"I served in the IDF, " said Aehab Asad, 33, a local Druze from Daliyat.
Traditionally, Druze men are proud of their military service, but there are signs that this attitude is changing.
Some Druze parents see hockey as a way to expose their kids to opportunities in Israel.
WSJ: Hockey Heats Up in Tiny Village With Israel's Only Big Rink
"Now whenever I score a goal, of course I feel pride, " says the 12-year-old Druze villager.
WSJ: Hockey Heats Up in Tiny Village With Israel's Only Big Rink
Druze are Arabic-speakers, too, part of a tribe divided between Israel, Lebanon and Syria.
WSJ: Hockey Heats Up in Tiny Village With Israel's Only Big Rink
Syria never populated the Golan in the past, except with troops and Druze militia.
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Since then, the Druze in Golan have been cut off from the Druze in Syria.
Druze parliament member Wael Abu-Faour(ph) says Lebanon is again becoming the battleground in a regional war.
Mr. WAEL ABU-FAOUR (Druze Parliament Member, Lebanon): Everyone is using Lebanon as a battlefield.
The neighborhood is also home to Iraqi refugees, as well as Druze and Christian groups.
Across the northern Galilee region there are dozens of Arab and Druze villages, each offering their own homemade variety.
One notable exception, though, is Naim Araidi, a Druze professor who was appointed Israel's ambassador to Norway last year.
Indeed, history has shown that the Druze are a faithful and welcoming people.
The outspoken Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, has lost half his fief to his chief rival, Talal Arslan.
It's about a Druze family in the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory the Israelis have occupied since 1967.
Carpet-bagging politicians rolled up in Mercedes cars with tinted windows, alongside turbaned Shia clerics and baggy-trousered Druze elders.
Today his house is used as a military memorial dedicated to Druze residents who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Others come from Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the occupied Golan Heights.
WSJ: Hockey Heats Up in Tiny Village With Israel's Only Big Rink
By contrast, the IDF does not draft Arab Muslim citizens, the exceptions being loyal Druze, Circassian and Bedouin trackers.
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"The Druze community is a great community, " said Araidi upon his appointment.
When the family arranges to marry its daughter to a Druze from Damascus, the wedding must be held at the border.
Christian leaders suspect that Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, is working the Lebanese crowd and world opinion for his own political ends.
And an ethnically Arab Druze holds a seat in Mr. Netanyahu's cabinet.
Syria is a diverse country, with large Christian, Druze and Kurdish minorities.
The Druze are also known for their distinctively large-but-flat pita breads.
On a terrace in front of the house were arranged Palestinian dignitaries, foreign diplomats, Druze elders and representatives of various different Christian denominations.
Jaramana, a town in the Damascus suburbs with a Christian and Druze population that has mostly been pro-regime, was the site of violence Monday night.
The USS New Jersey undertook a relentless counterattack against Syrian and Druze forces, shooting its 16-inch guns for the first time since the Vietnam War.
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"Anyone can play soccer, " says Anan Radah, a Druze community leader.
WSJ: Hockey Heats Up in Tiny Village With Israel's Only Big Rink
When the cabinet voted to submit the bill to parliament, Lebanon's senior Maronite, Muslim (both Sunni and Shia) and Druze clerics all attacked the ungodly move.
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