Iran, reportedly weeks away from a nuclear weapons breakout, is still threatening the "total annihilation of Israel." To that end, the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced "Operation True Promise 3" – another rocket and ballistic missile air assault on Israel. IRGC Major General Ebrahim Jabbari this month said: "Operation True Promise 3 will be carried out at the right time, with precision, and in a scale sufficient to destroy Israel and raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground."
Meanwhile, Qatar, possibly capitalizing on the reluctance of Egypt and Jordan to receive Gazans, seems to be trying to come up with its own peace plan to derail President Donald Trump's. It most likely designed to keep its client, beneficiary and Muslim Brotherhood cohort, Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip. The invaluable website MEMRI reports:
"After World War II, tens of millions of refugees and displaced persons in Europe needed to be resettled, among them Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. The UN and the international community rushed to help them.
"In 1949, there was a new wave of refugees – the Arab Palestinians – that resulted from their failed attempt, along with that of seven Arab states, to destroy the newborn State of Israel. Over the years, there were still more refugees from new regions of crisis – northern Cyprus (1974), Yugoslavia (1990-1992).
"A single global policy for all refugees was set: resettlement in their new locations. But for the Palestinians, another principle was devised – the principle of return to their previous locations, in complete disregard of the State of Israel.
"In order to implement the return of the Palestinians, a special UN agency was created: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNRWA.
"It is no wonder that over the years UNRWA's education system taught children to fight Israel, to allow all Palestinians everywhere in the world to return to it to completely destroy it, and to establish Palestine 'from the river to the sea.' And it is no wonder that UNRWA teachers participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians – women, children, and the elderly.
"The Trump plan has brought all actors back to the 1948 moment. No principle of return. The rules for all other refugees in the world should apply to the Palestinians of Gaza as well. The natural solution for them should have been their rehabilitation in Gaza, not relocating them into Israel. This could have been implemented had there been a guarantee that Gaza attacks on Israel would cease.
"But the Palestinians want to eat their cake and have it too. They want both rehabilitation in Gaza and the implementation of return into Israel through violent means. This has been reiterated by Hamas leaders throughout the war. For example, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said that the 'Al-Aqsa Flood' – the Hamas name for its October 7 massacre, 'was just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.' Adding 'Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs,' he concluded: 'On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do' to eliminate Israel 'is justified.'"
"Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on February 16.
"And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated."
In addition, Houthi leader Abdel Malik pledged in a television address on February 11 address that targets if Israel resumes the war in Gaza, his Yemen-based group will resume attacks on Israeli troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced if the promised hostage release does not materialize as promised, he will order the IDF to resume military operations against Hamas.
Trump explained on February 10 what should happen if Hamas does not free all the hostages:
"As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 o'clock -- I think it's an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I'd say they ought to be returned by 12 o'clock on Saturday. And if they're not returned – all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two – by Saturday at 12 o'clock. And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.
"Saturday at 12, we want them all back. I'm speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but from myself, Saturday at 12 o'clock, and if they're not, they're not here, all hell is going to break out."
Netanyahu, evidently eager to see as many of the approximately 59 remaining hostages --around half of whom are presumed dead -- released as soon as possible before any more are murdered by their captors, did not adopt Trump's position. He warned, however, that if all the hostages were not returned, "the gates of hell will be open."
If the Houthis resume their piratical assaults on international shipping, it is surely an opportunity for the Trump administration to reverse the Biden regime's failure to restrain the group, which Trump recently re-designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Hamas spokesmen have claimed, incorrectly, that Israel has not lived up to its promises "to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid," when in fact the aid was delivered to the border but the United Nations failed to distribute it.
The Houthi threat presumably includes the resumption of its attacks on shipping in the Suez Canal and Red Sea which serves about 12% of world trade and 30% of global container traffic. In November 2023, the Houthis attacked more than 100 vessels, as well as launching drones and missiles toward Israel. Houthi missiles have targeted Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv.
Ships forced to navigate around the southern tip of Africa to avoid Houthi attacks, rather than using the Suez Canal, require roughly an additional ten days, Meanwhile, fuel costs are growing at a prohibitive rate, and insurance companies and shipping businesses have also raised their rates.
Trump's addressing the Houthi threat, in addition to the Iranian one, would be welcomed by the Free World as well as by Egypt, which has lost billions in revenues from the reduced traffic through the Suez Canal.
A Trump decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would go a long way toward making it complicated for its many offshoots to continue supporting it.
Even more urgent is for the Trump administration to neutralize Hamas, Qatar, Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- to limit their ability to keep on destabilizing the entire region, as well as to curtail the Houthis' stranglehold on global shipping. The policy is certainly congruent with the long-held American principle of maintaining the international freedom of navigation.
The move would also send a warning to China not to continue its aggressive effort to gain control of the world's critical sea lines near Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines and Japan.
Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
