A recent collection of essays on the so-called BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement explores the twisted ideologies that have led to increased calls from university faculties to isolate Israel. The essays expose the intellectual vacuity of the movement, how easily it slips into overt anti-Semitism, and how hating Israel “has become arguably the single most potent marker of being of the left today.” Andrei Markovits writes:

[T]he New Left . . . shifted the axes of theory and practice from the Old Left’s proletariat as the subject of history and prime agent of salvation to third-world peoples. This also entailed a much more comprehensive reorientation of progressive politics from extolling the Enlightenment, as virtually all major agents of the Old Left did with gusto, to its total dismissal. Indeed, for the New Left, the Enlightenment—and its main global representative, “the West”—mutated into the all-powerful oppressor which had to be confronted on all fronts by new agents of progress and revolution, none more potent than Third World liberation movements of whatever ideological bent. Few, if any, became more beloved for the new progressives than the Palestinians, victims of the Jews, who, a-priori suspect as paragons of the Enlightenment, became doubly evil by virtue of attaining power in a “settler” state and thus becoming Exhibit A of a Western-implemented (neo-)colonialism at the behest of the source of all evil—the Great Satan, as it were—called the United States of America.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.