Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(JNS) — Yemen’s Houthi terrorist movement recently made international headlines due to its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Initially a Zaydi Shi’ite response to perceived marginalization, the Houthis have become a powerful force in Yemen’s brutal civil war thanks to the Iranian regime’s sponsorship, as shown by the Houthis’ successful conquest of the capital Sana’a in 2014.

The Zaydi Shi’ites are located in Yemen’s Saada province. Once dominant, Zaydism declined in the 20th century, and the Houthis first emerged in the 1980s as a Zaydi revivalist group. Initially focused on Zaydi interests...