Comparative Study of Saudi, Israeli Regimes' Conduct in Gaza and Yemen Wars

Similarities exist between Saudi and Israeli regimes' measures regarding types of military operations and their focus on military targets.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The Saudi regime's aggression against Yemen for the last five months has proved that it follows the same war patterns and conduct that Israel has adopted in its assaults against Gaza throughout the past decade, particularly the 51-day war in 2014 against the Gaza strip.

The people of Gaza have suffered every day since 2007 due to an all-out besiege by the Israeli regime.

Doing a comparative study on the Yemen and Gaza wars, one can find similarities between Saudi and Israeli regimes' measures regarding types of their military operations as well as their focus on military targets.

Aside from these, Saudi Arabia and Israeli regimes share a set of behaviors in international arena as they move ahead with their assaults.

Forming international coalitions, targeting the regional Resistance Axis represented by Iran as well as drawing support and collaboration of world’s organizations and powers are the cases the Saudi and Israeli regimes have in common as they launched their war campaigns in Gaza and Yemen.

Moreover, dismissing the international norms besides imposing economic blockades and military siege, and implementing the media power to launch a psychological warfare are also on the aggressive countries’ agenda to fulfill their objectives.

Building Coalitions for War

Making efforts to gain supports of allied countries within a coalition in order to avoid individual moves to press ahead for their war objectives is among shared factors implemented by Riyadh and Tel Aviv.

In its assault on Gaza, the Israeli regime relied on a historical and firmly established alliance with the US, as it enjoyed a full-scale supply of Washington's political, military, and financial support. Likewise, getting the US green light, the Saudi regime has struggled to build a coalition containing a wide-range presence of the regional players.

In its last three offensives against the small Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has been in total coordination with the US. The same accordance is seen in current Saudi war against Yemen.

Almost all of the countries which stood by the Israeli regime in its 2014 aggression on Gaza, dubbed the 51-day war, have also supported Saudi in Yemen war. Countries including the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy in the Western side, and the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Morocco in the Arab bloc, as well as UNSC in international level reacted favorably, advocating the Saudi assault into Yemen.

The Saudi regime has managed to mobilize a considerable number of the regional players, as fighter jets of five members of Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC), UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, and other countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan have taken part in airstrikes in Yemen.

Somalia also authorized the Saudi-led coalition use of its military bases to launch more attacks. Pakistan was asked to participate in the operations, however, it turned down the call for involvement, preferring to stay out of the offensive and stand neutral.

The Arab League has expressed support for the assault, and its members asked for establishing a joint Arab military force in their annual summit in Egypt’s Sharma al-Sheikh.

Targeting the Resistance Axis spearheaded by Iran

Another commonality bringing Israel and Saudi Arabia together in two wars of Yemen and Gaza is the fact that they both have one point of focus and it is targeting the spectrum of resistance countries in the region, specifically Iran. Also, they exchanged a mutual backup for the ultimate aim of weakening the Resistance Axis.

Considering Iran and the resistant movements' members, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza, as most principal threats to its security, Tel Aviv regime has frequently announced that the aim of its bloody and atrocious attacks against Gaza and Lebanon is to protect its people.

Similarly, the Saudi-led coalition has accused Iran of backing the Ansarullah movement in Yemen financially and militarily.

Brigadier-General Ahmad al-Asiri, the spokesman for the Arab coalition has warned Iran’s IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) and Hezbollah forces about presence in Yemen’s Ansarullah resistant movement’s training camps or the conflict areas.

Fundamentally, the strategic aim of the Saudi offensive against Yemen is blocking Iran from increasing influence in Yemen, as well as in West Asia, an objective frequently highlighted by Saudi officials.

Interestingly, there are claims suggesting that in both Gaza and Yemen wars the Saudi and Israeli regimes have agreed on backing each other. Notwithstanding silence of Riyadh in Gaza war, the reports insist that Saudi Arabia offered Tel Aviv some help.

A Saudi media activist on his Twitter page has claimed that, besides undertaking the Israel’s Gaza ground assault’s costs, Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s officials pledged to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, that if the regime could successfully complete the ground offensive in Gaza, eliminating the Hamas movement, they would open Israeli embassies in their countries.

Additionally, David Hearst, an Editor of Middle East Eye website, wrote a note on Huffington Post saying that Israeli aggression on Gaza followed a green light of the international powers headed by the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, adding that Egypt and Saudi Arabia supported the assault to inflict a heavy loss on the Hamas movement in Gaza. Pressing Hamas for acceptance of the ceasefire terms as well as the so-called Arab Peace Plan, has been a failure so far.

Regarding the war in Yemen, some media and Yemeni sources have issued reports indicating that the Israeli regime offered help to Saudi Arabia, a claim faced with Israeli silence, however, as the time went on, Western media reported that Tel Aviv has supplied Riyadh with weapons, as other news suggest that Israeli military forces are present in the offensive.

The two countries have already begun an intelligence cooperation, the mutual focus of which is hostility against Iran.

The Israeli media have reported of unprecedented negotiations held between Tel Aviv and Riyadh against Iran which included Saudi permission to Israeli regime’s Air Force to use the kingdom’s air space for carrying out possible attacks against Iran.

In an analysis, Veterans Today news website said that the images of a wreckage belonging to an F-16 jet shot down by Yemeni forces show that the aircraft has been was a B-16, a type not delivered to any Arab countries’ air forces. In the region, only the Israeli regime has purchased it.