In Reading Israel, Reading America, Omri Asscher considers the translation of Israeli literature into English and American literature in Hebrew. Yeshua Tolle, in his review, considers the role of America’s short-lived, home-grown, Hebrew literary movement in this story:

[W]hile exemplary writers like Simon Halkin, Abraham Regelson, and Israel Efros crafted sophisticated fiction, poetry, and essays in the language, the audience for Hebrew literature on American shores dwindled.

There was, however, a golden age of Hebrew literature in translation. Between the Holocaust and the smartphone era, more than 2,000 works of Hebrew-language literature were translated into English. Ranking behind only the major European languages, Israeli literature has had an outsized impact on American readers, a fair portion of them Jewish.

The success of Hebrew literature in translation, then, which marks an end of Hebraist aspirations in America, is in no small part due to American Hebrew writers and their intellectual heirs. The absence of a large-scale Hebrew movement may have been necessary for the golden age of Hebrew-language translation in America; but it’s hard to imagine that golden age without the cadre of poets, essayists, reviewers, publishers, and translators who made Hebrew their mission. More literatures than not fail to get anything like the foothold of Israeli literature in the U.S. book market, even those from other closely allied nations. Success spelled their doom; but the Hebraists and American Hebrew writers contributed to a flourishing that secured for modern Hebrew literature a permanent place in American cultural history.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.