It's a relief to see Yemen use intelligence and a sense of humour to bring pressure on Israel and its backers' vicious attempts to obliterate Gaza-Palestine! Yemenis are now taking boatloads of tourists to sight-see on the Galaxy Leader, the part-Israeli-owned ship they captured on 19 November. You can also see them dancing in a line on its deck, here. The story of David and Goliath comes to mind, but through the looking glass, because David, in the Bible, was an Israeli, and Goliath was a Philistine. Fast forward and the roles have switched, with the David now Yemeni, dashingly symbolised by spokesperson, Brigadier Yahya Saree, and the Goliath, the clumsy giant, US-backed Netanyahu of Israel, and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
It is incredible to watch Yemen stand up to international bullies in this way, after having watched this poor country being pounded for nearly a decade by US-backed Saudi and UAE forces. One did not imagine them surviving economically or even as a people, let alone with a functioning military. It is equally amazing, in this day and age of cynical frenemies, to see Yemen ready to go to war in solidarity with Palestine, when much wealthier countries hold back in fear of America's ire and Israel's illegal nuclear weapons. Reacting, the United States has been trying to get the Saudis to join their coalition against the Yemenis, but the Saudis, who recently entered a truce with Yemen, appear to be sick of war and avoidant of increasing the conflagration risks in the region. They are likely to join BRICS, if they have not already done so.
After the Yemenis captured their first Israeli-bound tanker, Yemeni Brigadier Yahya Saree next captured world attention, as he warned Palestine's cowardly enemies that their ships would be captured or blown up if they tried to sail past Yemen, to reach the Port of Eilat at the very south of Israel, on the north of the Gulf of Aqaba, through the Red Sea. The Brigadier's sincerity was so unmistakable that 60 per cent of ships are now taking the long way round Africa in order to bring goods to Israel. Apparently that is about 11,800 Nautical miles, or 36 days extra! Because this involves such a long detour, it costs enormously more in fuel, wages, and other shipping expenses. US-backed wars have already caused massive inflation through sanctions on Russian gas, and then through blowing up Nordstream 2. Now their bloody stupid wars have caused huge new shipping costs to the west.
So this is 'sanctions,' Yemeni style. And it is impressive.
Brigadier Yahya Saree
What is it about this charismatic Yemeni leader that makes ordinary people listen to him in the west, aside from his strategic position? Could it be that westerners are glad to see someone standing up against their own rotten governments, when they themselves are too atomised to do so? The barbarity of this war, of this genocide against children and their parents, through cowardly carpet-bombing, has horrified many westerners beyond measure. Not the brutality alone, but the fact that their own governments support it, ignoring the outcry among their own constituents. But the Houthis of Yemen are still organised in clan and tribes, despite huge casualties, and the Yemen that we thought was ashes, has risen up, apparently much taller than bigger states: A David among Goliaths. And tired and impotent westerners look on with awe and hope and take in words like these:
"If we look at the crimes committed in Gaza, they're similar to the ones that were committed against us [in Yemen] in the past 9 years.
Bombarding hospitals? They bombarded our hospitals. Bombarding markets? They bombarded our markets. Bombarding roads, people while they're soundly sleeping in their homes. Just like it happened to us.
It's the same aggressor; the same American bombs being poured on Gaza were the same ones being poured on us in Yemen. The agressor is one, the agresson is one, the leader of it is one - America. The one who led the aggression in Yemen is the same one who is leading it in Palestine.
A majority were saying, "Strike Israel, we dare you!" We struck them.
They said, "Seize a ship, we dare you!" We seized one and took it to our port in Hodeidah.
It greatly honours us that we mobilized against the enemy, that we are confronting the Zionist enemy who is attacking Palestine and our homeland. We will continue to confront the American-Israeli enemy until the aggression on Gaza stops. As for the battle in our homeland, we are, God willing, fully prepared and ready for anything from the enemy. If Saudi Arabia and the Emirates even think of leading an attack on us, commanded by Israel and the USA, we are present and ready. They tried it with us for 9 years. If they want to do it again, we're here and we're ready. As for America and Israel, if the attack our homeland, they will commit foolishness they've never committed before. The response will be fierce, from the people and the armed forces.
We are with our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon, in facing Israel, because they're our greatest enemy. We don't say, "Death to America!" with our heads turned. We are serious about it." - Brigadier Yahya Saree. (Source video here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1737393945519559103)
This Hindustan Times video gives a vivid history of Yemen's program to make US-NATO and Israel stop hurting Palestinians.
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