Why is Israel intervening in Syria amid Druze tensions? • FRANCE 24 English

Why is Israel intervening in Syria amid Druze tensions? • FRANCE 24 English

Israel launched more than 20 air strikes inside Syria late on Friday. On Friday morning, it also struck near the presidential palace in Damascus, which was condemned as a dangerous escalation by the government. The attacks came amid Israeli warnings to Damascus not to harm the Drews minority following recent sectarian clashes. Israel’s military said its forces have also been deployed in southern Syria, ready to protect the Drews minority. Well, Leela Justinto joins me now in the studio for some analysis. It’s good to see you, Leela. Um, so why is Israel intervening in Syria to begin with? Well, I mean, they’re the official statements and they’re the underlying geostrategic concerns. Now, officially, Israel says that it has intervened uh to protect the Jews minority. This, of course, comes after clashes earlier this week uh between Sunni Muslim fighters and Jews fighters. Now, according to the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 56 people were killed this week, and this includes Drew’s fighters as well as forces aligned to Syria’s transitional government, as well as armed groups that are fighting with uh the Damascus authorities. And this comes actually after another uh religious minority in Syria was targeted in March. If you remember, you know, Syria of course has a a Sunni Muslim majority, but it is home to a rich diversity of religious and ethnreligious minorities. And in March, it was the Alawite community. This is the community of the fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad that was targeted. More than a thousand people were killed. And so of course when these clashes with the Jews happened this triggered minority fears uh for the security uh of this minority group because Syria has an interim president Ahmed Shara uh but you know the minorities of Syria are not quite sure whether he can really secure their interests. They they are suspicious of his Islamist fighter background. Ahmachara has said that he wants to have Syria as an inclusive country, but they’re not sure he really has control over all the armed groups there. Now, for the Jews of Syria, they are actually a community that is spread across the Middle East and we actually have a map of of where this this religious minority is spread in the region. There are Jews communities in northern Israel as well as in southern Syria and Lebanon also has uh a Jewish community in southern Syria in the Suea province. It’s considered the Drews heartland. But you know this is a very tiny uh ethnic ethnoreigious groups and they share ties across borders. So when these clashes happened earlier this week uh in Syria in Israel, the Jews community which is tiny but very influential because the Jews, the Israeli Jews work with the Israeli military. There are many uh Jews in the Israeli military as as well as you know journalists and influencers. They started calling for an intervention uh to protect their their community brethren. And so there were demonstrations in Israel of Israeli Jews calling for Israel to protect uh the Jews community uh in Syria. But this is of course happening for the Drews with the security of Israel inside Syria. It’s what’s important to say is there’s no such thing as one Drew’s voice. You know, there are several opinions uh inside Syria. So there are certainly uh Jews in Syria that at least a minority asked for foreign intervention but for the most part most of the Jews of Syria want to be left in peace. They want to be able to uh practice their religion and they they they want reassurances uh about this and they also fear actually that you know an increase Israeli military intervention will increase their own security fears because they will be seen as a sort of a fifth column and uh you know they are they are invested in in an inclusive Syria. So, but when it comes to this conflict, there are Drew security concerns and there are also Israeli geostrategic concerns. So, what are these geostrategic concerns for Israel then? Well, Israel, let’s state it clearly has an 80 km border with Syria. And this 80 km border when the Assads were in power was for the most a border. It was an unfriendly border, but it was quiet. The Assads kept it in control. When Bashar al-Assad fell, this provided Israel I mean this sparked Israeli fears. You know they do not want hostile Islamist control uh of that border but it also presented an opportunity to Israel. Among other things, there are some analysts who say that Israel does not essentially want a very strong, secure, centralized Syria because a weakened Syria will enable Israel to conduct its own security operations in Syria. Uh you know, Israel for instance does not want Iranian groups inside Syria. So a strong Syria with a sovereign sovereignity doesn’t allow Israel to intervene in Syria. And that’s really what is drive Syria. I mean, Israel is primarily concerned about Turkish influence in Syria. And so this is what happens in weak states and especially in the Middle East is that the outside regional powers and international players start joining in this conflict and it’s grounds for tremendous instability actually. I guess the question now is you know what can we expect to happen in the in the next uh days or weeks or months to come? Well, I mean there have been condemnations of the recent Israeli strikes. The UN spe special envoy to Syria has condemned it as well as the Arab League, but primarily in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not really paying attention to international concerns. He is pushing for forward his his his security concerns. He has a war in Gaza raging. He has strikes in Lebanon continuing and he does not really seem open to calls in order to stop these interventions in Syria. So the immediate future looks pretty grim actually. All right, international affairs editor Leela just thank you very much indeed.

Israel Saturday said its forces were on the ground in Syria to protect the Druze minority sect following days of clashes with Syrian pro-government gunmen. Earlier, local Syrian media reported Israeli strikes on different parts of the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, as well as southern and central Syria. FRANCE 24’s Leela Jacinto brings you this analysis.
#Israel #Syria #Druze

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