The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is another blow to the delicate work of U.S. negotiators trying to end the Israel-Gaza war.

The United States is a superpower. Yet for nine months it has been unable to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Now, with the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday, the blood feud between the two appeared to deepen, with American peacemakers standing on the sidelines.

Israel didn’t comment on the death of Haniyeh in Tehran, but it didn’t need to. Since the Israel-Gaza war began, it’s been clear that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take unilateral measures, regardless of American advice, to repay Hamas for its ghastly Oct. 7 attack on Israel. His goal isn’t making peace with Hamas, but destroying it. And most Israelis probably agree with him.

That left Biden administration officials scrambling once again Wednesday to keep the lid on a dangerous situation, stressing that nobody wants a regional cataclysm and that hopes for a durable cease-fire remain alive. White House officials believe the key channels to Hamas leadership were inside Gaza, not Haniyeh from his outside base in Qatar. And perhaps, they hope, the death of the nominal Hamas leader will give Netanyahu more space to negotiate.

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“Even today, everyone is still talking,” said one U.S. official.

Optimism is essential for mediators, especially when the negotiating table seems to have been overturned. So it’s reassuring that CIA Director William J. Burns and Middle East adviser Brett McGurk are still in the game. The moment U.S. diplomats actually walk off the stage, Israel and the moderate Arabs are sunk.

The American-Israeli alliance has often been strained over peace issues, but rarely more than now. The day before the Haniyeh killing, Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was slain in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut carried out in response to the attack Saturday that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The message was that Israel can strike anyone, anywhere — but will this show of force intimidate Israel’s allies into quiescence? I doubt it. Will it draw the United States into a catastrophic war? Maybe. But for diplomats........

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