As recently as the end of last week, few saw much chance that the UN Security Council would be able to agree terms for an immediate ceasefire, yet on Monday that is what happened, in no small part due to some British diplomatic persuasion and a significant American change of heart.
As a result the US did not use its veto to block a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. What practical difference it will make on the ground in Rafah and Khan Younis was hard to say at first, but judging by the initial furious Israeli reaction, and cries of US betrayal, this was about more than some words in the text of a UN resolution; it marks another moment in the painful, almost anguished US diplomatic distancing from its chief ally in the Middle East.
Two weeks ago the terrain looked very different. The US at the UN headquarters in New York had started a concerted effort to reassert its diplomatic leadership role over Gaza. It felt it had been pushed on to the back foot, three times vetoing ceasefire resolutions, and wanted to show it could draft a positive policy on Gaza rather than just being cast in the role of Israel's last diplomatic redoubt.
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