"Krone" column

Gaza war – the final act

Analysiert für die „Krone“: Außenpolitik-Experte Kurt Seinitz(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

If there is another level of what is called hell on earth, then it is Rafah - the border town with Egypt, where over a million people are crammed together: Blood, dirt, corpses, pain, hunger.

Israel's army wants to eradicate the withdrawal tunnels and the command bunker of Hamas chief Sinwar. Prime Minister Netanyahu is cynically right: without Rafah, the war would be lost.

The army has issued a final ultimatum: release the hostages or launch an assault at the beginning of Ramadan on March 10 (as if it were not a month of permanent fasting).

Is there no way out? That is to be feared, because those responsible on both sides are actually no longer open to argument.

Sinwar in the bunker is reminiscent of Hitler in the bunker in declining Berlin: an isolated, delusional world of his own, in which reason is completely absent. Hitler took the bullet, Sinwar takes an escape tunnel to Egypt.

Netanyahu is a prisoner of his disreputable coalition. At every slightest deviation from the brutal course, the two fascist coalition partners give him hell, i.e. blow up his government and kill him politically.

That might not be such a bad thing, but that is precisely why Netanyahu is sticking to his personal survival strategy. That is all that counts for him.