The Times: "Should it go ahead with a full-scale attack? Or should it suspend the operation in favor of a possible cease-fire deal with Hamas for the release of hostages still held in the enclave? The prospect of an either-or decision to hold off temporarily on invading Rafah, or even permanently, comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces intense pressure both abroad and at home."
"It" will proceed with Option One, whether this week, next week or next month.
Some time ago, as I recall, I predicted that Netanyahu would pull an Otter from Animal House: "Bezalel Smotrich is right! Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. In this case, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture."
Futile and stupid for sure, for every Hamas member the Israel "Defense" Force kills, 10 more will spring from the tens of thousands of families annihilated by the Netanyahu-IDF consortium's bombings.
And my belief that the prime minister will proceed with stupid futility springs from The Times' reporting on cease-fire negotiations. Its references to a suspension of a Rafah operation and holding off temporarily on invading the massive encampment seem to crush in weight the lesser possibility of a permanent stand down.
Hamas might agree to a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of no more than two or perhaps three dozen hostages. For the militants, a regrouping intermission. But this would merely delay the IDF's innumerable sorties of airstrikes on Rafah.
Holding off permanently is inconceivable. The Times story paraphrases a former Israeli military commander as saying that "after six months of war, Hamas’s leadership is still mostly intact, even if the majority of its battalions have been dismantled or degraded."
I can envision no future in which Netanyahu & Co. allow most of Hamas's leadership and even a minority of its battalions to remain in Gaza. Israel's leadership will fail in disallowing their presence, but that's another story. The primal story is that it must keep hammering Hamas or lose the support of the Israeli public.
And that, Netanyahu knows well. A permanent peace would mean relinquishing power. His future then becomes one much like Donald Trump's: sitting in a courtroom facing criminal charges.
Parenthetically, the Israeli military says, in The Times' words, that it's "calling up reserve soldiers for a potential Rafah operation." An official added that Israel "could start evacuating civilians by the end of the month."
Evacuating them where? The Gaza Strip is a wasteland of rubble, compounded in misery by starvation and disease. And there's not a square foot of it that's safe.
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Note: The photo is symbolism, based on Mary Astor's descending elevator ride to doom and damnation after Bogie gives her the brush — You're taking the fall — in the greatest film ever made, The Maltese Falcon.
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