Islamists Sieze Golan Checkpoint

This must be an …uncomfortable… position for Jerusalem and Damascus to find themselves in together:

Islamist militants battling the Syrian government seized control of the Quneitra border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday, according to an Israeli military spokesman and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the fighters were members of al-Nusra Front, a Syrian rebel group with ties to al Qaeda, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

And while the Islamist forces are no match for Israeli troops in the heavily militarized zone, the takeover represents a new dynamic in a war long feared not only for its deadly effects inside Syria but for threatening to widen into a destabilizing regional conflict, CNN’s Ben Wedeman reported Wednesday.

“Essentially, now you have the Nusra Front facing off just a couple of hundred meters from the Israeli army,” he said, adding that United Nations peacekeepers are stationed between the two.

The Israelis are often criticized for having a siege mentality, but given the neighborhood they live in, I sometimes wonder if it’s enough of a siege mentality.