Hamas Caving or Craving Rafah Assault?

Is Hamas collapsing as captured soldiers say or is Israel’s delayed Rafah assault giving Hamas time to evacuate its troops? Is it an “oops” or an Israeli stoop to international pressure to “let ‘em up easy” in return for Gaza control?

The WSJ quoted Israel’s defense minister about how Hamas is “collapsing from within” as Israel kept up its offensive in Gaza. Maybe. We’re told US & Israel reps were again going to discuss the latter’s “impending” ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza to snuff out the last Hamas bastion in that war torn strip of land. Earlier coverage had also warned about how costly in lives it would be to invade Hamas’s last stronghold in the midst of thousands of human shields the terrorists employs in a cowardly fashion; surely, no one knows this better than the Israel high command.

So, we have a situation in which Israel is committed to taking Rafah “one way or the other” while they as well as everyone else wants to spare the already desperate human shields there. Doesn’t the obvious “win win” scenario involve bleeding Hamas to near death in Rafah so that as few civilians as possible will be hurt further in the “assault” that finally happens … with a Western wink wink? True, Hamas remnants would live to fight another day. But, Israel would get its desired control over Gaza with fewer casualties for its own troops, while a weakened Hamas would live to die another day? Remember Lincoln’s advice to Gen Grant in the American Civil War as the latter closed in on the rebel commander outside Richmond. “Let ‘em up easy,” Lincoln advised on the Union’s surrender terms to be offered, knowing the war would be ended & mop up operations would follow on the QT.

Davd Soul