Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now looking to reschedule an Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss Israel’s plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which he initially canceled in response to the US not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
A US official told The Times of Israel that the two sides were working to schedule the delegation, which will include Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council chairman Tzachi Hanedgbi. Dermer, an American-born former ambassador to the US, recently vowed Israel will attack Rafah no matter what the US thinks.
An Israel assault on Rafah would incur a huge number of civilian casualties as the city, which has a pre-war population of 275,000, is now packed with 1.5 million Palestinians. For most Palestinians in Rafah, it was the last place to go after being displaced from elsewhere in the Strip multiple times.
Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Rafah on Wednesday, raising fears among the city’s residents of a ground invasion. According to Reuters, the strikes hit four homes and killed at least 15 people.
An invasion of Rafah would also disrupt aid shipments into Gaza even more, as the only border crossing with Egypt is in the city. The US has issued warnings against going through with the invasion, but there’s still no indication that the Biden administration is seriously considering imposing consequences, such as cutting off military aid, if Israel goes through with it anyway.
Dermer said Israel will go ahead with the invasion even if the US and the rest of world “turns on Israel.” But Nimrod Shafer, a retired IDF major general, recently said Israel would not be able to launch a full-scale assault on Rafah without US support.
“What do I mean when I say, ‘If the Americans tell us you not to operate in Rafah, we won’t fight’? We won’t operate in Rafah, maybe we will carry out very small and focused missions but we won’t see anything similar to what happened in the last five months in Gaza if the Americans tell us not to,” Shafer said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
First, you split, then you quit.
The US maintains that a Rafah offensive will not advance Israel’s war aims because it will lead to even more civilian casualties, cut off the delivery of humanitarian aid, further isolate Israel internationally and harm Israel’s long-term security.
Notice there is nothing in there about why killing so many innocent people is just fucking wrong. Only that it’ll make Israel look bad and will affect their security.
To US all the Wrong things are Right…! And all the Right things are Wrong…!
If Egypt was still an independent nation like it was under Nasser, they would occupy Rafah and shut down the Suez Canal. Thank multiple gods for the Houthis and Hezbollah. Only the stateless know how to cripple Goliath.
There is zero chance of the US doing anything if Israel attacks Rafah.
All these stories in the MSM AND alternative press are bullshit cover stories.
What Israel and the US are really doing in these visits is planning US involvement in the wider Mid-East war which both have been planning for some time. Both are intent on eliminating the Axis of Resistance and breaking the Middle East and restoring US (and Israeli) hegemony there before the US turns on China.
They have to do this because the Middle East will not support a war with China and will be able to control oil and logistical shipping in the Red Sea, the gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean which will be critical for US military operations. Not to mention that the Middle East is important for China’s economic capabilities and expansion and energy supply.
And of course the US needs to control the oil there for its own use before attacking China.
Which is not to say that the US will achieve any of those objectives. They won’t. It will be another humiliating defeat worse than Afghanistan or Ukraine.