The US secretary of state has arrived in Israel for 11th-hour talks aimed at shoring up a deal for a lasting ceasefire in the war in Gaza, amid signals from Israeli and Hamas officials that a breakthrough may not be as close as international mediators had suggested.
Antony Blinken flew into Tel Aviv on Sunday as part of Washington’s renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire in the 10-month-old conflict, negotiations seen as even more urgentafter last month’s back-to-back assassinations of a top Hezbollah commander and the Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
It is hoped a ceasefire would lower the temperature in the Middle East and dissuade Iran and Hezbollah from retaliatory action that could cause the war in Gaza to slide quickly into a region-wide conflict.
It is hoped a ceasefire would lower the temperature in the Middle East and dissuade Iran and Hezbollah from retaliatory action that could cause the war in Gaza to slide quickly into a region-wide conflict.
I mean, I feel.like if Israel stopped launching missiles at them and stopped committing a genocide in Gaza, the chances would improve…
This is like Russia complaining they’re being invaded.
Fuck a cry bully.
The whole thing feels farcical. How are we struggling to get negotiators to agree to a proposal they originally suggested while they are entirely reliant on us to do the thing that we’re asking them to stop doing?
I feel like one must have a humiliation kink to do Anthony Blinken’s job.
Because the point was to look like peace was coming not to actually get a ceasefire.
Or at the very least make it look like everyone but Israel was preventing it to happen
There’s a weird element to the war that I never really hear people examine:
Netanyahu want’s Trump to win, and has an enormous amount of power to humiliate and troll Harris and Biden. I really hope the Harris campaign – who seem to honestly be much smarter than most political campaigns in recent memory on either side – is preparing for contingencies like Netanyahu pulling out of the negotiation the day before Harris’ acceptance speech and doing something crazy like attributing Biden’s unconditional support for his decision not to concede.
Anytime Netanyahu wants, he can basically throw a grenade into the US election by thanking Biden and Harris.
I really hope they’re considering their options, because even divorced from basic morality, unconditional support for Israel clearly has major electoral liabilities.
I don’t think the Israeli right is interested. If you have the stomach, go listen to Gadi Taub’s analysis on the Quillette YouTube channel (I’m not going to link it, but if you go searching, content warning). They see this as the first episode of a multi year war with Iran. I would be honestly very surprised if Blinken gets what he wants.
Nothing against Blinken but has he even settled some type of war or skirmish for other nations?
I think the total number of US citizens who’ve settled foreign wars is really a small number, that’s a pretty rare thing to do. Though I know Bill Clinton is loved in Kosovo and Albania for helping in the Serbian war.
When I studied International Affairs we were assigned a book called “The Road to Dayton: A Study in American Statecraft” about the Dayton Accords ending the Bosnian War. Richard Holbrooke and Warren Christopher weren’t the only players, obviously, but I remember it being excellent for the time.
I went to college a long time ago so I have no idea if the book is still relevant. But there’s even a Simpsons joke where Homer is afraid Bart is gay and Moe says, “Time was, you send a boy off to war. Shootin’ a man’d fix him right up. But there’s not even any wars no more—Thank you very much, Warren Christopher.”
In retrospect, it was all very September 10th but we used to actually end wars. Probably sounds crazy to young people but it’s true. There used to be peacetime where joining the military just meant you trained and maybe went to Germany or something.
He doesn’t want to end it. He is a dual citizen.
He works for Netanyahoo. Not the US president.
Israel squashed any remaining chances at a ceasefire when they assassinated one of Hamas negotiators in a 3rd country.
Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire because otherwise why would they give up their only leverage for a temporary one?
Israel won’t agree to a permanent ceasefire because they just want the gaza problems to be “”“solved”“” once and for all and they do t care if they have to kill the hostages to do that.
Dude is racking up some serious frequent flier miles.
