LOS ANGELES.–Yemen’s Houthi rebels vowed retaliation against Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to a Houthi long-range missile strike near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. How ironic that after Israel responds to an unprovoked Houthi strike with Iranian long-range missiles that Houthis political bureau says the Israel strike “will not go unanswered.” Houthi’s attacks on Israel started Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas launched on Nazi-like massacre of Israeli civilians, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages. Houthis, a client state of Iran, vowed to continue retaliating against Israel until it ended its war in Gaza. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proxy terror groups like Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been decimated battling Israel over the last year-and-a-half. Only the Houthis remain with any ballistic missile capability to strike Israel over U.S. assets in the Red Sea.
Israel struck Sanaa’s airport and several power plants, including a concrete plant north of Sanaa. “The airport serves as a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives,” said Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]. Since March, 78-year-old President Donald Trump has ordered the targeted bombing of Houthi military installations, largely because of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. U.N. Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg said Israeli attacks marked an escalation in the region. “A grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context,” Grundberg wrote on X, calling for all parties to deescalate to spare more destruction and civilian casualties. Grundberg doesn’t take into account how Houthi terrorists have made Red Sea commercial shipping impossible, skipping the Red Sea entirely, adding cash and weeks of shipping time.
Israel has been restricting access to supply deliveries to Gaza because Hamas intercepts to the deliveries and resell’s Gaza supplies on the black market to generate cash. Israel has worked out a new way to get shipments into Gaza without Hamas intercepting the goods and reselling them for instant profits. Goods are no distributed through six centers, bypassing Hamas operatives trying to steal goods intended for the Gaza population. Israel’s Security Cabinet to approved a plan for the IDF to takeover parts of Gaza to remove it from Hamas control. Hamas says Israel wants to control Gaza to it can open up new Israel settlement just like they do in the West Bank. Whatever conservative Israeli Cabinet members say, Gaza won’t be used for Israeli settlements like it once was before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned over the Gaza Strip to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
U.N. and European Union officials have been remiss in not calling for Hamas to leave the Gaza Strip. Hiding out in Gaza’s military tunnels have only made the situation worse for Gaza residents. Hamas has said that Gaza residents are martyrs mean cannon fodder in their aim to destroy Israel, a preposterous pipe dream dating back to the days of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, once used by Palestine Liberation [PLO] Founder Yasser Arafat as his enforcer. Hamas was formed by Yassin in 1987 after the PLO sustained major losses to Israel. In the early days after th 1967 Six Day War, Arafat was convinced that he’d eventually topple the Jewish state, something that never happened. Yassin perpetuated the sick fantasy that he could annihilate Israel by getting enough Arab countries to join his suicide mission to attack Israel after defeats in 1967 and 1973.
Trump needs to get involved with the Houthi situation more than with bombing Houthi targets in Sanaa and port city of Hodeidah. He needs to serve notice to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that if the Houthi strikes don’t stop soon, the U.S. would shift its target to Tehran. Holding a fragile grip on power with large segments of Iran unhappy with mullah rule, the Ayatollah can ill-afford to open up a war with the U.S. and Israel. Israel retaliated against Houthi terrorists for firing an Iranian ballistic missile at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Ayatollah has said that he does not control what the Houthi’s do when it comes to Israel. Whether admitted to or not, Houthis take their orders from Tehran, would not have struck Israel without his blessings. Trump is getting to the end of his rope with the Ayatollah, realizing that Houthis must stop striking Israel.
Trump put Ayatollah on notice about its nuclear enrichment program, raging out of control since Trump cancelled former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] curtailing Iran’s nuke program. Trump cancelled the JCPOA when the Ayatollah kept ordering the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh airport. Now the Houthis start firing missiles at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, thinking Netanyahu and Trump would sit idly by. Whatever role Ayatollah plays in Houthi terror attacks on commercial shipping the Red Sea, it can’t continue, nor can attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. Netanyahu views Iran as directly responsible for the Houthi strikes on Israel. It wasn’t that long ago when Netanyahu bombed Iran’s air defense systems in Tehran. Houhis won’t stop until Ayatollah decides the price for Tehran is too great.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
