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WASHINGTON (CC) - President Joe Biden spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and told him that the Oval Office could not endorse his current strategy for a ground offensive against Hamas terrorists in Rafah, Gaza.
For many weeks Biden hinted at support for an offensive as long as a satisfactory plan was in place for protecting the city's over one million civilians.
Reasons given for his administration's sudden and public backing away included the belief that Palestinians in the town have nowhere else to go, also that the city is a key humanitarian assistance delivery point bordering Arab Egypt.
Biden is also hunting votes from political battleground Michigan's Palestinian-American community in November's general election.
Netanyahu's plan includes transporting noncombatants to locales north of Rafah preceding the mission.
The upcoming offensive is slated to start at an undisclosed time, perhaps after Ramadan ends, following offensives in Hamas strongholds Gaza City and Khan Younis where the IDF captured scores of war prisoners and destroyed a sizable tunnels network earlier this year.
Biden released the followed statement on social media:
"Today, I spoke again with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.
I continued to affirm that Israel has a right to go after Hamas, a group of terrorists responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
And I reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to free hostages, lasting several weeks, so we can get hostages home and surge aid to civilians in Gaza.
I asked the Prime Minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah."
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed Wednesday that Netanyahu had agreed to send envoys “to lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”
“Obviously, [Netanyahu] has his own point of view on a Rafah operation, but he agreed that he would send a team to Washington to have this discussion, and we look forward to those discussions,” Sullivan said at a White House press conference.
“A major ground operation [in Rafa] would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” he added.
Sullivan echoed a statement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's controversial speech last week when the latter called for both Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be replaced so that Israeli-Arab peace may finally materialize.
Biden and Netanyahu's call on Monday marked their 20th since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, 2023. It was also their first in almost five weeks and occurred four days after Schumer's remarks.
For almost 80 years now, Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem have been in an almost constant state of war or violence. The UN, UK and US sponsored the modern nation of Israel that was officially established on May 14, 1948 after Israel's Declaration of Independence.
The day after the biblical Jewish homeland was validated by international communities, Muslim-majority nations Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq together invaded it.
That was the First Arab-Israeli War and resulted in the Jews' ancestral homeland expanding to almost 60% of the region set aside for the Arab state. Before then the region was known as Palestine.
Today the Biden administration is in a dispute with Netanyahu over his refusal to accept a two-state solution: a proposal for a State of Palestine existing next door to Israel: the land promised for Abraham's seed according to the Holy Bible (Genesis 12:1-7, 17:8, 22:17-18).
Palestinian Hamas is a terrorist-designated organization according to the US.
Countries such as Qatar and Iran have not listed the militia as a terrorist group. Israel's worst enemy Tehran is a known financial and material supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Yemen's Houthis who are all active in the ongoing war.
The planned incursion into Rafah is the next stage in the conflict.
“The key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means,” Sullivan asserted.
The world is watching for end times prophesy fulfillment. The Christian Commander will continue reporting on the continuing Arab-Israeli strife as well as providing prophesy updates.
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Reginald Spann is the Publisher and Senior Content Editor of both The Christian Commander and Seven Angels Sentinel. He has been writing and editing professionally for over 20 years and is the author of the book: The Healing of a Nation.
A graduate of the University of Missouri - St. Louis' college of psychology with a minor in communications, he is a freelance journalist who is available for editing and writing about a variety of content including sports, religion, politics, entertainment and pop culture.
You may contact him through the comments or our Partnership page at christiancommander.com
Good article. I read somewhere in the scriptures, can't remember the book that Israel will someday stand alone.