Yemen is imposing naval sanctions in support of Gaza, with Jon Elmer

we've been wanting to do Yemen since the beginning of this conflict and there's just there's so much in the day in the shows to cover on Gaza that we just haven't given um we haven't had the time but we've wanted to do this for a long time so um shout out to Yemen um this should have come a lot earlier but um yeah so essentially Yemen has set up um a blockade a de facto blockade um of the straight that goes in from the Arabian Sea into the Red Sea to the Suz Canal which is a critical shipping route um one of the three most critical shipping routes um in the world um and the yeni Armed Forces um under what the known in the west as the houthi movement um named after um its leader abdal Malik Al houthi but they call themselves Anar Allah um and the Y yemeni Armed Forces um and essentially as a direct response to the blockade and seize um Siege on Gaza um the yeni Armed Forces um sort of threw down a gauntlet and said um until the siege of Gaza ends um shipping by Israeli companies through the Red Sea um wasn't going to happen and they backed that up with um the seizure of um of an Israeli flag or an Israeli adjacent um ship um to show that they meant business but what they have been doing is before that they were warning ships not to go um they boarded ships um and told them to turn around um and effectively have set up a de facto blockade um of Israeli ports and travel through the Red Sea um through the suaz and into uh the Mediterranean Sea so this is a significant shipping route it's an oil shipping route it's a container uh shipping route it's already an area that's full of uh warships from all over the world but the United States has of course since October 7th really uh buttressed their Force um in this area and so it's basically crawling with American uh warships and destroyers Miss cruise missile destroyers and um the yenis have used used um their media um really well um and of course they have the support of the many population which is overwhelmingly in support of the Palestinians and I think a lot of people in the Arab world have watched um this resistance from the yenis joining in this war um and it really stands in stark contrast to of course to their repressive governments who don't represent um the feeling on the streets so um I think Yemen has found a legitimacy um in this blockade and is participating in the war um in a consequential manner opening up a southern front um to the war that includes the war in the North uh with Hezbollah um now this war in the South so the the um answer Allah has attacked um a lot as well Southern Israel um principally using um ballistic missiles cruise missiles and drones loitering drones um which are something that the um yeni Armed Forces has uh a lot of experience with over the past nine years um fighting against uh the Saudi us Coalition um that attempted to overthrow their Uprising um and so they're not a they're not a non-state actor they have have resources of an armed force and in fact they have um anti-ship um capabilities that no other um States me very few states have and so they did this um blockade verbally they expressed how it was going to happen and then this video that we're seeing right now was from November 19th um when the yeni Armed Forces boarded um the Galaxy leader which was uh an Israeli owned is an Israeli owned ship um and you can see just even from this video they have the capabilities they have radar capabilities to find these ships and they have helicopter capabilities to land uh a reaction force um onto the ship so they're they're they're not a gerilla force anymore they were a Guerilla force in the fight um against the Saudi um but they have um Turned themselves and used the resources of the state um to to form a considerable um you know quasi State um force and so this footage of this taking over this containership obviously caused a lot of concern um in the western world and it resulted in the Americans moving um an aircraft carrier strike group into the Red Sea um in an attempt to protect these ships um which it did not do it did not it has not worked there has been more attacks um since this ship was taken over um and we can see in this video that it's obviously a complex operation it involves the helicopters you see the the boats flanking it um and at this point you also see them flying a Palestinian flag um on the roof of the of the ship so again this is a a major shipping Corridor 12% of the world's oil um so as much as 30% of us or of uh International um shipping containers at any point can be passing through uh the Red Sea into uh the Suez Canal to get into the Mediterranean Sea um and so uh Anar Allah has warned ships um not to pass and there has been um a considerable effect to this that we have seen this has been happening for two months um but we've seen over the last few days um it step up considerably and this map here shows you what the consequence of closing the Suez Canal is for shipping it means instead of taking the shortcut it means you have to Traverse all the way around the southern tip of Africa which can cause delays depending on the shipping um from from a couple of weeks to a month um the shipping costs of course go through the roof because the um the costs and Logistics um of the trip become manyfold increased um and so you see this um de facto blockade creating a situation that the United States um feels like they have to actively be involved in and there here's the state Department's response to this ship and we can hear the S uh the yeni response to it this is from uh from November the houthi uh seizure of the motor vessel Galaxy leader in the Red Sea is a flagrant violation of international law we demand the immediate release of the ship and its crew and we will consult with our allies and un Partners as appropriate on next steps thank you so we demand the release of the ship and this is the aner Allah La Media representative uh for their Armed Forces he simply says no um and so this kind of defiance um and and inability to be deterred in the in the sense that uh um the Western Powers um always intend with their threats and we know from NASA's speech that um all of these other fronts um Lebanon that the Americans are phoning constantly behind the scenes Nala said threatening everybody um threatening that if they particip at that their countries will be destroyed and sent back to the Stone Age and whatnot and um the yenis who have 9 years of experience fighting the American Saudi Coalition just simply say no um which is just um like a Defiance that spreads throughout the Arab world and is um a real source of Pride for the Palestinians Abu oeda of course mentioned uh mentioned this and the Americans um have been forced to have warships um um missile destroyers that escort their aircraft carriers actually Downing and then you can see from this map just how many American assets there are in this area that are unable to deal with Yemen who depending on how you classify can be considered the poorest country in the world um devastated by nine years of war famine um but their resistance is is prompting the Americans to have so many warships that you can barely put it on a map like this map's almost absurd um and they're constantly um shooting down um ballistic and cruise missiles and what the um anser Allah has used to great effect is drone swarms they use loitering drones or suicide drones drones that are themselves missile capable um and they they flood the area with uh numerous drones to attempt to get through um air defense systems which is something they did to great effect in Saudi Arabia when they targeted um Saudi oil refineries um during that war so essentially what the what aner Allah has done H has basically been to draw a line um in this area that the Americans are trying to work with their allies to figure out what to do um because the yenis have the capability to shut down shipping to Israel um which is very con um considerable um so the Israeli economy is already stretched by 360,000 people called up into the reserves um you know air traffic has all but stopped um into beneran um airport in Tel Aviv it's just a trickle um and so they've Israel has lost this sort of core part of their economy which is like um the Jews of the world coming to visit family you know what would be called uh tourism RIT large but it's lot a lot of it is family visits and and whatnot um so that's been a huge U hit to the Israeli economy um of course we know that there's no laborers from the West Bank accessing Israel they've been shut out of Israel so they've lost hundreds of of thousands of West Bank laborers they lost hundreds of thousands of Gaza laborers when um after the attack go they sealed the border with Gaza we know that they've lost tens of thousands of Thai workers who were their um their labor force um on their Kutz farms and whatnot um so there's already those cons U very considerable um gouges out of the Israeli economy we also know that um you know 500 100,000 Israelis from the North and the South are evacuated from their communities and they're um dependent on the state as well so the state's putting them up Israel's putting them up in hotels at considerable cost for an indefinite period of time um and also just because you've evacuated those communities there's no basic economy happening in those communities so store shops are all closed um unemployment's crippled um in Israel in the last month just in the last month um more than 50% of Israeli businesses had lost more than 50% of their revenues in the that was from the first week in November so there's a month on top of that um that's been piled on top of that um we know they get um those significant air lifts from um from the Americans um but this basic trade um for Israel its food stuffs and whatnot um its Vehicles one of the two of the ships were vehicle ships that had more than 10,000 cars that were headed to Israel and you can see there's a straight right off the coast of Aden there on the southern tip of Yemen which has been a like the colonizer um um prize um for the whole time of Naval Warfare because of its control over that straight that skinny little pie piece of land uh of piece of water in between the two in between uh yeni land um that gives them significant um uh pull and it's one of the reasons why the colonists um targeted Yemen but since 1967 um Yemen has been independent and they've been able to to use their state apparatus to effectively create a blockade of Israel um that's blockading one of the most significant um trade routes in the world um and so if you count the number of Israelis that have had to leave their communities plus the number that's called up you have almost a million people removed from their society um generating income um for their state and on top of that they need to be paid out by the government and Netanyahu has talked about um setting up a war economy um where they're just dumping money in into anyone who needs it so this kind of warfare um is not sustainable and when you put the um the actual consequences of anser Allah La running um effectively a naval blockade a vdo um over Israeli ports with a basic um with a basic explanation end The Siege on Gaza um or the blockade will continue and there's no threat that comes comes from the Americans um that that there's no threat that that comes from the Americans that detours the yenis because for one thing they're deeply popular this position is deeply popular within their society um we saw this demonstration last weekend that I don't even know how you count is that a million people uh many many hundreds of thousands of people um so it's deeply popular and and and and answer Allah has said straightforwardly um we're not afraid of escalating if you want to escalate this war we're ready and countries like the UAE um hear that kind of thing and they're not so sure they want to participate in something that's um that that has the capability Yemen has the capability to shut the uae's ports um within minutes um they have the capacity to to make people decide uh which side you're on in this genocide and the United States has had to respond to this actually just from this this this um tomorrow do we have the the um the spokesperson Yahya sari riding off from this speech so he gives this speech in front of uh what looks like a million people and he doesn't hop into a bulletproof Suburban he hops on the back of this just regular yeni guy's motorcycle wearing his sandals and apparently The Story Goes that uh Yahya sare um wanted to pay the yeni price to for the motorcycle ride and the motorcyclist said no no no no no uh it's half off and so um just to show that that that these this this is a deeply popular position to be taken and I'm sure in the UAE if the uae's uh emirati leadership were decide to take this position it would be deeply popular there of of course because people in the Arab world are watching with horror um what's happening and are uh you know embarrassed ashamed of the role that their um their governments are playing in this so um yeah the yeni veto the yeni blockade um has forced the Americans to set up so these are the a list of the attacks um which generally include drone swarms um but have included some anti-ship missiles um that are then forced to be shot down by the American carriers um I have the numbers here somewhere but it was something on the order of 75 um um missiles drones um had had been shot down um since October 7th um that are targeting either the ships um or in a lot of cases targeting Israel itself and so the US has had to set up um oh oh and also just to say in the last couple of days um the largest shipping companies in the world have decided that they're quitting the Red Sea so Zim uh haeg Lloyd Maris Mediterranean Shipping Company euronav um the French CMA CGM and then yesterday BP British Petroleum said that they weren't going to ship through the Suez um either so they've created um what the BBC called a maritime security crisis um by essentially blockading um blockading access to Israel um until Israel removed moves the um The Siege on Gaza and we know that the yenis have also targeted um American assets they targeted an mq9 Reaper drone earlier in the war which was a $40 million drone that was um flying over Gaza and then moved down to the Red Sea um and the houthis knocked it out of the air and so they're they appear to be ready for this fight and the United States has now set up excuse me just last thing Ally that the United States has now set up this Naval um task force dedicated specifically to um combating the um the ansar Allah blockade and they named um they named this operation Operation Prosperity Guardian so in the midst of the genocide they have you know which you could reword as uh operation protect capitalism uh operation protect imperialism it's basically the same words right operation money money money yeah well the considerable loss the economic um legitimacy um of Israel in this war is one of the fronts that's in question um and so they've they've they've stood up this um Naval task force that includes um John let me ask you about this this is an important uh point and that that's such a brilliant uh and detailed overview so they're setting up this task force which includes we can maybe put that back up on the screen they announced a 10 Nation task force which includes the United Kingdom Bahrain Canada France Italy Netherlands Norway the SE shells and Spain what's noticeable about that this is a test of everyone's geography is that not a single one of those countries actually borders onto the Red Sea the SE shells is in the Indian Ocean but it's not really on the Red Sea and there have been reports that the United States is trying to bring Egypt into this and trying to bring Jordan into this and that it tried and failed to bring Saudi Arabia into this which is very interesting given Saudi Arabia's uh de facto alliance with Israel at least prior to this war and the fact that Jordan is a close Ally of the United States and as we've talked about uh previously on this live stream and reported Jordan is actually hosting large numbers of military forces that are part of the sort of regional shield for Israel that's under Jordan's us uh security agreement with Israel the 2021 security agreement of course Jordan denies that the purpose of this is to defend Israel but that's certainly why the United States is sending the forces there so uh the the question then about the politics of this the fact that even the countries like Egypt and Jordan and Saudi Arabia that are very close to the US are unwilling to take part in a naval operation whose purpose or at least even to give it legitimacy because they don't know what sort of navies the Saudis or Egypt or the jordanians have but they would give it the cover of legitimacy of an operation whose goal is to protect Israel while it perpetrates genocide so I guess is the politics of this don't really work well for the US what are its options it's put this task force together is it going to start bombing Yemen and if so how would that play both politically and militarily yeah it's like they're trying to make a coalition of the Willing right from the from the old Iraq days um and and the states that you pointed out um both they can't do it because of their own populations in part but also they can't do it because they don't want to fight with Yemen like I said about the UAE the UAE joins that um task force um and and carries out some sort of operation against the houthis and they decide um that Anar Allah decides to respond and now all of a sudden you have this whole different Regional War like we've talked about the regional war in the north um and where people fall on that um divide but now the houthis have forced answer Allah has forced people um in the South to make these decisions and so the idea that you're setting up this International task force um I mean the the the answerer Allah responded to that already today and said if we're attacked we'll attack back and they have the capability I mean we saw that map um earlier with the number of Warships that the Americans have in floating off um the coast of Yemen those are all Targets and we know from previous uh from the war with the Saudis that they're very able to reach those ships um and and so the the The Gauntlet has been thrown down and and answer Allah has made people decide um to pick aside and they don't appear um to be backing down in any way in fact like just even collecting the media for this show there like even minutes before we go on the air they're making statements um threatening um that they'll reply if you attack us and so they have this media front that is um you know doing an excellent job of participating in the information War um maybe the best of anybody um in terms of um just like the humor and the disposition that they've taken and again we saw those pictures it's because it's deeply popular um within within their country and I don't even know like what are those pictures that is so many people at a demonstration and by the way John that's not new for Yemen at all it's incredible the support from the people of Yemen but I just want to say something about the language that um International media use for this they call it a blockade or they call it attacks on shipping or they call it all sorts of things that give it a negative spin but what I I call it and I think it's the most accurate term is this is a humanitarian intervention by Yemen they are meeting their responsibilities morally and and I would say legally under the genocide convention to intervene all countries that ratify the genocide convention I actually don't know I haven't checked if Yemen is a uh is a has ratified the genocide convention but in any case in a general sense the genocide convention places on an obligation on governments to intervene and so that's what Yemen is doing it's doing what all countries should be doing intervening to stop the genocide so this is a true humanitarian intervention and uh it's one that is being widely supported across the region one thing I just noticed John while you were speaking I have the marine traffic app on my phone and you can see there is still quite a bit of traffic going through the Red Sea Bound for the sew canal and those are presumably not ships Bound for Israel but I did notice that some of the ships are now altering their transponder messages to broadcast that they are carrying armed guards and that's something i' I'd never seen before so that's an interesting development yeah and because of that the insurance um is another thing about the shipping is that because they have to hire security um that increases the cost as well um and the shipping costs of Insurance um go up considerably so when you have high value um shipping like oil uh or vehicles and whatnot the ship the insurance costs become um extraordinary some people um talked about eight times the price of what it was originally once you you factor in going all the way around Africa or having armed guards and essentially that's what these ships are too right like this ship is an operation to this Naval task force is an operation to protect capitalism um to protect the free flow of goods um in the face of a genocide and and as you said all of these countries um that have these warships and have these capabilities they could be taking those capabilities and taking them off the coast uh of Israel and resupplying the people in Gaza who are being literally star D to death um they have the capacity like France who's joining this Coalition they have the capacity to put a hospital ship or an electrical power station ship um off the coast of Gaza um but Israel somehow is allowed to have a de facto blockade like the BBC doesn't talk about the The Siege um as as a maritime crisis um they don't talk about uh Gaza as being part of the world um you know the World Trade system it's like they don't count they're just inside a prison and they're allowed to be blockaded but if the yemenis um carry out a humanitarian intervention the Pentagon um you know how many weeks did it take the Pentagon to pull together this Naval task force um you know while Yahya sari's riding off in his sandals in a crowd of a million people um the juxtaposition of those two um and and as you say the juxtaposition of the humanitarian uh intervention versus the um you know the the brutal Siege on Gaza um it's very Stark and they've put that um to the world in a very Stark manner this country um that was supposed to lose the war like the Saudis um said that they had won the the War uh against Yemen like two weeks into the war right like similar to how the Israelis declared that they had won the war in 2006 in Lebanon after two days um but here here they are nine years later um forcing the Americans who were part of that war um to come up with a naval task force so you're not going to detour them and also they know how to fight they've been fighting these wars their skills Fighters and they have the apparatus of the state the yeni armed forces and they're using it yeah thanks for watching this video please subscribe to our YouTube channel hit like leave a comment these engagements help us with the YouTube algorithm and it helps us to get around Silicon Valley censorship as much as possible it does make a difference you can also support our journalism by going to electronic in.net and clicking on donate now thank you