Syria . Dissecting Gaza in Aspen . The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Syria
"What happened in Syria? They raped a five-year-old girl, they entered a holy place where women were hiding to avoid being harmed, and they burned them alive. They killed, beheaded, it was pure cleansing. This is only because they are Druze and do not believe as they do.
"We’ve seen this movie with Hamas, they are the same people, let’s not get confused. They didn’t let ambulances pass; the bodies were in the streets."
Israeli Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif, in an interview on Israeli radio
Things are moving fast in Syria, and not in the right direction. The barbaric attacks on the Druze minority by Sunni Bedouins and “former” jihadi Syrian security forces ostensibly deployed to stop them have been ongoing. Israel intensified its strikes on regime forces and other attackers and promised to continue to do so. Targets hit include an HTS (Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist militant group headed by Syrian leader Ahmed al-Shara) convoy in Sweida and repeated strikes in Damascus, including the Syrian General Staff building, where, Israel asserts, the operations in Sweida are being overseen.
As seen in the videos below, it’s pretty intense. In the first one, the newscaster is in the middle of discussing Israeli forces and then…..
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu made Israeli policy crystal clear in an official statement, which you can read here. He articulated two “rules”: “demilitarization of the region to south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area. That's rule number one. Rule number two is protecting the brothers of our brothers, the Druze at the Druze Mountain.” When the Syrian regime violated these rules, the Air Force attacked “both the gangs of murderers and the armored vehicles” as well as the Ministry of Defense in Damascus.”
There are calls by Druze leadership and former Assad loyalists from the Alawite minority to overthrow Ahmed al-Shara, and there were reports that he has left the presidential compound for Ibbid, a city in Syria’s north close to the Turkish border. Turkey has a strong interest in al-Shara’s consolidation of power in Syria as its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and has hegemonic ambitions further fueled and enabled by Iran’s drastically reduced presence in the region. There have also been reports of buses transporting armed men from Turkey to assist the Syrian regime and presumably independent jihadist forces in their attacks on the Druze in Sweida.
Our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is taking action to help resolve the situation, including by, according to his spokesperson, “calling on the Syrian government to withdraw their military to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward.” The usual suspects in the international community, such as the UN and the EU, are instead, right on cue and true to form, condemning Israel and acting as if its actions took place in a vacuum in which neither the Syrian regime nor other Sunni aggressors exist.
The ever ridiculous UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, was “alarmed by the continued escalation of violence,” condemning “Israel’s escalatory airstrikes… as well as reports of the IDF’s redeployment of forces in the Golan.” Guterres’ reference to the Syrian regime was limited to asserting he “takes note” of Ahmed al-Sharaa’s assurance that Syria would probe the violence and hold those responsible to account. That, per The Times of Israel, “witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouins in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city,” matters to Guterres not at all.
The Druze in Israel are cherished citizens of the state and occupy prominent roles in every aspect of Israeli society, including the military, academia, politics, business, and the media. Author, historian, and former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, offers a brief but interesting look at the Druze and Israel’s “blood covenant” with them in his recent post, which you can read here.
For a far deeper and fascinating dive into the history and current circumstances of the Druse, listen to Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur’s most recent Ask Haviv Anything podcast episode. Haviv interviews a friend and Druze activist to discuss the long, even ancient, history of the Druze, their long, even ancient, history with the Jewish people, and the deep and trusting relationship between the two during the pre-state era and since Israel’s founding.
The Druze occupy a special status in Israeli hearts as loyal and proud Israelis who fight for Israel and contribute invaluably to Israeli society. If before this discussion you, like many, found the fervent commitment of the highest officials of Israel’s government, including Netanyahu, to its Druze citizens and their persecuted brethren in Syria bewildering, you will no longer find it so after.
Haviv and his guest discuss the current, horrific violence in Sweida, and the pattern of Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Shaara, deploying forces for the stated reason of stabilizing the situation, only to see his forces actively participate in atrocities and massacres that have become the hallmark of jihadi Sunnism. It is a dark and barbaric routine that has been run repeatedly against the Christian, Alawite, and Druze minorities since al-Shaara and his Hayʾat Tahrīr al‑Shām (HTS) militia assumed power. Those who, to this point, have insisted these jihadi tigers have changed their stripes now have a much tougher case to make.
All this notwithstanding, Israeli journalist Amit Segal reported Friday that “Israel has agreed to allow an internal security force loyal to President al-Shara to enter Sweida for 48 hours due to the ongoing instability in the area.” The US administration expressed its displeasure at Israel’s strikes and helped broker a truce, which no doubt influenced Israel’s decision. The ceasefire was broken on Thursday, but another was announced Friday, The Times of Israel reports. We will see how long this one lasts.
Dissecting Gaza in Aspen
President Biden’s top National Security Council official responsible for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, appeared at the Aspen Security Forum Wednesday and advised the audience that the history of the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas “is being rewritten by people that weren’t involved.” He asserted that Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah played a role in forcing Hamas’ hand to the temporary ceasefire deal of early 2025, and that Hamas has repeatedly rejected proposals and has never budged on its demand that it remain in power if all the hostages are to be released. McGurk asserted that the “fundamental issue” is that the pressure has been exclusively on Israel and never on Hamas. He stated further that if both sides accept the US-proposed 60-day ceasefire arrangement currently on the table while negotiating a permanent ceasefire, the war will end.
Other panelists include Israel’s immediate past ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, former IDF Intelligence Directorate head Amos Yadlin, and Call Me Back creator and host, Dan Senor. Herzog argues Israel should offer an end to the war now in exchange for all the hostages and deal with Hamas again later. He cites the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah as an instructive model. Yadlin maintains that the Gaza war is the “most justified war ever,” but it has now run its course, and its continuation does not serve Israel’s interests. He proposes ending it in a deal that returns the hostages, exiles Hamas leadership, and brings in Arab partners to demilitarize the Strip with the understanding that, as in Lebanon, the IDF will continue to attack any Hamas forces that reemerge. And Senor feels that a permanent ceasefire will only be had if Israel agrees to allow Hamas to stay in Gaza, something for which “there is no world” where Israel could agree.
As for Donald Trump’s proposal of mass relocation of Gazans, Senor finds it infeasable, while, interestingly, Yadlin argues that the threat of it would provide the necessary motivation for Arab states to become directly involved in “the day after” solution. The panelists also discussed the impact of the strike on Iran, the threat of Hezbollah, other Iranian proxies, and Iran itself mobilizing against Israel in the days following October 7, and the inevitability of Saudi participation in the Abraham Accords preceding the attacks. Read Jewish Insider’s excellent report on the discussion here.
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest union in the country. Its recent, 2025 Representative Assembly voted to recommend to the Executive Committee that the NEA not partner with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Reasons given by some delegates included that the ADL "whitewashes the ethnic cleansing of Palestine,” that “Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil‑fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” the ADL abuses the term “antisemitism” to punish critics of Israel, uses hyperinflated statistics on hate crimes, and has a history of history of “suppressing antiracist organizing”, including attacking the anti-Apartheid and Black Lives Matter movements and the like.
While the NEA executive committee and board of directors just announced the NEA will not adopt the recommendation, the Representative Assembly vote signaled a major problem among the membership of the organization that represents the people who teach American children. For a front-line feel for the level of antipathy and bigotry faced by Jewish delegates attending the Representative Assembly, read this letter from the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus to the organization’s leadership. It is a jarring litany of verbal abuse, harassment, and cruelty one would expect from bullies on the playground, not their teachers. Thanks to Rob Kalman for sending.