Candidate for Shin Bet chief says PM delayed Rafah offensive due to Biden’s pressure

One of the candidates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering for the next Shin Bet chief publishes an op-ed blaming the Biden administration for Israel’s failure to secure the hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

Eyal Tsir Cohen, a former Mossad official who is now a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, writes with his co-author Jesse R. Weinberg in Real Clear Defense that due to American pressure last year, Netanyahu delayed the Israeli ground incursion into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. Netanyahu has publicly claimed that US pressure was not the reason for the postponement.

“During the negotiations, a surge in Israel’s offensive before Ramadan in the spring of 2024 could have brought Hamas to a breaking point and led to a breakthrough in the negotiations,” the opinion piece asserts. “Instead, in direct contravention to Israel’s combat doctrine, which places at its epicenter a quick and offensive approach, as well as the strategy laid out by the Prime Minister, Israel was forced to pull back as American pressure and diplomatic considerations limited Israel’s room to maneuver.”