I’m not saying the houthis are good or right, but the world is a lot more complicated than “the US thinks these people are terrorists”.
All of the groups in this region (and the world at large), government or not, are extremely evil and capable of unimaginable violence. You cannot pick and choose to ignore the evils of one group because it is politically beneficial. Well, you can, but that's hypocritical.
The point is that if your goal is to keep the region stable, maximize your influence, and minimize deaths, you have to treat everyone according to the leverage they have. Not the leverage you wish they had based on your moral judgements.
The US media overwhelmingly portrays this as Israel being picked on "for no reason" by all of the savages in the region, and this hampers people in the west's ability to look at the situation objectively.
I get that you don't like Israel. I don't know why I would necessarily want to change your mind there, all told. I can say you should not let that drive you to such allies as terrorists that attack trade ships.
I am not deflecting, my point has been consistent across the whole thread. All of the power players in the region are bad people. However, you have to come to the table with them as they are. It's hubris to just think because the Houthis are bad guys then we don't have to take them seriously. Obviously the best way to stop these attacks is to force Israel to ceasefire (it's also the moral option), but many people wouldn't want to capitulate to pressure from "terrorists".
However, painting them as savages and approaching it with a "bomb them back to the stone age" mindset isn't helpful. You'd think after 20+ years we would have learned this lesson.
All I’ve can find is one video, not the same thing as them pledging allegiance to the Nazi cause.
The flag uses a common rhetorical pattern in the region. “Death to” is often compared to something more similar to “down with”.
The “curse against the Jews” part is concerning but it seems pretty clear in context that this is still just a reference to Israel. To the extent that the houthis are actually looks to kill Jews for being Jews, yes that is obviously horrible. But I think a more reasonable interpretation is that they generally aim to fight against the US and Israel, and which is the core part of their goals.
To be clear, their treatment of Jews is clearly an issue, but they are not literally Hitler.
>The Houthis have been accused of expelling or restricting members of the rural Yemeni Jewish community, which had about 50 remaining members. Reports of abuse include Houthi supporters bullying or attacking the country's Jews. Houthi officials, however, have denied any involvement in the harassment, asserting that under Houthi control, Jews in Yemen would be able to live and operate freely as any other Yemeni citizen. "Our problems are with Zionism and the occupation of Palestine, but Jews here have nothing to fear", said Fadl Abu Taleb, a spokesman for the Houthis. But despite insistence by Houthi leaders that the movement is not sectarian, a Yemeni Jewish rabbi has reportedly said that many Jews remain terrified by the movement's slogan. As a result, Yemeni Jews reportedly retain a negative sentiment towards the Houthis, who they allege have committed persecutions against them. According to Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara, Houthi militants had given an ultimatum telling Jews to "convert to Islam or leave Yemen".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthi_movement?wprov=sfti1#Pe...
I would believe you regarding an odd downplay of "death to" with "down with," were it not for how willing to kill a lot of the actors in the area are? Again, I do not understand why folks give this group so much charity in "they say this, but they mean the much more reasonable that" way. It is mind numbing how much runway is being laid out here.
Seriously, why do you think they deserve to be believed for holding reasonable positions that they have not made credible claims to? Heck, they haven't made many claims to them, period.
It’s important to understand what terms of phrase are.
It’s very common in American English to say “I killed it” or “I murdered it” to mean someone did a task well. It doesn’t mean the literal thing that is said.
The houthis are obviously violent and have murderous intent. That is what armed conflict entails (this is true of the Houthis, the saudis, the Iranians, the israelis and the Americans, etc etc). But that doesn’t mean you have free to strip words and phrases of their cultural context.
"God is the Greatest Death to America Death to Israel A Curse Upon the Jews Victory to Islam"
Is indeed a cartoon baddie.
(And I'm talking about the leadership, not just random followers)
For one thing, translating the words alone leads to a significant stripping of context. Additionally, movements around political Islam have only gained sway since secular/nationalist movements failed to achieve their goals in a meaningful way.
Yemen has more or less zero reason to be in direct conflict with Israel, it's as cartoonish as papa new guinea suddenly changing their slogan to "death to Cyprus!".