Who Are The Druze?

By Pesach Benson, TPS

A deadly Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children playing soccer not only pushed Israel and the Iran-backed terror group to the brink of war, it also thrust the little-known Druze community into the international spotlight.

“In recent years, there has been a very positive change among the Druze of the Golan. They are Israelis today in every way. If you listen to them in recent days since the disaster, they speak fluent Hebrew, and everyone speaks in terms of ‘an attack on the Golan Heights is an attack on Israel,’” Nadim Ammar told The Press Service of Israel.

Ammar is the founder and president of the Ohr-Israeli Druze Foundation for Academic and Cultural Advancement, located in the northern district Druze village of Julis.

“The shift towards integrating into Israel began since the war in Syria. More and more people want to connect. Since yesterday, we see that the total solidarity of the general society and the Jews with the heavy disaster revealed how the Druze are an inseparable part of Israeli society,” Ammar explained.02:24

The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opted to be part of Israeli society and established themselves in all areas of public life.

But when Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. So for nearly 40 years, Golan Druze students studied in Syrian colleges, married Syrian Druze women, and even brought them back to the Israeli Golan to settle down.

“Since October 7, many Druze from the Golan who had not served in the army decided to enlist, and they are serving in emergency squads protecting the settlements. This is a very noticeable change that has happened in the last decade,” he added.

‘We Were Hidden For Many Years’

The Druze communities of Israel, Lebanon and Syria regard themselves as descendants of the Biblical Jethro –who they call Shuaib — the father-in-law of Moses. They speak Arabic but are not Muslim.

In Israel, Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” According to figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics in April, the Druze have grown tenfold from a community of 14,500 in 1949 to 152,000 today.

Secretive about their beliefs, the Druze neither intermarry nor accept converts. But Kamilia Falah told TPS-IL that this doesn’t contradict the community’s social advancement.

“We are a community that protects itself from everything, guarding our village and our families. However, despite our conservatism, we are also very open to progress. We have many scholars in our community. Among our women, there are impressive scholars, professors, and Knesset members. You can find us in every business sector. We have everything, just like everyone else,” said Falah, who runs the The Dr. Salman Falah Druze Heritage Center in the Western Galilee village of Sumei.

“As Druze, due to our secretive religion, we were hidden for many years. We lived this way because of the hostility of the societies we lived alongside. But in Israel, this changed. Israel gave us the respect and freedom we deserved, and so we integrated into it,” she explained.

Falah told TPS-IL, “We integrate here with all communities while maintaining our traditions. Whoever respects us, we give back even more respect. That is the story of our community.”

One particular gesture of solidarity that struck a chord among Israelis was Basma Hino, who made her restaurant kosher so she could distribute free food to soldiers passing through her village of Julis to the northern border. “I want to feed all the Israeli soldiers! They all are like my children, doesn’t matter, Druze or Jewish,” Hino explained to The Press Service of Israel in December.

Hino was later honored with lighting a torch in the annual Independence Day ceremony.

Ten Druze soldiers have fallen in duty since October 7, including eight near or in Gaza, and two in northern Israel. Since Israel’s founding, 439 Druze soldiers were killed in action.

Since Saturday’s attack, Ammar told TPS-IL, “We see that the total solidarity of the general society and the Jews with the heavy disaster revealed how the Druze are an inseparable part of Israeli society.”

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With thanks to Ben Herskowitz

 

Cultural Blindness

Gad Saad was born in Lebanon and fled to Canada with his family when he was 11. He understands Arab mentality.

In an article he refers to a “suicidal empathy” and he is working on a book that tentatively will have that title.

In the book he will argue that empathy must be regulated (emphasis added):

“Western leaders tend to ‘exhibit compassion in an orgiastic manner’ and expect other nations to reciprocate that empathy. But in the Middle East, ‘if they sniff empathy or compassion, it is seen as a vulnerability and you are weak.’

“Saad sees that Islamists use Western naiveté to their advantage… 

 

‘I grew up in that world, I understand that language,’ says Saad

“’What shocks me to no end is when I see all these Western politicians exhibiting this cultural blindness. They project exactly the values that are important in their society, and presume that others will understand them and read them as the same.’

 

“When he discusses this detail of the Middle East with diplomats, they are ‘blown away,’ he says.

“’It’s as if they’re running into a Martian, because literally, their brains can’t comprehend those realities,’ he said.”

 

Living in Canada, he says the he is increasingly feeling unsafe. “I’m not at the point where I’m afraid to leave my house, but there are certainly neighborhoods that you want to avoid. “There are certainly campuses in Montreal that are more problematic to be Jewish in general, and to be a high-profile, outspoken Jewish professor in particular.”

 

Canada is reaching a “tipping point,” Saad believes.

Hamas’s Secrets Uncovered

For full article see https://tinyurl.com/5yvmaxna 

The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have uncovered a treasure trove of Hamas intelligence, consisting of stacks of documents, files, and computers, including guidelines on what to do if someone is suspected of being part of the LGBTQ community and a phrasebook of Hebrew words to help terrorists communicate in Hebrew, which included phrases such as "Take off your clothes."

Among the findings were operational tables, equipment lists, classified maps, and instructions on what to do if captured, leading to the conclusion that Hamas's military wing has transformed into a professional army right under the nose of Israeli intelligence.

"The amount of intelligence accumulated so far in the hands of Shin Bet and Military Intelligence allows us to dismantle Hamas from within," said a senior security official exposed to the heaps of documents.

The intelligence included Excel tables showing the readiness levels of special units, companies, battalions, and brigades, including the scope of training, weapons, and ammunition. It also included documentation of orders in the various units and the review of equipment lists for each fighter, protocols of meetings, discussions, and the decision-making process at senior and junior levels.  

The order and organization enforced by Hamas was based on a "rulebook" that was not accessible to everyone and was maintained by the senior command, which issued directives and operations across the Gaza Strip. 

Procedures of Hamas for those in the LGBTQ community 

The official documents of Hamas's "rulebook" reveal brutal behavior against anyone suspected of belonging to the LGBTQ community. Additionally, documentation of interrogations and testimonies about aggressive questioning focused solely on sexual preferences and orientations was found, indicating that those suspected of being part of the LGBTQ community faced a single fate – death.

Documents were also recovered that held detailed plans by Hamas on how to operate worldwide in regions such as Europe, Jordan, Egypt, the US that were far from the eyes of foreign intelligence organizations and under the radar of the media. The documents revealed that Hamas developed a plan tailored to the population in each country. 

Another document detailed a plan to ignite unrest in the West Bank and undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) by infiltrating its security mechanisms and encouraging internal rebellion to overthrow and take control of the PA gradually.

Hamas and UNRWA

Some documents also revealed the corruption within Hamas, showing how they not only accumulated assets but also used them. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) apartments were registered in the name of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif's wife.

Apartments of Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas head Yahya Sinwar's brother, were found to be received from UNRWA and then rented to Palestinians, according to rental contracts in possession of Military Intelligence.  Documentation of Hamas operatives working for UNRWA was also found. 

To sow fear that will remain in Israeli memory

The effort for collection and documentation was divided between routine and war times, which explains why all the Nukhba fighters entered with GoPro cameras on their heads. "Hamas wanted the atrocities and the spread of fear to remain in Israeli memory. If it's not clear, on October 7 and for weeks afterward, Israeli citizens feared that terrorists would come to their homes because they saw the videos. 

The purpose of documenting the videos was to create a psychological impact. They invested a lot of learning, practice, and effort into this," a security source explained to Walla.

This is how a Hamas operational photographer should act

Hamas operational documentation photos were found, capturing the activities of forces, military infrastructure, and classified assets on masts, posts, tanks, APCs, and jeeps, which the IDF has classified as "top secret." 

During the training phase for the photographers, two key points were emphasized: the selection of the operational photographer - "must be precise, tactically disciplined, patient, not hasty, able to keep secrets about his role, avoid gossip, and ensure his details and missions are unknown, making it easier for him to move around without raising suspicion."

According to the documents, the leadership of Hamas's military wing defined the act of "photography" as a central and strategic task, as important as training for war, with the goal of influencing the enemy and generating propaganda for the Palestinian public and supporters of Hamas resistance. 

This included electronic warfare, computer network operations, psychological operations, military deception, and operational security. 

Their training involves photographing scenarios that simulate the atmosphere of battles and military operations, including sounds of gunfire and explosions, in both open areas and built-up environments.

Hamas's Changed Tactics

With the defeat of most of its battalions, Hamas, has changed its tactics and is using the UN facilities, schools, hospitals and the civilian population to hide its remaining armed groups, often dressed in civilian clothes,  from the eyes of the IDF.

There is no other terrorist or “armed group” in the world that has systematically used UN facilities the way Hamas has done in Gaza. The systematic use of schools, for instance, is a serious crime by Hamas against the people of Gaza. Yet, throughout nine months of fighting, the terrorist group has increasingly used UN facilities and has not decreased their use.

From the start, Hamas saw Shifa hospital not just as a place to send a few men to hide but to bring hundreds of terrorists. Perhaps 1,000 Hamas terrorists were gathered in the large hospital compound and buildings nearby. This means that Hamas saw the hospital as key to its command and control of Gaza.

It’s important to see Hamas's use of the UNRWA facility and Shifa as part of a larger context. It is not just by chance that Hamas moves into these places like it is a second Hamas. Its presence is considered normal in these places because Hamas is seen as the norm, as the “governing authority” by the UN and NGOs that never mention it by name in statements.

They usually call it an “armed group.” But the armed group sends men in civilian clothes through the doors of these facilities, and no one bars their way. This is because they are perceived either as welcome guests, partners, or as a mafia-like presence that the organizations cannot say no to.

Hamas did not suspect that the IDF would return to operate there a second time in July.

Nevertheless, in spite of these tactics, the IDF, through its ground forces, its Airforce and intelligence division, is slowly but surely eliminating location after location. Further so many of the Hamas leaders have now been eliminated that there is little command and control of the remaining terrorists.

Degradation of Hamas

 

MORE & MORE TUNNELS IN GAZA

A division of the IDF has been hard at work locating and destroying tunnels in Shejaiya area of Gaza.

Located east of the center of Gaza City, the current campaign in Shejaiya represents the complexity of the IDF’s current strategy in Gaza. Once thought under IDF control, Hamas has been able to reorganise quickly within the densely packed neighborhood triggering the necessity for the IDF to reengage.

In the wide-ranging division-level operation, six terror tunnels, about six kilometers long, were located and destroyed. While the army has been able to blow up this tunnel system, it appears now that the vast tunnel network under Gaza City can still be used to help Hamas move around undetected. 

Some reports indicate that despite the above ground victories the IDF has racked up, the Gaza tunnel system is far more intricate and expansive than originally assumed. This development presents a challenge to the projection that Hamas is close to being finished. 

With Hezbollah bombarding Israel, the IDF is still stuck in Gaza and instead of launching the much-needed invasion of Southern Lebanon. Should the IDF leadership switch to a far more aggressive approach in Gaza or will they succumb to the status of comfortable indecision?

Israel can either finish this war the victor or remain locked into a decade or more war of attrition.