According to General Azer Tsfrir, for example, allowing the Assad government to fall would mean turning Syria into a "black hole" in which the border areas could become launch pads for operations against Israel.
Writing in Haaretz, the former military intelligence officer suggested that the fall of Assad would subject Syria to the hegemony of extremist groups which have declared their desire to destroy the "Zionist state". They would, he claimed, become a first degree strategic threat.
Tsfrir stressed that the most serious outcome of a Syrian takeover by extremists would be the undermining of stability in Jordan, the government of which is an important ally of both Israel and the West. Lebanon's sectarian and ideological balance would also be disrupted, he said.
The Netanyahu Cabinet should provide military aid to the Assad government directly or indirectly in order to guarantee that it does not fall, Tsfrir urged.
Arab affairs commentator Jacky Houki, meanwhile, said on the Yizrael Pulse website last Friday that the continuation of the Assad government is the guarantee for calm on the Syrian border.
Houki believes that Israel prefers the Hezbollah to such extremist groups. The Shia militia may be fierce fighters, he argued, but they would not carry out brutal attacks likes those perpetrated by the extremists.
He warned that all settlers in "Israel" may end up paying dearly for the cost of the fall of the government in Damascus