While Israeli troops and tanks move into the last Hamas stronghold at Rafah, a growing awareness of Presidentish Joe Biden's impotence must be taking hold of the White House. And I'm here today to say, "I told you so" because I did.
Axios reported late on Monday that Israel is "frustrated" with how the U.S. has handled its end of the hostage talks aimed at bribing Hamas into releasing what few survivors that terror group might still hold. During its Oct. 7 terror invasion of Israel, Hamas took more than 250 hostages of every age, sex, and nationality. Around 130 hostages were believed to still be held about a month ago, but my sad conclusion (and, later, Hamas' admission) was that most, if not all, of them were dead.
But that's all ancient history compared to last night's revelation.
"To secure a ceasefire, Hamas simply needs to release hostages," a U.S. official told Axios, describing Israel's most recent offer. "It's all mapped out." Instead, on Monday, Hamas appeared to agree to a different ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar — and there's even some contention about whether the deal even existed as Hamas described it.
Instead, Israeli officials believe that yesterday's announcement by Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh was just a ploy, a delaying tactic to keep the IDF out of Rafah once more. "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."
Indeed, IDF forces began moving into Rafah within hours. The IDF is allowing safe passage out for thousands of Gaza Arab residents into Israeli-controlled parts of the Strip, presumably so that incognito Hamas terrorists might be identified and dealt with — and I don't much care how. But Israeli forces quickly closed off the exits to Egypt to prevent any Hamas from escaping to murder, rape, and kidnap again. These developments are all good news, if a little late, but none of it is what the Biden administration wanted.
According to that Axios report, Israeli officials say that "the Biden administration knew about the latest hostage and ceasefire deal proposal Egypt and Qatar negotiated with Hamas but didn't brief Israel before Hamas announced it accepted it on Monday." At the same time that the White House was working behind Israel's back on an even Hamas-friendlier ceasefire, the administration put an unprecedented wartime hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel.
If that sounds familiar, it's exactly what I wrote on Monday that "my gut tells me" happened. This feckless, incompetent, and increasingly impotent administration has always tried to play both sides of every conflict. In the Biden White House, decisive leadership is a foreign body to be attacked and eliminated.
Israel is finally eliminating Hamas in Gaza — despite every twisted maneuver Biden has made to protect it.
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