Notes

Syria’s minority test. Sectarian violence between Syria’s Druze minority and Bedouin tribes that began July 11 with the robbery and assault of a Druze merchant has killed hundreds and displaced more than 128,000 people in Sweida province. What started as reciprocal kidnappings quickly escalated when thousands of armed Bedouin fighters from across Syria converged on the Druze-majority province, prompting Israeli airstrikes, which, according to authorities in Jerusalem, were to protect the Druze community.

Syrian government forces initially deployed to quell the violence, but locals then accused them of siding with the Bedouins and committing abuses against Druze civilians—some of which abuses were filmed and went viral online. After Israel struck Syrian positions, President Ahmed al-Sharaa ordered multiple ceasefires and began evacuating Bedouin families, declaring that fighters had been cleared from Sweida city.

The immediate trigger was a highway robbery, but the underlying question is whether Syria’s new Islamist-led government can protect religious minorities and prevent the country’s sectarian fractures from tearing apart its fragile post-Assad transition. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the violence a “direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria.”

So how big a threat?