Israel’s Druze dilemma: To arm imperiled Syrian Druze community or open door to a flood of refugees
DEBKAfile Special Report June 11, 2015
Israel has a unique, historic commitment to its Druze citizens and so the dangers besetting more than half a million of their Syrian brethren on Jabal Druze, 88 km from its border, and 38 km from Jordan, confronts the Netanyahu government with a grave dilemma. Israeli Druze leaders are pressing the government to provide Jabal Druze towns and villages with weapons for their defense against the enemies closing in on them: The Syrian-Hizballah army; the Syrian opposition coalition including the Nusra Front – now in control of large parts of southern Syria; and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIS, which has sent a small force up to the eastern approaches to the mountain.
At a reception for the visiting Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey Wednesday, June 10, President Reuven Rivlin said: What is going on just now is intimidation and threat to the very existence of half a million Druze on the Druze Mount, which is very close to the Israeli border.”Officials in the Pentagon denied that this issue had come up in Gen. Dempsey’s talks during his farewell visit to Israel this week, although Syria had been discussed. One official remarked: “It’s the Druze who are asking everyone to arm them. The Druze in Israel have been raising it with Israel with the US, with Jordan – everyone.”
debkafile’s military sources note that this dilemma is the hardest Israel has faced since the Syrian conflict began more than four years ago. Sending arms to the Syrian Druze would mean abandoning the consistent policy of abstaining from direct involvement in that war. It would moreover entail setting up new machinery for establishing, training and arming a Druze army of 20,000 to 30,000 fighting men. But by withholding support, Israel would make itself responsible for whatever befalls the beleaguered Syrian Druze community, including possibly mass executions by Islamic extremists for their unique faith.
Also taken into account is the proposal Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah put before the Druzes this week: to build them an army and provide it with weapons, against a pledge never to raise arms against Syrian President Bashar Assad or his troops. No other strings were tied to the offer. The Druze army would not be given any tasks other than to defend Jabal Druze and its hundreds of small towns and villages. Druze acceptance of Tehran’s proposition would have the effect of strengthening Iran’s hold on Damascus and weakening the Syrian opposition forces fighting in the south, with no guarantees about where this equation would end up in terms of new threats to Israeli security.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott, are being intensely lobbied by the leaders of Israel’s Druze community, some of them high-ranking officers in IDF and Border Police units, to come to the aid of their distressed Syrian brethren. They hold up their valuable contribution to the Jewish state’s national security as deserving of Israel’s reciprocation to step up when their community is in peril. No one is saying this, but the awareness is there that the many Druzes serving in Israeli combat units may decide to simply cross the Golan border and take up arms in defense of Jabal Druze.
The Syria community’s plight is complicated by the sharp internal division among its leaders: One group urges taking up the Iranian offer; a second would rather join forces with the Syrian rebels; and a third, wants to stick to their long-held neutrality in the Syrian arena. The Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, once accepted as such by the entire community, urges Jabal Druze inhabitants to throw in their lot with the rebel groups fighting to topple Assad.
Some Druze sources claim that Israel has promised admission to any fleeing Druze reaching the Golan border fence, an assurance also offered by Jordan. This is not confirmed by any official in either government. However, it is hard to see how Israel can bar its border if thousands of Druze refugees were to stand at the fence and demand shelter – any more than Jordan could. This may still happen – even if Jerusalem and Amman were to decide to supply the Syrian Druzes with weapons.
Al-Qaida Syria Affiliate Kills 20 Druze
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 11/15/At least 20 members of Syria’s Druze minority have been killed in an unprecedented shoot-out with Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front in northwestern Syria, a monitor said on Thursday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths came Wednesday in the village of Qalb Lawzah in Idlib province, most of which is now controlled by an alliance including Al-Nusra. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said villagers had protested after a Tunisian Al-Nusra leader “tried to seize a house belonging to a Druze resident of Qalb Lawzah, claiming he was loyal to the regime.” “Relatives of the owner of the house protested and tried to stop him, then there was an altercation and shooting,” he added. “The Tunisian leader brought his men and accused the Druze residents of the village of blasphemy and opened fire on them killing at least 20 people, among them elderly people and at least one child.” Abdel Rahman said some of the villagers had weapons and returned fire, killing three members of Al-Nusra. The Druze deaths were reported by Syria’s official SANA news agency, which accused Al-Nusra and allied Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham of an “appalling massacre committed against the people of Qalb Lawzah that claimed the lives of at least 30 people.” Quoting local sources, SANA said the dead included five members of a single family, three clerics and two women.
The agency also said the “terrorists… looted and burned dozens of homes.”The Druze, followers of a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam, made up around three percent of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million people. They are concentrated mostly in the southern province of Sweida, the only Druze-majority region of Syria, but there are several Druze villages through other parts of the country, including in Idlib. The community has been somewhat divided during the country’s uprising, with portions fighting alongside the government, but some parts expressing sympathy for the opposition. Mostly, the Druze have taken up arms only in defense of their areas, and have kept out of the fighting more broadly. The head of the Druze community in neighboring Lebanon, MP Walid Jumblat, is however a vocal opponent of President Bashar Assad’s regime. Writing on his official Twitter account on Thursday, he said contacts were underway to “calm the situation” after the deaths in Qalb Lawzah, without specifying further.
مقتل عشرين مواطنا درزيا برصاص جبهة النصرة في ادلب
وكالة الصحافة الفرنسية/11 حزيران/15//قتل عشرون درزيا على الاقل برصاص عناصر من جبهة النصرة في محافظة ادلب في شمال غرب سوريا اثر مشادة بين الطرفين تطورت الى اطلاق نار، بحسب ما ذكر المرصد السوري لحقوق الانسان الخميس. وهي المرة الاولى التي يقتل فيها هذا العدد من المدنيين المنتمين الى الطائفة الدرزية في حادث واحد، منذ بدء النزاع في سوريا قبل اكثر من اربع سنوات. وتحدثت وكالة الانباء السورية الرسمية “سانا” عن “مجزرة”، مشيرة الى مقتل ثلاثين شخصا، والى تورط “جبهة النصرة”، فرع تنظيم القاعدة في سوريا، و”حركة احرار الشام” الاسلامية المتطرفة في الاعتداء. وروى مدير المرصد السوري رامي عبد الرحمن لوكالة فرانس برس ان قياديا في جبهة النصرة يحمل جنسية تونسية “حاول الاربعاء مصادرة منزل مواطن درزي في قرية قلب لوزة في منطقة جبل السماق”، بحجة ان “صاحبه موال للنظام، الا ان افرادا من عائلة صاحب المنزل حاولوا منعه، فحصل تلاسن، ثم احتجاج، ثم اطلاق نار”. واضاف ان القيادي في النصرة الذي يقدم نفسه باسم “السفينة” استقدم “رجالا واتهم سكان القرية الدرزية بالكفر، وبدأ اطلاق النار مع مرافقيه عليهم، ما تسبب بمقتل عشرين شخصا بينهم مسنون وطفل واحد على الاقل”. ورد بعض السكان بالمثل ما تسبب بمقتل ثلاثة عناصر من جبهة النصرة. وافادت وكالة “سانا” ان “ارهابيي تنظيم جبهة النصرة وحركة أحرار الشام ارتكبوا مجزرة مروعة مساء امس ضد أهالي قرية قلب لوزة في ريف ادلب راح ضحيتها ثلاثون شخصا على الاقل”. ونقلت عن مصادر أهلية ان بين القتلى ثلاثة رجال دين وامرأتين. وهناك اربع او خمس قرى درزية في محافظة ادلب الواقعة تحت سيطرة جبهة النصرة وكتائب معارضة. ويشكل الدروز نسبة ثلاثة في المئة من الشعب السوري البالغ تعداده قبل الحرب 23 مليونا. وهم ينقسمون بين موالين اجمالا للنظام العلوي السوري الذي يطرح نفسه حاميا للاقليات في مواجهة التطرف، وبين متعاطفين وناشطين في “الحراك الثوري”، وبين من بقي على الحياد. ووقعت معارك في 2013 بين فصائل في المعارضة المسلحة ومجموعات درزية موالية للنظام في ريف السويداء (جنوب)، قتل فيها عدد من الدروز في المعارك او في القصف، لكن الدروز في قلب لوزة لم يكونوا اصلا يحملون السلاح، بحسب المرصد وناشطين. ويسود التوتر اليوم قرية قلب لوزة. وذكر مسؤول في الحزب الاشتراكي في لبنان الذي يتزعمه وليد جنبلاط ان هذا الاخير “يقوم باتصالات لتهدئة الوضع”. وهناك علاقات وثيقة بين دروز لبنان ودروز سوريا. ويتخذ جنبلاط موقفا معاديا للنظام السوري ويطالب الدروز في سوريا بالانضمام الى “الثورة لاسقاط الطاغية بشار الاسد”.
