United States and Britain Threaten to Bomb Yemen in Defense of Gaza Genocide

As more governments and mass organizations sign on to the South African lawsuit against Israel, the more desperate imperialism and its agents become

Geostrategic Analysis

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken jets across West Asia and North Africa holding talks with various government leaders, the threats by the United States, Britain and the State of Israel have accelerated against the people of Palestine and other neighboring territories.

It has never been clear what real objectives the State Department has in West Asia and North Africa other than supporting the State of Israel, undermining the Palestinian liberation struggle and securing western hegemony in these geopolitical regions.

A key component of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to Palestine is to minimize the level of solidarity with the oppressed people who have been occupied since 1948. Even after 75 years, Washington and Wall Street maintain the same position which views Tel Aviv as an outpost of imperialism in West Asia and North Africa.

More than 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7 when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) began a bombing campaign which continues after three months. A ground invasion of more than two months has still not ended the resistance by Hamas and other organizations.

Across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America, millions are rallying and demonstrating against what is largely perceived as a genocidal war by Israel. The U.S. is the largest contributor to the Zionist state and consequently the administration of President Joe Biden has been blamed for coordinating and enabling the mass slaughter of the Palestinians which also is being extended to Lebanon and Syria.

The Republic of South Africa has launched a legal claim against the State of Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging violations of the Genocide Convention. This lawsuit has already won the support of well over a thousand prominent individuals, civil society and mass organizations along with several governments in Africa, Asia and South America as well as regional groupings such as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

In response to the solidarity measures with the Palestinians taken by the resistance forces in Yemen, the White House has ordered the Pentagon to assemble a “coalition of the willing”, harkening back to the invasion of Iraq, to repel attacks on ships which are linked to Tel Aviv or conducting trade with the settler-colonial state. Despite the repeated claims by Biden and his White House that it is trying to avert a regional war, military and diplomatic activities by Washington are resulting in greater hostilities and instability throughout West Asia.

The Operation Protect Prosperity announced late last year by the now beleaguered Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is ostensibly designed to build a naval force to repel the solidarity actions of the Yemeni Ansar Allah resistance movement. Several imperialist states and their surrogates have given their approval to some form of an alliance aimed at reinforcing the supremacy of the West over the seas and oceans surrounding Africa and West Asia.

In response to ongoing attacks against those business and military interests supporting Israel, the White House stepped up its rhetoric on January 10. The New York Times reported that:
“[T]he Biden administration has said it will hold the Houthis (Ansar Allah) responsible for the attacks, a warning that suggested the government may be considering retaliatory strikes in Yemen. ‘We’re going to do everything we have to do to protect shipping in the Red Sea,’ the U.S. national security spokesman, John Kirby, said at a news conference on Wednesday. Like the secretary of state, Mr. Kirby did not describe what the White House was considering, saying instead that it would coordinate with allies and that ‘the United States does not seek conflict.’” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/world/middleeast/houthis-red-sea-us-response.html)

Gaza Siege Has Prompted Expanded Military Clashes

However, what the White House does not acknowledge is that the source of the escalating war in the Arabian and Red Sea areas is the genocide taking place in Gaza. If there had been a ceasefire and serious discussions on the need for the creation of a viable Palestinian state, the burgeoning military resistance from the Ansar Allah would not have reached the present level.

Widespread opposition to the Biden administration’s policy towards Palestine and West Asia as a whole, has further devastated the electoral prospects for the president’s reelection. Since October 7, there have been unprecedented Palestine solidarity rallies, demonstrations and other forms of opposition to the White House within the U.S. and internationally.

Media outlets, both private and public, are pressured to walk in lock step with the White House, both Houses of Congress and Tel Aviv while thousands are dying in Gaza and other neighboring states. Targeted assassinations by the IDF and the Pentagon in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen indicates clearly that it is the imperialist states which are escalating the war on a regional level.

Yemen Remains Steadfast in Solidarity with Palestine

On January 10, the U.S. sponsored a resolution in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to halt the Yemeni attacks on vessels in efforts to impose a blockade against Israeli ports. The resolution passed with the abstentions of Russia, China, Mozambique and Algeria. (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/world/middleeast/houthis-red-sea-us-response.html)

However, the passage of such a resolution before the UNSC does not effectively alter any of the objective conditions facing the Palestinians in Gaza, the other occupied territories along with the most severely impacted regional states. Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah have been targeted by the IDF in the assassinations of some of its leadership.

In Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran, the threat of IDF and Pentagon strikes are constant while the propaganda in defense of Israel is being consistently streamed by western news agencies in order to prepare people in the imperialist states for an expanded and extended military conflagration. The resistance forces in Yemen are defying the existing threats by the U.S. and Israel by applying military and economic pressure on the world capitalist system.

In a report published by Al Mayadeen, a Yemeni military official Yahya Saree was quoted as saying:
“The spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced that the Navy, the Missile Force, and the Drone Air Force in the Yemeni Armed Forces, ‘executed a joint military operation involving a large number of ballistic and naval missiles and drones, targeting an American ship that was providing support to the Zionist entity.’ According to the spokesperson, the operation also marked the ‘initial response’ of the Yemeni Armed Forces following the U.S. attack on Yemeni Forces, earlier, which resulted in the martyrdom of 10 members of the Yemeni Navy.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yemen-armed-forces-spox-says-us-ship-targeted-in–initial-re)

Therefore, the YAF are responding to the already escalating military situation in the region which is being carried out by Washington and Tel Aviv. Britain and the U.S. issued a joint statement on January 10 calling for a halt to the solidarity campaign being waged by the Yemen resistance.

Britain, the former colonial power in South Yemen, has maintained an interest in developments surrounding the Red Sea. The shipping lanes in this area are some of the most lucrative in the world as large-scale vessels transporting energy resources, military hardware and consumer goods rely on the Bab el-Mandeb straits to reach the Suez Canal.

Since the conclusion of World War II, the U.S. has become the undisputed dominant imperialist power in the West Asia, North Africa and Horn of Africa regions. Challenging the flow of trade in the Red Sea has prompted the suspension of several shipping firms from utilizing the waterways. Consequently, the costs for transporting cargo have sharply risen due to the threats of seizure by the Yemen resistance.

In the same Al Mayadeen article quoted above it notes:
“Saree stressed that ‘the Yemeni Armed Forces affirms that they will not hesitate to appropriately deal with all hostile threats under the legitimate right of defending our country, our people, and our nation.’ To conclude the press briefing, he reminded the world that the Yemeni Armed Forces would continue to stand with Palestine and ‘prevent Israeli ships or those headed to the ports of occupied Palestine from navigating in the Arabian and Red Seas until the aggression stops and the siege on our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip is lifted.’”

Any aerial attacks by the U.S. and Britain would be met with retaliation by the YAF. The increased insecurity in the Red Sea area is bound to weaken the economic status of the State of Israel along with commercial interest dependent upon the Bab al-Mandeb straits.

Moreover, an expanded U.S. and British military engagement in the Red Sea and its contiguous states would only fuel greater opposition to the foreign policy of imperialism. Undoubtedly, the battle for the liberation of Palestine and the entire West Asia region is far from being resolved.