Israel Lets Houthis Know Exactly What They Can Expect

After the IDF’s devastating attack on the port of Hodeidah in Yemen last July, the port on which the Houthis rely to receive arms shipments from their puppet-masters in Tehran, the Israelis have now decided to follow up by sending some satellite photos of other targets that the IDF will hit if the Houthis do not stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. And that is not a message meant only for the Houthis. The Israelis know that warning will be shared with Iran, which will understand that it is also a message meant for Tehran. To wit, “we have not just your proxies but you, too, mad mullahs of Iran, in our gunsights.” More on this oblique warning can be found here: “Israel warns the Houthis of what they can lose if they attack. The message may also be to Iran as well.” Elder of Ziyon, August 20, 2024:

We’ve discussed how Iran and Hezbollah have been beating the drums of war in response to the assassinations of Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh but how they have been very reluctant to actually attack Israel out of fear that they would lose more than they might gain in “honor” and deterrence.

What about the Houthis?

They are not as rational as Iran and Hezbollah, but they will not do anything major without Iran’s go-ahead.

The Houthis may be primitive hotheads — have you seen their barefoot-stomping rifle-raising war-dancing to Allahu-akbaring war cries? — but in the end, they know they cannot go against the wishes of Iran. And they have learned a healthy respect for the IDF, which unlike the Americans, who only bombed a handful of small Houthi outposts, aims for the jugular — in the latest exchange, by destroying much of the port of Hodeidah, so critical for the resupply of weapons by Iran to the Houthis.

Israel is sending a message to the Houthis that they also would lose more than they gain from any escalation.

Israel’s Intellitimes reports that Israel has decided on which areas Israel might target in Yemen. They include the Sanaa’ airport, the Port of Ras Isa and the Port of Salif.

The Israelis have also published maps of the precise areas where, if the Houthis do not behave themselves, there will shortly be bombs away.

A security official quoted by Intellitimes said, “Those infrastructures can be used as targets for the continuation of the campaign against the Houthis, who are supported by Iran, and damage to them will damage the Houthis’ rule and funding. Repairing the damage to these sites may take many months and even disable them permanently.” The financial damage of attacking the targets is estimated at up to hundreds of millions of dollars….

The Sana’a airport and the two ports are the only lifelines the Houthis have to the outside world. They only control part of western Yemen; fully two-thirds of the country remains in the hands of their enemies, and no supplies come to them from eastern Yemen. An attack on the ports and, above all, on the only airport the Houthis control, would devastate them economically and militarily.

Israel is not openly threatening Iran, so there is no need for the Supreme Leader, or the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, to issue more threats beyond what they have already uttered after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily-guarded guesthouse in Tehran. And note that Israel deliberately did not claim to have been behind his assassination, leaving open the possibility that it was the work of others, including rival leaders in Hamas. But the message being conveyed to the Houthis by Israel, that we can, and will, destroy the airport and the two maritime ports on which you rely, if you continue to fire on shipping in the Red Sea, is also meant as a message to the Iranians. Don’t think we are so preoccupied with the war in Gaza that we don’t have the ways and means, and the willingness, to deliver a cataclysmic blow to anyone who tries to attack us now.

That message has been understood not just by the Houthis, but by the Iranians, who, while they keep threatening to retaliate for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, have allowed almost a month to go by since his death without sending even a single drone or missile into Israel. They may fear that this time, if they attack Israel, the Jewish state will answer, in Eastwoodian make-my-day fashion, with an attack that will begin, but not end, with the destruction of Kharg Island’s oil terminals, where 90% of Iran’s oil exports go out to the world. That blow alone will devastate Iran’s already sinking economy. And if Iran’s economy sinks further, the disaffected and impoverished Iranian people may well rise up and overthrow the regime. The ayatollahs and mullahs don’t dare to take that risk.