Netanyahu on Capturing Hamas Rafah Stronghold: “I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to – we will do it alone”
Defiant against threats from U.S. and E.U. to cut off arms supplies.
Despite visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning Israel of ‘diplomatic isolation’ and European Union’s threat to cut arms supplies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his country’s determination to destroy Hamas and free hostages by entering the terrorist stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The planned offensive on Hamas’s last standing bastion of Rafah “risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long term security and standing,” Blinken warned after meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Friday.
The Israeli prime minister vowed that his country would go it alone if the Biden administration withheld its support at this crucial juncture in the war. “And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to – we will do it alone,” Netanyahu said in a video massage posted on his Twitter account.
The CNN reported Blinken’s warning:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emerged from meetings in Tel Aviv emphasizing his clear warning to the Israeli government about the perilous stakes of an incursion into Rafah, but with little evidence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to heed his words.
The top US diplomat told Netanyahu and the war cabinet Friday that the US remains committed to the “lasting defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah,” but “a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it.”
“It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing,” Blinken told reporters after his meetings Friday. “It risks killing more civilians, it risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Israel was mindful of humanitarian aspects of conducting an operation in Rafah, Netanyahu assured. “I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from the war zones and of course also take care of the humanitarian needs and we are working to that end,” the Israeli leader added.
Last week, the Israeli government approved a military plan which included an orderly evacuation of Rafah, news reports suggest.
The Jerusalem Post reported Netanyahu’s response to Blinken:
United States failure to support a major military operation in Rafah won’t prevent Israel from conducting one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Blinken when the two men in Tel Aviv.
“There is no way for us to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there,” he said.
“I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the USA, but if we have to – we will do it alone,” he added.
Netanyahu assured Blinken that he “greatly appreciates the fact that for more than five months we have been standing together in the war against Hamas.
“I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from the war zones and of course also take care of the humanitarian needs and we are working to that end,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
"I met with Secretary of State Blinken. I told him that I greatly appreciate the fact that for more than five months we have been standing together in the war against Hamas. pic.twitter.com/PO52mDKxfi
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 22, 2024
In a bid to pressure Israel into halting its counter-terrorism operation against Hamas, launched after the mass rape and killing of at least 1200 Israelis on October 7, the Biden administration has reportedly slowed down the delivery of crucial military supplies.
As the Gaza ground offensive enters its fifth month, officials in Jerusalem “noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies to Israel,” The New York Sun reported last week. The IDF is “running out of 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells, as well as sensitive guidance equipment,” the news outlet disclosed.
The European Union is already pushing U.S. and Western allies to cut defense supplies to Israel as the conflict with Hamas reaches it final stages.
Last month, EU’s de facto Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, issued a ‘thinly veiled’ threat to Israel, the Reuters reported February 13:
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday made a thinly veiled call on the U.S. to cut arms supplies to Israel due to high civilian casualties in its war in Gaza. (…)
“Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU development aid ministers in Brussels.
“If the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe we have to think about the provision of arms,” he added.
China, Russia veto Biden’s Gaza Ceasefire resolution
A U.S. bid to have the U.N. Security Council call for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday, after Russia and China vetoed the American resolution that included some of Washington’s strongest language since the start of the war.
The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct in a war that has killed about 30,000 people and reduced much of the enclave to ruins. The administration has been pressuring Israel not to attack the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have sought refuge, and to enable more aid to enter the territory. (…)
The U.S. resolution said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” Representatives from the three dissenting countries and Guyana said it did not go far enough in demanding or compelling a cease-fire.
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Comments
How dumb it would be to go so far and then not finish the job, especially as Hamas and the Palestinians overall show no signs of changing their behavior.
If you are looking at it from Israel’s standpoint, it would be dumb. However, we are looking at it from the enemy’s standpoint which is why Blinken is blinkin’.
Dumb from a common sense standpoint.
That’s why Netanyahu says, “Pretty soon Hamast will be a thing of the past.”
As dumb as the Korean War and the Vietnam War and the Gulf War and…
None of which involved Israel or enemies intent on genocide, however.
You can’t pet a mad dog.
.
Netanyahu is what a leader looks like. I remember a few years back when we had one.
Biden supported Israel in the beginning….until muslim democrats complained and warned they would not vote for him in the fall. But stong man that he is, he held out—for 5 whole minutes. Then he caved.
So what did we learn? Muslims make foreign policy.
This is delicious isn’t it. The longer Bibi tells FJB to go fuck him self the more the Muslim democrats get fucked off with FJB and the more extreme they become in their condemnation of Israel…which in turn pushes more red pill moments down the throats of Democrats who still retain the critical ability to rub two or more functioning brain cells together.
This war keeps going, and Hamas is destroyed, the greater the likelihood of Muslims becoming disillusioned with Democrats and doing other things come election months in November that doesn’t involve voting for FJB and his puppeteers.
We re not voting our way out of this
Gonzo is gone so….
If the international community turns their backs on Israel, there is One who will have their backs…does anybody know/remember the miracles of the Six Day War?
Here’s a little reminder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i3uIz7hoYs
I will bless them that bless you
and I will curse them that curse you.
Gen 12:3
“Communist China and, its junior partner, Russia.“
Nelson —> “HA HA”
Russia’s boyars are now vassals of China. Oh, how the tables have turned.
China and Russia backing proxy Iran.
Obama’s foreign policy failure is complete. John Kerry’s Davos P5+1 Iran deal legacy in tatters. Academics, progressive think tanks, glossy east coast magazine writers and editors, rank and file progressives – they backed all of it with glee, while giving us peasants the finger.
Now the same crowd are moving to censor us; from Australia to Austria and all points in between. Capture the internet, undermine our western voting systems, flood our countries with colonialist invaders and imprison enemies of the state.
It may look grim right now, but they won’t succeed.
This is what a Stud Leader looks like instead of the all hat no cattle pussy we have in the White House right now.
What an amazing concept. A country at war for its survival whose leader is prioritizing its own survival, interests, people, and country over the desires of foreign nationals who would love to see it destroyed as recreational therapy.
Subotai Bahadur
Keep calm, and destroy hamas.
Not even one hundred years have passed since the German National Socialists’ Holocaust and assorted atrocities visited upon Jews, and, the vile, evil, feckless and morally bankrupt European, leftist dhimmis and American Dhimmi-crats are threatening to withhold arms from Israel, thus hindering Jews’ efforts to defend themselves from a second Holocaust carried out by goose-stepping, Muslim supremacists, Islamofascists and terrorists.
This is beyond evil.
Whatever Netanyahu says Israel is running out of time (an understatement like saying the Sahara is a tad lacking in refreshments).
If he is going to do it now is the time, if he isn’t he really needs to stop the pretense.
To further articulate.
The benefit of submitting to Biden is the trend of Biden’s turning the world against Israel with all his might in truth at least temporarily ends.
The benefit of eliminating Hamas is winning the war, re-establishing deterrence, rescuing any hostage still alive, degrading Hamas having the ability to further project force etc
The benefits of saying we will defy Biden then not defying Biden is you get neither benefit and the price is high.
If Netanyahu is doing it now or never not say it will happen for eternity and not do it.
Submitting to Biden now will not change one thing as far as Democrats are concerned. Democrats detest Israel with every fibre of their being and giving in to Bidens demands for Jews to die will not change that reality.
All that will happen is Democrats will become more emboldened and continue to hate Israel with even more fever then before because now they know Israel is weak and they are strong.
I suspect Israel will go in when they are ready and clean out Hamas good and proper like.
And Democrats, just as the sun comes up each morning, will continue to hate Israel.
If they aren’t going to do it then there is no benefit in saying they will.
Netanyahu has said he will send in the troops a lot of times at this point, it is starting to look like he either won’t.
Republicans should trumpet their support for Israel and distain for the Democrat’s support of Hams
Republicans need to continue to ensure Israel does everything it can to tell FJB to go fuck himself.
The longer this goes on the more unhinged the Democrat terrorist supporters become and the greater the number of extremist Muslims who decide to stay home during voting season in November.