Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity distribution point in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on June 5, 2025.

It has been said that Hamas and its supporters, many of whom keep a safe and comfortable distance from Gaza, are willing to fight to the last Palestinian.

For all appearances, so is the Israeli government in a war that has lost the righteous legitimacy it had 20 long, horrific months ago.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

It is long past time for the U.S. government to use its leverage as Israel’s staunchest ally and top foreign arms supplier to persuade it to end this conflict.

This is not about Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, nor is it about the antisemitism that too often lurks behind anti-Israel rhetoric. It’s about a war that has violated even the brutal rules of combat and shocked the consciences of even staunch Zionists like former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who in a recent op-ed in Haaretz issued this uncompromising indictment:

“What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel........

© Times Union