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Israel Must Enter Rafah to Defeat Hamas and Prevent Future Terror Attacks
Trucks carrying aid are seen near the Rafah border in Gaza after entering from Egypt, October 10, 2023. Photo: Sinai for Human Rights/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
I almost walked past it, yet it’s been seared into my brain ever since. While visiting a Palestinian town in the West Bank two years ago, my eyes landed on a handwritten memorial to Gazan children killed during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. Jewish tradition teaches that one life is equal to an entire world. And there I was, staring at a list of entire worlds destroyed far too soon, in the most tragic circumstances.
I say this not to make a grand emotional gesture, but to point out that as someone with countless family and friends in the region — and who visited Israel as recently as December — I’m all-too aware of what’s at stake, both for Israelis and Palestinians. And that is exactly why I believe Israel must carry out its mission against Hamas to the fullest, including in Rafah.
How soon the Israel Defense Forces should move into Rafah is up for debate. So too is how Israel can simultaneously best protect innocent Gazans. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized that a major incursion into the southern Gaza city will come alongside a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah; on March 13 the IDF announced it would direct displaced Palestinians in Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza.)
But what is clear is that Israel’s mission to end Hamas’ rule in Gaza will be incomplete if it leaves Hamas’ Rafah battalions intact. This would be a disaster for Israelis, Palestinians, and their Arab neighbors alike.
Israel’s conduct in this war has always been motivated by the understanding that, after inflicting the atrocities of October 7, Hamas cannot remain as a ruling military power on the Jewish state’s border.
The rationale was never revenge, nor perpetuating Netanyahu’s rule. (Contrary to misconceptions in the West, Israelis overwhelmingly support the war effort despite their simultaneous disdain towards their prime minister). Israelis recognize, as Amir Tibon of the staunchly left-wing Haaretz put it, that “a country that doesn’t retaliate in the most forceful way after terrorists kidnap an eight year old from her bed, simply won’t exist. Especially not in the Middle East.”
But it’s not just Israel’s future that relies on toppling Hamas. As long as Hamas retains power in Gaza, Palestinians will never have their own state. Israel’s presence in the West Bank, and all its accompanying injustices, will continue, with Israelis refusing to risk the West Bank — which overlooks Israel’s major population centers — being taken over by Hamas. (As a reminder, Hamas has consistently declared its intention to repeat the October 7 massacre until it eliminates the Jewish State.)
As The Times of Israel’s Haviv Rettig Gur recently observed, Israel leaving Gaza without uprooting Hamas from Rafah would prompt a “Taliban retaking of Afghanistan moment” in the enclave, dooming Israelis and Gazans to further rounds of brutal fighting.
As for Lebanon, Hezbollah, whose training and firepower make Hamas look like amateurs, would understand that Israel, lacking the resolve to destroy Hamas, will be similarly unable to prevent Hezbollah from setting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on fire. And if you think Israel’s response in Gaza has been ferocious, just watch what happens to Beirut when Hezbollah begins bombing hospitals and schools in Tel Aviv.
That’s to say nothing of Yemen’s Houthis, and the numerous other terror groups throughout the Middle East — all backed by Iranian ayatollahs who thrive on regional instability. It was not for nothing that, on October 10, US President Joe Biden declared “to any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation. I have one word: Don’t.”
Put simply, Israel’s failure to overthrow Hamas in Gaza has the potential to set the region alight.
While we’re here, it’s worth noting that the intensifying calls for Israel to end its war have little connection to Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and much more to do with society’s preference for dead Jews over Jews who fight back. A quick test: if you’ve only discovered your dismay at the destruction caused by urban warfare now that Jews are involved, ask yourself why.
Indeed, what we are witnessing today is a repeat of the same phenomenon that has occurred in every Gaza war since Hamas took power in 2007: the world has never allowed Israel to unequivocally win. The only way for this vicious cycle of violence to end is to reverse that trend, and let Israel topple Hamas.
Calling on Israel to stay out of Rafah may seem like the humanitarian thing to do. The number of deaths is tragic; the suffering of those still alive is horrible. But as Haviv Rettig Gur explained, “if Hamas remains standing” in Rafah, “then the entire war will have been for nothing.” All those Gazans and Israelis will have died in vain. And the world, having pressured Israel to abandon its war, will be to blame.
Josh Feldman is an Australian writer who focuses primarily on Israeli and Jewish issues. Twitter: @joshrfeldman
The post Israel Must Enter Rafah to Defeat Hamas and Prevent Future Terror Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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