Since Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an apparent Israeli plot, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have been warning of imminent Iranian attacks. One place Israel claims Iran could hit them from is Yemen.
According to The Times of Israel, the IDF deployed air defense batteries around the southern Israeli city of Eilat to face potential attacks from Yemen’s Houthis. The move happened around January 3rd, the one-year anniversary of the US assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Like the US, Israel conflates the Houthis with Iran. But Houthis are a Zaydi Shia group, a different sect than the Twelver Shiism practiced by the mullahs in Iran, so the Houthis hold no allegiance to the ayatollahs.
While Iran openly supports the Houthis politically, it’s not really known how much military support, if any, Iran gives them. What is known is the full-throated military support the US and other Western powers give to the Saudi-led coalition in its war against the Houthis, despite the coalition’s pattern of targeting civilian infrastructure.
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia are often missing this crucial context. In The Times of Israel report, Houthi attacks inside Saudi Arabia were mentioned, but there was no mention of the US-backed Saudi-led war in Yemen that has been raging since 2015. Since the Houthis have their hands full fighting the Saudi coalition, it’s unlikely they would fire on Israel.
And it is not known since when Iran is assisting the Houthis, because it’s pretty clear that the first few years this claim was pulled from thin air by the PR department to shut down public concerns about aggression and famine.(*) It worked very well since the mainstream reduced the conflict to a proxy war with Iran. Unfortunate, nothing to see here. Propaganda does more than tell you who are the good and the bad guys, it also directs your attention – and draws it away. Glenn Greenwald discussed a leaked CIA document about Afghanistan recently which was about just that: how to make people ignore Afghanistan.
(*) there have been UN reports at the time about Iranian involvement. They were worthless.
“Like the US, Israel conflates the Houthis with Iran. The Houthis are also a Zaydi Shia group, a different sect than the Twelver Shiism practiced by the mullahs in Iran, so the Houthis hold no allegiance to the ayatollahs.”
Jason Ditz has also pointed out this fact several times. Israel, along with the US, is never concerned with facts that don’t fit their narrative.
It is nearly impossible for a society to
function once media becomes owned by private interests who are STAKEHOLDERS in international relations. That is — foreign policy of the United States. We have laws that limit an individual’s rights in communicating on US foreign policy that can be perceived as representing US foreign policy.
But when it comes to PRIVATELY owned media, no problem! Media can speak with apparent authority in our foreign policy, spin lies presumably on our behalf, to advance their private views and interests, etc.
We have privatized essentially our foreign policy, as it does not look like Congress ever issued any warnings that those views do not necessarily reflect official stance. Or any evidence exists that our Congress has a mind of its own — outside the lobbies that literally write legislation, or think tanks staffed by corporate preferred eunuchs, or media. Like media owned by Jeff Bezos, Washington Post, who coincidentally owns a chunk of CIA, then conveniently quotes show up in his paper straight from anonymous CIA sources.
Thus — do not expect any CORRECTIONS of fact. Zaidi Yemen has over thousand year history, but if media wants to erase it — calling them Houthis — it can be done. You can spit in the wind with just as much effect as trying to undo the alternate reality our media generates. I have tried on countless occasions to point out this Yemen propaganda. By disallowing real history, media enables such simplification. Houthis=Shia=Iran.
Same with ISIS existence. Past 2017, it did not exist. Once Saudi Arabia defunded Wahhabi establishment support of ISIS structures, the rest was merely clean up of ISIS deluded inconsequential drags of humanity callously used by the masterminds in the name of religion. Now, we and our equally imperial minded allies are using the brand name to field militants for our purposes. Primary purpose is — keep “ISIS” in media, the reason ”we” have to be “there”. Secondary purpose is to insure that local governments and militaries get a black eye. You see — message is — without us you cannot function. And as long as we please — you will not have peace. And third, iy t is to prevent any thoughts of economic development , building of infrastructure connecting the region and trade. Without obeying us — you are nobody.
There are plenty of poor young people without prospects willing to sell their lives for a paycheck.
Thus we have ISIS “in the desert”, an impossibility on all counts, but dutifully repeated by media over , and over again.
Plain questions like WHY, never asked. What do we want from Yemen, from Iraq, Libya or Syria?
Nobody is asking — nobody cares to explain. And we numbed, mindlessly march on.