On March 25, during a UN Security Council discussion, the United States did something highly unusual: It abstained from a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US had vetoed similar resolutions in the past, arguing that it would not permit any measure to pass that might impede Israel’s right to “self-defence” and that did not explicitly link a ceasefire to the release of all Israeli hostages from Palestinian custody. Fall out of US abstention at UNSC Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately pronounced the US abstention a deplorable “retreat” from the unstinting support that Israel has received...