Israeli officials quoted in the nation’s popular online site Walla News reported they are engaged in talks with the International Red Cross and “various countries” about a plan to seize part of the Syrian border and establish a “humanitarian buffer zone” for the nation’s Druze minority.
The Druze, a religious minority which makes up about 3% of Syria’s population, has come under attack in Idlib Province by the nation’s al-Qaeda faction, Jabhat al-Nusra, which accuses them of being supporters of the Assad government.
Most of the nation’s Druze population lives in Jabal al-Druze, in the Suwayda Province along the Jordan border. This is far from Nusra’s primary holdings in the northwest, though smaller Druze communities exist nationwide. The Druze are also a small minority inside Israel, and have been lobbying the Israeli government to intervene on their behalf.
It is unclear where this “humanitarian buffer zone” will be located. Turkey has been urging the creation of a zone along the northern border just as a place to send all the refugees who have fled to their country, but with the Israeli plan so Druze-centric, it wouldn’t make much sense to put it on the opposite side of the country from the bulk of the Druze population.
An Israeli plan to seize a buffer zone will also inevitably be controversial, as Israel seized a similar “buffer zone” from Syria in 1967, only to annex it into Israel as the Golan Heights in 1981. If Israel is involved, any region carved out of Syria on any pretense is liable to remain out of Syria in the wake of the civil war.
only 200 miles of open desert to the Euphrates from there.
Looke like "Crimea" will disappear from the news soon, then?
Israel wants to save the Druze. Yeah, sure. It just doesn't fit Israel's core racist game plan. It reminds me of:
"Red Riding Hood says 'Oh Granny, what big ears you've got!' and the wolf replies 'All the better to hear you with, my dear!' Red Riding Hood says 'Oh Granny, what big teeth you've got!' and the wolf replies 'All the better to eat you with, my dear!'"
Rule of thumb – All Israel humanitarian outreaches to Arabs are stealth land thefts. 'Tis the nature of the wolf.
Yes. The Druze need to be careful of what they wish for. or they might find themselves exiled to a new Israeli concentration camp.
I recall there is a substantial Druze community in Lebanon. I see cattle cars in their future, too.
I guess they want to get going with the Greater Israel project.
back in the day we called it "lebensraum"
The Israelis have been playing this sectarianism game with the Druze in Golan for a long time. When they captured the region virtually all sunnis and christians were expelled and only a few thousand Druze were allowed to stay, with the aim of creating a special master/slave dependency from the Druze, yet the Golanis remain the most pro-Syrian of all "Israelis". Of course Israel' s master plan is to sectarianize all of its neighbors, to make its own extreme form of sectarianism seem normal.
This Warmongering nation is a parasite on the West, rabidly xenophobic, apartheid, serially ethnic cleansing, self-proclaimed democracy with several hundred nuclear weapons, refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation agreement, refuses IAEA inspections, was caught trying to sell a clandestine nuclear weapon to the former government of South Africa, and a history of constant belligerence to neighboring nations. Netanyahu demands the world get a better deal from Iran, which HAS signed the nuclear non-proliferation agreement, DOES allow IAEA inspections, and has not initiated a war of conquest against another nation in over 200 years!
"..for the nation’s Druze minority"
Hahahahahahahahaha!
More of that awesome light shining through..