Ya’alon says Druze not in danger from rebels

The Druze in Syria are not in immediate danger from approaching Islamist forces, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says, adding that Israel’s ongoing humanitarian assistance to Syrian rebel fighters, a source of surging conflict between Israel and its own Druze population, actually safeguards the minority population in Syria.

“We assisted them under two conditions,” Ya’alon says of the Israeli medical aid provided to the Syrian rebels, some of whom are presumably fighting with al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front. “That they don’t get too close to the border, and that they don’t touch the Druze.”

The Druze on Israel’s side of the Golan, Ya’alon charges, acted “irresponsibly” last week by attacking an Israeli ambulance carrying wounded Syrian rebel fighters. One person was killed and another injured during what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed a “lynching.” The man who was killed did not belong to al-Nusra Front, and his death will now provoke calls for revenge, Ya’alon states.

“Our general policy is that we’re not getting involved in the Syrian war,” he stresses, although there are certain red lines Israel insists on maintaining, such as game-changing arms being smuggled to Israel’s enemies. ”We will not tolerate any violation of our sovereignty or even accidental fire from Syria unto our territory or any. We will act immediately to strike at those who plant explosives near the border or fire at us,” Ya’alon declares.

Israel has treated over 1,000 wounded Syrians in its hospitals since the onset of the civil war in 2011.

— Raphael Ahren