NYN | News
Israeli military expert Tal Hartov described Arab armies as “cardboard giants,” asserting that their combat capabilities are vastly disproportionate to their massive military spending—particularly in the Gulf states.
In an interview on the British talk show The Winston Marshall Show, Hartov stated that Saudi Arabia needed only “one Yemeni missile”—which struck an oil facility—to halt its war on Yemen, calling the incident a blatant illustration of the fragility of the Gulf’s military structure.
He pointed out that Arab countries possess advanced fighter jets worth billions of dollars, yet they often remain idle on airbase runways without real operational use, reflecting a systemic crisis in training, planning, and battlefield readiness.
Hartov added that the Yemeni experience proved that strength is not measured by the size of military expenditure, but by resilience and the will to fight, citing the steadfastness of Sana’a’s forces and their operations that reshaped deterrence dynamics in the region.
His remarks highlight growing Israeli assessments of the limited effectiveness of Arab armies despite their massive arsenals—raising questions about their actual role in confronting the region’s escalating challenges.
