By Jessica Hornik
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Some grim news out of the Middle East this morning: a community under attack by government forces, dozens
slaughtered, civilians being evacuated, chaos.
The victims are the Druze residents of Sweida, a southern
Syrian city, and the forces are those of the Syrian government. Don’t expect to
see protests in the streets of the West on behalf of this beleaguered
population. Don’t expect even so much as hand-wringing.
The Druze, a small non-Muslim minority in Syria and
Lebanon, are hated by Islamists. How this group would fare under the new regime
led by Ahmed al-Shara, himself once part of an Islamist group linked to
al-Qaeda, has been just one question as the region’s tectonic plates keep
shifting. The government moved into Sweida after clashes between Druze and
Bedouins, a tribal group. Was this on al-Shara’s orders or a rogue militia
action? There’s much that is still uncertain.
In Israel, too, there is a Druze minority, whose members
participate fully in Israeli life and institutions, including as loyal
defenders of the state by service in the police and the military. Israel is
taking military action in Syria to defend the Druze, keeping its promise to the
Israeli Druze community. In a particularly dramatic action, the military
headquarters of the Syrian army in Damascus was bombed.
Naturally, you should also expect to see no appreciation
by the activist left for Israel’s actions in defense of a minority that few in
the West are even aware of, or its critical role as a bulwark against Islamist
brutality.
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