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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-one-Israels-great-opportunity-406531
An Autonomous Druze Region in Syria?
(Jerusalem Post) Caroline B. Glick - In 1921, when the French established their mandatory rule in present-day Syria and Lebanon, they divided the territory into six "independent" or autonomously ruled "states." The Druze received a state of their own centered in Jebl Druze - the Druze Mountain, which existed until 1936, when the French reorganized the mandate and set up a central government in Damascus. During the Six-Day War, Israeli minister Yigal Allon put together a plan to establish a Druze state, again centered on Druze Mountain - whose population today numbers nearly three-quarters of a million. Allon explained, "I had visited Sweida [the capital of Druze Mountain] several times and I dreamed a dream of a Druze Republic that would stretch across southern Syria...that would be in military alliance with Israel." Over the decades, the Druze of Syria were just as loyal to the Assad regime as the Druze of Israel have been loyal to the Jewish state. Now that the regime is on the verge of military collapse, all the forces that have been fighting the regime view the Druze as their enemies. As a result, the Syrian Druze have been quietly reconsidering their views of Israel. Israel's Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister, Ayoub Kara, a Druze, says that if the Druze are able to secure autonomy, their area would stretch along 150 km. of Israel's border with Syria.