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NST Leader: End the Gaza 'war' now

A moment of truth has arrived to test the sincerity of Israel and its iron-clad Western allies. They have been blaming the Israeli atrocities in Gaza on Hamas, with the United States singling out its leader, Yahya Sinwar, as the "chief obstacle" to ending the war.

Now that Sinwar has been killed, there shouldn't be any "obstacle" to the war's end. But be assured, there will be two obstacles, unacknowledged as such by the West: Benjamin Netanyahu and Tel Aviv's plans to expand Israel. The opportune moment to end the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians is now. Miss it, and Israel and its iron-clad allies will stand on the wrong side of history.

Here is what the US, Israel's biggest supplier of arms, must do to ensure the war ends forever. First, force Netanyahu to withdraw Israeli troops from occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

This is hard to do, even for the US. Because, as Israeli newspaper Haaretz put it on Friday, Netanyahu would not let it happen. His political life depends on the perpetuation of conflicts and wars. End them, and he is finished, what with the threat of court cases at home and a pending arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

This is why he launched Israel's ground offensive in Lebanon. He will resist any US pressure on him to end the war. But Washington has a lever it can pull to ensure his obedience: withhold supply of arms. Tel Aviv is running low on weapons, with Netanyahu wasting them on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Threats of arms embargoes — such as the one by France recently — are forcing it to economise on weapons, especially heavy ones, reported the Israeli English daily. Embargo by Germany, which supplies about 30 per cent of Israel's weapons, would help but its Holocaust guilt sends it into paralysis.

If France is Netanyahu's worry, the US will be an even bigger concern, with 66 per cent of its weapons heading to Tel Aviv. In August, the US approved US$20 billion in arms sales, AFP reported. If the US wants the world to believe that Washington is sincere about wanting to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon, it must halt its weapons supplies.

Israel has massacred more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with weapons supplied mainly by the US. The International Court of Justice recently ruled that Israel was committing plausible genocide in Gaza and countries supplying weapons to Tel Aviv might be complicit.

There is another must-do for the US if it truly wants to bring peace to the Middle East. As a United Nations Security Council member, it has vetoed every effort to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza. This impunity-boosting support for Israel has made the end of conflicts in the region a near impossibility.

The US must begin supporting resolutions that call for not only a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, but also a permanent solution to the Palestinian question: an independent homeland for the Palestinians. Not as determined by Israel, the US or any Western country, but by the Palestinians. An independent Palestine means an end to insurrection by Hamas.

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