The United States has a lot on its plate. Preserving hegemony is not an easy task, and pursuing national interests becomes even harder when other powerful countries set out to regain their former glory.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Both Russia, China, and Iran have all historically had far greater global influence. Some were superpowers for hundreds of years before Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, which later became the foundation of modern Europe.

But even a country as great as the United States has a limit to how many fires it can put out at the same time. Washington's main concern is Ukraine and the encroaching Russian bear that seeks to turn the dissolution of the Soviet Union into a minor inconvenience. As for China, nothing more can be said. The economic monster will soon make the US' technological and military industry look like a joke.

With so many problems, the US views Iran as an annoying fly to get rid of, even at the cost of concessions in Vienna.

The way things stand at the moment, Tehran is in a better bargaining position vis-à-vis the superpowers. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to work some magic with words.

Just a few days ago, he made it clear that sanctions on Iran would remain in place unless it started behaving, and nice words also came out of his mouth at a United Nations Security Council meeting, in which he called on Moscow to change its course of action. My own mother telling me to start behaving did not help, I doubt it will with Putin.

As time goes on, it seems that Washington's magazine is empty of bullets. Diplomacy alone will not solve the crisis unless it is backed by tie-breaking military capabilities. The world is looking at the crown of the Russia-China-Iran triangle, and suddenly the US seems weak and ineffective.

This forlorn situation has not gone unnoticed by Israeli decision-makers either. If that is how our ally will stand by us when the need arises – with words but not actions – perhaps we would be better off taking care of Iran ourselves and cooperating with Russia. After all, the IDF Air Force's freedom of action in the north goes through Moscow.

The Iranians, in turn, understand that time is on their side. They will toughen their stance further and step out of the Vienna talks overjoyed. For the US, this headache is just a bit too much.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post US: Superpower no more? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Saturday was one of those rare moments in life when the masses could finally rally behind a single noble cause: Saving the Moroccan boy Rayan. Such simple acts of kindness might not be the sexiest thing and do not get all the clicks in our ratings-dominated world, and as a result, front pages or news broadcasts will never lead with just feel-good stories. When was the last time you saw a push notification on saving rhinos in Africa? 

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

But on Saturday the entire Arab world rallied behind a single cause: saving a five-year-old who had fallen into a water well.

According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Mohammed's ring got passed on from one khalif to the next. The story goes like this: One day when the ring fell off Khalif Uthman ibn Affan's hand and into a well. He was beside himself, and ordered the water extracted so that the ring could be found. But to no avail. 

This was also the case on Saturday in Morocco. Newscasts opened with updates on the rescue effort. Millions were glued to television screens so that they could follow every development. It was like Big Brother, but with the little brother spinoff.

This was a rare fusion of tradition and modernity, the old meets the new. It had Al Azhar University, the most prestigious Islamic institution, engage in prayers to have him return home safely, while simultaneously it saw thousands of Moroccans take to Twitter with a special hashtag #SavingRayan.

We would have all preferred to see him safe and sound, but despite the sad outcome, his ordeal serves as a reminder that humanity ultimately prevails.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Rare unity thanks to a 5-year-old boy appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Once again, like they have routinely recently, the Houthi rebels tried to fire a rocket at the United Arab Emirates as part of their war against the Saudi-led coalition in the bloody civil war in Yemen. But this time, the rocket was fired at Sunni Abu Dhabi while President Isaac Herzog was visiting.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

The timing can shed some light on how Shiite Islam sees itself as it continues to lead repeated attacks on what it views as the embodiment of evil – Sunnis and Jews.

A brief history lesson: there is one foundational event that every Shiite baby learns about from the moment they are born. In 680, the Muslim world was shaken. Hussein, the son of the fourth Caliph Ali bin abi Talib (and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad) waged a revolt against the Umayyad dynasty. He was attacked and killed in southern Iraq along with many of his supporters. He was beheaded and his head was displayed in Damascus in an event known as the massacre of Karbala. This is the historic moment in which Shiite Islam was born – a branch that changed the Muslim world and would eventually detach itself from Sunni Islam.

Every devout Shiite marks that slaughter every year in special ceremonies that include keening and self-flagellation – in memory of the Shiite tragedy and Hussein's heroism – and many writings and songs curse the Umayyad Dynasty as well as Sunnis in general.

In effect, starting at that moment, a Shiite perception of persecution and a view of themselves as a minority among a Sunni majority, came into being.

To illustrate the power of a symbol, the propaganda leading up the Islamic Revolution in Iran shook the dust off Karbala, to the point where the revolutionaries could be heard crying, "Another Karbala awaits us!"

But what can you do – as time went by, the Shiites amassed political and military strength, and Iran today is not a persecuted minority, but a regional power that cannot be ignored. Even if its octopus tentacles reach some places where Shiites are still a minority and persecuted, like the Houthi rebels in Yemen, it looks like they are more the slaughterers than the slaughtered and kill more than they are killed, and the historic narrative is losing its relevance.

Among Jews, too, the concepts of a persecuted minority and the wandering Jew are alive and kicking, even though for quite a few years – certainly in a sovereign Israel – we simply aren't (although there are some who try to imprint this view, even in our own country).

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The Shiite attack on the Sunni country while the president of the Jewish state was visiting is an attempt to kill two birds with one stone – continue the eternal battle against Sunni Islam and the modern Umayyad Dynasty, and also fight for the self-view of persecution and the legitimacy it gives to the use of violence.

Making struggles and revolts appealing to the international community is closely related to the question of force and justice, and that's a battle the Shiite Houthis want to win. Luckily, the Jewish feeling of persecution did not dictate the president's agenda, and he stayed, continuing his visit as originally planned.

The Shiites and their branches can try to play this game – but we've already won.

The post The double symbolism of the Houthi rocket appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A few days ago, one of the switches on my stovetop broke. In my attempt to find a solution to the problem, I wound up searching the China-based online retail service AliExpress website. Within three minutes, I had found the switch. I spent another minute ordering, and that was it. The switch was on its way, and my stress levels were down. 

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram  

The Chinese are everywhere, not just in online retail. The modern Chinese Empire has grown and now invests billions of dollars in infrastructure across dozens of countries in such a way that will soon set about a new world order. In the Middle East, China is involved in massive smart city projects. God knows how much information is collected through these programs and what can be done with it. In Israel, too, there are various cities that have signed bilateral initiatives with China. Israeli credit companies purchase Chinese technologies, and that is just the beginning.

The Israeli public tends to constantly focus on the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna. One day, we hear Iran has rejected understandings, while the next week, there are US reports of progress in negotiations. Meanwhile, China, according to various forecasts, will overtake the US to become the world's largest economy in 2030. 

You don't need to be a certified sinologist to understand that the balance of power is changing before our very eyes. We are witnessing processes the likes of which we are familiar with from the ancient world. An empire that dominated the world is slowly vacating its spot to another culture and a different political force. Yet the focus remains on Vienna.

Just three days ago, Arab media outlets reported Beijing and Tehran were deepening cooperations as part of a 25-year strategic agreement signed between the two countries last year. All this is happening as the two new besties face sanctions from Washington. 

This strategic agreement is now being implemented. The significance of this is that China is more active than ever in our region and threatening the interests of our ally for years, Uncle Sam.

For us, though, it's business as usual as we talk about the nuclear deal and then talk about the nuclear deal some more. This is almost a case of collective cognitive bias and attention deficit disorder. The obsessive focus on US-Iran ties against the background of the nuclear deal is part of the problem. It would not be an exaggeration to say the Chinese approach to such sensitive information on Israeli civilian and technological infrastructure is a threat to national security. We should pay attention to this instead of digging in deep to something irrelevant. That train has already left the station. 

So, yes, I purchased my stove top switch. Although I appear to have failed to notice that it is not particularly safe, if the product reviews are any indication. Perhaps I also suffer from attention deficit disorder. Fortunately, it won't take me to the edge of the abyss. The Iranian-Chinese abyss, however, is closer than ever.  

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Growing China-Iran ties pose threat to Israel  appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

For several years, Saudi Arabia has tried to deal with the "Believing Youth" – the Houthis from Yemen. In 2015, it invaded Yemen leading a coalition of Arab states in an attempt to curb the pro-Iranian rebels who are backed by the Revolutionary Guards. However, since then, the Saudis have had to deal with domestic terrorism.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Every few days, we hear of another attack on shipping lanes or on land. Just a week ago, Riyadh accused the rebels of hijacking a ship that was carrying medical equipment. The terrorist organization confirmed the attack, claiming it had seized not only medical but also military equipment.

Against the backdrop of historical clashes between the Sunni and the Shiite, as well as the events that turned Yemen into Iran's training ground, the Houthis have applied all means to achieve their goal.

The Believing Youth have launched over 1,300 missiles and UAVs into the kingdom, succeeding in creating noise and anxiety in the Sunni state as a mature and well-run terrorist organization.

And these attacks are just part of the picture. Even on the level of foreign relations, Saudi Arabia is facing complex challenges. There are lawmakers in the United States, both Republican and Democrat, who oppose the supply of American weapons to the kingdom, in part because of the difficult humanitarian situation that has existed in Yemen since 2015, which is likely a result of Saudi Arabia's military capability being exercised in the country, some of which it received from Washington.

It is precisely at this stage that Israel can enter the equation. Not by supplying weapons on the visible plane, but on the basis of the common interest of weakening the Shiite-Iranian axis of which the Houthis are undoubtedly a part.

Over the years, Israel has assisted various Arab countries clandestinely or through intermediaries. Now too, it can find a way to do that. Perhaps, it might even get something in return.

After all, when the United Arab Emirates and Morocco signed normalization agreements with Israel, the Israeli public hoped Saudi Arabia would too. It seems just around the corner, with then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly meeting with Saudi leadership, mediated by Washington.

But Riyadh is not Abu Dhabi or Rabat, because it has a real commitment to the Palestinians.

Perhaps now that Saudi Arabia is suffering severe blows in the domestic and foreign arenas, it is time for Israel to reach out and perhaps secure a normalization deal with another Arab country.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Two birds with one stone appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds Force, must be tossing and turning at night lately. He isn't sleeping well, and not only because he is preoccupied with commanding and funding terrorist activities outside the borders of the Islamic Republic. He certainly remembers that a little over two years ago, an American drone fired a missile at a convoy in which his predecessor – Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the rock star of Iran's intelligence apparatus – was traveling, killing him.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

In hindsight, that incident – unfortunate, for the Iranians – made it possible for Ghaani to step into the most prestigious role in Iranian intelligence, even if in retrospect he was forced to step into the very big shoes of a man who was known as a "living martyr" because of his "nine lives" and the number of attempts on his life he had survived prior to his early demise.

The instructions to kill Soleimani were issued directly by former US President Donald Trump, after intelligence revealed that Soleimani was planning an attack on Americans on Iraqi soil. Israel was also involved, at the intelligence level, in the targeted killing of the engine of Iran's entrenchment in the region and a man who had major potential to destabilize the region. Former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directors, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hyman, said as much.

Ghaani knows that Iran speaks with a forked tongue. Domestically, Iran takes a harsh stance against anyone who dares raise his head or challenge Shiite law. Abroad, Iran sometimes tries to behave like a first-class western democracy. Its performance includes the use of terminology, phrases, and organizations appropriate to a respectable member of the family of nations.

To mark the second anniversary of Soleimani's death, Iran called on the UN to take the necessary steps to condemn the US for the killing, since Soleimani had been on a "diplomatic mission" to Baghdad, and not – heaven forbid – one of his many trips to shore up terrorist groups in Syria and Lebanon that operate as Iranian proxies, whose ultimate goal the organized he headed was named after – Quds [Jerusalem].

For two years, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been promising to avenge the attack on the man who symbolized Iranian heroism. For now, talk is cheap. Two days ago, an attempt to launch Iranian drones at an airbase in Iraq where American forces were located was intercepted. Although the wing of one of the drones bore the words "Revenge for Soleimani," it's not certain that Khamenei imagined that this is how the big revenge that could ease Iran's hurt feelings would turn out, or what benefit he can gain from calling for revenge now, while his representatives are at the nuclear talks in Vienna.

Ghaani will probably continue working to strengthen Iran's position in the Middle East – in Syria, Lebanon, and of course, against the "Zionist occupier." But he also knows that like Soleimani and after him, nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh after him, it's very possible that the day isn't far off when the US or its ally here in the region will decide to speak in a single voice, and he will hear the whistle of a Hellfire missile flying toward his armored car.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Iran is still trying to avenge Soleimani's death appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Mashael AlObaidan will be the first female driver from Saudi Arabia to compete in the Dakar Rally, the Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation confirmed last week.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The 44th edition of the endurance rally in Saudi Arabia held from Jan. 1-14,  is more than 8,300 kilometers (5157 miles) long with a route that traverses deserts and mountains and the duo will drive up to 600 kilometers (370 miles) a day in a taxing schedule.

"To drive on this famous event in Saudi is a dream come true," AlObaidan, 33, said. "I'm doing what I love and I'm receiving so much support from people who say that what I am doing is inspiring a lot of people."

The post Saudi woman to compete in Dakar Rally in historic first appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.