Ron Dermer: ‘There Is No Chance that Israel Is Not Going to Go and Finish the Job in Rafah’

EXCERPT:

DERMER: "But when it comes to consequences, Bill, let me tell you the consequences of us not going into Rafah and not getting rid of these four remaining battalions of Hamas. Essentially, we have dismantled the terrorist army of Hamas, we have five battalions left, four of them are in Rafah. They have somewhere — maybe 7,000 or 8,000 terrorists there. We cannot afford to not go into Rafah and finish the job because then what they will do is October 7th again and again and again. So there is no chance that Israel is not going to go and finish the job in Rafah. Now, I was supposed to be in the United States today, in Washington, to discuss the proposals that the U.S. Administration has that were going to suggest us ways where we don’t have to do it with a major military operation. Now, I don’t see that it’s possible to do it. Of course, we were open to listening to them, but the mistake was that yesterday, when they decided not to veto that resolution, they sent a terrible message to Hamas that you can get a cease-fire without giving up the hostages, without making a hostage deal, and I think the combination of that message that was sent to the U.N. Security Council and Israel going to discuss how we won’t do a major military operation in Rafah would have sent the exact wrong message to Hamas.”