Israel is Making Loopholes out of the “Red Line” on Rafah

President Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that launching a ground assault on Rafah would be a “red line.” Israel keeps threatening to go forward with such an assault anyway. Worse still, they are doing everything SHORT of a ground invasion by constantly bombarding refugees crowded into Rafah with air strikes, surrounding them with tanks, and now cutting off the Rafah crossing into Egypt. While we dance around the technicalities of what “crosses the red line,” Israel is finding every loophole it can to do what the “red line” is meant to prevent: harming and killing civilians in Rafah, through bombardment and starvation. The red line means next to nothing even if they never make a full-scale assault. Israel is also using escalating attacks on Rafah to scuttle any chance of a ceasefire agreement even though Hamas is finally willing to negotiate one. It’s good that President Biden is finally withholding shipments of ammunition from Israel, and he needs to stick to that. ALL shipments of offensive weaponry and ammunition for said weaponry needs to be halted until Israel agrees to a ceasefire, Netanyahu steps down, and new elections are called.