For the third time, the Houthis have launched drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, Yemen's pro-Iranian militia said on Tuesday. Naturally, many questions arise about their interests in our current war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza and their hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.
Houthis declare: We will launch more missiles at Israel
What is their connection to the war?
Ostensibly, this is a remote organization whose connection to recent events is extremely tenuous. After all, this is a Shiite faction located at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. However, since the early 2000s, the group has strengthened its military and ideological alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran and has become a key member of the "resistance axis." It is an axis that includes the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, the Assad regime, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Although this axis has contradictions between the Salafists and the Shiites who are members of it, their priorities reject this. Chief among them is Israel, which is marked as the main enemy, and only after it are the Arab regimes that are allied with the West, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Houthi military parade in September, photo: AP
What is their source?
The Houthis are an Arab tribe of Zaydi in northern Yemen, a Shiite faction loyal to Imam Zeid bin Ali. They recognize the first four imams, while most Shiites, for example in Iran, recognize all 12. However, they believe that an imam can be appointed in any generation. The faction lived for centuries in the area between northern Yemen and southeastern Saudi Arabia, until it suffered a severe blow in the 60s in the Yemeni revolution, which sought to base "Yemeni unity" on nationality rather than religion. That is, to unite Sunni and Shiite Yemenis. This failed miserably and in 2004 the Shiite uprising broke out in the country. Since then, the war has continued in "rounds", with Hussein Badruddin al-Houthi leading the rebellion. We will return to it again.
Houthi supporters in Yemen, photo: Reuters
When were they established?
More than a decade earlier, in the 90s, al-Houthi chiefs had established an organization called the Young Believers in northwest Yemen. They began educating tens of thousands of students in special education frameworks. Graduates of the camps became the base of the militia. During the uprising of the early 2000s, some of its leaders were assassinated by the government. A ceasefire was signed in 2010, but within a year, with the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the Houthis took advantage of the opportunity.
How did they take over territory in Yemen?
In 2011, Sanaa was flooded with demonstrations by thousands of people, leading President Ali Abdullah Saleh to announce that he would not run for office again and would not hand over power to his son. However, the masses demanded an immediate resignation, and the protests quickly deteriorated into a new civil war, which continues with varying intensity to this day. The Houthis' achievements in the war, which culminated in their occupation of Sana'a and the establishment of a government, led to the intervention of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Arab states.
The Houthis brought an end to the Jewish presence in Yemen,
Despite this, the Houthis still managed to maintain their rule in northern Yemen, while the south is divided between the Saudi coalition and local allies, and Islamist terrorist cells such as al-Qaeda. Another landmark is a Houthi offensive in 2017 that killed ousted President Ali Abdullah Salah.
What is their relationship with Iran?
Apart from the religious closeness, all this time the Houthis received funding, weapons and weapons from Tehran and engraved on their banner the slogan: "Death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory for Islam." A slogan similar to the slogans of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The slogan is just one expression of the militia's anti-Semitism, which has led many Yemenite Jews still remaining in the country to flee. In March 2021, for example, it was reported that the last Jewish families had been expelled.
Houthi forces, photo: Archive: AP
Why do they hate Israel and the Jewish people?
One of the main Houthi leaders, Hossein Badruddin al-Houthi, returned to Yemen in the early 2000s from Iran, where he passed through the Shiite educational institutions of the revolutionary regime. His blatantly anti-Semitic sermons had a great impact on the tribe. Although he was killed in 2004, it is still evident today.
Hussein testified that he included the Jews in the militia's slogan because "they are the ones who move this world and spread corruption in it." He also claimed that the September 11 attacks were not the initiative of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization but a "Jewish conspiracy." On another occasion, he called on his followers to commit genocide against Jews. This anti-Semitism was joined by a call to destroy Israel. In his lectures, Jews are accused of capitalism and communism in the same breath and of "falsifying culture and knowledge." He incorporates these words into parts of quotations from the Qur'an warning against the Jews.
Houthi rebels. Shiites supported by Iran, photo: AP
How are they doing now?
Over the past year, there have been many talks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and it seems that the sides are on the way to an agreement to end the fighting. During those months, there was a ceasefire at some level in Yemen, which international actors welcomed, especially in light of Yemen's humanitarian disaster, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since the civil war began.
Houthi rebels launch a missile at Saudi Arabia, Photo: Reuters
However, Bloomberg reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia had raised the kingdom's alert level to a high level after the Houthi confrontation. According to the report, four Saudi soldiers were killed in battles against Houthi forces in Jizan, the southernmost province in Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen.
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