There are few more powerful things at the United Nations than the raised hand of a permanent Security Council member.
On Wednesday, the US envoy used hers to kill a resolution on a "humanitarian pause" in Gaza.
The US voted against the resolution because it failed to acknowledge Israel's right to self-defence, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained.
US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were in the region, she told Council members and "we need to let that diplomacy play out," she said.
The American veto was, many diplomats would say, entirely predictable, given the US record of shielding Israel from any Security Council action. But the US was going it alone this time.
The UK, another permanent Council member, which had also raised concerns about the Council underscoring Israel’s right to defend itself, chose to abstain.
France, another supporter of Israel’s right to security, voted for it.
Representatives of Brazil, the non-permanent member that tabled the resolution, who felt they had worked hard for consensus, were left disappointed. They included language that condemned Hamas at the request of permanent members as well as a call for the release of Israeli hostages. But it was not enough.
Even with 12 out of 15 votes in favour, there’s nothing you can do about a veto.
Human Rights Watch said the US vote was "cynical" and prevented the UN Security Council from acting on Israel and Palestine at a time of "unprecedented carnage".
"In so doing, they blocked the very demands they so often insist upon in other contexts: all parties to comply with international humanitarian law and ensure that vital humanitarian aid and essential services reach people in need," said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch.
The Palestinian envoy to the UN also heaped criticism on the Security Council over its inaction.
"A political disaster is under way, and yet the Security Council of the United Nations is unable to say the only thing that truly matters: Stop the bloodshed," Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Council.
But so too did the Israeli representative, who rounded on the Council for focusing on "humanitarian corridors" when they should be showing support for Israel, he said.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan of Israel thanked the US mission for the veto and demanded an apology from the Council for "years of putting your heads in the ground while Hamas ceaselessly built up its war machine in Gaza".
But Council diplomats told RTÉ News that there were politics at play behind the scenes this week that made consensus even more elusive than usual.
At the heart of it, lies the standoff between Russia and the US over Ukraine.
An earlier resolution tabled by the Russian Federation had "muddied the waters," a Council diplomat said.
Russia’s text, which called for a ceasefire and did not condemn Hamas, failed to get enough votes.
Western diplomats said that Russia had not conducted serious consultations and that it was simply an attempt to make political capital out of the situation in the Middle East, at a time when Russia was continuing its attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, rejected the notion and said the only reason their resolution didn’t pass was because Western delegations "didn’t want to support anything coming from Russia".
With two failed solutions in as many days, the deadlock in the UN’s most senior decision-making body was once again laid bare.
Asked by RTÉ News if the Security Council’s inability to agree on a humanitarian pause undermined the credibility of the United Nations, a spokesperson for the Secretary General said this it wasn’t the first time there had been divisions in the Council in this context.
"Our hope is that the members of the Council will continue to work to find a unified response," the spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told RTÉ News.
But for now, the Security Council will have to take a back seat.
A veto in the Security Council, automatically triggers a debate in the General Assembly within ten working days.
An emergency session is expected to be convened early next week.
