Rafah invasion : With defeat in sight, how can Netanyahu declare victory ? | Middle East Eye
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/rafah-attack-defeat-sight-how-can-netanyahu-declare-victory
Long et important article de David Hearst dont je ne cite que la fin (peut-être que la traduction française sortira rapidement). Dans la partie que j’ai laissée, de nombreux et documentés détails sur les dernières négociations et les volte-faces étasuniennes ?
PA, the plotters came, as ever, unstuck in the reality of Gaza.
A bigger headache
All of this leaves Hamas confident that it can face and survive any further attempts by Israeli ground forces to wipe it out.
“Their confidence in continuing the resistance is high,” one of my sources said. “Israel tried to use the destruction it wreaked as a lever to force a surrender. But that destruction became a two-edged sword. It exposed Israel in an unprecedented way. Israel itself is now in trouble, not Hamas. Their support is the highest since the war started. And [US President] Joe Biden is starting to feel the heat. All of this is giving Hamas confidence in the way they are negotiating.”
There is no avoiding the fact that the forthcoming battle for Rafah will be a series of massacres, for which responsibility under international law will lie with Israel. The human price will be high.
If Israeli forces do to Rafah what they did to Khan Younis, Rafah will be levelled. Khan Younis was previously described as Hamas’s headquarters, but Israeli forces withdrew after more than four months of bombardment with nothing to show for their campaign, except the complete destruction of the city.
’Our entry into Rafah will completely destroy our relations with the countries of the world and with the Arab countries with which we have peace’
- Reserve Major General Yitzhak Barik
After Rafah undergoes the same treatment, Israel will still not have recovered the hostages who remain alive, nor will it have captured or killed Hamas’s leaders. Hamas is confident on both scores.
This point has been echoed by Barik: “Bibi also realises that entering Rafah will not bring anything. Rather, the opposite is true, as it will exacerbate the problem dozens of times. We will also be forced to leave Rafah after its occupation … Our entry into Rafah will completely destroy our relations with the countries of the world and with the Arab countries with which we have peace.
“This will have very difficult consequences, above all: isolating the State of Israel in the political and economic spheres and imposing the arms embargo that has already begun. Entering Rafah will not leave any kidnapped person alive, and we will have many victims.”
After Rafah, Netanyahu will have an even bigger headache than he has now: how to declare victory, when defeat is in sight.