an Israeli presence that does not serve an essential defensive security need." He called "forward defense" "a euphemism for territorial occupation" and warned that the security zones "create a reality of occupation, in which various actors in Israel, especially on the extreme right, identify available territories for expansion, annexation, and Jewish settlement." His conclusion: "Thus a security-ideological coalition has now emerged in Israel, using a defensive-preventive narrative to advance a messianic agenda of 'Greater Israel'" (Udi Evental on X, 25 April 2026).

Why it matters​

Hermon is the high ground over southern Syria and southern Lebanon at once. Whoever holds it watches Damascus. Holding it "forever" turns the 1974 line into history and makes the next war with Syria a matter of when, not if. For Americans, it is worth remembering that the only government that recognizes Israel's claim to the Golan beneath it is our own.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED.

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Katz, Bezalel Smotrich, Amichai Chikli, Aluf Benn, and Udi Evental are alive.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t24__v278.md, twitter/t24__v281.md, twitter/t24__v282.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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