"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising"

Editorial note: A shorter version of this essay first appeared under the title "One cloud that is all silver lining: Israel and the Druze" in Arutz Sheva - Israel National News on 13 March 2025.

In early December 2024, I urged Israel:

Seize Damascus, for pity's sake. When a jihad army takes control of Damascus, they will slaughter like nothing we have ever seen. Do it for those hapless people, if you cannot do it for yourselves. It is a genocide waiting to happen and you can prevent it.

On 11 March 2025, Stephanie Martin reported: "Christians in Syria Face ‘Potential Genocide,’ Experts Warn After Recent Killings"

Two days earlier, 9 March 2025, Monica Showalter wrote: "Syria's ruling ISIS 'moderates,' hailed by the EU and the swamp, commence slaughtering the Christians"

And the day before that, Sabrina Penty wrote: "Horror in Syria as 'naked women are paraded and shot dead': More than 1,000 killed in just two days as country is gripped by deadly violence between new rulers and Assad loyalists"

The people committing the massacres live on video shouting "Allahu Akbar" are neither Hamas, nor Palestinians. They are Arabs and they are Muslims. Deny this and you are denying facts.

Because Israel did not seize control of Damascus, the reader should not take my warning to imply the slightest Israeli responsibility for the horrors now unfolding in that unfortunate country, reduced to barbarism before our eyes for the sake of Allah. Jihad, however, is something a caliph must initiate, as it is a communal obligation on the Muslims. We do not know whether Al-Jolani has declared a caliphate. Ever since the West took to killing off ISIS caliphs as soon as they were declared, groups with such ambitions have become rather occult about such declarations. Whatever the case, he is unlikely to restrict the butchery now getting underway, lest he fall foul of a Shari'a provision obliging Muslims to topple him if he should do so:

If the caliph alters the Sacred Law [Shari'a] by imposing rules that contravene the provisions of the religion, while believing in the validity of the rules he has imposed—this being unbelief (kufr)—or imposes reprehensible innovations while in office, then he loses his authority and need no longer be obeyed, and it is obligatory for Muslims to rise against him if possible, remove him from office. and install an upright leader in his place. If only some are able, they are obliged to rise up and remove the unbeliever, whether they believe they will succeed or fail. (Reliance of the Traveller, Book O25.3a)

Caliph or not, it is inconceivable that Al-Jolani disapproves of the killing. After all, his feverish mujahideen have scores to settle with the Alawites, and as Napoleon didn't say, never interrupt your enemy while he is killing your enemy, especially if he is driving your friends closer to you. All Syrian religious minorities know that the Druze in the South are under Israeli protection. Whether Israel is ready for it or not, they have provided the only place Druze and Christians in fear of their lives can save themselves.

A very smart psychological move on Israel's part would be to get Egypt to deliver 200,000 family-sized caravans to the IDF through the Rafah Crossing, then immediately move them all out through the Kerem Shalom Crossing for inspection in Israel. Once Israel has established that the caravans are safe, give them to the Christians and Druze who will seek refugee in the Druze protected area. All aid that would have been sent into Gaza get sent to these refugees. Maximum publicity on all media outlets. Overwhelm the narrative while finishing the job in Gaza.

One thing has become perfectly clear, whether the Netanyahu government has the stomach for it or not, the Israeli people want this festering sore gone: the Gazans must go; not some of them, not most of them, all of them. It is telling that it takes an almost casual remark by a foreign protector to get the Israeli leadership to start making simpering noises in that direction. Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Congo, Ireland, Norway, Spain… There is no shortage of suggested new homes for the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza. As President Trump’s plan shows, it is not only Israelis who want the Gazans gone, others around the world do, too.

Another thing is clear, no one wants the Gazans in their country. Of all the places suggested below, the only likely takers will be those run by corrupt and bankrupt regimes, such as The Congo, where, of course, they will join the currant Muslim genocide of Christians and animists. So far, analysts have considered the kinds of pressure that can be brought on Hamas’s most diehard international supporters: moral pressure on Ireland, Norway, Spain; financial pressure on Egypt and Jordan; military pressure on Qatar; military and diplomatic pressure on Turkey.

Dr Mordechai Kedar, who motivates for punishing the Qataris for their role in creating the Hamas monster, had great fun working out the logistics of moving the entire Gazan population to the jihad-bankrolling Qatar, where, he says, many facilities from the World Cup stand ready for immediate occupancy. He got the whole operation down to one week, accounting for every seat on every plane in the Qatar Airways fleet, and the airport where the Gazans will board! Temporary facilities might have to be added at Al-Arish, since it can handle only 200 passenger per hour and four planes at one time. While the Qatar Airways suggestion might be tongue in cheek, military transport planes would be feasible. Are there other creative flourishes, hitherto ignored or overlooked?

There have been suggestions of developing an uninhabited island somewhere. Brotherly Indonesia, with some 17,000 islands of which fewer than 1,000 are inhabited, might further its Abraham Accords ambitions by sweetening the deal with an island for the Gazans. The Gazans may even prefer one of the many sub-archipelagos where they would be able to put their national skill to good use by tunnelling between the islands. That should clinch it.

Yet, the most profitable solution might be closer to home. Murtadd to Human's contribution to the Great Gaza Get-The-Hell-Out Brainstorm is the 25,955 sq Km Jordan panhandle, comprising the eastern portions of Mafraq Governorate and Zarqa Governorate, both areas in the most sparsely-populated part of the Hashemite Kingdom, and unheard of by the outside world until Angelina Jolie went there in 2003. The area is meant to be the eastern borderlands of the “national home for the Jewish people” and historically associated with the earliest centuries of Christianity.

Our suggestion is to draw a nominally north-south line 20Km east of Ruwaished from the Syrian to the Saudi borders. For ease of discussion, let's call it the Ruwaished Line. East of this line up to the Iraqi border becomes Jordan's autonomous exclave of, let's call it, New Gaza (7,900 sq Km, 22 times the size of Gaza, or one "West Bank" plus six Gazas), with four international borders, none of which is Israel. The amount of construction alone will keep all Palestinian Arabs busy for a (natural) lifetime. The exclave should be a godsend for both Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom. Imagine the aid Jordan can rake in for getting rid of a troublesome population it soured on long ago.

West of the Ruwaished Line lies an autonomous Christian Protectorate of Israel, extending to the western end of the panhandle, just to the east of Azraq beyond which lies Jordan proper. This new homeland for Christians fleeing Syria forms a buffer between the Gazans and Jordan proper, as well as between Iran/Iraq and Jordan/Israel. The northern border of this new Christian Protectorate is the southern border of the de facto Druze Protectorate that Israel is establishing in southern Syria, providing Israel with a contiguous area of free movement from the Mediterranean to the Saudi northern border, at the same time surrounding Jordan's main population centres on three sides, you know, just in case.

The Christian Protectorate brings Israel to within just over a 1,000 Km from the Gulf coast, crossing Saudi territory only, thereby enormously simplifying and securing the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC). If the requisite mega-port for this corridor is to be constructed at Gaza (extending inland to meet the corridor, rather than taking up precious shoreline), then the shortest corridor alignment would be traversing Jordan and the Israeli interior, but that would also be the most expensive terrain for construction. Critically, running the gauntlet of Jordan's majority Palestinian population will render IMEC as vulnerable as the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb. Only naïve Western technocrats see an IMEC alignment through Jordan as a secure alternative to the Straight of Bab-el-Mandeb. These are not alternatives. It must be remembered that the Palestinians take offence at the very idea that they should want a Singapore.

The question of a secure alignment for IMEC, indeed, its very concept, has the same fundamental motivation as the Druze and Christian protectorates: avoiding the jihad badlands. Saudi Arabia and the UAE having had enough of Islam, looking for a way out and joining forces with Israel, create the possibility for a jihad-free zone between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, provided, firstly, that the alignment goes through Saudi and Israeli-controlled territory only; and secondly, that all Muslims are expelled from the Druze and Christian protectorates. Leaving Muslims seething in humiliation under kafir control, no matter how nice you are to them, is to hand them IMEC targets on a platter. Already the IRGC is hard at work assembling jihad terrorist forces within these very areas. We conjecture that the IRCJ gains direct access to the Druze protectorate through the Jordan panhandle.

Alignment of IMEC through the Christian and Druze protectorates, the Golan and the Israeli coastal plain would be longer, but easier to construct and above all secure, and will bring economic development to the protectorates and the Golan. A mega-port in Gaza, of course, also unlocks the Negev for mass settlement, starting with shipyards, dry docks, naval facilities and marinas, with all their engineering, training and small and medium-sized supply business spin-offs. The Port of Rotterdam, for reference, extends 40Km inland from the coast, the distance between Gaza and Be'er Sheva. IMEC should be leveraged to finally deregulate the Israeli economy. Dr Kedar's idea is to construct the port breakwater from the thousands of tonnes of rubble in Gaza. Finally, a good use for all that concrete.

Since Israel now controls the main economic artery between Damascus, Amman and the Gulf states, the Jaber Border Crossing, she has gained significant leverage over both Syria and Jordan. Syria is extremely vulnerable to disruption of this link, which, in our opinion, is the more likely reason for the terrorist regime in Damascus not running its mouth on Israel. At the end of all its wars, this is the one border crossing the Syrians were always most desperate to reopen first. In October 2018, i24 news reported:

The crossing was one of the busiest border crossings in the region and the main crossing for Syrian exports to Jordan and the Gulf states.

It is an important step for the Syrian government's reconstruction and remaining efforts to reestablish control, as the post was a key link not only for direct trade between the neighboring countries, but also for longer-distance transit, which was a significant source of revenue.

“This was a crucial artery of trade between Jordan and Syria and transit to other countries,” said Jordanian government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat. (i24 news)

As if all this is not enough, Israel has also ordered the IDF to protect Jaramana, the large Druze quarter on the south-eastern edge of Damascus, situated directly on the main highway to Damascus International Airport, giving Israel effective control over both the city and the airport. Jaramana, together with visual oversight and fire control from Mount Hermon, and control of Syria's southern economic lifeline, make it seem as if the Syrian capital has been consciously situated and laid out for Israel to take. Even though Israel did not seize Damascus, isolating Jordan from Syria frustrates the Muslim Brotherhood's grand plans for taking over the jihad against Israel from Iran, plans that would be further frustrated by Jordan's severing from Iraq, as proposed here.

The Israeli armed forces are finally under more aggressive leadership, a catalyst to propel the still timid political leadership in a similar direction. Israel has a second chance to create a proper Christian protectorate south of the Awali River in Lebanon and repair the damage from a previous government's cowardly abandoning of the Christians. Thus will the buffer zone of protectorates stretch from the Saudi border to the Mediterranean and set up a symbiosis between the Jews, a powerful Middle Eastern minority, and the weak Middle Eastern minorities close-in around her, bringing the mediaeval castle analogy into the 21st century. The sick man of Europe will not live to see his caliphal ambitions fulfilled.

Other vulnerable people's are watching, not least the Christians of Egypt, and see the sense in close physical proximity to Israel. The final chapter in the story of the Sinai is yet to be written. Yazidis, Bahai'is and Zoroastrians, former Muslims, too, will gravitate to, or at least towards, the Jewish state, if not physically, then temperamentally. Israel's true role in the Middle East is materialising before our eyes. She senses it, but still hesitates. Indications are that this hesitation can be overcome.

The vulnerable peoples of the region seek the protection of her sword and her shield. And when the cries of war finally go quiet, it is her light from which they will draw sustenance and be fulfilled at long, long last. "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising," Isiah 60:3. It is a role that demands confidence and a sense of responsibility. The responsibility of the strong towards the weak. Now is not the time for doubt.

Picture credit:

Google maps as base for own work.