Blinken's latest Mideast tour unlikely to bridge Israel-Hamas divide over Gaza ceasefire deal, analysts say

CAIRO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Qatar on Tuesday night, concluding his ninth tour to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over 10 months ago. Like his previous eight trips, this one has hardly achieved anything.

Before arriving in Qatar, Blinken visited Israel and Egypt. His tour comes at a time when the world expects urgent progress toward a Gaza ceasefire, as the Palestinian death toll in the enclave has surpassed 40,000. Concerns over a wider conflict have intensified after Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah vowed retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of senior Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shokor in Beirut's southern suburbs at the end of July.

Despite Blinken's warning that the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was "probably the best, possibly the last opportunity" at the start of his latest tour, there has been no advancement on the horizon. Israel continued to strike Gaza on Tuesday, and Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing an agreement by imposing new conditions and demands, indicating a lack of progress toward reconciliation.

DISPUTES UNRESOLVED

The latest round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations took place in Doha last week with the U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators having issued a joint statement that the talks had made "constructive" progress and that relevant parties would continue their efforts this week to negotiate the details of the deal's implementation.

After meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken announced that Netanyahu had accepted a bridging proposal aimed at narrowing Israel's differences with Hamas. Speaking to the press at Doha airport on Tuesday, Blinken vowed to "do everything possible" in the coming days to "get Hamas on board with the bridging proposal."

On Monday night, U.S. President Joe Biden accused Hamas of "backing away" from a potential hostage deal with Israel that could halt the ongoing fighting in Gaza, according to Israeli media.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas called Biden's remarks "misleading," which reflect complete American bias toward Israel and serve as a renewed green light for the Israeli government to "commit more crimes against defenseless civilians in pursuit of the goals of exterminating and displacing our people."

Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that "reports which reflect optimism are very much exaggerated or express wishful thinking rather than realistic situation."

"The gap between the two sides (Israel and Hamas) is very wide, particularly regarding Philadelphi Corridor and Israel's demand that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) stay there in the day after," he said.

"The Americans, deep in their mind, know that the gap between Israel and Hamas is very deep," he added.

Kheir Diabat, a professor from the International Affairs Department at Qatar University, said, "Despite the declared optimism from the American side, American mediation could not solve the problem between Hamas and Israel, because reaching an agreement will not be easy due to the fundamental differences between them."

Fighting continued on the ground in Gaza on Tuesday, with the IDF saying that they had killed approximately 40 militants in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, through a combination of close-quarters combat and airstrikes.

NO WEIGHTY PRESSURE FROM U.S.

Rounds of ceasefire talks have repeatedly stalled since the outbreak of the conflict. Israel insists that the conflict can only end with the complete dismantling of Hamas, while Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary one.

According to Mostafa Amin, an Egyptian researcher on Arab and international affairs, the failure of U.S. mediation in the Middle East and its inability to solve the problem from the outset until now arise from the lack of real pressure from Washington on Israel to stop the war, while it continues to supply Israel with weapons to kill the Palestinians.

Amin said that Netanyahu and the far-right officials in the Israeli government had realized that the Biden administration is unable to apply meaningful pressure on Israel due to its preoccupation with the upcoming presidential election and its unwillingness to jeopardize relations with Israel.

In reviewing U.S.-Israel relations since the outbreak of the ongoing Gaza conflict, there have been notable public rifts between Biden and Netanyahu. However, experts believe that their disagreement was more about political maneuvering for domestic electorates than a substantive clash over Gaza.

In May, the Biden administration announced a pause in the shipment of heavy weapons to the Israeli government out of concerns over its plans to attack Rafah. However, this move now appears to have been more of a smokescreen. Blinken's latest Middle East tour comes just days after the Pentagon revealed that he approved a potential sale of fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel, valued at over 20 billion U.S. dollars, on Aug. 13.

"I don't believe the United States genuinely seeks sincere, authentic, lasting, and sustainable peace in the region," said Baris Doster, an academic at Istanbul's Marmara University.

Were such a peace to be achieved, the United States would have no reason to remain in the Middle East and would lose the basis for its presence there, he noted.

According to Doster, the instability in the Middle East serves several key interests for the United States: securing access to the region's energy resources and routes for exploitation; addressing Israel's security needs; countering the influence of other major countries; pursuing regime change in Iran; and facilitating arms sales in the region.