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Comment by jessepasley | Hacker News Reader

Israel has a navy, and is curiously missing from 'Operation Prosperity Guardian'

Israel’s navy is geared towards patrolling their territorial waters. They’re not really set up for expeditionary operations like suppressing shipping attacks hundreds of miles from home.

Israel can potentially benefit from the situation, as a land route Bahrain -> Haifa port is currently being considered as an alternative to Suez Channel.

That's a serious alternative to the Cape of Good Hope? That seems like a lot of expenses just to put ships into range of Iran instead of Iranian allies.

I suspect after the ground invasion in Gaza and the attacks at Lebanon, the Israeli public would be even less pleased at a "third front"

Good thing there a lot of other countries willing to foot that bill.

It puzzles me that how little mention Saudi Arabia is getting here - given that they've been Yemen's war-partner against the Houthis for a while (w/ US, UK, French, etc help).

Saudi Arabia's military is staffed largely by dilettantes. The only reason they ever fought against the Houthi's was because they're Sunni and the Houthi's are Shia.

And the Houthis are really in control of all most all of Yemen, so calling them insurgents etc is misplaced. They dissolved the government and replaced it with revolutionary councils.

I love how Israel expects the US and other countries to do all the heavy lifting on a front that is actually vital for their economic needs while they're on a mission dropping a Hiroshima of bombs on their own territory.

And that's what the US calls 'their most valuable ally in the Middle East'. A country that never helped the US when a time came to return favor for the US unconditional support.

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