Chess in the Gulf: Israel's Unexpected Opportunity from the Siege on Saudi Arabia

Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagor analyzes the ongoing fighting in Gaza alongside the Red Sea crisis. According to him, Hamas tried to drag out time until the end of Trump's term, but Israel broke the status quo. Yagor points to a strategic opportunity for Israel: the Houthi siege on Saudi Arabia primarily harms the kingdom, forcing it to decide on normalization with Israel.

Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagor, a former senior official in the Planning Directorate and Intelligence in the IDF, analyzed the military campaign in Gaza and the escalation in the maritime arena on the program "Israel This Morning." According to him, the IDF is systematically working to eliminate senior Hamas officials, breaking the status quo that Hamas tried to establish to drag out time until the end of Trump's term. Yagor focused on the strategic opportunity for Israel arising from the crisis between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. He explained that ship traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has dropped from 70 ships per day before the war to about 20, and that the siege directly harms Saudi Arabia, which is caught in a "pincer movement" from Iran and the Houthis. According to him, this situation forces Riyadh to come off the fence and decide on normalization with Israel and joining the IMEC trade corridor.