First Syria, now Gaza

This diplomatic gesture has the potential to mark a major turning point in the Middle East, if Russia is able to intervene and impose a resolution a second time after repeated US failures:

Russia has warned the Jewish State of engaging in further violence that costs civilians’ lives.
As reported by the Associated Press, as of Wednesday, about 219 Palestinians have been killed in the current fighting, while Israel has seen 12 casualties. The rising number of deaths and injuries have raised calls from around the world for Israel to mount a “proportionate” response to the attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has denied Israel has done anything beyond defending itself and vowed to continue until Hamas is deterred from future violence.
The escalating conflict is of “extreme concern” to the Kremlin, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov urged Israel to carefully consider the actions they take.
“In a frank exchange of opinion on the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the one in the Gaza Strip, the Russian side expressed extreme concern over the escalation of tensions and stressed the impermissibility of steps fraught with more civilian casualties,” Bogdanov told Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel’s ambassador in Moscow, on Wednesday, according to state news agency TASS.

The USA couldn’t stop Islamic State in Syria either, but Russia did. If Russia can force Israel to stop attacking Palestinians in Gaza, that would be a remarkable demonstration of influence of a kind that hasn’t been seen since the 1950s. 

And just like that, a ceasefire is declared. It’s a timely coincidence, to say the least.

Palestinians were seen in jubilant celebration as a ceasefire deal with Tel Aviv came into force after 11 days of deadly fighting, with crowds taking to the streets across Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to cheer the truce. Street parades and impromptu fireworks displays erupted in Palestinian cities early on Friday morning, hours after a ceasefire agreement mediated by Egypt was accepted by Israel and armed groups in Gaza.

This diplomatic intervention may be an indication that Russia isn’t inclined to tolerate the neoclown shenanigans in Ukraine very much longer. The Russians appear to have figured out that it will be effective to hold Israel responsible for the war being waged against Russia by the diasporans in the USA.