Currently, the Yemeni city of Aden is controlled by the Transitional Council: one of the military groups fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The Council is now in the process of destroying a Jewish cemetery for a major residential construction project. Edy Cohen comments:

The construction project will bring about the final erasure of the last remnants of the Jewish community in Aden, whose roots are considerably older than Islam itself.

In the 20th century, the [Jewish] community, which numbered over 7,000 in the mid-1940s, lived under British control, but the [1947] UN Partition Resolution resulted in widespread riots. On December 2, 1947, 82 Jews were murdered and dozens wounded, and most of the Jewish businesses in Aden were looted. Synagogues were burned and hundreds of Jewish homes were looted and torched. The murdered Jews were most likely buried in the Jewish cemetery in the city center that is now being destroyed.

By 1965, the community had dwindled to about 450 souls, but two years later, after the Six-Day War and on the eve of the British evacuation a few months later, not a single Jew remained. Those who left had no choice but to leave their property behind.

Who will stop this act of profound disrespect to the dead? . . . Recently, members of the World Islamic Union visited Auschwitz in an effort to [improve relations between] Jews and Muslims. Muslim condemnation of the Aden destruction, which is contrary to the provisions of Islam, would strengthen that goal. In addition, the Transitional Council in Yemen has good relations with the United Arab Emirates, which is known for its efforts to promote religious tolerance. It is time for someone to act so the Jews of Aden can continue to rest in peace.

Examining the effects of Iran’s decision to launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, Benny Morris takes stock of the Jewish state’s strategic situation:

The massive Iranian attack has turned what began as a local war in and around the Gaza Strip and then expanded into a Hamas–Hizballah–Houthi–Israeli war [into] a regional war with wide and possibly calamitous international repercussions.

Before the Iranians launched their attack, Washington warned Tehran to desist (“don’t,” in President Biden’s phrase), and Israel itself had reportedly cautioned the Iranians secretly that such an attack would trigger a devastating Israeli counterstrike. But a much-humiliated Iran went ahead, nonetheless.

For Israel, the way forward seems to lie in an expansion of the war—in the north or south or both—until the country attains some sort of victory, or a diplomatic settlement is reached. A “victory” would mean forcing Hizballah to cease fire in exchange, say, for a cessation of the IDF bombing campaign and withdrawal to the international border, or forcing Iran, after suffering real pain from IDF attacks, to cease its attacks and rein in its proxies: Hizballah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

At the same time, writes Morris, a victory along such lines would still have its limits:

An IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a cessation of Israeli air-force bombing would result in Hizballah’s resurgence and its re-investment of southern Lebanon down to the border. Neither the Americans nor the French nor the UN nor the Lebanese army—many of whose troops are Shiites who support Hizballah—would fight them.