Will Israel protect Druze in the Golan from Syrian rebels?

From their hilltop cherry orchards, members of Israel’s minority Druze population come to watch and worry about their cousins in Syria, whose towns just a few miles away are now surrounded by jihadist rebels.

The Israeli Druze fear they are about to see a slaughter of their people unfold in Syria and are appealing to Israel and the international coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to intervene. Israeli officials made an appeal to the United States to protect the Druze, an ancient people whose esoteric faith combines elements of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, as well teachings from the Hindus and Buddha.

Israeli officials say they are monitoring the situation closely, but so far the tense skirmishes on the Syrian side involving the Druze have been limited.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/will-israel-protect-druze-in-the-golan-from-syrian-rebels/ar-AAbTz3l