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Waiting for the Middle Eastern Storm to Settle

A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

JNS.org – Just days into 2025, Israel is still fighting a war on seven fronts, including Iran, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, various Iranian proxies in Iraq, volatility in Judea and Samaria, and an extremely unstable and unpredictable Syria.

Israelis living in central Israel have been awoken by Houthi missiles several times this week. This is not simply Israel’s problem, but the world’s. The war from Yemen began in March 2020, when radical Houthis began attacking the shipping lanes in the Red Sea. U.S. and other vessels have to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, affecting the entire global economy and putting at particular risk the economy of Egypt.

The Houthis, who practice a strict form of Shi’ism called Zaydi Islam, seized control of the capital of Sanaa in 2014, demanding their own government and lower fuel prices. Their governmental infrastructure is confined to an extremely conservative Shura Council. More than 80% of the Yemeni population lives below the poverty line; their sophisticated weaponry is provided by Iran.

With Sanaa 2,096 kilometers away from Tel Aviv (1,290 miles), the Israelis might not yet have precise intelligence of where the Houthis have been launching their missiles from, but they are very rapidly gaining it. A ray of hope is that U.S.-backed CENTCOM has begun attacking Houthi bases within the last several nights.

Turning to Gaza, since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that the current warring situation continues to exacerbate. Without time to recover from that “Black Sabbath,” 15 months later, more than 800 soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force have lost their lives with thousands wounded. Many reservists’ lives have been put on hold for months at a time while they are called away from their jobs and their families to defend their country.

Israel has made significant gains on the battlefield within Gaza, killing Hamas senior leaders, and most recently, eliminating Hassam Shahwan, head of the terror group’s internal security. Ideologies, however, do not suddenly disappear. The tenacity of the relentless propaganda war against the State of Israel is a regnant aspect within the minds of many members of Hamas, and no one knows for sure what they might have in store for Israelis.

The IDF has uncovered more than 240 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who had been cynically using the Kamal Adwan Hospital as a command-and-control center, which was replete with weapons found in babies’ incubators, tactical communications equipment and classified Hamas documents.

Predictably, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the U.N. World Health Organization condemned Israel, saying “hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds, and the health system is under severe threat.”

A similar problem awaits Israel in Southern Lebanon, where the halfway point of the 60-day ceasefire has passed. The IDF has collected a massive arsenal of 85,170 weapons from Hezbollah captured from about 300 Southern Lebanese villages.

However, rudderless ships can behave erratically. Hezbollah has just issued an aggressive statement saying that if Israel is not out of Southern Lebanon by the end of the ceasefire, the terrorist group will respond with renewed acts of violence.

Lebanon, a failed state without a real, centralized government is under the tight grip of Hezbollah, and a failing economy with approximately 89,500 Lebanese pounds equal to $1.

It remains to be seen how Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein’s plan is any different from U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UNIFIL supposed to once again fill the void. Both have demonstrably colluded with Hezbollah, going so far as giving Hezbollah LAF uniforms. Hezbollah is supposed to again move north of the Litani River. However, they are already returning to homes that have been used to build tunnels to supply weapons and fighters against Israel.

The late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, eliminated by U.S. forces in 2020, vowed to make “a ring of fire around Israel.” This has now proven to be a failed policy. The Shi’ite crescent running from Tehran through Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and to the Mediterranean Sea has a gaping hole at its core in Syria.

Israel shares a long border with Jordan, which has proven to be a vehicle for smuggling weapons into Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank). Despite a slim minority of Palestinian support for the Palestinian Authority, according to the Palestinian Center for Survey and Research, of all the candidates to follow 89-year-old leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian choice points to Marwin Barghouti, a convicted terrorist serving multiple life sentences for murder during the first and second intifadas (“uprisings”) against Israel.

Resurrecting the failed P.A. to take control of Gaza indicates nothing less than a supreme failure of imagination among the U.S. State Department and other foreign government officials.

Finally, there is some optimism that Syria no longer provides a direct route from Iran to Hezbollah, yet skepticism remains over the intentions of Abu Mohammed al-Julani, Syrian revolutionary militant and political leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Al-Julani, who had been a member of Jabhat al Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, has reinvented himself into Ahmed al-Sharaa and disavowed his ties to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He has promised to unify Syria, yet has also vowed revenge against the Alawites, who have ruled the Sunni majority with a brutal fist. He maintains particular animus against the Kurdish minority, who had always been loyal to the United States and who fought valiantly against ISIS. He has recently said about the Kurds that “the separatist will either bid farewell to their weapons, or you will be buried with your weapons.”

Much of al-Julani’s backing and training of his rebels has come from Turkey. A great deal of northern Syria is now being controlled by Ankara, which aims to resurrect the Ottoman Caliphate of the 15th and 16th centuries, creating a radical Sunni outpost that admires Hamas. It does not auger well that al-Julani has just changed the textbooks to revere Sharia law.

Israel is already fighting a war on seven fronts. An eighth front within Syria might well open up. What happens next well may predict the outcome for the rest of the Middle East.

The post Waiting for the Middle Eastern Storm to Settle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Doorstep Postings: After months of resignation speculation, there will be no more stallin’ for Justin Trudeau

This is a special edition of Doorstep Postings, the periodic political commentary column written by Josh Lieblein for The CJN.

Armando Iannucci, best known as the creator of HBO’s political sitcom Veep, also directed a 2017 movie titled The Death of Stalin, which depicts the chaos that ensues when one of history’s greatest monsters abruptly departs a political system that has been built to cater to his slightest whim.

For decades, his underlings have cowered in terror of misinterpreting a joke or a directive, learned to expect regular humiliations or sudden demotions, and pretended at friendships and alliances with those they can and will destroy given the first opportunity.

Now they have to observe the old order and make new rules up as they go along at the same time—all the while trying to choose a successor despite no clear succession plan. 

The film shows the tyrannical Stalin demanding a recording of a classical piece that he heard on the radio. Since no recording was made, the pianist Maria Yudina is forced to repeat the performance. Within the record cover, she includes a letter denouncing the dictator which he finds and reads. Before he can order her death for this petty act of rebellion, he laughs so hard that he strokes out on the spot. Stalin’s inner circle rushes to the leader’s deathbed, feigning grief and trying to out do one another in tributes while sharpening their knives.

When Stalin comes back to life for a brief moment and points wordlessly at an unclear target, the apparatchiks obsess over the meaning. Was he denouncing one of them or giving them his blessing?

As of this writing, Justin Trudeau has not suffered the same fate as Stalin and will continue to oversee the Liberals as leader until a replacement is chosen. Yudina did not—as far as we know—have designs on succeeding Stalin the way Chrystia Freeland is rumoured to. But excluding those differences, what we are about to see is a similar disasterpiece of Liberal Kremlinology as hilarious and dark as anything Iannucci could conceive of.  

The comedy will derive from how hard the contenders will strive to be Canada’s next Liberal leader, the next prime minister, and—assuming current trends hold—the answer to a trivia question of who Pierre Poilievre demolished on his way to institute decades of Conservative rule.

For the next to-be-determined number of months, those we pay to report and interpret the inner workings of Ottawa will have to rank Donald Trump’s promised demolition of our economy below the latest thing Mark Carney or Melanie Joly said or did. The CRA will be free-styling how they’re collecting capital gains taxes this year since the proposed changes have been prorogued along with the rest of the government business, but never mind that: how far is Dominic LeBlanc distancing himself from the legacy of the Great Leader, and is it wise for him to do so?

The Death of Stalin is a fairly accurate rendering of history, as these go, but it overlooks a major event that actually precipitated the crisis generated by Stalin’s passing. The U.S.S.R. was in the middle of the deeply antisemitic Doctor’s Plot, a purge of physicians that left the leader without proper medical care. Stop me if this rings another current events bell: Soviet leaders had convinced themselves that physicians, acting under the auspices of Zionism, were conspiring to subvert the State and murder its officials. Despite the fact that few if any doctors were ever found to be “conspiring” to do anything, the Plot would have led to the deportation of all Jews living in the U.S.S.R. had Stalin not bought the farm (or taken collective ownership of the agricultural commune, as it were.) 

Some might call the implication that the whole affair was an attempt by the ruling class to consolidate power and act against its enemies mere bourgeois-nationalist subversion. Just like the implication that certain groups would sign up as Liberal “supporters” and elect a leader sympathetic to their interests. Remember that all you have to do is be living in Canada and be over the age of 14 to select the next Liberal chief. But as we’ll hear many times over the course of this race: implying that certain groups are trying to act against the country’s leaders is just another form of promoting hatred. Even if they say that’s explicitly what they’re doing!

Not to worry though: if The Death of Stalin is anything to go by, the contenders will eventually pick one camp to be the common enemy and unite against them. In the film, this is the loathsome sex criminal Lavrentiy Beria, who is brutally executed without trial by eventual winner Nikita Khruschev and buried in history.  Beria’s mistake was to threaten all the other contenders instead of trying to work with any of them—when they all turn on him, he’s reduced to begging for his life to no avail. So, if you are one of those radical students of history who believes this race is a way to bend the Liberal Party to your whims, be warned:  “Wade gently through the river because there are snakes and crocodiles.”

Josh Lieblein can be reached at joshualieblein@gmail.com for your response to Doorstep Postings.

The post Doorstep Postings: After months of resignation speculation, there will be no more stallin’ for Justin Trudeau appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Compares Jan. 6 US Capitol Riot to the Holocaust

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin. Photo: Screenshot

Sunny Hostin, co-host of the long-running ABC talk show “The View,” on Monday compared the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol to the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, prompting widespread backlash for making the comparison.

While discussing the significance of the Jan. 6 anniversary, Hostin argued that Americans need to “find moral clarity,” asserting that they should “never forget” the breach of the US Capitol and claiming that the riot should be remembered as a keystone moment in world history, akin to chattel slavery and the Holocaust.

“You had [former US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice, I believe, on this very show, saying, ‘You know, we need to move on from Jan. 6.’ I say, no. You don’t move on, because Jan. 6 was an atrocity. It was one of the worst moments in American history,” Hostin said. “And, when you think about the worst moments in American history, like World War II, like the Holocaust, chattel slavery, we need to never forget, because [the] past becomes prologue if you forget and erase.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of rioters, convinced that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. The mob swarmed through the halls of the Capitol building, vandalizing and breaking into private offices. Trump was widely criticized for not doing more to condemn those who breached the Capitol and for fueling the false notion that he lost the election due to widespread fraud.

Hostin’s words set off a firestorm of criticism on social media, with many observers taking offense to her comparison of Jan. 6 to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

“It is disgusting to compare Jan. 6 to the Holocaust,” wrote Samuel Stern, rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka, Kansas.

“This Holocaust minimization by [Hostin] is so mind-blowingly offensive it’s hard to believe these fools still have a platform,” wrote Chaskel Bennett, a 9/11 first responder and grandchild of Holocaust survivors.

“Look how stupid everything has become,” tweeted Omri Ceren, national security adviser to US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TEX).

“What an insult to every Jewish person on the planet, past and present. Breathtaking minimizing of one of the worst things to happen in human history,” wrote conservative CNN analyst Scott Jennings.

The post ‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Compares Jan. 6 US Capitol Riot to the Holocaust first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Houthi Leader Warns Israelis: ‘Those Who Want to Sleep’ Comfortably Should Leave Country

Houthi policemen ride on the back of a patrol pick-up truck during the funeral of Houthi terrorists killed by recent US-led strikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

A senior leader of the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen has warned Israelis that they should flee to Cyprus or “return to their original country” if they want to sleep comfortably at night.

“Those who want to sleep should go to sleep in Cyprus or return to their original country,” Hazam al-Assad, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, posted on X/Twitter on Sunday in a Hebrew-language message directed at Israelis.

The post came one day after al-Assad vowed that the Houthis will continue to attack Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

“We won’t stop … You must watch the sky, you must not sleep, you must not enjoy life as long as the children of Gaza die from bombs, hunger and cold. We will not abandon Gaza,” he posted.

On Monday, al-Assad celebrated after the Houthis claimed they arrested spies trained and equipped by British and Saudi intelligence services, arguing it was a victory in the Yemeni rebel group’s “holy jihad” and the alleged spies were supporting Israel.

“With the support of God Almighty, the Yemeni security services achieve a new victory in the battle of the holy jihad and the promised victory and in the path of support and victory for our people in Gaza, arresting the British spy cell affiliated with MI6 and Saudi Arabia supporting the Israeli enemy entity,” he wrote.

The Algemeiner could not immediately confirm the veracity of the Houthis’ claim about busting a foreign spy operation.

The Houthis have ramped up their military action against Israel in recent weeks, repeatedly firing missiles from Yemen at Israel. While Israel has intercepted many of the missiles, some have penetrated Israeli air defenses.

Last month, a ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed group struck a playground in Tel Aviv, injuring at least 16 people and causing damage to nearby homes — the second attack in as many days — after several interception attempts by Israel’s air defense systems failed.

The strike came shortly after the Houthis launched another missile toward the center of Israel, and this time the projectile was only partially intercepted. The warhead crashed into a school in the city of Ramat Gan, outside Tel Aviv, causing one building to collapse and severe damage to another. Children were due to arrive at the school hours after the missile hit.

In response to the attack, the Israeli Air Force conducted retaliatory strikes targeting Houthi positions in Yemen, including strategic locations such as the port of Hodeidah and the capital city, Sana’a. US forces also conducted multiple airstrikes against Houthi positions with the aim of degrading the Houthis’ offensive capabilities and ensuring the security of vital maritime routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the time that Israel would take forceful action against the Houthis as it had done with Hezbollah, another Iran-backed terrorist organization, in Lebanon.

“Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran’s axis of evil, so we will act against the Houthis,” he said. “We will act with strength, determination and sophistication. I tell you that even if it takes time, the result will be the same.”

Days later, on Dec. 26, the Israeli Air Force conducted additional strikes on the western coast of and deep inside Yemen, including at Sana’a International Airport in the Houthi-controlled capital.

“These military targets were used by the Houthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. This is a further example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” the Israeli military said.

Netanyahu again vowed “to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran’s axis of evil” and to “persist in this until we complete the task.”

Amid the constant attacks, Israel has instructed its diplomatic missions in Europe to push for countries to designate the Houthi as a terrorist organization.

“The Houthis pose a threat not only to Israel but to the region and the entire world,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement. “The direct threat to freedom of navigation in one of the busiest maritime routes globally is a challenge to the international community and the world order. The most basic and fundamental step is to designate them as a terrorist organization.”

Several countries — including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Israel — currently designate the Houthis as terrorists.

Sa’ar’s directive followed repeated attacks by the Houthis against Israel since October 2023, including the launch of over 200 missiles and 170 attack drones.

The Houthis have been waging an insurgency in Yemen for two decades in a bid to overthrow the Yemeni government. They have controlled a significant portion of the country’s land in the north and along the Red Sea since 2014, when they captured it in the midst of a civil war.

The Yemeni terrorist group began disrupting global trade in a major way with their attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, arguing their aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — have said they will target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they do not pass through the Red Sea.

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, which launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Houthi terrorists in Yemen have also routinely launched missiles toward Israel.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released a report in July revealing how Iran has been “smuggling weapons and weapons components to the Houthis.” The report noted that the Houthis used Iranian-supplied ballistic and cruise missiles to conduct over 100 land attacks on Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and within Yemen, as well as dozens of attacks on merchant shipping.

While the Houthis have increasingly targeted Israeli soil in recent months, they have primarily attacked ships in the Red Sea, a key trade route, raising the cost of shipping and insurance. Shipping firms have been forced in many cases to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa to avoid passing near Yemen, having a major global economic impact.

In September, the Houthis’ so-called “defense minister,” Mohamed al-Atifi, said that the Yemeni rebels were prepared for a “long war” against Israel and its allies.

“The Yemeni Army holds the key to victory, and is prepared for a long war of attrition against the usurping Zionist regime, its sponsors, and allies,” he was quoted as saying by Iranian state-owned media

“Our struggle against the Nazi Zionist entity is deeply rooted in our beliefs. We are well aware of the fact that this campaign is a sacred and religious duty that requires tremendous sacrifices,” added Atifi, who has been sanctioned by the US government.

Beyond Israeli targets, the Houthis have threatened and in some cases actually attacked US and British ships, leading the two Western allies to launch retaliatory strikes multiple times against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The post Houthi Leader Warns Israelis: ‘Those Who Want to Sleep’ Comfortably Should Leave Country first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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