Longtime Israel Today correspondent Edy Cohen was the central facilitator of this surprising initiative
Edy Cohen is a Lebanese-born Jew living in Israel. In spite of being a Zionist Jew, he is a very well known social media news commentator in the Arab-speaking world with 950 thousand followers on his Arabic language account on X (twitter). Many living in Muslim lands look to Edy as an objective source of news since they are skeptical of their official Arabic news outlets. This week Edy hosted a gathering of minority group leaders representing horribly-victimized populations in our neighborhood – the greater Syrian/Iraqi region. Dozens of representatives came together, many of them exiles living in Europe and North America, having fled Iraq and Syria. They are Kurds, Assyrian-Arameans, Druze, Yazidis and Alawites. All these groups are facing genocidal actions, and some of their leaders are begging to unite under Israel.
We will present a fuller report and analysis, but we bring you here a few preliminary items…
To see Arabic representatives unite in Tel Aviv under an Israeli banner, praising and admiring the Jewish state, many of them at least nominally Muslim – – is a sight I (David) had never seen. I heard them sharply contrasting the Israeli (Judeo Christian) value of life, with jihadi values of cruelty and death.
Reminiscent of Bible prophecy
At the entry to the gathering hall, of all things, some ultra orthodox Jews gave participants copies of the Torah IN ARABIC, with commentary in Arabic. This sharing of the Hebrew scripture revelation and the whole initiative felt like an event prophesied by the Hebrew prophets of old. Indeed, the atrocities of Muslim dictators and Jihadi militias are eerily reminiscent of the “cruel lord” of Isaiah 19:4. Radical Islam and Jihadism are driving minority groups of “Ishmael’s” descendants into the puzzled-but-welcoming embrace of “Isaac’s” descendants. “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land.” (Isaiah 19:24 KJV)
Desperate courage in Syria’s Druze minority
“Beloved Israel has proved that it is the only country in the Middle East and in the world, that protects the unity and wellbeing of people groups!” That was the claim of Sheikh Marwan Kiwan – a white bearded Druze leader in Syria. He presented his speech remotely by video at the conference with an Israeli flag featured behind him on screen. Such identification with the Zionist state was an act unimaginable during the tyranny of the Assads, and even now is an act of desperate courage since Jihadists are in control of Syria!
Why would the Sheikh heap such compliments on Israel?!
The Syrian Sheikh was referring specifically to the fact that Israel has provided multiple means of assistance and military defense including airstrikes, to Syrian Druze. They have come under attack from the Sunni forces of Syria’s new Jihadi leader al-Jolani and other local militias from April 2025 and onward. The massacres have occurred mainly in the Suwayda region of Southern Syria, east of Israel’s Golan Heights – including abductions, sexual violence and murder.
We will post a full report…
