Israel does the dirty work that the West is scared to do.
Anyone who wishes to see a stable and safe Middle East needs to stand against Iran’s axis of evil, and support Israel’s fight against Iran and its proxies — in Yemen, in Gaza, in Lebanon, everywhere.
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In the early hours of Friday morning, an apparently upgraded Houthi drone evaded Israel’s defenses — for reasons thus far ascribed by the IDF to “human error” — and exploded in Tel Aviv, striking an apartment bloc and killing a 50-year-old Israeli, Yevgeny Ferder.
The Houthis, another of Iran’s terror proxies avowedly seeking to destroy Israel, declared that this marked a “new phase” in their operations against Israel.
The Israeli Air Force also marked a new phase, striking the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen on Saturday.
Hitting facilities over 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) away, the strike was among the most complicated ever carried out by Israel, the IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said. The strike, carried out by dozens of Israeli aircraft, targeted fuel depots and energy infrastructure at the port, in addition to cranes.
According to the military, the strike on the fuel depot was a major blow to the Houthi economy, and the cranes being taken out of service prevents the group from bringing in more Iranian weapons via the port that have been used to target Israel, along with commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.
Saturday’s strike on Hodeida Port used more force than the Israeli Air Force needed, aimed at sending a message of deterrence as well as causing financial damage to the Iran-backed group and impeding its ability to import weapons.
Strikes carried out by an American-led coalition in Yemen have only targeted Houthi military infrastructure, and not sites that are also used by civilians, such as the Hodeida Port, which is also used to bring in humanitarian aid to the war-torn country in addition to Iranian weapon shipments.
The Israeli Air Force believed that the strike would project a message to Israel’s enemies, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah, that Israel is capable and willing to target dual-use civilian-military infrastructure, and carry out what could be considered disproportionate responses to attacks.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it on Saturday night, “Anyone who wishes to see a stable and safe Middle East needs to stand against Iran’s axis of evil, and support Israel’s fight against Iran and its proxies — in Yemen, in Gaza, in Lebanon, everywhere.”
And yet, this is not the only daring mission executed by Israel since the Hamas-led October 7th massacres.
While U.S. officials kept publicly insisting that Iran had nothing to do with the October 7th pogrom, Israel allegedly assassinated several Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders on April 1st at an “Iranian consulate building” in the Syrian capital of Damascus, including two generals (one of whom was considered an “architect” of October 7th).
And immediately after October 7th, Western officials tried for weeks to convince the Israelis against a ground incursion into Gaza to go after Hamas, claiming that the IDF would lose 20 soldiers per day. (The actual number is closer to 1.5 per day.)
Whereas the West should be championing Israel’s bravery against Islamist terrorism — which we know does not start and end against Israel, a member of the West — countless Western officials (and everyday citizens) have been both-sides-ing this conflict from the early days of this war to “play it safe.”
Perhaps they are unaware that “playing it safe” is the riskiest bet of all. Not choosing to deal with issues when they are small or at least manageable leads to being forced to deal with bigger, more complicated issues whose outcomes could likely be far worse.
Of course, geopolitics is not as simple as I just made it sound. There are many factors with regard to why the West has been timid about unequivocally supporting Israel in its campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah (that both these terror groups started).
For example, Qatar (one of Hamas’ chief sponsors) supplies Europe with 5.3 percent of its gas. And the Qataris have endless money, not to mention global aspirations. Sounds like a conspiracy theory? Here is an interesting nugget from The Washington Post in 2015:
“Qatar’s real estate investment arm decided in 2010 to pump $650 million into City Center, becoming the main owner of the $1 billion project on the site of the District’s old convention center in Northwest Washington, D.C.”
“Qatar had never invested in D.C. real estate before. And its spending spree didn’t stop there. The Qataris also invested in Chicago, where their Al Faisal Group last year bought the Radisson Blu Aqua hotel.”
“This year (2015), Qatar bought Current TV for $500 million, hired 800 journalists, and launched Al Jazeera America, vastly expanding the TV news operation’s presence in the United States.”1
Note the two areas Qatar invested: Washington, D.C. and Chicago, former President Barack Obama’s de facto hometown where he was a senator. And Current TV was owned by Al Gore, who served as Bill Clinton’s vice president.
To add insult to injury, The Clinton Foundation received a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state under Obama — and she did not inform the State Department, even though she had promised to let the agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign governments.2
Hence why Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, did not challenge Obama on the ISIS and Hamas funding source in Qatar. And there is a saying in Washington, D.C. If you walk by the Qatari embassy, your pockets will grow.
Qatar has also spent many millions on public relations firms in the U.S. and other Western countries, in addition to becoming the top foreign donor to American universities, “gifting” some $4 billion since 2001.
It has also donated to top U.S. high schools, politicians, journalists, businesses, and think tanks of all political variations, including the Brookings Institution and Atlantic Council. Salem Ali, a visiting fellow at Brookings’ Doha Center, said that in his job interview he was told he could not take positions critical of Qatar.
In addition to hosting and funding terror groups, Qatar features the largest American military presence in the Middle East, in large part because the Qataris agreed to invest $1 billion to help the Americans build it in the 1990s thanks to then-President Bill Clinton.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have offered to move the American military base to their countries, but two years ago, President Joe Biden announced that Qatar would be designated a “major non-NATO ally,” a designation shared by a select few countries, including Israel. And former U.S. President Donald Trump was not much better. One day after calling Qatar a sponsor of terrorism, he sold them $12 billion worth of weapons.
In Europe, the situation is equally disturbing. Last year, for instance, French investigators scrutinized the activities and compensation of advertising executive François de La Brosse, who received payments from Qatar several years after his work for the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Let’s also recall the purchase of football club Paris Saint-Germain by the Qatar Sports Investments in 2011, when Sarkozy was president, and by the hypothesis of a corrupt deal sealed the previous year, during a lunch organized at the Elysée Palace attended by Sarkozy and the current Emir of Qatar, Tamim Al Thani.3
This past December, the European Union unveiled a proposal to curb political interference by foreign governments, put forward ahead of EU elections happening in June of this year, amid concerns that outside actors such as Russia may attempt to interfere.4
The package needs approval from EU countries and the European Parliament, which is embroiled in a foreign influence scandal that has been dubbed “Qatargate.” Belgian authorities have been investigating alleged bribes said to have been paid by Qatar and Morocco in an attempt to steer some of its deliberations.
This past January, the U.S. quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at the sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited the base in December and thanked the Qataris for their increased spending on the base.5
Meanwhile, Qatar paraded a deal it brokered about in January to have much-needed medicine sent to the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Turns out, the medicine was never delivered to them. A month after the deal, the Qataris (who tried to profit off this scam by using it as “good PR”) claimed that the medicine was finally delivered — only after the IDF found that this much-needed medicine did not reach the hostages.
“The fact is that it’s not just Hamas holding the hostages,” wrote Seth Frantzman, a Middle East security analyst. “From the very beginning, the real culprit behind October 7th is not in Gaza, but abroad. October 7th was planned to benefit not Gaza or Israel, which are the main victims, but rather for the benefit and profit of those who host Hamas.”6
Iran is another one of these culprits. It funds terror proxies across the Middle East — including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — with the goal of exacting violence, destruction, and death on (Western) countries and entities standing in the Iranian way of realizing a hegemonic Caliphate in the Middle East (and perhaps elsewhere).
Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden during their time in the White House, as well as their Western partners, lifted sanctions that were crippling the Iranian economy, even as the Iranians continued to pursue their nefarious nuclear weapons program.
Why were the sanctions lifted? Perhaps because Iran was threatening a regional war against the West in the Middle East — a common tactic for countries in economic despair — which would have been fought in several of the region’s countries because of all the Iranian proxies, making such a war challenging to manage and contain for the opponent.
Israel, having already pulled off a successful attack against another Middle Eastern country in pursuit of nuclear weapons, has for years been encouraging the West to attack Iran directly.
In 1981, Israel conducted airstrikes against an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor named Osiraq, located 17 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Baghdad, in what is known as Operation Opera — and that did not lead to a war.
Thus, a Western assault on Iran’s nuclear ambitions would have served as legitimate deterrence and a stark warning to Iran’s oppressive, anti-Western Islamic fundamentalist regime. Even Ehud Barak, the leftist former Israeli prime minister, tried to convince the Obama administration to act militarily against Iran, saying:
“You could bomb from 50,000 feet. Nothing in Iran’s arsenal can shoot that high. You could destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities without interference or fear of losing a single plane. One hour of bombing and it’s over!”7
Instead, the West has done a lot of talking but not so much doing in combatting the Islamist war against it. Israel, meanwhile, fully understands the threat and for years has demonstrated a willingness and capability to undertake the “dirty work” that the West seems scared to do.
While these actions are often contentious and fraught with ethical dilemmas, they underscore a determination to ensure the Jewish state’s survival in a hostile environment.
Western nations, particularly in Europe and North America, have historically had the luxury of geographical buffers and alliances that offer a layer of protection against immediate threats — and yet, the tremendous rise in unfiltered immigration and international communications like social media make these buffers increasingly insignificant.
When the West decides to wake up to this reality — hopefully sooner than later — at least they will have a willing and capable partner in Israel.
“Qatar is suddenly investing heavily in the U.S., bankrolling D.C.’s City Center, other projects.” The Washington Post.
“Clinton’s charity confirms Qatar’s $1 million gift while she was at State Department.” Reuters.
“Investigators look into Sarkozy PR adviser from 2007 presidential campaign.” Le Monde.
“EU Looks To Crack Down On Foreign Interference Ahead Of Elections.” Barron’s.
“US quietly reaches agreement with Qatar to keep operating largest military base in Middle East.” CNN.
Seth Frantzman on X
“The Iran Delusion.” The Free Press.
Joshua, what can I say? This was the most fulfilling and satisfying article to date. The swamp is so deep and not just in the US but globally. I'm going to reread it tomorrow and have fun continuing to connect the dots of the money trail, which seems to always find its way back to Qatar. I am confident Israel will continue to retaliate and show strength to these groups and Iran. The Middle East only respects strength, and the US has been a weak and willing target for them Am Yisrael Chai! Thank you again for providing this eye opener of the absolute corruption that permeates geopolitics.
Israel always had taught the west that the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist