Yemen Used to Be Jewish

Описание: Yemeni Houthis are firing rockets at Israel. But here's the historical irony nobody mentions...
Yemen used to have Jewish kings.
In the early 500s CE, the Himyarite Kingdom controlled most of Yemen—and it was Jewish. The royal family, the nobility, much of the population. They built synagogues, observed Shabbat, and ruled by Jewish law.
King Yusuf Dhu Nuwas was fiercely Jewish. When Christian merchants tried converting his subjects, he expelled them. When they persisted, he executed them.
This triggered medieval world war. Christian Ethiopia, backed by Christian Byzantium, invaded Yemen to "protect Christians." A Jewish kingdom fighting Christian empires over religious control of Arabia.
Dhu Nuwas fought back brutally. In 523 CE, he captured the Christian stronghold of Najran and gave Christians a choice: convert to Judaism or die. Most chose death. Christian chroniclers called him a "Jewish tyrant."
The Jewish kingdom fell in 525 CE to Ethiopian invasion. But Jewish communities thrived in Yemen for another 1,500 years—until Israeli airlifts in the 1940s-50s brought them home.
Fast-forward to today: Houthis firing Iranian rockets at the Jewish state, chanting "Death to Israel."
The historical irony is staggering. The same land that once had Jewish kings ruling by Jewish law is now shooting missiles at Jewish cities.