they asked Biden if the airstrikes against Yemen were working. The reply: “Well, when you say 'working' are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”
This is a direct quote, no paraphrase. No satire. Just fuck off, we're bombing them.
@InternetEh
I wonder if they have similar interviews in Yemeni TV: are the anti-ship missiles working? Well, they're not bringing death to America, but they're going to continue
@Pashhur their goal is to break the occupation blockade of aid into Gaza, and will require sustained pressure.
@InternetEh
I'm in a problematic position here. As an Israeli who sees the war in Gaza as the terrible crime it is, it seems like the only option to stop it is international pressure.
But the Houti attacks aren't that. There are news items in the economics sections here about how much harm the Houti blockade would do to the economy, and it'll probably be measurable in the long term but isn't really felt. It's definitely smaller by orders of magnitude than the cost of the war itself. So either I'm missing something, or these attacks are the same kind of ineffective violence as the US attacks in Yemen are.
@Pashhur
Apparently it has mostly shut down transports to Eliat (85% decrease in December). There is also like only a third of the usual number of container ships in the Red Sea, so locally it is having strong immediate effects.
On the wider economy it hasn't done as much, but then economic sanctions are never very quick at showing their results nor do they always produce the intended effects.
The attacks themselves are not likely to directly bring about any significant impact, but the danger they introduce *does* strongly effect shipping in the region. This in turn can get Egypt to ask itself if the fallout of imposing onerous conditions to transit the Suez if going to Israel is bearable if it means it can go back to mostly normal income from the Suez traffic?
There is also some political pressure put on other arab leaders to take more forceful actions in support of Palestinians now that the poorest Arab nation in the region has displayed this level of resolve: already the popular demand for stronger actions against Israel is such that the big Arab states, despite all being some form of dictatorships, stay out of the taskforces set up to counter the Houthis.
However, the Houthis primary motivation is largely internal: as the war with the Saudis winds down they need another strong outside enemy, at least temporarily, to keep political control over the populations they conquered as the economy and infrastructure is all shit after the civil war and that takes time to restore even if you are dilligent and competent.
@InternetEh
