New Delhi, Oct. 23 -- Jerusalem - A ceasefire that Washington hails as "durable" is being held together by timetables and talking points while the machinery that would make it real still sputters. Britain has slipped a small cadre of senior planners into a US-run coordination hub; Brussels has shelved leverage at the moment civilians most need it; and American officials sermonize about restraint even as firepower keeps intruding on the pause. If this truce stands, it will be because checklists beat theater, not because the United States, Israel and their entourage discovered humility overnight.

What passes for progress in Gaza now is painfully ordinary: posted hours at crossings, aid convoys that arrive on time, lists that reconcile host...