Over the past week, it has arguably extended the conflict and cost more lives. Three times in recent days the United States has blocked innocuous draft statements at the United Nations security council that simply restated long-established positions on the conflict. States such as Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic are all but guaranteed to block any position that is regarded as critical of Israel. Lack of foreign pressure is of course not the root cause, nor the only reason for the continuation of current hostilities. Bitter divisions within the Palestinian leadership and the narrow political interests of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu are among the many factors working against a cessation.

Source: The Irish Times May 18, 2021 23:03 UTC