BEIRUT – Netanyahu’s statements regarding southern Syria reveal an explicit Israeli desire to establish a loyal Syrian Druze ally in order not to lose the support of the Palestinian Druze, who form an essential part of the Israeli border forces.

The Palestinian Druze hold fake “Israeli” citizenship and are led by Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, one of the Druze spiritual references loyal to the occupation entity.

In recent years, Sheikh Tarif has turned into an octopus working for the Israeli agenda. He has managed to establish extensive relationships with Arab countries, especially those on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.

In 2022, the Lebanese security forces arrested the representative of the Maronite Patriarchate in Lebanon and all of Antioch in Jerusalem, Bishop Moussa al-Hajj, while he was transferring money from the occupation entity to Lebanon.

It was later revealed that the bishop was transferring money to the families of Lebanese collaborators fleeing to the occupied Palestinian territories. He also admitted that he was transferring other sums from Sheikh Tarif to Druze clerics in Lebanon to encourage them to separate under the protection of the occupation entity.

This was also aimed at weakening the resistance project that emerged among the Druze community under the leadership of Samir al-Kuntar, who was assassinated by Israel on December 19, 2015, in Quneitra, a few meters from the occupied Syrian Golan.  The community was backed by Hezbollah under the Kuntar leadership.

Between 1925-1927, during the French occupation of the Levant, the Druze were offered self-rule, but they led a fierce resistance against it and played a prominent role in achieving independence in 1947 under the leadership of the well-known Druze leader Sultan Pasha al-Atrash.

After the 1967 war, the Israeli occupation entity did its utmost to push the Druze to rebel against the Syrian state, because “such a rebellion would be a stab in the back of Arab unity that fights us with a poisoned knife,” as the Israeli labor minister at the time, Yigal Allon, put it in a letter to then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.

Today, the Druze find themselves once again facing a fateful decision in light of the fragmentation of the Syrian state.

The Druze community is concentrated in Sweida Governorate. Since the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the Israeli occupation entity has widely penetrated southern Syria under the pretext of supporting the Druze.

This week, the Jaramana neighborhood near Damascus witnessed bloody confrontations between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Druze factions, which resulted in the death of one person and the injury of nine others.

About 18 months before the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Druze of Sweida rebelled, raising slogans of freedom.  However, they have been systematically marginalized by the self-appointed president of Syria’s transitional government, Abu Mohammad al-Julani (Ahmad al-Sharaa).

Hence, they refuse to allow his forces to enter their areas without constitutional guarantees, as happened during the recent events in Jaramana, demanding complete autonomy, as their semi-secular values contradict those of the HTS.

What matters to Tel Aviv and Washington is preventing the formation of anything resembling a Druze bloc that adopts the idea of resistance founded by martyr al-Kuntar.

Further, they also fear that Jordan will open a Druze border crossing in Sweida, which could become a major economic artery for the Syrian and Jordanian Druze, who are concentrated in the Azraq region in the eastern desert adjacent to the Syrian border.

Nevertheless, Jordan’s position remains ambiguous as Israeli pressure may prevent it from taking this step.

Observers who are aware of the Druze concerns would understand why Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblat hastened to meet with al-Julani after the fall of the Assad government, as he has always warned of the danger of Israeli expansion.

During more than one meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Jumblatt heard very frank remarks that the occupation entity’s goal after the war on Lebanon was to establish a Druze state extending from the Chouf coast in Lebanon through Wadi al-Taym to Jabal al-Arab in Sweida.

Jumblatt’s concerns quickly turned into reality, especially after the events in Jaramana and the emergence of factions calling for self-administration similar to the SDF, including:

(1) Men of Dignity faction led by Laith al-Balous that focuses on defending the Druze community while maintaining a distance from the al-Julani government.

(2) The Sweida Military Council led by Tariq al-Shafi. It consists of about 900 officers and soldiers from the former Syrian army.

(3) The Maher Sharaf al-Din faction.  It had the support of some Arab countries, but it lost its credibility due to its close relations with the al-Julani government.

It is worth noting that months before the official announcement of the military council, representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) visited Sweida, and met with the Sheikh Akl of the Druze Unitarian community, Hikmat al-Hijri.

According to the council’s statement, the two sides stressed “the need to hand over weapons to the state, represented by legal authorities, after the formation of a comprehensive transitional government and a complete cessation of fighting throughout the country.”

There is no doubt that Israel has a fundamental role in establishing such factions as part of its encouragement of secession and federalism.

Jumblatt is certain that any decision for the Druze to separate from the Syrian state will have serious repercussions not only on Lebanon but on the entire region.

Reportedly, last week Jumblatt held an extended meeting via Zoom with senior Druze clerics in which he sensed a consensus among them to repel the Zionist project.

Jumblatt also held an expanded meeting of the General Assembly of the Religious Council of the Druze Unitarians in Beirut, headed by Sheikh of the Mind Sami Abi al-Mona. Some prominent figures also attended the meeting.

Jumblatt stressed that “the project is big and wants to drag some of the weak-willed into civil wars. I do not know how it will end.”

In turn, Sheikh Abi Al-Mona said that protecting the Druze can’t be by “an enemy who is greedy to use them for this or that purpose, so that they become border guards here or paid workers there, or followers governed by this or that regime, or outside the reality of their belonging and identity, and separated from their history, heritage”.

He urged the Druze leaders to rush “to embrace and support them, and not abandon an authentic Arab segment that struggled and made great sacrifices in defense of the borders and to preserve the Arab Islamic identity of the East.”