The new Gaza operation seemed to come as a surprise across the world, but was it?
Already, multiple top Israeli sources have confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that the timing of the operation was coordinated with that of the US.
However, defense sources have declined to confirm or deny whether the timing was planned to coincide with or fall after the American air strikes on the Houthis.
The benefits of such coordinated timing are obvious.
The Houthis, with their ballistic missiles, are the last Iranian proxy who could most viably threaten Israel immediately in retaliation for a return to war such as seems to be happening.
Hamas has not managed to fire a single rocket since the operation started at 2:00 p.m.
Hezbollah is silent after the beating it received this past fall.
Syria’s Assad regime no longer exists, and so Iranian militias either cannot attack Israel from Syrian territory or it will be much harder now – also because of Israel’s buffer zone.
But the Houthis, until recent days, had still gotten off with a relatively light price from Israel and the US for its over 400 attacks on Israel over the course of the war.
Israel had struck the Houthis five times and the US many more.
But all of these attacks had been with heavy restraints, and none had targeted top Houthi officials, which the US said it had done successfully this week.
Houthis renew strikes, or have they?
So far, the Houthis claimed to have launched a series of attacks against US naval vessels in the region, but the Pentagon has said that it blocked these attacks, or at least has not confirmed any casualties.
If Israel could see that the Houthis had their hands full managing being attacked by the American military, then it would turn the fight between Israel and Hamas into a two-party battle for the first time since the war started.
This is the kind of battle that Israel would prefer, managing one front against the weakest link in Iran’s proxy axis.
It would make sense for Israeli officials to downplay how coordinated they were with the US, while US officials have been louder about it in the Wall Street Journal.
Politically and militarily, Israel wants to appear as independent and strong as possible – and at the end of the day, Israel will always take military action on its borders if it feels national security demands such action.
The next question is whether Israel is partially holding back a ground invasion to continue to keep an eye on any Houthi response or if the delayed ground invasion is to give Hamas a chance to agree to Israel’s hostage negotiations offer, or if it is just a tactical rolling development to send soldiers in after the air force paves the way?
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