The White House is attributing the outbreak of violence in the Middle East between the Syrian government and Israel to a “misunderstanding” over ethnic grudges.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed “longtime rivalries” between the Druze and Bedouins, two minority factions spread across Syria, Israel, and other nations in the region, for sparking the exchange.
“It’s complicated, obviously. These are historic, longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria — Bedouins, the Druze community — and it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” he told reporters in the White House on Wednesday.
He continues, “So we’ve been engaged with them all morning long and all night long with both sides, and we think we’re on our way towards a real de-escalation and then hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build a country and arriving at a situation there in the Middle East that’s far more stable.”
The Druze are a tight-knit, highly insulated ethno-religious community spread across multiple nations in the Middle East but heavily based in Syria. They are often identifiable by the five-color flag and star symbols representing their faith.
The finer details of their belief system, a blend of Abrahamic monotheism and esoteric unitarianism, are fiercely guarded by a small literati trained in the faith’s scriptures. They do not accept converts or are typically allowed to marry outside the community. This is partly due to the belief in a constant, finite number of souls that always reincarnate within the Druze society.
Roughly half of the world’s 1,000,000 Druze live in Syria, mainly in the southern Sweida province.
Under the reign of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the country was governed with a secular policy of religious tolerance.
Druze militias were also organized to defend against illegal, terroristic violence directed against the community by extremist groups during periods of civil war; a battle-readiness that the communities have preserved.
Following the regime’s collapse and the ascension of President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former member of Al Qaida, Druze are among the various religious minority groups fearful of being targeted by the country’s new Islamic government.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that the recent outbreak of violence was ignited after a Druze man was illegally detained, attacked, and robbed by members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida, igniting an ethnic conflict.
The Druze have a long-standing feud with the Bedouins, a loosely connected tribal group that inhabits a patchwork of territory from Morocco to Oman.
Al-Sharaa’s government immediately dispatched state military personnel to the region to quell the Druze-Bedouin conflict.
Videos of Druze civilians being harassed and assaulted by Syrian government forces led to accusations that state personnel were siding with the Bedouin, further enraging the Druze population domestically and abroad.
Druze maintain a strong presence in neighboring Israel, where they have thoroughly ingratiated themselves with the Jewish majority through participation in the military.
Israeli Druze began protesting the situation and even breached the Syrian border as militias moved to aid their kin in Sweida.
The Israeli military launched targeted strikes on Syrian military forces in the Sweida province and in the national capital of Damascus.
This culminated with the bombing of the al-Sharaa’s Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday, a drastic escalation that threatens to bring the Jewish state into direct conflict with Al-Sharaa’s government.
The Israel Defense Forces have specifically cited threats against Druze communities as justification for the attacks.
“The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime’s actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the well-being of Druze civilians as motivation for his military campaign in southern Syria in a Wednesday statement.
“My brothers, Druze citizens of Israel, the situation in Sweida, the situation in southwestern Syria, is very serious,” he said in the address. “The IDF is operating, the Air Force is operating, other forces are operating. We are working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime’s gangs.”
However, the prime minister has another apparent reason for the strikes, directly aligned with Israel’s own interests, enforcing the demilitarization of southern Syria for national security purposes.
“We have a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israel’s border,” Netanyahu said Tuesday. “We will not allow a return to the situation where a second Lebanon is being established there.”
ISRAEL PUMMELS DAMASCUS AS SECTARIAN FIGHTING ESCALATES IN COUNTRY’S SOUTH
Damascus announced a ceasefire with the Druze militias on Tuesday, but a cessation of hostilities never manifested on either side.
Rubio now claims to have brokered a peace plan with all parties involved in the conflict and is urging all sides to follow through on steps to deescalate.
“We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” Rubio said. “This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made, and this is what we fully expect them to do.”
Suppose a ceasefire between the warring Syrian factions, the national government, and the Israel Defense Forces cannot be reached. In that case, the violence threatens to grow into a sectarian civil war that could rip the country apart before its new government can even begin.
