Residents from the Syrian-Druze city of Sweida described friends and neighbors being shot at close range in their homes or on the streets. One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room.

What we are witnessing may be the first chapter of a Pax Israeliana - a regional order not imposed by conquest, but secured by principled strength.

Syria's government sent troops this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell fighting between Bedouins and Druze, but the violence escalated until a ceasefire was declared. "If there were hopes over the last three hours that the ceasefire was going to hold,