In the attached illustration you can see Hamas unmanned underwater vehicles — dozens of these underwater drones were captured in the Gaza Strip. They posed a serious threat to Israeli strategic facilities and ships. These vehicles are guided to a target by GPS and are loaded with a deadly warhead.
In the current war, the Israeli Navy has been fully engaged:
1. Most of the Navy is deployed in the north — against Hizbullah and other hostile groups in Lebanon and Syria.
2. Modern Saar-6 class missile corvettes — protect our gas platforms.
3. The other missile ships participate in the attacks on Hamas targets from the sea, and defend our southern borders, together with the Dvora-class patrol boats.
4. Furthermore, our ships and submarines provide protection for Israel’s immense maritime transportation.
It should be remembered that more than 90 percent of the goods coming into Israel, arrive by sea. Therefore, the Navy’s mission to keep the sea lanes open and safe is an important, or even crucial, endeavor on a permanent basis.
In recent days, as we know, there has been a dramatic increase in threats from the Houthis preventing goods from entering Israel through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Yesterday, the Houthis fired a guided missile at a Norwegian tanker whose destination was the port of Ashdod.
In recent weeks, Israel has been under intense pressure from the antagonistic Biden administration not to attack Yemeni terrorists. However, as attacks on Israel-bound ships have increased, the Netanyahu government has made it clear that if the U. S. fails to neutralize the threat, it will be obliged to take decisive action of its own.
Apparently, this message was heard and accepted with all seriousness. The U. S. has taken steps to build an international coalition to ensure safe passage through the Red Sea. The representatives of the official Yemeni government, also fighting the Houthis, said they had received an offer from the U. S. to join this coalition. French and British ships are already in the area. Other countries are likely to join soon as well.
The current situation has demonstrated once again that when the Israeli government stands firmly for our interests, even the Biden administration, which is antagonistic to us, is forced to make concessions.
All this, in turn, teaches us that we must never back down and surrender our essential interests in favor of any foreign allies trying to advance their own goals at our expense. There should be absolutely no discussion about the creation of a “state for the Palestinian Arabs” in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, as Biden has demanded. A state like that is simply incompatible with Israel’s perpetual existence, and therefore the Gaza Strip must remain under our control and inhabited by Jews, while the Arabs will eventually have to relocate to other countries.