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NO VICTORY AWAITS ISRAEL IN RAFAH. ONLY MORE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION  
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Gideon Levy
April 10, 2024
Haaretz
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_ The call "No to Rafah" is heard only from Washington, not Kaplan
Street. The call "No to Rafah" is still not strong enough even from
Washington. It is not yet joined by concrete threats. Only Washington
can save Rafah now, and Rafah must be saved. _

A tent 'city' with displaced Palestinians in Rafah, last week.
(Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/רויטרס // Haaretz),

 

The right wants more, more, more. So do many Israelis who don't
consider themselves right-wingers. All the dead, disabled, displaced
and starving Gazans up to now are not enough. They want more.

Outside the home of the head of the right-wing government on
Jerusalem's Gaza (in Hebrew, Azza) Street, a right-wing rally will
take place Thursday evening: "We demand victory!
[[link removed]] Rafah
now."

A disaster-stricken city of refuge,
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which Israel stuffed over a million orphaned, bereaved, hungry,
disabled and destitute people, has become a target for satisfying the
entirety of desire; half will not do. There is no victory without
Rafah.

In the Six-Day War we sang: "We are past Rafah / As you wanted, Tal!"
to please Maj. Gen. Israel Tal, in a peak moment of the personality
cult surrounding our generals. Now we seek to placate the goddess of
victory. Peace Now, of which little remains apart from the memories,
was founded in 1978. In 2024, Rafah Now was established.

In 1984, Israel established the settlement Rafah Yam, which grew
organic cherry tomatoes on occupied land on the shore of the
Mediterranean Sea in Gaza. Now Israel wants "Rafah Dam [in Hebrew,
Blood]. Perhaps Rafah Yam will also be rebuilt.
 
Families of hostages call for the immediate release of hostages, in
Tel Aviv.  (Credit: Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters  //  Haaretz)
This sequence of associations is crazy. The history of Israel's wars
in a nutshell, from the conquest of Rafah to the conquest of Rafah,
through settlements and peace movements and all the follies and evil
that were sown along the way.

On the eve of the possible conquest of Rafah, one camp demands Rafah
and another camp demands the release of the hostages. No one says no
to the conquest of Rafah. No reservist threatens to refuse to serve in
Rafah, if Israel invades the city. In the face of the lust for blood
and revenge there is no opposing camp. Only against Benjamin
Netanyahu, the primary culprit but not the only one, is there a
determined camp.

There is no opposition to war,
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we have said since the day it began. Not after six months, either. The
call "No to Rafah" is heard only from Washington, not Kaplan Street.
The call "No to Rafah" is still not strong enough even from
Washington. It is not yet joined by concrete threats. Only Washington
can save Rafah now, and Rafah must be saved. Its residents and
refugees have suffered enough.

It is hard to know what is going through Netanyahu's mind when he says
a date has already been set for Rafah. Is it all about catering to his
coalition partners? Does he genuinely believe that if we only conquer
Rafah, victory will be won? And when he says "no" to the Americans,
what does he mean? "Not now"? Does he mean it? Perhaps his "no" is
more inviting than "yes"? Without Rafah, the war is over. With Rafah,
the war has not reached its peak.

Thousands will stand on Azza Street in the heart of Jerusalem Thursday
evening and demand Rafah's invasion. What exactly is going through
their minds? What do they think they'll achieve besides the full
satisfaction of their bloodlust? Have any of them seen the pictures
from Rafah? And if so, did they care?
 
A mass grave in Rafah, in March.  (Credit: Said Khatib /Agence
France-Presse(AFP)  //  Haaretz)
Norwegian radio aired the story this week of an elderly detainee from
Gaza who was released from one of the detention camps
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has built after his right hand and left leg were amputated, presumably
as a result of damage caused by prolonged periods in restraints. It
won't matter to the people on Azza Street. The rest of the Israelis
who don't read Haaretz don't know what is happening in the Sde Teiman
detention camp. Most of them don't want to know.

There will be no victory in this war; we knew that from the start.
Maybe a miracle will occur and there will be no Gaza invasion. But the
lust for Rafah is horrifying. Is it only bloodthirstiness? Hatred of
Palestinians and the desire to avenge October 7?
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And perhaps it's also the real estate that beckons again, as in 1967?
The people who will stand on Azza Street Thursday evening and demand
the destruction of the largest city of refuge in the world today –
after we destroyed everything to its north – are evil people. They
are also delusional: No victory awaits in Rafah's Shaboura refugee
camp.

_[GIDEON LEVY
[[link removed]], who was born
and resides in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a columnist and member of the
editorial board at Haaretz daily newspaper, where he has covered the
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza for the last 25 years. He
joined Haaretz in 1982. The author of The Punishment of Gaza
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 He has received several peace and freedom awards for his work.He was
the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig
Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997;
and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. In 2015
Levy and Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb were awarded The 2015 Olof
Palme Prize “for their courageous and indefatigable fight against
occupation and violence, and for a future Middle East characterized by
peaceful coexistence and equality for all.”]_
 

* Rafah
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* IDF
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Gaza
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* Hostages
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* Hamas
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* Genocide
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* apartheid
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Ceasefire
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* Peace Now
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* Save Rafah
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