This is the constant missing piece, not just during the course of this war, but historically in the US management of the peace process and their policy toward Israel and Palestine,
For the war to end, the US’s main ally in the region, the state of Israel, would have to change quite significantly what it is doing, and the US has not shown at any time in the past year a willingness to use the leverage that it does actually have to force that change in behaviour,
Sinwar was not the only obstacle to a ceasefire or indeed the main obstacle to a ceasefire. That was Netanyahu and that remains Netanyahu,
What day after? What is a day after when you have destroyed more than 70 percent of Gaza and rendered most people homeless and five percent of the population has been killed?”
Never has a country so flagrantly and so bluntly violated every single rule in the book. Never has a country done exactly what it wanted regardless of various attempts to intervene by its friends and allies,
Israel is doing what it has always done: It’s bombing and it’s killing and it’s assassinating, but there’s no plan, there’s no progression, there’s no sense of anything happening except death,
Gaza has just been demolished – its infrastructure, its villages, its towns, its buildings, its cities. It lies in ruins,
Of course there is (an opportunity) and we would hope we can work together to take advantage of that opportunity."
Clearly there are opportunities for a change in direction, and we would hope that parties would take advantage of that, both in Gaza and in Lebanon,
They have been through hell, and so have their families,
Sinwar's death also provides an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire, to end this awful war, and to rush humanitarian aid into Gaza,
There is no victory whatsoever in this war against Hamas without the return of the hostages,
Now that Sinwar has evidently been killed, ... there is zero justification for doing anything other than all means possible and necessary to get the hostages home.”
Now is the time to move on, move towards a cease-fire in Gaza,
I fear that the motives of Netanyahu’s government are never entirely pure,
It leaves him in one sense in a strong position,
There’s going to be huge pressure on him to arrange a cease-fire deal now, from internally in Israel to get the hostages back and from right around the world including from Israel’s allies to bring the killing in Gaza, including of civilians, to an end,
I think the problem of aid diversion will continue, regardless of Sinwar meeting his end,
Hamas fighters have been diverting aid for their own personal profit, while also filling Hamas’s coffers and warehouses. I don’t see that ending any time soon, no matter who the next leader may be. This will likely continue if and when Hamas collapses entirely,
Hamas is certainly weakened but Sinwar's death is not a death blow for the militia,