Ya’alon: Syrian rebels keeping Druze safe in exchange for Israeli aid

The Druze in Syria are not in immediate danger from approaching Islamist forces, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Monday, because Israel’s ongoing humanitarian assistance to Syrian rebel fighters, a source of growing conflict between Israel and its own Druze population, actually safeguards the minority population in Syria.

“We’ve assisted them under two conditions,” Ya’alon said of the Israeli medical aid to the Syrian rebels, some of whom are presumably fighting with al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. “That they don’t get too close to the border, and that they don’t touch the Druze.”

The Druze on Israel’s side of the Golan, Ya’alon charged, acted “irresponsibly” last week by attacking an Israeli ambulance carrying wounded Syrian rebel fighters. One person was killed and another wounded during what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed a “lynching.” The person in the Israeli ambulance was not affiliated to Jabat al-Nusra, and his death would provoke calls for revenge, Ya’alon stated.

Israel has treated over 1,000 wounded Syrians in its hospitals since the onset of the civil war in 2011.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-syrian-rebels-keeping-druze-safe-in-exchange-for-israeli-aid/