Has anything changed?

When the US allowed a UN ceasefi re resolution to pass, it marked a shift in Washington’s support for Israel as doubts about the conduct of the war and its legality have grown

- Julian Borger 

When Gilad Erdan , the Israeli envoy to the UN, sat before the security council to rail against the ceasefire resolution it had just passed, he cut a lonelier figure than ever in the chamber. The US, Israel’s constant shield at the UN until this point, had declined to use its veto, allowing the council’s demand for an immediate truce – even though it contained, as Erdan furiously pointed out, no condemnation of the Hamas massacre of Israelis that had begun the war.

That had been a red line for the US until last Monday, as had making a ceasefire conditional on a release of hostages. But after nearly six months of constant bombing, with more than 32,000 dead in Gaza and a famine imminent, those red lines were allowed to fade, and the American ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, kept her hand still when the chair called for votes against the resolution.

The message was clear: time was up on the Israeli offensive, and the Biden administration was no longer prepared to let the US's credibility on the world stage bleed away by defending an Israeli government that paid little, if any, heed to its appeals to stop the bombing of civilian areas and open the gates to substantial food deliveries.

"This must be a turning point," the Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, told the security council, mourning those who had died in the time it had taken its members to overcome their differences.