Assad Golan Loss Maps Bleak Syrian Future, Israel’s Zisser Says

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s abandonment of the Golan Heights to rebels offers a preview of how dueling warlords may carve up the country as his power ebbs, a career Assad-watcher in Israel says.

While the Al-Nusra Front’s gains against the Syrian army will probably be followed eventually by attacks on Israel, the al-Qaeda-linked group doesn’t pose an “existential threat” to the Jewish state, Eyal Zisser, a Tel Aviv University political scientist, said in an interview.