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🌊 Israel’s Endgame in Syria
Israel bombed Syria’s capital in the name of defending a minority. What’s the whole story?
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By Max Hudgins
On December 8, 2024, Syrian rebels marched into their capital, Damascus. Practically as dictator Bashar al-Assad was fleeing the country, the new government was making promises: Of a new era of unity, peace, and opportunity.
Yet earlier this month, just seven months later, families in southern Syria found themselves hiding as government-linked forces went door to door, executing people on the basis of religion. And as this happened, Israeli jets swooped in and bombed the Syrian capital.
So much for peace and unity.
Amid the violence, Israel’s intervention came under particular scrutiny. The country said it was protecting a minority, the Druze, from a massacre and defending its own security: "We will not allow southern Syria to become a terror stronghold," an Israeli official said.
Meanwhile, Western policymakers – including in the White House – expressed shock.
The violence in southern Syria began three weeks ago when Bedouins, a Sunni Arab group, kidnapped a man who was Druze, a religious minority. From there, tit-for-tat attacks between the groups escalated as Sunni militants and soldiers from across Syria traveled to join. They were soon going door-to-door searching for Druze, whose militias battled the Bedouins.
In one viral clip, apparently posted by Syrian militants, soldiers in official uniform stop a man and ask, “Are you Druze?”
“I’m Syrian,” he replies.
“Don’t say Syrian,” the soldiers say. ”Are you Druze or not? It says Druze on your ID.”
“Yes, I’m Druze, my brother.”
“Allahu Akbar,” the Sunni soldiers chant, and shoot him dead.
As this happened, Israel prepared its bombers.
But why?
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Editor’s Note
Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed today’s reporting and learned something new. As always, please send in your thoughts. Here are a couple of replies from our Canadian readers in response to yesterday’s story on the US-Canada border.
Cindy wrote:
You know who let's drugs and humans into the US? The US Boarder Patrol. It's illogical to blame Canada - even though South Park tells you to - because we don't control what/who goes into your country. YOU do. It makes sense that the initiatives stopped drugs and humans coming into Canada from the US, because we control what/who comes into Canada, just like you control what/who comes into the US. Fix your own problems America, we've got out own citizens to focus on.
And MJ wrote:
Thanks for including a story on this incredibly frustrating issue for Canadians (I'm one of them).
The tarrifs are a joke, so is the border crackdown. So now up here we just have to pretend we are dealing with a reasonable US administration who claims we are a giant criminal entity, while making side deals with states who are actually rational realists.
With 58 Canadians being held in ICE detention, a forced increase in defence spending on top of all these sovereignty threats from Trump, have just made Canadians want to wait out the crazy until our neighbors return to their senses and then maybe we will go back down for a visit.
Shooting your Canadian friends in the foot is just such an own goal, all of us on this continent of North America are suffering as a result- thanks a lot for this winning strategy MAGA.
And in case you missed our latest stories, read them below:
Happy Friday,
Max and Max