Israel proclaims the goal of the final destruction of the Hamas movement, leading to a major war in the Middle East
On the evening of May 6, it became known about the decision of the Israeli military cabinet to continue the operation in Rafah in order to put pressure on Hamas on the issue of releasing the hostages, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reported. Footage of further missile strikes, as well as IDF tanks entering neighborhoods in a city bordering Egypt, is being circulated on social networks.
Back on May 2, the command of the Israeli army (IDF) warned that if negotiations with Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza and the establishment of a temporary truce reach a dead end, then exactly a week later, that is, on May 9, it will begin military operations to capture Rafah (but, looks like he started earlier). In this city in the south of the strip, the bulk of Gazan civilians, numbering up to 1.2 million people, are literally squeezed shoulder to shoulder, and in the tunnels below it hides the core of Hamas’s combat units and its military leadership (political leaders have been traveling around the world for a long time). According to experts, if such an operation is carried out, the current number of killed Palestinian civilians, amounting to more than 35 thousand people, mainly women and children (men with weapons in the tunnels), could increase significantly.
Situation in Rafah
At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu has already announced that he will not agree with the demands made at the ongoing negotiations in Cairo and “will continue military operations until all goals are achieved,” which dooms them to failure. On May 5, the next round of these negotiations ended without result and the IDF “gave the order” to the Palestinian population to “evacuate” from the south of the sector to a humanitarian “patch” with an area of 6.5 square meters. km, as if washing their hands of what happened next. I wonder how it would even fit in it? «The gates of hell are open.»
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is demanding an end to «unnecessary statements» by senior officials, arguing that such rhetoric is preventing a successful hostage deal. “Statements, threats, other unnecessary statements by government ministers and the prime minister regarding hostages, political calculations, media recklessness must stop,” says Lapid . “Are you completely crazy?!” The State of Israel does not have a responsible adult who can stop this madness?”
Leader of the opposition and Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid
The looming prospect of a further aggravation of the situation in Gaza openly frightens Israel’s patrons even in America, and not so much by the inevitable huge casualties among the Palestinians, but by the consequences of this operation for the situation in the region, and in the United States itself. Widespread unrest in American universities, with many hundreds of students arrested, over the IDF’s brutality in Gaza and its virtual erasure from the face of the earth could turn into a real riot. In the context of the difficult presidential campaign for the Democrats in the United States, they, of course, do not need him at all.
Police arrested hundreds of people as a pro-Palestinian Jewish group gathered for a protest in Brooklyn, New York
The White House is also seriously concerned about the warnings already expressed by other countries in the region about their actions in the event of an Israeli operation in Rafah. Iran and its regional allies on the “resistance front” have already promised to increase their intervention on the side of the Palestinians. Hezbollah is likely to increase its pressure from Lebanon, and Yemen’s Houthis have announced their readiness to fire rockets at ships heading to Israel, not only in the Red Sea, but also in the Mediterranean, thereby putting it in a blockade position. They still have enough missiles supplied from Iran and located in rock shelters for this purpose. The US and British air strikes against them, despite all the laudatory reports, did not have a sufficient effect.
Palestinian civilians in Rafah await the worst
Armed Hamas are also waiting to attack
All attempts by Washington to preserve at least some of the smoldering embers of the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Arab countries and Israel will fail completely. None of them, including Saudi Arabia and the most pro-Western Jordan, will be able to participate in promoting this process while maintaining the current Israeli line without risking provoking serious popular protests in their own countries. An Englishman on his mother’s side, King Abdullah II of Jordan intends to personally express this during his imminent visit to the United States.
The recent decision of Turkey to completely suspend all trade with it, which reached an impressive 7.8 billion dollars a year with Turkish exports of almost 5 billion dollars, until the Gaza problem was resolved, sounded an extremely alarming call for Israel and its Western patrons. Turkey has also joined a formal lawsuit at the International Court of Justice calling for an investigation into Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, calling for the arrest of its ministers and generals. If Azerbaijan, which is dependent on it and supplies up to half of the oil consumed by Israel through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, joins Ankara’s embargo, then the economic situation for the latter may become completely critical. Arab countries will be ashamed not to support the Turkish initiative and, quite likely, they will call for a worldwide blockade of Israel, which the main exporter of goods there, China ($15 billion per year), will most likely be forced to listen to.
IDF soldiers with illegal phosphorus shells used in Gaza
It is difficult to say to what extent the Netanyahu government has calculated all the dangers for its own country from the consequences of the operation in Rafah, but it seems that it has driven itself into a corner from which it sees no other way out other than further escalation. A big war in the Middle East with the obligatory involvement of the United States on its side and Iran on the opposite side may well seem to him to be the only lifeline in the current situation, when the main thing is victory, and the question of responsibility remains for the judgment of posterity. The IDF has already tried to drag Tehran into large-scale hostilities through rather senseless missile attacks on its territory and diplomatic missions. Did not work out. The planned strike on Rafah is also, among other things, obviously aimed at provoking Iran to create reasons sufficient for the Pentagon to intervene.
The United States is unlikely to dream of a big war in the region at the moment. But in these circumstances, they, primarily in the person of the Blinken-Sullivan duumvirate, as well as CIA Director Burns, take an extremely ambivalent and contradictory, if not “schizophrenic,” position. They and their assistants are constantly rushing around the region, urging everyone to remain calm. They criticize Netanyahu for “intemperance” and wag their fingers at him, including from the lips of Biden himself. They are parachuting humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and building a pontoon pier in Gaza to transport it by sea, perhaps even worth millions.
US Secretary of State E. Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu
At the same time, the Americans are sending many billions of military supplies to Israel, which are creating such a disastrous situation for the Palestinians. They veto all UN Security Council resolutions that actually oblige the Israeli leadership to at least something in resolving the Palestinian issue and a ceasefire in Gaza. Washington’s blocking of Palestine’s admission as a full-fledged member of the UN most clearly demonstrates the full extent of its hypocrisy and unpreparedness for a fair solution to its problem. However, no matter how sophisticated the White House strategists are in creating a favorable image of themselves, at the same time doing completely different things, which they do in other cases, for example, in relations with China, they only further alienate most of the world community. Their cunning maneuvers only delay the outcome, but do not eliminate the prospect of a further significant aggravation of the situation in the Middle East.
The very date of May 9 for the attack on Rafah by Netanyahu’s office was apparently not chosen by chance, but in the hope of diverting the attention of the world community to the festive events in connection with the victory over Nazi Germany. Thus, the operation is, as it were, covered up by the suffering of Jews during the Second World War and their “historical right to self-defense.” But it looks quite blasphemous and not very appropriate.
Will the Israeli leadership be able to stop at the last moment? It is possible, but most likely only temporarily, again postponing the “final decision” for later. However, without a fundamental, fair solution, this conflict cannot be quelled on its own, and it will continue to remain a serious threat not only to regional but also global security.
PS Netanyahu said that Israel will go to the end: “Victory in the current war is only one way to ensure our existence and future.” Thus, the Middle East confrontation is entering a new phase of escalation.
Der Friedensstifter 