Ziofascist Israel versus The Axis of Resistance, Part 4: Yemen and its Naval Blockade of Israel
Excerpts from the post-October 7, 2023 action between Israel (member of the ‘Axis of Genocide’) and Yemen under its Ansar Allah aka Houthi leadership (members of the ‘Axis of Resistance’) from October 2023 to September 2024. (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3)
October 2023
November 2023
Yemen’s Houthi rebels seizef an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel and took the crew as hostages. The group warned that it would continue to target ships in international waters that were linked to or owned by Israelis until the end of Israel’s campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
“All ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets,” the Houthis said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had blamed the Houthis for the attack on the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said the 25 crew members had a range of nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican and Ukrainian, but that no Israelis had been on board.
The Houthis said they were treating the crew members “in accordance with their Islamic values,” but did not elaborate on what that meant.
Netanyahu’s office condemned the seizure as an “Iranian act of terror.” The Israeli military called the hijacking a “very grave incident of global consequence.”
Israeli officials insisted the ship was British-owned and Japanese-operated. However, ownership details in public shipping databases associated the ship’s owners with Ray Car Carriers, which was founded by Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is known as one of the richest men in Israel.
Ungar told The Associated Press he was aware of the incident but couldn’t comment as he awaited details. A ship linked to him experienced an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli media blamed it on Iran at the time.
From that September 2021 article:
Zodiac Maritime is a worldwide shipping conglomerate owned and operated by the Ofer family. Brothers Eyal and Idan Ofer are Israel’s third and ninth richest billionaires, respectively, having taken over the business from their father, Sammy. The company also has a long history of working alongside the Israeli government on special operations.
Defying American sanctions, for years, Zodiac ships continued to trade with the Islamic Republic, docking regularly in Iranian ports. By the time of Sammy’s death in 2011, the U.S. government was investigating the firm and the Treasury Department had announced sanctions against it for supposedly helping Iran skirt round the American-imposed blockade.
Why such a well-established Israeli firm would breach sanctions and collaborate with an enemy state in Iran also mystified many Israeli officials, who launched their own inquiry. However, the government hearing on the affair was abruptly shut down after the chair was passed a note by a “very high-ranking security official” — that official rumored to have been Mossad Director Tamir Pardo. As soon as Committee Chairman Carmel Shama read the message, he immediately ordered all press to leave the meeting and finished the event behind closed doors. “Let’s just be clear: the note is not from a political figure and not from a business figure. It turns out that reality is much more complex, much more complicated and touchy than the average imagination can handle,” Shama offered as an explanation. The reaction from both the Knesset and the United States government suggests that this agreement was extremely secret indeed, with operations going on behind both of their backs.
The news, which Israeli media had christened “OferGate,” was immediately dropped and glossed over, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that the elderly Sammy Ofer, who died the same week, was a “Zionist through and through.” Meir Dagan, who had recently retired as director of Mossad, concurred, stating that the case had been “blown out of proportion,” and hinted that the Ofer family may have actually been acting in the service of the state.
Among such known missions are Zodiac Maritime cargo ships with modified hulls being used to ferry Israeli Black Hawk helicopters to Iran, where they were used by elite commando teams in reconnaissance missions against the Islamic Republic’s alleged nuclear programs. Zodiac Maritime’s business relationship with Iranian ports and shipping companies was crucial to this endeavor, providing both the cover and the means to enter Iranian waters without attracting suspicion.
The year before OferGate blew up in Israeli media, the billionaire clan’s boats were used in a successful assassination mission against Palestinian leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mossad killed the Hamas official, responsible for procurement of weapons, in his Dubai hotel room, causing a worldwide outrage. Secret agents traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Ofer’s ships, posing as workers and using forged foreign passports. Reports suggest that al-Mabhouh was drugged, electrocuted and suffocated with a pillow in his room, with some operatives escaping on the same ship they arrived on.
Although successful, the mission did not go as smoothly as planned, as Emirati police were able to identify a number of the perpetrators. Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland expelled Israeli diplomats in protest at Mossad’s use of faked passports from their countries as cover for the operation.
Going further back, in 1988, elite Israeli forces, under the command of future Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon, used modified cargo ships to smuggle soldiers and helicopters into Tunisia, where they stormed into Tunis and killed Deputy Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Khalil al-Wazir, before returning to the ship and making a hasty retreat.
New BRICS member, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is looking to settle oil payments in local currencies and sideline the US dollar. The UAE is looking for potential countries that would like to settle payments in local currencies like the Dirham. Recent reports indicate that the UAE is looking to renew oil and gas trade agreements with 15 countries that are willing to pay local currencies for settlement.
The countries that the UAE is considering to approach for oil trade are BRICS members China, India, Russia, and Egypt. Apart from BRICS members, the UAE is looking to bring new countries into its fold that are willing to pay in local currencies and not the US dollar.
December 2023
December 9:
December 18:
Reactions from Britain and the USA:
“It means the Houthis have turned their original blockade of Israel into a blockade against the West,” Xiao Yunhua, a professor at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University said on Monday in comments posted to Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese cousin.
[…]
“It is precisely our international strategy to sever U.S. hegemony, undermine American sea power and promote global multipolarity,” he told his 500,000 followers.
“In a way, the Houthis have done us, China, a big favor,” Xiao said.
January 2024
January 7:
Antony ‘The Butcher’ Blinken: “These attacks by the Houthis are hurting people around the world — most of all, the poorest and most vulnerable populations, including in Yemen, including in Gaza. That’s why the United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian together with more than 20 countries to defend the safety and security of commercial shipping across the Red Sea[!]. It’s also why over a dozen countries have made clear that the Houthis will be held accountable for future attacks. We’ll continue to defend maritime security in the region as part of our overall effort to deter and prevent further regional conflict, to ensure the free flow of commerce that is so vital to people around the world.”
Comments from February:
Norman Finkelstein: “All those Europeans with their smug superiority about Eurpean civilization and human rights and the dignity of man, and citing all these historical precedents, philosophical precedents. And when the moment of truth came, who stood by the people of Gaza?” It was the Houthis.
They threw down the gauntlet to the whole world: There will be no business as usual while the people of Gaza are being subjected to a genocide. You want to carry on your commerce? You want to carry on your trade? You want to pretend as if nothing is happening? The Houthis said there wont be trade, there wont be commerce — at least in our neighborhood.
If genocide is the crime of crimes, as it’s called, then I say the Houthis are the hero of heros.”
January 11:
January 12:
January 23:
February 2024
April 2024
‘Stop your Gaza support, and we will give you everything’
Informed Yemeni sources reveal to The Cradle that the US offered Sanaa — in exchange for its neutrality in the ongoing Gaza war — “an acknowledgment of its legitimacy.”
This would involve severely reducing the role of the Saudi-backed Presidential Council led by Rashid al-Alimi and accelerating the signing of a roadmap with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to end the aggression against Yemen.
The sources further reveal that the Americans pledged to immediately release withheld Yemeni public sector salaries from the National Saudi Bank, lift the country’s siege entirely, reopen Sanaa Airport, ease restrictions on the port of Hodeidah, and facilitate a comprehensive prisoner exchange agreement with all involved parties.
In terms of reconstruction, the sources say:
[Washington] pledged to repair the damages, remove foreign forces from all occupied Yemeni lands and islands, and remove Ansarallah from the State Department’s ‘terrorism list’ — as soon as they stop their attacks in support of Gaza.
Despite these tempting offers, which have been the subject of negotiations between Sanaa and Riyadh for over two years, the Yemenis remained steadfast. Ansarallah leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi’s consistent position, as reiterated in his speeches, has been to continue operations as long as Israeli aggression against Gaza persists.
[…]
In response to the Yemeni salvos and interception attempts by US warships, Washington initiated a campaign of threats against Sanaa, which in turn demanded an immediate cessation of aggression against Gaza as a precondition for halting its military operations. Their exact words to the Americans were: “We are not within the circle of those you dictate to.”
June 2024
July 2024
July 3:
July 17:
The Israeli port of Eilat has officially declared bankruptcy because of a sharp decline in commercial activities and revenues due to the naval blockade imposed by Yemen’s Houthis on Israeli-linked cargo ships since last November, a senior official has confirmed.
“It must be acknowledged that the port is in a state of bankruptcy,” explained the CEO of Eilat Port, Gideon Golber. “Only one ship has come here in recent months. The Yemenis have effectively shut off access to the port.”
Earlier this month, the port of Eilat called on the government to provide it with financial assistance as it has been inactive since Tel Aviv launched its latest war on Gaza in October last year. In December, Golber said that there had been an 85 per cent decline in operations since the Yemeni Armed Forces initiated attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea. He indicated at the time that Eilat Port might need to lay off employees temporarily if the situation persisted.
Meanwhile, the ports of Ashdod and Haifa on the Mediterranean are also preparing for possible “escalation from the North with Hezbollah,” according to the Jerusalem Post. The two ports are well within the range of Hezbollah’s missiles.
The Chairman of Ashdod Port, Shaul Schneider, warned that if the northern front is opened with Hezbollah, all of Israel’s ports will be inoperative except for Ashdod, due to the escalation in the north and the closure of Eilat Port.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Maariv, Schneider explained that Ashdod is the only government port, noting that Israel is effectively an “island nation”, with 99 per cent of its goods arriving by sea. Regarding the port in Ashdod, he said that it handles 40 per cent of these goods and has recently served both Israeli and American security and military institutions with their ships. He also emphasised that Ashdod is a critical strategic facility that continues to operate despite being targeted by missiles.
July 20:
September 2024
September 29: In response to the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, Yemen appears to have fired a Palestine 2 missile at Ben Gurion airport during Netanyahu’s arrival from the USA, possibly injuring or even killing him according to rumours and speculations:
Confirmation of the attack by Ansar Allah aka ‘the Houthis’:
Yahya Saree: “In response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy in Gaza and Lebanon, the missile force in the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out an operation what is Israeli called (sic) ‘Ben Gurion’ Jaffa [i.e. Tel Aviv] airport during the arrival of the criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. The operation was carried out with a Palestine 2 ballistic missile.
The Yemeni armed forces, alongside the honorable and free people of the nation, will continue to respond to the crimes of the Israeli enemy, and will not hesitate to raise the level of escalation in response to the requirements of the ongoing stage and to participate in defending Gaza and Lebanon.”
Israel retaliated the same day by attacking the Yemeni humanitarian port cities of Hodeida and Ras Isa:
Biblical ‘Amalek’ talk by the Ziofascist genocidal ‘Defense’ Minister Yoav Gallant:
Overall:
