I'm John Baxter, David Dio,

the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy is here to help Bill Rajio of FD, Long War

Journal, tell us where we are right now as we begin the war fighting in 2025.

Wall Street Journal in these last hours, Israel's Red Sea conundrum hit the Houthis or Iran?

David, I don't ask you to pass judgment on that strategy.

However, the Houthis I read this morning in the F.T remain a threat to Red Sea shipping to global shipping,

and Mariska is making no plans to change its posture

of going around the Red Sea. That's attacks on the earth. That means that the least among us

are being burdened by the Houthis rage. So is an attack on Tehran practical and would that stop the

Houthis? I don't think it would necessarily stop the Houthis.

The genius, if you will, of the Iranian model is that the link to Tehran is not material. It's

ideological. Now, the Houthis are not necessarily where Hesbala is when it comes to ideological

loyalty to Iran, although there've been conflicting reports on this

over the years, like the degree of their loyalty to this idea of Ulaid al-Faqa'a'i.

But they have an interest, and it's not just the Iranians pressing the button for them

to fire these missiles at Israel, to attack Israel.

The Iranians have also, as they do with their proxies, imbued them with a domestic weapons production capability. So you get rid of Iran

or you strike Iran, the Houthis can still have the willingness to fire missiles. They still have

the capability to fire missiles and they still have the capability to produce further, further

weapons that they can threaten Israel. Now, they're not

unleashing the full arsenal against the Israelis. I think they know if they do that, you know,

the Israelis are going to respond in such a way that, you know, the Houthis are going to be off

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