Day 650 - As Syria restores calm, will it spur talks with Israel?

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Magid reviews the chaotic conflict that unfolded in Syria over the last days between the Syrian Druze minority, the Bedouin in Syria, and at times, Syrian-linked militia troops. US pressure on Israel pushed forward a quick resolution on the situation, bringing forward a ceasefire and Magid points out that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa ultimately wants the various ethnic groups in Syria, including the Druze and Bedouin, to fall in line, particularly as Syria and Israel have been moving forward toward more cooperation.

As ultra-Orthodox party Shas left its ministerial positions in the government in protest over the proposed Haredi enlistment law, Magid discusses whether the Shas move could lead to early elections after the upcoming summer session break.

A Gaza deal seems possible, says Magid, as Israel rolled back some of its demands regarding aspects of its withdrawal from Gaza, and mediators are currently more optimistic regarding a possible deal.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Syrian gov’t forces begin withdrawing from Sweida as Israel vows to protect Druze

Rubio: ‘We think we’re on our way toward a real deescalation’ between Israel, Syria

Shas bolts government over Haredi enlistment, remains part of PM’s coalition

Official says Gaza deal ‘more likely than not,’ as Israel said to retract pullback demands

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IMAGE: Druze residents protest near the Israel-Syria border fence in solidarity with their community in Syria, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It's Thursday, July 17th, and I'm Jessica
0:07.8	Steinberg. I'm speaking today with U.S. Bureau Chief Jacob Magh. Hi, Jacob. How you doing?
0:13.2	Hey, Jessica. Good to be with you again. Good to be with you each week. It is day 650 of the war.
0:20.2	Syria said late Wednesday that it began withdrawing its army from the Druze majority city of Sousoueda.
0:27.2	After agreeing to a new ceasefire, we'll obviously go through the latest on that front.
0:33.9	Back home in Israel, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said that its ministers would resign from the government due to the dispute over ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
0:43.3	And we'll talk about that as well. On the Gaza front, a hostage deal seems more likely than not. And we'll hear what Jacob has to say about that. So stay with us.
1:02.9	Okay, Jacob, let's start with Syria. So a new ceasefire...
1:09.6	Nothing has given me such delight as the proposal to establish a hubby university in jerusalem
1:14.5	more than a century has passed since albert einstein wrote this in his diary a century of cutting-edge
1:21.1	research and innovation at israel's leading academic institution that einstein alongside many other
1:27.3	luminaries helped helped establish.
1:29.8	Join me, Gilad Halpern, for The View from Mount Scopus, a podcast series exploring the past,
1:35.4	present, and future of the Hebrew University.
1:38.1	The View from Mount Scopus, available wherever you get your podcasts.
1:44.5	There on the table, that's after more than 300 people are reported to have been killed,
1:50.5	according to a war monitor. Israel got involved in this with IDF troops defending the Druze in
1:57.0	Syria, and there were Drews citizens of Israel who crossed over the border into Syria
2:03.5	to join the fight and then were brought back home to Israel. And then we also heard statements
2:09.3	from U.S. Secretary of State, Marker Rubio, about a real, quote, de-escalation. How did this
2:15.5	situation actually get started, this conflict? Sure. So I think
2:20.8	we can go about back to around Friday when these clashes started erupting between two ethnic
	...

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