Terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas accepts the current ceasefire deal that Egypt and Qatar brokered, but it's probably too late to stop Israeli operations in Hamas' final stronghold, Rafah — unless Presidentish Joe Biden has anything to say about it, that is.
It's painfully obvious that Haniyeh, who has rejected every previous ceasefire agreement, no matter how lopsided in Hamas' favor, has accepted this one for just one reason — and, yes, of course, it's the obvious reason. The IDF is finally moving into Rafah, where the last of Hamas' military/terrorist units are currently trapped and surrounded.
"Too late," my RedState colleague Bonchie posted to Twitter/X on Monday. "They rejected it for weeks and now want to call a timeout when Israel finally starts moving in." And indeed, that does seem to be the attitude in Jerusalem — thank goodness. There are no details yet, but the Haaretz liveblog reports that "Israeli sources believe announcement is a ploy."
Over the weekend, Israeli forces closed the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip to humanitarian aid after Hamas fired rockets fired from Rafah, killing four IDF soldiers and wounding 10 more. For all the talk about genocide, Jerusalem has continued to allow aid to flow into Gaza and has gone above and beyond what is required by international law to prevent civilian casualties.
That rocket attack was likely the last straw in further delays to Israel's oft-postponed final offensive. The war has dragged on too long already, and the only way to end it runs right through (and under) Rafah.
But there's the Biden White House, where "too long" is never enough.
"The Biden administration is concerned that Hamas’ deadly rocket attack over the weekend has led Israel to fast-track its timeline for a military operation in Rafahaccording to a senior administration official and a U.S. official," Politico reported on Monday.
Imagine, if you will, the Allied and Soviet armies halting short of Hitler's Berlin while sending in all the food and water the Wehrmacht would need to survive. It's incomprehensibly stupid, but keeping Israel out of Rafah is official U.S. policy, but I repeat myself.
The Politico report continued: "The U.S. was unaware that Israel would issue an evacuation order for 100,000 people in Rafah on Monday, a second senior administration official said, sending top U.S. aides scrambling to understand the reasoning."
Do they not read the news?
My gut tells me that the White House was tipped off by Hamas that they'd soon accept the Qatari-Egyptian ceasefire agreement. "For the first time since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, the U.S. is refusing to ship a cache of arms to the Jewish state," PJ Media's own Rick Moran reported on Sunday. Surely I can't be the only one who believes this is the Biden cabal's way of strongarming Israel into postponing the Rafah offensive once more.
How many more people have to die from Hamas rocket attacks just so Biden improves his chances of winning Michigan?
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