Transcript [00:00] So, as we all sit, you know, waiting [00:02] what's going to happen in Iran? Is there [00:04] going to be an attack? And I've been [00:05] covering that in a lot of my Iran [00:08] updates, I thought it would be a good [00:10] idea to check in on Iran's proxy [00:12] network. Let's review. Before October [00:15] 7th, and still today, to some extent, [00:18] Iran has proxy militias, proxy armies [00:22] all over the Middle East. And they don't [00:23] all have the same relationship to the [00:25] regime. By the way, you have in Lebanon [00:28] and in Iraq. There's a difference [00:29] between them. In Lebanon is literally an [00:33] arm of the Iranian government. It's more [00:35] than being a proxy. You might remember [00:37] the beeper attack. Well, in the beeper [00:40] attack that blew up various body parts [00:43] of so many guys in Lebanon, one of the [00:46] beepers that blew up was the beeper of [00:49] the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon. Or to [00:53] put it another way, who chooses the next [00:56] leader ofah if the leader ofah gets gets [00:59] killed? Excuse me. Who is the Iranian [01:02] government? It's actually an arm of the [01:03] Iranian government, but let's call it a [01:04] proxy. So you have this army in Lebanon, [01:07] which of course got devastated by the [01:09] Israelis over the last few years, but [01:10] still has a lot of missiles and has [01:12] capabilities. You have Iraq or or [01:15] Katibisbah, which is a little bit more [01:17] independent, but they're also a proxy of [01:19] Iran, funded and armed by the Iranians. [01:22] Shiite militia in Iraq. And then of [01:24] course you have the Houthis in Yemen. [01:26] We've heard a lot about them over the [01:27] last few years and they're firing [01:29] ballistic missiles at Israel and their [01:31] disruptions of global shipping. They've [01:33] made it quite a name for themselves. So [01:35] let's check in on what they have been [01:37] saying in anticipation of a US attack on [01:41] the Iranian regime. So let's go around [01:43] the horn here. Let's start with in [01:46] Lebanon. Okay. Sobah's leader warns [01:48] terror group won't stand idly by in the [01:52] face of an attack on Iran. Leader Naim [01:54] Kasam warned that the group would [01:56] respond to any attack on Iran as the IDF [01:59] confirmed strikes onah infrastructure [02:02] and senior operatives in southern [02:04] Lebanon. We'll get to that more on that [02:06] in a minute. Let's take a look at what's [02:07] in this piece. [02:09] So, hills secretary general naim kasim [02:12] warned that they will not stand idly by [02:15] and uh if any attack on supreme leader [02:19] kamayi will you know will will blow up [02:22] the region. Okay. And then he goes on to [02:25] say hey look at this. Kasam's comments [02:27] come after the head of the Lebanese [02:29] delegation to the ceasefire and [02:32] disarmament committee, Simon Karam, [02:35] stated earlier on Monday that has not [02:38] given any information about its weapons [02:40] and facilities to the Lebanese armed [02:42] forces. That was cited in Al Arabia. [02:45] And meanwhile, and that's why the IDF [02:48] continues to carry out strikes. So even [02:50] though there's officially a ceasefire in [02:51] Lebanon, Israel continues to enforce the [02:53] ceasefire at the terms of it, which [02:55] means that they continue to carry out [02:57] strikes against operatives. They killed [03:00] the terrorist on Monday, just a couple [03:02] days ago. [03:04] Um, and this followed an earlier strike [03:07] on another terrorist that that was [03:08] Monday afternoon, meaning multiple times [03:10] a day. You don't see it in the news [03:12] much, but Israel continues to carry out [03:14] strikes on every day. And I'm bringing [03:16] this up in this context because whenah [03:19] threatens that they will not stand idly [03:22] by in the face of an attack on Iran, [03:23] understand that they are pretty weak. [03:25] They're not retaliating at all to Israel [03:28] killing its operatives and taking out [03:30] its infrastructure and weapons on a [03:31] daily basis even though we officially [03:33] have a ceasefire because Israel is [03:35] enforcing it. So when they say that [03:38] they're not going to sit idly by and [03:40] they're going to jump in and they're [03:41] going to attack American assets or [03:43] they're going to attack Israel if Iran [03:45] gets attacked by the United States. [03:48] Let's take that with a grain of salt [03:49] because what exactly are their [03:51] capabilities? Well, and I'll say more on [03:54] that in a moment, but let's take a look [03:55] at what Iraq is doing. Katibbah calls on [03:59] supporters to prepare for conflict with [04:01] Israel. So let's take a look here. [04:03] Katibisbollah, [04:05] a pro-Iranian militia based in Iraq, put [04:08] out a statement on Sunday earlier this [04:10] week. The secretary general of Katibbah [04:13] addresses the Zionists. [04:16] The war on the Islamic Republic will [04:18] leave nothing of you in our region. Now, [04:21] uh I think should Israelis be afraid of [04:23] that? Let's understand who these guys [04:25] are. This is Iraq. During the 12-day war [04:29] with Iran, the Israelis flew their [04:32] planes. The route that all the Israeli [04:35] fighter jets took from Israel to Iran [04:38] all day long during that 12-day war, all [04:41] these bombing missions, the route that [04:43] they took was they flew from Israel [04:46] up through Syria through southern [04:49] through through southeastern Syria up [04:52] into Iraq into Iraqi airspace across [04:55] Iraq and into Iran where they then [04:57] carried out their missions. The Iraqi [05:00] militias did nothing. They they have no [05:03] real capabilities. They I mean they have [05:05] drones and they have a few missiles. [05:06] They have a few guys there and so we [05:10] should not take this threat all too [05:12] seriously. Now these guys hate the [05:13] Americans and they are direct enemies of [05:14] the Americans. You might recall that uh [05:18] earlier on in this war in in uh in 2024 [05:22] there were three American servicemen uh [05:25] service people who were killed by a [05:28] drone attack in Jordan that was carried [05:31] out by these guys by Katibbah in Iraq. I [05:34] should also mention that the US killed [05:37] the leader of Katibbah Abu Madi al- [05:39] Muhandis in 2020. Why did they kill him? [05:43] Well, because they were killing [05:45] Kasamsulammani. Remember that guy? The [05:46] head of the IRGC. When they killed [05:48] Kasamsulammani, [05:50] this guy, Abu Madi al- Muandis, the head [05:53] of the Iraqi, [05:54] was in the car with him. So, the drone [05:57] strike that killed Sulammani killed [05:59] their guy. So, they hate the Americans, [06:00] too. That's not why they hate the [06:02] Americans, but I'm just pointing out [06:03] that they are a direct enemy of the [06:06] Americans, and they have killed American [06:07] servicemen recently. Um, and so they're [06:10] also threatening that. Look what they [06:12] say here. The militia said that a [06:14] conflict will lead to terrible death and [06:16] nothing will remain of you of Israel in [06:18] our region. Nothing will remain of [06:21] Israel if the United States attacks [06:23] because theah Iraqi faction is going to [06:26] do something about it. Okay. So, so [06:29] that's them. Now, let's check in on the [06:32] last of the proxies I mentioned, the [06:34] Houthis. Yemen's Houthi rebels [06:36] threatened new Red Sea attack as US [06:40] aircraft carrier head heads towards [06:42] Iran. This is also from earlier in the [06:43] week. So they've threatened to start [06:46] attacking uh ships traveling through the [06:49] Red Sea corridor uh and disrupting [06:51] global shipping. And they also released [06:54] the Houthis released a short video the [06:56] other day which showed images. They were [06:58] hard to see of a ship that was on fire. [07:01] And it was actually a uh a I believe it [07:03] was a British shipping vessel that they [07:05] had attacked during this war. And they [07:08] put the word soon on it as some kind of [07:12] threat that they're going to start [07:13] attacking global shipping again. Now [07:17] let's assess this uh this threat. Now [07:19] now that we've uh now now that we've [07:21] gone around the horn and talked about [07:23] it, what does this really mean? So like [07:27] how seriously should we take it? Because [07:29] again, as has missiles, the Iraqis have [07:33] drones, they have capabilities, there [07:34] are American servicemen and assets in [07:36] the area, the Houthis have what they [07:38] have. So, let's look back at how all of [07:40] these proxies behaved during the 12-day [07:42] war. One of the most important events of [07:46] the 12-day war, and I say events kind of [07:48] in quotes events, is that something that [07:51] did not happen. Nonevents are often as [07:54] important as events in the news. And [07:56] this is something that a lot of people [07:57] don't realize. The problem with [07:59] non-events that are very important is [08:01] that they're nonevents. And because [08:03] they're nonevents, they don't make [08:05] headlines. There's no headlines that say [08:06] what didn't happen. Okay? But what [08:09] didn't happen can be as strategically [08:11] significant as what happened. And in the [08:13] 12-day war, one of the most significant [08:16] events of that war was the fact that [08:19] Iraqi [08:21] and Lebanese [08:23] did nothing. Nothing. They didn't [08:26] firebah in Lebanon did not fire a single [08:28] missile at Israel in retaliation for the [08:31] 12-day war on Iran. And the entire [08:33] reason that was created by the Iranians [08:36] back in the early 80s and stuck in [08:38] Lebanon on Israel's border and that they [08:41] occupied South Lebanon and it basically [08:43] became the the you know the the string [08:48] pullers like you know managing the [08:50] Lebanese government like a puppeteer all [08:53] these decades is in order to attack [08:55] Israel and give them cover for you know [08:57] for the Iranian regime that if the [08:59] Iranian regime was ever attacked by [09:00] Israel they would come to their aid. [09:02] and they did nothing. The theah in [09:05] Lebanon did nothing during the during [09:06] the Lebanon during the 12-day war. And [09:08] that was a major event because it [09:10] exposed how weak and impotent they are. [09:13] Okay. So, it's hard to see them [09:18] attacking Israel or attacking American [09:20] assets if America attacks the regime in [09:22] Tehran because that would just invite [09:25] hellfire on them. It would invite [09:27] complete destruction on them, even worse [09:29] than they're getting now. And as I [09:30] pointed out, Israel is already carrying [09:32] out strikes against them, knocking out [09:34] their infrastructure and their weapons [09:35] on a daily basis. Israel knows where [09:37] every [09:38] guy is. [09:40] So all the we have to take those threats [09:42] with a grain of salt. And as I pointed [09:44] out in Iraq, Israel was flying air [09:46] missions across Iraq day and night [09:47] throughout the 12-day war. The Iraqi did [09:50] nothing. [09:52] The Houthis are the only ones who took [09:53] action. They actually did step up during [09:55] the 12-day war. Sort of. They fired I [09:57] think two ballistic missiles at Israel [09:59] during that time. U caused a few minor [10:02] injuries. Not a whole lot happening [10:04] there, but the Houthis are threatening [10:06] and they did disrupt global shipping and [10:08] they could still do that. But if part of [10:12] what you're thinking about as we look [10:14] forward or speculate what's going to [10:16] happen when when the United States [10:17] attacks Iran with all these military [10:19] assets and all the buildup that we've [10:21] been that we've all been talking about [10:22] now for weeks. If part of your thinking [10:25] is, oh my gosh, there's going to be this [10:27] escalation by the Iranian proxies, [10:31] I'm skeptical, not so fast. I'm not so [10:33] sure that this proxy network is going to [10:36] rise up in defense of the regime. Look, [10:38] they might get an order to do so, but I [10:41] can't believe that order wouldn't have [10:42] been given during the 12-day World War [10:44] II. So, that's my thought on the Iranian [10:47] proxies. Uh please uh you know leave a [10:50] comment if you have something to say and [10:52] please check out the Israel 365 YouTube [10:55] channel. Take a look especially in the [10:58] playlists at the superpower playlist. [11:00] It's a six-part series on Israel's rise [11:03] to regional superpower status that has [11:06] happened under our noses. Um I think [11:08] you'll enjoy that video series and uh [11:11] yeah and and please let me know what you [11:12] think of these videos and uh and what [11:14] you think of the channel and and what [11:15] direction you think I should go. I'm [11:17] always reading the comments. I'm always [11:18] happy to hear some suggestions.
