Hawithi rebels

What is going on in Yemen is very interesting and potentially explosive for the entire region. Remember the proxy war in Yemen in the 1960s that pitted Saudi Arabia against Nasser's Egypt. Gregory Gause has a good book on that early phase of Saudi-Yemeni relations. Saudi Arabia is basically claiming that they are bombing the Hawthi rebels because the Hawithis tried to invade Saudi Arabia. I kid you not. That was the claim in Saudi propaganda outlets (like Al-Arabiyya TV, the private station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) all day yesterday. Robert Worth is covering the story from...Beirut. But it is not quite accurate to refer to what is going on as a "clash" as if they Hawthies already under fire from US-trained, supplied, supported, equipped Yemeni Army is a match for the Saudi AND Yemeni armies. He then reports this: "The conflict started early this week when the Houthi rebels — who have been fighting the Yemeni government for more than five years — killed a Saudi border guard and wounded 11 others, bringing Saudi Arabia into the war for the first time." Well, Robert: the Hawthis have been reporting about Saudi air force intervention long before this attack that you cite as the spark of the conflict. The Saudi role in all this is not invisible. It is fair to say that `Ali `Abdulllah Salih, who had his problems with the Saudi government in the past, especially after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, is now run by the Saudi government. I saw him greet the Saudi King in a recent news footage, and he acted like Fu'ad Sanyurah when he sees the Saudi King. And for the second day in a row, Worth adds this: "most Saudis practice a form of Sunni Islam that is hostile to Shiites." It would be more accurate to say: Saudis practice (by will of the royal family and not by choice) a form of Sunni Islam that is hostile to Shi`ites, and Christians, and Jews, and Sufis, and Buddhists, and Hindus, and secularists, and atheists, and every other Sunni branch of Islam that is not Wahhabiyyah. Now don't get me wrong, I don't idolize the Hawthi rebels. Something about their religious movement is quite unappealing to me. And they suffer from an acute sense of anti-Jewishness for some reason, and have expelled Jews from their areas. I have also received unconfirmed reports from sources in that area about abuse of children by Hawthi rebels. I am trying to understand the situation better and have benefited from accounts by two sources on the ground there. I also ask, almost daily, one of the best sources on Yemen--somebody who knows all the leaders involved--comrade Fawwaz Trabulsi in Lebanon, who has been involved privately in mediation between North and South Yemen. Much of Fred Halliday's book Arabia without Sultan owes to Fawwaz--between you and me.