Walter E. Block
Israel Hayom, May 1, 2024
“… the IDF could have accomplished this task, not in a “few weeks” but in approximately six days. A large part of the reason that they are now into this battle not for six weeks but for six months and counting is that Hamas embeds itself into the civilian Gazan population using these people as shields, and Israel keeps looking over its shoulder, fearing the displeasure of it supposed ally.”
New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman offers two alternatives to our strongest Middle Eastern ally: “Israel Has a Choice to Make: Rafah or Riyadh.” By this he means that if the IDF is sent into Rafah, Israel will be on its own, bereft of any friends, a pariah state. Even its relationship with the US will be weakened. On the other hand, if this army stays out of that southern Gazan town, they will have many supporters. Israel will strengthen its ties with the US and will be able to add Saudi Arabia, and other such countries, to the Abraham Accord.
He puts the matter forthrightly to Israel:
“Do you want to mount a full-scale invasion of Rafah to try to finish off Hamas – if that is even possible – without offering any Israeli exit strategy from Gaza or any political horizon for a two-state solution with non-Hamas-led Palestinians? If you go this route, it will only compound Israel’s global isolation and force a real breach with the Biden administration.
“Or do you want normalization with Saudi Arabia, an Arab peacekeeping force for Gaza and a US-led security alliance against Iran? This would come with a different price: a commitment from your government to work toward a Palestinian state with a reformed Palestinian Authority – but with the benefit of embedding Israel in the widest US-Arab-Israeli defense coalition the Jewish state has ever enjoyed and the biggest bridge to the rest of the Muslim world Israel has ever been offered while creating at least some hope that the conflict with the Palestinians will not be a ‘forever war.'”
