When the Houthis attacked the Israeli-linked merchant vessel Galaxy Leader on Nov. 19, it was clear that shipping had entered a new and dangerous phase. Not only did the militia, which rules parts of Yemen, successfully take over a large tanker sailing in the Red Sea: It also filmed the undertaking, which garnered massive global attention. Since then, the attacks have accelerated at such an extraordinary rate that the world’s largest shipping companies will no longer sail through the Red Sea.

When the Houthis attacked the Israeli-linked merchant vessel Galaxy Leader on Nov. 19, it was clear that shipping had entered a new and dangerous phase. Not only did the militia, which rules parts of Yemen, successfully take over a large tanker sailing in the Red Sea: It also filmed the undertaking, which garnered massive global attention. Since then, the attacks have accelerated at such an extraordinary rate that the world’s largest shipping companies will no longer sail through the Red Sea.

That means reduced traffic through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea—and harm to Egypt’s economy. The collision between Middle Eastern acrimony and global shipping means that you’ll have to wait longer for some of your favorite consumer goods.

One must grant the Houthis this: The video they released after seizing the Galaxy Leader and taking its crew hostage was slick. That, of course, was the point. The Houthis were eager to tell the world that they could target any ship they liked. Indeed, the Iran-linked force declared that any Israeli ship might encounter the same fate as the Galaxy Leader. That was no consolation for ships not owned by Israeli firms: The Houthis would define what constituted an Israeli-linked ship.

And since then, the attacks have accelerated fast. All manner of ships traversing the Red Sea have been targeted with missiles, drones, or attempted seizures. On Dec. 12, for example, Houthi fighters fired a missile on the Norwegian-owned tanker Strinda, claiming that it was headed for Israel when it was in fact en route to Italy. Two days later, a tanker owned by Danish shipping line A.P. Moller Maersk was targeted in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and the day after that, a Hapag-Lloyd-owned container ship was hit.........

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