Joe Biden is making the most of the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that he helped to broker. “It reminds us that peace is possible,” he declared in the White House Rose Garden, where US presidents habitually preen rather than prune. Yet Biden’s flowery self-congratulation jars at this fragile moment. It sounds like cruel mockery to the beleaguered people of Gaza.

With the truce holding for a second day, Lebanon has been spared more death and wanton destruction, for now. Celebrating, many people are heading home to the south despite Israeli warnings. But Biden’s belief that the accord will hasten a Gaza ceasefire, spike the guns of Iran and its proxies, and open the way to the wider regional settlement he has long sought finds scant justification in fact.

It’s a fact, for example, that Benjamin Netanyahu has not suddenly turned dovish peacemaker. Having unjustifiably ordered a large-scale ground invasion in Lebanon last month, preceded by aerial bombing and sabotage attacks in Beirut, Israel’s hawkish prime minister is quitting while he’s ahead. Operation Northern Arrows is being presented to the public as a success, unlike the 2006 war. Hezbollah’s military power has undoubtedly been seriously degraded.

Yet the reasons why Netanyahu has refused for more than a year to accept a similar ceasefire in Gaza are intrinsically unchanged. The war there suits him politically and personally. Unlike in Lebanon, he continues to seek “total victory”. Concessions to Hamas, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners, would sink his........

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