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As the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas intensifies, the prospect of the conflict widening across the Middle East grows daily. On Oct. 20, an American warship, the USS Carney, shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. They appeared to have been targeted at Israel. It followed a warning on Oct. 10 from the Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, who said the Houthis would fire missiles and drones if the Americans backed Israel in its war against Hamas.
The Houthis came to prominence in 2014 when they swept to power in Yemen, overthrowing the internationally recognized government and taking control of the capital Sanaa and more than one third of the country’s territory, which contains up to 80 percent of the population. They are an extremist Shiite movement, heavily armed and trained by the Iranian regime’s elite Quds force, the extra-territorial wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the mullahs’ Gestapo. As well as Iran, the Houthis count amongst their allies the usual suspects of Russia, North Korea, Syria and of course, other terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The Houthi war in Yemen has already cost around 377,000 lives, with an estimated 11 million children requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. Houthi landmines are reckoned to be responsible for 55 percent of child deaths in Yemen. The militant Houthis’ war cry of “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, damnation to the Jews, victory to Islam,” perfectly describes their fundamentalist ideology.
The missiles and drones fired at Israel from Yemen, followed hot on the heels of similar attacks launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the US, EU and UK and is also heavily backed by Iran. On Oct. 16 it said it had fired rockets and mortars targeting two Israeli military posts in Galilee, in response to Israeli shelling that it claimed had killed three of its members. The Israeli military said it had identified a number of “launches” from Lebanon into Israel and was responding with artillery fire. The Israelis said their initial exchange of fire was in answer to a cross-border raid by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed terrorist group. They said their soldiers backed by helicopters had killed at least two PIJ gunmen who had crossed the frontier. Hezbollah has denied any involvement with the PIJ raid. There is growing apprehension that Hezbollah, with a sophisticated fighting force and a significant arsenal of long-range missiles, might enter the current conflict, opening a second front for Israel, in what many military experts say would be a nightmare scenario. An Israeli ground invasion of Gaza could trigger Hezbollah’s involvement, which, in turn, could draw in Iran.
It is against this background that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rushed to Tel Aviv on Oct. 12, days after the horrific Hamas massacre of men, women and children, to pledge America’s undying backing for Israel. He was quickly followed by President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, both of whom promised their everlasting support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their presence, however, made it diplomatically difficult for Netanyahu to launch a ground offensive. Rishi Sunak called on world leaders to do “everything possible to prevent” the violence in Israel and Gaza spilling over into a wider Middle East conflict. The presence of an estimated 200 Israeli hostages in Gaza and the release of two American female captives by Hamas has further increased the pressure on Netanyahu to forestall his ground offensive, as has the initial arrival of the first aid trucks, allowed through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt.
Although an imminent ground offensive in Gaza may have been averted, it has not stopped the Iranian regime from stirring the pot. In Iraq, the Ain al-Assad air base, which hosts US and other international forces, was targeted by drones and missiles fired by the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group for Iranian-backed militias. According to security sources, multiple blasts were heard inside the base on Oct. 18, marking a further escalation of the crisis. The next day, a barrage of rockets hit another US military base near Baghdad’s international airport. American forces in Syria also came under drone attack at the same time, causing some minor injuries. A second drone was shot down. Again, the IRGC’s Quds force almost certainly coordinated these attacks, under direct instructions from Tehran.
Indeed, it has now been confirmed that Iran warned Israel, through the UN, that it would have to “intervene” if they invaded the Gaza Strip. This threat was amplified on Oct. 19, when Gholamhossein Gheybparvar, a deputy IRGC commander, said in a speech that Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were ready to strike Israel if its ground forces invaded Gaza. In a frenzy of diplomatic activity, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US said in a joint statement, “This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage.” But their warnings may have fallen on deaf ears. Israel sees itself surrounded by hostile forces, all of which are armed, trained and funded by Iran and all of which have adopted an increasingly aggressive posture to the US and to American forces in the region. There are even fears that America could be drawn into the conflict, by sustained attacks on its forces by Iranian-backed militias. It is a volatile situation, exacerbated by threats from Israel that they will cut off the head of the snake in Tehran if Hezbollah joins the war with Hamas and opens a Northern Front. Western appeasement of the Iranian regime for decades has fuelled the current crisis. Confronting the mullahs and backing the Iranian population in their calls for regime change could have prevented the Israeli-Hamas war. When you cut off the head of a snake, its body dies.
Shortly before Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee met at Appomattox Courthouse, VA,
Grant cabled Lincoln: “If the thing is pressed, I think he’ll do it (surrender).”
Lincoln cabled back: “Let the thing be pressed.”
Bush should have pressed the button after 9/11 three buttons, one for Tehran one for Mecca one for Islamabad.
Job done
Instead he declared it was the religion of peace.
All,
There are billions of snakes. The morals of society will have to change. And, our enemies know this. Our enemies are not moral.
Does that work for Soros as well?
It would IF there were any in Congress with sufficient patriotism and ethics.
Not only does the Biden Junta not want to kill the snake, the want to clone it in a Chinese lab and graft three more heads on its body.
I’d like to suggest an edit and correction to the column. It currently reads, “Western appeasement of the Iranian regime for decades has fuelled the current crisis.” It should be corrected to read, “Western appeasement of the Iranian regime for decades, with the notable exception of the period 2017-2020 under President Trump in the U.S., has fuelled the current crisis.” But oh those mean tweets.
Excellent and salient point.
Thank you.
All predators that feed on snakes knows is to go for the head in order to make a quick kill
Not sure about ALL but i can say with certainty, every single Roadrunner i have seen kill a rattlesnake, targets first the head.
Sometimes two Roadrunners work in tandem. One distracts while the second waits for a clear shot at the head from the side or from behind. They sometimes pound the head against a rock. Once dead, the rattlesnake becomes dinner.
“Even if ALL the civilians were to leave Gaza City Israel would STILL destroy it all,even though it makes NO military sense,why?”
Poor logic and understanding of reality. Arrogant to presume to have pre-knowledge.
Islam has been a scourge on humanity for 1400 years.
Enough already.
All those Muslims in power in that “mullah regime” of Iran with hates the Jewish people as well as the State of Israel and wants her to be destroyed and use their stooge jihad organization ,Hamas to attempt to weaken and then eliminated the Jewish State ,once and for all are in reality delusional.
Those ayatollahs and mullahs and others in control of that hostile Israel hating tyranny of Iran have no idea, at all, that they are fated to totally fated to fail in their Islamic quest to destroy Israel.
The reason that this is so is because God is for Israel and will not let her be destroyed no matter how hard those malice-filled Israel despising imams and other Muslims clerics and their President Raisi will strive against Israel , they are all greatly overruled by God.
For example, the Bible in Psalm 135:4 reads “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” [N.K.J.V.]
“Western appeasement of the Iranian regime for decades has fuelled the current crisis” particularly during the Kenyan administration, remember that a C-130 delivered a pallet of cash to Tehran, and during the present DC government the US has given the Iranians oodles of cash to support their terrorist activities AND looking away at their development of nuclear weapons. Madness from our so-called “leaders.” If Iran is close to having it and then get one I have no doubts that they’d use it against Israel considering the mullahs apocalyptic mindset.
Yah the head is in Tehran. One of the hands is in the USA government. I believe Hamas and Iran has operative in Joke Biden administration and in Congress
BHO is Iran’s chief hand in the WH, but there are others.
It isn’t a collective punishment b/c Israel doesn’t intend it to be collective. Hamas did.