Israeli Druze have been petitioning the government to help their coreligionists in Syria, who are caught between Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. Yoram Hazony and Ofir Haivry argue that both the U.S. and Israel should indeed help the Druze, on strategic as well as moral grounds:
As the majority population along large stretches of the Syrian frontier with both Jordan and Israel, the Druze, like the Kurds in the north, have something significant to offer in exchange for Western assistance in attaining self-government and the capacity to defend their people. Neither Israel nor Jordan has tolerable options at the moment with respect to the future disposition of their northern border. Whether it is Iran and Hizballah or a Salafist Sunni regime dominated by al-Qaeda or IS that ultimately consolidates control over this frontier, it is clear that these pro-Western governments will eventually face a formidable and determined terrorist enemy to their north.
At the moment, the only realistic alternative to these outcomes would appear to be the creation of an autonomous and perhaps ultimately independent Druze region: one that will have the resources to defend itself, to absorb persecuted Druze from [areas of northern Syria currently occupied by Nusra Front], and, in collaboration with other elements in the region, to serve as a forward defensive line for Jordan and Israel, and for the West more generally. The Druze appear to have both the potential and the motivation to field a force several times larger than the few thousand fighters that the West has been dreaming about for southern Syria, so far without success. But Western leaders have for the most part maintained a thunderous silence. As yet another minority people in Syria and Iraq faces destruction, the ball is again in our court.
Read more on Tablet: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/191891/druze-israel-syria