I’m not a Druze expert. So let me say, at the outset, if there are any Druze who object to what I’m saying here, or who think I’m being inaccurate, please correct me.
Okay. As I understand it, the Druze believe themselves to be descended from Moses’ father-in-law Jethro. While there are Muslims who have claimed that they are a heretical sect of Shia Islam that broke away, and while there are outsiders who repeat that claim uncritically, Druze reject the claim.
I suspect that the reason anyone gives any credence at all to the Shia origin theory is because the Druze don’t talk about their religion, and that probably pisses off people who want to write about them.
Today, the Druze are about 1.6% of the population of the State of Israel. They are 5.2% of Lebanon. They are 3.2% of Syria, making them the third largest religion there.
They don’t consider themselves Muslims, and the ones in Israel, at least, don’t consider themselves Arabs. They are fiercely loyal to the countries where they live, so long as they aren’t oppressed. They react really poorly to being oppressed.
As a result, Druze have not always been friendly to Israel or to Jews. There’ve been massacres on more than one occasion. But for the most part, that’s due to their policy of integrating into and supporting the countries where they live.
The Druze see Druze in other countries as a part of their people, naturally enough. So it stands to reason that Israeli Druze want to protect the Druze in Syria, who were treated poorly by the Assads, but are being subjected to genocidal attacks by the jihadis of the new regime. A jihadi prisoner admitted on video that they were sent to kill all of the Druze.
Interestingly, it’s a genocide that no one seems to care about, because it can’t be blamed on the Jews.
Druze fight in the Israeli Armed Forces. They fight and sometimes die and are no less heroic than any other soldiers in the IDF.
The Druze were called Kenites in biblical times, after Jethro, and we have two interesting episodes about them. One was during the time of the Judges (Judges chapter 4). A Druze named Hever had moved from Canaanite controlled areas to Israelite ones. When the Canaanite forces under the Egyptian general Sisera were liquidated, Sisera fled to Hever’s home, where he was met by Hever’s wife Yael. Yael said she’d hide him, and gave him milk and tucked him in, and when Sisera fell asleep, she hammered a tent peg through his skull.
Yael, either Druze herself or married to a Druze man, is considered a Jewish heroine for this.
Later, when God commanded King Saul to destroy the Amalekites, Saul first called out to the Druze who were living amongst the Amalekites and told them to leave (I Samuel 5:6). Living among the Amalekites, they would have fought on the side of the Amalekites, and we would have killed them just as dead as the rest. But out of the debt that we owed to their ancestor Jethro, Saul gave them the opportunity to do as Hever had done, and separate themselves from Amalek. They took advantage of this offer and survived.
We have a long history with these people. Those who think we should have opted for peace with Jihadi Jolani and left the Syrian Druze to twist in the wind are more interested in the form of peace than they are interested in what’s right and wrong.
I think it's a great kindness fer Israel ta help the Druze (clearly nobuddy else has a moral spine ta do it!), but long-term this "drewz" some qvestions for me (pahrdon the pun) such as IF Israel takes 'em in (in numbers...), do ya think it's a good "idear?" Numbers/population-wise could mess up the state as a bein' a "chewish' one? Kinda thorny, no? (Since yer on site an' bound to be affected by it directly, what's your two cents 'bout it?)