For better or worse, the Houthis are the only political and military force doing anything practical to demand that Israel pay for its acts.
For better or worse, the Houthis are the only political and military force doing anything practical to demand that Israel pay for its acts. And despite the attack on their territory, we can already say with certainty, that the Ansar Allah movement and the pro-Palestinian resistance, in general, will be strengthened by this event.
Were it not for a rebel movement, made up of poor people living in great hardship, no other country in the region would do anything to bring some moral justice, however little, to this whole process. As they say, whoever has a lot, has the most to lose. Only the poor give what they need and this is a good example of that.
It is even curious that here and there, apart from a few diplomatic and commercial measures, the most serious diplomatic action for Israel has come from outside the continent and the Middle East: South Africa’s accusation at the International Court of Justice that the state of Israel should be tried for genocide. Of course, the accusation was immediately branded with the very vulgar epithet of “anti-Semitic”.
But the Houthis’ role in the Red Sea has produced absolutely unpredictable and — perhaps unexpected — results for the West. The Red Sea trade route accounts for 12% of global maritime trade and 12% of all oil trade. An important part of the commercial ships that travel between the Indian Ocean and Europe pass through the Red Sea.
Moreover, the importance of this route for Israel is truly decisive. The Port of Eilat essentially lives off this sea route. Disconnecting the port of Eilat from the international routes to Asia not only means that many of the goods that Israel receives from Asia will become more expensive and risk perishing, with all the economic burdens that this entails. But it also means cutting tourism, since the city of Eilat is an important tourist destination in the Middle East, and losing the competitiveness of its exports to the Asian continent.
But in the end, the financial damage might even be surmountable. What would be difficult to overcome would be the fragility in which an effective blockade of the Red Sea crossing would leave Israel.
Let’s imagine a likely scenario in which the war fronts multiply and the conflict spreads to other regions (Lebanon, Syria and Yemen). Just as Oman has closed its airspace to military planes to bomb Yemen, a country like Egypt could, in a situation of great pressure and popular pressure, consider closing the Suez Canal to boats that are linked to Israel. It wouldn’t be unheard of, as we know. Oman itself has prevented U.S. military aircraft from passing through, for various reasons. One of them has to do with a certain neutrality that the sultanate is assuming on the international stage. However, this “neutrality” is also due to the ethnic tensions it has in its territory, which borders Yemen. In any case, leaving the port of Eilat open only to boats coming from the Suez Canal would be strategically fragile.
So, while it cannot be denied that the Houthi naval blockade may be a burden for the other Arab nations that receive their ships at Red Sea ports, the fact is that for none of them the situation is as dramatic as it is for Israel. Since the goods that Israel receives by sea and from Asia can come from the Red Sea without having to go through the Suez Canal, the port of Eilat is absolutely strategic for the country’s economic stability. And without economic stability, wars can’t be won. Even against those who arm themselves with little more than stones and sticks and a few handmade rockets.
In this sense, and in the face of the danger, it didn’t take long for the U.S. to try to defend its spearhead in the Middle East, trying to organize an international coalition that they called the “Operation Prosperity Guardian”.
The attempt to mask this initiative as something intended to defend the world and the global economy will not have had the intended propaganda effects. The fact is that, as has been widely reported, many nations did not want to join in — some directly, others directly and indirectly. If, on the one hand, this was a call from the U.S., on the other, at the time, the primacy established by the Houthi for the blockade still resonated in minds: only Israeli ships or those in any way linked to that country’s interests are affected.
The refusal of some may have been due to the fear of being associated with defending the interests of the state of Israel, whose image on the international stage was increasingly linked to the bombing of civilians, the bulldozing of cities, the deportation and displacement of entire families from their homes and the summary execution of human beings.
With effort, the U.S. managed to get its team together. We couldn’t have expected anything other than what happened on January 12th, namely the attack on Yemen and in particular on the Houthi forces.
The event was widely reported in the corporate media as if it were a real victory. An attack, by world powers, one of them one of the biggest military powers on the planet, perpetrated against a depleted people, scarred by hunger and war, is sung about as a historic victory.
But the truth is that the Houthi had already won. We all remember the messages from Blinken or Biden during their frequent visits to the Zionist state: we can’t let the conflict spread to the Middle East, they said. Well, although this attack avoids the worst, which is to ensure that Israel doesn’t get involved on several fronts, so that it can carry out its plan for Gaza with impunity and calmly, the fact is that, at the moment, a new front of conflict has just been opened, which adds to the other fires that the U.S. already has in hand, and it is not yet clear how it will end.
The unpredictability of this conflict doesn’t stop there. No matter how much propaganda Uncle Sam can buy, everyone has already realized that the U.S. and its vassals will go to any lengths to defend Israel, even when it finds itself in an absolutely marginal situation in the face of international law and compliance with the most basic human rights.
With all this, the Houthi have not only managed to make Israel pay a price — still very low — for its campaign against Gaza and for the apartheid it maintains over the Palestinian people, but they have also managed to show the world that for the U.S., when it comes to democracy, human rights, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the scales always tip in favor of its hegemonic interests. What they demand and punish some for, they excuse and reward others for.
We can now only hope that The Hague tribunal does its job and avoids being instrumentalized by hegemonic interests, as happened at the International Criminal Court with Putin, Milosevic and many other Africans and Asians, for whom that court is nothing more than a tentacle of the empire. Let’s hope that some justice is done.
For the time being, the Houthi have already given us something, demanding a higher price from Israel for their actions, unmasking the nature of American support for Zionism and showing the world, once again, that Western nations arrogate to themselves the right to attack wherever and whenever they want, without any backing in international law, without the mantle of the UN, without even having been provoked. Since it was Israel that was provoked.
At least we can see their faces!
Hugo Dionísio is a Lawyer, researcher and geopolitics’ analyst. He is the owner of Canal-factual.wordpress.com Blog and co-founder of MultipolarTv, a Youtube Channel targeted to geopolitical analysis. He develops activity as Human Rights and Social rights activist as board member of the Portuguese Democratic Lawyers Association. He is also a researcher at the Portuguese Workers Trade Union Confederation (CGTP-IN).
Houthis Fire Anti-Ship Cruise Missile at U.S. Warship
The Yemeni Houthis have attacked a U.S. ship in the Red Sea in retaliation for strikes that U.S. and UK forces carried out on land targets in Yemen last week.
Per the AP, the Houthis shot an anti-ship cruise missile at a U.S. destroyer in the Red Sea but a fighter jet shot it down.
As the conflict escalates, most shipping operators have diverted their vessels from the Bab el-Mandeb – Suez Canal route, adding more than a week to average journeys between Asia and Europe, and seeing higher freight rates because of the longer journeys.
Tanker traffic has also been diverted after the latest escalation, with oil prices responding by moving higher. Last week, right after the U.S. and UK strikes on Yemen, Brent crude touched $80 per barrel briefly.
Meanwhile, three tanker operators confirmed that they have stopped moving commodities via the Red Sea, CNBC reported last Friday. Hafnia, Torm, and Stena Bulk were no longer directing their vessels to the Bab el-Mandeb strait on advisory from the U.S.-UK joint forces in the Red Sea dubbed the Combined Military Forces.
Qatar, meanwhile, just announced it would no longer send LNG cargos via Bab le-Mandeb either. This is a blow to European buyers of Qatari LNG since the Red Sea route is the shortest—and cheapest—one.
Bloomberg reports, citing cargo-tracking data, that at least five LNG carriers due to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb strait had been halted since Friday. Three of these were idling off the coast of Oman, one was in the Red Sea, and last one was near the Suez Canal, the report said.
“The situation is dynamic and ships should consider holding outside of the area while a period of taking stock of the situation is undertaken until daylight on Saturday 13 January,” the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners said in a statement, cited by CNBC.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com