Friday's attack on Yemen's two seaports, Hodeidah and Salif, in which 15 Israeli fighter jets flew 2,000 kilometers and dropped 35 munitions was, like previous attacks on Houthi targets, was impressive. There is no other air force in the Middle East capable of carrying out such attacks as a matter of routine. But, and this is a huge but, every attack in Yemen strengthens the Houthi rebels and does not weaken them.
Israel's aim is to impose a "naval blockade" on Iran's proxies in Yemen, and this shows the ignorance of Israeli intelligence regarding the poorest country in the Arab world. The same ignorance that makes senior officials in Jerusalem think that attacking concrete factories in Yemen will hurt the Houthis. You don't need high-quality intelligence agencies in Israel, it is enough to visit OSINT (overt intelligence) pages on social networks to know that, unlike Israel, the Houthi economy, if you can call it that, is not much of an economy.
The Iranians supply them with weapons, money and other necessities via Oman and the territories controlled by the Yemeni government. The perception that blocking one supply route for the Houthis will hurt them does not stem solely from intelligence ignorance, but also from a completely erroneous Western notion that sees economic damage as causing the regime to retreat from terrorist behavior.
Despite the religious and social differences between the Gazan population and the Yemeni population under the control of the Houthis, there is a clear common denominator between them: they are subject to a non-state regime of a clear terrorist organization, which has no interest in the well-being of its citizens. This is the same basis for the misconception that has prevailed in Israel for years, in which the Qatari grant to the Gaza Strip will be useful for achieving "peace." The same peace that allowed Yahya Sinwar to prepare the October 7 attack.
The Houthis have nothing to lose
Another similar issue is the perception that military pressure will bring the Houthis or Hamas to their knees. These two terrorist organizations, which operate with Iranian backing, do not care what happens on their territory in the economic sphere. Yemen, in the shadow of the civil war that has been raging there for a decade, is shattered - and there is no concept of "the price of a loss". According to the World Food Program, about 2.4 million Yemenis, about 100,000 of them children, suffer from malnutrition, while last year the organization provided humanitarian aid to 8.6 million people in the torn country. About a quarter of the population!
When the situation is so terrible, will attacks and destruction move them? This was the mistake of the Saudis and the UAE during the civil war when they thought that military pressure would defeat the Houthis. Today, they are turning to Iran in order to achieve peace from the Houthis, because they understand that military pressure - no matter how powerful it is - will have no effect at all in such a devastated country. This realization also reached US President Donald Trump, who reached an agreement with the Houthis and left Israel out of the equation.
These agreements, in short, indicate the only two effective options facing Israel for resolving the Houthi threat. The first is a ceasefire with Hamas which, in addition to bringing the hostages home, the highest goal of the war, will bring peace from Yemen. The second, which none of the Houthi aggressors have attempted in the past decade, is to strike the head of the snake - Iran. The only way to strangle Houthi leader Abd al-Malik al-Houthi is a direct attack against the ayatollah regime, which does have much to lose. Therefore, it is necessary to instill fear in Iran, and stop them feeding the Houthis. Any other approach, of "attacking" the Houthis militarily, only increases Abd al-Malik al-Houthi's status in Yemeni society, which is poor, divided, and in flames.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 18, 2025.
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