By Mordechai Ben-Menachem
Yemen is mentioned a great deal in the news. How relevant is this and how important is Yemen to America and Americans?
The first thing that must be recognized is, as is always the case with everything concerning the Middle East, if you do not comprehend both the historical and the religious backgrounds and contexts, you understand exactly nothing. Most so-called mainstream media analysts are reporting basically rubbish, because they never bothered to find out the real story. Viewing events as ‘current-events’ is garbage, of no value. A case in point, Geopolitical Monitor, I source I generally value, calls Yemen “The World’s Newest Failed State” (Geopolitical Monitor). They are wrong. Why? Because it is not and never was a “state” – in any Western understanding, and this is a very typical type of error.
Yemen is mentioned 38 times in the Bible, in nearly every book of the 24. Yemen is, and always has been, a geographical region, but it has almost never been a country. The city of Sa’ana was built by Jews; as were Taiz, Saada, Baida, Aden, Haban. At the time of Muhammad and during the First Jihad, Yemen was Jewish – a large minority of residents of the Arabian Peninsula were Jews, the majority fled to Yemen from Muhammad’s depredations, bolstering its population. Muhammad decreed no Jews were allowed to live in the Arabian Peninsula after he massacred the residents of Mecca (who were Jewish). Abu Bakr, the first Caliph after Muhammad’s death, attempted to carry out this directive. He succeeded in every area except Yemen. At the time, Yemen was ruled by a widowed Queen named Pnina. Abu Bakr failed. This was the only case in history were Christendom, in the form of Byzantium, and Islam fully cooperated, when Byzantium sent an expeditionary force from Ethiopia, via Bab el Mandeb (the Straights of Tears) to support the Muslims. Eventually, the combined forces – combined solely for the purpose of exterminating Jews and the Jewish Kingdom – succeeded. The Kingdom fell to Islam – all except Haban which was never conquered. (Habani descendents are the only Kafirs allowed to carry weapons according to Sharia.) As a curious historical aside, Habani fighting capabilities still exist in the Martial Arts form called ABIR (Abir Warrior Arts).
Throughout history, from Abu Bakr to modern times, Jews were Yemen’s economy. Imams changed, never controlling significant percentages of the region and never uniting it into a country (and almost never dying of ‘age’). Culturally, Yemeni men consider work demeaning. The men’s job is to sit around, chew Ghat and discuss things. Only Jews and women work – but men constantly fight. The only Yemeni economic activity, throughout history, was incursions into Africa to hunt humans for sport and slaves – that is where the name “Bab el Mandeb” comes from, the slaves’ tears; women for sex, men for mines and children for camel jockeys. This trade still exists. Africans are still hunted, captured and sold throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Children are still castrated for “the sport of kings.” When tens of thousands Jews left with formation of the State of Israel, Yemen’s economy ceased. (The Jewish population of Yemen before WWII was about 125,000. About five to seven thousand arrived before Independence, despite the British Blockade. Sixty thousand arrived in Israel after Independence. Fifty thousand ‘mysteriously’ died in British Concentration Camps, between 1945 and 1951. About 100 Yemen Jews remain.) In 1418, Chinese Admiral Zheng He traded with Yemeni Jews, but awed the Muslim Imam of Aden (Chinese Admiral).
From then onwards, civil war raged throughout Yemen between tribes and factions. During the 1960’s, when Nasser was President of Egypt, Husni Mubaraq was a general (later president). He used the Egyptian stockpile of poison gas – supplied by Germany to Egypt for use against Jews and Israel – to annihilate tens of thousands of Yemenis. After the Six Day War, it was no longer expedient for Germany to supply more gas to Egypt. Yemen’s horrid loss was Israel’s slight gain.
Yemen is not ‘only’ the poorest Arab country. The aquifer has dried through mismanagement; Sa’ana has water in its pipes for about three hours a week. Infant mortality is one of the world’s highest; some sixty percent of babies are born with birth defects. Nothing works. Nobody cares.
Now Iran has conquered most of Yemen. Why should they bother?
The answer lies in Chess (which Persia invented).
Iran is recreating its historical empire, using the identical strategies that worked well for it in the past; using concentric encircling maneuvers. There is one encirclement attempt upon Israel (the Golan/South Lebanon gambit) and another around Arabia. And yes, one of the things none of the ‘analysts’ will tell you, the Islamic State is a part of their strategy (while the Islamic State also has its own strategy, but more on that in a following article).
When it is time to wipe out Jordon (Hashemite) and Arabia (Saud) the IS will be used with alacrity. When Mecca and Medina are in their hands, then, and only then, will they begin to contend with IS.
Persia delenda est … Ceterum censeo Persia esse delendam?
Mordechai Ben-Menachem is a former researcher/lecturer at Ben-Gurion University who has authored approximately 50 books ranging from engineering to poetry. He is also an ordained clergyman and a former soldier. He currently lives in Jerusalem.