Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Druze Arabs in Syria who are under threat from the country’s new Islamist rulers.
The Times of Israel reported:
Israel sent 10,000 food packages to Druze in Syria in recent weeks, the Foreign Ministry says.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is credited by his office with initiating the effort, says the packages are part of a pact between minority communities in the Middle East.
“We have a courageous alliance with our Druze brothers,” he says in a statement. “It is a privilege to help them. In a region where we will always be a minority – it is necessary and right to help other minorities.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters during a briefing on Thursday: “It’s the right thing to do.”
In December, some Druze Arab villages in southwestern Syria asked to be governed by Israel, not by Syrian rebels.
The idea of an alliance between ethnic minorities — Jews, Kurds, Druze, Christians, and others — has long been of interest to the Israeli government as a basis for mutual cooperation and defense against dominant populations and tyrannical regimes.
Israel has good relations with many of the minority ethnic and religious groups throughout the region, though these typically fall short of direct material, much less military, support.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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