Friday, August 09, 2024

Israel at War: Philadelphi Tunnel Vision

by Ruthie Blum
  • "[These leaked briefings to the press] create a false impression that Hamas has agreed to a deal while the government of Israel is opposed to it. The complete opposite is true... [Hamas] is doing all this because it wants to recover and rebuild, and return again and again to the massacre of October 7, as it has promised to do." — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, August 4, 2024.
  • It is thus a relief and an expression of his leadership that Netanyahu is not budging on key conditions for a deal with the devil. One of these, which Hamas has nixed, is a list of the hostages still alive.
  • This is why Cairo was so opposed to the IDF incursion into Rafah. It knew full well what it's been hiding for all these years from its Israeli peace partners.

Egypt was so opposed to the IDF incursion into Rafah because it knew full well what it's been hiding for all these years from its Israeli peace partners. Pictured: A large Hamas tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, discovered by the Israeli military on August 4, 2024. (Photo source: IDF)

It beggars belief that Israeli defense chiefs with the highest security clearance have been leaking to the media transcripts of top-secret meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a hostage-release deal with Hamas. Such clearance isn't easy to come by, as anyone who ever went through the process of obtaining even lower levels of the coveted status can attest.

This involves a thorough grilling — including for many who've previously undergone the procedure — with endless forms to fill out, lengthy interviews and lie-detector exams. The point is that each person participating in sessions relating to the war has gone through this and signed legally binding confidentiality agreements.

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