President Donald Trump’s announcement of a separate ceasefire with Houthi rebels in Yemen took Israel by surprise and left some Israelis feeling abandoned — although it also preserved Israel’s freedom of action.
Trump announced the ceasefire with the Iranian-backed rebel terrorists Tuesday to stunned reporters at a press event in the White House with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, saying the Houthis had become tired of fighting and offered to stop attacking shipping in the Red Sea. He said that the U.S. would stop bombing Houthi targets in Yemen as a result, effective “immediately.”
Houthi spokesmen confirmed the deal, which apparently had been made via mediators in Oman and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. The Houthis hastened to add that they would continue attacking Israel, which was not included in the deal.
Some analysts in Israel concluded that Trump had thrown them under the bus. But Trump’s announcement came after Israel had already destroyed Yemen’s main airport in the capital city of Sana’a earlier in the day, hurting the rebels’ ability to import weapons and military advisers fro Iran. The Houthis have more missiles that they may fire at Israel, but they will not be able to resupply easily, meaning their threats may be empty.
Moreover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already declared — citing Trump — that Iran was ultimately responsible for Houthi missile attacks, suggesting that Israel considered an attack on Iran to be a legitimate response, were one to be carried out. Trump’s separate deal with the Houthis theoretically means Israel retains the freedom to attack the rebels, or to attack Iran, since it is not bound by the U.S. agreement.
Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and Iran over a nuclear deal that Israel fears will repeat the errors in the old deal reached by President Barack Obama in 2015, which let Iran become a nuclear power over time. That deal also failed to stop Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for terror abroad, and did not include any human rights provisions. Netanyahu has said that a bad deal would be worse than no nuclear deal at all.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
