Israel is reportedly close to negotiating a normalization agreement with Syria. Axios reported on June 11 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United States that he is “interested in negotiating an updated security deal and working up towards a full peace agreement.” According to Axios’s sources, “The Netanyahu government started engaging with the [Ahmed] al-Sharaa government, first indirectly by exchanging messages through third parties and then directly in secret meetings in third countries.”

On June 22, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi held a classified meeting with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. According to Israel Hayom, Hanegbi confirmed the Israeli government “maintains direct, ongoing dialogue” with Syria’s government. He reportedly “identified Syria and Lebanon as prime candidates for normalization agreements with Israel, building on the Abraham Accords model.”

Meanwhile, a report from Lebanese media suggests Syria drafted conditions for normalization. Israel Hayom wrote:

These reportedly include official Israeli recognition of the regime led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a full withdrawal from territories captured by Israel last December, an end to Israeli air strikes in Syria, security arrangements in southern Syria, and U.S. guarantees and support for the Syrian regime. In return, Syria may agree to permanently recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The Times of Israel confirmed from a “senior Israeli official” that Israel and Syria were in “advanced talks” on ceasing hostilities. “There is absolutely an aspiration to expand the Abraham Accords,” the official said, “and it’s no secret that we want to see Syria in this.”

Although Syria has never recognized Israel’s right to exist, Israel and Syria have had on-and-off-again negotiations. Negotiations with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in the 1990s made progress, but the sticking point was the Golan Heights. If Syria is willing to compromise on this, it would be a major milestone.

The Golan Heights is north of Israel’s Galilee region. It became part of Syria in the 1940s after Syria declared independence from France. Israel gained control of the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Although Israel has disengaged from most of the land it gained in that war, the Golan Heights are a strategic prize and were annexed into Israel proper. Only the U.S. recognizes the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory.

Good Idea?

Syria’s new government may be treating its people relatively better than the Assads did, but it has its own skeletons in the closet. Until last year, Sharaa led the al Qaeda-affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (hts). During the Syrian civil war, hts imposed sharia law on its conquests, mistreating women and religious minorities. It recruited thousands of foreign fighters to spread jihad, a group of people Sharaa intends to keep in Syria. Since establishing power, soldiers affiliated with hts have initiated an ethnic cleansing spree against Christians and Alawites, a fringe Muslim sect.

Because of this, while the United States has treated the new Syrian government like a partner, Israel has been distrustful. Syria has carried out repeated strikes against Israeli targets and occupied a sliver of territory north of the Golan Heights. But Syria has also allowed Israel to use its airspace to target Iran and to extract archives of a Mossad agent executed by the Assad regime decades ago.

Although Syria is currently led by jihadists in suits, led by a derivative of the same terrorist group that struck the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, it appears Israel is ready to bury the hatchet and make friends.

Sharaa may have jettisoned his military outfit for a suit and tie and substituted his title of “emir” for “president,” but he led a jihadist group for years because he believes in Islamism. He and his men fought Assad not to replace his regime with a liberal democracy but to replace it with something akin to Taliban-led Afghanistan. Sharaa knows he can’t get international support without appearing to moderate his persona, but a jihadist in a suit is still a jihadist.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote about the danger in trusting so-called moderate Arab nations when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recognized Israel in 2020:

We all want peace. But sadly, these recent peace pacts have a deadly flaw.

Biblical prophecy gives us deep insight into these agreements. It actually foretells that moderate Arabs will unite, somewhat like we are now seeing. But they are prophesied not to cooperate with the United States or Israel!

A prophecy in Psalm 83 exposes a hidden reality behind these peace deals. We are already in the beginning stages of its fulfillment.

Hidden Reality

“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (Psalm 83:1-4).

The alliance is comprised of “… the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre …” (verses 6-7).

Neither biblical nor secular history record any such alliance in purpose or membership. That is why Mr. Flurry says it is a prophecy for today. Mr. Flurry continued:

The key to unlocking this prophecy is to know the modern descendants of these peoples. And God in this end time has supplied this key. Based on biblical and historical research and with God’s inspiration, Herbert W. Armstrong gave a good general idea of which nations these peoples correspond to today, equating the Ishmaelites with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, the Hagarenes with Syria, the Philistines with the Palestinians; Gebal and Tyre with Lebanon, Moab and Ammon with Jordan, and Edom and Amalek with Turkey.

These are the countries the State of Israel is considering to be friends. The original Abraham Accords were between the U.A.E. and Bahrain, two Gulf states. There are rumblings Israel may make peace with Lebanon. We are close to adding Syria to the list.

Mr. Flurry’s article referred to the “deadly flaw” in the peace deals with the U.A.E. and Bahrain, which do not have a long history of warring with Israel. But Syria does. Not only that, the people running Syria today are literally from al Qaeda. Common sense should tell us making friends with Sharaa’s Syria is a bad decision for Israel. Bible prophecy confirms this. The closer Israel gets to Syria, the further into a trap it walks.

To learn more, read Mr. Flurry’s article “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals.”