>>63989436From what I've read/heard explained, Druze are pragmatists because they don't convert people, like at all, and they don't have aspirations to form a state, so they tend to go where the power is wherever they are. But with a little bit of distance in case they need to bail when things go south. It's how they survive.
In Israel, they go with Israel, but before Assad had to go, the ones in the Golan would display Assad portraits and fly the Assadist republic flag because they have extended relatives across the border (who they'd occasionally meet at the border and shout "how it's it going" at each other, really it's called the mountain of shouting), and the Golan is technically disputed territory but Israel is never going to give it back. The Israelis would allow this because they knew that this was how the Druze do things. There's a specific sheikh in this Druze city in Syria who the HTS guys are calling an Assad loyalist. Maybe he cut a deal with Assad during a war. The Druze had their own police and Assad left them alone, at least relatively speaking, he didn't bomb them (he might have conscripted their sons though).
But now the power is in flux and they're vulnerable. Also in Lebanon they were in recent history the Druze had a quasi-socialist brand under the warlord Walid Jumblatt who was allied with the PLO in the civil war against the Christians (their leaders were total mobsters btw) but tried to avoid fighting Israel. Jumblatt has been pro-/anti-Syrian depending on which ways the winds were blowing and even played footsie with the U.S. during the GWOT. It's always some state of flux.
The jihadi guys are trying to fuck them up in Syria right now. It's like an actual chimpout, they show up as a power flex and try to wreck the place and act like Rambo, kill/kidnap people, film Druze doing humilating shit and put it online. But Israel sees some affinity of interest with the Druze yeah. (Not the Lebanese Druze though.)
