Analysis // By Ben FrankelAs Syrian Druze plight deepens, Israel’s regional strategy emerges

Published 24 June 2015

On Tuesday morning, Druze on the Golan Heights attacked an Israeli military ambulance carrying two wounded Syrian rebels to a hospital in Israel, killing one of the wounded rebels. Israeli Druze – and the Druze on the Golan Heights – want Israel to help their fellow Druze in Syria, who until recently had been loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, but Israel’s tacit understanding with the Sunni rebels, including the Islamist Nusra Front, indicates that Israel supports those groups in Syria which are supported by the major Sunni states in the region. There used to be a time when Israel allied itself with countries and groups on the geographic, ethnic, and religious periphery of the Middle East – what David Ben Gurion called the Periphery Alliance – but times have changed, and Israel now is seeking a modus vivendi with the region’s Sunni powers. The Druze may be paying the price of this change in Israel’s strategy.

Tensions between Druze residents of the Golan Heights and the Israeli military flared up Tuesday when about 150 Druze stopped a military ambulance carrying two wounded members of an anti-Assad rebel group. The ambulance was carrying the wounded rebels from the border area to a hospital in Israel for treatment, but the Druze forced the ambulance’s doors open, chased away the two Israeli military medics, then pulled the two wounded Syrians and, according to eye witnesses, “lynched” one of them and seriously wounded the other.

Israeli military units dispersed the crowd and saved the second Syrian.

The medics were slightly wounded from rocks thrown at them by the Druze crowd.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called the incident “very serious” and said those behind the attack would be held to account.

“We will not let anyone take the law into their hands and prevent the army from carrying out its mission,” he said in a statement, appealing for leaders in the Druze community to maintain calm.

Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon pledged to track down the rioters. “We won’t be able to ignore it, and law enforcement authorities will deal with it heavy-handedly,” he said in a statement.

—————————————————————————————————————-

Also read:

Ben Frankel, “Assad’s one-before-the-last stand,” 17 June 2015
Syrian Druze facing uncertain future,” 15 June 2015
Israel urges U.S. to send military aid to Druze in Syria,” 15 June 2015
Grant Lally, “A framework for destroying ISIS and creating stability in the Middle East,” HSNW, 28 October 2014

—————————————————————————————————————-

Since the beginning of the war in Syria, Israel had reached a tacit understanding with the rebel forces fighting to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Analyst Stephane Cohen, a former liaison between the Israeli military and United Nations peacekeeping forces, told the New York Times that Israel has treated more than 1,600 Syrians since the conflict began in 2011. The various rebel groups, including the Islamist Nusra Front, bring their wounded to agreed-upon collection points near the border, where Israeli medics pick them up and transfer them to hospitals in Israel for treatment. When they recover, Israel returns them to the collection points to be picked up by their comrades.

There are about 130,000 Druze who are citizens of Israel. They are integrated into Israeli life, serving in the IDF – some have reached the rank of general – and as judges, members of parliament, and deputy cabinet ministers.