Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday told his cabinet: “Let it be clear, if we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure.”
BREAKING:
Netanyahu releases video with English subtitles, making 3 things clear for the international community:
– There won’t be snap elections
– The IDF will enter & control Rafah
– Israel will fight until total victory pic.twitter.com/xkXuKJvvy4— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 17, 2024
Netanyahu was also addressing Israel’s biggest friend, President Joe Biden, and its littler friend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of whom would like very much to see him gone. Turns out he’s not going anywhere, and had no problem blasting both of Israel’s “friends” in his opening remarks to the cabinet.
“To our friends in the international community, I say: Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monsters? Have you so quickly lost your moral consciences?
Instead of pressuring Israel, which is fighting a war, the justice of which is unparalleled, against an enemy of unparalleled brutality, apply your pressure to Hamas and its patron – Iran. It is they who constitute a danger to the region and to the entire world.
In any case, we will withstand any pressure and with G-d’s help, we will continue to fight together until total victory.”
“Since the start of the war, we have been fighting on two fronts – military and diplomatic,” the PM told Israel’s great friends. “On the diplomatic front, until now we have succeeded in allowing our forces to fight in an unprecedented manner for five full months. However, it is no secret that the international pressure is increasing. In the international community, there are those who are trying to stop the war now, before all of its goals have been achieved. They are doing so by hurling false accusations at the IDF, the Government of Israel, and the Prime Minister of Israel. They are doing so by means of an effort to bring about elections now, at the height of the war. They are doing this because they know that elections now will halt the war and paralyze the country for at least six months.”
Netanyahu reiterated that he and his democratically elected government are determined to reject those pressures from the outside and continue fighting until the final and total victory, which will feature eliminating Hamas, freeing all the hostages, and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.
“No international pressure will stop us from realizing all of the goals of the war,” the PM asserted, essentially addressing the majority of the Democratic Party, and clarified: “To do this, we will operate in Rafah. This is the only way to eliminate Hamas’s murderous brigades, and this is the only way to use the military pressure necessary to free all of our hostages.”
Meanwhile, analyst Khaled Abu Toameh revealed on Sunday, citing a Ramallah official, that PA security officers in civilian clothes have been deployed in the northern Gaza Strip, in coordination with Israel. This suggests that Netanyahu has accepted at least part of the White House’s demands, and is ushering in a PA takeover, quietly, so as not to irritate his two national-religious ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
So, is the big fix already in? The tweet below shows that the IDF is busy building a port on the Gaza shore, even before the first American construction vessel has arrived.
Israel. The IDF is building a Sea Port in #Gaza, Since all Humanitarian aid coming through trucks are being robbed by the #Hamas pic.twitter.com/dlkulWv7Dy
— Jacob Peled (@jacob___peled) March 16, 2024
The NGO World Central Kitchen on Saturday unloaded 200 tons of food on the Gaza shore. The shipment was checked by the IDF in Cyprus, and last Tuesday, the ship was given the OK to sail to Gaza. Since there is no functioning seaport in the Gaza Strip, when the ship arrived near the coast, rafts were needed to transfer the food from the vessel to the shore.
And so, while Netanyahu is pushing the war until the final and total victory, on the ground he is facing a slippery slope that also involves a significant level of Hamas control over the humanitarian shipments.
“Those who say that the action in Rafah will not occur are those who also said that we would not enter Gaza, or act in Shifa or Khan Younis and that we would not resume the fighting after the lull,” Netanyahu said decisively, above the contradictory noises that are being made by, you know, reality. He continued: “Therefore, I reiterate: We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen.”
Incidentally, both the fact that the IDF is preparing to take over Rafah and kill the last of the Nazis underground there, and the fact that the PA is already preparing to take over on the day after the war ends, are not mutually exclusive. IDF soldiers can continue to bleed and die so that a terrorist state be established on Israel’s western and eastern borders.
