As the next phase of Israeli operations moves on to Rafah, the last Hamas redoubt, the pressure campaign is amping up.
Biden’s UN Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that moving into Rafah will not be allowed.
“Look, we have been absolutely clear that under the current circumstances in Rafah, a military operation now in that area cannot proceed. And that would dramatically exacerbate the humanitarian emergency that we’re all seeking to alleviate right now. Israel has an obligation to ensure that civilians, that their civilian population is safe and that they’re secure and that they have access to humanitarian aid and to basic services. And I think you heard the secretary, make those statements clearly during his meetings and in his engagements with the press when he was there,” she told NPR.
Egypt has responded by threatening to suspend the Camp David Accords. The only peace that those accords ever brought was to turn over a whole lot of territory to Egypt in exchange for a peace of paper. Egypt has never ended its hostility, it simply lost enough wars to drop further plans and it had pivoted to an alliance with America rather than the USSR.
Rafah is on Egypt’s border and the threats from Egypt likely have more to do with Cairo not wanting to be flooded with Gazans as with protecting Hamas, but that’s also a factor. Hamas is a check on Israel and despite all the talk of peace, Egypt, like the Saudis, wants to preserve that check. A victory in Rafah would put Israeli forces closer and expose the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.
{Reposted from FrontPageMag}
