Middle East: Anthony Blinken’s ‘zero out of three’ during his tour of the Middle East

The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken he visited Jerusalem, Ramallah, Amman, Baghdad and Istanbul, but, on a diplomatic level, seems to still be there “on the road to nowhere», comments Sky News.

The head of US diplomacy on his tour had three goals – none of which have gone well.

Firstly, persuade Israel to allow a cease-fire to allow more aid to reach civilians and release hostages. This has been dismissed, at least for now. Israel says the hostages must be freed first before they can talk about a ceasefire.

Secondly, to persuade the Arab countries to think long-term solutions to end the Israel-Hamas conflict. “You’re joking;” said his Arab hosts, now is not the time for that, while Gaza is reduced to rubble. He was probably also told that Israel must commit to ending all settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. If he does, then perhaps a long-term peace could be considered.

Thirdly, the mission that was to stop the spread of the conflict. Speak to receptive ears. No one he met with wants this conflict to escalate. But the ones he met they are not the ones likely to escalate it. Hezbollah and Iran are the danger and, for obvious reasons, were not on Blinken’s “itinerary.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s unprecedented destruction of Gaza exacerbates geopolitical rifts across the region, making a larger outbreak of violence increasingly likely. Israel never did to Gaza what it is doing now. In a weekdropped as many bombs on the small, densely populated strip of land as the US-backed coalition has dropped on Mosul fighting Islamic State within two months.

It has hit government buildings, schools, ambulances and areas where it has announced people should move to be safe. He says he has good military reasons for doing so, but the impact is the same. Images of dead Palestinian children lined up in their death shrouds outside Gaza hospitals, and horrific scenes of destruction broadcast 24 hours a day on Arab television news networks, are fueling outrage in public opinion across the region and public outrage by its leaders. The leader of Turkey, for example, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has made it clear that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it’s in the past for him.

US support for Israel in the war in Gaza is damaging to the US position in the region and beyond. The developing countries they see double standards with regard to Israel and Ukraine and, consequently, they are likely to be less sympathetic to Western appeals to support the war there. Mr. Blinken’s diplomacy makes the United States look incompetent and somehow jaded.

In Ramallah in the West Bank, he told the Palestinian Authority, sworn enemies of Hamas, that they could play a key role in Gaza once it is cleared by Hamas in a remarkably trivial intervention. The Palestinian Authority is already considered a “partner government” by many Palestinians. The idea that he could return to power in Gaza ‘on the back’ of Israeli tanks it will seem naive and absurd to them.

However, there are some positives, as the US Secretary of State continues the “diplomatic race of”. The war has not escalated. Many feared that the October 7 attack by Hamas foreshadowed a new kind of “Holy War” with Hezbollah and Iran likely to be involved. The militant group’s October 7 attack reached a new level of brutality, killing 1,400 Israelis amid some of the worst brutality imaginable and taking 250 hostages. But it seems that this was not planned as a new kind of Jihad 2.0, involving more involvement than Hamas. Hezbollah had many opportunities to get involved, but did not. It has been reported to have 150,000 missiles at its disposal, hidden in the hills of southern Lebanon. The thought that they will be unleashed and the Israeli-American response they are also unbearable to think about. And Iran, it seems clear, does not want a conflict against two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean and US bases in the Gulf.

The moment of danger for a wider conflict in the area may have passed. But not for the innocents in Gaza who are still dying by the thousands and the hundreds of hostages held among them.