GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 670

The Other Guys

Who Can Defeat The Houthis?

Many people are looking at the various moves with Hamas and Israel and for good reason. But there are other war fronts to deal with and the terrorists in the South just keep firing away at Israel and in the Red Sea. At some point they need to be defeated and some think they know the army to do it as we’re told in an article from The Media Line:

The Houthis are much more dangerous than frequent aggravation in Israel, when a single ballistic missile triggers air raid sirens and Israeli anti-missile systems, sending millions into bomb shelters in the middle of the night.

These terrorists are also disrupting shipping lanes as well:

More important is disruption to world shipping from Houthi missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea. In the past month, Houthi terrorists have sunk two ships, killed several sailors and taken others captive. In response, shippers send their vessels the long way around Africa, bypassing Egypt’s Suez Canal and Israel’s port of Eilat, adding millions to costs and weeks to deliveries.

All this because of an Iran-backed gang of violent extremists with no more than 20,000 armed fighters overrunning half their own country—the half that happens to control the Bab el-Mandeb straits at the end of the Red Sea.

The Houthis just don’t know when to stop:

Despite a ceasefire with the US, the Houthis continue their attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, as well as their missile attacks on Israel, which is not covered by the ill-advised American truce.

Because these rebels are not relenting Israel has to strike them on their own:

In response, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on targets in the Houthi-controlled part of Yemen, blasting seaports and military installations.

The problem is that the Houthis can just replenish their weapons and move to other areas to attack from. Stopping them will need boots on the ground and one army could fit the bill:

But air strikes are just a first stage. Ground troops are needed. A large, well-equipped military, ready to move, could take care of that problem once and for all. That military has 480,000 soldiers on active duty and another 325,000 reservists. It has an annual budget of about $70 billion, a large fleet of advanced attack aircraft, nearly 1,000 tanks, and thousands of armored personnel carriers.

Who is it? Not who you might think:

Israel, right? No, it’s Saudi Arabia next door to Yemen. Saudi Arabia has about four times Israel’s population, nearly three times Israel’s defense budget, three times as many regular army soldiers, and nearly as many reservists. That’s not to say it’s a better army than Israel’s—but it’s bigger. Big enough for the tasks at hand.

We usually hear about the Saudi military only when the US announces its latest multi-billion-dollar arms deal with the kingdom, and Israel and its backers stand up and scream. But in the end, all that advanced military equipment is there and ready to go—if Saudi Arabia has the motivation to use it.

They Know The Enemy

The article gives us some history between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels:

Saudi Arabia already fought the Houthis once. Cross-border clashes erupted in 2009 and continued off and on for a decade. The Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia, including one that hit the main airport, and the Saudis sent some forces into Yemen to try to root out the Iran-backed terrorists. The Saudis withdrew, tails between legs, after a cease-fire agreement in 2018. The defeat wasn’t for lack of firepower. The Saudi failure reflected a lack of commitment.

A ceasefire won’t hinder these terrorists. They took on the rebels before but this a new day:

So what has changed? What would motivate the Saudis to try again, and go all-in this time?

Quite a bit: Iran, Saudi Arabia’s arch-enemy, has been significantly weakened in its wars against Israel, losing its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza and suffering a humiliating defeat from Israeli and American airstrikes on its homeland.

There are other dynamics developing as well:

In parallel, a new axis is forming in the Mideast, complicating the old picture of Saudi-led Sunni Muslims against Iran-led Shiites: Turkey is making a play as a regional power alongside Iran. Turkey is a once-secular Sunni nation led into extreme Islamism by its strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This presents both a danger and an opportunity for Saudi Arabia and its forward-looking leader, Mohammed bin Salman. On the one hand, Iran continues to arm the Houthis, while the Turkey-Iran axis presents a threat on Saudi Arabia’s other front.

Is there a motive for Saudi Arabia to be more aggressive? There is indeed and it starts with diplomacy and then Israel:

On the other hand, it’s a chance for MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is known, to assert Saudi leadership in the region as a counter to the new axis. Why would he do that? Why not just leave well enough alone and just watch potential threats that might or might not explode in his face?

Because he can. He wants to make an impact. And here’s where Israel comes in.

In order for Saudi Arabia to assume a positive regional posture, MBS must agree to join the historic Abraham Accords—peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations near Saudi Arabia. That would create a coalition as the clear leader in the region.

The article then proposes that Israel end the war with Hamas still in power and the hostages not rescued just to get the benefits of Saudi backing as even the authors doubt:

One price of Saudi involvement would be a “political horizon” for the Palestinians, a nod in the direction of a Palestinian state. Israel’s current leadership would never agree to that, though the Palestinians have proven over and over again that they don’t want a state that lives in peace with Israel. They want a state that lives in peace without Israel. So that horizon is so far off that even the Hubble Space Telescope couldn’t spot it.

The rest of the article I don’t agree with and I certainly don’t see Israel just ending the war against Hamas so that Saudi Arabia can come in oversea Gaza which is what the authors suggest. While it would be nice for another army coming in and finishing off the Houthis the price is too high. And Bible prophecy points to Israel taking back both Gaza and Judea and Samaria so that also gets in the way of Saudia Arabia brokering a deal to end the war by showing good faith and taking out the Houthis. Yemen will eventually be free of these terrorists, but I don’t see it happening with Saudi Arabia doing the dirty work. Continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and how God wants this area to settle down.