Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned Mideast trip will mean more pressure on Israel to make concessions to Hamas, yet Jerusalem’s best course is to push on and finish off the terrorists.
The IDF has made significant progress, and Israel musn’t agree to anything that could jeopardize victory.
At this point, Hamas’ central goal is simply to hang on long enough for Kamala Harris to win in November and then save it from final eradication.
Iran is helping out: Its officials now claim Tehran will shelve plans to retaliate against Israel for killing Hamas boss Ismail Haniyeh if Jerusalem engages in good-faith cease-fire talks.
Meanwhile, Hamas boss Yahya Sinwar is reportedly demanding Israel cease fire now as a precondition for cease-fire talks, which would give him immediate breathing room and let him stretch out the talks for months.
In fact, Iran actually wants an excuse to hold off: It fears losing face if it doesn’t respond to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, but its last strike at Israel was an embarrassing bust.
And if it escalates now, it risks an IDF counter-strike that could smash its oil industry, costing the regime big-time and potentially feeding mass unrest.
Israel’s destruction of Hamas may be slower than the world would like, but it’s been constant, steady and, indeed, laudable.
Lately, it’s taken out several key leaders, including Haniyeh and Hamas’ military chief in Gaza, Mohammed Deif.
Every day seems to bring a new operation that eliminates more top terrorists; why stop now?
Not to avoid an Iranian attack: Again, it’s Iran looking for an excuse to de-escalate — it wants Israel exclusively engaged with its puppets.
Meanwhile, Sinwar is nothing but an arm of Iran; his only goal is to keep Hamas alive so it can regain control of Gaza, rearm and prepare for the next Oct. 7.
Alas, President Biden and Veep Kamala Harris are OK with that.
They’re desperate for a cease-fire on almost any terms to appease the Democratic Party’s left wing, which is all-in to save Hamas.
That’s why they insist Hamas has been sufficiently wounded, and it’s time to end the war; why they claim “too many civilians” have died, without even knowing the number and while ignoring Israel’s painstaking attempts to minimize casualties.
We note that we have not once heard Biden or Harris demand Hamas stop using Gazans as human shields.
Iran’s “give us reason not to shoot” bluff, and Sinwar’s “stop attacking and then I’ll talk” stances are aimed directly at Washington, to fool it into squeezing Israel to let Hamas off the hook.
A cease-fire that doesn’t immediately bring the release of the remaining hostages simply lets Sinwar hold onto them and string out the talks indefinitely until a President Harris rides to Hamas’ longer-term rescue.
If they can maneuver Blinken into pushing Israel to give up the Philadelphia Corridor separating Gaza from Egypt, all the better: That’ll let Hamas recover even faster.
The broader American public still supports Jerusalem’s war goals: Rescue the hostages, destroy Hamas and ensure that Gaza can never again become a launching pad for terror attacks.
Israel needs to stand tough as Blinken, Biden and Harris try to bully it into sacrificing its security needs to their partisan domestic political needs.