Syria: Israel vows to protect Druze communities in violent outbreak with Bedouins

WION News reported that Israel vowed to protect the Druze amid the escalating violence in Syria. The Druze do not pose a threat to the state of Israel, but the predominantly Sunni Bedouins do. Druze are well integrated into Israel, serve within the military and security forces, and are trusted. Many Bedouins, on the other hand are sympathetic to the Palestinian “resistance” and pose a security threat to the state of Israel. In a Times of Israel report:

The Israeli military on Monday carried out a strike against several tanks near the southern Syrian village of Sami’, in the Sweida area, where Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes have clashed with Druze militias in recent days. It said the move was aimed at protecting the Druze and thwarting any threat to Israel…

The strike marks an apparent rare occurrence of Israel striking military forces of Syria’s new government. Israeli officials have said that they seek to completely demilitarize the southern Syria area, and not allow any armed groups to enter it and gain a foothold, including those of the new Syrian government.

Christians and Alawites are also targets of Syrian jihadists aligned with the al-Sharaa government. The world has been too quick (and gullible) to accept Ahmed Al-Sharaa as reformed from his al-Qaeda background, and believe his lies that Syria is not a threat in the region.

“Why Syria’s Bedouin and Druze have clashed, raising fears of sectarian violence,” Associated Press, July 14, 2025:

BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between Bedouin tribes, government forces and members of a minority sect in Syria have left dozens dead and once again raised fears of a breakdown in the country’s fragile postwar order.

The country is deeply divided as it tries to emerge from decades of dictatorship and nearly 14 years of civil war.

Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of President Bashar Assad in early December in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, but Monday’s fighting threatened to escalate into a larger conflict.

Here are the main reasons the clashes expanded in recent days and background on the two sides:

The Druze and Syria’s new government

The Druze religious sec t is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.

The transitional government has promised to include minorities, including the Druze, but the new 23-member government in Syria announced in late March only has one Druze member, Minister of Agriculture Amjad Badr….