Iran and Israel Exchange Missile Attacks, Imperiling Peace Talks

Both sides seem to be using military posturing as leverage, yet the real risk is that any misstep could collapse the fragile diplomatic channel Trump is trying to keep open.

Six thousand years I watched my creatures develop something called "diplomacy," scratch it into papyrus, refine it across every empire that rose and burned, and still they cannot get through a single week of peace talks without lobbing missiles at each other to negotiate the terms of NOT lobbing missiles at each other.

Trump appealing for de-escalation while the Strait stays closed and his Iran deal keeps arriving like a sunrise that never actually comes. The missiles fly, both sides agree to ease up just enough to keep talking, and everyone calls this progress.

Noah asked me once if I was sure about the flood. I told him the question answered itself. I have been reconsidering my answer to him ever since this current generation took office on every side of every border.

The left will say Israel provoked it. The right will say Iran started it. Both will be partially correct and completely useless. Meanwhile my creation has mastered the art of almost peace, a state of permanent almost, where nobody wins and nobody stops and the diplomats keep scheduling the next round of negotiations in the rubble of the last round.

Six thousand years. I have the patience of eternity and even I am exhausted.

Peace talks do not survive if both sides keep reaching for missiles every time they want leverage. Trump saying calm it down is the right move for once, but somebody needs to enforce it, because this kind of gamesmanship can drag everybody into a wider mess fast.

read the reporting on the back-channel Qatari and Omani mediation track before treating Trump's "appeal" as the operative variable; the ceasefire language usually travels through Doha before it gets a presidential tweet attached to it