in the past rounds of fighting between israel and hamas, usually the american secretary of state would come in and gather everybody in a room and force them to sign a cease-fire, work out those deals. american leverage is not what it was. there s been a strained relationship between the united states and the egyptian government of general el sissi and then strains within the arab world in the middle east between qatar and egypt, between egypt and turkey. tremendous conflicts and crises there. so, really, it s going to have to involve israelis, egyptians, mahmoud abbas, president of the palestinian authority, perhaps a u.n. influence from the secretary-general and the secretary of state john kerry if he comes back to the region. israeli prime minister benjamin netanya bibi netanyae to expand. hamas not backing away. how plausible is peace or even a cease-fire at this point?