Similarly, belittling Ansar Allah’s Palestine solidarity misrepresents it as some form of shrewd opportunism—a way to appeal to the mass pro-Palestine sentiment in Yemen and across the Arab world. Support for the Palestinian cause is, in fact, foundational to Ansar Allah’s movement. Regardless of the positive impact its actions have had domestically, its pro-Palestine position is a “deep belief,” Helen Lackner, author of several books on Yemen and Saudi Arabia, told The New Republic. Ansar Allah’s leaders and members “are profoundly and deeply committed to Palestine and seriously distressed at the injustice Palestinians have suffered over the decades,” she said. “The leadership also considers the issue of Palestine/Israel its main foreign policy, alongside being anti-U.S.” In this way, Ansar Allah is following a long tradition of Palestine solidarity among various Yemeni governments since Israel’s creation in 1948.
Another way to evaluate Ansar Allah’s claims is to look at the material effects its Red Sea disruptions have had on Israel and its war on Gaza. If its actions were purely symbolic, the charge of opportunism could be plausible, regardless of the movement’s deeply held beliefs. But the Houthis are actually imposing real costs.
The economic impact on Israel itself appears noteworthy but rather minimal. Although the Eilat port on Israel’s southern border experienced an 85 percent drop in activity by late December, this port, which mostly brings in potash (an ingredient in fertilizer) and Chinese electric vehicles, “pales in size compared to Israel’s Mediterranean ports in Haifa and Ashdod which handle most of the country’s trade” and whose activity seems uninterrupted, Reuters reported. “Red Sea shipping disruption, and even some shippers declining Israeli cargo, will not bring Israel to its knees economically,” supply chain expert Brad Martin told Al Jazeera. This economic pressure is simply far too insignificant to force Israel to make any concessions.