NEWSRAEL: After the six-day war when Israel took control and has since annexed the Golan Heights, this split the Syrian Druze into two. The Druze on the Israeli side, instead of connecting with the Druze inside Israel who are very loyal to Israel, they chose to keep their loyalty to Syria. The thinking of this was that Israel would one day return the Golan to Syria and they wanted to make sure they would be safe when that happened.

Not only has this not happened, much the opposite, but now, the Druze on the Syrian side are beginning to turn against Assad's regime. It will be interesting to watch this development, and to see if this might influence a change in the Syrian Druze on the Israeli side of the border.

=========

Sources in the Syrian media claim that in recent weeks the Assad regime has sent new military reinforcements to the southern Syrian province of al-Sawaida, most of whose residents are Druze.

The reinforcements came after a number of security incidents and tensions between regime forces and local armed factions. It seems that the Druze are increasingly angered at the Assad regime, and instead of Assad trying to assuage these feelings, he is sending some of his best troops to make sure the Druze anger will not turn violent.

The Suwayda 24 website reported that regime forces and security services are taking gradual steps aimed at expanding their presence in the city and on the road connecting Damascus.

He stressed that regime officials affiliated with the 15th Special Forces were barricaded in a building under construction east of al-Basel Square at the entrance to the city of a-Suida.

This was accompanied by an increase in the state of readiness among the security services that operate during the day in the city center, as well as patrols by the "National Defense" militia in some of the main squares.

It is worth noting that regime forces seek to force their security control of the city by force and act against any security incident, as happened in earlier incidents this month, during which regime forces clashed with local armed groups.