With part II by Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA.
Part I: Hopefully, the Houthis have until 20 January 2025 to live. However they can do a lot of damage until the date President Trump picks up the reins.
Modern warfare is a game of cat and mouse, with huge damage being done to worldwide trade by this Yemenite tribe as they have disrupted one of the major shipping routes in the Red Sea and warned international insurance companies not to insure ships. The latest is their using Iranian supplied UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) and ballistic missiles against the Israeli civilian population.
The net result of a coalition war involving Saudi Arabia, United States and Israeli retaliation would bring the Houthis to their knees in no time. Yemen would be brought back to the Stone Age if the United States decided to move against the warmongering disruption of world trade and increased cost of goods, as well as providing military supplies to Israel to counteract incoming missiles.
Israel has already targeted three ports, their electricity infrastructure and more, with a small involvement of US & UK firepower. Each single cost to counter ballistic missiles is over one million dollars.
Who are these Houthis? Originating from the Houthi tribe their official name is Ansar Allah, a Shia Islamic political and military group now led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, they were originally an opposition movement to Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh. There is an ongoing war, with a Saudi-led military intervention, against the Houthis' stated enemies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
They are considered to be backed by and used by Iran as one of the proxies in Iran’s fight against non-Shiite Islam. They are designated as a terrorist organization by some countries for human rights abuses, using child soldiers and targeting civilians. Their theological ideology condemns the Saudi alliance with the United States, rejects the government’s corruption, is anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.
Their slogan is “G-d is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curses on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”
On the ground in Israel, millions of civilians are having their sleep disrupted night after night as they rush to bomb shelters. The Houthis' excuse is that they are supporting the war in Gaza against Israel. At the same time maritime traffic in the Red Sea is disrupted, with the closure of southern access to the Suez Canal causing Egyptian revenues to be substantially down. The Houthi attacks using aerial strikes and their seizing ships have now increased insurance costs as well as increased global costs for goods, with shipping rerouted through the long route around the Horn of Africa.
Interception of missiles aimed at Israel has caused one death, damage to buildings in Israel including the demolition of a school, and more damage and injuries in Egypt and Jordan. Israel has intercepted a missile in space above the earth’s atmosphere, a first in the history of warfare in the world. The US has become involved, shooting down drones and missiles originating in Yemen. France and the UK are positioning their maritime assets in the area.
Will the Houthis continue to force this global disruption? Will new guided ballistic missiles cause damage as they target Israel who rely on countering them space technology, prayers and miracles?
Hopefully, a Trump ultimatum will stop all of that - and about time.
Part II: The obvious question, Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA asks, is: Why did the Houthis still have fighter jets for Israel to destroy this week?
But it's also an easy question to answer.
Over the past year, instead of systematically identifying and destroying the assets necessary to cripple the Houthis and bring them to their knees, American and allied forces have spent most of their resources engaged in a bizarre game of attempting to intercept Houthi rockets, drones, and other projectiles before they could strike civilian vessels.
This week, we witnessed a shocking illustration of the extent to which this international coalition is operating against the Houthis with both hands tied behind their backs - when Israel destroyed three Houthi fighter jets.
That's right.
More than a year into this conflict, the terrorists still had fighter jets!
To be clear, this is not the time for an escalating series of tit-for-tat exchanges in an attempt to deter the Houthis.
Deterrence is not the solution.
What is needed is a swift and massive operation to erase the Houthi regime.
Israel can certainly participate, but the scale of such an operation far exceeds what our airborne platforms can deliver during the roughly 4,000-kilometer round trips.
The American-led coalition does possess the firepower for such an operation.
This is a matter of both willpower and the readiness to stop fighting with unnecessary restrictions.
The advantage of completing such an operation successfully is that once it is done, the bulk of the forces can be redeployed to the Far East, where they are urgently needed to confront other challenges.
This shift requires a critical change in thinking.
The free world can no longer afford to face critical threats with its hands tied behind its back.