JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reversed his decision to cancel a top-level delegation to Washington.
The reversal means the U.S. and Israel will continue their face-off over Israel's planned military invasion to remove the last four Hamas battalions from the Gazan stronghold in Rafah.
After the U.S. refused to veto Monday's U.N. Security Council Gaza resolution, Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to Washington of two war cabinet officials. It was a way to let Hamas know such resolutions wouldn't pressure Israel into ending the war or giving up on the fight for the Hamas-held hostages.
“There was a message first and foremost to Hamas: 'Don't bet on this pressure. It's not going to work," Netanyahu explained.
Now that the prime minister's message has been sent, he's okayed the delegation's visit, which has been rescheduled.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told CBN News the refusal of the U.S. to veto that U.N. resolution aided Israel's enemies.
"Hamas was celebrating this," Friedman stated. "Ismail Haniya from Hamas traveled to Tehran to do a victory lap, you know, with the mullahs (Iran's top leadership) about this. I mean, this was considered a victory for Hamas. Now, any U.N. resolution that's a victory for Hamas is obviously a move in the absolute wrong direction. The idea that you could pass a resolution and not condemn Hamas as part of it is just unthinkable.”
Meeting with U.S. lawmakers in Israel, Netanyahu said his nation is just a few weeks away from finishing off Hamas as a fighting force. Yet, leaders of most nations are trying to stop Israel from doing it if it involves an invasion of the city of Rafah.
“Now we are told you can't do this, if you go into Rafah you're going to have a humanitarian catastrophe," Netanyahu told the visitors from Congress.
He insists that's simply not true, that the million Gazan refugees can avoid the battle by moving back to northern Gaza.
"Yes, they have a place to go," the prime minister asserted. "Second, you know, we provide them food. The problem was not the entry of (aid) trucks. The problem was the stealing of trucks, both by looting by Hamas, and looting by others, and so on.”
In Jerusalem, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) believes the U.S. should support the Jewish nation going into Rafah to destroy Hamas' last four battalions because Israel has to do it.
“October 7th was like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 on steroids for the Israeli people," Graham declared, "and the response to October 7th is total victory. The destruction of all military capability, battalion-wise, of Hamas.”
Graham also explained why Israelis are so troubled by the U.N. resolution that demands a ceasefire in Gaza: because it de-links that ceasefire demand from the demand for Hamas to free the hostages.
“I understand the Israeli position. You have to be clear there will never be a ceasefire unless the hostages are released," Graham said.
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To the north of Israel, funerals were held for seven Lebanese paramedics killed Tuesday by an Israeli air strike. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) says the paramedics were members of the al-Jama al-Islamiyya terror group. Such groups often use the cover of ambulances to transport terrorists and weapons.
Hezbollah struck back Wednesday, firing some 30 rockets into northern Israel.
One man was killed in a fire caused by a rocket in Kiryat Shmona, and two others were wounded in the attack
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