In 1520s, a man named David Ha-Reuveni traveled through Europe purporting to be the son of a Jewish king in a distant land who ruled over three of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Reuveni was received in European courts, and his grandiose plans sparked messianic fervor among Jews, as well as the conversos of Iberia and their children—children like Solomon Molcho, who became Reuveni’s most devoted follower. Joel Davidi Weisberger writes:

[Reuveni] first made his appearance in Venice in 1523, claiming to be the commander-in-chief of his father’s army, and requested aid from the local Jewish community. Although most regarded him with suspicion and even derision, he did gain a measure of support among notable members of the community who helped him gain an audience with the Pope Clement VII at Rome. His proposition was nothing short of astonishing: an alliance between the forces under his command and those of Western Christendom—in other words, a joint Jewish-Christian Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from Islamic rule.

[In] 1525 Reuveni was in Portugal where King John III received him as an official ambassador. Reuveni’s appearance in the city spread like wildfire and fired the imagination of Jews and Christians alike. Particularly smitten by him were the so-called marranos, those Jews who had been forced to live outwardly as Christians but secretly held on to their Jewish heritage. One of them, Diogo Pires, met Reuveni and asked to be circumcised. Reuveni, probably fearing for the success of his mission, dissuaded the young man.

But Pires circumcised himself and took on the Hebrew name Solomon Molcho. Reuveni, aghast at the young man’s audacity, urged him to flee the country, which he did. Most scholars agree that he studied Kabbalah for a time in Salonika, [then part of the Ottoman empire], under the tutelage of Rabbi Joseph Taitazak. There . . . Molcho gathered a group of devotees and it was there that he published his first book of sermons.

Molcho later returned to Christian Europe and, in 1532, was burned at the stake in Mantua. While the rabbinic scholar Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo of Crete and the German Jewish communal leader Josel of Rosheim remembered Molcho as a dangerous crank, the greatest halakhist and mystic of their day, Rabbi Joseph Caro—who may have met Molcho in Salonika—viewed him as an inspiration and a model of righteous martyrdom,

Last Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of a Saudi-led alliance’s intervention in the Yemeni civil war, intended to defeat the Iran-backed Houthi militia that had overthrown the previous government. In the wake of the rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, diplomats are hoping that the talks between the Saudis and the Houthis—which have been ongoing since last summer—will finally succeed in ending the war. To Nadwa Al-Dawsari, such an outcome seems highly unlikely:

The Houthis’ military gains have allowed them to dictate the path of international diplomacy in Yemen. They know Saudi Arabia is desperate to extricate itself and the international community wants the Yemen problem to go away. They do not recognize and refuse to negotiate with the [Riyadh-supported] Presidential Leadership Council or other Yemeni factions that they cast as “Saudi mercenaries.”

Indeed, even as the Houthis were making progress in talks with the Saudis, the rebel group continued to expand its recruitment, mobilization, and stockpiling of arms during last year’s truce as Iran significantly increased its weapons shipments. The group also carried out a series of attacks. . . . On March 23, the Houthis conducted a military drill close to the Saudi border to remind the Saudis of “the cost of no agreement and further concessions.”

The Houthis are still part and parcel of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance.” With the Houthis gaining international political recognition, . . . Iran will have a greater chance to expand its influence in Yemen with the blessing of Western powers. The international community is eager for a “success story” in Yemen, even if that means a sham political settlement that will likely see the civil war continue. A deal with the Houthis is Saudi Arabia’s desperate plea to wash its hands of Yemen, but in the long term it could very well position Iran to threaten regional and international security. More importantly, it might set Yemen on a course of protracted conflict that will create vast ungoverned spaces.

Meanwhile, tensions in Yemen between Saudi Arabia and its ostensible ally, the United Arab Emirates, are rising, while the Houthis are developing the capability to launch missiles at Israel or to block a crucial Middle Eastern maritime chokepoint in the Red Sea.