I24NEWS
IDF meets Syrian Druze leaders after call to join Israel
December 15, 2024

Israeli army officers have held their first meetings with the leaders of Syrian villages captured in the Golan in recent days, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last week. This comes after Druze residents of Syria’s Hader, near the Israeli border in southern Syria, called for Israel to annex the town like it did the Golan Heights. “What is our fate?” asked a speaker in a video seen on social media over the weekend. The crowd responded: “Israel.” “On behalf of all in Hader, if we must choose, we choose the lesser evil. We want to be annexed to the Israeli Golan to preserve our dignity,” the speaker added…The leader of the Syrian rebels, Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, addressed Israel for the first time on Saturday, rejecting the country’s involvement in Syria. “Syria needs laws and state institutions. We have a plan to deal with all crises. We will not enter into conflict with Israel,” he said. READ MORE

WSJ A Tiny Arab Minority Stands Between Israel and Syria For decades after Israel conquered the Golan Heights, the minority Druze community that lives in this mountainside village considered themselves Syrians. But for many younger Druze in the area, Israel is the only country they have known, and they see their future there, not in Syria. “I don’t want to return,” said Nirvana Yousef, 20 years old, whose grandfathers fought for Syria against Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. “We live a much higher quality of life here.”