17/07/2025
By Jonathan Feldstein
If you’re not watching developments unfolding in Syria with the Druze and Israel’s response, you should. Ask why you’re not seeing reports of these.
One reason you may not be hearing about this is because it’s a situation of Arabs massacring other Arabs (though albeit Arabic speakers, or Moslems slaughtering other Moslems and other minorities, though Druze do not consider themselves Arab or Moslem), which is “normal” and widespread throughout history. You’re not hearing about this because the Jews and Israel not only not be blamed, but they are the saviors of the Druze.
Who are the Druze?
Druze are an ethnic and religious minority of several hundred thousand to one million. They live primarily in Syria (the largest number), Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. Their religion is largely secretive and generally considered an offshoot of Islam with other influences. Their prophet is Jethro (as in the father in law of Moses). Because they are a small, close-knit religious and ethnic community indigenous so southern Syria and Lebanon and northern Israel and Jordan, they have close family connections which have been separated by the artificial borders made up by Britian and France as new nation states were created a century ago after WWI.
Because Druze are such a small minority, over the centuries they have undertaken a practice to be loyal even nationalist defenders of the countries in which they reside. In Israel that’s especially the case which I will discuss below. In the case of Syria and Lebanon where most Druze live, they are considered loyal Syrians and Lebanese. They are not looking to establish their own Druze State as do the Kurdish minority in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, or other religious and ethnic minorities. However because they are such a small minority, and seen as infidels by Moslems, they are often persecuted specifically in Lebanon and most recently in Syria.
In Israel, since the establishment of the State in 1948, Druze have been a loyal minority, referring to themselves as the cousins of the Jews. As citizens, Druze are the main Arabic speaking Israeli minority who are drafted and actively serve in the IDF, but uniquely in prominent combat units. Proportionally, the Druze have lost an exceedingly high percent of soldiers as compared to other sectors of Israeli society. In most if not every major Israeli Druze community, there is also a military cemetery, with graves etched with the names of soldiers from their communities, in Arabic, memorializing those who have fallen in combat on behalf of the Jewish state.
Druze have served in countless leadership positions throughput Israel, including the Knesset (parliament), as government ministers, diplomats, and of course in senior IDF positions. It’s noteworthy that the highest ranking IDF soldier killed in combat since the war against Hamas began was a Druze Israeli.
Parenthetically, there is a relatively large Druze community in the Golan Heights which has lived between two worlds since Israel took over the territory and annexed it after the Six Day War. Concerned that Israel might return the Golan to Syrian control, most never accepted Israeli citizenship that they were offered for fear of the implications on their families in Syria, or for themselves as “traitors” were they ever to find themselves under Syrian control.
Yet when a Hezbollah missile struck a soccer field on Saturday afternoon July 27, 2024, killing 12 Golan Druze children, Israelis flocked to pay condolences and express solidarity among this sector of the community who are not even Israeli citizens.
Between the commitment of and sacrifices for the Jewish state that the Druze have made, as well as their deep connection to and concern for their relatives in Syria, many Israeli Druze have taken been protesting in Israel on behalf their Syrian brethren. Some have even breached the border with Syria, literally running to defend the Druze communities that have been under attack there, and whose residents have been humiliated, tortured, and executed by militia of the current jihadi Syrian regime.
On the surface, Israel’s military response to the recent assault on Druze communities may raise eyebrows. It makes sense to take out Syrian tanks and other weapons and troops encroaching on the Israeli border in southern Syria where the Druze live. But why specifically defend a non-Israeli ethnic and religious minority at all, much less by striking Syrian military, and regime installation in Damascus?
A few lessons can be learned from this.
Among the thousands of Israelis who have sacrificed since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and massacre and the war in its wake, the Druze have suffered disproportionately. Yet as a result of the war and these losses, and attacks on Hezbollah and Syria which resulted in the fall of the Assad dictatorship in Syria, a positive outcome is that Syria has been so weakened that Israel was able to go into Syria to defend the Druze at all. A year ago, the scenario would have been very different.
This is an example to all of Israel’s neighbors, specifically Palestinian Arabs and even more specifically Gazans. This is a model of what Israel’s reciprocal support is and can be for peaceful loyal neighbors: to live under the wings of its protection and not as enemies. It’s not just a sensible modern rational nation-state model, but a Biblical model of nations of the world living in peace alongside Israel.
Israeli leaders have spoken vociferously about the imperative to support the Syrian Druze; a non-Israeli ethnic and religious group related to its own loyal ethnic and religious minority. In a world where rampant antisemitism has become acceptable, a parallel question is what nation-state will actually stand to defend Jews in their own countries who are suffering threats around the world. As Jews worldwide live in growing fear and threats, who will come to their defense?
Just weeks ago, there were rumors of Syria becoming one of the next parties to the Abraham Accords, making peace and normalizing relations with Israel. The jihadi Syrian government that overthrew the Assad regime has shown its true colors, attacking Alawites, attacking Christians, and attacking Druze. Perhaps this is the only “normalization” that Israel can ever expect from Syria.
