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‘Any attack on the Syrian state is an attack on the Druze community’
Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou has condemned Israel’s air strikes on central Damascus, which Israel says it carried out to protect the Druze minority and prevent hostile forces from gaining ground near its borders.
“Any attack on the Syrian state is an attack on the Druze community,” Jarbou told Al Jazeera Arabic.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late on Wednesday that all parties, including Israel, had agreed to a ceasefire. Jarbou said the agreement enjoyed broad support within the majority-Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria and expressed his hope that the Syrian state would overcome the obstacles posed by attempts to disrupt it.
Netanyahu facing divisions in Israel after Syria attacks
Netanyahu is accused within Israel of recklessness in attacking Damascus and of attempting to buy time in order not to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
The head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, said that while he has a lot of respect for Israeli Druze, what Netanyahu did was irresponsible and not strategic. Some experts within the intelligence community have made similar comments.
But there is a lot of focus in Israeli media on what the Israeli Druze leaders are saying and how they appreciate what Netanyahu is doing.
The leaders of the sect in Israel have welcomed the military intervention, completely sidelining the Druze community of the occupied Syrian Golan, who identify as Syrians and have rejected Israel’s exploitation of their plight to achieve territorial expansion.
Israel’s Syria strikes expose push for regional hegemony – Marwan Bishara
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara condemned Israel’s strikes on Syria as “vulgar exhibitionism” aimed at asserting regional hegemony.
He argued Israel exploits minority divisions under false pretexts of protection, just as colonial powers historically did, while deflecting from Gaza’s genocide.
Bishara noted Syria’s Druze community prefers national unity despite Israeli interference, comparing it to failed attempts to divide the Kurds.
Israel’s attacks on Syria aren’t about protecting Druze, but expanding control
Israel is threatening to continue its attacks on Syria, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming they are to protect the Druze community there.
Mohamad Elmasry, professor of media studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Israel’s attacks are not about protecting the Druze, but about expanding control and weakening Syria.
Elmasry views Israel’s actions as part of a wider strategy to divide and fragment the region.
