The Houthis began launching the attacks last year to put pressure on Israel and its allies over the war in the Gaza Strip.
This will not be a short term problem as:
Okay, let’s summarize: Houthi attacks on the Red Sea have…
1. Created new opportunities for non-state actors to conduct asymmetric warfare on conventional armed forces. 2. Imposed targeted economic sanctions on backers of Israeli genocide 3. Re-oriented trade between Asia and Europe in a way that provides competitive advantages for Chinese and Russian shippers 4. Helped the Houthis succeed in meeting their objective of imposing costs on supporters of Israel 5. Added supply chain costs have negatively impacted already pessimistic economic forecasts for the European Union and Egypt… dampening the prospects for growth. 6. Set the stage for the expansion of Houthi operations beyond the Red Sea to the broader Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean
iirc, someone high up in the Israeli regime said they expect to be killing in Gaza through the end of the year. Now they are talking about, a partial withdrawal, a bit of R&R, then attack to the north. Some, including the former director of Shin Bet, are saying that “Bibi” doesn’t want peace. He wants the war to go forever, so he can leverage the “crisis” to stay in power.
In which Arab country would such speech be allowed?
Reminds me of a Ronald Reagan joke about free speech
An American and a Russian were arguing about their two countries. The American said, ‘I can walk into the Oval office, I can pound the president’s desk, and I can say, Mr. President, I don’t like the way you’re running our country.’
The Soviet citizen said, ‘I can do that.’ The American said, ‘You can?’ He says, ‘Yes. I can go into the Kremlin to the general secretary’s office, I can pound his desk and say, Mr. General Secretary, I don’t like the way President Reagan is running his country.’’
War won’t end until Hamas is destroyed.
But the IDF spokesman said Hamas cannot not be destroyed [Catch-22?] and foreign Affairs says Hamas is winning.
Nope. “Bibi” moved the goalpost. From the article “Iran’s intentions to destroy us”
Now, it isn’t about Hamas, or Hezbollah, or Assad. It’s about Iran, a country too big, too heavily populated (88M vs 9.5M Israelis), and too far away, for Israel to have a realistic chance of defeating, short of nuking the place. Translation “this war will go on as long as I want”.
Israel, with advanced “first world” weapons, vs third world grade militias? The Israelis can kill thousands, tens of thousands, at will, just like the US rolled up a score against the VC and Taliban.
If you look at the long game: provoke Iran into directly engaging? The US has been spoiling for an excuse to go at it with Iran, ever since the Iranians had the bad form to unhorse a US backed, brutal, dictator. The US’ pinpricks at the Houthis was thought to bring Iran in directly. Didn’t work out, right then. That doesn’t mean that isn’t the plan. I commented, a couple days ago, about a CBS “news” propaganda piece that laid everything in the Red Sea on Iran.
That is the point. I think it might have been the ex-head of Shin Bet, who also said words to the effect “you can only kill an idea with a different idea”. As long as no viable alternative is offered to the Hamas narrative “we were robbed by the Israelis”, there will not be peace, no matter how many Pals the IDF kills.
The Houthis will face American boots on the ground. All this talk of a tired US navy is misinformation. The US navy has seen Iranian boats slinking around carriers on high alert for decades. The press is working over time for the US spreading misinformation.
The Iranian nuclear program will be bombed out of existence by Israel. The US is supplying the weapons or bombs if you will. Bibi was playing a game on that eventuality perhaps with his stunt about the admin withholding weapons. More misinformation.
Hezbollah is about to get its behind handed to them. If 50k are dead in a matter of three or four months so what? The arrogance of fighting over religion deserves what it gets. Grow up if you have some sort of religious bigotries against others.
Hamas has half the number of militants it did at the beginning of this. Encouraging Hamas with news stories flushes them out to fight. This takes pressure off the IDF to be in Gaza further down the road.
Israel is gaining more fresh recruits. I doubt they are worth much but there is more to the IDF than being in combat. In time some will be useful. The Israelis who are the least religious are the leadership in every industry in Israel. Religious students going into the military will drop the faith part more often. Should I say the nonsense obsessing.
Not sure it is ‘benevolence’ but that and a $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee. If Net believes the existence of his country is at stake there is no pressure that can be brought to change his behavior. If we end any and all support all that will do is move Israel closer to the ‘End of Times’; meaning nukes to defend themselves and take the mideast with them.
About $26 billion for supporting Israel and providing humanitarian relief for people in Gaza.
About $4 billion of that would be dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defense systems. More than $9 billion of the total would go toward humanitarian assistance in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
In reality that is $26 Billion for US contractors as we face an Iran reaching for nuclear weapons and an Israel that will destroy that capacity before it manifests.