Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the summit of Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory on September 9, 2026, flanked by Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior IDF commanders, and delivered a clear strategic message. Looking across Damascus, the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, and the Syrian Golan Heights, he declared that Israel now exercises control from the peak of Hermon to the Yarmouk River and westward toward the Mediterranean, an operational dominance the country had never previously held.

“We will not allow any terror army to establish itself on our border," Netanyahu said, describing the presence as one of the major achievements of the multi-front campaign his government terms the War of Revival. He added that the central remaining task is to defeat the terror regime in Iran, stating that Israel is “very close" and that the entire axis will ultimately fall.

The visit was more than symbolism. Israeli forces seized the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and a buffer zone of high ground and villages in the days after Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed on December 8, 2024. What began as a rapid move into the former UN-monitored disengagement area has solidified into a sustained military presence with fortified posts, observation systems, and regular operations. From these heights the IDF can monitor approaches to Damascus, track activity in Lebanon, and deny hostile forces the ability to dig in along the ridge that once threatened Israeli communities in the Golan and Galilee.

Netanyahu and Katz have returned repeatedly to reinforce the same point: the forces will remain as long as threats persist.

For four decades Iran’s regional strategy rested on a simple and effective concept. Through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps it built, armed, and directed a network of proxies that formed a ring around Israel: Hezbollah in Lebanon, regime-aligned forces and militias in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. The objective was to project military power to Israel’s doorstep while keeping the Iranian homeland insulated from direct retaliation. Rockets, precision munitions, and trained fighters created a permanent threat that constrained Israeli freedom of action and held its civilian population under constant risk.

That architecture has been systematically dismantled.

The fall of Assad removed the central land bridge that allowed Iran to move advanced weaponry and maintain logistical depth from its territory into Lebanon.

• -Without the Syrian corridor, Hezbollah’s primary resupply channel was severed.
• -Israel’s subsequent campaigns inflicted heavy losses on Hezbollah’s leadership, rocket arsenal, and command structure.
• -Hamas was severely degraded in Gaza.
• -Residual Iranian-linked cells in Syria face continuous pressure from Israeli operations in the security zone.

Result: What was once a coherent encirclement has been reduced to fragmented remnants operating under far greater constraints.

Iran has responded by shifting emphasis to the maritime domain. Attacks and threats against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and through Houthi partners in the Red Sea raise the cost of energy transit and attempt to generate international pressure. These actions demonstrate remaining asymmetric capacity, yet they cannot restore the forward deterrent posture that the Levantine proxies once provided.

Inside Iran the regime confronts chronic economic paralysis, energy shortages, and persistent popular discontent, problems that long predated the current regional setbacks but have been aggravated by sanctions, military losses, and the erosion of its external shield.

The operational reality that emerges from Mount Hermon is that containment and negotiated management of state sponsors of terror proved insufficient. Israel has shown the capacity and the will to neutralize threats at their sources, to hold critical terrain, and to degrade the infrastructure that enabled sustained pressure on its borders. The presence on Hermon converts a historic vulnerability into a permanent advantage of observation and rapid response. It signals to any force contemplating reconstitution along the northern frontier that Israel will act first and hold the ground.

Netanyahu’s words from the summit were deliberate. Standing where Syrian forces once controlled the high ground, he asserted that the paradigm of strategic hesitation has ended. By securing the approaches from Hermon to the Yarmouk and systematically dismantling the Iranian-backed network that once surrounded the country, Israel has rewritten the security baseline of the region. The message to both allies and adversaries is clear: a terror army will not be permitted to re-establish itself on Israel’s borders. Strength, not perpetual defense, is now the foundation upon which enduring security is being built.

Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx