...And the 20,000 residents of Sderot. In his earlier post, my friend MJ Rosenberg was right to point out the mind-boggling decision of Israel to prevent 7 Gazan students from taking up their Fulbright scholarships to travel to the US (as reported in today's New York Times). If the Bush Administration cannot get their Israeli friends to grant permits to 7 students who have demonstrated all of the necessary qualities demanded by Fulbright, then why are we even talking about checkpoints, settlements and border negotiations--it just gives a bad name to punching below ones diplomatic weight, and MJ is right to call on Congress to take action.

But these 7 bright youngsters make up just 0.000005% of the population of Gaza. What about the other 1.4 million Gazans living with collective punishment and under a closure that continues to have a devastating impact on every social, health and economic measure that one can imagine? And what about the 20,000 residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, and the neighboring communities, who are coming under frequent rocket barrage, including occasionally the town of Ashkelon, with its 117,000 residents? Where is American diplomacy? A possible cease-fire is being negotiated, but as with just about every diplomatic development in the Middle East right now, you can search high and low for an American role that you won't find.

The New York Times story itself, and the administration's response today, is interesting. One possible interpretation is that going public became the only way to get movement on Israel granting an exit to the 7 students. Having worked in the Israeli government in the past, I can attest to the fact that sometimes it is only when something becomes a public scandal that a sufficiently high level of leadership will intervene to address an issue and impose a decision on a bureaucracy whose default position is too often and very sadly blanket indifference to the Palestinian population under its control.

Conditions in Gaza are intolerable and collective punishment is unacceptable (and also contravenes international law). A March report released jointly by leading NGOs (among them Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Save the Children) chronicled the extent of the humanitarian crisis facing Gazans and warning of the risks attendant to continuing the status quo. Chalked full of alarming statistics, including that unemployment hovers close to 50%, or that about 80% of Gazan families can only subsist as a result of humanitarian aid, the report's conclusion is inescapable:

Peace will not be achieved by locking 1.5 million people into a prison of spiraling poverty and misery. Failure to end the policy of isolation will only continue the cycle of increasing poverty and extremism in Gaza rather than bring an end to it.

I have no problem and fully understand why one would humanize this story around these 7 students, and I hope they can take their studies in the US. But let's not forget the wider tragedy that is unfolding. That tragedy also includes the inhabitants of the Israeli community's bordering Gaza who themselves are living with the inhuman unpredictability of the Qassam rocket fire, and have been unable to pursue their normal lives for months. Indiscriminately targeting civilians is also a crime.

The most painful part of this story though is that an alternative almost certainly exists, and the international community has opted to pass on trying to make that happen. Egypt is trying to work with all the parties--Israel, Hamas, and the various Palestinian factions active in Gaza--to try to mediate a cease-fire. The parameters of a deal are basically known--cease hostilities on all sides, remove the economic blockade, take action to prevent arms entering Gaza via Egypt, and pursue a prisoner exchange deal to secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit (the Israeli soldier being held in Gaza). Making such a cease-fire work will not be easy. Multiple actors are involved, and the sides view each other with deep and well-grounded suspicion. For Egypt to be mediating this effort is also far from optimal if the Egyptian negotiators understandably are looking out for their own national interests and given the nexus of connections between Hamas and the domestic opposition of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But a cease-fire is necessary. It would improve security, it would take civilians out of the firing line, it will give people on both sides a chance to live normal lives again and give hope. And yes--it would also probably help to get those 7 students out of Gaza and into universities across the United States. It is inexcusable therefore that the Bush administration is at best a bystander, and perhaps worse--actively undermining the cease-fire efforts (other members of the international community also have a lot to answer for on this). But unfortunately, the absence of American diplomacy is becoming something of a constant in the Middle East right now. The stunning reality if one just looks at the last couple of weeks is not pax-Americana, but invisible-Americana.

The Qatari's brokered the Lebanon power-sharing deal, the Turks are hosting Israeli-Syrian proximity talks, and the Egyptians mediate between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza ceasefire. President Bush...he gave a speech about appeasement.