Financial Services, Feb. 2 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) Last night and this morning, a series of “stocks benefiting from the Israel-Palestine War”, such as shipping and petroleum, suddenly plummeted during the US stock trading session. The latest news shows that the fundamental factors supporting the rapid rise of these stocks are likely to change quite clearly.

As of press release, Israel's shipping company ZIM (ZIM) fell by more than 11%, and the timeshare charts of oil giants such as ExxonMobil and Chevron also showed an “jump up and down” attitude. On the commodities side, Brent crude also dived from a rise of nearly 1% to a drop of nearly 2%.

(Oil minute chart, source: TradingView)

WHAT HAPPENED?

Beginning last Sunday, senior officials from Qatar, Egypt, the US, and Israel gathered in Paris to discuss issues such as a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages. Earlier news was that Hamas confirmed that it had received the “three-phase cease-fire plan” proposed by the Paris Conference and is currently studying it.

The first news that came out on Thursday was that Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari (Majid al-Ansari) revealed that the “overall framework” of the cease-fire plan has received “initial positive confirmation” from Hamas.

Ansari revealed at a public event at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday that after the Paris meeting, all parties consolidated a series of demands for a humanitarian cease-fire into a set plan, which was approved by Israel. Now we have also received initial positive confirmation from Hamas.

However, Ansari also made it clear that the current progress only represents that all parties have an overall understanding of the upcoming humanitarian cease-fire, but the plan itself does not include many details that still need to be discussed. So now I can only say optimistically... the two sides are in the process of agreeing on principles. I hope to share more good news about this in the coming weeks.

It can also be seen from these wording that the cease-fire agreement in Gaza is moving in a positive direction, but it is still far from being finally reached with the naked eye.

According to the US State Department and the White House National Security Council, US Secretary of State Brinken will travel to the Middle East this weekend. This will be his 5th visit to the region since October last year. According to US officials, Brinken's trip was part of the Biden administration's efforts to prepare for the reconstruction and governance of post-conflict Gaza, strengthen humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, release hostages taken by Hamas, and prevent the spread of war.

Referring to the Paris negotiations last weekend, National Security Council spokesman Kirby said, “These negotiations, our negotiations, are very, very positive. We believe these discussions have been productive and the negotiations have been moving in the right direction.”

Britain and the US join hands to “put pressure” on Netanyahu

Faced with the current state of the war in Gaza, even the US and Britain, which support Israel, are clearly or secretly sending out a series of signals to pressure the Netanyahu government to facilitate a cease-fire as soon as possible and to support the “two-state solution.”

In addition to the “Biden administration sanctions extreme Israeli settlers in the West Bank” reported by the Financial Services Association earlier today, there are also keen diplomatic observers who have discovered that the diplomatic language between Britain and the US regarding Israel has changed.

In the announcement of Sullivan's meeting with British Secretary of Defense Grant Sharps on January 31, it was mentioned that two officials “reviewed” (reviewed and reviewed) the support of the two countries for Israel. This term has no meaning of support, and in previous official documents, the US generally used the term “reaffirming” (reaffirming, reconfirming) when talking about support for allies, just like when two people mentioned Ukraine in the same announcement.

(Source: White House)

Obviously, the change in diplomatic terminology has also been interpreted by observers as a change in British and American attitudes towards Netanyahu's government.

Coincidentally, British Foreign Minister Cameron, who visited Lebanon on Thursday, also reiterated his belief in the “two-state solution.”

Cameron said, “What we have always said is that we believe in a two-state solution, an Israel that is safe within its borders, and a Palestine that is safe and stable within its borders. This has always been our position. Of course, as part of this, Britain will join other countries in recognizing Palestine as a nation and recognising Palestine at the United Nations.”