Secretary of State Antony Blinken's eighth trip to the Middle East since the terrorist atrocities of October 7, 2023, has gone about as well as the previous seven. That is to say: Not well at all.

Blinken went to the region to pressure Israel and Hamas into accepting President Biden's latest ceasefire proposal for the war in Gaza. Biden released the plan on May 31. It would proceed in three stages.

First, there would be a six-week truce during which Hamas would release some hostages in exchange for terrorists held in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw from Gaza's population centers, and Americans would supply more humanitarian aid for Gaza's Palestinians. The second phase would involve negotiations over full IDF withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining captives. In the third phase, the "international community" would rebuild Gaza, a non-Hamas government would come to power, Saudi Arabia and Israel would make peace, and the oceans would turn into pink lemonade.

I'm kidding about the lemonade.