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War

Houthis: The United States Will Pay a ‘Heavy Price’ for Biden Strikes in Yemen
Which begs the question: is U.S. involvement in Israel's war actually making Americans safer?

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On Friday, the Shiite Houthi terrorist organization issued a dire threat against American President Joe Biden, stating that he will “pay a heavy price” for approving airstrikes against Houthi assets in Yemen alongside the United Kingdom.

Thursday marked the joint declaration by the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defense that they had successfully orchestrated dozens of strikes against strategic Houthi targets with the objective of constraining the terrorists’ capacity to disrupt global shipping. In October, the Houthis, who assert their legitimacy as the Yemeni government, initiated hostilities against Israel in retaliation against the bombing campaign in Gaza.

The Houthi group declared its intention to initiate actions against commercial vessels “connected to Israel” in the vicinity of Yemen. The term “connected to Israel” is applied liberally to any vessel belonging to the United States, as the U.S. is typically seen across the Middle East as Israel’s primary partner and facilitator.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Suez Canal—critical international maritime routes—lies in the waters offshore of Yemen. Consequently, between January 2023 and January 2024, commercial shipping traffic in the region decreased by 90 percent annually, inundating African ports with vessels en route around the Cape of Good Hope.

In 2021, under the administration of President Joe Biden, the Houthis were removed from the list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations maintained by the State Department. Biden authorized an agreement in September, just prior to the Hamas attack on Israel, to unfreeze $6 billion worth of Iranian assets in exchange for Iran’s release of five American hostages. It was emphasized by the Biden administration that “This does not constitute a ransom.”

“Washington and London must acknowledge responsibility for aggravating the situation at the Red Sea, and the militarization of the body of water,” Brigadier General Abdullah bin Amer, a Houthi leader in the terror group’s “Moral Guidance Department,” said on Friday, according to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV. “They must be ready to embrace a heavy price, and bear all the deleterious consequences of this open aggression.”

Bin Amer promised that the Houthis would “target their bases across the region in case the United States and the United Kingdom increase their attacks.” He also insisted the Houthis would continue their “operations in the Red Sea,” meaning the disruption of international commercial shipping.

An additional Houthi spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, verified the airstrikes on Friday, stating that the United States and the United Kingdom bombed 73 Houthi strategic assets without specifying what was targeted.

“The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered and unpunished,” Saree warned.

Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi political leader, was quoted as saying, “Washington and London must prepare to pay a heavy price. Our country came under sneak and massive air, ship and submarine strikes. Doubtless, the attacks will cost them dearly.”

The British Ministry of Defense offered information on their bombing campaign, saying “One was a site at Bani in north-western Yemen used to launch reconnaissance and attack drones. A number of buildings involved in drone operations were targeted by our aircraft.”

“The other location struck by our aircraft was the airfield at Abbs,” the Defense Ministry statement continued. “Intelligence has shown that it has been used to launch both cruise missiles and drones over the Red Sea. Several key targets at the airfield were identified and prosecuted by our aircraft.”

“Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen,” President Biden said in his own statement, “used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.”

Are Joe Biden and the Neocons Leading the US into a Major War in the Middle East?
American officials told HuffPost that Biden cannot be reined in and that Israeli officials are "absolutely determined" to start a conflict in southern Lebanon.

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In light of the Israeli assault on Gaza, which has escalated tensions in the Middle East, US officials are cautioning that President Biden’s decisions may precipitate a major regional conflict.

US officials told HuffPost that the repercussions could be catastrophic should Israel incite a full-scale conflict in southern Lebanon. One official stated,  “Every scenario shows this would escalate into something terrible… whether in terms of counterterrorism or war with Iran.”

Many members of the Biden administration, according to the official, feared that unwavering US support for Israel might inspire Israeli authorities to expand their operations into Lebanon. Israel substantially worsened the situation last week when it executed a drone strike in Beirut, resulting in the demise of a high-ranking Hamas representative engaged in hostage negotiations.

“I’ve been trying to keep an avalanche from falling on Lebanon and so have a lot of people,” the US official said. “The problem is no one can rein in Biden, and if Biden has a policy, he’s the commander-in-chief ― we have to carry it out. That’s what it comes down to, very, very, very, unfortunately.”

According to another US official, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer are “hell-bent on seizing this moment to expand the war into southern Lebanon and deliver some mythical imagined death blow to Hezbollah.”

Although the United States dispatched Amos Hochstein, Biden’s Israeli-born energy envoy, in an effort to mediate a diplomatic resolution between Israel and Hezbollah, there has been no advancement thus far.

administration is formulating a response strategy for a “protracted regional conflict.” The Israeli offensive against Gaza is not limited to Lebanon; the United States and its allies have issued threats to target the Houthis in Yemen for their violations of commercial shipping connected to Israel in the Red Sea. Furthermore, the United States is already embroiled in a low-level conflict with Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, which has the potential to escalate significantly.

President Biden, rather than exerting pressure on Israel to cease its assault on Gaza and defuse tensions with Hezbollah, continues to offer Israel unwavering military and political support while opting for regional escalation. The officials who spoke with HuffPost reaffirmed that the Biden administration does not intend to impose any restrictions on Israeli military aid.

Lindsay Graham Wants US to Blow Portions of Iran ‘Off the Map’
Chickenhawk senator: US should target IRGC bases and oil fields

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In response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has urged the United States to strike Iran, stating that Iranian oil fields and bases should be blown “off the map.”

The famously neoconservative senator asserted that the Houthis would not exist in the absence of Iran. On the contrary, the Houthis, previously referred to as Ansar Allah, are an indigenous group of Zaydi Shia Muslims. Prior to 1962, Zaydi Shia Imams governed the region of north Yemen that is now under the control of the Houthis for approximately a millennium.

“Without Iran there are no Houthis,” Graham told Fox & Friends on Wednesday. “The Houthis are completely backed by Iran. I have been saying for six months now…hit Iran. They have oil fields out in the open, they have the Revolutionary Guard headquarters you can see from space. Blow it off the map.”

Commercial vessels with ties to Israel have been the target of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, and the group has vowed to continue until Israel lifts its siege on Gaza. In response, the United States initiated a military operation; however, it refrained from specifically targeting the Houthis, an action that would have entailed an aerial bombardment of Yemen.

Graham criticized the Biden administration for jeopardizing a peace agreement in Yemen by failing to attack the Houthis. “We’re fighting the Houthis. We beat the Germans and the Japanese. We should be able to beat the Houthis. Secretary Austin and the Biden administration’s failing our troops in the field,” he said.

Graham, a notorious warhawk, has been an ardent supporter of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, having previously stated that the number of civilians Israel can murder is “limitless.” Furthermore, he characterized the state of affairs in Gaza as a “religious war” and advocated for the total destruction of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Netanyahu Declines to Engage in Discussions of Post-War Strategies for Gaza with Security Chiefs
The Israeli leader has expressed his goal of a continuous Israeli military presence in Gaza without a predetermined expiration date.

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Israeli media sources indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined pleas from his senior military and intelligence officers to engage in discussions over potential strategies for the Gaza Strip at the conclusion of a conflict.

According to a report from Israel’s Channel 12, Netanyahu declined three distinct appeals made by the leaders of Mossad, Shin Bet, and the Israeli Defense Forces. “Time is running out and decisions need to be made already about how to act with regard to all the relevant actors inside and outside the Gaza Strip. The Americans want explanations,” an anonymously Israeli security source said.

Netanyahu’s office stated that he had directed his senior aides to make preparations for initial discussions regarding the matter. Netanyahu’s rejection to engage in conversation about the subject coincides with Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s minister for strategic affairs, being in Washington and scheduled to meet with senior US officials to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The United States and Israel hold divergent perspectives on the future of Gaza after the conflict. The Biden administration advocates for a rejuvenated Palestinian Authority to assume control, whilst Netanyahu has openly dismissed this proposition. The Israeli leader has often expressed his aim for an indefinite Israeli military presence in Gaza.

There is also a significant divergence between the United States and Israel about Israel’s ongoing military activities in Gaza. US authorities have recommended that Israel conclude the ongoing phase of the war, characterized by frequent airstrikes and ground operations, and instead adopt a more focused strategy targeting the leadership of Hamas.

Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities have declared that military activities in Gaza are intensifying and have committed to a prolonged duration of the offensive. According to data from Gaza’s Health Ministry, the ongoing Israeli operation, supported by the United States, has resulted in the death of more than 21,000 Palestinians, including over 8,000 children. It is important to note that these figures are considered to be a conservative estimate.

Netanyahu is motivated to persist with the offensive because his political future is at risk as a result of intelligence shortcomings that allowed the October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel to occur. The Israeli leader has faced significant backlash for his approach of supporting Hamas in order to hinder the establishment of a Palestinian state. According to polling data, a significant proportion of Israelis are in favor of Netanyahu stepping down following the conclusion of the conflict.

Suspicious Israeli Stock Market Activity Suggests Possible Foreknowledge of Conflict

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The results of a recent academic study are startling and controversial, to say the least. The precarious Israeli stock market activity observed in the days leading up to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 suggests that a specific, nameless entity possessed knowledge of the impending assault and exploited the ensuing hysteria for personal gain.

The paper, authored by Robert J. Jackson Jr. and Joshua Mitts of New York University School of Law, concludes that unidentified individuals were cognizant of the impending operation and intended to illicitly profit, as evidenced by a “significant spike” in short selling of listed Israeli companies. By short selling, or shorting, investors wager that a particular stock will underperform and profit if their prediction is accurate.

Contrary to conventional trading, shorting is an exceedingly uncommon practice, and justifiably so. Numerous investment advisors caution against the practice under all circumstances, as breaches of projected poor performance can result in enormous losses. Remarkably, the researchers discovered that the volume of short selling on Israeli companies in the days leading up to October 7 “far exceeded short selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis, including the recession following the financial crisis, the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Now, Israeli authorities are investigating the allegations made by the U.S. researchers.

As per Reuters:

Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks, which triggered a war nearly two months old.

“Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,” they wrote, citing short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that “suddenly, and significantly, spiked” on Oct. 2 based on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

“And just before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased dramatically,” they wrote in their 66-page report.

The TASE subsequently directed Reuters to the Israel Securities Authority, which issued the following statement: “The matter is known to the authority and is under investigation by all the relevant parties.”

The securities regulator’s spokesperson refrained from providing further details, and the Israeli police did not respond promptly either.

They wrote that Leumi (LUMI.TA), the largest bank in Israel, generated profits of $3.2 billion shekels ($862 million) from the additional short-selling of 4.43 million new shares sold short between September 14 and October 5.

“Although we see no aggregate increase in shorting of Israeli companies on U.S. exchanges, we do identify a sharp and unusual increase, just before the attacks, in trading in risky short-dated options on these companies expiring just after the attacks,” they said.

“Our findings suggest that traders informed about the coming attacks profited from these tragic events, and consistent with prior literature we show that trading of this kind occurs in gaps in U.S. and international enforcement of legal prohibitions on informed trading.”

The academics concluded: “Our evidence is consistent with informed traders anticipating and profiting from the Hamas attack.”

Aside from concerns regarding the paper’s potential to skew profit totals, this finding is exceedingly persuasive. A multitude of datasets examined extensively demonstrate that there was, in fact, a “significant spike” in short selling immediately preceding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – and one that was extremely dubious, to say the least.

Prior to the attack, the shorting of dozens of Israeli companies listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange “significantly increased.” From September 14 to October 5, 4.43 million new shares were shorted on a single company. Additionally, just prior to the attacks, there was an “abnormal and sudden increase” in U.S. exchanges in the volume of extremely risky short-dated options placed on Israeli equities. These options expired almost immediately after the attack began.

A graph showing shorting of the Israeli stock exchange ETF pre-Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, as part of the wider market

In a similar vein, the shorting of the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which is a passive investment vehicle that mirrors the overall performance of the Israeli stock exchange, “suddenly, and significantly, spiked.” on October 2. In the 3,570 trading days preceding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, this was the 30th-highest daily shorting volume ever witnessed by the ETF, according to the authors. In other terms, it was one of the largest wagers placed since 2009 on the underperformance of the Israeli stock exchange.

Israeli stock shorting at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which momentarily precipitated one of the largest global stock market catastrophes in history, was “significantly” dwarfed by this shorting. A “largest intraday trading decline ever recorded” occurred in March 2020, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 2000 points, evaporating trillions of dollars from the global economy.

The authors’ conclusion is unsurprising.

“It is extremely unlikely that the volume of short selling on October 2nd occurred by random chance.”

The identification of “similar patterns” in the trading of the Israeli ETF in April 2023, precisely when Hamas was reportedly preparing to launch a similar attack, is an additional compelling finding. The strike, which had been scheduled to closely mirror the events of October, was canceled when Tel Aviv publicly issued a national alert level in response to Israeli intelligence agencies gaining advance notice.

Shorting activity on the Israeli ETF since October, 2022

The attack was timed to start on the eve of Passover, April 5. Two days earlier, the shorting of the Israeli ETF “peaked…at levels very similar to those observed” on October 2. The recorded volume “was far higher (by an order of magnitude) than other days prior”:

This evidence strengthens the interpretation that the trading observed in October and April was related to the Hamas attack, rather than random noise.”