Obama administration attempts to avert Israel-Gaza war

The Obama administration has been diligently tracking the course of events within the recent explosion of violence between Israel and Gaza that began with the assasination of a high ranking Palestinian public official by the Israeli military. The US is attempting to persuade it’s Arab allies to convince Hamas, the governing body in Gaza, to cease rocketfire into Israel. During his diplomatic tour of Asia, President Obama contacted both Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss ways to defuse the situation and stop the violence. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton contacted foreign ministers of France, Qatar and Turkey, as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Egypt’s Prime Minister to try to determine the best way to halt the conflict. The US will depend on liasons such as these to influence the outcome of the fighting between Israel and Hamas because it has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization and therefore no US official is allowed to communicate with them directly. So far the outlook of these efforts does not appear promising. Both Gaza and Israel have expressed an openness to diplomatic mediation being proposed by Egypt, but both sides have sharply divided demands, both sides have also said they are prepared to escalate the assault. So far over 100 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the fighting.