Down to little more than a hundred, Yemen’s remaining Arabic speaking Jews are preparing to leave their homeland, helped along by Jewish groups in the U.S. and Israel.
Archive for the ‘Yemen’ Category
Yemen’s Disappearing Jewish Arabs
Friday, August 27th, 2010Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki
Sunday, May 9th, 2010The American born Yemeni jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki, mentioned as an inspirational force behind the attempted bomb attacks of last Christmas in Detroit and Times Square of a week ago, is profiled in today’s New York Times:
Peace Agreement Eludes Yemen
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010“Peace agreement eludes Yemen”
-Aljazeera
The Yemeni government has offered a ceasefire agreement to the northern Houthi rebels in their country to try to end a six year episode of violence. The agreement was issued last Saturday and outlined a timetable for a truce between the rebels and the government. Still, there have been serious clashes between the two sides. Houthi fighters claim to have killed 23 Yemeni soldiers on Saturday, the same day the government said it had killed 11 Houthi fighters. The Yemeni president expressed hope that a truce will end the fighting, however a resolution is still far off. To add to the tensions, the Houthi fighters accuse the Saudis of launching over 270 rockets in an attack against them. Basically, the Houthi rebels are being backed by the Shia community of Zaydi that believe they are being neglected and oppressed by the Sunni government of Yemen. They seek representation and perhaps even their own autonomous state. The conflict has been a huge distraction to Yemen from the growth of Al-Qaeda within their borders, and Yemen has received international pressure to resolve the Houthi conflict. Yemen’s government, however, is already being pushed to the limits of its strength and scope by the Houthi fighters. Saudi Arabia is also a significant force in this conflict, and it could choose to increase its attacks on the Houthi rebels, which would have regional repercussions. What can be done to support Yemen and avoid a failed state in a very volatile region?
Education in the Arab World: To What End?
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010That’s the question Thomas Friedman raises in another piece written this week from Yemen (“It’s All About Schools,” New York Times Op-Ed piece, Feb. 10, 2010). Should Arab schools teach courses aimed at building real world skills and critical thinking, or, fundamentalist Islam (which in Saudi Arabia and Yemen usually means the puritanical Wahhabi strain)?
Thomas Friedman Writing From Yemen
Monday, February 8th, 2010An update on life and times in Yemen from veteran New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman appeared on yesterday’s Op-Ed page:
Thomas Friedman, “Post Card From Yemen,” New York Times (Op-Ed piece), Feb. 7, 2010
Border Clash Ends Between Saudi and Houthi Forces
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010Border warfare along Saudi Arabia and Yemen ceased today during Saudi forces and rebel Houthi fighters reports Al Jazeera. Saudi officials reported that Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the deputy defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, claimed that “a clear victory over the enemy” was finally secured along the Yemen- Saudi border. The leader of the Houthi rebel group declared that his fighters were in fact deciding to ‘withdrawl’ from three months of fighting along the border. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of these rebels, offered a ceasefire message via Internet and was reported saying, “To avoid more bloodshed and to stop aggression on civilians…we offer this initiative”.
Both sides claim to have withdrawn for different reasons, Houthi saying they withdrew to end bloodshed while Saudis saying that they were driven out. Hashem Ahelbarra, the correspondent for al-Jazeera in the Sanaa region of Yemen reported that Saudi Arabia is responding to this ceasefire with a “carefully crafted statement”. “It doesn’t talk of a ceasefire, instead it claims they have achieved their military goals and therefore managed to defeat the Houthi fighters. They don’t want to give any mixed signals to the Saudi people, that they are giving concessions to the Houthi rebels,” said Ahelbarra.
The Houthis, who started their rebellion against the government of Yemen in 2004, are from a sect of Shia Islam known as the Zaidi. They fight against social, economic and religious ‘marginalization’. The border though has seen inconsistent warfare between Houthi fighters and Saudi troops since early November. Houthi fighters were able to seize Saudi territory in November of last year, which drew the Saudis into this long conflict. The Saudi government fears that this disturbance will lead to greater instability within Yemen which will then lead to major security threats, such as al-Qaeda forces drawing into the area.
Spotlight on Yemen
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010Attention has been riveted on Yemen since the failed airplane bomb attack on Christmas Day in Detroit. Robert F. Worth takes a look at the country in the spotlight. Excerpts:
“The facts are appalling: half the population is living on less than $2 a day; the official rate of illiteracy is 45 percent; fewer than half of Yemenis from ages 15 to 24 are employed. Outside the major cities, access to public water supplies, electricity and health services is vanishingly rare.
Those desperately poor hinterlands have become a haven for Qaeda militants, who have regrouped here in the past two years and claimed credit for training Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian militant accused of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound jet on Dec. 25…
‘At the heart of the economic problem is corruption, and at the heart of the corruption problem is unchecked presidential power,’ said Abdel Ghani al-Iryani, a political consultant. Government officials counter that patronage is part of the price of stability in a country that is fragmented along lines of sect, tribe, region and social class. They say that corruption, though widespread, has been exaggerated, and that reforms are under way…
The Yemeni state’s administrative weakness, Mr. Yacoub added, derives in part from two major crises of recent years. North and South Yemen united in 1990, and the north had to absorb hundreds of thousands of public employees from the formerly socialist south. A year later, Saudi Arabia expelled a million Yemeni laborers, following Mr. Saleh’s decision to side with Saddam Hussein in the first Persian Gulf war. Afterward, the Yemeni civil service became a social safety net, as Yemen struggled to find jobs for the returning workers.”
Yemen kills ‘al-Qaeda cell leader’
Monday, January 25th, 2010Abdullah Mehdar, the apparent leader of an al-Qaeda cell in the al-Houta region (which is located 600 km from Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa), was killed yesterday in the eastern province of Shawba, the governor of the province reported. Yemeni security forces attacked a house where Mehdar had been hiding after a day of fighting against al-Qaeda. The cell was made up of 10-armed al-Qaeda members and it was reported by the government that Mehdar was in fact killed along with another fighter. Unfortunately though it was reported that three of the fighters did escape but security forces are still-hunting for the remaining members of the cell. This comes at a time in which al-Qaeda cells in Yemen have been credited with training Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man who planned to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas day.
Former U.S. Ambassador Weighs in on Yemen
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010Former American ambassador to Yemen Edmund J. Hull, writing in today’s New York Times, claims that Americans hold several key misconceptions about that counntry:
Edmund J. Hull, “Al-Qaeda’s Shadowland,” New York Times (Op-Ed piece), Jan. 12, 2010
Yemeni Child Bride Fights for Divorce
Thursday, January 7th, 2010Yemeni child bride fights for divorce
Source: BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8429074.stm
Date of Article : 1.5.10
Summary : Nine year old Nujood was unaware of her impending marriage until the day of her wedding, on which she was, against her will, wedded to a 30 year old man. It was not until several days of pleading with her husband’s family to let her go home and two failed escape attempts that she was finally advised by her stepmother to file for divorce. Making her way to the court alone, she filed for divorce and was sheltered by the judge at his own home for three days. Upon returning to her family, her husband and father were both sentenced to small amounts of jail time and she was able to return to school, her original goal.
Response: This article provides a bit of a culture shock for me; telling a story in which I cannot imagine anyone whom I have ever interacted with. Although we, as a society, are entirely aware of the existence of arranged marriages, we do not know the full extent of the injustice they entail. If Nujood were not able to get a divorce, her life would have been, from age nine, housework and later, bearing children. This is an incredibly dim fate for a girl who aspires to attend university. If we see this amount of injustice in an issue that has a positive conclusion, how can we even begin to understand, and then remedy, even worse problems?
