Trust in Syrian authorities remains low, Sheikh Tarif says. Hardly surprising after the heinous attacks on the Druze villages leaving many dead, as well as women raped, and men abused and injured. His appeal to Trump will have little benefit, Trump is not a moral warrior, he favors the strong over the righteous; the current Syrian dictator Shara is being treated respectfully by Trump and other western leaders, even though he is a known terrorist and there is no reason to believe he has changed. The terrorist in a suit is still a terrorist.
The question for Israel is should we interfere in what is basically an internal Syrian situation. The facts are clear; the Israeli Druze population has proven its loyalty to Israel in word and deed. Although as Arabs they are not obligated to serve in the IDF, they volunteer to do so on a massive scale. Secondly, Syria is not a real country it is merely one of the fictitious units drawn on a map by Sykes -Picot after the defeat and dismemberment of the old Ottoman Empire in WWI. It is a collection of disparate tribes which are often in conflict with each other. No Syrian dictator can be trusted to rule in a beneficent manner. The Druze, as a small group, are particularly vulnerable and no-one but Israel has the strength or the will to protect them. In the recent past there were elements in the Syrian Druze population that wanted Israel to annex the Druze area of Syria, but this is not a practical possibility given the general political situation. However there is a possibility to do the moral thing without incurring the wrath of the world which has no idea of what really matters in the Middle East.
Informally, we should allow the Syrian Druze to volunteer in the IDF. After their training and service in the IDF they could return to their villages, and form realistic civil defense units in their villages. Israel would supply the weapons and ammunition they would need. At the same time we should immediately inform whoever is running Syria to keep their hands off the Druze. Privately we should warn the dictator, whoever he is, that the IDF has a long arm, and those leaders who annoy it tend to have a very short life.
This would be the moral thing to do and would also be beneficial for Israel by providing a buffer between Syria and the Israeli Golan. It would also demonstrate Israel’s strength. The Middle East respects the ‘strong horse’. The downside, the objections of the UN and the phony left-wing international peace groups can be ignored. Trump might not be pleased, but he wouldn’t make a big deal of it, he also favors the ‘strong horse’.
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