Wall Street Journal: Israel wants a Federalized Syria!
Amid repeated Israeli targeting of sites in southern Syria, and the controversy sparked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements about “protecting minorities” in Syria, the outlines of a new plan that Israel seeks to implement have emerged.
According to sources, Israel is seeking to convince the Druze minority to support it by pushing the Syrian Druze to reject the new Syrian government.
Reports also indicated that Israel is planning to spend more than a billion dollars to support the Druze, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Israel is seeking to persuade world powers to adopt a federal system in Syria that would divide the country into independent ethnic regions, with the southern border areas free of weapons.
Sources said Israel sees the political changes in Syria as a growing threat, and is seeking to persuade Syrian Druze to oppose the new government as part of its massive spending plan.
Some Druze have reportedly expressed concerns about the new regime, while others have expressed support for Israel and called for their community to secede from Damascus.
However, large popular protests erupted in the Druze areas, rejecting the Israeli plans, and the sect’s leaders affirmed their commitment to the unity of Syria.
The Sheikh of the Druze sect in Syria, Hikmat al Hijri, affirmed on more than one occasion that the sect is committed to the unity of Syria, its land and people.
Since the fall of the Assad regime last December, Israeli incursions into the buffer zone in the occupied Golan have increased, with the Israeli army establishing several new military points.
It also took control of the eastern side of Mount Hermon, claiming that this incursion is a defensive measure to protect his country from threats coming from Syria.
