Islam Times - World Campaign against Arms Exports to Tel Aviv Could Take the Steam Out of Netanyahu’s Killing Machine

World Campaign against Arms Exports to Tel Aviv Could Take the Steam Out of Netanyahu’s Killing Machine

Islam Times - While since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza the Western countries have had the key role in weapons supplies to Tel Aviv and continuation of war, now and after six months and after witnessing the horrific performance of the Israeli killing machine in Gaza that has triggered waves of global pressures on the Western leaders to stop arms delivery to the Israeli regime, signs of revision of policy of sending weapons to the occupiers without limits are emerging.

In this regard, the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter to the US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for stopping arms supplies to the Israeli military.

The letter that was signed by 40 Democrats says : "In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers."

In their letter, the lawmakers asked the Biden administration to launch a special probe into the Israeli airstrike that killed seven employees of the World Central Kitchen, a food charity, in Gaza last Monday and to support Pelosi's call to stop these attacks. The Democrats' request to halt the transfer of weapons to the Israeli regime shows that many of Biden's fellow party members are against the re-equipment of the Israeli army with lethal weapons and consider its continuation to be the cause of the prolonged war, the genocide of more Palestinians, the increase of internal opposition to the White House policies, and the weakening of his electoral position.

In addition to the US, similar requests have been made by European countries, and in France, 115 members of parliament sent a letter to the President Emmanuel Macron, asking him to halt the sale of arms to Tel Aviv and warning that the failure to address the request will entail risks that will make France a partner in the genocide against the Palestinian people.

The French parliamentarians said that stopping arms to the far-right government of Israel will boost pro-peace efforts in West Asia region. They called on Macron to learn from other countries like the Netherlands and Canada that have make similar decisions.

In Germany, a number of lawyers announced on Friday that they have filed an urgent lawsuit to compel the German government to stop exporting weapons to Israel, which has violated international laws by massacring Palestinians in Gaza.

Also, on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that prohibits the export of weapons to the Israeli regime in the context of the ongoing war in Gaza, which is the first position of this council regarding the war on Gaza. Although this resolution is non-binding, it shows that global pressure to stop the killing machine of Zionists in Gaza have been on the rise, and this issue will further isolate Tel Aviv internationally.

World fury with killing of relief workers

The increase in international pressures to halt Western weapons shipments to the Israeli regime come while the criminal act of the Israeli army in attacking the relief workers of the Global Central Kitchen, has stirred global backlash against the Israeli occupation.

According to data, in the recent war in Gaza, nearly 200 UN aid workers and other human rights organizations who were helping the people of Gaza were killed by Israeli military.

The number relief workers casualties in Gaza is more than the number of aid workers killed in all wars in the world in the last three decades.

By imposing an economic blockade and denying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Israelis are trying to force the Palestinians to surrender and relocate, and therefore they see the activities of foreign aid workers who are responsible for distributing food in Gaza to save the life of civilians as an obstacle to the implementation of their plans, and for this reason, they do not show mercy with the employees of human rights organizations. The world is losing patience with this brutality, however, and is working to convince the Western governments to stop arms delivery to Tel Aviv to avoid further bloodshed.

West at difficult historical crossroads

The US and Europe are the main supporters of the occupying regime in Gaza war and the wave of global backlash has put these countries in a difficult historical juncture.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI)Arms Transfer Database, almost all Israeli arms imports come from American and German companies, and other military exporters include the Britain, France, Canada and the Netherlands.

According to the institute's estimates, from 2019 to 2023, Israel imported about 69 percent of its weapons from the US and 30 percent from Germany. Military aid to the Israeli regime is mainly made in the form of grants, and the Israelis do not pay much to receive it.

Although these aids were routinely provided during the past eight decades of Israel's life, the war in Gaza has motivated the Westerners to reconsider their policies. Western countries have come to the conclusion that military support will not only not help solve the crisis in the occupied territories, but will also encourage the Israelis to press ahead with killing more Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has not yet faced specific consequences for its crimes, but the killing of Gazans continues, American and European difficult decisions by following in footsteps of Canada.

The Israeli army in Gaza has shown that it does not commit to any international rules and laws, and foreign political pressures cannot stop the Israelis from committing genocide in Gaza. Therefore, the international community, especially the Westerners, consider the choice of stopping the shipment of weapons as the only way to pull the brakes on Israel's war machine.

It is evident that the Israeli army cannot continue the war in Gaza for a long time without Western military aid, and if they stop sending weapons and equipment, the Israelis will be in a tough condition and would have no choice other than agreeing to a ceasefire.

On the other hand, due to the extent of public opinion pressure in the West in support of Palestine, providing weapons to the Israeli regime due to documented evidence of Israeli crimes makes the Westerners accomplice to the Israeli occupation in war crimes.

Given the global wave that has been rising to push for halting arms sales to the Israeli regime, some experts believe that the recent attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus by Israeli warplanes was done with the aim of expanding the domain of the war in the region in order to ensure flow of weapons from the West. Netanyahu knows that with a war of attrition in Gaza and on the northern front with Lebanon's Hezbollah, he cannot convince the US and Europe to continue sending weapons, and therefore he sees the solution resting in sparking a regional war.

International pressure campaigns have so far failed to check Israeli killing machine, but politically, decrease in the arms shipments after the UNSC resolution will certainly divide the Israeli cabinet and pave the way to Israeli approval of truce.

War in Gaza has been ongoing for over six months and Tel Aviv allies are losing their patience. Netanyahu cabinet has no enforceable plan to end the war or what it wants to do in the future and this state of confusion adds to the Western leaders' worries.

The campaign to halt arms exports to the Israeli regime comes as Netanyahu intends to invade Rafah, the last shelter of 1.5 million displaced Gazans, as the last stage of this tragic story and so he needs political and military backing. So, if the US and Europe follow in Canada footsteps, Rafah invasion plan will remain ink on the paper since Netanyahu and his hardline cabal are well aware of the consequences of risking to step into a new quagmire.