Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will stand alone and “fight with our fingernails” in defiance of US threats to further restrict arms deliveries if Israeli forces proceeded with an offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was speaking on Thursday after Israeli and Hamas delegations left the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo.
It was unclear whether the talks had broken down or simply paused, but the failure to reach an agreement on this week’s round of meetings raised apprehension of an imminent Israeli attack on Rafah.
Netanyahu appeared to shrug off a public warning from the US president, Joe Biden, the previous night that if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a major offensive on the city the US would not provide bombs and artillery shells to support the operation.
If you think Israel does not want any civilian casualties in Gaza, ask yourself some of these questions:
Netanyahu allowed Gaza to arm themselves. Netanyahu ignored warnings of the attack in October. Netanyahu allowed them to enter from multiple directions while the best surveillance system on Earth suddenly became useless. Netanyahu brought you this war.
If your goal was to kill as many civilians as possible without risk to your “own people” nearby, then you would operate this war much like Netanyahu has. I believe he would have napalmed the entire region if the rest of the world weren’t threatening sanctions and intervention.