The decisive action in Syria this week is an example to the rest of the world that it is possible to intervene when a massacre or genocide is taking place.
(photo credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)
Media pundits and government officials around the world must have been scrambling to Wikipedia or ChatGPT and typing in Druze to get a grasp of why Israel was bombing Syria.
Some clandestine Jewish cult or a rogue ally deep in Syrian territory, perhaps? They might have been surprised to discover that there was nothing Jewish – or Israeli – about them, aside from their bloodlines to the Druze citizens of Israel in the North.
Nobody in Israel, however, needs an explanation about the Druze community and the integral but overlooked role it plays in Israeli society.
Whatever slights and omissions that have been directed toward them by the Jewish majority in the country, inroads to make up for it were manifested by this week’s attack to defend the besieged Druze community in the city of Sweida at the hands of the country’s Islamist-led government troops.
Like the stunning, lightning attack on Iran’s nuclear capabilities last month, Wednesday’s decision by Israel to intervene in Syria was a moment for every Israeli to feel pride that their country was on the side of morality and justice.
Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday, claiming to administer a ceasefire agreed upon with Druze community leaders after clashes with local Bedouin tribes left more than 100 people dead.
According to multiple witnesses and reports, however, the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. Druze residents of Israel desperately tried to cross the border to help their besieged relatives and called on Israel to come to their families’ aid.
Israel responded like it should have. It struck the entrance to the Syrian regime’s military headquarters complex in Damascus, and also the area around Damascus’s Presidential Palace, in a signal to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa that he should put the brakes on any attempt to harm the Syrian Druze.
Protecting the Druze
“We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said in a joint statement. “If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us. We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all necessary steps to maintain their security.”
Unlike the divisive issues surrounding the continuation of the war in Gaza and the continued captivity of the hostages, there are no political slants or questions of motives surrounding Israel’s actions in Syria. It was the right and moral thing to do.
As President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday, “Israel does not stand idly by when there is even the potential for a jihadist threat over the border. Second, Israel does not stand idly by when our allies and family members of Israelis – the sons and daughters of the Druze community, an integral part of us – are under attack and in danger of a horrific massacre.”
Not surprisingly, however, there was not unanimous support for Israel’s magnanimous actions. The United States has been naively touting Shaara and his regime as moderate peace partners, going so far as lifting sanctions on Syria that were imposed when the Assad regime was in power.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was “very concerned” by the fighting and called on Israel to stop its offensive, rather than praising it for stopping the massacre of Druze civilians.
Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif on Thursday said Druze in Israel were distrustful of Sharaa.
“It was a mistake to lift the sanctions; he hasn’t changed his stripes,” Tarif said, referring to Sharaa’s jihadist past.
If the US still considers Shaara a future Abraham Accords partner, it could cause a rift between Washington and Jerusalem, which has been rightfully wary of jumping into bed with the new Syrian regime.
That will surely be dealt with in diplomatic circles, but now with the knowledge that Israel’s warnings in the past to Shaara about protecting the Druze in Syria were not just empty threats.
The decisive action in Syria this week is an example to the rest of the world that it is possible to intervene when a massacre or genocide is taking place.
In this instance, we are indeed a light unto the nations.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post