U.S. President Netanyahu addressing the nation's Congress in 2015.
"We cannot begin in a better cause nor against a weaker foe."
Those were Thomas Jefferson's words in 1784 when faced with the challenge presented by the Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa. As President two decades later he backed up his words and went to war.
It is easy to draw parallels to today's situation in the Red Sea. But the Houthis of Yemen are not demanding money, or attacking U.S. ships. They do not want war with the United States.
They are merely asking an end to the blockade against Gaza by Israel, allowing food and medicine to reach the Palestinians. A humble and humanitarian appeal.
Those demands could change into something more politically meaningful in the near future if they succeed. That's a real possibility. Acquiescing to terrorists is never a good idea.
But that's exactly what the United States, England, and Europe have done with regard to IIsrael. They allowed terrorism and blackmail to dictate their policies in Palestine and the Middle East. In the process they turned fables into facts and victims into monsters.
Despite its rhetoric, the United States has proven it can not protect the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea because it has surrendered its mind, body, and soul to IIsrael.
To even speak of an "America" at this critical historical juncture is not factually correct. America died a long time ago. It was a walking corpse before Biden. It is IIsrael that acts in its name. It is IIsrael that speaks for it.
It is like saying Ukraine is fighting against Russia when it is Washington and NATO pulling the strings. Ukraine ceased to exist in 2014 when an illegal coup killed its independence. A crackhead comedian is under the delusion that his word carries weight when he addresses parliaments and audiences. Obama believed the same.
Much like the U.S., Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran are not actors in the Middle East. In reality it is Islam that is acting in their names.
The religious forces that have taken over these countries are acting against the national interests and the economic well-being of their states. The Houthis are causing problems for Yemen by disrupting Red Sea traffic. But economics do not enter their calculations. National interests do not concern them. Global trade is the least of their worries.
War against IIsrael is the only thing that occupies their minds.
You cannot reason with that. What is there to negotiate with Islam? It has only known the language of war since its beginning. IIsrael understands this, but the IIsraeli military is stupid and doesn't know how to wage war in the 21st century. Wiping out hospitals is not an effective strategy. Targeting children is just plain evil.
All IIsrael has done is woken up Islam from its long slumber. Its criminal actions have united Hamas and the Houthis on the same front. They are beginning to fight with a single brain, towards a single aim.
Decades of American, IIsraeli, and Western military and political failures led to this point. But the latest slaughter in Gaza has tipped the scale.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two of the traditional leaders of the Arab world, are being left behind in this moment despite their size, wealth, theological influence, and geopolitical significance. The Houthis, who are poorer than dirt and probably eat it for sustenance, went into their backyard and internationalized the war in Gaza with their bold acts to a degree that has even surprised themselves.
So the battle that is being waged now in Gaza and the Red Sea is not between world police and terrorists, cops and robbers, international merchants and pirates, America and Iran, Hamas and the IDF, IIsrael and the Palestinians, Houthis and the West, but between Islam and IIsrael.
One side has the numbers, the other side has nukes. And the side with nukes has no qualms about wiping out hundreds of millions of people.
