Druze, Syria and Israel
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Druze, Syria and Bedouin
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While strategic considerations were still in play, the heart of the decision lay in defending the extended family of Israel’s own Druze—a gesture shaped as much by kinship as by security. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria over the past decade,
The Druze, a religious sect with roots in Ismailism, have faced violence in Syria. Their practices are secretive, with no conversions or intermarriage allowed.
At the center of a crisis in Syria are the Druze — a secretive religious minority that long carved out a precarious identity across Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
The White House is attributing the outbreak of violence in the Middle East between the Syrian government and Israel to a "misunderstanding" over ethnic grudges.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.
Residents reported calm in the Syrian city of Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government declared that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and the United States stepped up calls for an end to fighting.
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