The Plight of the Alawites

Peloni:  It is important to recognize that Israel stands alone as a spot of civilization among barbarian forces.  Syria has been, and remains to be, a failed state, ruled by representatives of these barbarians, and yet as the world continues to restrain, debase and literally indict Israel as it defends itself against these barbarian forces, the Alawites demonstrate the regional clarity that Israel alone might act as their saviors.  Unfortunately for the Alawites, the Syrian coast is a bridge too far for Israel to stretch its dominance, and while recognizing this fact as likely so, the Alawites call upon their historic adversary to the South to save them from destruction all the same.

By Hugh Fitzgerald | Mar 13, 2025

Now, after two days of mass murders of Alawite civilians — between 1,500 and 4,000 have been killed, according to Alawite sources — Ahmed al-Sharaa has declared that his army will find and punish those responsible. The Alawites don’t believe these assurances, and they are in a state of panic. And some are hoping that the country they have been taught for their entire lives to hate — Israel — will come to their aid. That is unlikely to happen, but the fact that Alawites dare to hope for such a result is telling: they know the Israelis are not the monsters they were depicted as being in Syrian schoolbooks and in the Syrian media. It is their fellow Muslims who have been slaughtering them, not the soldiers of the Jewish state.

More on the Alawites hoping for Israel’s protection, can be found here: “Alawite Syrians to ‘Post’: We need Israel’s help from jihadist atrocities – exclusive,” by Ohad Merlin, Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2025:

Women kidnapped, children massacred and thousands from the Alawite minority escaping to the mountains for asylum from other atrocities reportedly carried out by Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces – The Jerusalem Post reached out to two Alawite civilians from Syria and Israel to learn more about the events taking place in Syria’s coastal region.

“The situation is disastrous,” E., an Alawite civilian contractor from the area of Jableh in the coastal region of Syria, told the Post. “They are killing children and women. There is an ethnic cleansing going on here, they leave nothing behind, they kill everyone, and it’s all documented on video,” he added, referring to horrendous videos circulating online showing humiliation, degradation and mass killings happening in Syria.

“I don’t understand what their idea is. It’s Islamist Jihad, they probably think they need to get rid of the ‘infidels,’” E. added, terror in his voice. “For them, children are infidels, women are infidels, everyone is an infidel. Women are being taken to Idlib. I don’t know what to tell you, we are in a dire situation, people are literally hiding in the woods.”

To the uber-Sunni jihadists now in power in Damascus, the Alawites are a Shi’ite sect whose members are not real Muslims, but “Rafidite dogs,” Infidels. And what do fanatical Muslims do to Infidels, “the most vile of created beings”? They kill them — men, women, and children — and take some girls and women back to the stronghold of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Idlib, where they can serve as sex slaves.

When asked to convey what had happened since the collapse of the Assad regime, E. said, “Since the collapse of the regime, the former regime’s army simply disappeared. Thousands were released from prison, and everyone who had any relation to the army deserted.”

“After that, people began to get stressed. The new government failed to take control. They suddenly started kidnapping young people randomly. Some defied them because of this. We saw some protests and clashes and there was shooting at the protesters. From there everything became worse,” he added.

E. described the situation across the coastal region as a set of ghost cities and towns, some blocked by the new regime’s loyalists. “Banias was purged, and so were entire areas such as Al-Qusur and Al-Muruj. There is no one left there. They took people from there, tied them to cars and dragged them on the streets. They’re all using racist rhetoric. Many of us fled to the mountains,” he said….

Banias is the city where one of the Sunni killers proudly announced, on a video he posted, that up to now it had been “half Alawite and half Sunni,” but now it is “all Sunni.” Every Alawite had either been killed or had managed to flee. There are corpses everywhere. Some were shot or stabbed, or blown up in their houses, while others were tied to cars and dragged along the streets until they died.

According to B., the Alawites were always persecuted and discriminated against, especially on the background of their different religious affinity, “but the main theme of our religion has always been harmony, love and peace.”…

I don’t think everyone in Syria who endured the Alawite-dominated regime of the Assads, father and son, would agree that the Alawite religion’s main theme “has always been harmony, love, and peace.” But if it pleases this grateful Israeli Alawite to believe that, and to act in accordance with on that belief, who could object?