Middle East Press On: Israel, Statehood Hypocrisy, Palestine, Israel's Concrete, Iran, Turkiye, West Bank, Israeli Government, Israel's Somaliland, UAE-Israeli Conspiracy, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, New Age Islam's Selection, 3 January 2026
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
3 January 2026
Tis the season to flog Israel
Statehood hypocrisy: Why it's no for Somaliland, Kurdistan, but yes for Palestine
Israel's concrete support to Iranian people will grant partner in hostile neighbourhood
West Bank settler violence is not a fringe phenomenon – it is Israeli government policy
Israel’s Somaliland play against Turkiye doomed to fail
Proxy Regime: Understanding the UAE-Israeli Conspiracy in Yemen, Saudi Arabia
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Tis the season to flog Israel
By DAVID M. WEINBERG
JANUARY 3, 2026
The Western media annually devotes considerable Christmas ink, and many Christian NGOs dedicate their Christmas appeals, to propagating the lie that Christians are under assault by Israelis. And worse still, that Jews are crucifying Christians smack in the heart of Bethlehem.
Not only is this untrue, but it ignores the radical Islamic assault on Christians across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, often with government encouragement and support.
The international media does its best every Christmas season to demonize Israel. For example, Ben White of Middle East Monitor published a filthy piece entitled “Bethlehem Bantustan: Have Yourself an Apartheid Christmas.”
White wrote that Bethlehem is “a microcosm of Israel’s colonization of Palestine.” The refugee camps are home to those expelled from their villages in the “ethnic cleansing” that enabled a majority Jewish citizenry; camps where “Israeli soldiers snatch residents and deploy lethal force” against youth raised in the shadow of the “apartheid, choking wall.”
Harriet Sherwood of The Observer wickedly evoked Biblical and Christian imagery to savage Israeli settlement in and around Jerusalem. She painted a picture of a pastoral “Christian biblical landscape” with “gnarled olive trees,” “bleating sheep and goats,” and “vine covered terraces,” “near the site where angels announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds in a field” – all tended to with love by Bethlehem’s remaining Christian heroes.
She then contrasted this with the evil Israeli security fence – “Eight-meter-high concrete slabs casting a deep shadow, both literally and metaphorically, snaking around most of Bethlehem,” along with the monster “cranes, bulldozers, and concrete apartment blocks” – all of which are “strangulating” the Christian city.
According to Lubna Masarwa and Peter Oborne of Middle East Eye, Christians in Bethlehem face no less than an “existential threat” under Israel’s occupation. And Al-Jazeera – that genocide-against-Israel-supporting radical Islamist propaganda organ – had the chutzpa to publish this week an account of supposed Israeli violence against Christians in Jerusalem and Gaza.
THESE SCREEDS seek to cover up the real reason for Christian decline in Bethlehem: The Palestinian Authority and radical Islam.
It started with Yasser Arafat. Arriving from Tunis, Arafat immediately set out to suppress the Palestinian middle class across the West Bank, which he understood could be the only real opposition to his planned dictatorial authority. He nationalized most business sectors and squeezed Palestinian small businessmen out of business. Especially hard hit was the mainly-Christian middle class of Bethlehem.
Arafat then sidelined the long-time Christian mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, and Arafat’s henchmen led a campaign of terror and intimidation against Christian institutions and families in the city. Land theft, beatings, and intimidation of Christians in Bethlehem by PA security services and other gangs became routine. Forced marriages between Christian women and Muslim men were reported. In 2002, Arafat’s terrorists even took over and defiled the Church of the Nativity for 39 days, holding 200 priests hostage as the terrorists sought to escape Israeli justice.
The result was an inexorable and ongoing Christian exodus from Bethlehem: a city captured by the PA and taken over by a very intolerant strain of Islam.
Nevertheless, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas annually releases a malevolent Christmas message in which he cynically calls Jesus Christ a “Palestinian messenger,” and goes on to blast Israel for denying “millions” of Christians their “right to worship in their homeland.”
This is an ugly attempt to apply replacement theology (in which Christians are said to have superseded the Jews in a covenant with God) to the Palestinian assault on Israel. In Abbas’s reversed and warped world, the Jewish-Christian Jesus has been replaced by a Palestinian Christ, and Christianity is under attack by the Jews, not the Arabs and Muslims.
INSTEAD OF exposing this nasty history, the global media prefers to parrot Abbas’s nonsense and to play up isolated instances of Jewish hooliganism against Christians in Jerusalem. Concurrently, the media and world leaders ignore the systematic, rampant, chronic, and deadly persecution of Christians in the Arab and Islamic worlds.
According to a British report, pervasive persecution of Christians “sometimes amounting to genocide” is ongoing across the Middle East. Millions of Christians in the region “have been uprooted from their homes, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned and discriminated against.”
The report highlights how states, and state-sponsored social media, incite hatred and publish propaganda against Christians, especially in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
The governing AKP in Turkey depicts Christians as a threat to the stability of the nation. Turkish Christian citizens are stereotyped as being not real Turks but rather Western collaborators. The oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, the 5th-century Mor Gabriel Monastery near the Turkish-Syrian border, has been stripped of most of its lands.
More than 600,000 Syrian Christians have been displaced or have fled Syria since the civil war in that country began. Of the more than 80,000 Christians who lived in Homs prior to the uprising, only about 400 remain today. Christians have been massacred and buried in mass graves.
IRAQ HAS lost at least two-thirds of its Christians over the past two decades. An al-Qaida raid on a Baghdad cathedral five years ago resulted in the murder of 44 Christian worshipers and two priests.
In Gaza, Islamic militants have bombed churches, killed prominent Christians, and forced others to convert to Islam. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios tried to speak out against the persecution of Christians but was silenced by Hamas. Any foreign media interested in covering this story?
There are about a thousand documented cases in Egypt of the abduction, torture, rape, enslavement or forced conversion to Islam of Christians. Coptic churches have been bombed on Christmas and New Year’s Day, with flyers circulated calling for the total genocide of Egypt’s Christian Copts. As a result, tens of thousands of Coptic Christians have left.
Churches have also been attacked in recent years in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tunisia. Christians have been threatened with death and imprisonment for “blasphemy” and “apostasy” in Algeria, Bangladesh, Iran, and Pakistan.
My friend Umar Mulinde, an Evangelical pastor from Uganda, has been receiving medical treatment on-and-off for almost two decades at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre following an acid attack that severely burned his face, destroyed his right eye, and damaged his lungs.
Pastor Mulinde, who converted to Christianity and began teaching favorably about Israel after spending much of his life as a Muslim, was attacked on Christmas Eve in 2011 in Kampala. The assailants shouted “Allah Akhbar” as they fled the scene. Since then, his wife and children have been under threat by Ugandan Islamists as well.Have you seen any significant international media coverage of this story?
AS FOR the situation in Israel, well, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is rising (at about one percent per year, currently standing at 184,000, amounting to two percent of the population).For the first time, there is a significant population of non-Arab Christian Israeli citizens, mainly immigrants from the former Soviet Union who, unlike Arabs, are fully assimilated into the Jewish Israeli mainstream. There are newly arrived Roman Catholics, Russian Orthodox, and Ethiopian Orthodox.
Christians in Israel have it good. The percentage of Christian Arabs who graduate high school is higher than that of Muslim or Jewish students, and more than half of Christian students proceed to study at Israeli universities (including more than 60% of Christian Arab women).
But you would not know this from media reports. Instead, you likely would have received the impression that Christians in Israel are under assault by Jews – because of Palestinian propaganda, and because of a few isolated hooligan attacks on Christian clergy and sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.
(Note that every responsible Israeli political and religious leader, including the chief rabbis, has condemned such attacks and apologized profusely in the name of Israel and Judaism.)
None of this has given any pause to anti-Israel churches in North America and Europe who continue their merry Yuletide way of divesting from Israel and otherwise campaigning against it. (‘Tis the season to bash Israel, tralalalala, lalalala…)
They have almost nothing to say, ever, about imprisoned pastors in Iran, Islamic acid-attacks on pastors in Uganda, fire-bombings of churches in Gaza, or the mass expulsion of Christians from Syria. I guess their silence can be explained by the fact that those Christians weren’t assaulted by Jews.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-882027
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Statehood hypocrisy: Why it's no for Somaliland, Kurdistan, but yes for Palestine
By SUZAN QUITAZ
JANUARY 2, 2026
Israel has become the first nation to recognize Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation. Somaliland declared unilaterally independence from Somalia in 1991, a move that led to diplomatic and economic isolation.
Still, this “unrecognized” nation managed to build a relatively stable and functioning civil society compared with Somalia, which continues to struggle with political polarization, declining economy, and terrorism by the Al-Shabaab Islamist group.
Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, described Israel’s recognition as “the happiest day in my life” and a “historic moment,” stating on X/Twitter that it marks the beginning of a strategic partnership aimed at advancing benefits for both countries and strengthening regional peace and security.
President Abdullahi’s happiness was shared by millions of Somalilanders who took to the streets celebrating this milestone achievement. Tens of thousands of videos were uploaded on social media showing their jubilation. Many also posted messages of gratitude to the State of Israel.
As anticipated, the news of the Israeli recognition made a huge eruption on social media. On the one hand, hundreds of thousands of Israelis, Kurds, Emiratis, Moroccans, and other ethnic and religious minorities including Druze took to social media to congratulate the people of Somaliland. On the other hand, an avalanche of the usual Turkish-Islamist-Arabist hateful rhetoric characterized by the denial of the other, conspiracies, and propaganda set the agenda in Ankara, Doha, and Tehran, with their proxies following suit.
Somalia's government describes Israel's action as 'unlawful'
It's fathomable that the first reaction of Somalia’s government would be harshly worded describing Israel’s decision as an “unlawful action,” and that Somaliland is an “inseparable” part of Somalia. What’s staggering is that the leadership of another people fighting to have their own state rejects another people’s desire to have their own.
The announcement by the “State of Palestine” was an unprecedented case of unmatched hypocrisy. The official channel of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a lengthy statement on X categorically and unequivocally rejecting what they called a deliberate attack by Israel.
“The Ministry further stresses that this rejected recognition forms part of Israel’s broader policies, as an occupying colonial power, aimed at destabilizing international and regional peace and security,” it reads. Mustafa Barghouti tweeted that “Israel is the only country in the world that recognized the separatist ‘Somaliland’ in an effort [sic] to destabilize the Horn of Africa and the red sea area [sic].”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu added more fuel to the fire by dishing out the usual Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy against Israel, posting that “Israel’s recognition of Somaliland today is not a distant development, but an alarm bell. It is part of a broader strategy to fragment Islamic countries and neutralize key states through encirclement.”
The Israeli recognition of Somaliland and the opposing camp’s rhetoric against it is a “copy paste” of the Kurdish tragedy. On 25 September 2017, millions of Kurds living in the Kurdish Region in Iraq held an independence referendum, and 93% voted in favour of independence.
The Kurdish region is Iraq’s most advanced and modern one. The Iraqi Supreme Court nullified the results, and one of the key outcomes was the seizure by the Iranian-backed Shia Iraqi government in Baghdad of the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Iran and Turkey threaten the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) with severe sanctions.
The enemies of the Kurds in Baghdad, Ankara, and Tehran said they would take “all means necessary” to prevent the Kurds from establishing their own state. At the time, Damascus stayed out of it, as it was dealing with its own troubles with its ongoing civil war.
ISRAEL WAS the only country that supported the 2017 Kurdish independence referendum. A few years earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “The Kurds have proven a commitment to political moderation, and they are worthy of their own political independence” and that “Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state.”
No surprises here either: The Palestinians – the people who want the whole world to fight for them so that they can have their own state – categorically rejected the Kurdish independence referendum. Saeb Erekat, a long-time peace negotiator and an adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with the Al Arabiya Channel that “Kurdish independence would be a poisoned sword against the Arabs.”
Barghouti described Israel as the only country to “recognize the separatist Somaliland,” and Davutoglu’s Israeli recognition of Somaliland is part of a broader strategy to fragment Islamic countries and neutralize key states through encirclement.
The vocabularies of separatism or agents of Israel are outdated and have been deployed for decades to legitimize the massacres in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq committed against Kurdish civilians over the past decades. Arab, Turkish, and Iranian fascists and Islamists alike have launched vicious campaigns against the Kurds, and always used Israel or The Jews as a scapegoat.
In 1966, then-Iraqi defence minister Abd al-Aziz al-Uqayali blamed the Kurds of Iraq for seeking to establish a “second Israel” in the region. Sixty years later, the term “second Israel” is still perpetuated, claiming Kurdistan is imitating “Yahudistan,” meaning the land of the Jews or Israel.
JUST A couple of weeks ago, Turkish media claimed that the Kurdish-led SDF “is now in Zionist Israel’s lap,” and that it is Israel’s “strategy to divide Syria via the SDF.” Similar rhetoric is now being deployed against the more than six million Somalilanders, using Barghouti’s own words describing them as a bunch of “separatists” and accusing Israel of tearing and dividing, saying that Israel seeks to “destabilize the Horn of Africa.” This is similar to what the late Saeb Erekat said about Kurdish independence as being “a poisoned sword against the Arabs.”
Not long ago, a Turkish newspaper affiliated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ran a “scoop” claiming that the Israeli government is holding clandestine talks with Kurdish leaders in Erbil (Kurdistan-Iraq) to relocate tens of thousands of Israeli Jewish Kurds to the Kurdish region in Iraq. These kinds of conspiracies are a regular occurrence in Turkish, Iranian and Qatari media to appeal to antisemitic elements in their societies.
The majority of Muslim states, including the so-called “State of Palestine” view both Zionism and Kurdish nationalism as projects of Western colonial imperialism. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly accused the US for seeking to create a “new Israel” in the region due to its support of the Kurdish people.
I salute the Israeli government for becoming the first nation to recognize Somaliland. And I am happy to see so many Israelis and Kurds taking to social media to congratulate Somalilanders on this truly historic moment. To my Somaliland sisters and brothers, I offer massive congratulations!
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-882021
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Israel's concrete support to Iranian people will grant partner in hostile neighbourhood
ByDR. IMAN FOROUTAN/THE MEDIA LINE
JANUARY 2, 2026
Members of The New Iran, supporters of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, and activists with more than two decades of political engagement both inside and outside Iran, wish to express their sincere appreciation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consistent support of the Iranian people in their struggle against the Islamic Republic—a regime whose actions have inflicted grave harm on both Iranians and Israelis.
For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.orgExternal link.
In July and August 2025, Netanyahu publicly called on the Iranian people to rise against the Islamic Republic and affirmed that Israel would stand with them in their pursuit of freedom. Today, as the Iranian people once again demonstrate extraordinary courage and resolve, the moment has arrived for the prime minister to give concrete meaning to that commitment.
Across Iran, citizens from all walks of life have risen in open defiance of a regime rooted in a medieval worldview and sustained by a discredited, leftist, and aggressively anti-Western ideology.
From major cities to provincial towns, Iranians have demonstrated unprecedented moral clarity and national consciousness, rejecting both theocratic rule and foreign-imposed dogma.
In the streets, they have openly called for Pahlavi and for the restoration of a nationalist political order grounded in Iran’s authentic historical identity, cultural continuity, and long-suppressed aspirations for freedom and dignity.
The inevitable collapse of the Islamic Republic and the establishment of a sovereign, secular, and constitutional government—one that respects the will of its people, upholds the rule of law, and seeks peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, including a constructive and friendly relationship with Israel—would serve not only the fundamental interests of the Iranian nation but also the long-term security and stability of the wider region.
As an organization active both inside Iran and across the Iranian diaspora, and as committed supporters of the crown prince, The New Iran respectfully urges Netanyahu to employ all appropriate means to provide material and logistical support to Iranians confronting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its vast apparatus of repression.
The Islamic Republic, together with its coercive instruments such as the IRGC and the Basij, has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to spill Iranian blood without hesitation to preserve the rule of the ayatollahs.
These suppressive forces are further reinforced by mercenaries and proxy elements drawn from Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan, intensifying the regime’s capacity for violence against its own people.
Weakening these repressive structures, while enabling Iranians to develop credible self-defence and resilience capabilities, would save countless lives, reduce the likelihood of large-scale bloodshed, and help ensure that Iran’s transition away from tyranny occurs with the least possible human cost.
Netanyahu must keep reshaping Middle East
Netanyahu’s leadership has already played a decisive role in reshaping the strategic landscape of the Middle East, demonstrating both resolve and strategic foresight in the face of persistent threats.
Continued, principled, and resolute support for the Iranian people in their struggle against religious fundamentalism and authoritarian rule can help pave the way for the emergence of a future Iranian state that stands among Israel’s closest, most reliable, and most consequential partners—second only to the United States.
Such a partnership would mark a historic realignment, restoring a natural alliance between two ancient nations bound by shared interests in stability, technological advancement, and regional peace.
By investing in Iran’s future at this critical juncture, Israel would not only earn the enduring gratitude and goodwill of millions of Iranians who have long distinguished between Israel and the regime that claims to speak in their name, but it would also secure a strong, strategic friend in a region that has been dominated by hostility toward Israel for nearly eight decades.
The emergence of a free, sovereign, and pro-peace Iran would fundamentally alter the balance of power in the Middle East, diminishing the influence of extremist actors and creating new opportunities for cooperation in security, energy, trade, and innovation—thereby enhancing Israel’s long-term security and prosperity.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-882138
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West Bank settler violence is not a fringe phenomenon – it is Israeli government policy
By ZIV STAHL
JANUARY 2, 2026
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly dismissed settler violence as the actions of a handful of young people. In a Fox News interview this week, he said the violence was the actions of “around 70 kids from broken homes.” This framing is not only factually misleading; it is also politically convenient.
By reducing organized, systematic violence to a welfare problem involving marginal youth, Netanyahu diverts attention away from the state policies that enable, protect, and even encourage these acts. When violence serves clear political objectives and is met with near-total impunity, responsibility lies with those in power.
According to Yesh Din data, law enforcement against settlers who harm Palestinians is virtually nonexistent: 94% of police investigations are closed without indictment. In many of the police investigation files, there is nothing but the victim’s complaint, with no indication that an investigation was conducted.
Interests and objectives
To understand why settler violence is so widespread and why it is not met with deterrence enforcement, we must examine whose interests it serves and what objectives it achieves.
The answer lies not only on the hilltops of the West Bank, but first and foremost in the Knesset building in Jerusalem. More precisely, it lies with the government that openly declared its intention of annexing the West Bank and applying Israeli sovereignty from the moment it was formed. Their vision of Jewish sovereignty leaves no room for Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump may have recently pushed the brakes on formal annexation, but through violence on the ground and structural and legal transformation, Israel has already annexed the West Bank, both in law and in practice.
Two coordinated arms carry out the implementation of the sovereignty vision.
The first arm is the government, which has seized key centres of power and fundamentally transformed Israel’s control over the West Bank.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, operating from within the Defence Ministry, has effectively become Israel’s minister of annexation. From his office, he is dismantling the legal framework of the occupation by transferring authorities from the military to civilian officials aligned with his ideological agenda.
Accelerated construction and legalization
The Settlement Administration he established promotes accelerated construction, infrastructure development, and the legalization of illegal outposts – all exclusively for Jews. This process is reinforced by massive budgets, land allocations, equipment, infrastructure, and legislation designed to ease dispossession and land seizure.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has taken control of the police, leading a policy of immunity for violent settlers, resulting in a total lack of deterrence and increased violence. Under the cover of war, he also distributed thousands of firearms to settlers, which are now used to intimidate and terrorize - and perhaps even kill.
The second arm operates on the ground. With the aim of taking over as much land as possible, many new outposts are emerging across the West Bank, and violence has increased dramatically.
Settlers’ efforts are directed at expelling communities not only in Area C [60% of the West Bank, under Israeli control], but also in Area B [22%], which is under Palestinian civilian responsibility [and Israeli security control], and sometimes even in Area A [18%], controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
As the government cannot openly and formally lead a policy of ethnic cleansing, it is carried out by outpost settlers using rifles, clubs, and arson. The sharp rise in the frequency and severity of violence is reflected in a growing number of Palestinians killed by settlers – or by soldiers in settler violence incidents. It is also reflected in an increase in organized, mass attacks on Palestinian villages, communities, and towns in which settlers have initiated raids aimed at terrorizing the defenceless population.
With the state's backing
All of this takes place with the backing of state authorities: The police do not investigate, the army does not intervene, and soldiers either protect the attackers or, in the worst cases, join them.
Attacks are intended to empty entire areas of their Palestinian presence and seize their land. Dozens of Palestinian communities have already been forcibly transferred from their homes because they could no longer endure the lethal combination of state oppression and settler attacks.
Settler violence is not spiralling out of control; it is operating exactly as designed. It reshapes the West Bank, clears Palestinians from their land, and advances annexation without a formal declaration.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-882026
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Israel’s Somaliland play against Turkiye doomed to fail
DR. SINEM CENGIZ
January 03, 2026
The deterioration of relations between Turkiye and Israel has now extended beyond the borders of the Middle East and reached the Horn of Africa following Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state. Last week, Israel became the first country to formally recognize Somaliland, describing the move as being in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and a few Arab states. However, the decision sparked strong criticism from Turkiye and several regional powers, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which warned that it could destabilize the Horn of Africa.
Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991 following the collapse of the central government after the civil war. But it has failed to gain recognition from either the UN or the African Union. The Somali government continues to reject Somaliland’s independence, considering it an integral part of its territory, and views any direct engagement with Somaliland as a violation of its sovereignty and unity.
Following the Israeli move, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed travelled to Ankara to meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Although it was a scheduled visit, it took place at a highly critical moment. Turkiye is Somalia’s closest partner in the region and has invested heavily in the country for more than a decade through its political, military, humanitarian and development institutions. High-level leadership diplomacy and strong people-to-people relations have enabled Turkiye to emerge as a key factor in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa.
In 2011, when Somalia faced one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades due to severe drought, Turkiye launched a nationwide aid campaign. That same year, Erdogan became the first foreign leader to set foot in Somalia in more than two decades. Five years later, Ankara inaugurated its largest embassy in the world in Mogadishu, where it appointed its first ambassador back in 1981 and maintained diplomatic presence there since then. These initiatives gave significant momentum to bilateral relations.
Turkiye has since been involved in managing Mogadishu’s airport and seaport, establishing a military training academy and investing in sectors such as energy, trade, education and infrastructure. Today, Turkiye hosts a large number of Somali students. Several Somali ministers were educated in Turkiye and speak fluent Turkish, which makes the roots of the bilateral relationship even stronger.
But Turkiye’s support for Somalia has not come without cost. In 2013, its embassy in Mogadishu was targeted by Al-Shabab, a Somalia-based terrorist group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, in an attack that killed several Turkish nationals. As well as its diplomatic staff, Turkish construction workers have also been attacked on several occasions. There have been systematic attempts to prevent the country’s development and let it remain as a fertile ground for terrorist activities. However, Ankara did not change its Somalia policy and maintained its presence on the ground to support the country’s development.
Moreover, between 2010 and 2013, when neither regional nor international actors were willing to address the dispute between Somalia and Somaliland, Turkiye stepped in as the sole mediator. Istanbul hosted conferences on Somalia in 2010 and 2012, bringing together leaders from both sides. These efforts culminated in renewed dialogue in 2013, when Somali and Somaliland representatives met in Turkiye after years of political silence.
Trilateral meetings were also held with then-Prime Minister Erdogan, leading to the signing of the Ankara Declaration in 2013. The declaration aimed to revive dialogue and establish a framework for advancing the peace process. As part of its role, Turkiye maintains a consulate in Somaliland and has a special envoy for Somalia-Somaliland negotiations, placing it in a unique position to engage with Hargeisa.
Turkiye is highly concerned about preserving Somalia’s territorial integrity, viewing the country’s stability as central to its Africa policy. Somalia has long been regarded as Turkiye’s gateway to the continent. Israel’s recognition of Somaliland poses a direct threat not only to Somalia’s sovereignty and unity but also to Turkish interests and investments in the country. The timing of the move appears linked to Israel’s broader strategy of challenging Turkiye on multiple fronts, from Gaza to Syria, as well as its long-term political and economic interests.
Several reports suggest that Israel aims to relocate up to 2 million Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza to parts of the Horn of Africa. The Somali president warned that such a move would “open a box of evils” and accused Israel of attempting to “export its problem in Gaza” to the region. Citing Somali intelligence, the president stated that Somaliland allegedly accepted three conditions in exchange for Israeli recognition: the resettlement of Palestinians, the establishment of an Israeli military base along the Gulf of Aden and Somaliland’s participation in the Abraham Accords.
Meanwhile, Somalia, as a member of the Arab League, does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. Tel Aviv’s move appears designed to secure a strategic foothold on both sides of the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and comes amid reports that Turkiye and Somalia have been planning to establish another military base in Las Qoray, a port with direct access to the Red Sea.
However, as has often been the case, Israel is pursuing a highly controversial policy that risks destabilizing an already-fragile region and deepening divisions in a country that has suffered from fragmentation for decades. Rather than contributing to security, this misguided decision threatens to open a Pandora’s box in the Horn of Africa, creating fertile ground for further instability, terrorist activity and disruptions to maritime security in the Red Sea. Any policy that threatens the security of a nation is, as always, doomed to fail.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2628125
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Proxy Regime: Understanding the UAE-Israeli Conspiracy in Yemen, Saudi Arabia
January 2, 2026
By Robert Inlakesh
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia were once viewed as a unified power in Yemen; any semblance of such an alliance is now crumbling. As Riyadh and Abu Dhabi remain at loggerheads, it is clear that Tel Aviv is a key driver of the escalation across Yemeni territory.
Saudi Arabia had recently released a sternly worded statement condemning their Gulf neighbours in the United Arab Emirates, following the armed takeover of the Hadramaut and al-Mahra provinces by the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces. Saudi airstrikes were also launched, largely on soft targets as a warning, which prompted the UAE to announce the withdrawal of all its forces from the country.
The war in Yemen is one of the most underreported and misrepresented conflicts in the region, which often makes it difficult to decipher what is truly transpiring. What is important to understand here is that Abu Dhabi’s role inside Yemen is in large part driven by Israeli interests, which will not only potentially lead to blowback against the UAE itself, but also aims to destabilize the entire Arabian Peninsula. This is part and parcel of forging a way forward toward the “Greater Israel Project”.
The reason why the recent feud between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen is important is that it paves the way to a totally different reality on the ground. In 2015, the Ansarallah movement took over the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and received the backing of roughly two-thirds of the nation’s armed forces in doing so.
As a revolutionary Islamic movement, Ansarallah’s seizure of power was interpreted as an immediate challenge to the rulers across Arabia. Considering the long history of violence between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in particular, it was no surprise that tensions immediately rose. Yet, the Saudi-led coalition that initiated the war on Yemen to overthrow the newly ushered in Ansarallah leadership (often incorrectly referred to as “the Houthis”), was not driven by its own interests alone.
In fact, the US, UK, and Israel were in the picture from the very start and it was former American President Barack Obama who gave the green light for the war, which eventually resulted in the deaths of around 400,000 people. Saudi Arabia, for its part, decided to back the deposed president of Yemen, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, using his position and control over what is called the “internationally recognized government” of Yemen as its excuse for legitimacy for action inside the country.
The United Arab Emirates had instead thrown its weight behind southern separatists in Yemen’s south, with the goal of securing the strategic port city of Aden. Prior to 1990, Yemen was divided between north and south, yet there has always been the presence of separatist elements there. Without delving into the nation’s long history, the British had strategically occupied southern Yemen, utilizing the strategic port of Aden as a tool of empire; the UAE clearly sees the geostrategic weight of this location also.
After years of horrifying war, mass starvation due to the Saudi-US-imposed blockade, and a situation that began to come to a stalemate, by early 2022 Yemen’s Ansarallah-led government had not only established a strong, rooted rule, but the Yemeni Armed Forces under its command had clearly made breakthroughs in military technology. It had launched devastating long-range drone and missile attacks against not only Saudi Arabia, but also the UAE, even making a point of striking the Emiratis while Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited.
It wasn’t long until a ceasefire was reached, brokered by the United Nations, one that has largely held until now. Following the ceasefire, in April of 2022, the Saudi government created what is known as the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC). The PLC’s leader, sometimes referred to as the internationally recognized president of Yemen, is a man named Rashad al-Alimi, presiding over an eight-member council that is not elected by the Yemeni people.
The PLC, or “internationally recognized government,” was then based in Aden, and three of its seats were granted to members of the Emirati proxy group called the STC, the separatist militia that Abu Dhabi backed to seize Aden. Despite promising prosperity to the people in southern Yemen and not being under the same sanctions as Ansarallah’s government in Sana’a, the living conditions in the south continued to deteriorate and have since led to countless protests and even riots.
In early December, the STC suddenly swept over the eastern provinces of al-Mahra and Hadramaut, even forcing some Saudi-backed PLC officials to flee Aden. The Emirati proxy separatists have since openly declared their intent to divide Yemen and separate southern Yemen from the north, which is controlled by Ansarallah. This takeover meant that some 80% of the country’s oil resources fell into the hands of the Emirati-backed STC.
The takeover of these provinces also proved a massive threat to both Saudi and Omani security in the eyes of their leadership. The primary armed faction that fights for the southern separatist cause is called the “Southern Giants Brigades”, a large element of which are Salafist extremists, with former Al-Qaeda fighters forming the most experienced core of the militant organization.
Just as the UAE has been backing ISIS-linked gangs in the Gaza Strip to fight Hamas, it utilizes Salafist extremists in Yemen to fight its battles for it also. Evidently, such a powerful militia force is viewed rightly as a threat to regional stability.
Riyadh saw these recent developments as a major challenge to its regional project and stability. Not only because of the potential issues along its border, but also the birth of a new reality on the ground inside Yemen that will further weaken the “internationally recognized government” that they back.
If the UAE’s proxy forces succeed, despite the Emiratis withdrawing their own forces, then the STC will push for separation and undermine the Saudis’ role entirely. There is also a good chance that the Emirati proxy forces will launch an offensive aimed at seizing the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah from Ansarallah. Israel was seeking this outcome in early 2025, when it convinced the Trump administration to fight Ansarallah on its behalf, an attack which resulted in a resounding failure.
The Israelis not only maintain close ties with the Emirati-backed STC but have also directly participated in training their forces. Israel and the UAE have also established joint military positions in areas of Yemen, like the island of Socotra.
Recently, Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland as a nation. Little attention has been paid to the fact that the UAE has quietly recognized Somaliland also; in fact, the UAE-Israeli cooperation and support for the separatist movement in Somalia goes well beyond recognition.
The Somaliland connection is key here. Some analysts have mentioned the value of the Berbera Port area to Israel and focused on the Israeli desire to build a military presence there for the sake of attacking Yemen. While this is true, it was actually the UAE that began to build the Berbera airbase in Somaliland back in 2017 and has invested greatly in establishing a military foothold there.
The UAE-Israeli alliance to establish dominance in North Africa and the Horn of Africa is directly tied to Yemen. So much so that the Emiratis used militants from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—who are currently carrying out genocidal acts against the people of their own country—to fight in Yemen against Ansarallah.
All of this being said, if the UAE proxy forces succeed, it will certainly prove a major issue and lead to enormous bloodshed, yet the STC will not likely defeat Ansarallah, even with high-altitude air support provided by Israel. In fact, once Saudi Arabia is effectively out of the picture, Ansarallah will have one primary enemy to confront with full force: the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE, unlike Saudi Arabia, is a tiny country that is primarily made up of immigrants and foreign workers; it does not have a capable military, despite its Hollywood-style parades that it uses to try and demonstrate this. A sustained missile and drone attack campaign from the Yemeni Armed Forces will very likely be enough to force the UAE to wave the white flag.
Even if some kind of agreement is eventually reached as a result of the UAE being battered into submission—one that does not bring about an Ansarallah takeover that unifies the country—the Saudis will end up having to sign an agreement with Sana’a to properly end the conflict.
Riyadh understood this all well, which is why it quickly acted to draw red lines. It is more in Saudi Arabia’s interests to keep the status quo for now, because the UAE’s moves could end up creating a nightmare situation for it in the future. Saudi Arabia does not want a strong, unified Yemen under the control of Ansarallah; it will only accept a Yemeni leadership that bows to it, and like past Yemeni governments, bows to the West, while refusing to utilize the nation’s immense resource wealth and harness the power of its location.
Israel, on the other hand, most certainly will not accept a united Yemen under Ansarallah’s rule, but is adamant about “making them pay” for daring to impose a Red Sea blockade and fight in defence of Gaza. Therefore, the Israelis are willing to work with the UAE to totally destabilize the region in order to take a stab at dealing a major blow to Ansarallah and asserting their dominance.
It is unclear where exactly this is all heading, but it is possible that we may eventually see a drastic change in the situation on the ground, one which will perhaps lead to Saudi Arabia adopting a different posture toward the UAE altogether. It also appears that Tel Aviv is angry about Riyadh refusing to normalize ties, which could well have factored into this latest move. It is important to consider that the Emiratis will not move a fingernail without Israeli approval in this regard; they are, in essence, a proxy regime of Tel Aviv at this point.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/proxy-regime-understanding-the-uae-israeli-conspiracy-in-yemen-saudi-arabia/
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