The Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement announced Wednesday is joyous news that hopefully marks an end to this terrible conflict. But a speech this week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken shows just how hard it will be to make a new beginning toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Leaving a job allows you to say exactly what you think about intractable problems. And that’s what Blinken did Tuesday in unusually blunt remarks about the Middle East.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the yoke worn by every secretary of state I have covered, back to George Shultz in the 1980s. They all labored to create a “two-state solution,” a goal that seems screamingly obvious to everyone except the parties directly involved.

“I wish I could tell you that leaders in the region always put their people’s interests ahead of their own interests. They did not,” Blinken said. Make no mistake: That was a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Blinken began his speech by reciting the standard talking points about U.S. policy in the region: deepening partnerships, deterring aggression, de-escalating conflicts. This is the elevator music of diplomacy. And he faithfully recorded Israel’s triumphs in the long arc of revenge for Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah had been “ravaged,” Iran was “on its back foot,” the balance of power in the region was “shifting dramatically.”

But then he leaned into a discussion of a Gaza war that has haunted him and the State Department since Hamas began the nightmare. And he used language that he has usually suppressed in public. Gaza has brought “immeasurable suffering on Palestinian civilians,” he said. “Nearly the entire population has lost a loved one. Nearly the entire population is enduring hunger. Nearly the entire population … has been displaced.”

Blinken, whose stepfather was a Holocaust survivor, has been a deeply faithful friend to Israel, as has his boss, President Joe Biden. But you could sense his anger with Netanyahu, who for more than a year has obstructed American efforts to plan for a “day after” in Gaza that might alleviate the misery there.

“Israel’s government has systematically undermined the capacity and legitimacy of the only viable alternative to Hamas: the Palestinian Authority,” Blinken said. As for humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, “Israel’s efforts have fallen far short of meeting the colossal scale of need in Gaza.”

Frustration turned to raw anger in Blinken’s description of Israeli actions in the West Bank, actions that have deepened tension there. Under Netanyahu, Blinken said, “Israel is expanding official settlements and nationalizing land at a faster clip than any time in the last decade, while turning a blind eye to an unprecedented growth in illegal outposts.” Meanwhile, attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinians “have reached record levels.”

I’ve watched this ever-escalating Israeli encroachment in the West Bank for 40 years now. From north to south, the land that peacemakers imagined would someday become a Palestinian state is now sliced and diced so many ways by Israeli roads, settlements and outposts that there’s little fabric left, only threadbare patches of ground.

Blinken put the matter bluntly: “Israel must decide what relationship they want with the Palestinians. That cannot be the illusion that Palestinians will accept being a non-people without national rights.” I pray that members of the incoming Trump administration heed Blinken’s warning: “Israelis must abandon the myth they can carry out de facto annexation, without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy, to its standing, to its security.”

For the first time, Blinken publicly detailed the “day after” plan for Gaza that he began to float several months ago. It’s centered on the Palestinian Authority that Netanyahu has tried so hard to undermine. The PA would invite international partners to help manage governance and reconstruction in Gaza. The United States would help train and equip a PA-led force that could gradually take over security there. The transition would be anchored in a United Nations resolution and overseen by a senior U.N. official.

It’s the only plausible pathway out of the death and destruction in Gaza. Netanyahu surely understands that. But he has blocked Blinken’s efforts for months. That’s terrible for Palestinians, obviously. But it also leaves Gaza a festering mess on Israel’s border.

After so many months, it must feel to Blinken like pounding his head against a brick wall. “The unimpeachable reality is that, up to this point, they have either failed to make these difficult decisions, or acted in ways that put a deal and long-term peace further from reach,” Blinken said.

The Gaza ceasefire and hostage release could truly mark a new start toward negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, rather than just another lull in fighting. Blinken’s clear-eyed comments are a gift for anyone who, after the horror of Gaza, wants to get serious about peace.

David Ignatius is a Washington Post columnist.