For no obviously good reason, Trump ordered major air strikes on the Houthis a few days ago. Now the Israelis are ramping up their attacks in Gaza. Are these related, and what do they mean?
Bibi wants Trump to be his yard guy with the Iranians, but Trump won’t agree to fight that way; for him, perpetual low-level wars are off the table. Trump thinks he can use victories over Iranian proxies to drive the Islamic Republic to the table. It’s a relatively risk-free way of creating leverage for future negotiations.
Will it work? Probably not. My guess is that the Iranians are working furiously on a bomb even as I write this and have written off the proxies for now.