Druze Officer Takes Over As Head Of Israel's Border Guards For First Time

JERUSALEM, Aug 2 (AFP) - A Druze officer, Major Hussein Fares, took over Monday as head of Israel's border guards for the first time since the force was set up in the early 1950s, officials said.
Fares, 52, is from a village in the northern Israeli region of Galilee.
The border guards, who number 8,000 conscripts and 8,000 volunteers operating under the police, have a large Druze component and play a prominent role in Israel's fight against the Palestinian intifida.
In June 2001, another Druze officer, Yussef Mishleb, rose to the army's general staff for the first time since the Jewish state was created in 1948.
Israel's Druze community, numbering some 80,000, most of whom live in the north of the country, have to do military service while other Arab Israelis are exempted.