Israel Is Not Promising To "Scale Back" Its War (Director's Cut)

 As the U.S. secretary of state shuttles to stop the war from expanding, the Israeli defense minister vows “months” more war on Gaza and suggests taking the fight to Iran. 

Edited by The Nation

READERS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES were treated on Monday morning to a breaking-news alert heralding what seemed like a welcome development: “Israel says it has begun to scale back war.” That description, which led the Times' website, is about as close to the opposite of the way Israel’s war is heading as could appear in the leading US newspaper.  

The Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, gave the Times the interview that it used for its headline. But Hagari’s quotes never actually promise the "less intense phase" that the Times paraphrases. Hagari instead describes the focus of the pitiless Israeli campaign shifting southward—while his superiors in the Israeli government indicate that it could expand regionally.