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Israel must respond more forcefully to attacks by the Houthi and Hamas

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The chest-beating of the Israeli leadership following the attack on the port of Hodeidah in Yemen on Saturday was understandable, if unnecessary.

Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have to boast about the success? Did Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have to tweet, “Brilliant!”? Did Defense Minister Yoav Gallant really have to boast, “The fire in Yemen is visible throughout the Middle East?” Let the fire speak for itself; Gallant doesn’t have to tell the story.

It is understandable why the country’s political and security leaders felt the need to respond in this way. What the IAF did on Saturday – flying a 3,400-km round trip over enemy territory and striking a strategic enemy position – is something to be proud of and a significant achievement. It is natural to want to shout it out loud.

However, sometimes it is worth just letting the actions speak for themselves. Sometimes comments are superfluous. This was one of those moments.

Israel’s enemies are deterred by actions, not words. If words had a deterrent effect, the north of the country would not still be under daily rocket fire from Hezbollah, because Israel’s threats against Hezbollah – especially Gallant – are numerous and frequent.

A photo of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah at a rally in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. (Source: Francesca Volpi/Getty Images)

However, Hezbollah has not yet gotten the message. What counts are actions, not threats.

And that’s why Saturday’s action against the Houthis was so significant. As Gallant said, the Houthis have attacked Israel 200 times since October 7, and this was the first time Israel responded in any significant way.

Will this end the Houthis’ attacks? No, as demonstrated by the launch of a Houthis’ ballistic missile toward Eilat on Sunday, which was intercepted before entering Israeli airspace. Still, the Houthis and their Iranian backers now realize there is a price.

Will this moderate their behavior? Perhaps, but only if costs remain high.

Why did it take so long for Israel to react?

One has to ask why it took so long. Why did it take Israel more than nine months to respond forcefully to the Houthi provocations?

Was it because the country already has enough on its plate and does not need to open another front? Or was it because, as Netanyahu suggested, the Houthis managed to kill someone in Israel for the first time with Friday’s drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed 50-year-old Yevgeny Ferder?

If the latter is the reason – that is, the severity of the retaliation because the attack was successful this time – then it is an indication that an important lesson from October 7 has not been learned or internalized.

Since Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority and took control of Gaza in 2007, it has rapidly expanded its military capabilities. Israel saw this and, with the exception of several rounds of fighting, made no concerted effort to crush Hamas.

Why not? Because it didn’t seem lethal. But it was lethal. The rockets fired from Gaza, the tunnel system they built, and the flammable balloons were all potentially lethal. But a potential threat is not the same as a rocket that kills people.

Israel has spent billions of dollars protecting its citizens – it has built a high-tech wall above and below ground, it has developed and invested in the Iron Dome, and it has built shelters and housing for Gaza border communities.

The result was that, despite continued attempts, Hamas seemed to have only limited ability to kill large numbers of Israelis at once.

Israel did not treat attempted murder – the firing of rockets into civilian areas – as murder and therefore did not act aggressively and overwhelmingly to eliminate the threat. As long as the Iron Dome worked, as long as a

If a Hamas rocket had not hit a kindergarten in Sderot during school hours, killing dozens of people, Israel could have lived with the threat just across the border.

Until it was no longer possible. Until October 7th struck and 1,000 preschools in Sderot were hit with the equivalent of 1,000 rockets. 1,200 people died and another 250 were kidnapped and taken hostage.

Measures must be taken

The lesson to be learned is that action must be taken even if attack attempts are unsuccessful or thwarted by Israeli security forces or Israeli technology.

What applies to Gaza also applies to Lebanon. Israel looked the other way as Hezbollah armed itself to the teeth and deployed troops directly on Israel’s northern border – all in blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Israel saw what was going on but did not act.

Why not? Because life was good in Israel. The high-tech industry was thriving, the economy was booming, and diplomatic relations around the world were expanding. If everything is good, why change the cart? The only front where Israel actually took action to prevent a buildup was Syria. There, Israel took vigorous action for years to prevent Iran from turning Syria into another launching pad for attacks against Israel.

But for the most part, the country’s motto has been: “If the attack doesn’t kill anyone and the rockets don’t get fired, then don’t do it.”

This motto has also determined Israel’s policy towards the Houthis since October 7.

But this policy was fraught with several problems. First, it is inevitable that at some point one of these attacks will succeed, that one of these drones or ballistic missiles will penetrate the defense system and people will be killed. Second, if you do not react, you will only provoke further attacks.

If the Houthis have been able to fire suicide drones and ballistic missiles at Israel for the past nine months, if they have been able to shoot at ships at sea heading for Israeli ports without paying a price, why have they stopped?

An attack like Saturday’s on a Houthis port – important as that port is – will not force them to stop. That is one reason why some of the Israeli chest-beating is premature. Save the victory dance for victory; don’t strut around after every single successful battle.

Nevertheless, this one attack on a Houthi port sends a signal to the Houthi and their Iranian masters that they will have to pay a price for further attacks and that they cannot attack with impunity and get away with it just because Israel’s defense system protects its citizens and these attacks have not resulted in many loss of life.

The Houthis have been violating Israel’s sovereignty for months and that alone – even without a huge number of deaths – justifies a decisive response from Israel.

That answer finally came on Saturday. From now on, Israel should not wait until Houthis’ attacks kill someone before taking retaliatory action, but should take forceful action against Houthis’ infrastructure and revenue-generating facilities whenever they attack. If that happens, then one of the lessons of October 7 will have been learned – even without the establishment of a government commission of inquiry.



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