Israel’s Hidden Allies in the Middle East

For decades, the so-called “Arab street” has raged against Israel, yet beneath the surface, a very different story has played out—a story of minorities who saw Israel not as an enemy, but as a lifeline.

Kurds, Maronites, Druze, Circassians, Assyrians, even pockets of Bedouins and Iranian dissidents—all found common cause with the Jewish state, because they shared one brutal reality: persecution at the hands of Arab nationalists and Islamist thugs.

Betrayed by Baghdad, sometimes bombed by Tehran, and abandoned by the West, the Kurds found in Israel a reliable and willing partner. Mossad trained Peshmerga elements in the 1960s and ’70s, and Israel openly backed their independence referendum in 2017. Both people, non-Arab and relentlessly targeted, knew the price of survival.

The Maronite Christians of Lebanon wrote their alliance with Israel in blood. During the Lebanese Civil War, Maronite militias partnered with the IDF against the PLO and Hezbollah, forming the South Lebanon Army. When Israel withdrew in 2000, Hezbollah hunted them down. Many fled south into Israel, the only place they could still find protection.

While the Arab world brands Israel as illegitimate, Druze soldiers proudly wear the IDF uniform, fighting to defend the country they call home. Across the border in Lebanon and Syria, Druze communities there also quietly cooperated with Israeli intelligence, understanding that survival often meant defying Arab regimes.

The Circassians, a Muslim minority expelled from the Caucasus by Russia and shunned in Arab lands, chose loyalty to Israel. They too serve in the IDF, living proof that not every Muslim buys into the genocidal hatred spewed from Tehran and Ramallah.

Even the shattered Assyrian and Chaldean Christians of Iraq looked to Israel as a model of resilience. Slaughtered by ISIS and ignored by the West, some whispered admiration for the Jewish State—the only place in the region where Christianity has not been extinguished but preserved and protected.

While jihadis smuggle rockets through tunnels, many Negev and Sinai-based Bedouin tribes work with Israeli intelligence, tracking terrorists and saving Israeli lives. Some fight in elite IDF units, putting Arab “unity” to shame.

Curiously, Israel has even reached into the heart of its greatest enemy—Iran. From Baluch rebels in the southeast to Azeri nationalists in the north, minorities under Persian rule have found an unlikely ally in Jerusalem. Every crack inside the Iranian empire weakens the ayatollahs and strengthens Israel’s hand.

This is the truth the world’s media will not print: Israel is not isolated in the Middle East—it is a beacon for every minority crushed by the Arab-Islamist majority.

From the mountains of Kurdistan to the hills of Lebanon, from the deserts of Sinai to the slums of Tehran, persecuted peoples have turned to the Jewish State because they know what the elites in Brussels and Washington refuse to admit: Israel is the only free, stable, and reliable ally in a blood-drenched region.

Thus, the next time some smug diplomat lectures Jerusalem about “regional peace,” let’s remember that these minorities already chose Israel.