Israel’s Unfinished Business with the Houthis

The IDF has accomplished a great deal in the last 15 months of combat. Hamas in Gaza has been militarily devastated, with 80% of its original operatives either dead or wounded, and 90% of its weapons destroyed. Hezbollah in Lebanon has also been battered. About 4000 of its operatives have been killed, and thousands more severely wounded. 80% of its prewar arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles have been destroyed. The Israelis have killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine, as well as the commander and deputy commander of the elite unit, the Radwan Forces, and dozens of senior commanders. In Syria, after Assad decamped for Moscow, the IDF destroyed between 80% and 90% of the military arsenal he left behind unattended, lest it be seized by the new regime, at least some of whose members are clearly jihadists.

But the one proxy Iran has left — the Houthis in Yemen — continues to intermittently lob both cruise and ballistic missiles, and launch drones at targets in Israel, including the port of Eilat, and Haifa, and Tel Aviv in central Israel. The Houthis also continue to target ships attempting to use the Red Sea, forcing a significant amount of the world’s shipping traveling from Asia to Europe to be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope, then up the west coast of Africa to the Mediterranean, which greatly increases those shipping costs.

The Israelis have struck targets in Yemen, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a, and the main port of Hodeidah. The U.S. and the U.K. have also attacked military targets in Yemen. But the Houthis have not been dissuaded from continuing their attacks.

More on what Israel needs to do to stop the Houthi attacks is discussed here: “Will Yemen’s Houthis get away with a year of attacks on Israel? – analysis,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, January 16, 2025:

Among the groups that appear ready to end their attacks if a ceasefire happens in Gaza are the Iranian-back Houthis. However, the Houthis appear to be holding out for certain conditions to be met. This has left those closely monitoring the Red Sea with questions about what comes next.

This is important because the Houthis started attacks on Israel and shipping in the wake of the Hamas attack. They have now decided to possibly end those attacks. However, this will let them apparently walk away without any kind of punishment for their actions….

Israel did retaliate six times, but those attacks, most of them focused on ports in Yemen, have not deterred the Houthis. In fact, the attacks on the Houthis may actually show that Israel will face an uphill struggle to attack Iran if Israel tries to go that route to prevent a nuclear Iran.

This is because the attacks on the Houthis did not stop them, and they had missiles hidden in caves. It turns out it is harder than it looks to strike at underground cave complexes that have missiles in them.

The international community also appeased the Houthis, for the most part. The US and several other countries tried to deter the Houthis, but they were unsuccessful. This has taught the region a lesson: Attacks on ships may go unanswered.

Now that Israel has achieved ceasefires with both Hamas and Hezbollah, and Syria has had 80-90% of its weapons destroyed — including its air force and its entire navy  the IDF can turn its attention to the Houthis. Not just Israel, but also the American and British air, concerned with the Houthi attacks on shipping, could collaborate on targets in Yemen. They need to ratchet up their attacks, both in number and in lethality. A sustained bombing of Houthi targets from all three air forces, lasting several weeks, and targeting the Houthi military bases and the Houthi commanders (who so far have gone untargeted), ought to bring the Houthis to reconsider the wisdom of their attacks both on shipping and on Israel.

Iran has empowered groups like the Houthis to use them as proxies. Because the Houthis are not a “state,” they can often get away with whatever they want. They have pirated at least one ship, for instance. No one seems to even report on what has become of the crew of the Galaxy Leader ship that the Houthis seized….

The message from the Houthis is that they decide the time and place of attacks. The message they think will resonate is that they got away with this. Time will tell if this is the case.

That calculation by the Houthis has to be reversed. It is the Israelis who must take the initiative against the Houthis. Instead of merely responding to Houthi attacks, as they have been doing, they should without any warning launch attacks deep into the heartland of the Houthi-held western third of Yemen, and keep those attacks up round the clock, for weeks or even months if necessary, until they have destroyed as great a percentage of Houthi weapons — 80%-90% — as the IDF destroyed of the weapons arsenals of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Assad’s army in Syria, so that the Yemeni group finally agrees to halt its attacks. Those attacks on weapon depots should be accompanied by attacks on airports and ports, so as to make it virtually impossible for Iran to resupply the Houthis with missiles and drones.

Two theatres of war, in Gaza and Lebanon, are now seeing their curtains come down, with clear Israeli victories. Syria’s military arsenal has been reduced by Israel attacks to 10% of what it was just before Assad’s overthrow.. Now the IDF can turn much more of its attention to eliminating the last threat from an Iranian proxy — the one posed by the Shi’a Houthis, those wild-eyed rifle-toting allahu-akbaring primitives will now be given a chance to enjoy those 72 virgins and pearly boys that the Qur’an promises them.