More than 20 F-35 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as reconnaissance and refueling planes, participated in the Israeli attack on the port of Hudaydah on Saturday. The Americans and the coalition countries have attacked Yemen dozens of times in the past, in response to the Houthi attacks on the maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. However, they avoided attacks on the port of Hudaydah because most of the humanitarian aid to the impoverished country, which was badly damaged by the civil war, entered through it.
Israel decided to attack this major port anyway since most of the Iranian arms shipments were sent there. The raid also destroyed the refineries and oil storage facilities that constituted most of the government’s income.
Last week, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, Commander of the US Central Command, visited Israel and met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, and key members of the Israeli security apparatus.
According to USCENTCOM, “The discussions emphasized enhancing defense and technological cooperation in order to strengthen Israel’s security and bolster deterrence against regional threats. Gen. Kurilla underscored the strategic opportunities inherent in the close U.S.-Israel military partnership.”
The string of meetings ended on Wednesday, and early Friday morning, a drone that was launched by the Houthis from Yemen hit Tel Aviv and killed an Israeli citizen. It stands to reason that the understandings reached between the Israelis and the Americans that same week were put into action.
The blasting success of the attack, at a distance of almost 2,000 kilometers (1,080 miles) from Israeli territory, sends a message to Iran, which arms and finances the Houthis and Hezbollah, regarding the long-range attack capabilities of the IAF. Mind you, the distance between Tel Aviv and Tehran is 1,070 miles, and other Strategic targets in Iran are even closer. Also, Israel has reportedly been maintaining a military presence in an Azerbaijani airport near the Iranian border.
Many in Israel’s north reacted to the attack on Yemen that followed one Houthi UAV hitting Tel Aviv by asking why the IDF is not avenging their damage in life and property by striking, say, Beirut port. The simple answer may be that Lebanon has friends in the West, most notably France, while no one particularly likes the Yemenites who have been sabotaging international trade over the past nine months and practically killing Egypt’s business in the Suez Canal.
But the answer may be that Israel is weighing a more massive response to Hezbollah’s repeated provocations up north. As is regrettably so often the case with Israel’s military responses, it might take a loss of life for the security establishment and PM Benjamin Netanyahu to slam Lebanon the same way it did Yemen.
IT’S BIBI’S WEEK
The Prime Minister is scheduled to leave for the United States on Sunday and address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. He is expected to meet with President Joe Biden, assuming he recovers from his bout with COVID. On Friday, the NY Times reported that even if Biden decides to drop out of the presidential race, he won’t do it until after Netanyahu’s visit – he doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Meanwhile, Netanyahu also plans to meet with the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, to mend fences after Trump has been attacking him over the past four years for a slew of things, most importantly the fact that Bibi congratulated Biden for winning the election in 2020.
Security sources in Israel say that the conditions are ripe for reaching a deal between Israel and Hamas that will include a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the massive release of security prisoners with blood on their hands. The Biden administration will probably pressure Netanyahu to go along with the deal, but the PM may not have the backing of his own party for such a move.
Amit Segal reported that a quarter of the Likud MKs have sent Netanyahu a letter warning that they would walk if he accepts a deal that includes abandoning the Philadelphi corridor and the Netzarim corridor, and most importantly: will not include the release of all the hostages at once. The MKs argued that under the current circumstances, any agreement that does not include the return of all the hostages, without a division into separate beats, sentences the remaining living hostages to death.
There isn’t much daylight between the MKs’ letter and Netanyahu’s position, which appears to have hardened over the past few days. Indeed, there were rumors last week that the PM would delay his visit to the US because an all-out war with Hezbollah was brewing. With the IDF intensifying its attacks in the southern Gaza Strip, with substantial results, we may be entering in earnest the next phase of the Israel-Iran war.
