Who Are the Druze?
The Druze are considered to be a secretive sect; a relatively closed community, predominantly found in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. The Druze ideology originated as an offshoot of Islam during the 10th century. They incorporate elements from Christianity and Judaism. However, they believe in one God; they are monotheistic, which connects them to Abrahamic traditions. They believe in reincarnation, which aligns them with the Alawites.
The Druze value the principles of truthfulness, fellowship, and the divine unity of humanity. Their beliefs promote equality, including the role of women in religious activities; women are revered by the community, despite its conservatism. I have described the different factions within the Syrian Druze community in a previous article for UK Column.
Like all communities in Syria, the Druze hospitality is legendary. All homes in Suwayda have the traditional meeting room, the Madafa, which is always the most resplendent and light-filled room in any home where guests are presented with local fruit and produce, particularly figs, which are the best I ever tasted in Syria. Elaborate feasts for honoured guests are prepared days in advance and are enjoyed with music, dance, and a warmth that is all–encompassing.
In 1925, the Druze led the Great Syrian Revolution against the French colonial rule as a result of the Sykes–Picot carve-up of the region. This rapidly developed into a national rebellion to overthrow the French overlords.
Suwayda does have an other-worldly aspect to it: the vast stretches of desert, the hillsides dotted with fruit trees, and the beautiful basalt mountain that rises out of the ground like a massive, glittering obelisk by the side of the road taking you towards this historically rich Byzantine region. Towns and cities date back to the first century B.C., during which time many were famous for the quality of their wines. Suwayda was called Dionysias during Hellenistic and Roman times; Dionysus is the God of Wine, and the excellent reputation of this ancient wine-producing region persists today.
- Our journey began in Damascus. We left early in the morning and headed due south before taking the road that brought us to the east of Suwayda city and to the villages that form a chain north to south, only about 1km apart. As we entered the province of Suwayda, we began to see the elaborate memorials to martyrs killed in Syria’s war against Western-sponsored terrorism. Our guide told us that these beautiful monuments are in honour of the soldiers who have given their lives in defence of their homeland. Many of these impressive structures are placed at the entrance to villages ‘so their names are remembered for eternity by all those who live because they died’.
We were told that some of these graves also date back to the 1925 ‘Great Syrian Revolt’ or the ‘Great Druze Revolt’ against France. They are wonderful to behold, rising out of the dry desert plains, backdropped by the hills and trees that pepper the landscape stretching out in front of us.
The Druze Conflict — What Is the US-Zionist Endgame?
According to the official Syrian civil registry dated 31 December 2023, Suwayda Governorate has a population of 569,861, but realistically, it is probably more than 600,000. Many from the Bedouin communities are not registered at birth.
An estimated one third of the population is Bedouin/Tribal, dispersed across villages and suburban areas. The Druze make up two thirds of the governorate, and this has been the status quo for almost 1,000 years with some shifts, but no great deviation from this demographic. The two communities have co-existed peacefully, despite periodic clashes and tensions. Their shared traditions have always expected the Tribal Elders from both sides to resolve disputes through mediation.
- Like everyone else we are very stretched in Syria … We are now very dependent upon ‘stringers.’ We have never been able to verify what happened … as in so many other cases … and we are reluctant to go beyond what we can verify for ourselves … I’m sorry if this displeases you … but the fake news [emphasis added], unsupported claims do Syria’s agony and loss no favours.
On 11 July 2025, Bedouin tribesmen attacked a vegetable truck on the Damascus-Suwayda highway. They assaulted the driver and stole the vehicle along with 7 million Syrian pounds, according to local Druze sources. In retaliation, Druze gunmen abducted eight Bedouins the following day. The Bedouins then kidnapped five Druze. This lit the touch paper in an already tense and chaotic Syria, without any central authority to bring resolution.
By 13 July, so-called negotiations were failing. Heavy clashes broke out in Suwayda City and the western countryside. Druze areas were shelled. Bedouin districts were besieged. Within 24 hours, around 30 people had been killed and more than 100 injured. On 14 July, Jolani dispatched his Al Qaeda forces to allegedly separate the warring factions.
This move violated the existing agreements that Jolani had with the Druze, not to enter Suwayda. The reality is that his militia entered in support of the Bedouin factions and committed brutal violations against Druze civilians and fighters. It was a calculated breach of trust.
I was speaking with one of my friends in Suwayda who had taken up arms to “defend his country, his people and their dignity”. He told me: “Be sure we will not disarm. We will continue fighting until the last person falls with their weapon. We are defending our existence, our dignity, our women and our children”.
I asked him about the Zionist intention; he knows they will exploit the situation, but he told me the majority are against this. However, there may need to be a long term strategy to take into account the horrors his people are facing. He said:
- It is a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing, carried out by a gang that has been handed over the rule of Syria, our Syria — to achieve the interests of certain entities that invest in global terrorism. They make Jolani a tool to perform their dirty missions for implementing geopolitical goals.
- Jolani has been incubated, trained and has lived as a terrorist. His mentality and emotions will never change. He is a terrorist. How can this terrorist be trusted to govern a multi-ethnic nation like Syria?
- We are humans, minority born, Syrian. We will not leave this country except as martyrs, buried under Syrian stone. We were forced to resist, to defend everything that is our existence.
He was convinced that Jolani was stoking the flames of sectarian conflict between the Tribal factions and the Druze deliberately. Other people told me that Telegram channels had been established immediately after the conflict began to spread sectarian rumours and to enflame an already volatile situation. Another source told me:
- Jolani’s media focuses on portraying the Druze as killers of the Tribes, inciting sectarian hatred and revenge killings combined with declarations of ‘jihad’ against the Druze. At the same time, in front of the international audience he shifts the blame for the massacres of the Druze against the Tribes. In this way he evades responsibility for the brutality and savagery of his own militia who have been killing, looting, burning and kidnapping our women across the Suwayda province.
Ceasefires have been intermittently declared and systematically broken by HTS, the Tribes, and Druze Sheikh Hikmat Al Hirji, aligned with Israel. Israel has intensified airstrikes on the Tribal convoys and HTS positions. Jolani despatched the Syrian Arab Red Crescent with ‘aid’ for the besieged Druze population, who were without food, water, and electricity for more than five days. When the aid arrived, my friend told me the delivered food rations were perished and inedible.
The father of the three boys forced to jump to their deaths had been executed in the streets below moments earlier. The victims were identified as Moaz Bashar Arnous, Bara Arnous, and their cousin Osama Arnous. Eyewitnesses confirmed these details, and forensic video analysis corroborated the sequence of events.
The Widening Sectarian Divides Being Orchestrated in Syria
At least one captured Takfiri fighter that appeared on Druze social media channels could not speak Arabic; one of the multitude of foreign mercenary fanatics that are under Jolani’s control in Syria, making up an estimated 30-40% of the ‘New Syria’ military. Supporters of Jolani in HTS and Tribal factions have openly called for the final ethnic cleansing of the Druze communities from all Syria, their deranged rants demanding that Jolani leave them alone for one week in Suwayda to “kill all the Druze”.
A few days ago, a friend in Damascus told me:
- Damascus today is overrun by tribal militias. In one recent incident, liberal activists held a peaceful protest outside the Syrian Parliament, carrying signs that read ‘Syrian blood is sacred’ and ‘No to violence, yes to justice for all victims’. They were violently attacked by tribal thugs wielding clubs and swords. One of the victims was Zeina Shahla, a well-known political activist and current adviser to Jolani’s Missing Persons Committee. She was beaten and insulted in front of security forces, who did nothing.
The national mood is shifting, according to many I speak to who have endured the collapse of Syrian society since December 2024. Those who celebrated the fall of Assad, many imported from Idlib to crowd the public squares, have gone quiet. Some are even starting to admit that they ‘miss the Assad days’. Very few will say so publicly.
The Rise of the Tribal Proxy Force for Jolani
The current scale and orchestration of their return to the battlefield is unprecedented. Tribal society is rooted in the nomadic Bedouin traditions of the Arabian Peninsula. These groups were historically reliant on herding, farming, and a nomadic lifestyle; not much has changed. They are spread across the Gulf Arab states, the Levant, Iraq, and areas of western Iran. They are known for their hospitality, to which I can attest after being a guest of the tribes in Al Mayadin, east of Deir Ezzor. They are also known for their bravery and support of the oppressed in many instances. The flip side is they have a reputation for raiding trade and pilgrimage routes and attacking settled cities, like Damascus and Aleppo, until Islamic rule redirected their aggression outward.
Jolani’s tyrannical rule, which has only been made possible by the Zionist bloc, has now dismantled all semblance of national unity, deliberately leading to widespread sectarian mobilisation and a regression to pre-state dynamics, away from national cohesion. He has chillingly replicated the Idlib model in all Syria, but it remains to be seen how long he can hang on to power in such a boiling cauldron of sectarian division and murderous zeal.
According to sources in Damascus, Syria’s six largest tribes account for an estimated population of 10 million, although it is very hard to find reliable statistics. Around 20% emigrated during the war to Europe and Turkey. Even with the support of 41 tribal groups, offshoots of the central six, their allegiance to Jolani is more symbolic than reliable. The claims within the Jolani camp are that 150,000 tribesmen were mobilised. This is likely to be an exaggeration. Videos of Arctic containers bringing motley militia to Suwayda were part of a psychological war waged against the Druze. The more likely scenario is that batches of around 30,000 opportunists, criminals and long-term fighters were the vanguard of the movement unleashed by Jolani as a proxy death squad.
This reveals a core truth: most tribal allegiances remain tactical and transactional offering services to whoever is in power. It is not a strategy; it is a survival mechanism. Currently, Jolani is harnessing the tribes to ethnically cleanse southern Syria on behalf of Israel. They are effectively mercenaries.
Under Jolani’s patronage, Arab Tribal factions have aggressively infiltrated Damascus, triggering a sinister demographic change. They have seized homes vacated by persecuted Alawites, particularly properties of former Republican Guard soldiers and officers. The same is happening on the coast, where these mercenaries have been rewarded with the houses of displaced Alawite families after they participated in the massacres in the coastal province.
A friend of mine in Damascus told me that this Tribal expansionism has begun to affect Syrian society profoundly. Syria’s urban, educated middle class communities are now facing lawless gangs that have no respect for rational dialogue or the rule of law.
What Does Jolani Gain from the Recent Bloodshed?
Jolani has increased the proxy forces under his command. These forces can be whipped into a frenzy and deployed to suppress civilian dissent or wage war against the challengers to Jolani’s power base: SDF, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq (PMF) while preserving the core of Jolani’s loyal militia.
The Tribes give Jolani plausible deniability. Jolani established ‘checkpoints’ to stem the flow of Tribal factions to Suwayda, but they stood down when the Tribes approached and facilitated their advance. It’s a mobile genocidal force designed to force Syrian minorities to either accept Jolani’s protection (such as it is) or occupation by Israel to ‘protect’ them, which is the likely scenario in Suwayda.
There is the potential that Jolani is also contemplating using the Tribal Factions against the Iraqi Resistance groups, but this will be a violation of Iraq sovereignty by Syrian militia, and it would provoke a reaction from the Iraqi Military, PMF, and even the Iraqi Sunni population, with ISIS massacres still fresh in their collective memories.
Another possibility is the exploitation of the Tribal elements that have infiltrated the ranks of the SDF to weaken the SDF itself. Possible scenarios might include large scale defections and/or an ‘Arab’ uprising in the Euphrates region, leveraging the SDF’s own discriminatory policies to turn the tribes against them. However, this might be a step too far for Israel, dependent upon the Kurds for the completion of the David’s Corridor.
Jolani’s Speeches Are Written for Him by MI6
It is clear that Jolani’s handlers have no interest in genuine dialogue or a roadmap that actually benefits the Syrian people; they never did. They are orchestrating organised chaos and bloodshed for the benefit of Israel and the external forces that want their piece of Syria after the Takfiri shock and awe has subsided or been forced to retreat.
A source in Damascus summed up Jolani’s speech:
- Al-Julani’s speech is the height of arrogant posturing, naive cunning, and blatant provocation. Rather than calming tensions or addressing Syrian grievances, it poured fuel on the fire and insulted the Syrian people. He shamelessly admitted—without the slightest sense of accountability or restraint—that his government in Damascus had received multiple calls for foreign intervention.
- He also accused what he called ‘self-interested, separatist elements’ in Suwayda of aligning with foreign powers and leading armed groups that carried out killings and abuse. But worse still was his portrayal of providing basic services to Suwayda as some kind of favour or benevolent gift from him and his regime—an attitude that reeks of condescension.
He cynically states that the Druze community should not be judged for the actions of a ‘small faction’ that allegedly strayed from its historical values, and even declared his commitment to protecting so-called minorities. He deliberately omitted the fact that his sectarian military campaign, racist incitement, and the propaganda spread by loyalist figures like Mousa al-Omar, Jamil al-Hassan, Hadi al-Abdallah, Qutaiba Yassin, Mohammad Kazem al-Hindawi, Ghassan Yassin, and others via Telegram and WhatsApp groups, drew no distinction between Druze factions. The incitement was widespread, deliberate, and completely unrestrained. This was an ethnic cleansing pogrom on an unimaginable scale.
Jolani’s description of all non-Takfiri Arab Syrians as ‘minorities’ only deepens the fragmentation of a once–united country. It widens the political and social divisions while ensuring there are no moves towards inclusivity. None of this should be seen in isolation from the Zionist bloc agenda in the region. Jolani is an instrument of their predatory agenda, and nothing more.
I am also seeing a more dangerous narrative developing on social media generated by the Jolani-sectarian rhetoric; deliberately, in my opinion. Social media accounts are starting to promulgate the narrative that all Syrian Sunni Muslims are ‘Takfiri’, ignoring the majority of Syrian Sunni who reject the Takfiri ideology. This will negatively impact on the 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and we are already seeing calls for their expulsion among Lebanese commentators. While some are certainly extremist and affiliated with the Jolani gangs, there are many who are genuine refugees from the regime change war and the dire economic situation in Syria from the beginning.
The Long War against the Resistance
In the context of facilitating Zionist expansionism in Syria and the establishment of the David’s Corridor, Suwayds is now the spearhead of the broader Zionist project. Given Israel’s shortage of manpower, it must rely on Zionised Druze factions to pressure anti-Israel Druze factions to accept Israeli occupation as the only ‘alternative’ to Takfiri bloodlust and the horrors that the Druze have endured since the conflict erupted.
If Israel succeeds in the annexation of Suwayda as a ‘protectorate’ of Israel, it would facilitate the relocation of Palestinian Druze into southern Syria, forming a first line of defence with Druze from Suwayda and the Golan territories. This would separate them from Lebanon and the Druze population there, enabling the creation of a new ‘Lahad Army’ of Druze militia as a Zionist proxy force. The Zionist security cordon would then stretch from al-Tanf to Lebanon, and the corridor would be open toward the Euphrates via the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The next possible step would be to attempt a partition of Jordan, to pressure Palestinian displacement into Syria and Jordan, and to coerce the emigration of Christian communities from Jordan, which has long been the plan, to reduce the region to a war between the Gulf-Arab-Takfiri elements and the majority Shia Resistance Axis.
With the final solution in Gaza being implemented despite all the international ‘condemnation’, the outcome would be the fulfilment of the Balfour Declaration and the elimination of the Palestinian political and national cause. I must emphasise that this is the plan; however, the further that Israel and the Zionist bloc overextend, the greater their vulnerability to attacks from the Resistance Axis, and to clashes among the regional players themselves over resources and territory.
- I am leaving, and my time is approaching, perhaps it has come. I have left no means or tool unused to achieve peace for my country. Syria will live years of prosperity, then you will enter lean years, years of loss and suffering. But you will endure with legendary resilience, recorded by history in letters of light, illuminating your path for another century. I promise you Syria’s unity and dignity for the next twenty years (2000-2024) without disintegration, without breaking. The West and the East will besiege you, but you will refuse defeat, and you will reject surrender, even if you live only for this, you will not be defeated.