Nadene Goldfoot
The USA and Israel have both been fighting against the Houthis who have been attacking them. So is the UK. The United States designates the Houthis as a terrorist group.
Initially, the Houthis started firing drones and missiles towards Israel. Most were intercepted. On 19 November 2023, the Houthis hijacked a commercial ship in the Red Sea. They have since launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial ships.
US ship, Harry S. Truman, hit by Houthis with US in denial: In this handout image provided by the US NAVY the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) transits the Strait of Gibraltar, November 25, 2024. (Michael Gomez / US NAVY / AFP)
Yemen’s Houthis on Tuesday claimed their third attack on American warships in48 hours, despite US strikes on the Iran-backed rebels that have sparked mass protests. They killed 4 crew members. US-led naval forces have thwarted
many attacks. The Houthis initially said they were attacking ships connected with Israel, or heading to or from there. However, many of the vessels have no connection with Israel. Five takeaways from leaked US military chat group. Washington stunned by Trump's national security team's chat app leak.
In response to US and UK air strikes on their positions, the Houthis began targeting ships tied to owners or operators in the UK or US. The attacks forced even major shipping companies to stop using the Red Sea - through which almost 15% of global seaborne trade usually passes - and to take a much longer route around southern Africa instead.The US and UK started carrying out air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in January 2024.
In March 2025 Donald Trump authorised a wave of air strikes on Houthi targets. "Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at US aircraft, and targeted our troops and allies," Trump said, adding that their "piracy, violence, and terrorism" had cost "billions" and put lives at risk. Trump said that it had been more than a year since a US-flagged ship had sailed safely through the Suez Canal - which the Red Sea leads to - and four months since a US warship had been through the body of water between east Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Houthis are protesting.
The protests came after Washington launched a fresh campaign of airstrikes on Yemen beginning Saturday, aiming to pressure the Houthis into ending their attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Israeli military says it intercepted a missile after it activated air raid sirens across multiple areas of the country. Interceptor trails are seen in the sky over Jerusalem, March 27, 2025 [File: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]. The Israeli military says it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, as the United States launches intense military operations in the country, primarily targeting sites held by Houthi rebels.
2nd class Jews of Yemen; males on left, females on right, mostly bare-foot, taken by Haaretz; shocking to Israeli, US Jews They treated Jews in Yemen as 2nd class citizens and worse. The Houthis, also known as the Houthi movement and officially the Ansar Allah, is a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely from the Houthi tribe. The Houthi tribe, which is part of the larger Banu Hamdan tribe, an ancient Hamdanid Arab tribe from central and northern Yemen and particularly in the Saada /Sa'dah province. .
The Houthis are both a political and a military organization, and they have played a significant role in the Yemeni civil war, controlling much of northern Yemen. The Houthis are considered part of the Iranian-led "Axis of Resistance" along with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and they are backed by Iran. The movement was founded by Hussein al-Houthi, and his brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, is the current leader.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, beaten by Houthi TribeThe Houthis fought a series of rebellions against Yemen's long-time president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and they seized control of the northern province of Saada and later the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis currently control a significant portion of Yemen's territory and population, and they are recognized only by Iran.
It seems that about 3,000 Jews moved to the land of Yemen in the early3rd century CE, with Byzantine sources showing the 4th century whenthey made many converts of the native population that startedunder Abu Karib Asad who ruled from 390 to 420. Asad converted, too. Bedouin tribes of southernArabia were converting as well. The northern tribe ofHamdan was also converting. In fact, society's upper strata were converting.
When Dhu Nuwas was ruling, Judaism was very popular, but when he died, Christianity stepped in.
After the rise of Islam in 630 CE and the region became part of the Islamic empire, with Yemen being ruled as part of Arab-Islamic caliphates. Jews were artisans and many were silversmiths. Yemen Islam became Shi'i like Iran.
In early 1900s, there were 30,000 Jews in Yemen. 1/3 lived in Sanaa.
Jews were then forbidden to ride on animals or wear the same clothes asMoslems. Their property was taken away. Unbelievers had to bedisgraced. Orphans were converted to Islam by force. After being kickedout of their homes, they were not allowed to enter it again. By 1948, there were 18,000 Jews from Yemen in the newly formed Israel. Almost the whole Jewish community of 46,000 was transferred to Israelin 1949 -1950 in OPERATION MAGIC CARPET. About 1,400 remained inYemen. Today, there might be as many as 5, or most likely, none live inYemen.
Ofra Haza
She represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, with the song "Hi", Of Yemenite-Mizrahi descent, Haza performed music known as a mixture of traditional Middle Eastern and commercial singing styles, fusing elements of Eastern and Western instrumentation, orchestration and dance-beat, as well as lyrics from Mizrahi and Jewish folk tales and poetry.
"Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza was born in Tel Aviv, Israel (Hebrew: עפרה חזה; November 1957 – 23 February 2000) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, and actress who died to soon at 43, commonly known in the Western world as "the Madonna of the East", or "the Israeli Madonna", to Mizrahi Jewish parents from Yemen who had immigrated to Israel in 1949 with eight children. She was the youngest of nine children (six sisters and two brothers) to Yefet and Shoshana Haza. They were raised in a Masorti household in the Hatikva Quarter, then an impoverished, working-class neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Although named Bat-Sheva by her parents, her sisters disliked the name, and preferred to call her by her middle name, Ofra, instead". At 19, she was Israel's foremost pop star, and news articles have retrospectively described her as "the Madonna of the East". Haza served two years in the Israel Defense Forces. She represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 at age 26, with the song "Hi"/ "Chai", which means "life"-to live.
What did her parents endure in 1949 and earlier in Yemen as Jews? They were 2nd class citizens then. Her mother, Shoshana Haza, was also a singer.
Resource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_history_of_Yemen#:~:text=Islam%20came%20to%20Yemen%20around,province%20in%20the%20Islamic%20empire.
https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2018/en/107722#:~:text=The%20country's%20remaining%20Jewish%20population,number%20less%20than%2050%20people.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ali-Abdullah-Saleh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofra_Haza
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