💡 SPOTLIGHT
Why Netanyahu's “total victory” objective in Gaza is backfiring so badly
The “day after” the war in Gaza increasingly becomes hard to even imagine, as Israel's prime minister sticks to his guns despite all evidence that says Hamas cannot be eradicated. The humanitarian toll, including Sunday's airstrike on a displacement camp in Rafah, makes negotiations look increasingly impossible, writes Mohamed Assad Abdel-Hafez in Egypt-based news website Al-Manassa.
Israel’s military Chief of Staff Herzi HalevI’s description of his forces’ mission in Gaza as a “Sisyphean task” was the most transparent and accurate expression of the occupation army's dilemma.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on continuing the war until "total victory," his continued obstruction of negotiations, and his unrealizable visions of the so-called "day after" have pushed Israel's government and military into a corner.
Halevi, who is the primary official responsible for Israeli Defense Force (IDF) operations and the single most knowledgeable figure about the situation of his forces and the losses they are suffering, sharply criticized the Israeli government’s war strategy and its failure to develop and declare a plan for the so-called “day after” in Gaza.
“As long as there is no political move to develop a governing body in Gaza that isn’t Hamas, we’ll have to act again and again in other places to dismantle Hamas’s infrastructure,” Halevi said earlier this month. “It will be a Sisyphean task.”
The language was a reference to Sisyphus who was — according to Greek mythology — punished in the underworld with the eternal task to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down before he could reach the top. [...]
— Read the full article by Mohamed Assad Abdel-Hafez for Al-Manassa, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel continued airstrikes on Rafah on Tuesday, killing at least 16 Palestinians. It continued to press its offensive in Gaza's southern city despite international condemnation of an attack that sparked a blaze in a tent camp for the displaced, killing at least 45 people. Meanwhile, Spain, Ireland and Norway will officially recognize a Palestinian state today, despite an angry reaction from Israel, which has found itself increasingly isolated after seven months of conflict in Gaza. Read more on the future of Rafah in this article translated from Arabic into English.
• Ukraine and Belgium sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Volodymyr Zelensky was in Brussels today to sign the deal with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, which involves Belgium sending 977 million euros in military aid to Ukraine. It is the 11th country to sign such a deal, along with Spain, the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland and Latvia. This comes one day after the Ukrainian president’s trip to Spain, where he signed the security agreement with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
• Argentine President swaps cabinet chief in a major government shakeup of his five-month-old administration. Javier Milei accepted the resignation of cabinet chief Nicolas Posse amid strains over major economic reforms pitched by the government. The cabinet shuffle comes at a delicate moment for Milei, a far-right libertarian economist, as his signature reform bill is facing obstacles in congress, and a market rally for government bonds and the local currency appears to be stalling. Read more about Milei’s policies in this article by Brazilian media Agência Pública, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
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