Still Not Time For A Vacation In Yemen

Yemen seems like an interesting place to visit. So far the closest I've come is listening to Ofra Haza's music and sitting around a kitchen table in Los Angeles and talking with her before she passed away. In 2009 we looked into how safe it is to visit Yemen-- short answer: it's one of the world's 10 least safe countries--and in 2011 we suggested postponing your trip to see the mud skyscrapers until after the revolution. I think I better update that; wait til your next lifetime. Back in 2011, the State Department was very clear:

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. The Department urges U.S. citizens not to travel to Yemen. U.S. citizens currently in Yemen should consider departing Yemen. The Department of State has authorized the voluntary departure from Yemen of the family members of U.S. Embassy staff and non-essential personnel. This replaces the Travel Warning for Yemen issued October 15, 2010.

...The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. Piracy in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean is also a security threat to maritime activities in the region. Terrorist organizations continue to be active in Yemen, including Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The U.S. government remains concerned about possible attacks against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses, and perceived U.S. and Western interests. There is ongoing civil unrest throughout the country and large-scale protests in major cities.

Guess what the U.S. (and the Brits) are telling their citizens in Yemen this week. GET. OUT. OF. DODGE... NOW! Two planefuls of American citizens were evacuated from Yemen Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart immediately.

On August 6, 2013, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks. 

U.S. citizens currently in Yemen should depart. As staff levels at the Embassy are restricted, our ability to assist U.S. citizens in an emergency and provide routine consular services remains limited and may be further constrained by the fluid security situation. This supersedes the Travel Warning for Yemen issued on July 16, 2013.

The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high. In September 2012, a mob attacked the U.S. Embassy compound. Demonstrations continue to take place in various parts of the country and may quickly escalate and turn violent. U.S. citizens are urged to avoid areas of demonstrations, and to exercise extreme caution if within the vicinity of a demonstration. Terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), continue to be active throughout Yemen. The U.S. government remains highly concerned about possible attacks on U.S. citizens (whether visiting or residing in Yemen), and U.S. facilities, businesses, and perceived U.S. and Western interests. A U.S. citizen was attacked and killed in Taiz on March 18, 2012 and the press reported that AQAP claimed responsibility. An ongoing risk of kidnapping exists throughout Yemen. In the last year, international and local media have reported several kidnappings of Westerners. Violent crime is also a growing problem; local media reported the murder of two U.S. citizens in Taiz and Aden in 2013. In addition, piracy in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean is a security threat to maritime activities in the region. See our International Maritime Piracy Fact Sheet.

...U.S. citizens remaining in Yemen despite this Travel Warning should limit nonessential travel within the country, make their own contingency emergency plans, enroll their presence in Yemen through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), and provide their current contact information and next-of-kin or emergency contact information.

Why all the concern? Who remembers Ayman al-Zawahri? He took over al-Qaeda when bin-Laden was killed in Pakistan. And he personally ordered a big Ramadan mayhem spree. That's why Obama closed two dozen embassies and consulates in the Middle East last week-- and why they're still closed and why U.S. citizens, tourists and otherwise, are being told to stay away. NSA intercepted some electronic messages-- which is their job (rather than spying on American citizens in the U.S., which is NOT their job and not constitutional). The conversation between al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was part of a mass breakout from a prison in Sana in 2006, indicated that a big bang was ordered in Yemen.

Al Jazeera is reporting that a U.S. drone strike killed at least four al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen's Marib province and that one of them, Saleh al-Tays al-Waeli, was wanted in connection with al-Zawahri's Ramadan plot. Drone strikes have killed 17 people in Yemen last week. The BBC is reporting that al Qaeda fighters have been converging on San'a to implement the plan.

The source described the plot as dangerous, and suggested it was to include explosions and suicide attacks aimed at Western ambassadors and foreign embassies in Yemen, in addition to operations aimed at the Yemeni military headquarters.

I bet a nice shiny hotel catering to Western tourists would be a bad idea too; just a guess.

Is Yemen A Safe Place To Visit-- Or Live?

The drive from Sanga in Mali's Dogan country to Timbuktu is not for the faint of heart-- and not even possible without a solid 4 wheel drive, off road vehicle. When we did it a couple years ago, we got lost in trackless wastes-- with an experienced guide-- and broke down several times. But half way between driving over boulders in Dogan and the rutted track through the Sahara there's a stretch of paved road around a town called Douentza. There's not much to the town at all, but there's a roadside cafe where truckers and travelers can stop for a plate of slop and a cold drink and a chance to stretch and possibly realign one's spine. Ahhh... good old Douentza. I decided to fast but Roland had some kind of spaghetti lunch that took an hour or so to prepare. While waiting we met a Spanish architect, his wife and two daughters going in the other direction. We swapped road tips. And, as travelers do, we also swapped travel stories. They'd been traveling the world's forgotten places as long as I had. I told them about Afghanistan and Ceylon. They told us about Ethiopia and Yemen.

Yemen, in fact, was their greatest adventure. It was before the daughters had been born and the two Spanish students had been kidnapped by Yemenite bandits. It was strictly a business affair, no brutality or violence or anything like that. They were treated as guests and a month or so after being detained the ransom was paid and they were released... with the story of a lifetime.

Saturday night, for no particular reason, I tweeted a NY Times story by Robert Worth on how the Yemeni addiction to qat (khat)-- a very thirsty plant that is mildly narcotic-- is making the barely habitable country completely uninhabitable due to the depletion of the aquifers. It's a story of desolation and ruin... and danger. It still isn't a safe place for tourists to visit. On the other hand, it isn't a safe place for anyone, including the Yemenis.

The first time I ever really thought much about Yemenis was when I was general manager of Sire Records. Legendary music man, Seymour Stein, had signed an Israeli-Yemenite single, Ofra Haza (one of her songs is below) and told me how big she was in Europe, how much he loved her and hated her manager and asked me to try to break her in the U.S. We put out several albums and singles by Ofra and she had some success but, while she may have been "the Madonna for the Middle East," her music was more popular in gay dance clubs than on Top 40 radio. I always thought it odd, though, that when I visited Arab countries-- especially Morocco and Egypt-- people were wildly enthusiastic about her. No one minded that she was Israeli, let alone Jewish.

With album titles like Yemenite Songs, Yemenite Love, and Desert Love and with songs "Im Nin' Alu," "Galbi", and "Daw Da Hiya" it would be hard for all but the most casual of listeners to not wonder about the relationship between Israel, Jews and Yemen, an ostensibly hostile, backward, fundamentalist Arab country-- the place, in fact, Osama bin-Laden's family moved to Saudi Arabia from. Saturday's Wall Street Journal fills in some gaps about Yemen and Jews with a fascinating story, Secret Mission Rescues Yemen's Jews by Miriam Jordan. She confirms the country's backwardness and hostility and goes into the ongoing operation of how the Obama Administration is rescuing the few remaining Yemenite Jews and settling them suburban Rockland County, New York in the hamlet of Monsey. (Monsey has around 15,000 people, 112 synagogues and 45 yeshivas and less than half the people there speak English at home.)

The secret evacuation of the Yemeni Jews-- considered by historians to be one of the oldest of the Jewish diaspora communities-- is a sign of America's growing concern about this Arabian Peninsula land of 23 million.

The operation followed a year of mounting harassment, and was plotted with Jewish relief groups while Washington was signaling alarm about Yemen. In July, Gen. David Petraeus was dispatched to Yemen to encourage President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be more aggressive against al-Qaeda terrorists in the country. Last month, President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to President Saleh that Yemen's security is vital to the region and the U.S.

Yemen was overshadowed in recent years by bigger trouble spots such as Afghanistan. But it has re-emerged on Washington's radar as a potential source of regional instability and a haven for terrorists.

The impoverished nation is struggling with a Shiite revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and growing militancy among al-Qaeda sympathizers, raising concern about the government's ability to control its territory. Analysts believe al-Qaeda operatives are making alliances with local tribes that could enable it to establish a stronghold in Yemen, as it did in Afghanistan prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

...Jews are believed to have reached what is now Yemen more than 2,500 years ago as traders for King Solomon. They survived-- and at times thrived-- over centuries of change, including the spread of Islam across the Arabian Peninsula.

"They were one of the oldest exiled groups out of Israel," says Hayim Tawil, a Yeshiva University professor who is an expert on Yemeni Jewry. "This is the end of the Jewish Diaspora of Yemen. That's it."

Centuries of near total isolation make Yemeni Jews a living link with the ancient world.

Many can recite passages of the Torah by heart and read Hebrew, but can't read their native tongue of Arabic. They live in stone houses, often without running water or electricity. One Yemeni woman showed up at the airport expecting to board her flight with a live chicken.

Through the centuries, the Jews earned a living as merchants, craftsmen and silversmiths known for designing djanbias, traditional daggers that only Muslims are allowed to carry. Jewish musical compositions became part of Yemeni culture, played at Muslim weddings and festivals.

"Yemeni Jews have always been a part of Yemeni society and have lived side by side in peace with their Muslim brothers and sisters," said a spokeswoman for the Embassy of Yemen in Washington.
In 1947, on the eve of the birth of the state of Israel, protests in the port city of Aden resulted in the death of dozens of Jews and the destruction of their homes and shops. In 1949 and 1950 about 49,000 people-- the majority of Yemen's Jewish community-- were airlifted to Israel in "Operation Magic Carpet."

About 2,000 Jews stayed in Yemen. Some trickled out until 1962, when civil war erupted. After that, they were stuck there. "For three decades, there were no telephone calls, no letters, no traveling overseas. The fact there were Jews in Yemen was barely known outside Israel," says Prof. Tawil.

After alienating the West by backing Iraq during the first Gulf War, Yemen sought a rapprochement with Washington. In 1991, it declared freedom of travel for Jews. An effort led by Prof. Tawil and brokered by the U.S. government culminated in the departure of about 1,200 Jews, mainly to Israel, in the early 1990s. Arthur Hughes, American ambassador to Yemen at the time, recalls that those who chose to remain insisted: "This is where we have been for centuries, we are okay; we're not going anywhere."

The few hundred Jews who stayed behind were concentrated in two enclaves: Saada, a remote area in Yemen's northern highlands, and Raida to the south.

In 2004, unrest erupted in Saada. The government says at least 50,000 people have been displaced by fighting between its troops and the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group.

Animosity against Jews intensified. Notes nailed to the homes of Jews accused them of working for Israel and corrupting Muslim morals. "Jews were specifically targeted by Houthi rebels," says a spokeswoman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington.

In January 2007, Houthi leaders threatened Jewish families in Saada. "We warn you to leave the area immediately... [W]e give you a period of 10 days, or you will regret it," read a letter signed by a Houthi representative cited in a Reuters article.

Virtually the entire Jewish community in the area, about 60 people, fled to the capital. Since then, they have been receiving food stipends and cash assistance from the government while living in state-owned apartments in a guarded enclave, says the Yemeni embassy in Washington... Raida became the last redoubt of Yemeni Jews, who continued to lead a simple life there alongside Muslims.

Ancient stone homes dot the town. Electricity is erratic; oil lamps are common. Water arrives via truck. Most homes lack a TV or a refrigerator. The cell phone is the only common modern device. Some families receive financial aid from Hasidic Jewish groups in Brooklyn and London, which has enabled them to buy cars.

Typically, the Jewish men are blacksmiths, shoe repairmen or carpenters. They sometimes barter, trading milk and cow dung for grass to feed their livestock. In public, the men stand out for their long side curls, customarily worn by observant Jewish men. Jewish women, who often marry by 16, rarely leave home. When they do, like Muslim women, only their eyes are exposed.

For fun, children play with pebbles and chase family chickens around the house. At Jewish religious schools, they sit at wooden tables to study Torah and Hebrew. They aren't taught subjects like science, or to read and write in Arabic, Yemen's official language.

Here's an original Ofra Haza version of "Im Nin' Alu," although the remix may sound more familiar to you.




UPDATE: Cruise Missiles Could Be Nonsectarian

With the Saudi air force and U.S. cruise missiles sending remote terror into the northern part of the country, there's another good reason to consider postponing that long dreamed about trip to Yemen you've been planning. And, of course, there's always the up-close-and-personal non-remote terror, of a homegrown variety to worry about.