Anthony Blinken’s whirlwind four-day trip to the Middle East struck all the right chords, at least optic-wise. For one thing, he had been fully briefed — unlike his boss’ predecessor — that Israel is in fact part of the region. This good cheer continued during the US secretary of State’s Tel Aviv media blitz. Where he repeated the mantra of Washington being committed to Israel’s defence. Period. While reminding everyone and their cat how the Biden White House will “make sure that Israel has every means to defend itself”. All of which made the $75 million pledged in Palestinian economic and development assistance appear little more than a pay-off. Blinken may as well have called it ‘blood money’ in light of the recent violence that left 248 Palestinians dead and nearly 2,000 wounded at the hands of the IDF; with its penchant for American arms. Sadly, there was no talk of restarting the moribund peace process. The priority being to safeguard the fragile ceasefire; the one that Israel violated within a matter of hours just to prove that it could. Without censure. Truth be told, Blinken’s trip underscores that the US wants to conduct business as usual. After all, it can’t afford to be bogged down in this conflict without end, not when it has to get out of Afghanistan lickety-split and focus on Iran. Blinken’s loose talk of Palestinian rights and welfare were likely aimed at the cheap seats that need to be reminded that Palestinian lives do matter. Yet to those who endure daily Israeli occupation, it suggests the dust-binning of the two-state solution. Despite American public protestations to the contrary. Then there is the US refusal to engage with Hamas, having listed the group a terrorist organisation in 1997 over its armed struggle against an occupying power that keeps Palestinians languishing in the world’s largest open-air prison. In 2006, the group swept to power in general elections and ended 40 years of political domination by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party. Yet here, Palestinian democracy was sidelined. Whereas Washington has been happy to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan; a group that held power (1996-2001) over three-quarters of the country. Not through the ballot by the barrels of many guns. No good will ever come of this piecemeal approach to ‘alliance’ making. As history repeatedly shows. But this is of no import to the US, which has effectively outsourced responsibility for the Israel-Palestinian conflict to Egypt. Good luck, Cairo. *