>>24648790
>Tons of figures and factions (though definitely not all) in Al Qaeda and ISIS have long been Western assets
It's kind of yes but also both, and no. It's complicated. The guys in Al Qaeda had their own Islamic revivalist agenda. They fought the USSR and that put them on the same side as the U.S., but they did turn on the U.S. in the 1990s and declare war on it. Bin Laden wanted to expel U.S. forces from the Arabian peninsula. They blew up some embassies in Africa (mostly killing Africans) and then did the 9/11 attacks. Eventually the U.S. hunted Bin Laden down and killed him.

Syria's new president was part of Al Qaeda and I've heard some (fairly informed) speculation that he cut a deal with U.S. intelligence while locked up in prison in Iraq. His forces also fought ISIS while in Syria. At some point, I think he told the CIA that he didn't want to fight the U.S. and that he was against that, which is why he was never targeted for assassination, and he had Turkish cover as well while in Idlib.

Israel and the U.S. are at odds over Syria right now. Basically the U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, they all like Sharaa and want a stable Syria with him in charge. Israel does not like this. Israel wants a divided, weak Syria and has been trying to make inroads in with the minorities there (recently the Druze) who fear majority rule by the Sunni Arabs. Israel even blew up the army headquarters in Damascus:
https://youtu.be/WvRO-wAaZEw

Israel wants Syria to be more like Lebanon, and they want to keep the Turks out. There's a funny paradox now where both the Israelis and pro-Iran types (Axis of Resistance, Assad dead-enders, internet tankies) are like "Sharaa bad because he's ISIS." That's while Israel was flying strike missions to help out guys who had fought in the SAA against Sharaa's guys. There actually probably four major factions in the Middle East. Some of those Druze were pro-Assad guys. You can't make sense of it thinking in terms of a black/white binary where there are just two sides. There's Turkey/Qatar, the Sunni kings, Iran/Hezbollah (and formerly Assad), and then there's Israel and "everybody else" like the Druze and Kurds.