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The 11th Blinken Visit Was No Better Than the First 10
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, October 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
He’s gone. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Qatar and then to Jordan to dissect his meetings in Israel. What have we learned? What has he learned?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politely called the talks with Blinken “friendly and productive.” Indeed, Blinken started with, “Israel has achieved important strategic objectives to ensure that October 7th can never happen again.” But he quickly moved on.
“Now is the time to end the war, get the hostages home, and chart a new path forward that enables the Palestinian people to rebuild their lives.”
According to a State Department spokesman, Blinken told Israel “to capitalize on” the killing of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, by “ending the war.” He also demanded that the Israeli Prime Minister disavow a proposal by an IDF general for a “buffer zone” in northern Gaza. They discussed “ongoing efforts” in Lebanon to “reach a diplomatic resolution along the Blue Line that includes full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and allows civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.”
Second point first: Blinken missed the fact that Hezbollah started the war, and that all of the illegality – all of the terror and rocket attacks, the weapons-caching, the internationally outlawed activity housing military arsenals inside civilian spaces and shelling civilian homes in the Galilee – is going on north of the Blue Line. Hezbollah and Iran, by the way, reject ceasefire talks altogether.
First point: Sinwar’s death has little to do with “ending the war” at the moment. There are no ceasefire talks that might end in a release of the hostages. The New York Times helpfully justified Hamas’ reticence, reminding its readers that “it remained unclear whether Hamas was willing to re-engage in the long-stalled talks after Israel killed its leader.”
It doesn’t really matter. Hamas is still shooting at the IDF and its own civilians, and still stealing food and medical aid.
So, the war continues.
Hamas had been reestablishing itself in north Gaza, primarily in the Jabaliya refugee camp, making the Palestinian civilian population into human shields, as they were before. And when hundreds of Gazans headed toward the safe zones in the south, as instructed by the IDF, the incubi of Hamas shot at the fleeing civilians.
The IDF tended to the wounded.
In the past two weeks, the IDF has neutralized approximately 300 terrorists; hundreds more surrendered. Most are Hamas but there are also members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The IDF believes the current operation will help ensure that Hamas a) will no longer be able to fire rockets at Israel from Gaza, and b) will no longer be able to dominate, steal, and sell humanitarian aid.
That last point should make Secretary Blinken happy – as the administration has been blaming Israel for food shortages in north Gaza.
In a letter dated October 13, the Biden administration warned that Israel must “reverse the downward humanitarian trajectory” or there would be “implications” for the future disbursement of “U.S. ordnance and financial aid.”
The State Department has designated staff to audit Israel’s delivery of aid to Gaza – though no similar audit of Hamas thievery appears to have occurred.
“We’ve had periods before where the Israelis have increased what they’re doing only to see it fall back,” said Blinken – with no comment about how Hamas behavior might conceivably impact deliveries.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, on NBC News, warned Israel to “balance its security concerns with humanitarian obligations.” He balanced his urging with a warning that the international community is watching.
The “international community” should, in fact, be watching the actual culprit: Hamas.
Yes, there are hungry people in the middle of the battle that Hamas has chosen to inflict on its people, but there is no famine, no starvation, and Israel has done an extraordinary job supplying food and medicine to the people. The UN and its friends, less so in the distribution.
After Blinken’s return to Washington, it is always worth quoting Sir Winston Churchill: “It is not the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning.”
Chair of urban warfare studies at West Point, John Spencer, was a bit more optimistic:
Hamas is clearly broken … But peace only ultimately comes if Hamas is prevented from regaining political or military power in Gaza. This could be the beginning of the end, though a lot still must happen.
Spencer concludes:
Wars are won when the enemy loses the means and will to continue fighting violently toward what are in essence political goals. There will be no cease in the cycle of violence without the full military and political defeat of Hamas.
In sum, in his 11th visit to Israel since the 10/7 Hamas pogrom, Blinken shows evidence that he learned little in the first 10.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
The post The 11th Blinken Visit Was No Better Than the First 10 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.