Ultra Orthodox lawmaker was the man behind rescue of Israelis on Jordan border

United Torah Judaism Knesset member Moshe Roth. (Knesset)

In the early hours of Saturday, when most people are asleep, an ultra-Orthodox Knesset member, Moshe Roth, orchestrated a daring rescue of Israelis stranded in the perilous wilds of Jordan, as reported by Israel National News. 

These were not mere travelers but families caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare, their flight from Larnaca to Aqaba delayed until midnight, leaving them at the mercy of a border shuttered since 8 p.m. Jordan, a land now so hostile to Israelis that it bears a Level 4 travel warning, offered no solace, except for the rare exception of rescue flights permitted to land in Aqaba, a lifeline for those fleeing to a homeland where Ben-Gurion Airport lies largely dormant.

Roth, a disciple of the Sanz Hasidic movement and a voice for United Torah Judaism, received a desperate call late Friday night. The Sabbath’s sanctity might have bound lesser men, but Roth, grasping the mortal peril facing these unguarded families, acted with the urgency of a man who knows history’s cost. He rallied his comrade, Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, alongside security officials and the Foreign Ministry’s Situation Room. The diplomatic machinery whirred to life: a Jordanian officer was roused from sleep, the crossing flung open, and the families, escorted by Jordanian police, crossed into Israel at 3 a.m., a mere breath from Eilat’s safety.

“In the end, the ones who took action, made the effort, and cared were the Knesset members from United Torah Judaism,” one of the rescued declared. “It didn’t matter to them who was stranded:  religious, secular, young people, or families. They gave us genuine help without asking questions; their only concern was to help Jews in distress.” 

Such words cut through the cynicism of our age, revealing a truth too often buried; that in moments of crisis, identity and duty can still bind a people.

Roth, born in New York, carries the weight of his grandfather’s suffering, a Holocaust survivor beaten near to death “because of his Jewish identity.” In his first Knesset address in January 2023, he spoke of this as a “fundamental” force, a call to fortify the Jewish soul of the nation. Now, as head of the Knesset’s Ethics Committee, he has shown that such words are not mere rhetoric but a creed lived in the dark hours when lives hang in the balance.

Am Yisrael Chai!

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IDF strikes close down Sanaa International Airport

On Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces unleashed a barrage of airstrikes across Yemen, targeting Sanaa International Airport, power stations, and a cement factory—al-Imran, to be precise, north of the capital. 

The IDF did not mince words: this facility, they declared, “serves as a significant resource for the Houthi terrorist regime and is used for the construction of underground tunnels and other terrorist infrastructure.” A cement factory, you might ask? Yes, but not merely a place for mixing concrete; a cog in the Houthi machine, churning out the means to burrow and kill Israelis, specifically Jews.

The strikes also hammered Attan in south-west Sanaa, the Haiz Central Power Station in Sanhan district, and the Asr Electricity Station in Ma’een, west of the city, according to Al Masirah, the Houthi mouthpiece. Saba TV, the Houthis’ propaganda arm, wailed that two electricity transformers were hit. 

One might almost feel pity for their loss of light, were it not for the darkness they spread. Sanaa’s international airport, nestled north of the city, was not spared either—a fact documented with clinical precision by Israel’s state broadcaster, Kan News, and shared across X for the world to see.

This was no reckless assault. At 2:36 p.m., the IDF issued a rare warning, urging Yemeni civilians to flee the airport--something their enemies never do. 

“We call on you to evacuate the area of the airport—Sanaa International Airport—immediately and to warn those around you of the need to evacuate this area immediately,” declared Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, in a post on X. “Failure to evacuate and move away from the area puts you in danger.” A map was even provided, lest there be any confusion. 

This was the first time Israel had extended such a courtesy to the Houthis, after six prior strikes—silent, swift, and unannounced, including one just the day before. Why the change? The airport, unlike Yemen’s Hodeidah Port or other targets, is a civilian hub. Israel, ever mindful of the optics and ethics its critics ignore, chose to act with restraint where others rarely do.

This latest salvo follows a joint Israeli-US counterstrike on Monday, a response to the Houthis’ audacious ballistic missile attack near Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday. Twenty fighter jets, dropping 50 munitions, tore into Houthi targets that day. Tuesday’s strikes mark Israel’s seventh assault on the Iranian-backed militia since July 2024—a campaign provoked by over 400 Houthi attacks on Israel throughout this war. 

The Houthis, let's be clear, are not some ragtag band of desert rebels. They are, as the IDF stated, a “terrorist regime… operating for the past year and a half under Iranian direction and funding in order to harm Israel and its allies, undermine the regional order, and disrupt global freedom of navigation.”

Monday’s strikes had already gutted the Hodeidah seaport, which the IDF rightly called “a major source of income for the Houthi regime” and a conduit for “Iranian weapons, equipment for military needs, and other terrorist needs.” The Bajil concrete factory, east of Hodeidah, was also hit—an “important economic resource” for the Houthis’ tunnel-digging and military schemes. These are not random targets; they are the sinews of a terrorist enterprise, bankrolled by Tehran, that seeks to strangle Israel and choke global trade.

The US, under its new administration, joined the fray on Monday evening, coordinating strikes in Sanaa. Israel had hoped that over 1,000 American airstrikes since January—when President Donald Trump assumed office—might deter the Houthis without Jerusalem’s direct involvement. But hope is a poor substitute for action. 

The Houthis’ strike near Ben-Gurion proved their defiance, and Israel’s response was as inevitable as it was necessary.

Let us not pretend for one moment. The Houthis are not victims; they are aggressors, proxies of an Iranian regime that dreams of Israel’s destruction. Israel’s strikes, far from being disproportionate, are a measured riposte to a clear and present danger. “The IDF is determined to continue to act and strike forcefully at anyone who poses a threat to the residents and citizens of the State of Israel, and at whatever distance is required,” the military declared. Two thousand kilometers separate Jerusalem from Hodeidah, yet distance is no shield for those who would do Israel harm.

In a world quick to condemn Israel’s every move, we must ask: what nation would tolerate 400 attacks without retaliation? What nation would warn its enemies to flee before striking, knowing those enemies offer no such mercy? The answer is plain, and the moral clarity is stark. 

Israel fights not merely for its survival but for the principle that civilization must not yield to savagery. The Houthis, and their masters in Tehran, would do well to heed that lesson.

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