When scholars set out to write the history of the conflict over the Levant and, indeed, the entire Arab region, an incident such as that which occurred last week in Majdal Shams is unlikely to earn mention beyond, perhaps, a small footnote. Majdal Shams is a village in the occupied Golan Heights. Its name suddenly hit world headlines when a crowd of its inhabitants attacked on Israeli ambulance transporting two wounded Syrians from the battlefield on the other side of the border to an Israeli hospital. One of the Syrians died and the other received additional wounds. Majdal Shams is one of the few remaining Arab villages on the Syrian Golan Heights, which has been under Israeli occupation since the end of the June 1967 war. The village's population of about 15,000 accounts for around half of all the Arabs who remained in the Golan after occupation and rejected Israeli citizenship, insisting on retaining their Syrian nationality. Majdal Shams's most salient trait is that its residents are predominantly Druze. One of the region's many Arab and Muslim sects, the Druze are distinguished by certain doctrinal features. But, in general, they share two chief properties with the Alawis, Ismailis and similar communities. First, they are minorities, in the literal sense of remaining relatively few in number. Second, they have sustained their distinct presence in spite of centuries living in the midst of either overwhelmingly Sunni or (in the case of Iran) Twelver-Shia majorities. In short, these communities succeeded in the battle of survival in an environment that swung between tolerance and persecution. The abovementioned incident is interesting as it sheds light on many aspects of the Syrian disaster that, as we can immediately see, consists of a vast number of other disasters. The first is that we have an Arab village whose Arab residents attacked a vehicle bearing Arab wounded who had been injured in inter-Arab battles (indeed, in this case, in a Syrian-Syrian battle). This was a very critical situation. Syrian hospitals are, most likely, overflowing and unable to cope with more wounded, or they have been “nationalised” on behalf of some of the warring groups, leaving others no choice but to turn to Israel for medical treatment. Second, ambulances do not generally enter and exit combat zones carrying wounded without some kind of understanding with some party. Israel would not expose its soldiers and medical teams to danger without expecting something in return. Quite possibly, Israel might seek to earn some international propaganda free of charge for displaying a compassionate heart that takes Arab wounded from the battlefield and tends to their injuries in Israeli hospitals. But if propagandistic compassion is one side, penetrating deep into Syria and meddling with the conflicting parties is another. Fortunately, many historical facts are coming to light regarding the Israeli role in the first Yemeni civil war. It was not a marginal role. It was instrumental in wreaking attrition on the Egyptian army and priming it for the defeat in June 1967. Those interested in further details should turn to Yossi Alpher's recently published Periphery: Israel's Search for Middle East Allies. Now, when you compare the distance between Israel and Yemen, and that between Israel and Syria, you can begin to appreciate the intensity of Israeli preoccupation with Syrian affairs. This is not about some conspiracy. It is about a country's awareness of its strategic environment and its ability to maximise its gains and promote its interests at a given historic juncture. The third catastrophe is that the incident exposes for the umpteenth time the fallacy of the contemporary Arab nation-state, which has never succeeded in establishing the principles of citizenship and equality before the law as the basis for its existence. After decades of national “independence”, various forms of sectarian states began to reveal themselves. These were either shaped by the tyranny of a minority that turned the majority of people into second-class citizens or by a majority that was very adept at making life hell for ethnic and religious minorities. The people at Majdal Shams who attacked the Israeli ambulance believed that the wounded it was carrying belonged to Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate that regards the Druze as a heretic sect and is bent on their extermination. Their conviction was reinforced by rumours that Al-Nusra Front had staged a massacre of their co-religionists in Hadr, a Druze village in Syria not far from the border with the occupied Golan. Naturally, nerves among the Druze community are extremely fraught, especially as there is no lack in the extremist proclamations and propaganda in which Al-Nusra Front is vying with its adversary, the Islamic State (IS) group. Thus the loop completes itself. The story of Majdal Shams is not just one of the tales of a brutal and horrific war. It is the story of the path out of the current Arab crisis that leads directly to the essential nature of the type of state that is capable of instilling confidence and reassurance in the hearts of both the majority and the minority. Take a look at the Syrian-Iraqi military theatre and you will find camps for Sunnis, for Shias, for Alawis, for Druze, for Kurds, and inside and between them you will find horizontal and vertical patterns of factions and alliances. These exist at the centre of the arena, in Al-Raqqa, Al-Ramadi and Mosul, and at the periphery, in Majdal Shams, for example. By the way, the picture will not vary greatly when it reaches Yemen or Libya. Therefore, the appropriate remedy for at least one aspect of the ailment would probably be the same in all cases. I have previously suggested that the major Arab states or a special Arab summit should issue a declaration affirming a number of principles. The first is the territorial integrity of all the states of the region within their existing borders. The purpose is to obviate secessionist or partition drives. The principle would acquire additional force if the Arab declaration were backed by an affirmation of support from the UN Security Council. The incident in Majdal Shams underscores the necessity of an equally important second principle, namely respect for the rights of full citizenship and the equality of minorities. In that village, fears and anxieties bred from the threat to the Druze minority became so intense that some were driven to commit a crime that no faith or religious creed sanctions a lethal assault against wounded persons. Guarantees for the rights of minorities are essential to create the basis of citizenship in a state, an idea that is antithetical to the thinking of terrorists such as IS, Al-Nusra Front, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis and the Muslim Brotherhood.
