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.

Most likely, it was the Israeli Air Force that attacked eastern Syria Monday night, apparently destroying a convoy carrying Iranian weapons. Yoav Limor comments:

Israel reportedly carried out 32 attacks in Syria in 2022, and since early 2023 it has already struck 25 times in the country—at the very least. . . . The Iranian-Israeli clash stands out in the wake of the dramatic events in the region, chiefly among them is the effort to strike a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and later on with various other Muslim-Sunni states. Iran is trying to torpedo this process and has even publicly warned Saudi Arabia not to “gamble on a losing horse” because Israel’s demise is near. Riyadh is unlikely to heed that demand, for its own reasons.

Despite the thaw in relations between the kingdom and the Islamic Republic—including the exchange of ambassadors—the Saudis remain very suspicious of the Iranians. A strategic manifestation of that is that Riyadh is trying to forge a defense pact with the U.S.; a tactical manifestation took place this week when Saudi soccer players refused to play a match in Iran because of a bust of the former Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Suleimani, [a master terrorist whose militias have wreaked havoc throughout the Middle East, including within Saudi borders].

Of course, Israel is trying to bring Saudi Arabia into its orbit and to create a strong common front against Iran. The attack in Syria is ostensibly unrelated to the normalization process and is meant to prevent the terrorists on Israel’s northern border from laying their hands on sophisticated arms, but it nevertheless serves as a clear reminder for Riyadh that it must not scale back its fight against the constant danger posed by Iran.