The real reason Israel is invading Rafah – Mondoweiss
▻https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/the-real-reason-israel-is-invading-rafah
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All of these explanations contain grains of truth, but they do not come close to explaining the true intentions behind the Rafah invasion. Most importantly, they ignore the fact that the entire Israeli political establishment is equally committed to the invasion, and that the only points of difference lie in the timetable for when it should happen and the place of a prisoner swap within it.
The real reason for Israel’s inability to back down lies in its fears that the Israeli army’s military performance in the war will determine the future of the Zionist experiment, especially in light of the devastating blow that was dealt to its deterrence on October 7.
“The Zionist entity is faced with hard choices on all sides. It has no clear vision for the war, it hasn’t been able to achieve any of its stated goals, and there are no achievable goals in Rafah.”
Khaled Odetallah
According to Khaled Odetallah, a lecturer on colonial studies and founder of Palestine’s Popular University project, the invasion of Rafah is Israel’s way of “retreating forward.”
“The Zionist entity is faced with hard choices on all sides,” Odetallah told Mondoweiss. “It has no clear vision for the war, it hasn’t been able to achieve any of its stated goals, and there are no achievable goals in Rafah. Given the effect of the October 7 events, this has a deep effect on Zionist society altogether.”
“Netanyahu is only a small part of the picture,” Odetallah explains. “All of Zionist society is faced with a difficult reality — it has built itself in the past years around the idea that it had no serious external threats left. Even the internal divisions that had started before October 7 were part of Israel’s impulse of having achieved some sense of superiority and stability, all of which has been shattered.”