Sunday, January 21, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
The Houthi piracy at the entrance to the Red Sea is affecting others more than it is affecting Israel.
The main loser seems to be Egypt, which has seen traffic through the Suez Canal drop dramatically, by as much as 40%. Remittances for shipping brought over $8 billion to Egypt's economy for the fiscal year that ended last June, and Egypt has had other economic woes recently - a drop in tourism and in natural gas exports. Inflation in Egypt is at over 33%.
Interestingly, I am not seeing Egyptian media talk about this, although other Arabic media is featuring this story.
Also, the extra time it takes oil tankers to go around Africa to reach Europe has brought some energy shortages to Europe during this winter.
Yet stories about this Houthi attempt to blackmail the world all seem to have an undercurrent as if this is Israel's fault - as if the terrorists really care about Gazans and are not just using the war as an excuse to throw their weight around and feel important.
Meanwhile, Israeli businesspeople are trying to come up with solutions that could help everyone - an overland truck route from the UAE to Haifa and Egypt that would probably be faster than the ships going around Africa.
One thing this Hamas war is teaching us: people who already had a deep antipathy to Jews and Israel are eager to find any excuse to justify that hate.
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