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The significance of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s agreeing to a ceasefire, and the cautious Druze reaction, can be found here: “Netanyahu confirms ceasefire, Syrian withdrawal from Sweida due to ‘forceful action,’” Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2025:
Addressing Syrians on Thursday, Sharaa accused Israel of seeking to “dismantle the unity of our people,” saying it had “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime.”
“Unity of our people”? What can al-Sharaa be thinking? In March, didn’t Sunnis, including some soldiers in the Syrian army, kill in Latakia more than 1,500 Alawites, and possibly, according to Alawite sources, as many as 40,000? What about the attacks on Christians by Sunnis in Damascus and Aleppo, including the suicide bombing of the Mar Elias church? And for several days before al-Sharaa spoke about the “unity of our people,” the Syrian army was killing hundreds of Druze all over Suweyda. Perhaps al-Sharaa thinks we have all forgotten.
Sharaa, commander of an al-Qaeda faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was “our priority.” He rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an “external party.”…
All of a sudden, the leopard has changed his spots, and the man whose troops who had been murdering Druze in Suweyda now poses as their protector. After al-Sharaa withdrew his troops, the Bedouin in Suweyda continued attacking the Druze, and now he has decided to send his troops back in. The stated reason is to stop the fighting between the Druze and the Bedouin and impose order. The main reason is to present himself to the world as the true “defender of the Druze,” which he hopes the local Druze will believe, and provide justification for his troops to remain in Suweyda to keep the peace, but also to keep his army in the very area, between Damascus and the Golan, that the Israelis insist must be demilitarized.
It was the IDF attacks that caused him to have this sudden change of heart. Al-Sharaa is alarmed at Israel coming to the rescue of the Druze, afraid that Syria’s Druze might wish to join forces with Israeli Druze to create an autonomous Druze region that would be linked to, and protected by, the Israelis. So now he’s decided to proclaim that he is the real protector of the Druze. Some — not many — of the Druze may actually believe it.
Al-Sharaa vowed to hold responsible those who committed violations against “our Druze people.” Do you think Al-Sharaa will really punish his own soldiers for harming “our Druze people”? No, neither do I. But do you think his troops will fight their fellow Sunnis, the Bedouin, to protect a non-Muslim people, the Druze? It is al-Sharaa’s soldiers who had been slaughtering hundreds of Druze in Suweyda until the IDF’s bombing in Suweyda and Damascus forced the Syrian army to pull back.
Perhaps there will be a brief show trial of a handful of those soldiers, in order to win Druze approval. They will be sent to prison and then, after a brief period, be quietly released. But the Israelis will still be there, just over the horizon, ready to protect the Druze against their self-described “protector” al-Sharaa, should he, at some time in the future, revert to type — that is, being a Muslim supremacist who knows that the Druze, as non-Muslims, are “the most vile of created beings,” and start again to slaughter them in Suweyda.
Al-Sharaa can claim that by trying to keep Syrian troops out of Suweyda, those terrible Israelis want the war between Druze and Bedouin to continue, so that the IDF will have an excuse to enter in order, so those sinister Israelis will claim, “to protect the Druze.” Al-Sharaa is thus accusing Israel of the very thing he is guilty of.
The latest news is this: the ceasefire in Suweyda broke down on Thursday as the Bedouin continued to attack the Druze. Al-Sharaa has now sent troops back in ”to restore order” and “protect the Druze.” We’ll soon see if the Druze want his profferred “protection” or if, rather, because he is a Muslim supremacist who will take the side of the Bedouin against the non-Muslim Druze, they will demand that his forces stay out of Suweyda so that their only sure protector, Israel, can operate freely in the area to help the Druze fend off aggressors, whether Sunni Bedouin or the Syrian army
Events are moving so fast in Suweyda that it is hard to keep up. Hold onto your hats. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The obvious con. A Wahabbist Islamist steps into a phone booth and comes out wearing a tailored suit leaving his turban and Qur’an where the phone book used to be….and people actually believe this duplicitous murderer.
What is becoming exponentially more disturbing is the ease with which his propaganda is being accepted.
When did so much of humanity begin abdicating the use of their intelligence?
And this is how they conquer peoples and countries while those in their crosshairs stumble through life in the dark and can’t understand how they become the hunted in their native lands.
Leftists think that everyone sees things their way, and that the few who don’t soon will – so they find al-Sharaa entirely credible.