An Israeli alliance with Druze and Kurds
By: Joseph Puder on American Thinker
Being the only Jewish state in the Middle East, and in the world, Israel has always sought natural allies among a sea of Muslim Arabs. In Syria today, the opportunity to forge a natural alliance exists — with two minority groups who are seeking an alliance with Israel.
Each of these two communities has a particular identity that stands out from the majority–Sunni Muslim Arab majority. The Kurdish community, who, ethnically, are not Arabs, represent more than 10% of Syria’s population. The other community are the Druze. Though Arabs by ethnicity, they are not considered Muslims. In the secretive Druze religion, they consider Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, the major prophet. Many among the Muslim majority view the Druze as “infidels.”
These two communities reside in different geographic areas. The Kurds occupy a large swath of Syrian territory in northeast Syria, estimated to be about 40% of Syria’s territory. The majority of Druze are to be found in an enclave around “Jabal Druze,” the Druze Mountains in southwestern Syria, close to the Israeli Golan Heights.
Israel has had a long history of support for the Kurds, especially those in Iraq, with Israelis fully identifying with the Kurdish people’s struggle for self-determination and statehood. In the early 1960s, Mullah Mustafa al-Barzani, the legendary Iraqi Kurdish freedom fighter and Kurdish military leader, was trained in Israel. Barzani sought to create an independent Kurdish nation for the approximate 40 million Kurds living on the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Without being a sovereign in their historical homeland and able to protect the Jewish people, Jews suffered persecution, pogroms, and eventually the Holocaust until, after over two millennia, Israel was established in 1948. It is therefore natural for Israelis to have empathy for the Kurdish people. Reuters reported on September 13, 2017 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state.” On October 10, 2019, Netanyahu once again issued a statement, declaring, “Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.” On November 10, 2024, the newly installed Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, emphasized the importance of forging a “natural alliance” with the Kurdish nation.
The Turks, the Iranians, and the Arab regimes of Iraq and Syria share little, except a unifying desire to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state. Turkey and Iran, in particular, have been aggressively persecuting their Kurdish populations. The major ambition of Turkey’s Erdoğan is to impede any manifestation of Kurdish independence or even any autonomous status in Syria.
Erdoğan has trained and financed the rebel groups that ended the Bashar Assad regime’s control of Syria. While the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) focused on capturing Aleppo, Hama, Hums, and Damascus, Erdoğan’s proxy, the National Syrian Army (NSA), focused on killing Kurds and conquering Kurdish-majority communities in northern Syria.
Israel has a security and strategic stake in an alliance with the Kurds in Iraq and Syria (as well as supporting the Kurds in Iran) and the Druze community in Syria. Strong alliances with these minorities would create a barrier against any future attempts by Iran and its Shiite Iraqi militias attempting to infiltrate Syria and link up with Hezb’allah.
A prominent Syrian-Kurdish leader friend of this writer has correctly commented to me that, although words of support from Israeli government officials are nice, the Kurds need action. The Kurds want an alliance with Israel, and they want military assistance. I responded by noting that although it had been difficult for Israel to aid the Kurds militarily, given the close military relations Israel had with the Turkish army and intelligence apparatus, Erdoğan’s openly hostile declarations clearly indicate him as a declared enemy of Israel. As a result, this has changed the calculations in Jerusalem, and Israel is now prepared to render military assistance to the Kurds.
An alliance with the Druze is much easier, given the proximity of the Golan Heights to the Druze villages in southern Syria. The U.K. Telegraph reported on December 14, 2024 that “the residents of a Druze community in southern Syria have expressed a desire to become part of Israel to prevent assaults by ‘radical Islamists.’”
These Druze villagers remained loyal to the Assad regime to the end. As a minority, they were always watching their backs, and now they fear retribution from the Sunni jihadist rebels who have taken over Syria. In terms of the bigger picture for the Druze, they would like to be granted an autonomous status in southwestern Syria, realizing that an independent Druze state is unrealistic. Given the weight of the Israeli Druze community, and the prestige and affection the Jewish majority gives them, Syrian Druze feel compelled to choose sides. Their fear of jihadist rule and the prospect of joining with their fellow Druze in Israel under the Israeli Defense Forces umbrella make for an easy choice.
A Christian-Lebanese friend of this author recently told me that “Israel must become the protector of the minorities in the Middle East.” He had in mind not only the Kurds and the Druze, but also the Christians of Lebanon and Syria. Although it is a tribute to Israel’s recent military victories, which has projected Israel as the “strong horse” in the region, those objectives might be far beyond Israel’s resources. Still, an alliance with the Kurds and the Druze in Syria has considerable merit.
I am going to leave any commentary to those (looking at our editor) with more background knowledge on said groups.