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Gaza Cease-Fire Collapses
A seventy-two-hour ceasefire crumbled only hours after it began in Gaza on Friday, with both Israel and Hamas accusing the other of violating the truce (Haaretz). At least thirty-five Palestinians were killed by Israeli shelling (AP),
and Israeli forces are searching for a soldier believed to be captured
by Palestinian militants. The deal, brokered by U.S. secretary of state
John Kerry and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, had been the most
ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, and
was to be followed by negotiations in Cairo for a longer-term solution (Reuters).
Analysis
"As
America grows less nationalistic, less hawkish, less religious and less
inclined to consider its own culture superior, it will grow less sympathetic to an Israeli government defined by exactly those characteristics," writes Peter Beinart for Haaretz.
"Many Israelis think they can no longer count on public opinion in Europe—and,
to a much lesser extent, America—and that where popular sentiment
leads, democratic politicians will sooner or later follow," writes the Economist.
"The odds are that, once the dust settles in Gaza, Washington will let the situation drift.
It is arguably the fourth of Mr Obama's Middle East crises after Iraq,
Iran and Syria. Why waste more capital on it? The answer lies as much
within the US as in the Middle East," writes Edward Luce for the Financial Times. | 
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