Houthis | First One Through

It was once called the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

The name made sense at Israel’s founding. Israel fought wars against the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and other Arab states. The conflict was understood principally as one between the Jewish State and the surrounding Arab world.

Then the map changed.

Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979. Jordan followed in 1994. During the horrific Second Intifada, the suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks were overwhelmingly part of a localized war involving Palestinian Arabs. The terminology narrowed accordingly. The Arab-Israeli Conflict increasingly became the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

That description is now inadequate too as the map evolved again over the past several years.

The Abraham Accords fundamentally changed the regional picture. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel. Trade, tourism, investment and security cooperation followed. Other Muslim-majority countries have also maintained or developed relations with the Jewish State.

Yet at the same time, Israel has faced repeated war from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and, increasingly directly, the Islamic Republic of Iran. These forces are separated by borders, ethnicity and even the Sunni-Shiite divide. What connects them is not Arab identity. It is a radical Islamist rejectionism that refuses to accept a sovereign Jewish state in the Middle East.

It is therefore time for the terminology to catch up. This is increasingly the Jihadi-Israel Conflict.

*Ahlam Tamimi, who helped plan and transported the suicide bomber to the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem and now lives in Jordan.*

The term captures the venom, vitriol and violence of Hamas and the armed Islamist movements aligned against Israel. It encompasses Hezbollah and the Houthis and, most importantly, the Islamic Republic of Iran that has armed, financed and supported much of the network surrounding Israel.

It also leaves room to describe the roles of Qatar and Turkey, whose close relationships with Hamas and fierce political hostility toward Israel place them in a very different category from Muslim and Arab governments pursuing normalization.

Most importantly, the new terminology does something the old terminology cannot: it separates Muslims and Arabs who seek peace with Israel from radical Islamists committed to its destruction and the slaughter of Jews.

*Hamas leader calling for slaughtering Jews as a religious Islamic principle*

The dividing line has moved.

And that makes the choices facing Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia especially important. They can move toward a Middle East built around trade and coexistence, or remain trapped in a conflict driven by radical Islamist movements that reject Jewish sovereignty, basic human rights and self-determination.

The conflict has become crystallized for what it likely always was: the Jihadi-Israel Conflict.

The Godfather is a classic in American cinema. The 1972 film won numerous awards including in the Best Picture category. The penultimate scene cemented the script in daring story-telling, as the leading figure, Michael Corleone, set himself as head of the new order.

While Corleone stood in church to be the godfather of a young child being baptised, his hitmen took out the heads of the competing crime families. In doing so, Corleone positioned himself to control the region without challenge.

Perhaps the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia will consider doing something similar to the warlords backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Each group has caused death and destruction, dismantling any chance for a civilized life for residents and neighbors.

Now, as Iran attempts to stop Saudi Arabia from getting nuclear power from the United States, and establishing an alliance with Israel, it has released its dogs of war to inflict brutality and carnage.

To avert mass destruction and set a better course for the Middle East, the troika of US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could take out the leadership of Hamas in Qatar, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Houthis in Yemen. It would send a clear message to Iran that the US has not left the world to a Russia-China-Iran axis, and avert the deaths of many thousands of civilians throughout the region.

In ‘The Godfather,’ it took a “massacre” to get the families to stop killing each other, and ultimately the heads of the crime syndicates paid the price. As the Middle East prepares for a large scale war, the United States may want to send a clear and unmistakable message to Iran that the period of terrorism in the Middle East is over.