The Druze are Still Here
The Druze are still here
Recent events in Syria have had me thinking about the Druze. I have long had a soft spot for them.
Part of it is undoubtedly personal. As an Israeli-American Jew, I grew up knowing that Druze soldiers served in the IDF. It would be disingenuous of me to pretend that this has no effect on my feelings toward the community.
But there is something else. For roughly a thousand years, the Druze have managed to remain the Druze in one of the roughest neighborhoods on earth. That alone commands a certain respect.
I find myself drawn to peoples who survive.
The modern world tends to celebrate ideals, visions, and causes. History is less sentimental. It asks a simpler question: Are you still here?
The Druze are still here.
Empires came and went. Governments came and went. Borders moved. Armies marched through. Entire political projects that once seemed destined to shape the future are now footnotes.
The Druze are still here.
I suspect there is something to be learned from communities that have survived for centuries as minorities. They generally have less room for fantasy than the rest of us. Mistakes cost more. Wishful thinking costs more. Survival requires a particularly unsentimental acquaintance with reality.
There is also Walid Jumblatt.
I have liked saying the name “Walid Jumblatt” since high school. I cannot defend this intellectually. I just like it.
Walid Jumblatt.
There. Wasn’t that satisfying?
Perhaps that childish affection predisposed me toward the Druze from the start. If so, I accept the charge.
In any event, a politician who took command of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party in 1977, after his father was assassinated, and who remains influential nearly half a century later has clearly learned something about the world. Remaining alive, relevant, and politically effective in Lebanon for that length of time is not a trivial accomplishment.
Walid Jumblatt began handing power to his son Taymour in 2017, in a symbolic ceremony on the fortieth anniversary of his own father’s assassination. He finished the job formally in 2023, resigning the party presidency and stepping aside for his son’s election. Even his succession appears to have succeeded.
The Druze are still here.
