Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer of Israel said Thursday that Israel will enter the town of Rafah, in Gaza, to destroy the last Hamas battalions, even if the United States, under President Joe Biden, opposed it doing so.
Dermer made his remarks on former George W. Bush administration official and Start-up Nation author Dan Senor’s podcast.
The Times of Israel notes:
Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the United States, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, describing the Gazan city packed with evacuees as a final Hamas bastion harboring a quarter of the terror group’s fighters.
…
Dermer, a former ambassador to the United States, said Israel would hear out American ideas for Rafah, but that the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt would be taken whether or not the allies reach agreement:
“It will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone. Even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States, we’re going to fight until the battle’s won.”
Dermer’s comments are noteworthy because he is one of the negotiators chosen by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with the White House next week to discuss the Biden administration’s concerns about an attack on Hamas in Rafah, which Biden opposes.
Netanyahu has characterized the talks as primarily focused on humanitarian concerns, like evacuating civilians. The White House has characterized the talks as about whether Israel conducts military operations in Rafah at all.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.