Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was interviewed today (Thursday) on Dan Senior's 'Call Me Back' podcast and said that the IDF will enter Rafah even if it comes at the cost of harming relations with the US.
"What you saw on October 7th was a genocidal force that wants to wipe out all the Jews, and it's the first pogrom that we've had since the birth of the State of Israel," Dermer said. "The fundamental promise of this country, in my view is not just that Jews return to their ancestral homeland, it's that we have the ability to defend ourselves."
"In a fundamental way, that promise was broken on October 7, and I think our job is to restore that promise," he said. "That means utterly dismantling the terror organization of Hamas in Gaza."
"It's gonna happen. And it will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone, even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States," Dermer declared.
According to Dermer, "There's only one possible force that could stop Israel, and that' the Israeli people."
Dermer emphasized that there is no way to end the war without entering Rafah, where a quarter of the military strength Hamas had before the war is currently based.
"We'll go into Rafah because we have to dismantle Hamas's' military capabilities. If you leave four battalions in Rafah. you've lost the war. And Israel's not going to lose the war. With or without the United States, we're not gonna do it (lose the war).
"We have no choice. I think what people don't understand is that October 7th is an existential moment for Israel," he said.