Netanyahu to Blinken on Rafah: We’d Prefer Your Support, But We’ll Do It Alone

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that there was no alternative to an attack in Rafah, and that Israel was prepared to do so without U.S. support.

While thanking Blinken for American help thus far, and while sharing his concern for civilians in Gaza, Netanyahu said that “we have no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there. And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we need to, we will do it alone.”

Netanyahu and Blinken met in the “Kirya,” the main Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Blinken has been on a week-long visit to several countries in the Middle East, trying to secure a hostage deal and temporary ceasefire.

For weeks, the U.S. and Israel have disagreed publicly over Rafah, which is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. It is also next to the Egyptian border, making it a strategically important point — for aid, and for smuggling.

President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Monday and said that the U.S. believed Hamas could be defeated without an Israeli military operation in Rafah, though the White House did not explain how that could be done.

Netanyahu publicly disagreed. Blinken said in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday that an Israel attack on Hamas in Rafah would be a “mistake” and “unnecessary.”

Israel depends on the U.S. heavily for resupply of arms and ammunition.

It is not clear exactly how Israel would sustain a longer conflict — especially if Iranian-backed Hezbollah continues to attack Israel from Lebanon — without U.S. support. But a shorter attack to win the war in Gaza may be feasible.

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.