Seamus,
I can appreciate your goal, but you're not thinking about this. Plenty of elements in Europe and the Middle East already accuse Israel of being expansionist. Can you imagine how a land invasion of southwestern Syria would play out? Frankly, if Israel set troops into Syria, I would be surprised if Iran DIDN'T intervene, and I wouldn't even be surprised if the Russians didn't send some troop along to boot. Nor could the US actually occupy any Syrian territory.

I do understand your aim. After all the mayhem they've caused, Syria certainly has bought and paid for a little destabalization at home. I'd go a different route. With Assad's domestic leadership capability, there must be some sort of insurrection formenting. Encourage it. Arm it. Fund it. Maybe introduce counterfit currency into their money supply. Forclose on some of their larger IMF loans. Stuff like that. That will keep Assad to busy at home solving his own messes to keep screwing up Lebanon.