Do the Houthis get the message?

The group errs in interpreting the American, British and then Israeli bombing inside Yemen as evidence that it has become a serious participant in the war, and it boasts that it is being subjected to global attacks, which has led to an inflation in the imagination of its military and media leaders that it has become a military figure that the world values.

Of course, no one in Yemen would mind or object to Yemen being present in any comprehensive Arab battle against the Israeli occupation, but the matter is not as lightly as the “group” rushed to support Gaza, which is geographically more than 2,500 kilometers away. Given the poor technology it possesses, everything it launched in the direction of the occupied cities did not achieve any tangible result that would contribute to alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian who is being crushed by the Israeli death machine around the clock.

The Houthis have adopted an innovative, if primitive, approach similar to that of pirates and bandits, attacking passing commercial ships on the pretext that they are owned by Israeli companies, and against Western warships owned by countries that support Israel. They are still holding the crew of a commercial ship they hijacked last year. As the number of missiles and primitive drones launched by the “group” towards the occupied territories has increased, its popularity has increased among many in the Arab world.

The false impression gave the “group” the illusion that it had become an important and influential player that should be taken into account. It did not take into account the reactions to what it was doing, and it naively and overly optimistically believed that it was capable of and would be allowed to change the balance of power in the region. However, the calculations of the threshing floor differ from the calculations of the bandar, and the truth is that it does not understand geopolitical calculations and does not give them any weight.

The group erred in interpreting that the American, British and then Israeli bombing inside Yemen is evidence that it has become a serious participant in the war, and it boasted that it is being subjected to global attacks, which led to an inflation in the imagination of its military and media leaders that it has become a military figure that the world values. This caused a disruption in vision and assessment, and the matter became related to the pride of its leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. There was a confusion between the assessments of internal wars and those that cause disturbance to the international system and its standards, which cannot under any circumstances be changed by a hand-made missile that can be used in civil wars.

The "group" does not distinguish between its internal repressive actions against citizens, through which it imposed its control over a large geographical area with a huge human mass, and challenging major countries that have enough weapons to cause devastation for which citizens pay the price, in addition to the enormous losses that crush all the country's components.

From the beginning, I mean since September 21, 2014, it was clear that the “group” did not care about the overall national interest, and because of that the country entered into a devastating war that represented from its perspective a victory simply because its authority did not collapse, and the reason for that is that it manages national affairs with a narrow mentality and purely sectarian principles, and the strange thing is that it does not conduct any reviews of its governance approach in the areas under its control or its view of Greater Yemen, and it is immersed in the mirage of its ability to continue to control by suppressing and persecuting the different and dissenting other, and it is surprising that it ignores the scenes of the astonishing and rapid collapse of its partners in the “Unity of the Arenas and Support of Gaza” camp.

Hezbollah in Lebanon was the most important and most heavily armed partner in the “Gaza Arenas and Support” camp sponsored by Tehran. That is why Israel launched its war against it on September 17th, and was able to carry out the most important security incursion, the “PAGERS War,” disabling its security system before moving on to bombarding and pursuing its leadership positions in the southern suburbs. It assassinated all of its first-tier leaders, headed by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who represented a major historical symbol in the “Axis of Resistance and Defiance.”

With the destruction of most of the party’s military capabilities and the neutralization of its security system, the leader of the Houthi Ansar Allah group assumed that he was the only qualified heir to lead the “axis,” and that he had a religious duty to continue the challenge. It is clear that up until this moment he has not comprehended the magnitude of the enormous changes that have occurred, and he does not acknowledge that he enjoys only very limited internal support, and that what he is doing is not commensurate with the country’s capabilities and the enormity of what it is exposed to and what awaits it. Then came the next fatal blow in Damascus when the Assad family regime quickly collapsed. Despite what is known about foreign interventions, it is certain that an overwhelming popular desire facilitated the matter, and it wanted the departure of the head of the regime and all his family and military and security apparatuses. Suffice it to say that he fled secretly with his wife and children without arranging the affairs of the country or the rest of his family and companions. Bashar al-Assad’s regime was shattered and the idea of the “leader forever” collapsed with amazing ease. His page was turned because he was separated from the people and lived on the roof of Mount Qasioun overlooking Damascus in isolation that prevented him from recognizing the extent of the institutional and societal destruction that His corrupt system created it.

Here, the leader of the “group” in Yemen must read the scene and rectify the situation by putting the national interest before sectarianism, declaring his commitment to the existing constitution, releasing all political prisoners immediately, granting public and private freedoms, and returning the private and public properties that his supporters seized without justification. He must be convinced that he was not and is not an acceptable popular choice, and that he is not authorized by the majority of the Yemeni people to rule and control their destiny.

What doubles the dangers is the neglect of the fact that the rules of the game have been reversed, and that the reckless nihilistic positions are pushing the country towards a fate stained with more destruction, blood, disintegration, grudges and hatred. The leader of the “group” must stop wasting time and playing with it by reciting sermons and speeches that mean nothing to the people. He must stop the foolishness that will not change anything on the ground, and he must realize that the world will not ignore the threat to international navigation under any pretext. Most importantly, he must understand that the Yemenis are tired of his group’s foolishness.

*Quoted from Independent