Carnival probably will not sail through Red Sea in 2024 and early 2025

Cruise operator Carnival said on Wednesday it will probably not be sailing through the Red Sea region for the rest of this year and early next year given persistent hostilities across the key shipping route.

Even though 2024 is expected to be a record year for cruise travel, operators such as Carnival and rival Royal Caribbean are exercising caution as attacks by Iranian-backed

Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea disrupt shipping in the Suez Canal, the fastest sea route between Asia and Europe.

Carnival raised its expected 2024 adjusted earnings impact from the re-routing of ships to 9¢ per share, from 7¢-8¢ estimated in January.

“We decided that it was time to recognize the fact that we probably won’t be sailing there, and perhaps for the rest of this year and perhaps early in 2025 as well,” CFO David Bernstein said. He added that no final decisions have been made.

In January, the Miami-based company re-routed itineraries for 12 ships across seven brands through May as the Houthi group stepped up attacks on Israeli ships or ships heading towards Israel in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians.

The company said it plans to give clear guidance in November, the start of the company’s fiscal year. Five ships across three brands will be rerouted, said Bernstein.

Royal Caribbean in January also canceled two voyages to the Red Sea region, while Swiss Italian operator MSC Cruises canceled three trips due in April from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates to Europe.

Still, Carnival raised its annual profit forecast on Wednesday, anticipating a record year of bookings as it benefits from a rise in people seeking cruise vacations for the first time. (Reuters)

being on opposite sides of the same coin are doing grievous damage to the country and its efforts in Gaza. Social media is already full of ignorant posts that claim Netanyahu is just as bad as Hamas and create an equivalency between hard-line militancy on the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

What they and all those who want Netanyahu out fail to realize is that while the tension with the US may subside and a more diplomatic approach to bridging the gaps on a Rafah campaign and a ‘day after’ strategy may prevail, replacing Netanyahu with Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz will not significantly

change Israel’s strategy.

There’s a consensus – in the government, in the Knesset, and in the country – that eventually, the IDF will have to take on Hamas in Rafah. That doesn’t seem likely to change, regardless of who is at Israel’s helm.

Would Lapid or Gantz have allowed relations with the US to reach the boiling point like Netanyahu has done with his nearsighted decision to cancel the vital visit to Washington by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi? Unlikely. There would have been more diplomatic finesse and playing of the game with the realization that Biden is a true friend of Israel who happens to be campaigning for reelection against an opponent whose victory would bode ill for both the US and Israel.

But their strategy of dealing with Hamas and the hostages would probably not stray far from the path the IDF has walked since October 7. It wouldn’t be long before those shouting that Bibi is the problem would just switch names and continue shouting.

Would a Gantz or a Lapid be able to stand firm against the intense US pressure opposing a

Rafah invasion and calling for a ceasefire unlinked to a hostage release, as advocated by the UNSC resolution from which the US abstained? That may be Netanyahu’s main virtue, and the one that keeps him reigning as “King Bibi” among his faithful.

Either he doesn’t give a damn what the US thinks and is so strong in his conviction that Hamas must die for Israel to live, or his critics are right and he’ll do anything to keep his coalition happy and stay in power.

By the time we find out what his real motive is, it may be too late – or it may not even matter. Israel and the US may be on an inevitable collision course over the direction of the war that could result in nothing short of an Israeli agreement to a ceasefire and a de facto acknowledgment that Hamas will continue to rule Gaza and wreak havoc on Israel when they decide to preempt. Nobody wants that, especially if it doesn’t include a guarantee of the hostages’ return.

If defeating Hamas isn’t an option that the world will allow Israel to pursue, then what do we tell the residents of the South and North who have been displaced? What do we

say to the families of the 1,200 who were slaughtered on October 7 and of those still held in Gaza? And what do we say to the families of the soldiers who have fallen in the fight against the evil of Hamas?

The only way to make sense of those senseless deaths and months of cruel captivity is to win the war and make Israel safe for its residents.

Lost amid the thicket of accusations, resolutions, and canceled trips is the clarity of what happened in the early morning of October 7. Hamas started this war, and whatever has ensued since then falls squarely on its shoulders. Israel and the US are united in the mission that Hamas must go, but they are mired in the pool of details of how to achieve that goal.

Now is a good time to remember that although Netanyahu is a problem, he is not the problem: Hamas is.

say provides it with a sense of impunity.

“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they’ve not received everything they’ve asked for,” said Brown.

“Some of that is because they’ve asked for stuff that we either don’t have the capacity to provide or are not willing to provide, not right now,” the general added while speaking at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group.

However, in a not-so-veiled statement balancing Brown’s public statement, top Washington officials leaked to The Washington Post and then other media over the weekend a reminder of a list of ongoing weapons sales that the US has approved for the future and that are still going forward.

The timing of the second leaked statement appeared designed to balance out concerns about how Israel and its supporters would perceive what appeared to be a loud and unusual public rebuke by Brown.

The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, said sources, who confirmed a report in