It's the Brian Layer Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinckin is back in the Middle East looking for both short

and long-term diplomatic breakthroughs, but with both of the primary warring parties, Israel and

Hamas dug into the status quo of their war in different ways.

As the Washington Post reports, Blinken's trip is his fifth to the Middle East since the Gaza War began.

He's been trying to develop longer term post-war planning that seeks to forge an agreement among Arab and Israeli officials around a unified Palestinian-led governing body for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip if a cessation of hostilities is achieved and Hamas can be removed from power.

So far Israel is rejecting any such path to a two-state solution.

In the shorter term, the post reports, Hamas has yet to offer a formal response to a framework

agreement developed in Paris among intelligence chiefs of the United States, Egypt, and Israel

in coordination with Qatar's Prime Minister.

That proposal involves a six week cessation of hostilities in exchange for a phased release of hostages.

Hamas has previously said the next hostage deal must entail a permanent ceasefire.

Meanwhile, says the Washington Post,

Israeli officials had promised their US counterparts

to end, quote, high-tempo military operations

by the end of January,

a promise that Israel has not kept

as fierce bombardments continue.

The Biden administration has resisted calls

to exert leverage over the Israelis by placing conditions on U.S. arms transfers

or withholding military assistance. And Blinken says the post is carrying another

complicated message on his trip.

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