The Trump administration has expressed frustration with Israeli actions in recent days.

The meeting raised hopes across the region that Israel and Syria may be edging closer to a security agreement.

US Senator Ashley Moody (R-Florida) was in Mayport on Friday afternoon, meeting with sailors on the USS The Sullivans, which just returned home from deployment in the Middle East earlier this month.

The Druze live in pockets across the Middle East, and Israeli members of the community want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to help their kin in Syria.

Israel's stock market does better than other Middle East countries, even with wars taking place on multiple fronts.

The United States has brokered a ceasefire in Syria after Israel intervened in support of Druze communities who came under attack

President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was heading to the Middle East as the U.S. tries once again to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, a breakthrough that has eluded the administration for months as conditions worsen in Gaza.

Spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, the secretive religious minority has long balanced integration and independence. Now, members are at the heart of the region’s shifting power struggles.

Turkey, which maintained a significant military presence in Syria throughout the civil war, remains entangled in a country that sits at the intersection of conflicts involving major Middle Eastern powers — Israel, Iran, and Turkey and also has a presence of ISIS.

Since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, relations between Israelis and Palestinians have deteriorated massively. There are many proposals for a path to a peaceful future, but for political and societal reasons,