The Druze Question in Ahmad al Sharaa’s Syria Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is an edited version version of a transcript created using AI technology and may not reflect 100% accuracy.

The video can be found here.

Sarah: Good afternoon. We are very, very honored to have with us Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Mordechai Kedar. Mordy is a Distinguished Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Literature and Culture at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University and a Research Associate at the University’s Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Dr. Kedar is at least a 25 year veteran of IDF military intelligence and was with the famous Force 8200. Dr. Kedar is a sought-after lecturer in Israel and abroad, and his extensive experience on intelligence, counterterrorism, Arabic studies, and the Middle East has coupled with his charisma and his intelligence, and it makes every single encounter with him fascinating. And his geostrategic analysis is incredibly intelligent. Dr. Kedar has frequently appeared on Israel’s television news networks, Channel 13, 14, as well as the Arabic language Al Jazeera television network. And he can argue against Quranic masters with the best of them.

On Friday morning, Israeli warplanes struck at an area next to the Syrian capital of Damascus. This strike came after days of clashes from the pro-Syrian government of Ahmed al-Shara’a, or Ahmed al-Jolani, attacking the Druze community near Damascus, leaving dozens of people dead or wounded. On Thursday, Syria’s Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, partially criticized Syria’s government for what he called, “an unjustified genocidal attack” on the minority community. We’ve seen over and over again, how Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has attacked many minority communities. We certainly saw what they did to the Alawite community last December. Yet, others within the Druze community are issuing calls not to break away from the nation of Syria.

We know now that there are about 700,000 Druze living within Syria. The Druze community is a very secretive community. They have their own private religion that’s broken off from Islam. They speak Arabic, they live in Lebanon and Syria, and many are on the Golan Heights in Israel. Why is Israel coming in to support the Druze community? What are the pros and cons of this move? Will this trigger a counter reaction among the Druze or the Syrian population as a whole? And will this be an opening of yet another front in the 7 front war that Israel is now fighting? We are in excellent, excellent hands today, here to address this question and many others that we have is Dr. Mordechai Kedar. Morde?

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Thank you so much, Sarah, for arranging this meeting. I’ll try to be as brief as possible because this issue is rather complicated. Yet, I’ll try to leave some space for questions and I’ll try to answer. For the background, in Islam, once a person or a community converts to Islam or is being born Islamic, there is no way to get out from Islam. If you leave Islam, your punishment is one and only to depart your head. Even if you converted to Islam when you were drunk, if you got drunk and you… Converting to Islam is very easy. You say there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is a messenger, and you are Muslim. Even if you are drunk after the hangover, people tell you, “Hey, you converted to Islam, you are not allowed to leave Islam anymore.” And if you leave, you might depart your head. So this is the verdict or the punishment of the apostate who leaves Islam.

Why is it important for us? Eleven centuries ago, in the 10th century, a group of Muslims, Shi’i Ismaili Muslims who lived in Egypt, left Islam and they started a new religion named the Druze or the Darzi religion. Of course, they were forced to run away from Egypt because Egypt was Islamic in those days. So they have found asylum or safe haven in the mountains of the Sham, means what today, Lebanon, Syria in the land of Israel. They settled on mountains, always, and this is another rule in the Middle East that minorities always live on the mountains. The Druze, the Shi’a, the Christians, the Alawites, all of them live on the mountains while the Sunni Muslims live in the plain lands. Because the Sunni Muslims are the majority, they are not afraid of anyone, while the minorities are afraid because they are minorities, because some of them are viewed as apostates.

So therefore, they live in mountains because the mountains provide protection. You can hide, you can throw rocks from above, you have a tactic or tactical advantage over anyone who tries to attack you. So this is why they live in the mountains, so the Druze community as well. Until this very day, they live on the Hermon, in the northern part of the Golan. There are some 4, 5, 6 villages, depends how you count them, in the Hermon. In Jabal al-Druze, Jabal al-Druze means the mountain of the Druze, which is in South Syria, in the Sueda region and in Lebanon, in the Chouf mountains, always on the mountains. They live this way for over a 1000 years.

One of the Jewish travelers, I think it was Benjamin of Tudela, who was in the Middle East, describes them as the bravest people on earth, something like this. People who are fighters, that you don’t mess with them, because they will defend themselves very seriously and very powerfully. This is how already he saw them and understood who they are and what they are. They are a very close community. You cannot convert to be Druze. In order to be Druze, you have to have both your parents Druze. So if your father left the community and got married with another lady from Islam or from Christianity or from wherever, his children are not Druze anymore and he cannot come back to live within the Druze. The same thing if the mother. So this is how they keep their community close.

Yet, these days they are keen to get married, not from the same family, but from other families, in order to avoid genetic problems. And this is understood. So this is the community. Historically, they were persecuted by Muslims from all the veins, The Sunni, the Shia, everybody was because they left Islam, they dared to leave Islam. They are worse than Jews and Christians, because Jews and Christians are born Jews and Christians, so they are not to be blamed. But the Druze left Islam and their religion is unknown, it means it’s a secretive religion in order not to reveal the secrets of the religion to the Muslims, because they have all kinds of beliefs. They have 7 pillars and they are totally different from Islam.

To the outside, they make face as if they are Muslims, especially when they live within Muslims. For example, they fast on Ramadan, not because they believe that they should fast in Ramadan, but because they don’t want to make the Muslims angry at them by eating in their faces. So in the public sphere, they fast on Ramadan. At home, behind closed doors, they eat during Ramadan, during the day. In public, they don’t drink wine, again, in order not to aggravate the Muslims. While inside the home, they have no problem with this. This is called in Arabic, taqiyya. Taqiyya means to make face as if you are like the majority, in order to maintain the connection between your head and shoulders. Otherwise, you are putting this connection in danger. So this is taqiyya, well known in Islam.

Under the Ottoman Empire, which was in the Middle East between 1517 and 1917, exactly 400 years ending with the First World War, they were Ottomans. Ottomans means that the Ottoman Empire left them alone to live their own life, to deal with their own business, and to leave the others alone. Of course, they have no interest to mess with others, so they were left alone to live their own life, community life, as Ottomans, a community recognized by the Ottoman Empire. As long as they paid the dues or the taxes, which they were supposed to pay, they were left alone. Then, in the First World War, the French and the British toppled the Ottoman Empire and took over all the areas to the south from Turkey today. What today, Turkey, the Anatolia Heights and of course, Syria, Lebanon were under French rule, while Eretz Israel, Jordan, Iraq were under the British mandate for 25 years.

The French at the beginning, they wanted to establish 5 states instead of Syria. One state for the Druze, one state for the Alawites, one state for the Kurds in the north, and 2 states for the Arabs, for the Muslims. But for a reason, I won’t get to the reason, they decided that there is a nation, a Syrian nation, which should have one state, the Syrian state. Of course, they divided Syria and Lebanon, so the Christians can have their own state and not be ruled by Muslims as they were through history. This is actually the raison d’etre of Lebanon, to be the safe haven for Christians. While Syria is the country of the Muslims, of the Christians in Syria, Druze and Alawites together, and Arabs and Kurds together. However, the Druze did not want to give up on their Ottoman. They lived for 400 years, detached from anybody else, so why should they go to live or turn to live under the yoke of Islam? So they started the rebellion in August 1925 and the leader of the rebellion was a guy named Sultan al-Atrash.

Today, in all the Druze villages and towns, you see big statues of this man with a sword in his hand, leading the rebellion against the French, who wanted to subjugate them to Muslims. He is revered as a hero, as the symbol of their entity as Druze. By the way, Druze have no problem to have statues of human beings, while in Islam it’s totally forbidden. Because Islam followed the Jewish ban on [Commandment about not making images]. Thou shalt not make a statue or a picture, or an image. While Druze have no problem with this because they left Islam. But the French tried to convince them and they failed. So what the French did, they put a siege on the Jabal al-Druze, means the martyr of the Druze. In August, when you don’t have water and food, you are in a problem and they almost killed them all by starvation. No humanitarian aid, no United Nations, no nothing. I’m talking about the French empire of 1925. This is how they behave. And the Druze have no other choice but to join the Syrian state.

Now, since the Druze are small and vulnerable community, they always attach themselves to the powerful side of any struggle in order to survive. And if the powerful side becomes weak, they will change their loyalty to the other one, because the other one is more powerful. Because they cannot allow themselves, they cannot have the luxury of being identified with the losers. They must be attached to the winners. Actually also when Israel was established in 1948, they were waiting to see who prevails, the Arabs who invaded Israel or the Jews who were fighting for their life in the War of Independence. Since they saw that the Jews are actually surviving and taking over and remain and survive, so they joined us wholeheartedly, because now they are with us. And ever since then, the Druze in Israel are indivisible part of the army. They are recruited to the army just like Jews by law as of 1955 and the girls are not recruited to the army, but the girls serve in the police and in other services of the state. Girls are not going to the army because of their tradition so they go to the police, they serve in the police, in Mishmar HaGvul also, which is the semi-military unit. This is what happens.

The Druze in Israel live on the Carmel mountain near Haifa, in 2 big villages, Osafia and Daliyat al-Karmel. In the Galilee, in Ramah, Bejan, and some 8 villages, some of them are with Muslims and or Christians, because in Israel, it’s a state of law, nobody kills anybody because he converted to Islam or left Islam. like Shefa-Am, has all the 3 communities, Muslims, Druze and Christians and others. And the third place of Druze in Israel is the Golan Heights. We have 4 villages on the Golan. One of them is on the mountain, the Hermon mountain, Majdal Shams, Buq’ata, Ein Kinya, and Masada. These 4, those who live in the Golan were living in Syria. Syria was under Golan until 1967. Ever since 1967, means almost 60 years, they live with us. So many of them asked and received Israeli citizenship. Many of them served in the army. Today, the mayor of Ein Kinya, one of the Druze villages in the Golan, actually is a high officer in the army. Although originally he was a Syrian citizen, but he took Israeli citizenship, went to the army, and went up the ladder of being an officer. So this is what happens.

Here we must mention the name of a hero of the Druze. His name was Salim al-Shufi. Salim al-Shufi was a teenager before the Six-Day War in the early or late 50s. From Majdal Shams, from his village, he saw Israel every night, from the mountain and he decided he wants to go to Israel. He crossed the border, walking on his feet, and lived in the Galilee somewhere. Then somebody from Sayeret Matkal, the most important elite unit in Israel, heard that there’s a boy, a teenager, who came from Syria. So he got in touch with him. Actually, he knew all the places, all the paths, all the ways from the Golan to Israel. So he joined Sayeret Matkal, and he was the leader of all the soldiers who were walking to Syria, to all kinds of places in Syria, Sayeret Matkal, they all walked behind him. Binyamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, Amnon Lipkin Shahak, Yonatan Netanyahu, all those fighters of Sayeret Matkal were walking on his footsteps, really, literally, walking into Syria and back.

His name was Salim al-Shufi. Many times, on the way back from the operation in Syria, he would tell them, “Sit here, wait here, don’t move, don’t breathe, be very quiet, I’m coming back.” And he ran to his village, to Majdal Shams, went into the house of his parents, gave them both a kiss during the night, hugged them, and ran away to meet the Sayeret Matkal who was waiting for him, and he walked them out from Syria safely. After the Six-Day War, of course, he was already older, and he became, in the 80s, the mayor of Majdal Shams. When he passed away, he is buried in the Golan, and he has a place on his name in the village of Mas’ade. Every single day, every single year, in the day of his passing, Netanyahu and all those are coming to give tribute to this dear Druze man, Salim al-Shufi, who was leading them into Syria and back safely every time. So this is the Druze. They were loyal to, they are loyal to Israel 100%. The ratio of volunteers to combat units within the Druze boys is higher than the ratio of boys who volunteer to combat units within the Jewish sector, to that degree. They are with us wholeheartedly. Why are they with us? Because we save them from the Islamists.

If I have time, I’ll give you another story about what they mean. I know a Druze officer who served in one of the units which I was serving in, and his motivation was in the sky. He lives on the Carmel, in Dalat al-Karmel, and one day I asked him, “Where do you get this such 100% motivation?” So I’ll tell you this story. The Six-Day War, he was not born yet, but the Six-Day War, you remember Sarah, the war was after 3 weeks of waiting period. Nobody knew what they are waiting for, but they waited for 3 weeks on the tanks, on the vehicles waiting for the war, and nobody knew. Later they got to know what happened. In these 3 weeks, his father one day was in the yard of his house in the Carmel. He was plowing the ground, and he had at home a bush around the home, a fence, but not a concrete, but made of bush.

In this fence, you cannot see through, but you hear everything behind it, and his father held 2 Arabs speaking in the dialect of the Galilee, of the Muslims, standing there near his house, and they are dividing the village.

You will take this house, I will take that house, our brother will take this house because they were already planning what to do with the Druze after they killed all the Druze, because those who spoke were Muslims, and they were standing there behind the fence. They didn’t see him. They didn’t see the father because he was behind the bush, but he heard everything, how they divide their houses when the war will erupt and will kill all the Jews and all the Druze. He took his axe, and he ran out. When they saw him with the axe, they ran to the car, and they ran away. He succeeded to chop the tire of one of the wheels of the car, but they ran away anyway, and he told his sons, you go and you serve in the army, because otherwise those will divide our houses to them. That’s what he told me, “I am protecting my house. I am protecting my home, my family in your army, in the Israeli army.” So to that degree, they are loyal because they know what they are defending.

So this is the fraternity which we in Israel have with the Druze community. The Druze community in Israel, in order to avoid genetic problems, they make sure that they get married with Druze, means boys, girls, from other villages, from other places, means from other clans, in order to avoid genetic problems. Many of the Druze in Israel have wives from Syria, from the Druze community in Syria, because in both countries, Syria and Israel allowed it through the years, because both countries understood the need, and they allowed boys from Israel to get married with girls from Syria, and boys from Syria to get married with boys from Israel, and to live either in Syria or in Israel, and it was acceptable by both Syria and Israel through the years.

Now, Syria was taken by the Islamists, by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham HTS, and this HTS is something between Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Jolani himself, the leader of HTS, had $10 million on his head, not because he parked his car in a no-parking zone. The man was chopping heads in ISIS. He spent, I think, some 8 years in American prison in Iraq. He was a jihadist, and he took Syria over.

Now, of course, the whole world views him as going down with a necktie. These people hate the necktie, because the necktie is a symbol of the corrupt West, but he goes around with a necktie. So today he can be a guest of the French president Macron because he needs the European money. So, his gangs are raiding and slaughtering Druze and Alawites, because both communities are non-Islamic. Druze left Islam, Alawites never were Muslims, although their religion includes all kinds of Islamic elements, yet they are not Muslims. The Islamists, the jihadists, keep raiding their areas, killing them, butchering them, kidnapping their daughters, and you know what for. This was how the Alawites and the Druze are living today. Now the question is, what should Israel do? After all, the Druze in Israel are our brothers, blood brothers, in every meaning of the word, and they are married to the Druze in Syria. So, do we have a choice not to support our brothers in Syria? They are the brothers of our brothers.

It means that Israel is not only money, it is total commitment to the in Syria, because they are our brothers, so from this consideration, we should help them. Of course, the Jews in Israel, who know exactly what happens in Syria, minute by minute, by WhatsApp, because they have the same groups, WhatsApp groups or telegram groups with their brothers and sisters in Syria. So they know exactly what happens every single minute. So whenever a Toyota car comes with the machine gun of those jihadists near the villages of the Druze, everybody knows it in Israel because it passes immediately. So they demand the government to protect the borders, and for a very good reason, because otherwise those borders will be abused by the Jolani gangs. But unfortunately, there are Israelis who don’t think so. They keep saying, and they’re right, that the Druze were actually through the years in Syria, siding with Assad. And Assad, as you know, was a muscular, both the father and especially the son, and they supported Assad. Why should we support them when they’re those who were oppressed through the years.

The Islamists take revenge. They take revenge for a reason, because the Druze were the partners of the Alawites in oppressing the others. So I tell them they had no other choice but to be with the winner, because if they are with the loser, they will lose everything, including the life. So the fact that they sided with Assad was not necessarily because they are hating Muslims and really willing to butcher them as the Assad was doing. They most probably were doing it, were siding with the government, because they cannot allow themselves to be associated with the losers, because otherwise they will lose everything, including the connection between their heads and shoulders. Therefore, in my humble view, Israel should protect them. I’m not saying that the Israeli Air Force needs to have a presence 24/7 above the Druze areas.

But what we can do is to send a credible threat to Jolani, “If you allow anybody to go to the Druze area and to abuse them, you have a problem with us. We may treat you like we treated Hassan Nasrallah because he was a jihadist and you are a jihadist and you deserve it because what you did in ISIS. So you better keep an open eye on your people and leave the Druze alone. And don’t mess with us because we mean what we say and we say what we mean.” That’s what I mean by credible threat. This should be enough to convince him especially if he speaks Arabic. I don’t know if he speaks other languages, but in Arabic he’s good, so it should be said in Arabic. And this is what, my humble view, Israel should spread its hegemony over the southern part of Syria in order to make sure that the Druze are being protected, safe, and sound.

However, there is another community which shares this problem with the Druze and these are the Alawites. They live in the Syrian coast to the north of Lebanon, on the coastal area, where the harbors of Latakia, Tartus, Baniyas are. This area is a bit far away from Israel. The whole Lebanon is between us and that area. So technically, it is harder to protect the Alawites. The Alawites, of course, through the years they were not our friends. Assad was the Alawite, both father and son, and formerly Salah Jadid was also an Alawite. In order to galvanize the Syrian society under Assad, they actually developed the Jew hatred and the Israel hatred to a degree of art. I actually wrote, mentioned it, or analyzed it in my book about Syria, Assad in Search of Legitimacy, this is the title of the book, Assad in Search of Legitimacy, Message and Rhetoric in the Syrian Press under Hafez Bashar. It was published 20 years ago in 2005 by Sussex Academic Press, which actually is some kind of derivative from my PhD dissertation.

So the Alawites definitely deserve protection because otherwise the Muslims will slaughter them one by one or many by many. Israel should say the same thing. Israel cannot fly 24/7 above their area. Yet Israel can send the same message to the Jolani, “Hey guy make sure that your jihadists leave the Alawites alone, otherwise you have a problem with us.” So this is what Israel should do, especially when it comes to the Druze. Actually touches a very very important point in the culture of the Middle East, one of the most important pillars of the culture in this area is loyalty to your friends and allies you are not allowed to betray them. If you betray your friends if you betray your allies you are not a human being, you don’t deserve to live. This is the worst thing the hyena means the treason, treason is something which is totally beyond the red lines of the allowed and forbidden totally. Israel is tested by the Middle East, ” Are you loyal to your brethren, at least the Druze, if not the Alawites as well, or not?” And the whole attitude to the state of Israel will be a derivative of Israel’s attitude.

The Saudis are looking at us, asking this question, without sound but I know, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, everybody is looking at us, whether we are loyal or we betray them. Here I must mention, the 2000, exactly 25 years ago, in May 2000, Israel ran away from southern Lebanon under Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister. He decided to withdraw the IDF from southern Lebanon, and he decided at the same time to leave the Southern Lebanese army, SLA, to the mercy of Hezbollah. He betrayed them. For 3 days, they were crying on the fence, “Let us in, otherwise they will slaughter us.” Until he understood the mistake and he allowed them in. Ehud Barak had no clue and still has no clue about the culture of the Middle East. Amazing how this man became a prime minister. He was the most failing prime minister we ever had, maybe except for Lapid, who was supported by him. But Ehud Barak was a disastrous prime minister thus why he was very short-time, until we kicked him away. And he betrayed tragically, the Southern Lebanon Army, the SLA and Israel got a very, very bad name, very, very bad reputation because of what he did.

We are now, I hope, that we restore the honor of being loyal to our friends and allies and brothers, actually, with the Druze. And this is why we should support the Druze in every possible way. In my view, also the Alawites. We cannot allow genocide and this will be a genocide. Because so far thousands of Alawites were butchered by the Jolani forces. But they have enough [Hebrew for a smart thought] not to film it and to upload it to the net, unlike ISIS. ISIS were proud of the fact that they were butchering people. The Jolani people are a bit brighter than ISIS and they do not allow anyone to take pictures. The Alawites are taking pictures of what is happening and they upload it to the net in order to show the whole world what these jihadists are doing to them. And this is how I know about this. I hope that the Israeli government and the American administration will do something about this, about the Alawites. By the way, Christians as well. It’s not only Alawites. Christians who live with the Alawites are suffering similarly, just like the Alawites. Because Christians also are not Muslims and should be punished for not embracing the right religion, of course, Islam.

And this is a situation which is really here. In addition to what we do in Gaza, in addition to the problem which we have with the Houthis in Yemen. In addition to whatever we have with Iran, now we have also to deal with the Druze in Syria. Multi-frontal war, but Israel is doing it. From October 7th, when we were caught by surprise, so vulnerable, so weak, we succeeded to get rid of most of the power of Hezbollah. To cause the collapse of the Syrian regime, which was the backbone of the Iranians here, To convince the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq to give up on their weapons, to hit tremendously the Houthis in Yemen. Yet there is work to do. And to get rid of the Iranian air defense systems to a degree that Iran today is exposed. Just compare October 7th and today’s situation. To protect the Druze seems to be a very easy job compared to all the other jobs we have been agreed successfully all over this part of the Middle East. Sarah, thank you so much for having this session. I see 150 people are listening and if there are questions, I’ll be more than happy to try to answer.

Sarah: Okay. I have a lot of questions. I totally agree with you about the Druze. We have cemeteries in Israel that are full of graves of soldiers that have risked their lives, given their lives, made the ultimate sacrifice for the state of Israel. But we had a period of our history of Sabra and Shatila when we tried to protect the Maronite Christians. And Israel is so extended on so many fronts. Are you afraid this might risk some sort of war with Syria with the forces of Ahmed al-Sharra?

Dr. Kedar: Look, as long as Syria is run by the group of jihadists, although I don’t like them at all, yet they are less of a threat compared to normal states like Iran or other states in the region. They still have not yet built their army again after Israel destroyed the former Syrian army because they have other priorities. By the way, this is why Jolani, means Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, he actually spoke about joining the Abrahamic Accords. I think that this is some kind of deception because in his DNA he is against Israel. Somebody who served not a week or 2 until he saw what they do, served really in Al-Qaeda and ISIS, including sitting in the jail and having $10 million on his head, is somebody who really believes in the jihad against anybody who is not a Sunni Muslim. As you know, part of the jihad is deception. There is a hadith which says, [arabic phrase], in Arabic means that the war is deception, or the war includes deception and we know it.

Hamas took Gaza over in June, 2007. Hamas took over. For 16 and a half years, until October 2023, they deceived us to think that all they want is an Islamic state in Gaza, to work in Israel, to have good life, good economy, good health, good education, and normal life. This is why we were caught in surprise on October 7, 2023, because for 16 and a half years, Hamas convinced us that all they want is to have good life. I’m afraid that Jolani is the same, because he comes from the same school of the jihad, of the Muslim Brotherhood, which are all about jihad. Even if it is a migration jihad or economic jihad let alone military jihad, there are all kinds of jihad. Now the jihad is, first of all, to build Syria, to restore the army, or to rebuild the army. And to be able in 20 years, 30 years, to do to us what Hamas did to us on October 7, 2023, after they put us to sleep for 16 and a half years. So this is why I keep warning the Israelis and not only the Israelis about this, “Don’t don’t fall in this trap again. Once was enough. One was too much.”

Sarah: Right, the world is very easily duped. But the Alawites had so many secret militias, so many secret services under Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad. Why do we feel or why do you feel we have to to protect the Alawites. I know they’re under siege now, but they were horrible.

Dr. Kedar: Yeah, it’s a good question. In Syria, the Alawites had the army. They were controlling the country. They were the state. They had the army, they had the police, they had all the security organizations. They had the power. They did not collect weapons at home. They did not develop militias underground or above the ground. They did not develop alternative leadership to Assad. So when you don’t have weapons, you don’t have frameworks of militias. And when you don’t have leadership, you are exposed, you are single people who are struggling, everyone by himself, without the weapons, without the organization and without the leadership. This is why their tragedy is the biggest, because they lost the state, which they were controlling ever since 1966, where the Alawites took over the Ba’ath party. This is why the Druze collected many weapons, because they are Druze. Muslims collected weapons because they are Muslims. The Alawites did not collect weapons because they were the masters of the state.

Sarah: So what about the Kurds? They were the truly losers, they’re spread through Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon.

Dr. Kedar: The Kurds, as you know, is the biggest ethnic group globally, which does not have a state. They are divided between 4 states, Syria in the West, Iraq in the center, Iran in the East, and Turkey in the North. They divided and there are minorities in each and every of these said countries. Some 10 years ago, the Kurds in Syria declared independence and they declared that their state is called Rojava. Rojava in Kurdish means the Western country because they are in the West of the 4 parts of the Kurdish land. Of course, the one who didn’t like it was Erdoğan, the Turkish. So they invaded Syria in order to make sure that the Kurdish state, Rojava, in Syria does not occupy a corridor to the Mediterranean Sea. Because as long as they don’t have this corridor, they are trapped in the continent with Turkey in the north, Syria in the southwest, and Iraq in the southeast. If all 3 countries, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, decide together not to allow any airplane to cross above their skies on the way to Rojava, the Kurdish state or the Kurdish district, so they are choked. They cannot run a state without being able to export and import. Even drugs or medications you cannot bring in. So they are there, the Turkish, in order to make sure that the Kurds do not have a state.

I think that if Israel will support the Kurds in any kind of support, Israel opens a direct war with Turkey. And this is the last thing which Israel needs especially now when we have all kinds of problems in many [inaudible] However, I must mention here a very important element. The American administration, headed by President Trump, this administration, I think, made the change. Because today Israel has much more ability to act against its enemies. The Biden administration put almost handcuffs on our hands, answering all kinds of challenges in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, and maybe the Houthis as well. We were not free. The ammunition was given to us selectively and Israel had to find all kinds of solutions. Now, with the Trump administration, we feel much safer. We feel much more able to do things which we are not allowed to carry out in the Biden administration.

However, when we hear during the last couple of days, the advancement of the negotiations with Iran, we are afraid that this agreement will be on the expense. Not only our expense, also the Saudi expense and the Emirati expense, because as long as Iran is there with nuclear capability, any capability, it’s threatening all these countries. Not only this, we heard also, I think today or yesterday, that there is some kind of an agreement between the Houthis in Yemen and the Americans to stop the raids of the Americans on the Houthis, and the Houthis will stop targeting ships, American ships. What about Israel and the missiles which are launched to us every day, on daily basis, on drones? I’m not sure that the American administration has this also a part of the agreement or the understanding with the Houthis. So, we are afraid that America will come to some agreement with the Houthis, which will allow them to continue to target us. It actually reminds me something which Henry Kissinger, the guru of the American policies, international policies, once said that America’s enemies should fear America. America’s friends should fear America even more.

Sarah: It’s machiavellian. Alright, sure.

Dr. Kedar: I think that the exact wording was that for America’s enemies, America is dangerous while for its enemies it’s detrimental could be.

Sarah: Right. So I have a lot, a lot of questions. First of all, Israel is directly involved in the attacks from the Houthis. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu was very much taken by surprise by this announcement when President Trump was meeting with the new Prime Minister of Canada and all of a sudden he said, “The Houthis have decided to surrender, and we will not bomb the Houthis any longer.” This is a very binary relationship when it’s a multilateral relationship, the Houthis are really attacking not just American ships in the Red Sea. Of course, the American shipping lanes and international shipping lanes are going around the Horn of Africa now. It’s not such a familiar occurrence, but it very, very much involves the state of Israel. Israel has been America’s number one ally. Don’t you agree that the prime minister of Israel should at least be forewarned before announcements such as these are just pronounced from the Oval Office?

Dr. Kedar: Well, when I listened to Trump, I tend to think that sometimes when he’s standing on the podium and speaking in public events, only then he thinks about an idea and he talks about this. Usually his ideas are very good in all kinds of areas. But I’m not sure that he is doing his homework with his advisors beforehand. Of course, in many cases he does, of course, his decisions and plans are well tailored, well formulated, definitely in many, many things. But sometimes I tend to believe that things, he thinks about them usually very good, good quotes and he airs them in a press conference. Maybe before he exhausted all the discussions about these things. But look, one thing I’m more than sure, his heart is in the right place.

Sarah, unlike other politicians in the United States of America, which we knew them for ages. Trump, his heart is in the right places with us. Of course he has make America great again, not other countries. And I don’t blame him, he is the president of the United States of America, he’s not the president of Israel yet. So if he cares for the interests of America, this is his mission, this is his assignment. What does he do in the White House if not to make sure that America is great again and to serve the American interests as he views this interest? So I don’t, I never blame him for promoting the American interests. On the contrary, America, stronger America is better for Israel, better for the world. [crosstalk] Even if it comes on the expense of Israel.

Sarah: Yes, of course.

Dr. Kedar: Sarah, this is something which we all should bear in mind. A strong America, as it is under Trump, is the first interest of Israel, Western Europe, Australia, all the Western countries. Even if it comes on the expense of the tariffs.

Sarah: I agree with you, having had said that it’s a very global universe. Iran has over 300 kilograms of highly enriched uranium at the 60 % level. They’re working in intercontinental ballistic missiles. They always say, “Death to Israel, death to America. We are next.” I think as President Trump and Steve Woodcock and others are going to go to Amman this weekend to work out the negotiations, I think that they should be looking out for America’s interests as well as Israel’s interests. We are the canary in the coal mine.

Dr. Kedar: Well, Sarah, let me recommend to your viewers to download an application named Newsrael. This is you spell it.

Sarah: Ok, Newsrael.

Dr. Kedar: Newsrael, this application, which I’m the vice president of the company, which produces it. And there is a section named, the Kedar Daily. Almost every day I upload a video. And one of the videos, I think today 12 already. It started like last month. One of the clips is under the title, the Ten Commandments of Negotiations with Iran. Any Westerner should sit with the Iranians, what should he know about the Iranians, about the way of negotiations and how he should behave. I highly recommend to each and everyone of your viewers to download this application to his cell phone, both Android and iPhone, Newsrael.

Sarah: That is wonderful. So we are just about out of time. I will be announcing very shortly our next webinar. It has been an amazing pleasure to have you Morde. I still have many, many questions and in particular, I would like to have you back and we have to discuss the relationship of many entities in our government with Qatar.

Dr. Kedar: Well, people can write to me by email. The email is very easy, Kedar, K-E-D-A-R, @Newsrael.com. 

Sarah: Okay, wonderful. Yes, so I encourage everybody to write to Morde and to buy his many books. How many books have you published by now?

Dr. Kedar: I write articles. I wrote one book, then I noticed that nobody read books. Nobody has the patience to read books and it’s a lot of work, especially academic books. So I would rather publish articles, and I have many of them on the net and of course clips, which are much more influential than books. And I know Sarah that you wrote books. It’s okay.

Sarah: Yeah. I wrote books and I also write articles almost every week. And I really would love to encourage everybody. We need your support. As we’re talking, a part of our staff is on Capitol Hill right now, trying to educate our policymakers and they depend on us.

Dr. Kedar: Including myself, Sarah, you are bringing me to Capitol Hill like every year since I started my speaking tours like 15 years ago. And so many staffers learned and Congress members and senators also once in a while come to hear and good. So thank you so much for what you do and thank you so much for what you are.

Sarah: Thank you so much, Morde, It’s always a pleasure. And if you can please support us, we depend on all of you for your support at ametonline.org. Thank you so very much. Take care, Morde, Bye-bye.

[END]