On Friday, Hezbollah fired 19 rockets at Israel. There were no injuries in Israel from the rocket attack but the attack could have been even worse. Videos surfaced on Twitter showing a truck carrying a 122mm Grad multiple rocket launcher (MRL) system capable of firing 32 rockets. According to the tweet accompanying the video, Hezbollah forces had entered the Druze town of Hasbaya located at the base of the Hermon mountain on the border with Israel.
Videos on social media showed the truck being stopped by Druze residents of the village of Hasbaya in southern Lebanon after the shooting.
More context coming out regards to this launcher, Druze were stopping #Hezbollah from firing additional rockets into #Israel from Hasbaya, southern #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/3lalWaavl0
— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) August 6, 2021
Video recording from Facebook Live of the Druze villagers stopping the #Hezbollah rocket attack from their village. pic.twitter.com/R8hWeLyu9F
— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) August 6, 2021
An Israeli Druze explained the situation to Israel365 on the condition of anonymity.
“As a rule, the Druze do not seek to rule, but at the same time, we are loyal to the ruling power in the state,” he explained. “Druze in Israel serve in the IDF and the police force, serve in the Knesset, but we accept that Israel is the Jewish state. Druze in Lebanon are loyal to the Lebanese government and Hezbollah is part of that government. As long as the government supports Hezbollah, the Druzim accept Hezbollah. But what happened in Hasbaya was not opposition to Hezbollah, per see. The Druze have been caught in the middle of conflict so many times and we understand how this happens. If Hezbollah fired rockets from Hasbayah, the IDF would have no choice but to neutralize the source of the rockets. Even though it was Hezbollah firing the rockets, it would be the Druze of Hasbayah who would suffer.”
The Druze are an ethnoreligious group native to the Middle East, today comprising a population of nearly one million throughout Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Israel’s Druze population is well-known for its loyalty to the Jewish state; unlike Israeli or Christian Arabs, they are drafted into the IDF. Though the Druze faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, Druze are not considered Muslim.
The Druze connection to the Jewish people dates back to Moses and Mount Sinai with Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, from whom the Druze have a strong tradition that they are descended.
Indeed, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a French medieval commentator on the Bible known by the acronym Rashi, taught that the Druze have an inheritance in the Land of Israel, based on a verse in Numbers describing the farewell between Moses and his father-in-law.
And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what good soever Hashem shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.’ Numbers 10:32
Rashi explained that the ‘good’ was a portion of the most fertile land near Jericho.
This Biblical bond between the Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Jethro, also known as the tribe of Kenite, is described in Jewish sources as the basis for a future end-of-days alliance. Yeranen Yaakov, a prominent geula (redemption) blogger, explained that the Sons of Jethro figure into the Messianic process through the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers.
And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end shall come to destruction. And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said: Though firm be thy dwelling-place, and though thy nest be set in the rock. Numbers 24:20-21
Jethro was described as a Kenite in Judges, a tribe that lived near the Amalekites.
And the children of the Kenite, Moshe’s father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Yehuda… Judges 1:16
In a powerful precedent to the modern Druze-Jewish brotherhood, the Kenites in the Book of Judges joined with Yehuda in order to combat the Canaanite inhabitants of Israel.
