#Iranian-Backed Houthis

[xtruss]

Sensible For Australia To Refuse ‘War Criminal US’ Red Sea Warship Request

— Jerry Grey | December 19, 2023

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

The War Criminal US requesting Australia to send a ship into the Red Sea may seem strange, but it could be an indicator of something far more sinister.

To be clear, this is not an official request, and Australia is not the only country to have been asked. It was reported that seven members of the 39 nations that rotate command of the region, have apparently stepped forward to offer support, but the War Criminal US has not announced who they are. At the time of writing this, Australia's decision hasn't been made, or announced, but the Opposition has said they will support the government if it decided to comply with the request.

Despite claims that Houthi Rebels are attacking commercial vessels with ballistic missiles, the available information is that they caused no significant damage and no injuries.

Reports of a Norwegian ship, and a Hong Kong-flagged ship, hit by missiles, describe that both ships steamed on. One was scheduled to stop in the port of Ashdod in Israel on January 4, the other, according to a Houthi spokesperson, was headed to Israel, although the carrier's website does not list this. However, this does indicate that the Houthis are targeting what they believe to be vessels heading to Illegal Regime of Isra-hell.

It may be that the US, in an effort to manufacture consent for a wider escalation of this war, is overplaying this threat and some Australian media outlets seem to be slipping this request into an incubator for a consent to go to war with Iran. No evidence has been offered to support this, but many media articles describe the attackers as "Iranian-backed Houthis."

So far, no photos of damage have been offered as evidence, not one ship has been disabled and not one crew-member lost. What really is of great concern is the request of the US to involve non-local players in this conflict. In October, it was reported that the War Criminal US had sent a second Carrier Strike Group (CSG) into the region. The conflict in Gaza is limited to a few square miles on land, yet the War Criminal US has two aircraft carriers stationed there. If the goal is to prevent an escalation, calling on Australia and other "international allies" to get involved seems contradictory to what the War Criminal US claims it is trying to achieve.

Before the request, Australia took the very unusual step of voting (in a non-binding resolution) against the interests of the War Criminal US. This is something not seen in a long time. This may have been done to placate a growing domestic opposition to Israel's actions but it makes little difference since the War Criminal US had already vetoed a ceasefire through the UN Security Council.

Jerry Grey is a former British Police officer who was a general manager in a multi-national security company based in Australia for 17 years. He has lived, worked, travelled extensively and studied in China for almost two decades. He holds a Master Degree in cross cultural change management. Jerry Grey is a freelance writer living in Southern China's Guangdong province.

Having used its veto, the US effectively allowed Illegal Regime of Isra-hell to continue hammering Gaza, resulting in the deaths of many more civilians. This action has caused the US to lose a significant amount of its usual support, as demonstrated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) where 153 countries, including Australia, voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire.

Australia finds itself in a dilemma as it has voted against the continuation of hostilities, which pleases many in the Australian public, but sending a ship in support of further hostilities would not.

Pressure to the Albanese government comes from the fact that it knows much of the population would like Australia to stay out of the conflict but Australia joined Britain and/or the War Criminal US in every conflict from the Boer War in 1899, up to now. To decline would set a new precedent, albeit a welcomed one.

According to a poll, 53 percent of all Australians want an immediate ceasefire. Another poll, reported in the Australian Guardian, suggests that 61 percent want Australia out of the conflict altogether. Australia's lack of involvement in the conflict supports this sentiment. The Guardian also points out that 66 percent are concerned about escalation outside of the region. This concern is justified, considering the potential for domestic escalation. There are approximately 100,000 Jewish Australians and there are more than 800,000 Muslims although less than 3,000 are Palestinians. These communities are watching developments and international media reports indicate an increase in both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim crimes in Australia.

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN), a formidable and growing lobby group in a Media release on Monday stated that Australia must refuse US request to send a war ship to the Red Sea. However, politicians, particularly in Australia, don't have a good record of adhering to requests from people seeking peace.

Australia is located on the other side of the world. It has citizens from both sides of the conflict and is witnessing growing extremist movements within its own borders. It has finally stepped out of the War Criminal US' shadow to call for a ceasefire and could potentially act as a mediator in the conflict if needed. That opportunity will be lost if it has a military presence in the region. It is sensible for Australia to continue distancing itself from the US.

— The Author is a British Australian Freelance Writer who has Studied Cross Cultural Change Management in China and has lived in the country, traveling extensively for 17 years.

[the-eyespy]

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇮🇶 Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted a ballistic missile strike on a U.S. base in Erbil, Iraq.

[archtroop]

Sometimes I need to remind myself that tumblr is a fringe social network, and is by far not the average. What it is though, is a good sampler of the more extreme, I would say, ideologically swayed. A bit.

The more comments and notes I read from the Free Palestine crowd, the more it gets obvious that these are incapable, useful idiots. Literally, spoonfed couchpotatos at best. Starbucks Boycoyters at worst.

It's like the 00's insecure attention seeking posers, with an amoral, ignorant twist to them.

And they are entirely, ABSOLUTELY useless people.

Some morally rotten such individual wrote me that "Israel deserves what's coming for them, you deserve to die" etc. And it really made me think. What's coming? WHO'S coming? You? You, an unemployed tumblrina? You and what army?

What are you gonna do? Try to kill us all? What's the WORST you can do that wasn't, hasn't been tried already?

Truth is, no one is coming.

You read about this pompous, self indulgent "Palestinian Activism Solidarity ". What the FUCK are you talking about? Where is it? What, SA under IRI at the ICJ?.... Watermelon emojis...? ...Slogans?

The most "affective" actions FreePalestine Movement "achieved" was a few shootings/stabbings/rammings here and there, a hostage situation in Turkey in the name of Palestine (the man was executed on the spot after some negotiations. Turkey, yeah). A few burnt synagogues around the world and a whole lot of terrorized Jews in the Diaspora. Not a single Palestinian benefited. Not in Gaza anyway. To sum it up, what exactly are you gonna do? Blow yourself up in a subway in the name of Palestine? How incredibly unoriginal and unhelpful. Although expected and unsurprisingly fitting to the roots of the movement, I'll give you all that.

No one is coming. A lot of pakapaka from Nassrallah and Co. and a radio silence from the Arab world.

Iran pulled the Houthies out of their boydem only for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan to reluctantly push the button to down Houthie ammo flying towards Israel. Houthies "asked" of Saudi Arabia to "let them cross over to fight the Zionists", and not only this is a joke, a caravan of sandals-wearing, AK-47 totting, Houthie caravan crossing Saudia to do what exactly? Bite Israeli ankles in Eilat Port? Rather It's an insult, to show that "here see we tried", since Saudis are fighting the Houthies FOR YEARS, it was never an actual option to begin with.

Are you blind? No. One. Is. Coming.

After 75 years of trying to erase Israel from the map, the 7th of October unleashed what could only have happened after Israel had its last straw broken.

Congratulations, you've managed at dehumanizing Israelis to the point that you managed to rob us from one aspect of humanity, even if temporarily: our symphaty.

Not forever, but for a period. And when you did so, you WERE LUCKY, for US were here WITHIN MINUTES, being smart enough to talk Israel out from attacking on the freaking spot. Instead, Israel waited 3 damn weeks. For 3 weeks, Israel called for the evacuation of Gazans from the northern side of Gaza.

Symphaty has an expiration date. The 7th of October 2023 was that date. You backed Israel to a wall, and no slogan will suffice against a nation that KNOWS that its very existence was threatened in a very real, visceral, inhumane, and depraved way.

No one is coming. Not for us, not for the Gazans. The Arab world is waiting to see, when will they wake up with one Iranian proxy less on the map. The truth is, aside from the pakapaka all round the clock, Isrsel was left with "do what you do, we wait" kind of global attitude.

Arab nations don't care about Palestinians. They don't care for the Palestinian Cause. Never had. It was always for show, as a pawn. A distraction. And we know it, very well.

The Palestinians are, and always were, used. They were used to carry on this idea that Israel would disappear from the map. If not by force, then by proxy warfare and terrorism, with time. If not by proxies, then by mass protest and public opinion. But the thing is, reality is a material thing. You need TO DO a thing for it TO HAPPEN. And public opinion rarely holds. And for how it's loud, the Free Palestine Movement is nothing but that: Loud.

As for the undoing of Israel and Bney Israel, well. Many have tried.

And oh boy, did the Arab nations TRIED.

They PAYED for trying.

But that's in the past, largely. Now, the annihilation of Israel and the creation of a Palestine is just a cruel pipe dream, with human prisoners, and an international cheering squad. After all, you can't free something that never existed and couldn't form one coherent ideology that makes sense and strives towards a positive, creation-adjacent activity in 75 years of its yappery. It's just not there. If the ideology surrounds destruction, it can not create. It can only destroy.

You may shout your lungs out and make up all kinds of delusional narratives. In the end, they are just that: empty words to make the righteous self of the woke crowd feel better, to feel active. To be a part.

To be USED.

It says a lot about the sad reality of this mass of people. The yearning for purpose, this loneliness. The rootlessness. Loss of identity. Identities so fractured, so incohesive. Loss of trust in the institution. The shallow knowledge. The practically non-existent reading comprehension.

All are easily diverted to create this cult like behavior.

People cry their eyes out over something that not only they have zero way of affecting but oftentimes is inflated, twisted, and presented as something completely false, or fake or what have you, instead of looking around them and doing something about their own realities. Pouring their hearts out over an unreality, fruitless.

This is either willful ignorance or escapism. Can't even say which one is worse.

This mass is being used. It creates a pool of despair, mysery. Feelings of "not enough", of unachievment. Those masses are breeding grounds for terrorism activity recruitment.

One party, one goal.

Free Palestine is a magic combination of words. You would ask, what is it? And they would sell you, ah, it's this magical place over the rainbow far, far away, and you can be the savior of those people. What a beautiful fantasy. Except you can't save those who did all their best to commit a slow, painstaking suicide, over 75 years. It's unrealistic, whatever this so-called "movement" is yapping about. There are no outlines, no strategy. It's just empty, big, bombastic words, to rile up emotionally as many people as possible, who look for a meaning.

I keep remembering the movie The Wave (2008). It's amazing how word by word, scene by scene, the story is playing out right now with worrying accuracy.

I don't know where this will lead Europe, UK, US, Canada... Australia... you all should be on high alert internally. But one thing is pretty clear.

No one is coming. As for Israel... You did your worst already. You have left Israel with nothing to be afraid of.

BDS biggest achievement was the eventual unemployment of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank. UN is a joke. Red Cross is a joke. UNRWA exposed, visibly and undeniably. Abraham Accords are proceeding, even if slower, yet still they do. HAMAS gets mopped the floor with. And Lebanon has to do the impossible: drag Hezbollah away from the Isrseli border. Otherwise, there won't be much of a Lebanon to speak about in a very short amount of time. And that's not even a threat. It's reality. As government officials in Lebanon plead with Hezbollah to halt, Israel is ready on the border for 80,000 Israelis are internally displaced within Isrsel itself because of the war with HAMAS, but mainly away from the northern border because of constant shelling by Hezbollah.

And it won't hold forever.

And no one is coming.

Because who will? You and what army?

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Sky News is Private UK Media]

Washington and London opted to strike Yemen with precision bombs rather than accelerating efforts to end violence in Gaza, where more than 20,000 people have been killed in three months. Regional diplomats say the longer that conflict continues, the less possible it becomes to contain.

The language being used by Biden administration is interesting.

"Iran is a primary - if not the primary - enabler or supporter, sponsor of the Houthis and Iran has been involved operationally in the conduct of these attacks," a Biden administration official said.

They don't talk about Iran directing the attacks against shipping or US military in the region in the way that they might have done not long ago.

They talk about Iran being the "enabler" rather than the puppet master. And that's because they know that the "Iranian proxies" in the Middle East are no longer puppets.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza - all are established forces making strategic decisions, aligned with Iranian ideology of course and with Iranian-made weapons, but driven by their own ambitions.[...]

The Houthis have claimed their attacks on shipping are in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

They frame it as an international shipping lane-based protest against what they call a genocide.[...]

But make no mistake, among regional populations, the Houthis are seen, not insignificantly, as having chosen to back support for Gaza with material action.

America and the UK chose military action to try to stop the Houthi missiles. They chose to bomb the world's poorest nation with precision bombs. That's risky and optically awkward, to say the least.

Another course would have been to seek to remove the Houthi pretext by accelerating efforts to end the Gaza conflict and solve the Israel-Palestine question.[...]

The Americans have shown an unwillingness or inability to influence Israeli actions in Gaza.

And for that, they have not just lost credibility among regional leaders. America has lost populations in the Middle East these last few months.[...]

[C]rucially, [senior regional diplomats] say that while Iran doesn't seek to escalate all this into a regional war, it cannot mitigate for potential miscalculation in Lebanon, Yemen or Iraq because the groups operating there are more and more independent.

What's happening how is this in Sky [12 Jan 24]

[matan4il]

Update post:

Most of this will be about the unprecedented attack of the Islamist regime of Iran against Israel, but first I have to take a second to mourn a 14 year old boy, who was murdered in a Palestinian attack on Friday. At around 6 in the morning, teenager Binyamin Achimeir led his sheep herd out of the farm he lives in, but a few hours later, the sheep returned to the farm without him. At first, it was feared that he had some accident, or was dehydrated, and thousands of people voluntarily joined the search for him. On Saturday, at around noon, the IDF found his body, with signs of brutal violence on it. Based on the forensic evidence, he was murdered by several Palestinian terrorists, and he fought back. The army is still hunting down the murderers. May Binyamin's memory be a blessing.

Right, back to the Islamist regime of Iran's attack on Israel. I posted about it as soon as the news started being aired here, in case someone didn't know about it. The news broke past the normal time when people watch news on TV in Israel, I noticed it by chance right before I was about to turn in for the night. I'm physically okay, but I didn't get that much sleep, I had to wake up early to take care of some stuff, so I AM very tired, which is why I'm not going to do the usual thing I do, which is to look for English journalistic sources for everything, but I have no doubt even the stuff I won't look up can all be easily found online.

On a personal note, I can tell you that at 1:43 in the morning I heard the first explosion, but no sirens went off. A few more explosions followed, and only then did we hear the sirens. It was scary, for a moment we couldn't tell whether we're hearing explosions of missiles from neighboring areas, or whether something went wrong with the sirens, and we need to hurry into the bomb shelter. It seems like in Jerusalem specifically there was some issue with the sirens, I heard a reporter mention it. Also, the alert app didn't go off, even though it should have, at the latest when the sirens did.

This is what the Temple Mount looked like from an Iranian attack that could have easily destroyed the al-Aqsa mosque (it's not in the frame, but it's right next to where this was filmed):

Quick background: Iran is the biggest financier of anti-Israel terrorism for decades now, including funding Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, all of which have been a part of a continuous attack on Israel since Oct 7 as Iran's proxies. Iran has sent its own military seniors to help and instruct those local terrorists, in places like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Israel has eliminated them whenever possible, this is not something new. On Apr 1, Israel carried out such a strike, in which it targeted 7 Iranian army seniors in Damascus, Syria's capital. Iran claimed Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in this city, but diplomatic buildings are all publicly listed. Iran has an embassy in Damascus (in a separate location) and no consulates. That's why the magnitude of Iran's response to this has taken Israel by surprise, because the Israeli strike wasn't that out of the ordinary. In fact, the US assassination of Iran's military commander, Qasem Soleimani, back in 2018, was a far graver blow for the Iranian regime, and yet it did not lead to an attack as massive as the one launched against Israel last night.

It is now known that some of the attack waves against Israel were intercepted by other countries, including The US, the UK, France and Jordan. It's been said that there's at least one more Arab country that helped in intercepting Iran's attack, but it can't be publicized. Many countries denounced Iran for attacking Israel.

We don't have numbers regarding the full size of the attack. Out of all the countries who participated in curtailing this attack, we know that the US has intercepted at least 70 suicide drones and 3 cruise missiles, while Israel has intercepted at least 185 suicide drones, 36 cruise missile and 110 ballistic missiles (that last one is the missile type that causes the most damage). Israel's interceptions are said to have been 99% successful, but like I said, no defence system is perfect. A small number of ballistic missiles did land inside Israel. One hit an Israeli air Force base in the south. There's over 30 people who got injured when rushing to the bomb shelter in the middle of the night (elderly people, including Holocaust survivors, have died from such injuries), and over 30 more ended up in hospital due to severe mental health reactions. On top of that, there's a 7 years old Muslim Bedouine girl who was injured by interceptors debris. A friend of her family that I heard being interviewed said the family wanted to go to the communal bomb shelter, but before they even had a chance to make it out of the house, the girl was hit by the debris piercing into their home, and she is suffering from severe head injuries. The hospital is currently fighting for her life.

The estimate of how much it cost Israel to defend its citizens from this one attack last night is 5 BILLION shekels (which is over 1.3 BILLION US dollars). That's for one night.

Israel will respond. According to one reporter I heard, that was decided as soon as it was clear how big the attack is, so this isn't about how much damage Iran caused, it's about how it crossed several red lines. This is the first time Iran itself attacked Israel itself, it's not an attack on an extension of Israel, nor was it done by using proxy terrorists. Israel has had terrorist organizations attacking it continuously since 2001, but this is the first attack from a fellow sovereign country since Iraq (led by tyrant Saddam Hussein) in 1991, so that in itself is crossing a red line. The size of the attack is also considered an escalation on Iran's part. In 2019, Iran launched a smaller scaled suicde drone attack on Saudi Arabia, and the latter's western allies refused to launch a counter attack, which led to these countries being seen as unreliable, and some Middle Eastern countries renewed their ties with Iran. That's why how it would seen in the Middle East if Israel doesn't react to an even bigger attack, and how it might drive more moderate countries to grow closer to Iran, is another consideration in why Israel must respond. Not to mention that launching such a mass attack basically caused a paralysis of the country once the first intel became known. For example, all educational activity (schools, universities, you name it) has been canceled, Israel's air space had to be closed, every single ambulance across the country had to be manned, and so on. That is not something any country can simply shrug off. Not to mention, Israel financially can't afford this reality to become normalized.

Not to mention, Israel tried to contain Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah's rocket attacks for decades. What we got for it was the invasion and massacre on Oct 7. The lesson for most Israelis is that containing mass attacks on our population only leads to worse ones.

That said, there's also no desire here of getting dragged into a war on another front while we're still in the middle of one in Gaza and with Iran's proxies on several more fronts. So, Israel is looking for a balanced response, one that won't let this mass attack slide, but hopefully doesn't make matters much worse.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[mariacallous]

Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a Greek-flagged ship headed to Yemen to deliver grain on Monday, causing minor damage, according to U.S. Central Command.

Despite the minor damage on the U.S.-owned M/V Sea Champion, the ship continued on course to Aden in Yemen, where it ultimately delivered the grain for the benefit of the Yemeni people.

Central Command said the M/V Sea Champion has delivered humanitarian aid to the country 11 times over the past five years.

"Houthi aggression in the region has exacerbated already high levels of need in conflict-impacted Yemen, which remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 80 percent of the entire population needing humanitarian assistance," Central Command said. "We are committed to countering the Houthis’ malign activities, which directly endanger the imports of foodstuff and humanitarian aid to Yemen."

Another ship in the Gulf of Aden, the British-registered, Lebanese-operated Rubymar, sustained damage on Sunday after "an explosion in close proximity to the vessel."

The explosion was reportedly caused by two missiles fired at the ship by Houthi rebels and resulted in the ship taking on water.

The crew was able to evacuate the vessel safely.

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree later issued a statement claiming the rebel group’s responsibility for the attack, saying the vessel was "now at risk of potentially sinking." 

"The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt," Saree said. 

The Houthis also claimed to have downed an American drone Monday in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, according to Reuters. U.S. Central Command, which operates in the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The Houthis last November took out a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Yemeni coast. 

The reported attacks come after the U.S. launched five "self-defense" airstrikes against a series of Houthi rebel positions in Yemen on Saturday. 

The strikes targeted three anti-ship missile batteries, one unmanned underwater vessel (UUV) and another unmanned surface vessel (USV), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday. 

"This is the first observed Houthi employment of a UUV since attacks began on Oct. 23," CENTCOM said in a statement. 

[secular-jew]

The Iranian-backed Houthi Islamists, attacked and sunk a Belize-flagged commercial ship in the Red Sea. The ship was carrying 21,000 metric tons of Ammonium Phosphate Sulfate, and untold quantities of heavy fuel oil, which is now polluting and destroying the diverse ocean and coral life.

This cynical Iranian Islamic attack on global shipping increases all our costs, and is an affront to our natural environment.

The Islamists could care less who they kill, hurt, or how they damage our fragile ecosystems.

[determinate-negation]

Yad Sarah, one of Israel’s largest non-profit charitable groups, warned on Sunday that the disruption of shipping in the Red Sea, caused by assaults by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants, is causing delays in the delivery of critical medical equipment and could lead to severe shortages, as Israel is almost four months into war with the Hamas terror group.

“The attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea pose a life-endangering delay of critically needed supplies for the unprecedented number of casualties of war in Israel,” Yad Sarah director-general Moshe Cohen told The Times of Israel.

In the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas-led onslaught on southern communities near Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis, an Iranian proxy, have launched a flurry of drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels with Israeli ownership or bound for one of the country’s ports. The ongoing threat prompted the world’s major shipping companies to temporarily suspend sending their vessels through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

[…] “The unprecedented demand has resulted in nationwide shortages, necessitating our urgent efforts to replenish tens of thousands of pieces of vital medical items despite diminished wartime shipping, supply chain obstacles, and heightened costs exacerbated by regional hostilities,” Cohen said.

Cohen added that with growing concern over the escalation on the country’s northern border, Yad Sarah started to prepare to meet growing demand and bought additional medical equipment to bolster hospital supplies and the group’s branches in the north, which is now expected to arrive with a delay of weeks if not months. Yad Sarah has a network of more than 7,000 volunteers spread over 120 branches throughout Israel.

delays of weeks if not months 👍😎

[tamamita]

do you think the houthis are a proxy of Iran?

The Houthis are not a proxy of Iran, because of two simple reasons: First, Iran state religion is Twelver Shi'a Islam and Ansar Allah belong to the Fiver Shi'a Islamic branch or (Zaidi Shi'a Islam), both of which contradict each other in the theological and political sphere. It makes no sense for Ansar Allah to allow Iran to have a stranglehold on the socio-political sphere of Yemen. However, their anti-imperialist values overlap, which is why they play a significant role in the fight against the US-backed settler state and its allies.

2. The Houthis are concerned with Zaidi revivalism, their ideological purpose is to revive the Imamate, which ceased in the 60s. In Zaidi theology, anyone who is a progeny of the Banu Hashim clan can become an Imam of the Zaidi Shi'as. Some Zaidis claim the wish to establish a democracy. Furthermore, Iran's political and clerical system is not well-received by other Muslim communities, even among Twelvers; if Iran attempted to export the system of Wilayat al-Faqih to Yemen, it would be a recipe for disaster, and would definitely catch the attention of the Gulf states. While the Iranian Twelvers and the Yemenite Zaidis make up the Axis of resistance, they do not always share the same geopolitical goals.

[simply-ivanka]

Kamala Harris: Mystery Commander in Chief

How would the Vice President keep America safe in a dangerous world? The voters deserve some answers.

The Editorial Board --- Wall Street Journal

Kamala Harris is all but telling Americans they’ll have to elect her to find out what she really believes, as the Vice President ducks interviews and the media give her a free ride. This is bad enough on domestic issues, but on foreign policy it could be perilous. The world is more dangerous than it’s been in decades, and Americans deserve to know how the woman aiming to be Commander in Chief Harris would confront these threats.

Ms. Harris this week tweeted a photo of her sitting next to President Biden in the White House situation room discussing the Middle East. The point is to suggest she’s a co-pilot on Biden foreign policy.

This isn’t the credential the Harris campaign thinks it is, and the voters should hear directly from her what she thinks about the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, the failure to deter Russia in Ukraine, the Iranian nuclear program, China’s island grabs in the South China Sea, and more. The matter is all the more important because Ms. Harris conspicuously declined to choose a running mate who might lend foreign policy experience to the ticket.

Ms. Harris has given a few hints about her own views on the Middle East, and those aren’t encouraging. Her team spent much of Thursday walking back whether she told an anti-Israel group she’d be willing to ponder an arms embargo against Israel. She skipped Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress when our main Middle East ally is under siege. Did she pass over Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he would have enraged the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party?

To the extent she has revealed a larger instinct on national security, it’s been wrong. She told the Council on Foreign Relations in 2019 that she’d rejoin the Iran nuclear deal as long as “Iran also returned to verifiable compliance.” But Iran didn’t comply and is now on the brink of a nuclear breakout.

Her 2018 Senate vote to “end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen,” as Ms. Harris put it in a tweet, also hasn’t aged well. The Houthis the Saudis were fighting are now targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea almost daily and putting U.S. naval assets at risk. Does she think this status quo can persist—and what would she do differently?

Ms. Harris will surely argue that she and Mr. Biden reinvigorated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Vladimir Putin’s invasion in Ukraine. But absent a change in U.S. political will, the war in Ukraine isn’t on track to end on terms favorable to American interests. Her past enthusiasm for banning fracking—which her campaign is trying to walk back—also suggests she isn’t serious about checking Mr. Putin’s main source of war financing.

Ms. Harris would no doubt also tout the diplomatic progress the Biden Administration has made in Asia with Japan, the Philippines and others. Yet she whiffed on one of the single most important diplomatic questions in Asia: She opposed Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that would have excluded China and boosted America as the region’s premiere trading partner.

Most important, will Ms. Harris build up the hard military assets required to deter China’s Xi Jinping and a consolidating axis of U.S. adversaries? “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget,” Ms. Harris said as a Senator in 2020 after voting against a Bernie Sanders proposal to slash the Pentagon by 10%. That vote needed no explanation, but Ms. Harris wanted to make sure the left knew she was sympathetic. Does she still want to slash the defense budget?

Donald Trump often shoots from the hip on these subjects, and his favorable comments about dictators are witless. But his first-term record, especially on Iran and the Middle East, is far stronger than the Biden-Harris performance.

Americans shouldn’t have to read tea leaves to figure out if Ms. Harris would keep the country safe in a treacherous world.

[the-eyespy]

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇮🇶 Ain al-Asad U.S. Base in Iraq was targeted with rocket launches.

[sayruq]

[girlactionfigure]

Key Hezbollah and Hamas terror leaders eliminated:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran for the inauguration of the new Iranian president. He had completed key meetings with the Iranian Supreme Leader yesterday. He met with the head of the PIJ also. They likely coordinated actions against Israel. 

Haniyeh was killed overnight before he could go back to Doha. The context of this is important. Other terror leaders had gathered in Tehran. Also Israel has ramped up its elimination of key terror leaders in the last months 

Other key Iranian proxies were in Tehran over the last day, including Hezbollah representatives (the deputy Naim Qassem) and Houthis. 

Yesterday Israel eliminated Hezbollah terrorist commander Fuad Shukr "Sayyid Muhsan" in the wake of Hezbollah killed 12 children in Majdal Shams. 

Overnight there were also reports of an incident at a PMU base in Iraq where Kataib Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies stockpile weapons.

Haniyeh believed he was safe in Tehran. After October 7 Hamas leaders in Doha have travelled to several countries, including sending delegations to Turkey, Russia and China. Saleh Arouri was killed in January in Lebanon. 

In June the IDF targeted Muhammad Deif and a Hamas brigade commander in southern Gaza. As the days went by Israel became increasingly convinced that Deif, who has avoided many such strikes in the past, was actually killed. 

Key Hezbolah commanders have also been killed; Muhammad Nimah Nasser, who led terror group's Aziz unit in July; Taleb Sami Abdullah, head of the Nasr unit, who was killed in an airstrike June 11. Wissam Tawil, a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike in January. 

Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the IRGC commander was killed on April 1, 2024, Zahedi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building next to the Iranian consulate building in Damascus. Iran retaliated on April 13-14. 

Overall when we look at the big picture these are serious losses for Iran and its proxies. They believe they are winning in the wake of Oct. 7 and they have had successes. But they are also taking losses. Hamas celebrated Oct 7 in Doha, at least two of those who gathered in that room to celebrate are now gone. 

Seth Frantzman

@sfrantzman

[zvaigzdelasas]

A week ago, the US, the UK and 10 other mostly western nations told Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they would “bear the consequences” if they launched further attacks on merchant shipping in the southern Red Sea. For a brief period – six days – the Houthis paused, before at 9.15pm on Tuesday launching their most sophisticated attack yet.[...]

Prior to Tuesday night, 61 drones had been fired in 25 attacks. But in the early evening, a group of 18, probably the relatively inexpensive delta-wing Shahed 136, appear to have been aimed at the warships directly. Seven were shot down by HMS Richmond, which Shapps told reporters “potentially was targeted”.[...]

A Shahed 136 costs $20,000 (£16,000) to make, while missiles for HMS Richmond’s Sea Viper defence system cost £1m to £2m a time[...]

Last month, one former US commander of the Central Command in the Middle East, Gen Joseph Votel, suggested the US could target coastal radars, coastal gun systems and missile systems, which he argued were “very clear military targets”. But it is very unlikely that one round of western airstrikes would halt the raids in the Red Sea. Battle-hardened after years of fighting in Yemen’s long civil war, the Houthis enjoy Iranian backing and military aid. Describing them as rebels is simplistic: the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates their military is 20,000-strong and a parade in September showed an organised military of some scale, which would be determined to show it had not been beaten by whatever the US attacked with.

10 Jan 24

[matan4il]

Update post:

Today marks 123 days since Hamas launched the war in Gaza with its massacre of Israeli civilians.

There were two terrorist attacks today in Israel, both stopped before anyone was injured. The first entails Palestinians from the West Bank shooting at a home in kibbutz Meirav in the Gilboa mountains (where the Israelite king Shaul and his sons died 3,000 years ago), the house was damaged, but no person was hurt. This kibbutz was attacked several times along 2023. The second was in the city of Shchem (you might know it as Nablus, the Arab mispronunciation of the Greek word 'Neapolis,' because Arabic doesn't have the sound 'p'), I'm attaching the pic of the gun and knife which were found on the terrorist after he was neutralized. I found reports about them on two Israeli websites (Ha'aretz and Now14), but both are in Hebrew. The latter also mentions a rock throwing terror attack earlier today, against the car of a woman named Rachel Yaniv. Her brothers, Halel and Yagel Yaniv, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists almost a year ago.

We got the info today on an Iranian attempt on the lives of Jewish leaders in Stockholm, that was stopped in 2021. These terrorists, believed to be linked to the IRGC, infiltrated Sweden under the guise of Afghan refugees, and were deported (rather than put on trial) in 2022. This is a small reminder that the Islamist axis led by Iran, and which includes the terrorist organizations it funds (including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis), as well as countries that chose to align themselves with Iran against the west, such as Qatar, is not anti-Zionist, it IS antisemitic.

In an Israeli TV interview conducted in Arabic, an Israeli journalist asked the right hand man of Palestinian Authority's president Mahmoud Abbas, whether he's willing to denounce the Oct 7 massacre. He didn't. Instead, he insisted that the occupation is the source of all this violence (even though terrorist attacks against Jews in Israel by Arabs predate both the war in 1967, which used to be defined as the start of "the occupation," and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948), and that as long as the occupation continues, so will such acts [as the Oct 7 massacre].

As part of the campaign against the antisemitism and bias at the BBC, an employee who called the Jews Nazis, and denied the Holocaust, has finally been fired.

Israel's most popular sketch comedy show decided to tackle UNRWA with this funny short vid:

In the segment where the UNRWA teacher shows how he teaches biology, history and English using Hitler's Mein Kampf, on the left side of the wall behind the "teacher" you can see the lyrics of a song titled Fedayeen (a term used for Egypt-funded Palestinian terrorists who attacked Israelis in the 1950's), and the pics of two Hamas leaders who are heading the war in Gaza now, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif ('deif' is a nickname, his real name is Mohammed al-Masri, a last name that literally means "the Egyptian," so guess where his family is originally from).

Jewish singer Montana Tucker proved she's the bravest artist from among countless performers who attended the biggest American entertainment award shows recently, as she wore an enlarged version of the yellow ribbon to bring the Israeli hostages back home to the Grammys. She didn't just speak up for her people, she made sure everyone would hear her. She's been regularly speaking up for Israelis and Jews since Oct 7.

The ceremony also included a nice gesture to the over 400 people in Israel who were either murdered at or kidnapped from the Nova music festival on Oct 7. Taylor Swift broke yet another music industry record, so this is a good time to remind everyone that there are several Hamas leaders who are each individually richer than her. It pays more to kill Jews, than to be one of the most successful musicians ever (her net worth is estimated at about 1 billion dollars).

This is 19 years old Idan Alexander.

His mom Yael recounted how cool he was in every given situation, and how proud his family was of him, when he told them that he intends to leave New Jersey and make Alyiah. Moving to Israel of course meant he'd have to serve in the army, too. On Oct 7, Yael got to talk to him, and hear that he has seen some horrible things already. She knew something was off, because unlike his usual behavior, he sounded stressed. Idan was kidnapped by Hamas, and it took 6 days before the family even learned whether he's alive or dead. He's been in captivity for 4 months now.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Tabby Refael

It was no surprise, then, that immediately after the Tel Aviv attack, social media users arrived in Tel Aviv’s Yemeni neighborhood of Kerem HaTeimanim (the name means “Vineyard of the Yemenis”) to ask people what they thought of Yemen, and of the Houthis. Kerem HaTeimanim is adjacent to the famous Carmel Market, and many Yemeni Jews, some of whom must have been second generation Israelis, were asked if they had a message for the Houthis back in Yemen. The responses, all in Hebrew, were quintessentially Israeli:

“You’re Yemeni, right?” a young woman who was filming the video asked a kippah-clad, gray-bearded man as he prepared traditional Yemeni flatbreads, most likely at a stall at the Carmel Market. “I’m Swedish,” he answered jokingly. His response reminded me of each time that Americans asked me or some of my Iranian friends from where we hailed, and we responded that we were Italian. 

“Do you have a message for the Houthis?” the young interviewer asked the man. “A message for the Houthis?” he repeated the question. “Go to hell.” When asked if the Houthis scared him, the man, who was holding a large tray of flatbreads ready to be baked, answered, “Can anyone scare Am Israel (the people of Israel)? No one can scare Am Israel!”

Two dark-haired young men of Yemeni descent sat at a cafe and stated, “A few Houthis won’t affect us. Definitely not here in the Yemeni neighborhood. It’s the stronghold.” Every now and then, that’s exactly how I feel when I read dire headlines about Iran while living in an area of West L.A. called “Tehrangeles.”

There were so many memorable responses, and I want to share even more of them with readers: 

“They’re backwards,” said one Yemeni woman regarding the Houthis. “I think they’re overdoing it,” a tan, dark-haired man working at another food stall said “I love Yemenis,” added his co-worker. “But you went too far, friends. In Tel Aviv, and with no warning!” he chuckled.

My favorite respondent was a buff, young Yemeni baker with a bald head, a heavily tattoed upper arm and an impressive black goatee and mustache. While calmly continuing to pull at a giant, pliable mass of dough, he yelled, “Why at four in the morning?!” (regarding the bombing). “Do it in the afternoon! Why at four?!”

“Congratulations to the Houthis,” said another young man. “Everyone from Hamas to Iran has tried to hit Tel Aviv and failed. And they [Houthis], suddenly with their flip flops, opened up a new parking spot for us.”

Finally, there was a young Yemeni man who looked straight at the camera and delivered his own message to the Houthis, “I’m sure our Jachnun [bread] is better than yours, you #%S!!”

The responses of these Israeli Yemenis say it all: Embarrassment and dissociation on the one hand (one woman said, “They’re embarrassing the Yemenis! We’re not connected to them at all”), and pride and ownership in their own Yemeni identities, on the other. It’s almost as if they were saying, “We’re Yemeni too, but unlike you [Houthis], we got it right.” Millions of Iranians feel the same way about the regime in Tehran.