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Why Won’t the US Stop Iranian and Houthi Aggression on Land and Sea?
A Yemeni government fighter fires a vehicle-mounted weapon at a frontline position during fighting against Houthi fighters in Marib, Yemen March 28, 2021. Picture taken March 28, 2021. REUTERS/Ali Owidha
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, coordinating commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, has announced that Iran will close the Mediterranean Sea in retaliation for “US war crimes” in Gaza.
“They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, (the Strait of) Gibraltar and other waterways,” he said.
It is an expansion of attacks — both verbal and military — that have been undertaken by Iran and its proxies for years, but have ramped up since the Hamas atrocities on October 7.
US forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 150 times since President Joe Biden took office, two US defense officials told VOA. More than 103 rocket and drone attacks have occurred since the Hamas attacks.
Furthermore, since November, Houthi terrorists have fired on more than 100 ships in the Red Sea and beyond. They claim that the ships, including American ships, are Israeli or traveling to Israel, and are thus, somehow, legitimate targets. Ships of several nations have been affected, and some large shipping companies — including Maersk and BP — said that, at least temporarily, they would not use the Red Sea to move cargo to the Mediterranean.
Oil prices immediately rose two percent.
This is an act of war, and should be treated as one by the US. US CENTCOM operates in the Red Sea, and has a firm grasp on Houthi — and Iranian — capabilities.
Instead, the US formulated something called Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG). It is already on life-support, as three major American allies announced they won’t participate. The French Defense Minister said that French naval assets in the region would remain under French command. Italian sources report that the Italian navy will respond to requests from Italian ships, but not in cooperation with OPG. Spain’s naval assets will be used only in coordination with NATO and/or the EU.
In addition to BG Naqdi’s boasts, Iran responded to Western hesitance with an expansion of Iranian assistance to the Houthis, who have now attacked a ship in the Indian Ocean. A US National Security Council spokesperson said, “Iranian-provided tactical intelligence has been critical in enabling Houthi targeting of maritime vessels since the group commenced attacks in November,” adding that the drones and missiles the Houthis have been using for the attacks were also provided by Iran.
Still, the Biden administration is being nice to Iran and its friends.
One of President Biden’s first moves in 2021 was to remove the Houthis from the terror-sponsor list. Oil sale waivers gave Iran access to billions of dollars. According to the IMF, Iran’s currency reserves fell from $122.47 billion to under $15 billion in 2019, before rising to $42 billion in 2023. That’s without the $6 billion the administration tried to put in Tehran’s Qatari bank account this year. In July, the White House announced that it had given more than $315 million to the Palestinians this year — and nearly a billion since the administration took office.
The UN embargo on Iran’s production and sale of ballistic missiles expired in November, with no US comment. Last week, a Venezuelan money-launderer under indictment in the US was released and shipped back to Venezuela — his clients included Hezbollah.
None of this “moderated” Iran or Hamas or the Houthis — there is nothing “moderate” about people whose religious ideology drives them to death for themselves and others.
And all that time, Iran was shipping missiles, drones, and precision-guided weapons factories to its proxies — and selling drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. By distributing its assets around the region, Iran appeared to be hoping that attacks on America (or Israel) would escape direct American (or Israeli) retaliation. Thus far, the mullahs have been right about the US, which has declined, until now, to retaliate (Israel is a different story).
Last week, the US struck back after an Iranian drone strike wounded three American soldiers in Iraq. But the retaliation was also in Iraq, meaning the US did not go after the real perpetrators. We have the assets to go after Iran and the Houthis.
Since World War II, the United States has been the preeminent guarantor of freedom of navigation in the face of difficult and ongoing trends — the establishment of dozens of independent and sometimes hostile countries lining the waterways, rather than colonies with colonial troops; the rise of Chinese and Russian fleets; and the expansion of Iran.
We reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war — leading the late Johnny Carson to opine that since those were now our ships, that was now our oil. We led an international coalition to prevent North Korean smuggling and one to fight off Somali pirates. We carry out freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits.
But we need two things ultimately to be successful — a plan and allies. Both appear threadbare at the moment.
The author is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center. A version of this article was previously published by The American Thinker.
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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