Israel is helping the Druze in Syria to survive: “Israeli Druze doctor builds secret medical lifeline for besieged Sweida – exclusive,” by Darcie Grunblatt, Jerusalem Post, December
Additionally, the IAF flights to Sweida were dangerous, and there was a limit on the quantity of aid that could be flown in, Marich added….
The Israeli Air Force’s role in getting supplies to the Druze in Sweida, flying in dangerous conditions — Syria’s store of anti-aircraft missiles have not has been completely destroyed — has been indispensable. This air bridge built by the IDF deserves more attention, but won’t get it, because the mainstream media know such a story could increase sympathy for Israel, and that, of course, will never do.
“When the brothers of our brothers need help in Syria, we must help when we can,” said IFCJ President Yael Eckstein. “We can’t stop terrorists from targeting and killing people, and we can’t stop the rockets from falling, but what we can do is provide comfort and help for those who need us. We can’t help all the persecuted Christians in the Middle East, but when it’s right on Israel’s Syrian border, we can’t turn our backs on them.
The Israeli-run IFCJ knows it cannot help all the Christians persecuted, and in some cases killed, by Muslims in the Middle East. But it can, and does, help the Christians, along with the Druze, in the mixed-population villages of Erneh and Rima, that are located south of Sweida and close to the Israeli border.
“The global Christian community and our Druze brothers and sisters in Israel have stood side by side with Israel and the Jewish people, particularly since Oct. 7. And now that we can, we will stand with the Christian and Druze communities in Syria as they are being targeted.”
Yael Eckstein, the president of the IFCJ, has too generous a view of the world’s Christians. A great many Christians in the world have not “stood side by side with Israel and the Jewish people.” When 400,000 people come out in Italy, and 300,000 in the Netherlands, and 700,000 in the U.K., to scream their rage at Israel, maligning it as a “colonial-settler apartheid genocidal state” that deserves to disappear, so that “from the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” is it fair to say that the “global Christian community” has stood by Israel since October 7, 2023? No, shamefully, it has not. Yael Eckstein, head of the IFCJ, is apparently one of those who cannot stand too much reality.
“We don’t even have the privilege of paying taxes to stay alive,” [Shekh] said, referring to the Jizya tax levied on Jewish and Christian subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. In practice throughout history, this implied a second-class status to non-Muslims. “By this ideology, the only thing they can do is kill us. So what happened here was just a matter of time.
Not being “people of the book” like the Christians and Jews, the Druze do not have the option of being treated as dhimmis, who historically have endured many legal, social, and economic disabilities, of which the most severe is the required payment of the jizyah, in order to be able to both live and to practice their religion. So the Druze believe it was “only a matter of time” before the Sunni Arabs ruling Syria, no longer held in check by Assad’s army, would come after them.
In this year, the Alawites – they laid down their weapons, and they were massacred. So when they asked the Druze to lay down their weapons – if you don’t learn from the mistakes of others, you’re a fool; this is a phrase we use here.”…
The Druze have refused al-Sharaa’s demand that they surrender their weapons and agree to have their militia integrated into the Syrian army. They saw what happened to the Alawites in Latakia after they gave up their weapons — a massacre in which more than 1,500 of them, almost all of them civilians, were murdered.
Shekh also highlighted the ineffectiveness of international bodies. In July, the European Union sent €1.6m. – the equivalent of approximately $1.8m. – in aid of Sweida. However, Shekh said it went straight to the government of Sweida, run by Sharaa.
He said international aid organizations like DWB said that in order to help, the area has to be declared a war zone by Sharaa’s government. “It’s ridiculous,” he commented bitterly.
And why would Sharaa ever declare Sweida to be a war zone, knowing that that announcement would trigger international aid for the Druze? Of course he won’t.
When no one else stepped in to help the Druze, the Israelis did. Israeli medical personnel set up and staffed clinics to treat them. The Israeli air force flew in supplies to Sweida when no one else was willing. Israeli Jews helped the Israeli Druze, Dr. Osama Shekh, to set up his network of hospitals in Sweida governorate. The Israeli public is keenly aware that the Druse have always fought on the side of the Jews, and that since 1956, the Druze are the only minority in Israel who became — voluntarily — subject to the draft. The Druze have proved to be good fighters; many of them have served in elite units, including the Sayeret Matkal. Druze soldiers have risen high in the ranks of the IDF, with several becoming major generals. The Israelis, consequently, felt a duty to help the Druze in Syria now under threat by the Sunni Muslims. And so they did.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I sometimes see IFJC ads in my YouTube videos. When they talk about holocaust survivors, I’m somewhat incredulous, given that there can’t be too many of them left, and the images of them seem to be from somewhere like Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Republic. But when the IFJC did their ads about the October 7th attacks, they carried a lot more weight. That’s where they should message, rather than look like they’re milking the holocaust to the last drop
Edmund Carey says
It may be that those screaming “From the river to the sea” and the rest of it, in Western countries, are not Christians in any real sense. Some of them will be socially or conventionally Christian, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn – were the information available – that almost none of them were actual believers.
For what that’s worth.
Winston 101 says
The Druze take some of their Islamic beliefs from Shia Islam and some from Sunni Islam, then mix all of that with a belief in reincarnation.
My concern is the parts of their beliefs that stem from Islam – any Islam is too much Islam.
The explanations all sounds like the proverbial rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
to me.
If Israel needs to play survival games with various Islamic factions, I can understand that. I don’t want the U S to do the same because the U S doesn’t need to.
For instance, don’t accept Druze asylum seekers into the U S based on their cooperation with Israel.