Robert Putnam’s two-level game framework captures this trap precisely: leaders must simultaneously satisfy international negotiating partners and domestic audiences, and when those two demands pull in opposite directions, the leader is paralyzed. That gives him the power to block any deal that falls short of his conditions, but not the leverage to deliver the outcome those conditions require.
This is the trap in its purest form. Israel can block a deal it doesn’t like. The ceasefire, which Israeli officials immediately called insufficient and inapplicable to Lebanon, shows the limits of Washington’s ability to end the war on terms of its own choosing