Israel’s a hard sell for Biden’s war-ending plan

Although the United States is pressing Israel and Hamas to agree on a three-step Gaza Strip and Middle East plan, getting agreement even on the first stage, for a temporary ceasefire, is running into a stiff obstacle:

There’s no agreement yet on the length of the ceasefire, or whether there will be one at all.

Hamas wants it to last at least until the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of prayer, fasting and feasting, which this year begins on March 9. This calm period should then give way to a permanent truce and an exit of Israeli troops, Hamas says.

Israel wants none of it, neither a ceasefire nor some sort of longer period leading to normality. Its soldiers would remain in Gaza for an undetermined period, maybe even years, whatever the outcome of talks.

The opposing stands create a problem for US President Joe Biden, who has dispatched his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on a shuttle diplomacy mission this week to bring an end to the war.

For Biden, this is only one of multiple foreign policy problems. With the war in Ukraine and tensions with China among them, collectively they seem to mock Biden’s recent boast that the US “holds the world together.”

At home, Biden is under multiple political pressures to fashion a Middle East solution satisfactory to disparate domestic constituencies that are usually loyal to his Democratic Party.

Some belong to traditionally pro-Israeli lobbyist groups that back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military assault on Hamas. Opposing pressure comes from pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are appalled at the carnage.

And then there’s the formal political opposition: the Republican Party and Biden’s presumed rival in this November’s presidential election, Donald Trump.