NO HOME IN AN ENTHO-STATE:

Her sentiment is in stark contrast to the Druze community's stance just five years ago, when they were among those leading the movement against the controversial 2018 Israeli nation-state law, which defined Jewish settlements as a "national value," and the right to national self-determination as being "unique to the Jewish people." But since then, a sense of disenfranchisement has been festering among even the most pro-Israeli members of the Druze community, many of whom serve in the country's armed forces.

"If you say that this state belongs only to Jews, it means that Woody Allen has more rights here in Israel than me," Amal Asad, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) brigadier general -- and the first Druze soldier to be promoted to such a position -- told New Lines in an online interview. His commitment to the Jewish state carried him through nearly three decades of service in the military, including the Yom Kippur and first Lebanon wars and, he explained, inspired him to engage politically and lead the 2018 movement.

But since then, he too has succumbed to a deep sense of sadness, feeling left out of Israeli politics and excluded from the very essence of Israeli national identity.

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