The Sage of Scranton has an evil, twisted, rotten brain and always has had.
The reporter at the Times of Israel first notes the "dissonance" of Biden attempting to force a quickie "wrap-up" of the Gaza campaign, while continuing to make (insincere) noises about the need for the "elimination" of Hamas.
Anonymously -- of course -- administration sources attempt to paper over this enormous gulf by saying the want Hamas not eliminated, but merely chastened, so that the Two State Solution can be put back on track.
From The Times of Israel:
"If we can get a ceasefire, we can get something more enduring and then maybe end the conflict," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said this month.
What appears less clear, though, is how pushing for this ceasefire squares with another US commitment, which is to eliminate the threat of Hamas.
"An enduring defeat of Hamas certainly remains the Israeli goal, and we share that goal with it," Kirby said last week.
The two objectives seem to clash, given that a temporary-turned-permanent deal with Hamas would ostensibly leave the terror group standing in Gaza.
The Biden administration has not directly and publicly addressed this apparent dissonance, but two US officials and two other sources familiar with the matter who spoke to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity offered some clarity.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun, in a handout image released May 11, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
"The goal is for Hamas to be severely weakened when the dust settles, i.e., incapable of carrying out another attack like the one [it] launched on October 7," the first US official said, referring to the terror onslaught unleashed on southern Israel during which some 1,200 people were killed and 252 were taken hostage.
"But we have to be honest about the fact that Hamas will remain in Gaza in some form after the war is over. The past six months have proven no amount of fighting is going to change that," they added. Last week, Israeli troops raided Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood for the third time since the war's outbreak after Hamas fighters returned to areas previously cleared by the IDF.
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"What we are trying to do is advance a vision where Hamas would be marginalized, while Israel would be stronger through improved relations with its Arab neighbors," the official explained. "By doing that, we are able to eliminate the threat of Hamas without having to continue the war indefinitely."
"It's a years-long process, and it will require Israeli buy-in, but the alternative is a never-ending cycle of violence that the Israelis could be left alone to deal with," a second US official said, referencing the danger of waning international support.
What do you expect from a decrepit pervert who showered with his daughter as she entered puberty?
Shocker: the UN revised its "estimates" of the number of women and children killed in Hamas. It turns out they shouldn't have trusted Hamas for the real numbers.
The UN's new numbers are also preposterous, but they've cut them nearly in half.
Throughout the ongoing war unfolding in Gaza, we have been reminded of the "barbarous" actions of Israel's military, typically measured via daily updates to the number of women and children that have been killed. Unfortunately, the only group providing these figures is the Gaza Ministry of Health which is run by Hamas. That detail hasn't stopped the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) from dutifully reporting those figures without raising any questions. However, that situation appeared to change this month. The latest Health Ministry quote said that 9,500 women and 14,500 children have been killed in the fighting, with the OCHA reporting the same. But only two days later, the UN revised those numbers significantly. In fact, they nearly slashed them by half. (Fox News)
In a dramatic shift, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revised its data pertaining to the number of Palestinian casualties in the seven-month-old Gaza war, reducing almost by half the number of women and children it previously said were killed in the hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas.
According to an infographic published in OCHA's daily report on May 6, the number of women killed in the fighting was said to be 9,500, while the organization, which admits to relying on figures from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, claimed that 14,500 children had been killed since the war began on Oct. 7.
Two days later, in its May 8 report, the U.N. agency appeared to have cut the number nearly in half, showing instead that some 4,959 women and 7,797 children had been killed so far in the war.
A spokesman for the UN was asked how the numbers had shifted so dramatically. He said that the figures are only "estimates" and that they sometimes change based on the situation on the ground in Gaza. But he also noted that the UN has recently been able to have some of their own people doing independent research inside of the Strip. Perhaps that's how the inaccuracies were uncovered.
The Foundation Defending Democracies reported:
The Gaza Ministry of Health cannot provide names of more than 10,000 of the 34,000 individuals it says have died during the war between Israel and Hamas. While the Health Ministry conceded earlier this month that it has incomplete data� for nearly one-third of the deceased, this is the first admission that it lacks an essential data point necessary to establish these deaths have even taken place...
Psst: they didn't.
Hamas' official figures include almost no deaths of terrorists (or "fighters," as they prefer to call them). They just claim that every dead man is a "child" or a "woman."
We've all seen the "child migrants" attending schools in Europe, their five-o-clock shadows slightly grayed...
After claiming all dead men are actually "children" and "women" (muh pronouns), they then multiply the actual casualty counts by a factor of five or eight or ten.
I missed this yesterday: The Biden Administration is attempting to bribe (coerce?) Israel into allowing Biden's pals in Hamas to escape retribution by promising that they'll provide intelligence about Hamas' tunnels and hideouts, as well as about the hideouts of Hamas' terror masters, if they promise not to enter Rafah.
This means that, currently, Biden is withholding information about terrorist bases and boltholes from an ally.
Time to impeach?
barry Tigay
@TigayBarry
US said offering intel on Hamas leaders' whereabouts if Israel drops major Rafah op.
If true, this means that the US is withholding or threatening to withhold intelligence that could destroy Hamas, save lives and end the war. Disgusting.
David Strom:
Uh, what? Why haven't we been giving Israel this information freely already? Whose side are we on?
We're on the terrorists' side, because Joe Biden wants to win the pro-terrorist Newcomers of Michiganistan.
Oh, right. Joe Biden is president, which always means the US is doing the wrong thing.
The Biden administration has reportedly offered to give Israel "sensitive intelligence" on the whereabouts of senior Hamas leaders if it agrees to hold off on a long-promised major military operation in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah.
The Washington Post quoted four unnamed sources as saying that the United States "is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group's hidden tunnels."
The Post's story focuses mainly on the efforts to convince Israel to build a tent city for civilians in Rafah to evacuate to before Israel commits its military to destroying Hamas in the city...
But the real news in the story is that the carrot the US is using to induce Israel to bend to our will is access to intelligence on the location of Hamas tunnels and leaders.
The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance in an effort to persuade it to hold back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group's hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers.
American officials have also offered to help provide thousands of shelters so Israel can build tent cities -- and to help with the construction of delivery systems for food, water and medicine -- so that Palestinians evacuated from Rafah can have a habitable place to live, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose secret diplomatic talks.
It is possible, although no better, that the US has been supplying what intelligence we have up to now and that the "offers" here are actually threats to withhold information unless Israel compliss. The US officials who spoke to the Post did say the US has been providing intel throughout the war.
Israel says they're fighting Biden's Allies anyway, and killing terrorists.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have deepened their offensive in Rafah and re-entered northern areas of Gaza, following intelligence that Hamas was reorganizing in the area. The IDF has reportedly destroyed significant amounts of underground infrastructure and eliminated several Hamas terrorists.
Key Details:
The IDF dropped leaflets over Jabalya in northern Gaza, warning civilians to evacuate and warning Hamas leadership, "We will return like a roaring flood until the clear victory."
The IDF's 98th Division launched an operation in the Jabalya area due to intelligence about Hamas reorganizing in the area.
Israeli forces have reportedly destroyed large amounts of underground infrastructure and eliminated several Hamas terrorists.