Collecting evidence to support this claim has not been an easy task. Two main challenges are the ongoing upheaval of war on the one hand and widespread propaganda on the other.

In a matter of days, the US’ role and position in the war in Syria has been thrown into disarray, a relatively stable area of the country has turned into a battlefield, IS, which was all but eliminated, may be rallying, and Moscow and Damascus seem to be in a stronger position than they have for years. In the eight-year war in Syria, a new chapter has just begun.

The Alawites are often accused of being esoteric, in other words they manifest their religion and teachings differently from what their essential beliefs say. In his book The Alawites, writer defined the Alawites as those who manifest their essence in different forms and make tawil (hermeneutic interpretations) of every Koranic revelation.

Although Netflix noted that the series, which was directed by Gideon Raff and stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, is not a factual retelling of events but a dramatization based on a French book entitled The Spy Who Came From Israel, the series includes several factual errors that some Arab viewers have found insulting.