The Houthis' Issue Isn't Really With Israel

...Israel is just the easiest target to explain to their masses

The Houthis in Yemen, amazingly, have been allowed to control global trade and much of what goes on in the Red Sea.

When their broader attacks started after the Gaza attack on Israel over a year ago, they stated they were only going to target shipping related to Israel or Israelis.

A year in, what does the data tell us?

Shipping & commodities analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann over on X has an interesting graph that tells the story clearly:

Her commentary answers the follow-on question:

…not one Russia-owned and only one Chinese-owned vessel have been attacked in the Red Sea over the past 10 months. And that Chinese-owned vessel? Mediterranean Shipping Co was the disponent owner under a leasing arrangement with China Minsheng Bank.

Of the 83 ships targeted between December and September 2, 56 had direct ownership links to the UK, US or Europe, including 24 from Greece. The findings underscore the risks facing Western shipowners who continue to transit the Red Sea as the Iran-sponsored Houthis use anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, China-bought, Iran-supplied and modified drones along with other deadly weapons to attack vessels in the Red Sea and strait of Bab el Mandeb for a 10th consecutive month.

Greece, the world’s largest ship-owning nation represented 30% all ships attacked by number and 37% by deadweight, analysis shows, yet comprised 17% of the global fleet when measured by deadweight,

The Houthis, direct proxies of Iran and indirect proxies of China, are waging a commerce raiding war against the West.

That has been clear for some time, but too many people refuse to acknowledge or discuss it. This silence exists for no small part because they have an even greater fear of having to deal with the follow-on question: “Why is the West allowing the Houthi to do this?”

This isn’t a lack of capability, we have a few thousand years of successful examples of how to deal with piratical actors. We’ve covered them often here and on Midrats. It all comes back to a lack of will in DC, Brussels, London, and Athens.

Why the lack of will? Well, that is the even more uncomfortable question.