Troops patrol outside the US Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen in 2008. (photo credit: AP/Nasser Nasser)

Walter Russell Mead on the plight of an imperiled Jewish community:

Yemen once had one of the most vibrant and intellectually fruitful Jewish communities in the entire Middle East, but today its few remaining members must rely on government forces for protection from persecution.

But as that government comes under increasing pressure, its ability to shield the remaining Jewish population is slipping.

Mead notes that he “admires [Yemenite Jews'] attachment to a land and a culture that has nourished their families across the generations, but this group is one of the most vulnerable in Yemen as security continues to deteriorate across the country.” And indeed, after reading this report from the Times of Israel on the murder of the head of the Yemen Jewish community outside the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, it’s hard to see any other option for Yemenite Jews other than to seek refuge in the Jewish state.