Webinar with The American International Druze Public Affairs Council Transcript

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

The video can be found here.

Elad Israeli: Hi everyone, and welcome to yet another EMET webinar. For those in our audience that observed Passover last week, we hope you had a restful and meaningful holiday. We know we did. With the counting of the Omer now underway, we are happy to be back in full swing. For those of you that are less familiar with myself, my name is Elad Israeli. I serve as EMET’s Director of Legislative Affairs. On the day-to-day, I manage EMET’s relationships on Capitol Hill and the advocacy work that we do there. I was actually there just yesterday, and I will be there again tomorrow. But today, I want to do something a little different. I want to take the time to discuss a very important issue and welcome several of my friends and colleagues who are here with me today. They are representatives of a new organization that was recently formed with the goal of advocating for American and non-American Druze communities as well. This organization is the American International Druze Public Affairs Council, or AIDPAC, and we have their representatives here with us today, so we would like to welcome them on this webinar. We have them here to introduce their organization and the work that they do. At a time when the Middle East is going through monumental shifts, we’ve seen the region’s Druze communities not just subjected to violence, much of it, by the way, inspired by Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, but also emerge as a new strategic partner that promotes peace and coexistence in a part of the world that is in desperate need of it.

Showcasing the opportunities that come from engagement with the Druze in the Middle East, and how these opportunities serve not just the region’s interests, but also core American strategic national security interests, is important now more than ever, and that’s what makes AIDPAC’s formation at this time so meaningful. But of course, our guest speakers today will speak more broadly on all of this. With us today, we have three distinguished guests. First, we have former Minister of Communications and Minister of Regional Cooperation in the Israeli government, Ayoob Kara. Ayoob also served as a member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, for nearly 20 years. Thank you, Minister Kara, for honoring us with your presence today. [crosstalk]We also have AIDPAC Director of U.S. Relationships, Maxine Dauvert, a decorated journalist with extensive experience in promoting ties between Druze and Jewish communities. And last, but certainly not least, is Rania Deen, an Israeli-American of Druze descent who is the founder of Covenant, a group advocating for Israel and Israeli Druze communities. She’s joining us today from her home in Los Angeles, so we wish her a good morning. I’ll let my guests introduce themselves in a more personal way. Minister Kara, would you like to start?

Ayoob Kara: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure for me to participate in this Zoom call, of course, with such an important organization that you lead, my brother. We are in the beginning of our movement to make a system that we call AIDPAC that could represent all the Druze nation public in all the world. This is the first time that we do it. Why in this time? Because the Druze nation, the big one in Syria, become participate from the defense of Israel, from the future of Israel. They support Israel now. And that means most of the Druze public is free to support Israel. So something we have to do, there are a lot of Druze everywhere in South America, in America, in Europe, in the Middle East, of course. And now all of us need a system that could represent them, first of all in USA and in Israel, and of course, all the minorities around the world. And what is the benefit for Israel? The benefit of Israel is that it has the one- only one public that supports Israel, defends Israel, and cares about the future of Israel. The big long time from before the independence of Israel, the Druze in Holy Land was part from the future of the Israeli state. But now most of the Druze care about the future and the extremism around Israel and the terror around Israel, of course. And we need to make our public- going to any action that could help Israel defend their borders. And the other thing, to be participate from the military of Israel.

The Druze nation in Israel, they are fighting, they are patriot for Israel, they are Zionist Druze, and they are participate from the future and from the defense of Israel. Long time, there are different young people that in the high officer in the army of Israel and all the defense system of Israel. And then now we’re trying to do more than that, that’s to make in Syria a big team that cooperate with Israel, defend the north border of Israel. And this area, we call it Suwayda. Suwayda is the big city of the Druze public in Syria. After they crossing in 14 July ’25, after they crossing the genocide there, they take decision, most of them more than 99%, that we want to beat down the regime of Israel, or we want to cooperate with Israel and to fight the extremism in South Syria. It’s not easy to become in this situation, that Druze crossing, because long year, the Islamization killing Druze everywhere. But we have to remember that the extremism hate[?] all the other minorities. I mean, not only Druze, they are hating[?] the Alawim[?], the Kurdish, the different nations, the Christian, of course. They don’t need anyone who is not extremism, including Muslim. They are not like to cooperate with them. They need that all the area become extremism, fundamentalism, and anything that could give them, to give the religious the power to be everything and control everything in the Middle East. So, now we have a chance to make it, to change. First of all, Israel is in a big fight, big war in the Middle East. Israel needs friends, and it has friends. Before this war, we did not have anyone that could say Israel.

Today, you could find in other, over the borders, flag of Israel in Suwayda and other places. It’s something in use. The other things we could say that the extremism become enemy of most of the Arab area in the Middle East. So, what this mean- what it means, what we could do together as an organization that we could, we have to support, who is, who want to support Israel? Clearly, I mean, Abderradar[?]. So, if we’re talking about who is now number one, want to fight beside Israel and to help Israel, is the Druze. Maybe in the future, we could found another cooperation. I do lot around this issue. I’m everywhere. I’m not in Israel now. Most of my time in the Middle East, discreet in Abu Dhabi, they could find me in also state that’s a very danger to be there. But we’re looking about connections to help Israel to cross the world[?] and to win the war. This is very important. So, the Kurdish now, they need supporting from Israel. The Alawim need supporting. I’m with good connection with them. And I, most of these teams, I put him with the defense systems of Israel and also the Christian trying to make withdrawal to areas in that they could live more quietly because they’re killing and destroy every church or any religious place in the Middle East. I mean, when I talk about the extremism Islamization. So, to go to benefit the security and the future of Israel, we need help. First of all, who is clearly, as I said, want to be participate from the future of Israel. So, the important thing to do now is to benefit and to support Suwayda and the Druze area that’s very close to our borders.

It’s more close than any other nation. The Kurdish is far away a little bit and the Alawim, the Christian, they didn’t have dominant area. They are very quiet. They are afraid to talk anything. And this is the situation that we are in it now. And my past, you know, my past was I’m the first person in the government of Israel that I believe that we could cross the Palestinian and make relationship with different states of Arab. And I’m starting all the relationship with the Abraham Accord Agreement. And I give this idea to Trump administration in 2016 when he was elected. I come in to- and met him. I mean, all the team around him sitting with me and I give him the idea that everything’s already possible to go to make a new process that after that we call it Abraham Accord Agreement. And I think Al-Bashan, that’s going to be the state of the Druze nation, is going to be participate from also these agreements. And then the issue is that if we, I’m sure that God with us, with Israel, that we’re going to win this war. And I talk much around the Abraham Accord Agreement. I have office in Dubai now for Abraham Accord Agreement. And we’re trying to bring people from everywhere that want to support Israel, to cooperate with Israel. This makes the enemy of Israel very angry because they know that we know Arabic. My mother language is Arabic. My Hebrew is better than any Jewish. This is benefit.

We could be the bridge to make a very good relationship between the teams or the nations or the states that need to cooperate with Israel. And that’s what I’m doing today to continue the Abraham Accord Agreement after we win this war. And maybe when we win, we will found ourselves in new Middle East. But more than any place, any state, Bashan, that the state of the Druze public, going to be the first state that’s going to agreement with Israel and to be participate from Abraham Accord Agreement. So I don’t want to take a lot of time because we are very shortly in this meeting. So this is a little bit about the situation that we in it. Any questions, I am here. I’m continue to be in the meeting.

Elad: Thank you, Minister Kara. Your comments are certainly very interesting. I will have a few questions for you in just a moment. But before that, I want to let our other guests introduce themselves as well. Maxine, would you like to start?

Maxine: I would like to indeed. And good morning, good afternoon to those who are in the Eastern time zone. Thank you, Minister Kara. Your discussions are exactly on point and reflect so much of the integration of the Druze community in Israel, and certainly the need for Suwayda to be helped to be saved by those outside of Suwayda, whether in America or whether in Israel. A lot of work is going on to help the people, but so much more is needed. I had the honor of being involved with the Druze community for more than two decades. Initially, a simplest thing about writing about a high school, and that led to many personal associations and to the involvement on a brother and sister basis that is the basis of the Druze and Jewish communities in Israel. Our mission in AIDPAC is to both educate and illuminate and allow the general public to understand who are the Druze. This is a community with historical connections to the Jewish people. What closer connection could there be than Zipporah, the wife of Moshe[?] Her father was the advisor that…

Elad: Oh, Maxine, I think you muted yourself on accident.

Ayoob: I continue. I know the parasha better than anyone. So, and what happened till he coming back? When he coming back, let him start, continue, okay? But in the Bible, the big and the famous parasha is parasha Yitro. That means that when Moses is trying to kill him, Pharaoh, he far away from Egypt, and no one wants to host them. No one. They are afraid. All the nations, all the publics, and the one public that agreed to hosting them was the Druze nation, the leader of the Druze nation. His name is Yitro. That’s the name of the parasha about them. And of course, Yitro give him few years, not only hosting, give him a woman that he married with the daughter of Yitro. Moses married Zipporah. Zipporah was from the Druze nation. And all the Jewish now, they are family and the same public of the Druze nation. But you know, long time, the Druze was down the regimes of the Islamization and the other religions. So they are afraid to say loudly that they are participate from the history of the Jewish public. But now more and more people talking. I remember when I was elected to the Parliament of Israel, I was so young. So I talk about this parasha and they don’t like it, including in our nation, because they are afraid from the Arab. They are afraid from the Islam to say the truth. You know, they are not accepted. Now is everyone talk about that. And no problem, because this is the truth. And then after that, Yitro was the big consulting also of the prophet Moses. They become prophet after Mahmoud Har Sinai. I mean, when he brought the Lhota B’rit in Sinai, Yitro was consulting Moses on how to bring freedom to the Jewish public from Egypt, and he gave him all the consulting, I’m sorry, and he gave him all the consulting, and he exactly did what Moses did, the same thing that he was consulting on how to organize the public to go out from Egypt. This is a very important parasha. This is the history between the Druze nation, Druze public, and the Jewish public. There are a lot of people that they say we are from Shevet Levi. Shevet Levi, that’s what[?]I’m here, but because Shevet Levi, no one knows where they are, but this is a little bit very fast about the parashat Yitro that Maxine wants to talk about.

Elad: Thank you. Thank you so much, Minister Kara, for talking about the deep roots, the deep historical roots that connect the Jews and the Druze, really going back some 3,000 years or so.

Ayoob: 3,700 years, exactly.

Elad: Yes, that’s even longer than 3,000 years, nearly 4,000[crosstalk] at this point, and our next guest today is Rania Dean. She’s the founder of Covenant. Rania, could you share a little more about your work and Covenant’s work?

Rania: Yes, yes. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My name is Rania Dean. I’m Israeli, American, Druze. I came here 13 years ago. Before I came here, I used to volunteer through Stand With Us and advocacy. I used to come to the campuses here and tour the campuses fighting apartheid claims and all of the lies that they spread about Israel. When I came here 13 years ago, I stopped for a while because I was raising my two kids, and then October 7th happened. And when October 7th happened, a friend of mine, which was Jewish, by the way, she calls me just a week after the massacre. She tells me, “Rania, you know, I have a group of Jewish people here, and they are blaming Israel for everything because they are listening to the media, and now they say that Israel, you know, that the massacre didn’t happen and everything. Can you please, please come and tell them, because you are not Jewish, I don’t want you to be offended.” I said, “No, I’m not offended. I’m coming. I’m Israeli, and I’m going to come and explain to them.” And that was when I reignited my advocacy efforts. I later on established Covenant, which focuses on advocacy. And when I go anywhere, whether a church or a synagogue or just campus and to kids and tell them about a group of people who are not Jewish, despite the fact that we have roots connecting us to the Jewish people, but they are not Jewish, they are Druze, and they have full rights, and they enjoy everything that any Jewish person enjoys in Israel.

That makes all the meaning, and that makes them open their eyes, especially because I’m not Jewish. So I started doing this, and you can’t imagine how much brainwashed the people here in the USA. I am a mom of two kids. I see all the false information that they are teaching our kids within the school system. It’s very politicized. I’m also a member of AIDPAC. I’m a member of ICANN, which does lobbying, and we’ve battled this just like EMET. And I want to tell you something that I love about the word EMET. EMET has the first letter of the alphabet and the last letter of the alphabet, which means if you want to know the truth, you have to know all the details from A to Z. And that’s what I’m trying to do here. I’m trying to tell everyone that I go and advocate in front of them the truth from A to Z and give them the right to judge. Now, I want to just tell you something. On July 25, the massacre of the Druze people in Suwayda had happened, and I personally was still recovering from October 7 massacre. It was a trauma for all of us Israelis, and I saw the connection, and I said even before that, that if we don’t stop it now, it’s going to become this virus and disease that is actually spreading for more than three decades and brainwashing everyone in the Middle East and in Europe and here in the USA. And the massacre of the Druze had happened, and that was not the first massacre, by the way, for the Druze. The Druze history is full of documented and undocumented massacres. Since they were exposed in Egypt, because they weren’t established in Egypt, the Druze belief goes way before Islam and Arabs, but they were exposed in Egypt, and we call that time in history where it’s in the 11th century, the Exposure Era.

And therefore, they were massacred, and that was the first documented massacre against the Druze, and we call this massacre the Ordeal Era, Mihna in Arabic, and they were known as the Druze, but this belief goes thousands of years before that time, as Mr. Ayoob said, and I want to also tell you one thing. I called my organization Covenant because I think that the connection between the Druze and the Jewish people is unbreakable. Now, why this is important? Because when you see what is going on in the Middle East and in the world, this wave of extremism, radicalism, jihadism that is trying to Islamize every country, whether in the Middle East, in Israel, or here in the USA, you see that coalitions between minorities is very important. Now is the era of the minorities claiming back what they had lost due to oppression and deleting and erasing their history. And I see this happening everywhere in the Middle East, minorities are reclaiming their identity back, their original identity, and the Druze are no difference. And now I see that when you want to make these coalitions, the instinct when you are in a survivor mode goes mainly and directly to people who you trust. And I don’t think that there are other people that the Jewish people trust more than the Druze people, and it goes also the opposite way. We don’t trust anyone more than the Israeli people and Jewish people. And I see that in Suwayda now, every other weekend, they go on the streets, there is the Israeli flag, despite the fact that this is a deadly matter for them. And they say, “Thank you, Israel, thank you, Israeli government for supporting us, for protecting us from the fanatic regime in Syria.”

And I want to also say one more thing, that the Syrian regime is just forming, it just started to form. And we see massacre after massacre against their own minorities there. And we see every other weekend, another video of their army, their official army calling [foreign language] they are threatening Israel, threatening to annihilate Israel. And this is just a country that is starting to form, it’s not even stable yet. So can we imagine what’s going to happen in the future if we let it really become more powerful? And back to the question, if we’re going to win the war, because Mr. Ayoob said that, I think we’re going to win this war. And it’s not the issue. The issue is, and the question is, when the next threat is going to form to be unavoidable? And when is the next phase? Because unfortunately, I see this as an endless battle. And we need all to be united. And I see the covenant between the Druze and the Jewish people is must have.

Elad: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Rania. The deep connection between the Jewish and Druze people is indeed not just doesn’t just stem from a shared history and deep historical roots going back 3,700 years, as Minister Kara suggested, but also stems from a shared present and shared circumstances.

Rania: And values.

Elad: And values, of course, and cultural ties. And so that all of that needs to be taken into consideration. I do have a couple of questions for each of you following your presentations, your introductions. Minister Kara, I’d like to start with you. You spoke on two matters. One was your extensive work prior to the Abraham Accords to promote normalization between Israel and her Arab neighbors. And the other thing was the recent developments in Syria, and of course, their very harsh effects on the Druze community and the country. My question to you, when we look at the fall of the Assad regime, the rise of the Shara’a regime, and it frankly has surprised me just how quick many countries in the West were to accept and welcome, even welcome this new Shara’a regime. Do you think the rise of this regime brings Israel closer or further away from normalization and integration in the Middle East and peace with its neighbors?

Ayoob: Look, dear, every regime, that’s the basic of their religious, never accept Israel in his heart and most of the time outside also. They’re absolutely clear. So you couldn’t change people that they’re thinking that the world, the solution of the world is Islamization. You couldn’t change it. This is, he[?] born like that. He[?] continue on killing people for that. And he killing everyone who different from them. And suddenly, as a West side, you come in and say, he want to make peace with me. I don’t accept it. They don’t work with Arafat in Oslo agreement. After one day in the mosque, he say, “This is Quraysh agreement.” What is Quraysh agreement? The agreement was between the Jewish and the Arab before 1400 years ago. The Islamization, it did not successful to killing the Jewish and the other Christian, other nations. And he make agreement and he did not want to make it happen. And what happened after the agreement, he killed all the Jewish and the Christian in this area. This is, we call it the Quraysh agreement. So everyone that’s his past and his, they thinking that the Islamization is the solution of the world. He never accept another thing. That’s what they, when this is Sharia become to be the leaders of Syria. I was in this situation more than anyone because years before as a minister of the Middle East and after that, the minister of the state and the minister of the communication, cyber, satellite, AI, all the sensitive things.

I was part of what’s going in Syria long time. So I’m trying to change the situation because we understand from the beginning that Iran is the problem and we need to destroy them because they want to destroy us. So this was very important for Israel to change the Middle East. If you want to change the Middle East, they have a proxies everywhere, six, seven proxies around us, and they want to kill Israel. They want to destroy Israel. But if Iranian fall down in Syria and Lebanon, of course, maybe could be big mistake. We could advise[?] it. We trying to found solution that if, if Iran and Hezbollah exactly fall down, maybe we found ourselves with Sharia in Syria. That means more danger than maybe Assad and, and of course, Hezbollah. And this takes time to take decision, not easy, a long time till Netanyahu says, “I don’t care.” First of all, this is give us solution to finish with what we call the Islam empire that is Iranian. And that’s what happened. But we know that we going to be in big problem with the Sharia. So the Sharia and what, what they doing? The Druze was against Iran, against Hezbollah, against all of them. So, but they are not care. They’re with them together fighting the same enemy. And when they successful, so they come in and kill, beginning to kill the Alawim, the Kurdish, the Druze, the other. So, but we, we trying to change everything around them. And we think that if U.S. is not in this process, maybe we could successful more because the advisors of Trump given the solution that maybe is the right way to make good relationship between Israel and the Sharia.

And Israel that’s fighting in different, states, accepted because they want the, want also to compromise with Trump, that he need us here. We need them there. But Israel not accept this terror[?] of this Sharia. And until now, they thinking that, I’m also think the same, that if they have the power, Israel have the problem because this is the same Sharia in Gaza, like Hamas. It’s not different. It’s the same thing. So, I think U.S. in this case, make mistakes. Trump do mistake here, but he trying options. Maybe after we win the war, they change something with all this process, but we have to change the American to understand that they- trying in Afghanistan to change, they are not working. They trying in Iraq, they are not working. They trying in the Arab Spring, they are not working. Terror is terror. Sharia is Sharia. You have to find more liberal Muslims, Muslim light, maybe could be the right process. But if you think make democracy, the Arab state, that’s what thinking[?] Mrs. Clinton with the Arabian Spring, this is big mistake, never working, and we have to take it care.

Elad: Right. Thank you so much, Minister Kara. And you raise a great point, just as when we advocated Ahmed about antisemitism, we always say that for centuries, it’s been the canary in the coal mine, especially in European history. When you look at it, when antisemitism is on the rise, that is a sign that other much wider cycles of violence are, are soon to follow. And we certainly see an equivalent dynamic in the Middle East when violence against the Druze communities take place, when atrocities against Druze populations are committed, just as we have seen in Suwayda last summer. That is, that is going to be a sign of widening cycles and widening circles of violence, and ultimately a turn by those perpetrating those atrocities to, to jihadism and violence against the West as well. We’ve seen it happen time and time again. I would not like to see it happen once again. And so this is obviously an urgent issue that has to be treated very diligently and very carefully.[crosstalk]

Rania: If I may comment just on that question, I think that what the USA is doing, and they did it all over the history, also Europe, they are trying two things. First, they are trying what they call the intermediate model. They’re trying to just bring a local leader from the environment that, that can fit that place. And they say, “Okay, the enemy that you want is better than the enemy that you don’t want and let them try. And if that doesn’t work, then we take other steps.” Now, the problem here that the minorities, nor the minorities, nor Israel have the privilege of trying and failing here. It’s a surviving existential threat for us. And that’s why we shouldn’t and we can’t afford that to happen. And the other thing, I think, in my opinion, that the West, whether the West or the USA are trying all the time to balance the threat, because the threat is whether from the Sunni aspect, from the Sunni branch of Islam, or from the Shi’ism branch of Islam, and they are trying all the time to try to balance these two, unfortunately, extreme branches. And when the Shi’ism is rising, okay, we’re going to strengthen one of the Sunni branches. This is, in my opinion, very wrong. Yet, with all that said, I don’t think now this is the case. I think the diplomacy now is more complicated than what we learned about in the universities and how we can analyze this. I think it’s like a chess game. So there are so many soldiers that we supposedly need to kill in order to win the game. I am hopeful that what we are doing now is going to lead us to success, but we need to wait and see, I think.

Maxine: And to continue with Rania’s point, our job at AIDPAC is to promote education, to widen the circle of those who understand and who know, whether it’s the general public or the Jewish public, the Christian public, and eventually Congress and those who can make a difference in both providing resources and in simply getting the understanding that Islamization is not the pathway to go if a democratic Middle East is going to be the goal. I think the activities in Israel, as we have all been noting with the integration of the two communities, the leadership that comes into many Israeli areas, whether it’s in medicine or in the army or whatever the area of culture, that the Jewish community and the Jewish community are simply Israelis. They are the Israeli community, and they are working as brother and sister as simply Israelis. And this is a level of knowledge that people don’t have. I know that I have often said, “I’m working with the Druze community,” and people will say to me, “Oh, the Druze?” And then I have to explain that not the Druze, the Druze people have very little knowledge of who the Druze are, of the history, of the fact that Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, as Minister Kara mentioned, is the patriarch of the Druze community, and that the whole organization that is listed in the Parashat that follows Jethro, of how Moses put together his captains and his organization, came from the tutoring and the teaching of his father-in-law.

And today we have an opportunity to take the work of AIDPAC, of spokespeople, spokeswomen like Rania, and certainly spokesmen like Minister Kara, and presenting a wider range of people with knowledge that will encourage them to understand both the Druze in Israel and to assist the Druze in Suwayda. The Druze in Suwayda need to have their safety, first of all, and their resources replenished. And the part of our obligation in AIDPAC is to create the forum that will allow people like Minister Kara to go into the community, the wider community, whether the Jewish community, the Christian community, even the liberal Muslim community, as you noted, to make sure that the humanity of the people in Suwayda is respected, recognized, and assisted.

Elad: Yes, absolutely. And you both raised, all three of you raised great points here. It’s a chronic problem with the West, right? It’s called the slumber of democracies. These countries, they usually fall into complacency. They prefer peace in their time, immediate peace and immediate quiet, over securing a peaceful and prosperous future and making the sacrifices that need to be made in order to ensure that this happens. That is why the work of organizations like ours matter so much. We work so hard to wake the West up from its slumber, ensuring that it is informed, that the decision makers and leaders are informed, and that the dangers are not ignored until it is too late and until the attacks reach the home front. With that, I would like to open the conversation up to questions from our audience. I did see one that addresses a subject that interests me very deeply, and that is the Druze communities in the Golan Heights. We have seen some very interesting shifts in the dynamic between the Golan Heights Druze and the State of Israel for many years. Many of them refused to accept Israeli citizenship and declared their loyalty to their previous homeland of Syria. We are now seeing major shifts in this dynamic. I think it is pretty clear what is driving them, and that is, one, the sheer levels of violence we have seen by the new government in Syria towards Druze communities, and also the fact that Israel will be holding on permanently to its sovereignty in the Golan Heights, where these communities reside. My question is, is the change in this dynamic, is this shift permanent? Is it irreversible, or could there be anything that would actually drive things back to the way they were?

Maxine: I don’t think that the communities in Majdal Shams will ever go back to being what was. These are communities led by, for example, William Abad, who is the regional director, the mayor, of the region. He was raised in Israel. He is in his 40s. Israel has had the direction of that area for more than 44 years. The people there, the young men, are joining the army. They are loyal to Israel. They have recognized the benefits of being part of Israel. The place is rich in history and rich in possibility. That is what I think is happening in Majdal Shams. The horror show that occurred two years ago in the soccer field accomplished exactly the opposite of what I think the perpetrators wished, because it made the people realize how important it is to be part of Israel, to be integrated in every aspect of Israel, because only Israel came to their defense. Only Israel stood with the people, with the parents. I embraced some of the mothers there. We cried together. You don’t do anything except cry when you’ve buried a child. Despite the Druze concept of reincarnation, these were people who were burying their actual children in that moment. I think Majdal Shams will be a strong and continuing part of Israel.

Elad: Well, from your mouth to God’s ears, Rania or Minister Kara, do you have any comment on this question?

Rania: Yes. I think that[crosstalk] Go ahead.

Ayoob: Go Rania, it’s okay.

Rania: I just want to say the question is not whether the people of Majdal Shams or the Golan Heights are going to go back or back up. The question is, will Israel really hold on on that decision to never give the Golan Heights back? I think yes, and this is the core thing. If Israel will commit to take control over the Golan Heights forever, the Druze there, just to make sure and why they didn’t declare it before, they have families, have sons, have daughters, have brothers and sisters, siblings within Syria, and with knowing what is going on in Syria, it’s a scary scenario to declare alliance to Israel. But now, if the Suwayda people, despite everything, despite that they are under siege for over a year, they declare alliance with Israel, so the Majdal Shams is no different. Even their situation is way easier, and we see that with the drafting to army and with every aspect of their daily life now.

Elad: Yes, these developments are very welcome, and I think Israeli policy has made clear that it is Israel’s intention to maintain its sovereignty over the Golan Heights. They will never be given up, certainly not in a negotiated manner to any other country, certainly not to the Shara’a regime in Syria. We have seen the atrocities that this regime has committed, and we will not allow them to come even closer to Israeli communities and to the Galilee, and to have the literal higher ground and have such a strategic advantage over our country. So that is absolutely not something that Israel will allow to happen. I’m very glad about that. I did see another question. This one was directed at Rania. You spoke a lot about your experiences and your advocacy following October 7. Has October 7 changed the level of American, Jewish American, perhaps even non-Jewish American, awareness of who the Druze are and what the Druze cause is about?

Rania: Well, unfortunately, when I started advocating, the atrocities were so heavy to start advocating who the Druze are, and I started only advocating for Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself. But when I was mentioning I’m Druze, most of the people didn’t know that something called Druze existed. And that was sad for me, because when I see a Jewish person, he’s my brother automatically. It doesn’t matter whether he’s Israeli or American or whatever. And when I noticed that they don’t know, never heard of the Druze, despite everything that we have in Israel, I started taking this mission of advocating of who the Druze really are. Because if you go to Google or Wikipedia, you’re going to read so many misleading information about the Druze that don’t really represent us. And I took this as my mission. I want to tell you that the Jewish people, whether towards Israel or towards the Druze, every time we go and advocate and talk, it opens them more to Israel and Israel’s right to exist. I try my best to always go to liberal audience, those who don’t necessarily align with Israel’s political stance.

And I try to tell them what I think as a non-Jewish citizen, what is Israel all about? I think this makes all the difference when you hear it from non-Jewish person. And I hope that after the atrocities of October 7, I hope that every Jewish person will know that without Israel, there is no second plan, let’s say. Because unfortunately, we are seeing where the world is heading, whether in Europe, let’s look at what Spain is facing now. We are seeing how the USA system has been infiltrated. So we need Israel as strong as possible, because this is our shelter from everything that is going to happen, unfortunately, God forbid, in the world[?]. I hope that the Jewish people understand that. And this is my mission in life. This is AIDPAC’s mission in life to look at the alliances that can strengthen Israel to advocate for Israel’s right and other minorities’ right to exist in the region. Yes.

Maxine: And our associations with groups like EMET are essential. They are essential, whether it’s EMET or the American Zionist movement or the Conference of Presidents, all of whom are actually aware of the Druze community and have visited in the north, in the area of Druze communities. But these are contacts and these are relationships that have to be nurtured, that have to lead to greater knowledge, to Rania’s work in approaching so-called liberal Jewish audiences that may not have, number one, an understanding of what is the Israeli reality. We’re not talking about governments. Governments change. We have to talk about Israel and Israel as a home state, not only of the Jewish people, but certainly of the Druze communities, and make sure that those who haven’t knowledge are given the kind of knowledge that will allow them to understand who we are.

Elad: Thank you. Thank you both for that. We have time for just one more audience question. And this last one is actually directed at EMET. And they’re asking if we bring up the Druze and the issues surrounding the Druze community in our own advocacy on Capitol Hill. And the answer is absolutely. We speak quite some- quite a bit on the role that the Druze communities have played in the history and the present of the state of Israel. Both me and my main colleague, my main partner on Capitol Hill, our legislative fellow, Will Oken, have both served in the IDF. And we speak firsthand from our experience serving with our fellow Druze soldiers, shoulder to shoulder and soldier to soldier. But I’ll add this. Following the events of last summer in Suwayda, our advocacy on this took a whole new turn. We have not just sounded the alarm bells over the atrocities that have been committed and are still being committed and are still ongoing. We have also shown how they fit the wider context of concern that we have regarding the Shara’a regime’s treatment of ethnic minorities in Syria. This is a government that we’ve been skeptical of, to say the least, since day one. And we want to make sure that decision makers in the United States are very much informed about what’s going on in the country and how detrimental these developments have been, not just to regional security, but ultimately will become detrimental to America’s national security.

So that’s a very important issue that we’ve raised. And it’s not trivial, because as I mentioned earlier, we are talking about a government that has been widely accepted and generally even welcomed, not just among America’s other Arab partners and allies in the Middle East, but also by the Trump administration himself and also by European and other partners of the United States. So raising such points is not to be taken for granted. It is not trivial at all. With that, I think it is time for us to conclude. And so I’d like to thank my friends at AIDPAC for taking the time to join EMET in today’s webinar. As we’ve said many times today and in the past, the bond between the Druze and the Jewish people is far stronger than a partnership or even a friendship. It is a brotherhood. Our connection stretches back all the way to the Nabi Shu’ayb, or Jethro, who gave Moses his daughter’s hand in marriage, just as the Jewish people sat together last week to celebrate the story of Moses and his leadership of our people in our exodus of Egypt. The Druze will be sitting down at the end of next week for the feast of the Nabi Shu’ayb. So I’d like to also take this opportunity to wish my Druze friends here and our Druze viewers at home a ziyarah makbulah. I’d also like to remind our viewers that our work cannot be done without the support we receive from people like you every day. We welcome you to visit our organization’s websites for more information about our causes, sign up for our newsletters and other updates, and please consider making an investment in our public work so that we can continue advocating for the values we all hold dear in both governmental and public circles.

EMET’s web address is emetonline.org and AIDPAC’s is aidpac.org. Likewise, please go to www.covenantnonprofit.com for more information and ways to get involved in Rania Dean’s work. On another matter, if you are in the DC area, please also join EMET next week on Capitol Hill for a forum we’re organizing on a different, also very important issue, the persecution of Christian communities in Nigeria. We’ll be meeting in exactly one week from now, Wednesday, April 22nd, at room 201 in the Capitol Visitor Center. We’re going to be hearing from some very prominent speakers on this matter. Subscribers to EMET’s newsletter will be receiving an update on this event very soon, and you’re welcome to email us at info at emetonline.org if you have any further questions. We hope to see you there. Thank you once again to my colleagues Ayoob, Maxine, and Rania, and thank you to all of our viewers for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you again at the next EMET webinar.

Rania: Thank you.

Ayoob: Thank you very much.

Ayoob: Thank you, EMET[?]
[END]