As the news began to filter in of the attacks in Southern Israel, where civilian buses were shot at by armed terrorists, the world came to a new realisation.

It is becoming abundantly clear that since the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, security in the region has been drastically destabilised. It first began with terrorists blowing up oil supply lines, and now it has escalated into a full blown attack on civilians, resulting in bloody murder. The news wires have put the death toll at six, but one can be sure that there will be reprisals from the Israeli side.

At the time of writing, US President Barack Obama was calling for Syria’s Bashar Assad to go, plunging the region into further crisis. It is clear that in more ways than one, Israel is under increasing threat. The lawlessness in the Sinai, which allowed Gaza gunmen into the country, coupled with the ever increasing threat from the North, will mean that Israel will now go into siege mentality. Whatever the case may be with Assad, there was an uneasy understanding between Israel and Syria. For all the atrocities that Assad has committed against his own people, his Alawite background meant that he had to push Syria as a secular nation, clamping down on radical Islam, which would have brought the tiny minority Alawite power structure down.

In one fell swoop, Barack Obama has tarred Assad with the same brush as Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. “You must go” are the words which are resonating around the region.

But what will it bring? Syria’s people have already expressed anger at Hezbollah for the way they have stood by in the Assad crackdown. One can expect that if he does go, at any time, there will be a short honeymoon period where relations with Israel will be cordial, just as happened when the Egyptian regime came down.

But the fundamental problem will be lawlessness and the inevitable attacks which will result once lawlessness spreads in the South of the country, especially the rugged Golan Heights. With the world focusing on the imminent collapse of the Gaddafi regime, one might do well to keep a finger on the pulse of the Israel-Syria situation. If it gets out of hand, it will destabilise the whole region. Israel is famed for its battle-readiness, as it demonstrated in the first Arab-Israeli war and the subsequent pre-emptive attack in the six-day war.

One is sure that while the rest of the world has gone soft through sloth and inactivity, Israel’s armed forces will be ready for any possible outbreak of hostilities. Whatever the case may be, the world is heading for ever more uncertain times. One hopes that the aspirations of the Syrian people will be realised, but we must also be realistic. With every bloody revolution that has taken place so far in the Arab Spring, the price has been stability and security. If and when the ouster of Bashar Assad comes about, we can only expect more of the same. One can only hope and trust in God that the situation will not degenerate into all out war and chaos.