Jabhat al Nusra, Syria’s Qaeda affiliate, controls part of the Golan Heights, and therefore shares a border with Israel. Nusra is not the same as Da’esh, and in fact is at war with Da’esh.

Israel’s policy is to stay the fuck out of Syria’s civil war, and this is the best decision the Israeli government has made in decades. The Syrian conflict is extremely destructive and dangerous to Israel, but Netanyahu and other Israeli officials seem to understand that there is no benefit they can gain from intervening in it to favor one side or another.

The fact that Israel occasionally attacks Hezballah and other Iranian-backed targets in Syria is at best tangentially related. Iran and Hezballah have been at war with Israel for decades and have proven that they can and will attack Israelis at home and abroad. Taking an opportunity to reduce their capabilities is just smart.