https://journal-neo.su/2025/07/26/why-is-israel-attacking-syria-to-protect-the-druze-people/
Salman Rafi Sheikh, July 26, 2025

Israel’s recent military strikes in Syria, framed as retaliation for the al-Sharra regime’s failure to protect the Druze community, are deeply rooted in its own domestic and regional imperatives.

Why is Israel attacking Syria to protect the Druze people?
As war reshapes the region, Israel is signaling its commitment to defending minority groups, particularly the Druze, while preventing meaningful political consolidation in Syria.

Druze and Israel ties

Even before the modern state of Israel was imposed on Palestine in the late 1940s, Zionists were keen to establish political ties with non-Muslim and several non-Arab minorities based in the region. This was a key strategy to off-set the fact that Arabs were the largest group in this part of the Middle East. Later, when Arabs became the largest minority in Israel, the latter established deep ties with Druze residing both in Israel and elsewhere in the regions, e.g., Syria, to off-set the Arab influence and undermine their numbers. While Druze had fought against Israeli forces in the 1930s and 1940s, the state of Israel paid special attention to separating the Druze community from the rest of the Arab communities and began to integrate them within its own political and economic structures. In this context, the Druze people were defined as a separate nationality in 1962 and separated from their Arab identity.
If Israel was truly interested in protecting a certain people and their culture, it would not have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza

In addition, in 1976, a separate Druze education sector was established to ostensibly protect the Druze culture, and this community was made subject to compulsory military service. This integration allowed Israel to perfect a ‘divide and rule’ policy, keeping the Arabs pitted against Jews and other ethno-religious groups. Today, over 150,000 Druze live in Israel, including in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In Syria, where the Druze comprise about 3% of the population, instability and violence targeting the community could have direct implications for Israel’s own Druze citizens.

Most importantly, at a time when Israeli is fighting a multidimensional war in the region, it is super important for the Netanyahu regime to maintain societal cohesion. Israeli Druze, ever since the beginning of the current conflict in October 2023, have been on the forefront. In fact, over 400 Druze people lost their lives in Hamas attacks. Therefore, when Israeli Druze people demanded from Israel to protect the Syrian Druze—who also maintain their own militias and have been resisting the al-Sharra regime’s efforts to unify Syria under one, centralized authority—they responded to the threat these calls posed to Israel’s domestic unity. Thus, mobilizing the IDF to counter the apparent brutalization of the Syrian Druze allows Israel to claim the moral high ground and demonstrate its solidarity with the Israeli Druze.

Regional Objectives

But Israel’s objectives are not limited to responding effectively to the calls from its Druze nationals. It strikes in Syria show that it does not respect its sovereignty. More importantly, its ability to force stop any Syrian assault on Druze people/militias shows that Israel has been able to prevent Syrian unity once again. Keeping Syria divided works for Israel insofar as the Netanyahu regime, unlike the Trump administration, views its leadership as an extension of Islamis militant groups. As it stands, Israel describes the Syrian regime as “disguised jihadists”. Therefore, Israeli attacks were equally meant to send these so-called “jihadists” a clear message: Jerusalem cannot afford a strong government—whosoever might lead it—next door.

At the broader regional level, these strikes and the related attempts to weaken Syria also allows the Israeli regime to strengthen its position vis-à-vis its regional competitors, especially Turkey. There is little denying that Turkey’s support for the group led by Ahmed al-Sharaa was crucial for the ouster of the al-Assad regime in Syria last year. For Israel, however, the victory of the al-Sharra faction also means the coming into power of groups who have a clear Islamist agenda. If Israel allows them to consolidate their power, including by seeking to eliminate and/or suppress those resisting the Syrian regime, they could potentially become a source of threat soon.

This policy is very much an extension of the policy Israel maintained during the al-Assad regime. When Israel frequently bombed Syria, it did so to roll back Iranian influence in the region and create an effective buffer zone to shield itself. Its current policy of attacking Syria and preventing its territorial unity is still meant to serve the same purpose that it has been pursuing since the start of the Syrian civil war more than a decade ago.

This is why Israel, since December 2024, has been in an illegal occupation of Syrian territories adjoining the Golan Heights. These territories were previously a UN-patrolled buffer zone that Israel now manages directly. Ultimately, Israeli actions are mainly motivated by its acute desire for self-preservation, even when it comes at the expense of other people’s right to preserve themselves. If Israel was truly interested in protecting a certain people and their culture, it would not have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza.