The pursuit of peace requires boldness, creative thinking, and courage. Fadwa Barghouti should be freed and resume his role as a leader of the Palestinian people. Finding peace and justice will take more than reshuffling the old deck.

It may seem naive, but the only way to weaken and isolate Hamas in Gaza is to aggressively pursue peace, a robust two state solution, a viable Palestinian state.

The French Party statement, strongly condemning the mass murder of Israelis, was an outlier in the communist movement. Other parties either condemned the killings in a low register or not at all. I include the U.S. party in the low register category.

Such a posture, however, is inconsistent with the longstanding policy of the party that guided its approach to the Middle East over a half century. Hy Lumer and Danny Rubin, who wrote extensively on the Middle East for decades in party publications, would find the statement, I’m sure, not to their liking.

How rich is it that Russia that invaded Ukraine, claiming that it was, according to Putin, never an independent state, is reportedly circulating a resolution in the UN calling for a ceasefire in the war between the Israelis and Palestinians. I’m for a ceasefire immediately, but why is Russia, the invader and plunderer of Ukraine, carrying the water here?

President Biden’s speech last night wasn’t his finest hour. He had a chance to strike a note of reconciliation, mutual understanding, and peace. He didn’t. He did the opposite. In turning the current struggle between Israel and Hamas into another front in the battle against authoritarian rule on a global level, he miscast the nature of the present crisis there.

Moreover, with the Israeli army poised to rampage across Gaza, I didn’t see any guardrails or red lines in his speech that would inhibit a new round of bloodletting. There were some cautionary notes and, I’m sure, in private conversations earlier this week, Biden urged restraint to his Israeli interlocutors. But these notes of caution will likely get lost in the drumbeats of war inside Israel in the coming days.

The goal of eliminating Hamas by military means is, however, a fool’s errand. It will only result in the deaths of many innocent Palestinians, but it won’t be the death knell for Hamas (or some new iteration of Hamas).

The only way to do that as well as bring an end to the recurring clashes between Jews and Palestinians in the small geographical space that they both inhabit is simple enough: the establishment of viable Palestinian state living side by side and in peace with its Israeli neighbor.

Unfortunately, President Biden’s speech to the country last night didn’t bring us closer to that state of affairs. It was a missed opportunity thus making more likely a bloodbath in Gaza and a wider war in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the president will likely get a bump in the polls in the near term, but looking further ahead, it could come back to bite him.

It’s true that Biden mentioned a two state solution in his address, but it struck me as more a throw-in line to mollify his critics rather than a serious proposal.

I hope I’m wrong about all this. Wouldn’t be the first time!

In the meantime, the call for a ceasefire (and massive actions to back it up) and the provision of essential supplies gain in urgency!