How Gaza war will affect the US election – and vice versa

As delegates assembled in Chicago for the start of the Democratic National Convention on August 19, something surreal was happening 6,000 miles away in Israel.

In Tel Aviv, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, declared that Israel had accepted a “bridging proposal” to move towards a ceasefire. He insisted that it was now up to Gaza’s Hamas leadership to say yes. Yet even as he spoke, officials from both the Israeli government and Hamas said there had been no movement in the peace talks in Qatar.

This is far from surprising, given that just three weeks before, Hamas’s chief negotiator and political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had been assassinated in Tehran, almost certainly by Israel.

Then, when Israel’s negotiators told their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on August 18 that they needed some room to maneuver – and that after months of negotiations, a deal based on his positions could not be agreed – he reportedly refused to budge.

So, as Blinken made his statement that a deal was within reach, Netanyahu was telling the families of hostages held by Hamas that he was “not sure there will be a deal.”

The Hostage Families Forum commented that: “The prime minister’s remarks are effectively a torpedoing of the hostage deal. Netanyahu won’t face [the fact] that abandoning the hostages leads to their being murdered in captivity.”

Meanwhile, 6,000 miles away outside the United Center in Chicago, a group of pro-Palestine protesters called for an end to the Israeli offensive, cursing the man they call “Genocide Joe” Biden.

Inside, Democratic attendees were honoring the outgoing US president. As he accepted his party’s plaudits, Biden made a declaration which has proved to be illusory: “A few days ago, I put forward a