Name: Why has Israel not made any diplomatic attempts? | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-07-17T08:30:01.000Z
Duration: 27 min 49 s
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Syria's health ministry says one person was killed and 18 injured after Israel increased airstrikes in apparent support of Syria's Druze community.

In Suwayda in Syria's south, Druze leaders are divided over a ceasefire deal with the Syrian government which is aimed at ending days of clashes that threaten to unravel the country's post-war transition.

Syrian government forces engage in gunfights with Druze militias.

The troops had been sent here to quell the unrest that has been going on for days between the Druze religious minority and Bedouin tribes.

But their presence only seems to be adding fuel to the fire.

The death toll on both sides keeps climbing.

Meanwhile Israel, which sees the Druze community as an ally, has resumed strikes on Syrian troops in the area.

Our interests in Syria are known, are limited and clear.

First of all, to maintain the status quo in the region of southern Syria, which is also close to our border, and to prevent the development of threats towards Israel in this area.

The second thing is to prevent harm to the Druze community.

In a show of force, Israel's army also targeted the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus.

Syria's defence ministry asked the capital's residents to stay indoors.

Chaotic scenes too at the buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Druze from the Israeli-controlled area breached the border fence, apparently to join the fight in support of their fellow Druze in Sueda.

Israel's Prime Minister urged them to turn around.

You can be murdered, you can be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the IDF.

Therefore, I ask you, return to your homes, let the IDF operate.

Sueda, the Golan Heights and now Damascus, all are dealing with the consequences of violent clashes which threaten to escalate into a conflict affecting the whole region.

Let's explore this with Aylan Levy, he's a former Israeli government spokesperson.

Just explain to us how you think bombing Syria's capital keeps the Druze minority safe.

Everyone is staging a humanitarian intervention now to protect the Druze minority of Syria.

Israelis, Druze and Jews alike have been horrified to see the images of elderly men having their moustaches shaved off, other atrocities, and that's why Israel has done two things.

One, attack Syrian troops that have been trying to enter Sueda, but two, attacking the General Staff Building in Damascus, which was used to launch those troops towards Sueda and send a very clear message to the regime, Druze civilians must be protected.

As far as we outside the country, the region, are concerned, what appears to have happened is there's been a long-standing beef, if I can put it that way, long-standing rivalries between Druze and Bedouin clans in that region.

The Syrian government intervened to try and keep the peace and then Israel bombed them.

Just explain to us how that works and why Israel didn't go through the diplomatic channels first to say to Syria, we're concerned about what's happening in the south of your country.

That is not what human rights observers on the ground are reporting.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting at least 21 extrajudicial executions in Sueda by regime forces or forces loyal to the regime, and Israel looks at Sueda and says we cannot allow a fellow religious minority to be persecuted by Islamist forces.

But remember who the Syrian government is now.

Israel sees these terrible things happening in the south of Syria.

Why doesn't Israel say to Syria, this is a terrible thing, you need to sort this out?

How does Israel take it upon itself to just start bombing?

Because Israel is physically stopping the al-Qaeda, formerly al-Qaeda-led government of Syria from attacking a religious minority.

No, no, no, because I'd like, there's quite a lot I'd like to get through.

I just want to get to the point of why the diplomatic angle was skipped over.

Well, Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Syria because Syria does not recognize the state of Israel.

Israel hopes that Syria will want to establish diplomatic relations, just as we seem to be on the cusp of relations with Saudi Arabia and possibly with Lebanon.

If the October 7th war ends with an outbreak of peace and normalization in the region, that will be a positive development.

But obviously that's not going to come at the expense of persecuted minorities in the Middle East.  What then do you think the Syrian government would have to do for Israel to stop bombing Syria?

Israel wants the border region to be demilitarized.

The lesson that Israel drew from the October 7th attacks by Hamas is that we cannot afford to have hostile forces amassing on our border and hope for the best.

Israel looks at the Syrian regime with suspicion.

Let's remember that the president, Ahmad al-Shara, was on the American most wanted list until he trimmed his beard, put on a suit and became the president of Syria.

He was previously the leader of HTS and Al-Qaeda offshoot.

So Israel hopes that this is a leopard that has changed its spots, but fears that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

There are behind the scenes talks between Israel and Syrian officials towards normalization.

And if Syria makes the brave decision to support peace with Israel, Israel will of course welcome that.

Israel's attacks on Syria risk undermining ceasefires that have been established, weakening the authority of the central government and fueling regional tensions, destabilizing a that's already grappling with internal power divisions and post-Assad problems.

Is the destabilization of Syria in Israel's interests?

Israel's interest is to have a peaceful Syria that respects its minorities and wants to make peace with Israel.

That is why there are talks happening behind the scenes to establish normalization with the Syrian government.

The new regime, even though Israel views it with distrust, has been beneficial in many ways because it has taken Syria out of the Iranian axis, blocked the smuggling route from Iran to Hezbollah.

And Israel wants the Syrian regime to be able to have enough control of its territory that it can stop the Iranian axis rearming its proxy forces in the region.

But the Israeli government is under intense domestic pressure, not from the far right or from settlers, but from Druze in Israel.

We're running out of time and I want to get this just on that point, on the internal pressure within Israel.

As we came on air, it was announced that another ultra-orthodox party is talking about quitting the government, leaving Benjamin Netanyahu without a parliamentary majority after another one quit yesterday.

Do you see that changed political landscape having any effect on Israel's actions in Syria or indeed in Gaza?

Benjamin Netanyahu, if these parties leave the government, will end up becoming a minority government.

Elections will have to be held by autumn of next year and their departure from the government obviously brings forward the risk of early elections.

What the Israeli government is doing now, its stated policy, is to pursue a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, hoping to get half of the hostages out and hoping that that will allow for diplomatic talks to get an end of the war that will see Hamas relinquish power and allow the region to turn a new leaf.

And these parties have said they will support a hostage deal even from the opposition.

Thanks for joining us, our former Israeli government spokesman, Alon Levy.

Let's pick through this with Zedoun Al-Zoubi, who is a Syrian governance and peace-building expert.

Long-standing grievances between Druze factions and Bedouin tribes erupted into open violence in May of this year.

To be very, very frank with you, the Bedouin tribes and forces actually installed one checkpoint that kept really humiliating the Druze community and at one point of time this exploded.

The government was supposedly to go in and to separate the two sides, unfortunately it escalated into more violence between the government and the Druze factions.

I don't think things are now manageable or containable.

There are many reports of massive human rights violations inside the city and unfortunately we don't see the sound of reason from any of the sides to try to at least let the civil defence to go in and save the civilians.

OK, so that's really interesting because that has been the charge that the Syrian government deployed troops to Suwayda and those government forces or factions loyal to the government then turned, took sides and attacked the Druze militias.

Well, from my point of view, this cannot be seen from the moment of yesterday or the day before yesterday.

There has been many, many negotiations taking place between the government and the Druze and the three clerics that actually govern the city somehow.

There was some need for the state institutions to go inside the city and so that unified the country, if you like.

There was a lot of hesitance inside the cleric leadership, especially with Hajeri.

And then at many point of time, there was an agreement and then this agreement actually collapsed.

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Why has Israel not made any diplomatic attempts? | DW News

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