Alawite fury shakes Syria while Arab leaders deflect blame, proving Israel remains the region’s only anchor.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa admitted Thursday that nationwide protests carried “legitimate demands,” according to AFP, after thousands of demonstrators poured into the Alawite-dominated coastal cities demanding protection from escalating sectarian violence. These were the largest Alawite protests since Bashar al-Assad was toppled last year, ending decades of Alawite-controlled rule under the Baathist tyranny.
Since Assad’s fall, anti-Alawite violence has exploded — more than 1,700 Alawites were slaughtered in coastal Syria in March alone. This wave of brutality once again exposes a grim truth: Arab regimes routinely implode into sectarian chaos, while their leaders habitually scapegoat Israel to distract from their own failures.
The latest demonstrations were ignited by unrest in Homs following the murder of a Sunni Bedouin couple blamed on Alawite perpetrators, with sectarian slurs spray-painted at the scene. Sharaa, speaking by phone to the Latakia governor, cautiously conceded that protesters’ claims were “legitimate,” though he warned that some demands were “politically motivated.”
Sharaa—whose Islamist rebels dethroned Assad—claimed his government was ready to listen, yet minorities across Syria remain deeply uneasy. Violence targeting Alawites, druz clashes, and inter-tribal hostility reveal the same destructive pattern seen across the Arab world: chronic instability, infighting, and leadership incapable of protecting its own citizens.
From 1963 until Assad’s fall, Syria was ruled by Alawites. Even now, Sharaa insists on the illusion of “national unity,” rejecting Kurdish autonomy and attempting to tighten control over Druze-majority Sweida—a move that triggered violent clashes and even Israeli airstrikes against militant factions exploiting the chaos.
Sharaa further declared that Syria’s coastline was “a priority” and warned it could never be governed independently. His desperate call underscores another reality the Arab world refuses to admit: territorial fragmentation, sectarian hatred, and collapsing governance continue to fracture Syria, while Israel remains the region’s only functioning, coherent, democratic state.Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa admitted Thursday that nationwide protests carried “legitimate demands,” according to AFP, after thousands of demonstrators poured into the Alawite-dominated coastal cities demanding protection from escalating sectarian violence. These were the largest Alawite protests since Bashar al-Assad was toppled last year, ending decades of Alawite-controlled rule under the Baathist tyranny.
Since Assad’s fall, anti-Alawite violence has exploded — more than 1,700 Alawites were slaughtered in coastal Syria in March alone. This wave of brutality once again exposes a grim truth: Arab regimes routinely implode into sectarian chaos, while their leaders habitually scapegoat Israel to distract from their own failures.
The latest demonstrations were ignited by unrest in Homs following the murder of a Sunni Bedouin couple blamed on Alawite perpetrators, with sectarian slurs spray-painted at the scene. Sharaa, speaking by phone to the Latakia governor, cautiously conceded that protesters’ claims were “legitimate,” though he warned that some demands were “politically motivated.”
Sharaa—whose Islamist rebels dethroned Assad—claimed his government was ready to listen, yet minorities across Syria remain deeply uneasy. Violence targeting Alawites, druz clashes, and inter-tribal hostility reveal the same destructive pattern seen across the Arab world: chronic instability, infighting, and leadership incapable of protecting its own citizens.
From 1963 until Assad’s fall, Syria was ruled by Alawites. Even now, Sharaa insists on the illusion of “national unity,” rejecting Kurdish autonomy and attempting to tighten control over Druze-majority Sweida—a move that triggered violent clashes and even Israeli airstrikes against militant factions exploiting the chaos.
Sharaa further declared that Syria’s coastline was “a priority” and warned it could never be governed independently. His desperate call underscores another reality the Arab world refuses to admit: territorial fragmentation, sectarian hatred, and collapsing governance continue to fracture Syria, while Israel remains the region’s only functioning, coherent, democratic state.
