Ok, so the Rafah went exactly as I analyzed my way to. The tunnels are too difficult the travel, and it protects Hamas.
So there has been no decisive effect of the Rafah op. Maybe something is planned as we speak, I hope so, if not we are looking at some pretty bad options.
Let us revisit these options.
1. We can stop the war. This will leave Hamas with a lot of de facto power, and it would be a defeat for us. This would have some pretty devastating effects on the current government. Not only did it make 7´th October possible, it then also started a war, where almost all of the political capital of Israel was bled to no end. A lot of people were killed and it had no effect. That is bad.
2. We can move all the civilians to a location where they are out of harms way out of Gaza, and pick the last Hamas operatives in the tunnels up. This will give us a much stronger position in the negotiations.
So, well, I know I can’t put my will through and that is all good and so on. I wish I had the possibility to at least make the current government THINK about my ideas.
We are EXTREMELY good at moving the civilians around. We HAVE green light from the Arabs to do it, and it would make our hand in the negotiations strong.
G-d bless the peace we will find.