By "Israel, annex us," the Druze meant this...

British men obey the law even as they watch their daughters being raped! The Druze are not such men. They know that if they wait for laws to be enforced, by the time anything gets done, their wives will be raped and killed and their daughter hauled off into sex-slavery. They have an added reason to not be such men: when the jihad slaughter of the Syrian Druze got underway a few days ago, those in power in the West were caught with their pants down, paralysed by dreams of talks and deals and accords with an arch jihad mass-murderer—lessons forgotten in the learning.

When in December 2024, the Syrian Druze pleaded, "Israel, annex us," most Israeli citizens were, quite frankly, star-struck that, in the midst of frenzied worldwide anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hysteria, an Arab people so unequivocally wanted to throw their lot in with Israel. Israelis internalising this phenomenon largely went no further than it confirming to them that the Jews are good people, despite what everyone else was saying (or screaming). Their considerations never went beyond moral obligations, justice and quid pro quo in which the exemplary character of the Israeli Druze earned much praise. Ultimately, to Israelis this all came down to the Syrian Druze having expressed a hugely-flattering opinion. No one considered the practical implications of annexation, an idea still far too big for a nation still far from ready to be big. In all fairness, though, the Israeli people generally have not been impressed with Al-Jolani donning sheep's clothing, unlike Western leaders, who fell over themselves to shake his hand, lavish him with cash and let bygones be bygones. Anything for peace, even an obviously illusory one. Anything for a deal, even an impossible one.

All of this applied also to the Israeli government, who, additionally, saw a military and geopolitical opportunity for a buffer zone on Israel's northeastern border. It is unclear to what extent Israel not taking Damascus when she had the chance comes down to reluctance to acknowledge the jihad imperative, deluded American pressure ("You gotta make a deal"), military overstretch, aversion to appearing religious (religious Jews see a significant link between the name "Dimashq" (Damascus) and "Miqdash", the most important part of the Temple Mount), or some combination of these.

Still, the Israeli government fell into the trap of thinking that the presence of the IDF so close to Damascus and the explicit warning to Al-Jolani's government that their armed forces will not be tolerated south of Damascus, would deter them from attacking the Druze. This mistake can only be made in the context of a failure to recognise a Muslim religious war, jihad. If there is an obstacle to killing non-Muslims, a way around it will be found. Jihad is an imperative.

Unfortunately for Israel and the IDF, who think only in kinetic warfare terms, and gratuitously restrain themselves beyond the requirements of International Law, Al-Jolani put Israel's commitment to the test, and he would do so by means of psychological and ideological warfare, something that Israel only partially, reluctantly and tardily accepts as integral components of war. Jihad strategists and tacticians would want to know: Is Israel committed to the Druze, or to the IDF's "south of Damascus" restriction? What, exactly, does "south of Damascus" mean? What, exactly, does "military forces" mean? What would constitute such a violation of Israel's restriction as would trigger an IDF response that the jihad could not bear?

These are key questions for jihad strategic and tactical planners. Muslims are masters of ambiguity. Their religious doctrine of lying based on ambiguity is called tawriyya. They are expert both at applying ambiguity and at exploiting it. Israel's warning to Syria's military forces to not appear "south of Damascus" was ripe for tawriyya exploitation, and Israelis, who still do not recognise that they are facing jihad, a religious war, will make that exploitation all the more certain of success.

The Damascus Druze communities of Jaramana, Sahnaya and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya lie southeast and south of the Damascus city boundary, but still within its southern contiguous built-up area. A jihad planner would want to test whether, in Israeli government understanding, these Druze communities are located "south of Damascus" or not? Unfortunately, this is where a critical difference between Muslims and non-Muslims comes into play: Whereas non-Muslims want peace, Muslims want war, they must have it, jihad is obligatory (even so-called "peaceful Muslims" must have it, else they, too, will be in sin).

That test came in the first days of March 2025, when Muslim forces attacked Jaramana. The second came in late-April, when all three communities were attacked. Large numbers of Druze ended up fleeing to As-Suweida Governorate, unequivocally "south of Damascus".

Israel's instincts will be to use the latitude provided by ambiguity to avoid war, while the Syrian regime will exploit that same latitude to launch war. The result is that every creeping jihad military incursion "south of Damascus" will never be serious enough for the IDF to take the threatened action, until the full-scale genocide of the Druze "south of Damascus" gets underway. This gives Muslims on jihad ample time to create the most favourable position themselves for maximum killing in the shortest possible time. The test had delivered an actionable result.

Instead of at the first sign of trouble, no matter how seemingly trivial, straightaway establishing escalation dominance by, at the very least, bombing both Damascus airports to rubble, destroying the three strategic junctions on the Beirut-Damascus Highway, flattening the Ministry of Defence, the Presidential Palace and the Majlis in the city centre, in other words, flatten enough of Damascus to raise fears of another Gaza and so put an immediate end to the jihad offensive against the Druze, the Israeli government, once again, did the "proportional" thing, i.e., escalation submission: a bomb here, a bomb there, always ever-careful not to provoke those who have already provoked themselves.

Of course the Muslims are going to conclude that Israel is not serious about defending the Druze. Such actions will not stop a jihad army from killing. It only makes them address their vulnerability to aerial bombardment. But jihad must go on; the killing of all non-Muslims must continue. In the event, the slaughter in Suweida went on for 48 hours.

In short, the Israeli Druze had to act. It is arguable that the Israeli Druze breaching the Israel-Syria border, rather than the actual massacre of the Druze in Suweida, finally shook the Israeli government to bomb the Ministry of Defence HQ in Damascus. This action by the IAF must be acknowledged, praised and appreciated; let us be clear about that. But it is far too little, far too late. By then the Syrian military, together with the local Bedouin, have been going house-to-house, Yelwata-style, October 7-style, Kashmir Valley-style, Baghdad-style, Hebron-style, Moplah-style, Diyarbekir-style, Safed-style, Suweida-style—hundreds of Druze had just been murdered. October 7 has been happening over and over and over again for 1400 years. And it just happened again! Mansur Ashkar, an Israeli Druze close to events in Syria, reads from correspondence he received:

"A mother from Suweida just called me and I'm beyond shattered hearing her voice and the gunfire in the background. She's alone with her gun, because her son went to fight and she's telling me that terrorists and Bedouins with them are in her neighbourhood, barging into people's houses and executing them without even robbing the house or anything. Just killing them on the spot and moving to the next house. It's terrible here."

Israel's Druze citizens profoundly appreciate the IDF's actions to stop the genocide of their kin in Syria, especially given all the extraordinary demands pressing down on the IDF and the government. Their criticism of the Israeli government and the IDF centre on Israelis failing to appreciate what they had undertaken to protect the Druze from: Muslims on jihad. Whereas the Israelis had failed to grasp what the Syrian Druze meant by "annex us", inevitable given the Jews' misguided scruples over International Law, the Israeli Druze knew exactly what their brethren had meant by "annexation". That such an urgent situation had been allowed to develop meant that the Druze could no longer indulge Israeli ignorance. Something had to be done and immediately.

The Israeli border needs to move from south of the Druze lands to north of the Druze lands. The Israeli government understands this, too, but only geopolitically; religious war is not yet part of their calculations. Denying Syrian government access to anywhere south of Damascus, of course, establishes de facto Israeli military control up to a theoretical Druze territory northern border that at least hints at Druze secession from Syria, if not annexation to Israel.

The Druze citizens of Israel did in the Golan exactly as the Israeli government had done south of Damascus. By breaching the Israel-Syria border, they effected the IDF stepping aside, thereby de facto reducing the international Israel-Syria border to an internal Israeli administrative border, hinting at a formal, enlarged Israeli Druze territory, if not annexation to Israel.

Islamic genocide must be punished with loss of "Muslim land", always and without fail

At the same time as the UN's anti-Israel packs of attack dogs are yelping into the distance with their tails between their legs, the Iranian regime is reduced to effective paralysis and Europe is finally focussing on its eastern border, the IDF stepping aside for the Israeli Druze to rush to the aid of their kin in Syria is beginning to look like a little more than just a coincidence. If this is some very nifty Israeli footwork, then no one is saying. If not, then it is good fortune indeed.

The Syrian jihad regime is committing genocide. Every Western politician and pundit who rushed to embrace these murderers are now on the back foot. This attempted genocide of the Druze has flung the diplomatic door wide open for Israel to remake her border with Syria precisely as she sees fit. It is time to create an autonomous Druze Protectorate with unrestrained chutzpah – the cheque is blank; write on it whatever you want!

The end result of this remaking must be Al-Jolani, his jihad gang and everyone linked to perpetrating this genocide, fleeing up the M5 towards Idlib, and the remaking of Damascus into something it has not been since the Umayyads took possession of this ancient Christian jewel. This would be a fitting humiliation, and one that might finally break Islam and bring peace to the Middle East after 1400 years of forever war.

What might this humiliation of Islam look like?

1. The Druze Protectorate is autonomous within the State of Israel and under Israeli sovereignty.
2. The Druze Protectorate comprises all the territory of the following Syrian Governorates: Quneitra, Dara'a and As-Suweida; plus those portions of Damascus Governorate and Rif Dimashq Governorate south of the parallel described in 3, below.
3. The northern border of the autonomous Druze Protectorate, also the new northern border of the State of Israel, is a parallel bisecting the city centre of Damascus just to the north of Old Damascus, extending from the border with Lebanon eastwards to join the Protectorate's northeast border, a meridian east of Damascus International Airport that joins the northern border of the current As-Suweida Governorate. This meridian is also the northeastern border of the State of Israel.
4. Damascus International Airport falls fully within the Druze Protectorate, its revenues accruing to the Druze Protectorate.
5. An invitation to all non-Muslims in Syria to settle in the Druze Protectorate.
6. Rabbinic control over Aliyah does not apply to the Druze Protectorate part of Israel.
7. Residents of the Druze Protectorate are citizens of the Druze Protectorate, but enjoy a simplified and facilitated Israeli citizenship application process.
8. All labour hitherto sourced from Gaza and from PA-controlled areas are henceforth sourced from the Druze Protectorate.
9. Residents of the Druze Protectorate enjoy lower taxation and simplified business regulations.
10. The Druze Protectorate economy is fully integrated into the Israeli national economy.
11. All international infrastructure, such as water, oil and gas pipelines, canals, highways and railways, high-voltage power lines, traversing Protectorate territory, will be leveraged for the social and economic development of the Druze Protectorate.
12. Syrian reparations for all their past abuses of the Druze is to be deducted from Syrian trade traversing Druze Protectorate territory.
13. Israeli technical and vocational institutions are encouraged and supported to set up branch campuses in the Druze Protectorate.
14. The God of Israel emerges as more powerful than Allah, Islam thereby losing the religious war. "The worst of creatures" have vanquished "the best of people", thereby liberating them both, and permanent peace finally becomes possible.

The above would clearly be a Middle Eastern success story (Singapore does not have to be on-the-Med), but this is all predicated on one critical recognition: Islam is the problem. The mission-critical risk here is the veto that Israelis more concerned about their friendships with Muslim, or politicians who misunderstand Arab motivations for joining the Abraham Accords, wield over any serious discussion about the nature of Islam, jihad and Muslims, and any attempts to finally rid the region of this catastrophic faith.

Right in the middle of the attempted genocide of the Druze in Syria, we encounter the absurd spectacle of a rabbi from Hebron presuming to remind a Druze Israeli on where the latter gets Islam and Muslims wrong, somewhat reminiscent of Western judges presuming to lecture Muslim terrorists on the nature of Islam. An exchange between Rabbi Yishai Fleisher and Mansur Ashkar went something like this:

Mansur Ashkar: There was just a video of Al-Jolani saying, when he was asked, "Were you happy when 9/11 happened?" And he said, "I would lie to you if I said I wasn't. Every Muslim was." So they are enemies of Israel.

[Exactly the same can be said about Muslims and October 7, which I have written about extensively on Murtadd to Human, e.g., here.]

"Now, the Syrian army, and I'm coming right now as a military person, right now they're on the bottom of the food chain of military capabilities in the Middle East. They're literally probably the most pathetic and useless military force. They're very brave and strong against women and children, but in general, they're not strong at all. Should we wait for them to become strong and then deal with them, or should we wipe them out? You understand now who they are? They showed their true face. Now, should we go and wait for them to attack us or should we attack them first?

"If you ask me from a strategic point of view, Damascus needs to be flattened. Let them learn: You mess with Israel, you mess with the Jews, become the next Gaza. Let them have that message. They'll be terrified. They will respect you. They'll run away. I think in general, now I'm not a Jewish messianic person, but I think that any person in the Middle East living under Israel, under Jewish authority right now, is probably the luckiest person in the Middle East. If you ask me, Israel should go and say, "F you guys. Just go until Suweida. Make that part of Israel. Anyone else, get out of here." That's it. That's part of Israel. It's not part of you. It wasn't from the beginning. It was Christian."

Yishai Fleisher: It could also be an independent area down the line. Could be an independent area.

MA: Let it be independent. Let it be independent.

YF: Just part of a unity with Israel. It could be a state that's, you know, our protectorate, but a Druze state within the area that was formerly known as Syria. The best outcome.

MA: I'll tell you what terrifies them. It terrifies them that this will happen for one particular reason: because if the southern part of Syria will become an independent, let's say, Druze/Christian/Alawite state that borders Israel and will not be at war with Israel – "I'll bless those who bless you; I'll curse those who curse you" – you know what's going to happen there? It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be stable. There's going to be economy. There's going to be education. There will be science. You'll start seeing their teenagers, like in Israel, Druze teenagers sending a satellite to space. There will be art. There will be tourism. It will flourish.

"And nearby to them, the "religion of peace," with all of its mightiest glory, is still another failing Muslim country in the world. And it's just going to show again and again that the problem in the Middle East is Islam. It's not Judaism. It's not Christianity. It's not Druze. It's not any other religion. Let's call it as it is. Let's stop beating around the bush.

"Let them prove otherwise."

[This point is crucial, and yet the most difficult to get non-Muslims to take seriously. Their loyalty to their friends is commendable, but in the case of Muslims, such loyalty is misplaced, sometimes with tragic consequences. Islam forbids Muslims from befriending non-Muslims, and even advises them to feign friendship if non-Muslims suspect them. They may say that what the violent Muslims do is not Islam, but the moment the violent Muslims call them "back to the straight path" they will fall in line. See what your precious friendship is worth then. Ashkar is 100% correct: every Muslim is suspect until he or she proves otherwise. Only a fool gives the benefit of the doubt to someone who claims to be "anti-jihad", yet cannot give up Islam. I have dealt with this at some length here. We shall see how Fleisher responds to this crucial point of Ashkar's.]

"And how can you prove otherwise? By actually changing. They're not changing. They're right now beheading people in the streets. They're going out chanting Allahu-Akbar with excitement, as they're killing little children. What kind of animals do that? And that's what they're doing. So I think any minority in Syria, whoever wants to have a future and security, needs to detach itself from the Muslims and have their own independence. And if Israel will help the Druze to have that—"

[At this point Fleisher interrupts Ashkar. I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that Ashkar is not formally schooled in political economy, but his intuition is correct and his insights salient. There is a great deal to unpack in what he has to say here, all immediately relevant. So what was so important that the rabbi felt the need to interrupt him?]

Yishai Fleisher: Don't forget that in the region we do have Muslims who are aligned with Israel who are anti-jihad, for example, the Kurds, right? So I would a little bit just say, let's call those folks that you're talking about, "jihadists". They're jihadists. You know, Islam comes in other forms. There's Sufi Islam. There's Kurdish Islam. There's all kinds that know how to be more normal. ...I have personally great Muslim friends."

And this is where they all fall down: the my-friend-Ahmed syndrome. "Let's call those folks that you're talking about, jihadists." In Fleisher's world, the nature of objective reality can settled by a haggle between opinions. He closed down the conversation pretty swiftly after that, showing no interest in anything else Ashkar had said.

Yishai Fleisher is perhaps an extreme case of those non-Muslims who dare not, even for a moment, park their friendship with Muslims on the side, in order to take a dispassionate look at how Islam actually works and how jihad has very clear roles for both violent Muslims and non-violent Muslims. Fleisher is right, there are anti-jihad Muslims, but he has no understanding either of how such Muslims' minds work, or of how they stand vis-à-vis Islam, because he will shut down any attempt to take him there. Had he known Islam objectively, rather than as an opinion, he might have known that both sets of "folks" are "jihadist" - one side does it by the sword; the other side does it by the tongue. Those "Muslims" who profess to be "anti-jihad" are the most dangerous of them all, for they hoodwink the kufaar, especially those desperate to be hoodwinked, as to the true nature of Islam and Muslims.

Mansur Ashkar is well-aware of the anti-jihad Muslims Fleisher so rudely presumes Ashkar to have forgotten about. He also very well knows what makes such people tick and he also knows the peril Fleisher, so assuredly unaware, finds himself in. Fleisher, sadly, is another tragedy just waiting to happen. There have been many; there will be many more.

On a macro-scale, it is precisely this kind of mindset—reality must accord with my opinion—that keeps Israel making the same mistakes over and over and over again. The Druze genocide was entirely avoidable. Ashkar can clearly see the epochal changes that Israel's presence in the Middle East is setting in train. Anyone who cannot, remains mired in trivial distractions, their own opinions more real than reality. Tragically, this is the condition of most Israelis, whichever side of the political divide they are on. The Druze might just have done the Jews the most profound favour since Cyrus the Great.

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