1/ the most disturbing thing about the Israeli obsession with "operating" in Rafah (as though Israel has not been bombing Rafah and killing civilians by the dozen on a daily basis) is the fact that all of it has to do with domestic Israeli concerns. Palestinians are absent. --->
2/ The Israeli military leadership is clamoring for an operation. That is not surprising. This "war" has been an abject failure in military terms. Not only has Hamas remained viable and its senior leaders alive, Israeli security is at an all-time low with 100000 DPs. --->
3/ This is an important point for understanding Israel's mindset as well as a basic lesson in genocide studies. Most supporters of genocide derive no joy from its success. Genocide is treated as a necessity, meant to ensure the survival of the perpetrators and no more. --->
4/ Therefore, the unprecedented, horrific number of Palestinian casualties and the scope of physical destruction in Gaza are not perceived as a success by many Israelis. They are also not perceived as a failure. They are a necessary derivative of the main axis of effort. --->
5/ That main axis is "the destruction of Hamas" (and not the return of the hostages, clearly of no interest to the government and opposed by much of the government's base) which is seen as necessary for the restoration of security. How will this be achieved? --->
6/ Israel maintains that the answer is simple. If Israel manages to kill as many terrorists as it can and destroy as much infrastructure as it can, Hamas will cease to exist as a "governing entity". Israel has repeated this argument throughout the past 7 months. --->
7/ But Hamas remains alive and well. No one knows how many Hamas personnel have been killed. No one knows who counts as Hamas personnel except the Lavender algorithm that produces "targets" at an unprecedented rate. Still, Hamas leadership is at large and functioning. --->
8/ Israel has promised the "upcoming liquidation" of Hamas on numerous occasions. There was the "operations center" under Shifa hospital, the exposure of which was to cripple Hamas significantly. The center did not materialize. Similar promises were made about Khan Younes. --->
9/ Sinwar was born there! Where else would he run? Khan Younes was razed and leveled. Hamas was not destroyed. Rafah is the only city left standing in the Gaza strip. It provides the only opportunity to "prove" the IDF hypothesis correct. Collateral damage is "unfortunate". --->
10/ There is no military achievement to be had in Rafah. It was impossible to destroy Hamas when the war began. It remains impossible. The political pot of gold at the end of the Rafah rainbow is the assertion of total Israeli impunity. What does Israel do when threatened? --->
11/ Israel does whatever it wants without bearing responsibility for its actions. A Rafah operation signals that Israel remains unique and entitled, subject to no law or requirement but its own. It isn't fun to be unique. We don't enjoy it. It is a necessity. It is our burden.
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