• A lesson for Trump’s security team in deadly Yemen raid

Chris Kolenda:  Kolenda Associates on Yemen War, Counter-Insurgency

Special operations like this have always been risky for presidents to approve. Trump and some of his advisers have already promised to give the military greater rein in authorizing such missions as part of their desire to wipe out extremist threats. But the president has also said he is leery of getting entangled too deeply in costly operations overseas. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint

Political Airpower, Part III: Boots Off the Ground
From Mike Benitez & Mike Pietrucha, War on the Rocks: “The playbook has become well-worn, mainstream, and almost mundane in repetition: Collect intelligence, work the way up the hierarchy of leadership, then use an airstrike to decapitate some lieutenant, shadow governor, or other high value individual.  On a tactical scale, we succeeded in removing some valuable and capable pieces from the board.  These minor victories serve a critical nonmilitary purpose — allowing leadership and the public to view the Long War though “victory-tinted lenses” that tend to keep the politics of warfare (and the metrics of success) within the news cycle.  However, from a strategic viewpoint, even an effort that we declare to be tactically successful may not have been effective at all in inching closer to victory in battle or resolution of conflict.” ​

Female fighters were among the roughly 14 Qaeda militants killed in an American commando raid in central Yemen over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Monday, seeking to explain a number of reports that civilians died in the nearly hourlong firefight. – New York Times
 
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a rare suicide attack on a Saudi frigate in the Red Sea on Monday, killing two crew members and leaving three others wounded, according to the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition fighting against them. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
 
The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen and Houthi Shiite rebels may have committed war crimes in the conflict that is wracking the Middle East's poorest nation with no end in sight, U.N. experts said in a new report. – Associated Press
 
Yemen has lost a decade's worth of gains in public health as a result of war and economic crisis, with increasing numbers of children succumbing to malnutrition, the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. - Reuters

Israel approved 3,000 more housing units in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, the largest number in a wave of new construction plans that defy the international community and that open a forceful phase in the country’s expansion into land the Palestinians claim for a future state. – New York Times
 
Thousands of Israeli police and military forces climbed a windy hill on Wednesday with plans to finally demolish a hardscrabble Israeli settlement that the supreme court has deemed illegal because it was built on privately owned Palestinian land. – Washington Post
 
Flagging Israel as a global cyber power “right up there” behind the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will propose augmented bilateral cybersecurity cooperation when he meets with President Donald Trump in mid-Feburary. – Defense News
 
An official Israeli government timeline of milestones leading up to an estimated €500 million (US $539.51 million) naval contract with Germany shows how Israel used the specter of an international bid to squeeze 27.5 percent off the price of four corvette-class surface ships, now under construction at the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Shipyard (TKMS) in Kiel. – Defense News

“Indiana” Hoenlein and the Lost City of David. Dan Bahat, former City of Jerusalem Archeologist
Dan Bahat (Hebrew: ‫דן בהט‬‎‎, born 1938) is an Israeli archaeologist especially known for his excavations in Jerusalem , particularly at the western wall tunnels.

Bahat was born in Poland to parents who were citizens of Mandatory Palestine.[1] The family moved to Tel Aviv in 1939 and became Israeli citizens in 1948.[1] He served in the IDF from 1956 to 1958.[1] In 1964 he gained a Bachelor's degree in archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He finished his master's degree in 1978. In 1990 he obtained the PhD degree from the Hebrew University on the topic "Topography and Toponymy of Crusader Jerusalem" under the supervision of Joshua Prawer.[1]

In January 1992, Dan Bahat published the IAA’s archaeological findings of what became known as the largest ashlar stone found to date in Israel, at ca. 10 – 12 metres above the base of the Temple Mount’s western wall enclosure. The stone measured 13.6 metres (45 ft) in length, 4.6 metres (15 ft) in depth, 3.5 metres (11 ft) in height, and is estimated at weighing ca. 517 tonnes (570 short tons), the world’s third largest block of stone used in building.[2]

•http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.761814 (start with this article, best archaeological findings of 2016!)
•http://www.timesofisrael.com/original-limestone-bed-on-which-jesus-was-buried-said-uncovered/
•http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Secrets-uncovered-near-Robinsons-Arch-456448
•http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.753136
•http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.740548

• Charles Krauthammer: Trump’s foreign policy revolution

Daniel Pipes

The US Missile Defense Agency and Israel’s Missile Defense Organization successfully demonstrated the David’s Sling Weapons System in a series of tests at Yanat Sea Range in Israel, MDA said in a statement released Wednesday. – Defense News
 
Interview: The Cipher Brief sat down with Aaron David Miller, Former advisor to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli negotiations to discuss the potential for reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under the Trump Administration. According to Miller, “The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, can’t be much deader than it is now” and we should expect a “very bumpy and volatile period,” in the short-term. – The Cipher Brief
 
Robert Satloff writes: In deciding to move the embassy, Trump should make a net assessment that balances advantages and risks. It is a mistake to focus solely on the potential costs, however real and substantial they may be, when the potential benefits are real and substantial, too. – Washington Post

HOOVER

Toward an Afghan End State
From Gary Anderson, Small Wars Journal: “The continuing NATO/American presence in Afghanistan should be viewed as an insurance policy. First, it is a relatively inexpensive hedge against a resurgence of foreign fighters who might use Afghanistan as a base for plotting attacks against the United States or its closest allies. The Russians have too much baggage regarding the Afghans for them ever be able to accomplish such a mission. Americans may not be universally loved by Afghans, but our presence is tolerated in a way the Russians could never achieve.” ​