turning now to the crisis in the Middle East a senior leader with Hamas says it's given a response to ceasefire proposals mediated by Egyptian and Qatari officials Hamas is demanding a permanent end to the war before any hostages are released this as senior White House members are meeting this week with the political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Secretary of State Anthony blinkin and vice president Kamala Harris holding talks with Benny gance Israel's Former Defense Minister and a member of Israel's war cabinet vice president Harris expressing the administration's toughest stance yet on the war calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urging Hamas to agree to a six-week pause in the conflict that's to release prisoners and enable more Aid to flow into the region the Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll has now surpassed 30,000 since the War Began for more on what the talks happening in Washington could mean for a possible ceasefire I'm joined by TR parsey he's the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for responsible statecraft TR parsey always good to get your Insight I'd like to ask you first about what you make of uh this response that is reportedly coming from a senior leader within Hamas about talks for a ceasefire essentially saying uh a six-week deal doesn't look uh like it's on the table Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire uh the commitment of Aid relief reconstruction what do you make of this response and does it put these negotiations back to where they started I think the critical thing in the response by Hamas is which is quite expected to be frank is that they're not going to give up all hostages for a temporary ceasefire so I don't think a ceasefire is off the table but essentially they recognize that they have leverage through the hostages unfortunately uh and as a result they're not going to give all of that up in return for a very limited ceasefire they're talking about a permanent ceasefire in return for all of the hostages this creates a very very tricky situation of course on the one hand uh the Israelis don't want to agree to a full ceas fire but on the other hand it means that on the daily basis the Israelis are killing between 150 and 200 uh civilians in God many of them if not the majority of them women and children that turns then the entire gazan population de facto into hostages to this war as well we saw a real shift this week tra in the tone the rhetoric from the White House specifically from the vice president um how much does that factor in to what we might see change in the US's policy stance on this we have seen that vice president Harris actually has been taking as harsher tone with the Israelis throughout this conflict and it was presumed to be a calculated uh uh difference between the White House and the vice president on that issue but in terms of the substance of it it's not clear if there was anything in particular there that is actually very different from what the White House already has been saying they have been favoring a ceasefire but it's a ceasefire completely on Israel's terms which is a very limited ceasefire in time um uh in his time Dimension and a complete release of all the hostages does someone like a Benny gance the former Defense Minister for Israel who's meeting with kamla Harris who today met with Anthony blinkin does he have significant uh uh negotiations and and persuasion within this Administration I mean we know that uh he is not here on the prime minister's wishes uh yet he's having these very high level talks at the same time that we're seeing a lot more pressure come from the US well I have to be frank with you I fully understand the White House wants to be able to talk to Benny Gans it's a way for them to express their frustration with uh the Netanyahu government who has essentially ignored everything the Biden administration had asked him to do I mean the fact that the US has has to put airlifting Aid into Gaza instead of just using the trucks which is a much more expensive and dangerous shows that you know the White House has almost systematically cave to uh Netanyahu on these different issues so it's understandable that they want to talk to other people in the administration but I think it at the end of the day actually signals more weakness if they actually want to get things done they should just put pressure on Netanyahu as the superpower the United States is as the power that actually is providing all the weapons that Israel is using the idea that the United States does not have leverage is preposterous it does is that Biden does doesn't want to use it and instead playing these silly games by talking to Gans Etc in order to upset netan Etc I I I just feel that this is not the appropriate way for a superpower to deal with this situation TR parsey thank you so much for joining us tonight I appreciate it thank you