Meanwhile on the International front....

Netanyahu has actually been really clear. Like in the video of the interview I posted yesterday,

The plan is to eradicate Hamas.

It may not be an easy thing to do, or it may prove impossible, or they may just really suck at it, or they may have handcuffs on them because the pressure to announce what they are going to do in advance and try to move people out of the way is helping Hamas run and hide.

But a plan that isn't working well enough for people who oppose them trying to eradicate Hamas because of all the killing and damage they are doing in the process, doesn't equal "no plan."

They went into Jabalya, cleared out Hamas in November, moved on afterward, and Hamas reconstituted itself there and is launching rockets from the camp. So now they (very unhappily) are saying, "Fuck, we have to go back in there." Same as he was saying yesterday, that Hamas has four battalions in Rafah, and they have to go in there.

It's actually been a pretty single-minded plan. ... Rid Gaza of Hamas.

 

I am not sure what you are looking for.

The plan is obviously to send their military in wherever Hamas shows its face. Keep them on the run, keep hunting them down.

Hamas sets up and starts launching rockets from the Jabalya camp. ... and they go in there. They clear Gaza City of Hamas and what is left hunkers down in Rafah. ... they are saying they are going to go in there.

You may think their plan can't work. But it's absurd to say they are doing this without a "plan." Wherever Hamas is. ... they have been sending their military after them.

 

"Ethnic cleanings" isn't a prospect people should be throwing around so loosely in a speculative way.

In the interview yesterday, Netanyahu reiterated that they can't just pull out and let Hamas (and Iran, as he represents it) take over Gaza again. He said the way this can resolve is a Palestinian State where they govern themselves, but Israel retains “responsibility of overall security." i.e. -- he wants to point guns at them until Israel feels safe. He would like the rest of the Arab world as a partner to help stablize Gaza and keep Iran out.

Obviously, Hamas (and the majority of Palestinians) are not cool with that. But his rhetoric has not been anything close to "ethnic cleansing" and even with tens of thousands of people dead out of millions, it hardly suggests an ethnic cleansing plan. ... and in fact, they have been pushing humanitarian aid into Gaza (under pressure, but they are doing a lot) and pushing Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing to let more aid in.

FWIW, I saw an interview with Richard Haass of all people, too, yesterday. ... and he was discussing the whole "plan" thing, Netanyahu would tell you that the "plan" is to hunt down Hamas and keep going after them until they are gone.

The Biden adminstration has been all over the place (as the political winds shift on them), but now is pushing a political resolution of some sort to end this.

And Haass was saying that for the first time the Israeli defense minister has been openly disagreeing with Netanyahu saying that the idea that you can do this sequentially and rid Gaza of Hamas and THEN think about what comes after makes no sense, they need to have a plan for what happens next in place today. If you want the Arab countries to help you police Gaza as a partner (what Netanyahu was saying he wants in that interview), they will only do it if Netanyahu starts talking about a Palestinian state today. The obvious problem for Netanyahu is that if he even hints at that, his coalition that makes him the PM will crack and they might end up with new elections.

 

Al Queda wasn't on our border staring us in the face.