Rafah: Netanyahu’s marketing tool and lightning rod
By James M. Dorsey
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The besieged Gazan city of Rafah is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s yo-yo.
A brilliant but ruthless politician, Mr. Netanyahu is in campaign mode.
“The man is in the midst of an election campaign, Rafah is a marketing tool and (the Americans) are the whipping boy,” said Israeli columnist Yossi Verter.
Mr. Netanyahu made that clear when he insisted after talks on Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel would launch a ground offensive in Rafah, home to a majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians displaced by the six-month-old war, with or without the support of the United States.
