Biden’s Gaza diplomacy try falls fatally short

US-led efforts to forge a Gaza Strip ceasefire and win the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants are in limbo after weeks of intense and by all accounts still inconclusive shuttle diplomacy.

Moreover, US efforts to date show no sign of a potential grand accord to end the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict by carving out a path for the creation of a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

Reports published in Israel, Egypt and the US outline a series of limited achievements: a temporary ceasefire of up to 40 days; the freeing of a few dozen of the more than 130 hostages held somewhere in the Gaza Strip; the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned inside Israel; and the opening of a south to north passage for Palestinian civilians encamped at the Rafah border town to bombed out areas elsewhere in the enclave.

After Israel endorsed a proposal over the weekend, Washington pressured Hamas to accept it. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has spent weeks shuttling around the Middle East to cobble together an accord, pressed Hamas to take the deal as the best available for the moment.

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous, on the part of Israel,” Blinken said. “In this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly.”

The proposal, also endorsed by negotiators from Egypt and Qatar, falls short of actually ending the current war, which is soon to enter its eighth month.

It also skirts a proposal to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts by taking steps to create a Palestinian state alongside and at peace with Israel. US President Joe Biden revived the