'The next few weeks will put a great deal of pressure on the US-Israel relationship'

Frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability thus far to get their loved ones back and his general management of the war, the protests are growing, writes Chris Hughes, in Israel

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Chris Hughes visits Re’im Nova Music Festival where 360 young Israelis and others were murdered and 44 were taken hostage in the October 7 attack

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stepped into the Kempinksi Hotel in Tel Aviv this week he looked exhausted.

There he was confronted by protesters and loved ones of hostages and he gave the Daily Mirror a quote: “Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we do here.”

Now on his seventh whistlestop diplomacy race to get the hostages back and stop the bloodshed in Gaza he appeared for the first time rattled, perhaps irritated by the intransigence of the people he had been working with.

And we noticed he gestured behind him as he told one Israeli woman: “That is what I told them.”

Frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability thus far to get their loved ones back and his general management of the war, the protests are growing.

Blinken was talking about the Israeli leadership with his gesture, a leadership whose incoherence in dealing with the crisis is unfathomable.