THE ceasefire between Iran and Israel, hanging by a thread as it is, is welcome. It pauses a cycle of escalation that threatened to engulf the whole region in war.

However, it solves little in itself. For one thing, Israel has unilaterally broken two ceasefires this year alone, with Hamas in Gaza, and in Lebanon.

Israel remains illegally encamped in both Lebanon and Syria, all the while pursuing its genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza unabated and systematically ethnically cleansing the West Bank.

There can be no lasting peace that does not address these issues, as well as Israel’s permanent posture of aggression against its neighbours, irrespective of the provisions of international law.

Sir Keir Starmer has been tongue-tied in all of this, even though his actions have amounted to a practical endorsement of both Israel’s aggression against Iran and the subsequent US bombing, brushing aside the Prime Minister’s stated desire for “de-escalation.”

British diplomatic and military activity has underpinned and protected all Israel’s crimes, despite overwhelming opposition from the British people.

Last weekend, hundreds of thousands marched once more in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the war on Iran. Labour MPs must stop wringing their hands and act to impose a new policy on the government, in concert with the mass movement outside Parliament.

The bottom line is that British backing for Israel and its own imperialist interventions in the Middle East must both be ended. Whatever peaceful pressure is needed to that end must be deployed directly.

Labour faces a ‘guns or butter’ showdown

LABOUR’S attack on welfare is coming to a head at the same moment as Starmer signs up to Nato’s demand that Britain, like other member states in the war alliance, boost military spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product.

This is not coincidental. There is no way that the astonishing rise in the war budget being demanded by Nato could possibly be met except through an assault on the social wage and working-class living standards.

More than 100 Labour MPs have signed up to an effort to block the government’s planned cuts to assistance for disabled people.

Given that the Parliamentary Labour Party has been largely hand-picked by the Starmer apparatus, that is a significant number, even if the whips manage to whittle it down before any vote, expected next week.

If they do not, the government could be facing defeat, depending on how the opposition parties vote.

The rebels include many hitherto known for dogged loyalty to the government. One whip, former trade union official Vicky Foxcroft, has already resigned her position in protest at the planned cuts. She deserves plaudits for her principle.

They need to connect their rebellion with the huge military spending increases the government is embracing. It seems that the bar Nato states have to get over in order to appease President Donald Trump gets higher each week.

Earlier this year, Starmer committed to 2.5 per cent of GDP through cutting the overseas aid budget to ribbons, while pledging 3 per cent in the next parliament. That has already extended to 3.5 per cent, and now that rises to 5 per cent, albeit through including some spending provisions not strictly tied to exclusive military use.

The latter are grouped under a new heading of “resilience and security.” Perhaps that covers the expense of trying to prosecute Kneecap and ban Palestine Action, both as purported “terrorist” threats from an increasingly Orwellian Cabinet.

Seldom has the choice of guns or butter, welfare or warfare, been so starkly presented. Labour’s rebels will be strengthened politically if they realise that austerity at home and imperialism abroad are now entwined.