Israel’s government has apparently parlayed an agreement to tone down its retaliation for Iran’s unprecedent drone and missile barrage into a long awaited American approval of its planned strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the last bastion of Hamas support. Now the tanks and troops are rolling back, ready to finish the job.
Israel has begun to move tanks back in and around southern Gaza in preparation for the long-delayed assault, and two reserve units with thousands of troops have been called up for the mission. Tens of thousands of tents have been ordered to relieve the density of internally displaced people in the area. This will ease Israel’s ability to take on the remaining four Hamas battalions.
This apparently does not mean that Israel will not retaliate for Iran’s aerial attack, which has largely restored world support for Israel, and refocused attention on Iran and Hamas as the source of recalcitrant evil in the region. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, stated on Thursday that “Israel will react to Iran, and it won’t take years – soon Iran’s missiles will be equipped with nuclear warheads.”
Despite the subversive carping of the New York Times that Israel badly miscalculated by striking the top Revolutionary Guard officers in Damascus, the move is turning out to be a pivot in the war that has greatly improve Israel’s position.
It would appear that Israel’s leadership is by necessity playing a chess game with more dimensions that than the liberal media.
Despite the bad blood with Biden, and the gratuitous insults offered by the cantankerous cognitively challenged Chief Executive, Netanyahu has played him like a fiddle, jumping when the President and his Secretary of State demanded humanitarian action, going above and beyond and jumping through hoods to pack the roads and new entry points with hundreds of trucks filled with food for Gazans. That took the poison out of the American sting following the WCK mis-hit.
Moreover, PM Netanyahu has acted masterfully on the hostage negotiations front, despite the lack of progress. He knew that Hamas would agree to no reasonable deal and so aligned fully with the American compromise plans after ensuring they contained nothing beyond Israeli red lines. The result? The Americans have squarely blamed Hamas for being the cause for the failure of the talks.
Now, the way is free for the IDF to go into Rafah and finish the job.
The IDF carried out strikes overnight on several areas adjacent to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt,” with “the relevant officials in Egypt … notified before the execution of some of these strikes” in the Philadelphi corridor adjacent to the Egyptian border.
The Qatar report also noted that Egypt is exemplifying “full readiness and preparedness of [its] forces stationed in northern Sinai, along the 14-kilometer border strip with the Gaza Strip, as part of a plan to deal with the scenario of a ground invasion in Rafah.”
Israel does not require US “permission” to prosecute the war Hamas started! “Approval” that’s conditional is not approval; it’s BLACKMAIL! there is NO “support” for Israel in the WH; just political game playing with the lives of Israeli citizens!