rahim mohamed: israel’s successful rafah offensive proves trudeau wrong
hamas is ready to give up
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israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in the southern gaza strip on july 3, 2024. (photo by ohad zwigenberg/pool/afp via getty images)
israel’s rapid progress in dismantling hamas’s last remaining stronghold in gaza exposes the counterproductive role played by justin trudeau and do-gooders of his ilk, who needlessly stonewalled the rafah operation earlier this year.
israel has made vital strategic gains since breaching the city in early may, pivotally snuffing out hamas’s smuggling operations along the philadelphia corridor between gaza and egypt. the israel defense forces has also rooted out multiple high-value targets in and around rafah, recently carrying out a strike that likely killed october 7 mastermind mohammed deif.
the sustained israeli pressure in rafah has reportedly driven a wedge between hamas’s exhausted military arm and the organization’s top political officials, who have been watching the fighting from their luxury hotels in qatar over the past nine months.
israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said on monday that a demoralized hamas is close to acquiescing to a new ceasefire and hostage deal.
“the enemy’s spirit is starting to break,” netanyahu told reporters, shortly after arriving on the tarmac in washington, d.c. for his first foreign visit since the start of the conflict last october.
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what’s more, the shifting of the conflict’s focus to rafah has coincided with a sharp decline in the proportion of women and children killed in the fighting — a finding borne out in the hamas-controlled gaza health authority’s own data. this welcome trend flies in the face of the western hand-wringing over israel’s plans to enter the hamas stronghold.
trudeau’s sky-is-falling rhetoric surrounding an israeli incursion into rafah has aged especially poorly amidst the recent developments.
“a military operation into rafah would be catastrophic,” wrote trudeau in february, joined by the prime ministers of australia and new zealand. “with the humanitarian situation in gaza already dire, the impacts on palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating.”
“we urge the israeli government not to go down this path,” continued the joint communiqué. “there is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”
one month later, trudeau voted in favour of an ndp-sponsored motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in gaza, joined by 145 of his fellow liberals. the text of the motion called on the trudeau-led federal government to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to israel.”
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trudeau and other alarmists were made to eat their words when israel safely evacuated almost a million palestinians from rafah within days of initiating ground operations on may 6. the ground invasion of rafah has likely saved palestinian lives by allowing the idf to target remnants of hamas in a more focused, precise manner, relying less on aerial bombing raids.
israel’s war cabinet hasn’t forgotten about the obstacles needlessly thrown in their way by trudeau and other meddling western leaders.
israeli foreign minister israel katz, for instance, recently told the wall street journal, “i sat with foreign ministers, and they told me, ‘don’t go to rafah, don’t go to rafah. it’ll be a mess.’ and i told them, ‘what are you saying? you believe that we can leave hamas in rafah, and so five minutes after we withdraw, they will take all of gaza?’”
after months of these circular conversations, israel made the unilateral call to enter the southern gazan city in may — a call that proved to be the correct one.
“(w)e were right (about rafah),” continued katz. “everyone knows it now.”
with his warnings of a catastrophe in rafah failing to materialize, justin trudeau has once again been proven wrong on gaza. all told, he’s had about as much success prognosticating on the israel-hamas conflict as fellow canadian drake has had betting on professional sports.
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trudeau can now either reflect on his string of bad bets or double down on being wrong. history suggests he’ll take the latter bet.
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