The terrorist group Hamas is on the ropes. Israel is poised to launch an operation in Rafah, the group’s last Gaza stronghold. The U.S. should support this operation.
The Israel Defense Forces have experienced significant battlefield success in Gaza, rapidly gaining ground while enduring fewer losses than anticipated. Top Hamas operatives have been killed. The terrorist organization’s capabilities have been severely degraded. Eighteen of Hamas’s 24 battalions reportedly have been destroyed. Significant civilian casualties have been suffered, but this is sadly inevitable in urban conflict.
Israel has also managed to avoid a full-scale war on other fronts with other Iranian-backed proxies, most notably Lebanese-based Hezbollah.
Rafah, on the Egyptian border, has become Hamas’s last holdout. Top commanders have fled to the town, where it is believed that Hamas is keeping many of the remaining 133 hostages, including several Americans. No fewer than 3,000 terrorists are reportedly holed up with them. Ditto for many Palestinian civilians, whom Hamas has used as human shields. Still, Rafah is key. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there.”
Unfortunately, some in the Biden administration have pressured Israel not to go into Rafah. Indeed, Israel has delayed initiating the Rafah operation for months. This has stoked controversy in Israel, with some Israeli politicians expressing concern that Washington is preventing the IDF from finishing the job.
Recent weeks have also seen growing anti-Israel protests on college campuses throughout the United States, many of them featuring antisemitic and pro-Hamas imagery. The real objective of these protests is to put pressure on the White House to thwart Israel from going into Rafah. Protesters view the Biden administration, concerned with its far-left base ahead of elections, as susceptible to coercion.
Such expectations are not unfounded — the Biden administration undercut Israel at the United Nations, and political allies such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have joined anti-Israel members of Congress, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), in calling for arms shipments to Israel to be halted.
Indeed, the messaging coming from the administration has been mixed at best. In March and early April, the White House put forward several alternatives, all of which would have left Hamas in power. While some reports have surfaced that the White House finally assented to an operation in Rafah, evidence suggests otherwise.
In a recent press conference, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf dismissed claims that the U.S. had agreed for the IDF to enter Rafah.
“We have not greenlighted a military operation,” Leaf said. “I want to be very clear on that point. … In fact, we’ve been quite clear, publicly and privately, that there’s no question of a military operation, major or slightly less than major, being undertaken in circumstances in which you have over a million people crowded into a very small space in the vicinity of Rafah.”
Leaf again emphasized: “We’ve been very clear on that point.”
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Yet Hamas has been very clear, as well. From Day One, the terrorist group has shown that it is willing to use hospitals, schools, and other population centers to plot and launch attacks against Israeli civilians — a double war crime.
Israel has also been clear. Jerusalem seeks Hamas’s destruction. And the IDF is well on its way to achieving its war aim. The White House should stand by its longtime ally and not buckle to pressure from fringe protesters on college campuses. That’s the right move, both morally and strategically.
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.